Amanresorts sale helps DLF cut debt

The company's mall in Noida spread over 1.8 million sq ft would be launched by October

India’s largest realty company, DLF, on Saturday said it has reduced net debt by Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 17,400 crore, following proceeds from sale of luxury hotel chain Amanresorts, and a refund from Delhi Development AUthority (DDA).     

The net debt had increased to Rs 19,926 crore at the end of the December quarter, from Rs 1,9508 crore as on September 30.     

“Current net debt is Rs 17,400 crore. We maintain the FY14 guidance (forecast) of net debt of Rs 17,500-18,000 crore,” DLF said in an analyst presentation.     

The debt level would continue in this range in short term.     

In a conference call with analysts, DLF Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ashok Tyagi said: “With closure of Amanresorts and settlement of Dwarka project with DDA, we have achieved our net debt guidance. Recovery on sales side will take couple of quarters. Rental business is growing well.”     

Since January, DLF said it has sold Amanresorts (barring the Lodhi property) for $358 million (Rs 2,200 crore) and also settled the dispute with DDA on the Dwarka Convention Centre project with refund of Rs 676 crore.     

Tyagi also said the company had booked a “pre-tax loss of Rs 400 crore” in the settlement with DDA for Dwarka project, which it bagged in 2007 but was later scrapped.     DLF had capitalised Rs 1,075 crore in this project, while it got a refund of only Rs 675 crore from DDA. Tyagi said the company’s mall in Noida of 1.8 million sq ft would be launched by October. The leasing has been finalised.

DLF said the first phase of divestment of non-core assets had been completed but it would continue to sell some smaller assets to fill any gap in cash flow. When asked about plans to launch a commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) to replace costlier debt, Saurabh Chawla, executive director (finance), said the company would soon get the provisional rating for a CMBS from rating agencies and the issue for one retail asset could come in this quarter.     

In October last year, the company announced plans to raise about Rs 1,000 crore through issue of securities backed by mortgage of two retail assets. “Worsening economic conditions during the past two quarters and continued high interest rates has led to muted sales and profits. Current forecast is these adverse economic conditions shall continue till the seond quarter of 2014-15,” DLF said. Given the current economic outlook, the general demand, including for real estate, would continue to be low in the near term.

“In the best case, we can expect slow tapering of interest rates.”