Sobha's Q3 sales bookings fall by 6% to Rs 502 crore

Bangalore-based company had achieved sales bookings of Rs 533 crore in the year-ago period

Realty firm Sobha Developers' sales bookings fell by 6% in the third quarter ended December 2013 to Rs 502.3 crore due to lower sales volumes because of a slowdown in the real estate market.

The Bangalore-based company had achieved sales bookings of Rs 533.4 crore in the year-ago period.

"The company, during the quarter ended December 31, 2013, has sold 0.74 million sq ft of new space valued at Rs 5.02 billion at an average price realisation of Rs 6,786 per sq ft," Sobha said in an operational update for the third quarter of financial year 2013-14.

In terms of volume, the sales bookings declined by 18% to 0.74 million sq ft during October-December quarter as against 0.9 million sq ft in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The average sales realisation, however, was higher at Rs 6,786 per sq ft as against Rs 5,910 per sq ft during the period under review.

During April-December period of this fiscal, sales bookings have risen by 13% to Rs 1,737.4 crore from Rs 1,540.3 crore in the year-ago period despite lower volumes.

Sobha's sales bookings fell to 2.66 million sq ft in the first nine months of this fiscal from 2.68 million sq ft in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

"There is a marginal decline in the area sold during April-December 2014 as compared to the corresponding period of 2013 on account of weak sentiments prevailing in the NCR market coupled with the economy related factors," Sobha said.

In the beginning of this fiscal, Sobha had given a guidance of new sales area of 4.2 million sq ft valued at Rs 2,600 crore for the current financial year.

"At the close of three quarters of FY'14, the company has registered new sales area of 2.66 million sq ft at Rs 1,737 crore. While the company is able to maintain better sales realisations and generate consistent operational cash flows, it remains cautious about achieving its guidance set for the current fiscal," Sobha said.

During the full financial year 2012-13, Sobha had sold 3.75 million sq ft area for Rs 2,214.5 crore.

Apart from Bangalore and National Capital Region, Sobha has projects in Chennai, Pune, Thrissur, Coimbatore, Kozhikode and Mysore.

"We remain upbeat about our south Indian markets despite a lower sales volume during the quarter. We also anticipate an uptick in the sales momentum in the coming quarters due to proposed new launches across our existing markets," it added.