DLF Cybercity-GIC joint venture hopes to double its portfolio in a decade

DLF Cybercity Developers (DCCDL), in a joint venture with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, is planning to double the size of its portfolio to almost 60-million square feet over the next decade, the company said while announcing its results for the June quarter.

India’s largest real estate firm reported a 56 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 1.72 billion for the first quarter. Its net profit stood at Rs 1.1 billion in the year-ago period, the company said in its BSE filing.

Total income, however, declined to Rs 16.57 billion during the April-June period of this fiscal year from Rs 22.11 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year. DLF’s net profit increased despite a drop in total income as the company earned Rs 2.41 billion as its share of profit in associates and joint ventures. 

However, the firm said the figures were not comparable as it adopted from April a new accounting standard, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs notified. “The new standard focuses on recognising revenues when obligations of the company have essentially been completed, risks have been nearly eliminated for the company and control over the property is deemed to be passed over to the buyer,” the company said. 

DLF has a joint venture with Singapore’s sovereign wealth firm GIC for commercial real estate business. In the JV firm, DLF owns 66.67 per cent stake, while GIC has the rest. GIC bought stake in DCCDL for Rs 90 billion in December last year.

The company said it had achieved completion in almost all of the projects and significant deliveries were underway. 

“These deliveries are expected to be completed within next couple of years, which shall result in reversal being accrued back over the same period,” the company said.

It said new sales book during the quarter stood at Rs 6 billion. Of it almost Rs 5 billion it has sold in the DLF Crest project. “Given the current momentum, the company remains on track to achieve fresh sales booking of Rs 20 billion to Rs 22.5 billion in the current fiscal year,” the company said. 

It said most of its projects were ready to move in, and the company was witnessing a steady growth in occupation of its recently delivered projects.

DLF said commercial leasing business continued to grow steadily and was experiencing healthy momentum. “The company continues to incur capex for further building the portfolio and expects the under-construction portfolio of around 3.7 million square feet to begin generating revenues from next fiscal year,” it said.

In its bid to be a debt-free firm, DLF is going ahead with its plan via equity infusion during the current year focusing on monetisation of finished inventory, which would result in surplus cash flows. It would be primarily utilised for debt reduction and balance cash surplus would be utilised by the company to re-invest in development of new projects for both sale and lease business.

DLF said it was confident that investment in new development pipeline would achieve desired returns. In the first quarter, it claimed to have achieved break-even cash flows from operations.