Poor housing sales push DLF Q1 net debt up by Rs 802 cr

India's largest realty firm DLF's net debt increased by Rs 802 crore during the first quarter of this fiscal to Rs 25,898 crore due to poor housing sales and continued outflow in construction of various projects.

According to an analyst presentation, DLF's net debt stood at Rs 25,898 crore as on June 30, 2017 as against Rs 25,096 crore at the end of the last fiscal.

DLF said that the demand for residential real estate continues to be soft.

"Almost zero incremental sales coupled with outflow for construction activities to accelerate project completions continued to burn cash during the quarter. Operating cash deficit of about Rs 750 crore per quarter to continue for next 2-3 quarters," the presentation said.

There could be further spike in debt levels, although for temporary period, on account of continued capex in new office complexes and construction spend on residential projects.

"Gross sales booking: Rs 110 crore, since sales were halted from May 1 due to RERA (new real estate law) compliance; cancellation/upgradation Rs 235 crore resulting in net sales booking of Rs (125) crore booked in Q1, FY18. This is in comparison to net sales booking of Rs 400 crore in Q4 of FY17," DLF said.

Yesterday, the company reported a 58 per cent fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 109.01 crore for the quarter ended June against Rs 261.85 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income, however, rose by 9 per cent to Rs 2,211.24 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal from Rs 2,025.58 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The decline in net profit during the quarter under review was due to one-time extraordinary gain of Rs 329 crore in the corresponding three months of last year from the sale of DT Cinemas to PVR group.

DLF said the promoters' plan to sell their 40 per cent stake in rental arm DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL) "is in advanced stages of discussion".

In March, DLF promoters K P Singh and family had entered into an exclusivity pact with Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC for the stake sale.

"The company and investor are in the final stages of discussion on the documentation. The transaction shall be put up to Audit Committee/Board for final approval," DLF said.

In October 2015, DLF had announced that its promoters would sell their entire 40 per cent stake in DCCDL, which holds the bulk of the commercial assets of the group.

Sources had earlier said the deal is likely to be valued at around Rs 12,000-13,000 crore.

The promoters would invest a significant amount from this proposed transaction into DLF Ltd, which will use it for reduction of debt that has reached nearly Rs 26,000 crore.

On sales, DLF said that the implementation of RERA and GST has continued to elongate the sales cycle and it expects that sector would achieve normalcy over next 2-3 quarters.

DLF expects the property market to recover soon with reduction in key policy rates by the RBI this month.

After the roll out of the Real Estate Regulatory Act in the June quarter, DLF said there was uncertainty in the market as each state followed a different time-table for adoption of the central law and framing of their rules.

"The introduction of GST, from July 1, also added to the uncertainty resulting in elongation of sales cycle. Back-end integration challenges continued as it was dependent upon the timing of the GST registrations of the vendors also. The company is fully compliant with GST regime," DLF said.