Omaxe to invest Rs 220 cr to acquire land in 6 months

Realty firm Omaxe plans to invest up to Rs 220 crore in the next six months on land acquisition and is targeting to cut its gross debt by about Rs 225 crore in this fiscal from Rs 1,477 crore as on June 30.

The company spent Rs 83 crore on land acquisition in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

"We believe that we will be spending Rs 200–220 crore on land acquisition in next six months," Omaxe Vice President (Investor and Strategic Relations) Sumit Arora said in a presentation.

He, however, did not share details such as where and how much land will be acquired.

"As far as land acquisition is concerned, in the first quarter the company spent around Rs 83 crore and acquired land majorly at Chandigarh... We have another 50 acres in Chandigarh and we have added some more land at Lucknow," Arora said.

Speaking about the company's debt position, he said: "We have reduced the net debt by about Rs 75 crore on quarter to quarter basis. So, as on March 31, our gross debt was Rs 1,552 crore and today it stands at Rs 1,477 crore."

The company continues to reduce its debt further during the ongoing fiscal, he added.

"For the whole fiscal, we are quite confident that we will be able to reduce this number to around Rs 1,250 crore, which will include Rs 227-Rs 230 crore of deferred land payments," Arora said.

Omaxe had reported 7.78% fall in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 30 at Rs 20.03 crore compared to Rs 21.72 in the year-ago period.

The consolidated income from operations, however, increased by 30.11% to Rs 329.08 crore from Rs 252.93 crore in the same period last year.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 122 apiece down 0.85% from its previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange.