DLF sales bookings almost doubled to Rs 2,430 cr in April-June

Company sold 1.81 million square feet of space in the first quarter of this fiscal

Realty major DLF's sales by way of bookings in the housing segment almost doubled to Rs 2,430 crore in the April-June period from the previous quarter on strong response for its Gurgaon projects.

DLF sold 1.81 million square feet of space for Rs 2,430 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal against 2 million square feet sold for Rs 1,240 crore in the January-March period, DLF said in an analyst presentation.

The company achieved gross sales bookings of Rs 2,430 crore during Q1 against Rs 3,800 crore for FY13, it added. Of the total bookings in April-June, Gurgaon phase 5 contributed the maximum at Rs 1,990 crore.

The company launched "The Crest," a luxury home project, in Gurgaon phase 5 to an extremely strong response and the test marketing of "The Camellias" met with an encouraging response, according to the presentation.

It sold more than 60% of the stock in the "MyPad" project at Lucknow at launch.

In the rental business, DLF leased 0.39 million square feet of commercial space in Q1 compared with 0.18 million square feet in the previous quarter. Rental income was Rs 435 crore out of Rs 480 crore of annuity income, it said.

DLF said gross annuity income would grow to Rs 2,000 crore by the end of FY14 from about Rs 1,850 crore in the previous financial year.

The Mall of India project in Noida with 1.8 million square feet of leasable area is in the final stage of completion and is expected to open by the end of FY14, the company said.

DLF said it continues to maintain a comfortable liquidity position with Rs 3,175 crore of cash on its books.

"With the uptick in sales bookings, which was very evident from the Q1 sales, the cash position is likely to improve substantially," the company said.

DLF has a land bank of 320 million square feet. It had 52 million square feet of projects under construction at the end of the June quarter.