Godrej Properties plans to treble launches in 2012-13

Godrej Properties, the realty development arm of the Godrej Group, had planned as many as 15 launches in 2012-13, including new phases in existing projects, said Pirojsha Godrej, managing director. It launched five projects in FY12.

“Although demand has reduced over the last six months and economic sentiment is weak, we remain bullish on the sector. We feel things will improve over the next few months,” said Godrej, after announcing the company’s results yesterday.

The company had signed 10 development deals with various land owners in FY12, he said.

And, the company is to continue focus on residential properties for sustained cash flows. Nine of the 10 deals had been done in the residential segment, he said. Adding: “We believe customer advances will help us fund our projects.”

Saying the company’s gearing (ratio of debt to equity) had come down from over two times to 1.06 times after the recent institutional placement programme, Godrej said: “We are in a much more comfortable position now and we think we can manage business prudently and manage the opportunities well.” The net debt on the books is Rs 1,500 crore.

The company posted a 33 per cent decline in net profit for the March quarter, due to higher minority interest and deals with private equity firms where it had to share profits in the projects.

"The margins have been under pressure, mainly because of the increase in input as well as labour costs. However, we have been able to achieve healthy sales growth, despite challenging economic conditions. We expect to deliver strong growth in FY13," said Godrej Group’s chairman, Adi Godrej.