SHRIRAM PROPERTIES 

THE MAN BEHIND ITS SUCCESS

MALAYAPPAN MURALI

Q&A With MALAYAPPAN MURALI

Mr R Malayappan Murali, 42, is the Managing Director of Shriram Properties, a part of the Rs. 40,000 crores Shriram Group, Chennai, one of the premier firms in the world of finance.

Mr Murali became the youngest CEO of the Shriram Group at the age of 28 and in 1997 took over the reins of Shriram Properties, the property development business arm of Shriram group. Acknowledging and appreciating his entrepreneurial talents, with proven record of performance, the group gave him the mantle and made him Managing Director in the year 2000—within a few years of his entry into the company. 

Mr Murali, a civil engineer by qualification, had started his career with Public Works Department in 1988. His zest for growth took him to L & T . As an earnest team member of the company he was instrumental in setting up the L&T Hi-Tech City in Hyderabad. His contribution to L & T RMC Business was significant. Thus Shriram Group hand-picked him and made him CEO of Shriram Properties in 1997. 

Over the period, Mr. Murali has built up the business of M/s Shriram Properties with strong fundamentals and unmatched ethics in tune with the objectives of the parent group. Futuristic thinking, pragmatic business approach, sharp in-sight about the market, unique capacity of capturing the imagination of the customers are some of the ingrained qualities in him which will do credit to any realtor. These distinctive qualities in him, perhaps, made the Shriram Properties from a mere Rs 2.5 crore company in 1996-1997 into a multi crore company (Rs 22,000 crore) and a forerunner in the industry today. 

With abundant opportunities for the real estate sector, with growing urbanization and increased infrastructure spending- backed by the constant endeavor to create quality living spaces customized to market needs and expectations, Mr Murali’s ambition is to cash in on the opportunity in a still bigger way. Already he has expanded the areas of operations of the company to more than five cities—Bangalore, Chennai Coimbatore, Vizag and Kolkata with new verticals besides residential namely SEZs, IT Parks Retail Space, Integrated townships and leisure homes. He has already delivered nearly 6 million sq ft built-up space with about another 60 million sq feet built-up space under various stages of development. As it is Shriram Properties is the largest south Indian real estate developer. Plans are afoot to spread the wings to NCR Region and Mumbai soon.

The very fact that Shriram Properties alone has received FDI to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore as a single entity (of the total $8.4.billion FDI received during the entire decade by the sector as a whole) speaks volumes for the enormous confidence Shriram Properties enjoys with international players and in the industry. Shriram Properties is privileged to have US /UK majors like Walton St, Starwood and Sun Apollo as JV partners for their projects. Mr Murali’s singular and the team’s contribution towards this direction is significant. 

Mr..Murali is often invited by Indian Institute Of Management, Bangalore as a guest speaker on topics of interest. The participating students/candidates are none less than from the rank of senior IAS /IRS/IPS officers, senior executive engineers of CPWD and senior level MBA-Finance students from India and abroad.

CII (Confederation Of India Industry) and FICCI too invite him to deliver lectures on Affordable Housing/ Real Estate topics.

Mr Murali is a frequent invitee as a panelist for high–level international seminars, forums like GRI Meet, Investors Conclave, etc. To cite, he was a panelist in the recent GRI Meet in Middle East. The discussion was on growing TIER II & Tier III cities.

Leading financial dailies like Economic Times, magazines etc carry Mr Murali’s business articles on current topics on real estate. His eloquent writings are read with interest and responded well. Mr. Murali is also a most sought after personality for TV and media interviews—not only in real estate matters like residential development, affordable housing, SEZ development, foreign indirect investments, private equity etc, but also in matters like RBI Monetary policies, taxation, state and central budgets. Popular TV Channels such as CNBC, Bloomberg often telecast his interviews.

Mr Murali was invited to make a presentation on Combating the Housing Shortage by Government of Tamil Nadu in 2009. The presentation received overwhelming response from Chief Secretary, other Secretaries to the Govt of Tamil Nadu, chairman Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority etc.
As member of Governing Council of National Real estate Development Council, Delhi Mr. Murali effectively contributes with his valid suggestions towards development of the industry and also towards making recommendations to the Government by the council in real estate matters.

He is also a selected member of the Real Estate committee of FICCI, Delhi besides an elected office bearer of CREDAI Karnataka.

Mr Murali and his well–knit cohesive team attune themselves to market realities and demands with a firm grip over the market with proven record of performance and accordingly steer their business. This is the greatest strength of Shriram Properties.

Mr Murali’s mission and vision is that Shriram Properties should ever remain as the most respected real estate company in the galaxy of realtors and a shining example for Honesty, Transparency and more importantly ‘Trust’ and an environment of confidence.

January 2011