Overview
Saket Mohta is the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Merlin Group, one of eastern India’s most prominent real estate conglomerates, headquartered in Kolkata. A second-generation entrepreneur, he leads the four-decade-old company alongside his father, founder and Chairman Sushil Mohta, and has been credited with modernising the group’s operations, sales and marketing approach, and technology infrastructure since joining the family business in 2013.
Early Life and Education
Saket Mohta holds an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, in the Netherlands. He entered the family real estate business at the age of 28, joining Merlin Group, then a roughly 40-year-old company, in 2013, at a time when the Indian real estate sector was at the peak of a buoyant cycle.
Joining Merlin Group
Saket Mohta’s early years at Merlin were not without challenges. In his own account, the company’s operations at the time were relatively unstructured and in need of technological upgrading, and senior employees who were used to reporting to established, senior family members required time before extending him the same acceptance. He has also spoken of the initial difficulty of applying formal business theory to a market that was still largely driven by conventional, informal practices.
He has credited his father, Sushil Mohta, as a significant early influence and role model, describing him as a guiding force from whom he learned negotiation skills, commitment to goals, financial discipline, and a strong work ethic, including memories of his father going into the office even on Sundays.
Modernising the Business
Building on the foundations laid by his father and grandfather, Saket Mohta introduced a series of structural and operational changes at Merlin Group. These included implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, establishing clearer accountability and responsibility structures, reorganising the sales and marketing department into distinct verticals, and setting up an in-house call centre for sales and marketing, described as an innovation for the company at the time. He has also introduced performance-driven and productivity-oriented HR policies with a greater focus on employee engagement and training.
As the real estate market shifted from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market following the mid-2010s downturn, Mohta moved the company toward a more aggressive, professionalised approach to sales and marketing, drawing on practices from sectors such as insurance, banking, and FMCG. This included a stronger focus on channel partners, incentivised through brokerage structures as well as awards and recognition, and a customer-referral programme called ‘Sampark,’ supported by a dedicated mobile app, aimed at re-engaging long-standing customers.
Business Growth and Expansion
Under Saket Mohta’s leadership, Merlin Group has operated as a pan-India developer with more than 20 projects across residential, retail, commercial, industrial park, township, and IT park segments in cities including Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Chennai, and Bhubaneswar. In Kolkata, the group has maintained a substantial residential pipeline, while in Pune, it has developed a large township project and additional commercial and IT-focused developments. Internationally, Merlin completed the structure of South City Altair, a 68-storey tower in Colombo, Sri Lanka, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, and the group has also acquired land in Sports City, Dubai, for future development.
In 2023, Saket Mohta co-signed, alongside his father and Chairman Sushil Mohta, the licence agreement with the World Trade Centers Association to develop the World Trade Center Kolkata, a proposed 3.5-million-square-foot commercial project representing an investment of approximately Rs 1,500 crore. He has continued to represent Merlin Group in the company’s more recent expansion announcements, including plans to nearly double group revenue over seven to eight years on the back of roughly 40 million square feet of real estate under active development across Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, and Navi Mumbai, alongside a growing push into the hospitality sector.
According to independent industry analysis, Merlin Group has emerged as the most prominent platform developer in Eastern India’s real estate corridor, with a combined portfolio of roughly 30 million square feet developed and under construction. Industry commentary has linked the group’s scale, under Saket Mohta’s leadership, to a broader surge in institutional investment into the Kolkata real estate market in 2025.
Views on the Commercial Real Estate Sector
Saket Mohta has spoken publicly on the growth of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India and their impact on commercial real estate demand. He has described GCCs as having evolved from basic back-office functions into strategic engineering and technology hubs for global companies, driving demand for high-quality office space that is increasingly extending beyond traditional technology hubs such as Bengaluru and Hyderabad into cities including Pune and Kolkata. He has characterised this shift as developers moving from being providers of physical space to infrastructure partners supporting global corporate operations.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Saket Mohta founded ‘I Am Kolkata,’ a social development initiative under Merlin Group aimed at contributing to the welfare, environmental protection, health, education, and skill development of children, young people, and women in Kolkata and West Bengal, with an ambition to extend the programme’s reach nationally over time.
Merlin Group, under his leadership, has also partnered with former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh to establish Yuvraj Singh Centres of Excellence (YSCE) for cricket training and player development. The first YSCE opened at Merlin Rise – The Sports Republic in Rajarhat and has trained more than 600 students since 2023; a second centre was subsequently launched at Club Arena on Basanti Road, Bantalla, offering indoor and outdoor training facilities for young cricketers across Bengal and Eastern India.
Family
Saket Mohta belongs to the Mohta family, a Marwari business family based in Kolkata. The table below covers the family and leadership details confirmed for this biography.
| Name | Relation | Notes |
| Sushil Mohta | Father | Founder & Chairman, Merlin Group; entered the real estate business in the mid-1980s after years in the family’s original ball-bearing trading business. |
| Seema Mohta | Mother | Wife of Sushil Mohta. |
| Late Shiv Kishan Mohta | Grandfather | Ran the family’s original ball-bearing trading business in Kolkata; Saket Mohta has credited both his father and grandfather for the business foundations he built on. |
Key Facts
- Full name: Saket Mohta
- Position: Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Merlin Group
- Industry: Real estate development, commercial and residential assets
- Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal, India
- Education: MBA, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Netherlands
- Joined Merlin Group: 2013
- Other initiatives: Founder, ‘I Am Kolkata’ social development programme; co-partner, Yuvraj Singh Centres of Excellence
- Geographic footprint: Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Colombo (Sri Lanka), and Dubai (planned)
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