Core Advisory Business Remains Engine of Growth Post-IPO: Black Opal MD Prasoon Chauhan
Following its recent public listing, Black Opal Consultants Limited is embarking on its next phase of expansion with a focus on disciplined growth, network expansion, and capital deployment. Backed by over two decades of industry experience, Prasoon Chauhan, Promoter & Managing Director of Black Opal Consultants Limited, has led the real estate advisory, sales, and distribution platform through a period of significant growth, with revenue from operations scaling from Rs 19.75 crore in FY24 to Rs 41.97 crore in FY26.
In an exclusive conversation, Chauhan discusses the key inflection points in the company’s journey, its dual strategy of maintaining an asset-light core business while selectively pursuing project-level development, and how the proceeds from its Initial Public Offering (IPO) will be deployed to drive sustained value.
Q: You have spent over two decades across real estate and financial services and have built Black Opal from its early stage into a platform with a significant developer, broker and customer network. What have been the key turning points in your journey, and how have those experiences shaped the way you have built Black Opal?
A: I have spent more than two decades working across real estate and financial services, and one of the biggest learnings from that journey has been that real estate requires a much more structured approach to transactions and relationships.
When we started Black Opal, our objective was to build a platform that could bring greater structure to the way developers, channel partners, investors and buyers interact. Over time, we moved from individual transactions towards building a broader network and a more repeatable business model.
Today, we work with more than 25 developers, 300 broker partners and over 2,200 customers. The journey has also taught us the importance of being selective. We have kept our core advisory and sales business relatively asset-light while selectively exploring project-level opportunities where we believe we can add value through our market understanding and distribution network.
Q: Black Opal’s revenue from operations has grown from ₹19.75 crore in FY24 to ₹41.97 crore in FY26. What are the key growth drivers behind this expansion, and how do you see the business evolving over the next three years?
A: The growth has been driven by a combination of expanding developer mandates, increasing transaction activity and better utilisation of the network we have built across developers, brokers and customers.
We have facilitated more than ₹4,000 crore of real estate sales since inception, which has helped us build relationships and experience across projects and markets. Our focus now is to continue adding quality mandates, deepen our presence in existing markets and selectively expand into new geographies.
We are conscious that real estate can be cyclical, so our approach is not to pursue growth at any cost. We want to build a larger but disciplined platform, with careful selection of mandates and projects and a focus on sustainable operating economics.
Q: Your core business is driven by real estate advisory, sales and distribution, while the company is also moving selectively into project-level development. How do you see these two businesses evolving post-IPO?
A: We see the two businesses as complementary. Our advisory, sales and distribution business remains the core platform. It is relatively asset-light and gives us a strong understanding of market demand, project positioning and customer behaviour.
The project-led business gives us an opportunity to selectively participate where we see a clear strategic fit. Our existing distribution network and customer relationships can also support these projects.
We therefore do not see ourselves moving away from the core business. Rather, we see project participation as an additional growth avenue that we will pursue selectively, based on the quality of the opportunity, the development partner, location, demand and project economics.
Q: ₹26 crore of the IPO proceeds is earmarked for investment in Aurika Developers LLP, while ₹7 crore is planned towards securing sales and marketing mandates. How do you expect these investments to contribute to the business?
A: The two allocations address different parts of our growth strategy.
The ₹7 crore towards securing sales and marketing mandates will allow us to pursue additional opportunities and expand our advisory and sales platform in Delhi-NCR.
The ₹26 crore investment in Aurika Developers LLP is towards the construction of its RERA-approved commercial project in Ayodhya. This is aligned with our strategy of selectively participating in project-level opportunities.
At this stage, we would rather focus on disciplined deployment of capital than give specific revenue or return guidance. The objective is to deploy the funds against identified opportunities and build value over the project cycle while continuing to strengthen our core business.
Q: Your FY26 EBITDA stood at ₹16.67 crore, with an EBITDA margin of 39.73%, while PAT was ₹12.22 crore. As the company expands its mandate base and increases its exposure to project-led opportunities, how do you expect margins to evolve?
A: Our FY26 EBITDA margin was 39.73%, while PAT stood at ₹12.22 crore. The performance reflects the operating leverage inherent in our advisory and sales business.
As we scale, maintaining operating discipline will remain important. The project-led business has a different capital and execution profile from the advisory business, so we would look at the performance of the overall platform rather than focus only on short-term margin movements.
Our priority is to grow the business while maintaining healthy operating economics and disciplined capital deployment. We believe the combination of an asset-light core business and selective project participation gives us the flexibility to pursue growth while remaining measured in how we deploy capital.
