Manav Sardana has made headlines after buying a Rs 271 crore penthouse at DLF’s The Dahlias in Gurugram. But the entrepreneur’s roots lie in a family business that has been part of India’s automotive manufacturing industry for more than five decades.
Sardana is associated with Imperial Auto Industries, a Faridabad-based automotive components manufacturer founded in 1969 by his father, the late SB Sardana, and Jagjit Singh. What began as a small-scale enterprise has since grown into a global manufacturing business with more than 20 facilities across India and three overseas.
is among India’s biggest single-unit residential transactions and has also put the spotlight on the businessman behind the deal.
Manav Sardana is an entrepreneur associated with the Imperial Auto group, a business with deep roots in India’s automotive components sector.
His father, late S.B. Sardana, co-founded Imperial Auto Industries with Jagjit Singh in Faridabad in 1969. Sardana has subsequently been associated with the family business and its wider group of companies.
Sardana’s connection with Imperial Auto is also significant because the company has grown from a small manufacturing enterprise into an integrated automotive components business serving major original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, in India and overseas.
The company was acquired by global private equity firm Warburg Pincus, while Sardana continued to be associated with the wider Imperial Auto group.
Imperial Auto Industries is one of India’s major manufacturers and assemblers of fluid transmission products.
The company’s portfolio covers flexible high-pressure assemblies, metal tubular assemblies and low-pressure hose assemblies. These products are supplied to automobile manufacturers and other customers across domestic and export markets.
The business has also become deeply integrated, with capabilities including electroplating, brazing and rubber compound mixing. This allows Imperial Auto to control several important parts of its manufacturing process.
The company says it now has more than 20 facilities across India and another three outside India.
Imperial Auto’s business is diversified across customers and industry segments, with a strong focus on supplying original equipment manufacturers.
The story of Imperial Auto begins in Faridabad in 1969, when S.B. Sardana and Jagjit Singh started the business as a small-scale enterprise.
Over the following decades, the company expanded its manufacturing capabilities and product range. It now operates across the fluid transmission products segment and has built a presence in both the Indian and international markets.
The company has also invested in its own support capabilities, including electroplating, brazing and rubber compound mixing, while continuing to upgrade equipment, facilities and quality-management systems.
That makes the Sardana family’s business background closely linked to India’s broader automotive manufacturing and auto-components industry.
Sardana paid Rs 271 crore for the penthouse at DLF’s The Dahlias in Gurugram.
The property has a super area of 17,200 sq ft and a carpet area of 10,500 sq ft. That means the transaction works out to approximately Rs 1.58 lakh per sq ft on the super area and nearly Rs 2.6 lakh per sq ft on the carpet area.
The transaction is significant not only because of the Rs 271 crore price tag, but also because it is for a single residential unit.
The deal puts the Manav Sardana penthouse among India’s most expensive residential transactions and highlights how sharply prices have risen in Gurugram’s ultra-luxury housing market.
Mumbai has traditionally dominated India’s luxury residential market, with some prime addresses in Worli and other areas recording prices of more than Rs 2 lakh per sq ft.
But the Manav Sardana DLF penthouse deal stands out because of the combination of its total value and price per sq ft.
The Rs 271 crore purchase is for one home, rather than a combination of several apartments. On the carpet-area calculation, the price comes to nearly Rs 2.6 lakh per sq ft, putting the Gurugram property close to some of India’s most expensive residential addresses.
The Manav Sardana property is located at DLF’s The Dahlias, the super-luxury residential project on Gurugram’s Golf Course Road.
The development spans around 7.5 million sq ft and has 420 residences spread across 29 levels and eight towers. The project also includes 15 duplex penthouses and a 3.5 lakh sq ft clubhouse.
DLF has positioned The Dahlias as one of its most ambitious luxury residential projects, with the overall project value estimated at more than Rs 40,000 crore.
The project has attracted several high-value buyers, making it one of the most closely watched luxury housing developments in Gurugram.
The Rs 271 crore Manav Sardana penthouse is not the first major deal at The Dahlias.
In October 2025, a Delhi-NCR-based industrialist bought four apartments at the project for close to Rs 380 crore. The residences together covered more than 35,000 sq ft.
Veteran investor Madhusudan Kela also bought an apartment at The Dahlias for Rs 120.7 crore.
The development is part of DLF’s wider luxury residential ecosystem in Gurugram, which includes The Camellias.
Before The Dahlias, DLF’s The Camellias had already established Gurugram’s DLF5 area as one of India’s most exclusive residential addresses.
In December 2024, entrepreneur Rishi Parti bought a 16,290 sq ft penthouse at The Camellias for Rs 190 crore. The transaction worked out to around Rs 1.8 lakh per sq ft on carpet area.
The Camellias has also attracted other prominent buyers. Ajit Jain, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and one of Warren Buffett’s closest executives, bought a 7,400 sq ft apartment there for around Rs 85 crore.
The latest Rs 271 crore DLF penthouse purchase shows how the luxury housing market around Golf Course Road has moved further up the price ladder.