DLF's Aman Hotel sale may go into 2012-13

The much-awaited sale of the Aman Hotel chain may spill over to the next financial year.

DLF, the country’s largest real estate company by market capitalisation, was trying to sell its stake in the Aman properties, excluding the group’s Delhi hotel, in 2011-12 to cut its debt. However, in an analysts’ call after its third quarter financial results, DLF indicated the sale of its non-core assets in the hospitality sector could also take place in 2012-13. Expected to fetch the cash-strapped company nearly Rs 2,000 crore, the Aman deal has been in the market place since last June.

“We are in dialogue for concluding transactions in hospitality and wind (energy) space this quarter or early next quarter,” said Saurabh Chawla, executive director (finance), DLF. Asked by an analyst to explain why the company has been talking for so long about concluding the deal, Chawla said the Aman activity started in May and went into the market place only in June-July. “Any strategic transaction like Aman takes nine to 12 months,” he said. “Due to the crisis in Europe, a strategic investor today wants some stability before taking a decision. This is taking time.”

Anubhav Gupta, analyst, Kim Eng Securities, agreed that with the uncertain market and macroeconomic environment, the Aman deal may slip to the next quarter, and therefore the next financial year.

A DLF executive had told Business Standard in November that the Aman sale was only an “arm’s length” away, and early 2012 looked likely.

The realty major’s net debt declined by Rs 169 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year to Rs 22,758 crore. Net profit was down 45 per cent.

Sale of its wind power generation business is expected to fetch DLF Rs 1,000 crore. The company has been looking to divest this since 2009. It expects to raise up to Rs 4,000 crore by selling strategic projects in Mumbai and Chennai and another Rs 1,000 crore from the sale of other projects it did not name.

“The company has been talking of selling these non-core assets for the last seven-eight quarters, but hasn’t concluded these yet,” said an analyst.

DLF is targeting disinvestment worth Rs 6,000-7,000 crore by 2013. Of this money, about Rs 1,000 crore may go in meeting the interest cost and the remaining Rs 5,000-odd crore in debt reduction. Net debt will be brought down to Rs 17,000-18,000 crore, Chawla told analysts.

Due to the high interest rate, the interest cost for the company is Rs 3,150 crore, on an annual basis, Chawla said.

Overall, as the net profit of the company was down 45 per cent due to lower than expected sales, DLF said with the macro environment continuing to remain unfavourable, with high interest rates, commodity and labour cost inflation, the strategy shall require patience and caution. “Given these uncertainties, the company expects longer-than-anticipated time for its initiatives to take fruition,” it said.