How a Faridabad Auto Parts Exit Funded India’s Costliest Penthouse

Entrepreneur Manav Sardana has bought a penthouse at DLF’s The Dahlias in Gurugram for Rs 271 crore, the highest price reported for a single residential unit in India. The 17,200 sq ft super-area home (about 10,500 sq ft carpet) works out to roughly Rs 1.58 lakh per sq ft on super area and Rs 2.6 lakh on carpet.

The money trail runs through a quieter event four years earlier: the sale of a controlling stake in the family’s Imperial Auto Industries to Warburg Pincus.

The Numbers Behind the Record Deal

Two people familiar with the transaction confirmed the Rs 271 crore figure to The Economic Times. The unit sits in The Dahlias, DLF’s 17-acre super-luxury project in Sector 54 along Golf Course Road, launched in October 2024. It holds around 420 apartments and penthouses.

DLF managing director and chief business officer Aakash Ohri told analysts the project is about 65 percent sold, with price realisation now over Rs 1 lakh per sq ft and higher floors touching Rs 1.2 lakh. Entry-level units start above Rs 100 crore. Roughly 25-30 percent of buyers now come from outside the metros or as NRIs.

• Super area: approximately 17,200 sq ft
• Carpet area: around 10,500 sq ft
• Effective rates: Rs 1.58 lakh per sq ft super; Rs 2.6 lakh carpet
• Project scale: 17 acres, ~420 residences, more than 50 acres of lakes and landscaped greens claimed around the towers

Earlier in the same project, investor Madhusudan Kela paid Rs 120.7 crore for a smaller flat. Former cricketer Shikhar Dhawan was reported to have bought a unit for around Rs 65.6 crore. A four-unit package earlier cleared Rs 380 crore. Sardana’s penthouse more than doubles the previous single-unit high inside The Dahlias and clears earlier Camellias benchmarks near Rs 190 crore.

Who Manav Sardana Is and What Imperial Auto Built

Sardana belongs to the family that co-founded Imperial Auto Industries. His father, the late S.B. Sardana, started the firm in 1969 in Faridabad with Jagjit Singh as a small-scale maker of fluid transmission products. Those parts (hoses, metal and nylon tubes, assemblies for fuel, brake and coolant lines) sit inside vehicles across passenger, commercial, two-wheeler, construction and farm segments.

Public corporate records list Manav Sardana as a director in more than a dozen group companies. They include Imperial Silicon Private Limited, Kreuz Hydraulics Private Limited, Imperial Martor Engine Tubes Private Limited, Nichirin Imperial Autoparts India and others. He has held whole-time director roles at Imperial Auto Industries Limited itself.

By the time of the PE deal the group ran over 20 manufacturing sites in India plus facilities in Germany and the United States. It maintained a library of more than 25,000 SKUs and supplied major OEMs at home and abroad. Group revenue stood near Rs 2,200 crore. The firm had also begun battery-cooling and thermal products for electric vehicles, extending its core fluid expertise.

Imperial’s own site describes the company as India’s largest integrated manufacturer and assembler of fluid transmission products, still guided by the founding values of the original partners.

The 2022 Liquidity Event That Made the Buy Possible

In March 2022 Stone Plant Investments B.V., an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, acquired a majority stake in Imperial Auto Industries and affiliates. The structure took 70 percent in two tranches: 51 percent first, then 19 percent roughly a year later. Exact valuation was never disclosed.

Tarun Lamba stayed on as managing director and CEO. Viraj Sawhney of Warburg Pincus India said the firm was impressed by the diversified customer base and return metrics and wanted to use the platform to build a broader auto-components player covering traditional and EV markets. EY advised Imperial.

This investment will help us fund our future growth plans which include capacity expansion, creation of best-in-class facilities for domestic and export clients and acceleration of EV related product development.

Lamba said that at the time of the Warburg Pincus majority stake announcement. The family retained board roles while stepping back from majority ownership. That partial exit converted decades of manufacturing cash flow into liquid capital. Four years later a portion of that capital has appeared as India’s most expensive apartment purchase.

Real-estate trackers on X noted the pattern: low-profile industrial families with little public footprint suddenly surface as record buyers once a PE or strategic deal crystallises the wealth. One widely shared thread called the Warburg transaction the real liquidity event behind the penthouse, not a startup exit or IPO.

Gurugram’s Trophy Corridor Keeps Resetting the Ceiling

The Dahlias sits in the Golf Course Road stretch already home to DLF’s Aralias, Magnolias and Camellias. That corridor has spent a decade becoming the country’s default address for ultra-high-net-worth residential statements. Pricing has moved into the same per-square-foot band as premium Manhattan condominiums.

DLF has projected multi-tens-of-thousands of crores in total revenue from the project; earlier guidance ranged from Rs 26,000 crore upward and later commentary pointed higher as rates climbed. By late 2025 the developer had already booked thousands of crores from more than 200 units at average tickets near Rs 70 crore. Demand has come from business families, investors, celebrities and, increasingly, buyers from tier-two cities and overseas.

Post-pandemic preference for larger, exclusive homes with privacy and amenities has concentrated at the top end. Gurugram and Mumbai have both seen a string of Rs 100 crore-plus deals. The difference now is that a single Gurugram penthouse has leapfrogged previous apartment highs by a wide margin.

What the Deal Signals About Who Is Buying

Coverage and social reaction keep returning to the same observation: India’s ultra-luxury buyers are no longer only listed-company promoters or startup founders. Multi-generational manufacturing families, after PE or strategic exits, are deploying capital into scarce trophy assets with the same conviction they once put into factories.

On X, real-estate observers framed the Rs 271 crore cheque as conviction rather than pure consumption: belief in India’s growth path, in Golf Course Road scarcity, and in homes that function as both residence and store of value. The shortage of true trophy inventory relative to the number of newly liquid ultra-HNIs is the constraint that keeps lifting clearing prices.

• PE exits from mid-sized industrial groups are creating a fresh cohort of buyers with nine- and ten-figure cheques ready.
• Projects that deliver genuine exclusivity (limited units, large floor plates, extensive open space) capture outsized premiums.
• Tier-two and NRI capital is already 25-30 percent of The Dahlias buyer mix and still rising.
• Per-square-foot rates above Rs 2 lakh on carpet put Indian ultra-luxury in global gateway-city territory.

The same industrial quietness that kept Imperial Auto out of headlines for fifty years also kept the buyer’s personal profile low until the deal broke. That opacity is common among older NCR industrial wealth: the balance sheets compound for decades, then surface in a single statement property.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Manav Sardana and what is his family business?

Manav Sardana is a director across multiple companies in the Imperial Auto group. His father S.B. Sardana co-founded Imperial Auto Industries with Jagjit Singh; the firm remains India’s largest maker of fluid transmission products for vehicles and off-highway equipment and now also supplies battery-cooling systems for EVs.

How large is the penthouse and what is the price per square foot?

The unit measures about 17,200 sq ft super area and 10,500 sq ft carpet. At Rs 271 crore the rates are approximately Rs 1.58 lakh per sq ft on super area and Rs 2.6 lakh per sq ft on carpet, among the highest residential rates reported in India.

When did Warburg Pincus buy into Imperial Auto?

In March 2022 an affiliate of Warburg Pincus acquired a 70 percent stake in two tranches (51 percent then 19 percent). Group revenue at the time was about Rs 2,200 crore; the valuation was not disclosed. Tarun Lamba continued as CEO.

What is DLF The Dahlias and how much of it is sold?

It is a 17-acre, roughly 420-unit super-luxury project in DLF Phase 5, Sector 54, Gurugram, launched October 2024. DLF has said it is about 65 percent sold with realisations above Rs 1 lakh per sq ft and higher floors near Rs 1.2 lakh.

How does this compare with earlier expensive Indian apartments?

It exceeds the previous high inside The Dahlias (Madhusudan Kela’s Rs 120.7 crore flat) and earlier Camellias transactions reported near Rs 190 crore. It is widely described as the costliest single-unit residential transaction in the country to date.

The penthouse is one more data point in a longer shift. Capital that once stayed inside factories and balance sheets is now writing nine-figure cheques for scarce air rights above Golf Course Road. The next record will likely come from the same quiet pool of industrial liquidity.