DLF profit falls 27 percent, hit by slowing home sales

MUMBAI (Reuters) - DLF Ltd, India's top real estate developer, posted a 27 percent fall in its consolidated net profit for the July-September quarter, hit by slowing home sales in Asia's third-largest economy.

"In the current economic and high interest rate environment, the company expects a slow absorption of product in the market," DLF said in a statement to the exchange late on Wednesday.

The New Delhi-based developer, founded by billionaire K.P. Singh, said net profit for the fiscal second quarter was 1 billion rupees compared with 1.38 billion rupees a year earlier. The profit fell short of analyst expectations of 1.4 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

 

Total revenue was 19.56 billion rupees, down from 20.4 billion rupees posted during the same period last year.

On Wednesday, Oberoi Realty Ltd , India's second-largest developer by market value, posted a 48 percent fall in net profit for the September quarter - its worst quarterly profit decline in nearly two years - hit by a drop in sales.

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)