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00:00so when growth moves and accelerates this fast what needs to be ready before more projects come
00:06online like what do you believe like what needs to be ready before honestly cash flow yeah this
00:13is the most important thing in any developer's life cycle cash flow and finance if you are able
00:20to manage that you are not in any kind of problem you can do as much as project you want but you
00:26need to be financially healthy before taking any kind of decision it looks so lucrative to have
00:33more projects because the market is booming you have sales you have uh you have the charm of the
00:39market and then you just need to encash everything just like that now so if you need to grow if you
00:44want to grow you need to manage that and if you can manage that there's no problem
00:48hi how are you how are you i'm doing good thank you are doing good it's so good nice to have you
00:57here thank you so much thank you so i wanted to ask you let's start before bnw and real estate
01:05you started as an accountant i believe what pulled you out of that world and into property
01:11see uh i qualified as chartered accountant in 2011 uh so it is still the biggest or the you can
01:21say that the most prestigious uh commerce degree which you can have in india still it's like cpas in
01:28uh in in us and australia it's like that only and as a as a chartered accountant and that too from
01:35the institute of chartered accountants of india that will give you a more respect and the more
01:39uh you know credible position in the society so i was doing practice back in india so i qualified as
01:46ca in 2011 and i was doing practice in my city in my home city delhi new delhi so i came here in
01:552019 and i came here with the mindset of expanding my ca practice here so at that time in 2018 the vat
02:04was just introduced 2018 in fact in india we have indirect taxes since decades like we have excise
02:12we have gst we have service tax there were there are like many indirect taxes that is already being
02:16implemented in india it is being like a more tax compliant society you can say that so the vat was
02:22just introduced at that time in in uae and a lot of chartered accountants are coming in
02:28uh were coming in at that time to have such certain kind of you know experience a certain
02:34kind of uh you know practice they could have they could have done so i was also having that mindset
02:41to expand my practice business i came here i i thought that i will do more compliance practice
02:47more litigation practice so that was the original mindset but uh that time it took me
02:53like so much time to understand the market i formed a company aac global fzd in 2019
03:00but i did not get anything out of it and did not succeed it and i thought that
03:06like this is not for me i should not have been at this place because it's very hard to get clients
03:13and all these things and that time i was not having even the money as well and you cannot make
03:19too much money out of the compliance practice okay for your living for your lifestyle it's okay but
03:25it's not like that you will be something like you know billionaire millionaire it's not like that
03:29so uh i thought that i made a mistake and i decided to pack up but i got stuck here in covid times
03:40in 2020 2020 march and that time i was living in shared apartment with my friends okay and somebody
03:51who was living in my apartment in my building actually he convinced me for the real estate practice
03:56so i learned everything from there yeah so it was not like that i decided to do you know some kind of
04:03this thing so so would you say it was accidental okay so would you say that that was the specific
04:10time or that specific like um maybe thoughts that you're like oh i want to start real estate like
04:17was that the specific time when when he told you when your friend told you no at that time he convinced
04:23me to do this thing and that time i was not having that mindset to do something like that but
04:29since he convinced me i literally got convinced and i started that but that time was very
04:36important in the real estate overall industry in the uae but i wasn't aware about that fact i wasn't
04:47uh in the position to analyze the market or to industry that yes this market will perform in this way
04:56and it performed really well at that time in the covid times people were having different kind of
05:01theories about the real estate market so somebody was predicting that the market will crash and
05:07somebody said that no market will regain from here but it actually performed exponentially well
05:12so from then until now the property where prices went two and a half times
05:17so this this kind of appreciation is like very rare so you can say that it that the time was specific
05:26for me but i did not plan it that way so the this credit should go goes go to the destiny only
05:35what made you say okay i'm ready to build something on my own like what gave you that push or what that
05:42what was that moment was that you were like okay i want to do this and i want to build something for
05:47myself uh since my childhood i was having a mindset of doing some kind of business of my own
05:53and i never thought of doing work for somebody so it was i i actually kept on telling to my mom at
06:02that time that no i will not do any kind of job i will be doing business of my own at that time i was
06:06not having any money whatsoever my my mother was in fact she was having very very very less salary
06:13and i lost my father when i was young so at that time i was not having any choice so in general
06:20circumstances people will say that or in those kind of circumstances people will say that no you have
06:26to do the job only because of your because of your you know limitations and because you don't have much
06:32options for the entrepreneurship because we were having a you know mindset still people people have
06:38that you will be needing a lot of money if you want to do your own business i if i if you don't
06:42have business if you don't have money you can't do business business is for the rich people that is
06:47the kind of still a mentality which our normal society has and that was the case with me as well so i
06:53thought that i will not do any job for anyone i decided actually so uh in 2005 when i qualified when i
07:04when i cleared my 12th exams like my inter exams and then i started pursuing my ca career and then
07:11i qualified in 2011 i i was having two options either i will be working for the industry or i will work
07:17for myself so as a ca i started uh i started my career of entrepreneurship with the ca practice itself
07:27so i was working for my clients but it was an independent practice
07:32right so that was the mindset which which which which actually uh was with me since my childhood
07:40so still i'm doing this thing so you don't come from a wealthy family which actually helped would
07:45have helped you to start something you know and be an entrepreneur and tell you you did it on your own
07:51from zero see i was six years old when i lost my father although my father was businessman but
07:56uh we lost everything the day when he passes away so it was very hard for my family and
08:06i have two elder sisters so my mother my two elder sisters and me we were the family of four people
08:15and my mother was earning for us at that time her salary was around i don't know how much it is in the
08:24real term it was 800 rupees so in current terms you can say like 50 dirhams like 40 dirhams
08:30that was the monthly salary of my mother at that time so
08:34so it was it was very hard forget about wealthy family it was the challenge for the survival
08:42and i feel this is how successful entrepreneurs you know they they start and and then where they
08:49they they reach it's on their own they make it on their own and they try to serve like reach success
08:55on their own because they never had this help so they try to push themselves to actually reach
09:00somewhere yeah you're right actually when you will not have much options then you will have the
09:05challenge to you know do your best and uh and then you will definitely be perform performing so this is
09:13this is this is this is actually uh we should we should we should pursue with our kids as well this
09:20practice we should pursue with our kids as well although you can you can give everything to your
09:25kids but still you need to make them on don't give them everything like like this otherwise they
09:32will be spoiled uh what's something people don't see about you as a founder like behind the scenes
09:39what would you say i'm a founder you can uh it's true that i'm i founded this company but i treat
09:46myself as the first employee of this company so i just want to be like that always i want to work
09:53like normal employee and and and still i'm doing it so i'm working every day and if if if somebody
10:00don't know me they will not feel any kind of difference if they will see me roaming around in the
10:08office so i treat myself like that only and this is how i enjoy is by working as well so i work every
10:14day i don't put myself into a position where i will just be taking decisions on the top level
10:22in fact i'm into the micro management and i'm taking every decision of my own i did not hired any ceo
10:30i'm acting as a ceo as well in my company because i want to take decision i i i love taking decision
10:36and i want to go into deep and i want to you know do the things of my own since i have finance
10:44background i can manage my lot of things just because of my academic expertise you can say that
10:49academic experience rather so this is the this is the this is the other side of the coin which people
10:56can't see but they see the results yeah so but it's but but but i'm doing it because i i i love doing
11:06this so let's move a bit into real estate and into bnw uh rack had a booming year in tourism
11:15would say why does 2026 feel like a turning point for bnw you would say see actually it all started in
11:232023 when we start purchasing started purchasing plot in russell khema especially in almarjan island
11:30and at that time it was a news of win casino in fact uh in the kaleach time itself it got published
11:37many times that yes this is the thing which is coming in in russell khema and it's pretty new thing
11:42for the middle east i would say that so and there are many reports in fact the kaleach time report
11:49says that this 5.5 million visitors will be come will be will be coming into russell khema by 2030
11:56in fact there are many reports which says that the 8 million visitors can visit by 2029 so if you are
12:04predicting those kind of numbers as a tourists for a emirate which has the population of 600 000 only
12:11and we do have a limited capacity for the hotels and the room keys so definitely the demand will be
12:18immense huge it's a booming market it's a for obvious reason so we thought that yes this is the
12:25place where we should be and we ask our people to buy plots with us and we kept on buying plots there
12:32we kept on launching the projects now we are doing construction parallel in in in together so and it's
12:40stopping us off as well so now we have 28 projects justin russell khema so now we need to deliver all
12:46this project by 2029 so not just 2026 in fact 2026 2027 and 2028 all these years are will be a changing
12:59uh like like these these year will create history uh for the bnw but i treat these years as the years of
13:08responsibility we will enjoy after 2030 but for but but in 2026 and especially 2027 these two years we
13:16need to work very hard and this is what we are doing so we enjoyed the market we can see that yes
13:23there is a sale there is a demand now we have to deliver so selling is not a concern in russell khema
13:30delivery is in fact not a concern but still you have to do but the fact that you actually chose
13:37because everyone knows like it's dubai dubai dubai it's the one that's booming but why is dubai
13:42dubai will always be dubai exactly i live in dubai i love dubai but the fact that you took a chance
13:48and decided yes let's open in russell khema or let's let's buy prop land and property in that
13:53and then you foresaw the future basically like you you you felt like something big is going to happen
13:59i can't foresee the future but i can calculate it's always a calculation of course people wants to
14:07have their place in dubai everybody love dubai including myself there is no place in the world like
14:14dubai but russell khema is booming now so there's no harm in uh in exploring a place which has obvious
14:23reason for the growth so like it was quite obvious for me and for the people who worked with us but
14:33people sees us this as a gamble because nobody calculated that in that way so with all the
14:41wine effect talk is the real challenge now you would say demand or capacity or what what is the
14:50challenge there is no challenge the challenge is to deliver okay it's to it's to deliver on time
14:56this you have to take it as a challenge because the casino will be opened by 2027
15:02in fact quarter two our first project will be delivered in august 2027 okay so the timeline is
15:11very crucial you need to match the timeline you cannot be delayed for even a month and you should
15:16not be you have to deliver it a month before so this is a challenge and this you have to accept it
15:22and this you have to enjoy it as well it is it is it is it is like that only if you'll enjoy your work
15:28you will love it and this is what we are doing in bnw so the demand is immense if you need 65 000 room
15:39keys to to to to compensate to cater 8 million visitors by 2030 let's say you are not in position
15:49to deliver 65 000 keys by 2030 this is a fact the capacity of almarjan is 22 000 only and we are not
15:57in position to deliver everything by 2030 there there are there are there are you know projects which is
16:05even not yet launched not bnw of course we launched everything whatever we have in almarjan except one
16:12project but we have many projects we have many pieces of land who are which are which are still
16:18not launched yet nobody knows what's what's what's going to be their future so the capacity is not
16:25utilized properly and then we have another master plan which eventually will take more years
16:31so where are these people gonna live and you need to take the advantage at the time when it is
16:38getting you know uh getting getting out of the
16:42uh out of the earth i will i will say now it's now now the another another casino building is there
16:53now people wants to come there they're just waiting for the time so if we have
16:58if we can match the timeline properly we will be justifying with the investors who have invested
17:06in russell khema because they should be benefited at the real time if they will be getting their
17:13projects on a delayed timeline they will miss the opportunity to make money and this and and and
17:19it's actually uh it should not happen of course they should make the best out of it and this is what we
17:27are trying in bnw we want to deliver our projects right at the time or slight ahead than our timeline
17:35and how is it looking like now for the i'm 100 sure i'm 100 comfortable we are we are we are
17:41monitoring it very very very closely i came from an auditing background this is my this is my this was
17:48my everyday job so at least i can audit myself at least i can audit myself and make sure you deliver
17:53on time and 100 percent 100 percent no excuses no excuse people will not forgive us and i don't
18:01want to see that day i see myself like that only you know and this is how you enjoy as well you need
18:06to you need to be very very very focused you've said that 2026 is about moving from momentum to
18:13muscle yes what does that mean in execution like what do you mean by that it's like it's like getting
18:19the things into the reality okay it's it's it's it's it's on the piece of paper now you see the
18:24renders now you see the 3d plans when you will see it live real okay so when it will come into the
18:31reality then it does make all sense and not only just that we are pushing ourselves to get something
18:39extra over and above which we promised to the people which we promised to the buyers in fact okay
18:46so we are again pushing ourselves to do you know something over and above so when growth moves and
18:53accelerates this fast uh what needs to be ready before more projects come online like what do you
19:01believe like what needs to be ready before honestly cash flow yeah this is the most important thing
19:08in any developer's life cycle cash flow and finance if you are able to manage that
19:14you are not in any kind of problem so you can do as much as project you want but you need to be
19:22financially healthy before taking any kind of decision it looks so lucrative to have more projects
19:29because the market is booming you have sales you have uh you have the you know that charm of the
19:36market and then you just need to encash everything just like that now everybody sees it like that some
19:41people think that we are also doing the same thing but which is not the fact this company is managed by
19:4742 chartered accountants in fact we have 516 employees with 83 different nationalities
19:53out of which 42 are chartered accountants and we are still hiring more people so we maintain our cash
20:00flow very wisely so if you need to grow if you want to grow you need to manage that and if you can manage
20:07that there's no problem in development cycle there will be the most uh challenging part is the initial
20:14stages of the project where you need to spend money out of your pocket for the construction
20:19you cannot touch the money which people are paying you off in lieu of your uh off-plan sales like
20:26every everything will go go into the escrow account then you have to pay commission from the
20:32from your pocket to the brokers then you have marketing expenses then you have administration
20:37expenses you have overheads you have practically everything and then you need to get them things
20:43going in get the momentum going in by acquiring more and more projects so you do you have to do
20:48everything but you cannot do it out of the people's money you need to do it through your money so you
20:54need to decide that how much projects you want to do and one more thing which you need to see is that
21:01how much leveraged you are in fact i have uh you know rumors from the market that people are saying
21:08that bnw is over leveraged bnw is over leveraged but the actual fact is and still is that this company
21:15is not accepting any debt from anyone we are still using the equity money the financially you need to be
21:24very very very very healthy as as as as like as far as you can manage your cash flows you can decide as
21:33much as project you want to do so cash flow is the most essential growth is growth is completely in your
21:38hand you can be conservative you can be aggressive it's your choice but the most important thing is
21:46financial uh health stability stability yes you have an interesting line saying uh the most important
21:55construction progress is the progress you don't show and why is that like why would you say that
22:00there are few things which you uh which which which which which will not be seen yeah exactly and it's the
22:08uh and it's the overall growth of the company overall uh uh well-being of the company and with their
22:18people which people cannot see they can feel it people will see that okay this project is going up
22:24this is this company is getting highlighted and they are in media and all these things this is visible
22:31yeah but what you can't see is that you go and check the happiness of the people who are working with
22:37bnw are they happy or not this is the thing which you need to manage do you have complaints do you have
22:44the plans for their future security and this is where we are actually working in so other than the
22:50your investors you also take care of your employees and the people we take care of we take care of
22:57everyone we take care of everyone who is associated with bnw so we focus on returns on individuals rather
23:04than return on income not many companies actually focus on the well-being and the security of their
23:09employees no no this is very important in fact i'm in fact i'm very much deeply associated with all
23:17people working for us so this is this is this is something which you can't see and which you can only
23:23which you can feel or maybe you can ask with the from the people if you will ask them then only they
23:29will tell you what exactly is the is the is the is the real story behind it and also
23:35the valuation of the company you you cannot just predict it or just you cannot see it like this that
23:45this is going like this way this company has got a valuation of like two billion dollars just in 18 months
23:51and coming it out of nowhere with zero capital how or how how it was possible because the work which was
23:57which we were doing uh you know inside the cabins or the boardrooms people will see it after two or
24:06three years you understand my yeah so the so so so so overall growth of this company will be seen
24:13the people will see the growth of this this this company after two or three years and then they will
24:20see that how how how it is possible how they're doing it but the fact is that we are working
24:25every day which you can't see you only show people what they want to see basically like you don't they
24:29don't see the what's behind the scenes and what happens no it's it's it's actually natural nobody can
24:34see that nobody can see that they have to you know ask us they have to ask they have to understand that
24:42what is the you know uh real things going in so using aqua arc as an example what kind of below ground
24:51progress should investors really care about it's the flagship project of bnw yeah which we launched in
24:572024 right and this project is almost sold out now yeah what we are doing in aqua arc is
25:06to come up with many surprises which which which which which we did not even declare or you know
25:15showed in our renders as well okay so what investors will be getting at the time of aqua arc at that
25:23at the time of delivery of echo arc will be a surprise there are many things which we are doing over and
25:29above extra of course in a good way okay so the price per square feet of echo arc was 2600 2700 2800
25:37dirham per square foot average like 2750 dirham per square foot but the kind of appreciation which
25:42aqua arc will get at the time of delivery in my opinion it will be 4500 dirham per square foot
25:48even if you will not sell it in the airbnb model you can get a return of 20 to 25 percent easily
25:55this is what echo arc will provide to the people yeah but again this is our prediction this is our
26:01prediction but what is in our hand is to at least provide with them the best of quality which is which
26:08which which which is which which we can we cannot guarantee them the airbnb return i can predict that
26:14i cannot guarantee them the market appreciation this is not in my head but what is in my hand we are
26:20doing this and you cannot disclose any of the the extra things that you are okay let's keep it
26:26surprise only only surprise we cannot disclose it let's keep it surprise then then it will not be a
26:31surprise yeah i don't want to make it a marketing marketing gimmick i just want to do it that's it
26:37and i'm not even selling a quark it's it's almost sold out almost almost sold out yeah you're very
26:43intentional with your partnerships and who you get in like partnership with what do china railway and
26:50man bring see what bnw does not have uh and which which which bnw eventually will get is the experience
26:58it's a process it's organic process which eventually will learn over the period of time
27:03so what masa and china railways bring is the immense experience which they have masa
27:09as man construction is a is a is a construction giant in saudi so when they were entering into
27:16ua market they joined hands with bnw and in fact they are not doing any project except bnw so
27:23exclusively masa's man construction is working with bnw and not just a quark we will be announcing
27:29many many many more projects with uh with the with this giant contractor and we are actually super
27:35happy the way they are working their team is very professional and they and they are and they are
27:42you know very much concerned about what they are doing so so we don't need to worry much about
27:49their job and china railways is like it's it's it's like the the biggest giant which we can have
27:58onboarded for the construction so we need to get our tension offload at least for the construction
28:05so we decided that we'll not be working with any tier two contractor so we could have worked with
28:14many many many contractors and we were having options on our table as well and
28:19and in fact the price per square feet was in fact low as well for the other contractors but
28:25but but we don't want that we want we want only and only top contractors you know working with us so
28:34that they can prepare themselves well in advance for the contingent conditions there can be adverse
28:41conditions in the contracting life cycle you need to be properly prepared for those kind of challenges
28:49and this is where these contractors are have mastered you know over the period of time they have done
28:56construction worth billions of dollars so they know what they are doing
29:00and in fact we are like like like tiny insect in in in front of them we we cannot tell them that this
29:10you need to do this thing or that they know their job but this is what bnw is doing right now is to
29:16partnering with those people who knows what they are doing that's it and partnerships are
29:22very crucial also sometimes just also to build the brand and to grow the it's like yeah of course it's
29:28very important to have right partners if you choose wrong partner incorrect partner of course you will
29:34have problems what would you say the vision is for bnw for 2026 for 2026 is the time when we will
29:42be launching a lot of projects in rec central and in marjan beach we will be acquiring a lot of projects
29:50in dubai the way we uh acquired projects in russell khema we'll be doing the exactly in the same way in
30:00dubai as well in fact we we are in a very good position to to to to invest more than two billion dirhams
30:10just for the acquisition in dubai during just in 2026 so we'll have many many many more projects in
30:18uh in dubai as well and of course in abu dhabi as well so but the most important thing as we see
30:27right now is to focus on construction in 2026 so we don't want to you know uh create a situation where
30:37we are focusing on our future projects and we are not looking at our past projects so our we need to
30:44give 70 percent attention to our past projects which is launched and sold out and rest 30 percent
30:50will be focusing on the new acquisitions please tell me should the should myself or other people buy
30:55property or see if you can you should yeah in fact if you can if you can buy property with the
31:03the help of bank uh mortgage then also you should buy the uh equation is very simple there is a huge gap
31:14between demand and supply still in all emirates especially russell khema dubai and abu dhabi the
31:23people are coming in they are welcoming more and more tourists last year it was 25 million this year it
31:29could have been any number uh more people are choosing dubai abu dhabi and russell khema as their
31:37second home so and supply is very limited it seems that there are a lot of projects coming in and
31:44getting sold out but the most important thing is that they're getting sold out in like a couple of
31:48days how it is possible because there is a huge demand behind it and there is a very professional and
31:55solid network of brokers as well working in this country so the demand is very very very very high
32:02and supply it's still a challenge a limit right so the property prices will definitely be going up
32:10i'm not sure but i have heard that there are there is a project uh announcement in dubai
32:17uh for ten thousand dollars per square foot i don't know it can be a rumor as well but i heard it
32:23somewhere so this this is the kind of thought which people are having the average per square
32:28foot in london and new york is like one thousand two thousand sorry two thousand sorry three thousand
32:33dollars per square foot this is the average rate for a you know tier one location but in dubai still
32:38tier one location you are getting it for one thousand two hundred one three hundred dollars per square
32:43feet so but the infrastructure of dubai is in fact better than these countries these cities so
32:51why dubai is not having that kind of luxury to or or that kind of prices which these countries have
32:56these cities have because these these cities are saturated now you know people started investing in
33:03those cities 100 years back but dubai is still new it's like 20 years old history in term for the real
33:10estate so still you have to see a lot of growth but this growth is now actually this is happening
33:15now so still if you did not make up your made up your mind to buy something i think i think you should
33:22make it very fast because every day the prices are getting changed or increased the rentals are getting
33:29high so if you can invest through your 40 equity and 60 bank leverage on a five percent per annum rate of
33:39interest then also you will be making money for your future so you should you should invest
33:46thank you so much uh for being here and it was a pleasure having you and speaking with you today
33:52totally mine thank you so much i think it was it was great very informative and very yeah i think
33:59i definitely want to go by now yes i at least i convinced uh one more person today exactly yeah
34:08thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much and uh thank you for this amazing conversation i really enjoyed it
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