mumbai phoenix mills the mumbaibased real estate developer which began operations as a textile manufacturing company in 1905 is in the process of forming a separate company to manage all its real estate assets a new asset management company will be formed by phoenix its subsidiary entertainment world developers and mall developers big apple phoenix had recently formed a strategic alliance with entertainment world by acquiring over 42 of its equity stake phoenix mills said it plans to acquire a majority equity stake of 60 in the unlisted big apple which owns the united malls brandthe stake will be acquired through a swap of phoenixs stake in its agra project and by infusing about rs 80 crore as fresh capital big apple has plans to build retail malls across north india particularly in cities including lucknow agra bareilly and varanasi the company has also decided on the senior executives for the new company according to sources close to the developmentphoenix has already submitted the name of the new company with the registrar of companies and is currently waiting for an approval an official announcement on the issue is expected to be made within a fortnightthe new company would have anand sundaram as the likely chief executive officer and executive director while tony ward would be the chief operating officer sources said mr sundaram is currently the ed coo of phoenix mills and mr ward is coo leasing land acquisition at phoenix when contacted by et mr sundaram said about 24 million square feet of construction at our various projects are at different stages we need a specialised team to manage our assets and a new company is on the cards he declined to elaborate further repeated attempts to reach phoenix md atul ruia proved futilethe new company is expected to look at leasing once the multiple projects are completed within the next three years it plans to establish longterm relationships with national and regional developers across india with the objective of having a panindia presencethe company has already acquired land in raipur indore chandigarh udaipur bhilai vadodra and kandla shares of phoenix ended 05 down at rs 33820 on the bombay stock exchange on monday on a day when the sensex dropped 21 analysts said phoenix faces strong execution challenge due to the extent of projects it has on hand the company has planned development of 54 million sq ft over the next fourfive years