Promoters of Macrotech Developers repay debt of Rs 1,596 cr owed to company

Macrotech Developers (Lodha group) on Wednesday said the promoters of the company have repaid Rs 1,596 crore owed by them to the company.

"Promoters owed the company a sum of Rs 1,596 crore as of March 31, 2021. Of this, a sum of Rs 400 crore was repaid on April 29, 2021. The balance of Rs 1,196 crore, together with interest accrued thereon, has been repaid today," it said in an exchange filing.

"Thus, the entire debt has been repaid expeditiously, in just over two months from the listing of the company," it added.

"This repayment, combined with our IPO fund raise and continued organic free cash flow generation are helping the company progress further in its deleveraging plans," it said.

"The company targets significant reduction in net debt to Rs 10,000 crore by end of FY2022 and as of now, the company is on track for this. The company intends to continue to focus on its capital light growth strategy around affordabte & mid-income housing and digital infrastructure (warehousing, data centres, industrial parks etc.) with a view toc delivering continued deleveraging and simultaneous growth," it said.

The promoters have raised these funds by means of a long-term instrument having tenure greater than three years with no repayment obligation prior to that. 

The promoters have also informed the company that they will be in a position to deleverage themselves in line with the minimum public shareholding obligations of bringing their holding down to a maximum 75% over a period of three years from listing.

The aforesaid funding has led to an encumbrance, but not a pledge, on a sub-set of the promoter's shares in the company.