DLF aims to offload Aman Hotel by January

Realty player to make disinvestments worth Rs 5,000 crore this financial year

Realty giant DLF plans to offload Aman Hotel, identified among the group’s non-core assets, in the next few weeks. In an analyst call on Wednesday, Chief Financial Officer Ashok Tyagi said, “We are closing the deal in the next few weeks. We hope we would be able to announce it in the current quarter.” It is expected the deal would be concluded by January 2013.

On the wind energy business, Tyagi said, “We have all regulatory approvals required to sell our wind assets. It should be carried out in two to three months.”

In July, the company’s investors had approved selling DLF’s wind energy business. As on September 30, DLF’s net debt stood at Rs 23,220 crore. However, after the Mumbai National Textile Corporation (NTC) land deal, the company said its debt fell to Rs 21,220 crore. In July, DLF had sold the NTC land to Lodha Developers for Rs 2,727 crore, including a Rs 500-crore advance.

Tyagi said DLF was confident of cutting its debt to Rs 18,500 crore by the end of this financial year and to Rs 15,000 crore by 2014-15. “We have maintained Rs 13,000-14,000 crore is a comfortable level of debt for us,” he said, adding, “We will carry out disinvestment worth Rs 5,000 crore this financial year.”

In the first quarter, DLF had offloaded its entire stake in Adone Hotels and Hospitality Limited for Rs 567 crore to Kolkata-based Avani Projects and Square Four Housing & Infrastructure. “We have already done divestment of about Rs 3,000 crore this financial year. Our target for the financial year is Rs 5,000 crore,” said Tyagi.

The company said it would announce the next round of its non-core sale strategy next financial year. It added other miscellaneous transactions worth Rs 500 crore were underway, and these were expected to be closed this financial year.

For the quarter ended September, DLF recorded a 62.8 per cent drop in net profit at Rs 372.4 crore.

So far this financial year, the company hasn’t launched any big-ticket project. This has hit the company’s cash flow. “We will be launching at least 8.5 million sq ft in Gurgaon between now and March,” Tyagi said. Across the country, it would launch nine-10 million sq ft, he added.

To comply with Securities & Exchange Board of India norms, DLF would offload promoters’ stake in the first or the second quarter next year. Promoter stake would then fall from 78.58 per cent to 75 per cent.