Lodha records Rs 9,000 cr sales in nine months, continues to prune debt

Company says it is on course to surpass its pre-sales guidance of Rs 11,500 crore for FY23

Real estate developer Lodha Group posted a 16 per cent growth in sales on a year-on-year (YoY) basis with pre-sales worth Rs 3,035 crore in the third quarter of FY23.

Revenue collection stood at Rs 2,682 crore, up a significant 26 per cent YoY. The firm's net debt in India reduced further to Rs 8,042 crore, the company said in its quarterly updates.

The company’s nine-month pre-sales performance of Rs 9,039 crore in FY23 has already exceeded the pre-sales achieved in the whole of FY22.

"This sets us up to surpass our pre-sales guidance of Rs 11,500 crore for FY23," said Abhishek Lodha, managing director, Lodha group. :Despite the upward trajectory of mortgage rates, we witnessed robust demand across all segments as well as in different cities, especially Mumbai and Pune.”

The company has also added four new projects with a saleable area of about 5 million sq ft and an estimated sales value (GDV) of Rs 8,500 crore, through the joint development (JDA) route.

With this, the realty firm exceeded its full year guidance for business development worth Rs 15,000 crore. This reflects availability of land in the targeted micro-markets for Lodha, which in turn provides visibility for it to deliver on goals of 20 per cent pre-sales growth with 20 per cent return on equity (RoE).

While commenting on the outlook for 2023, he said that with emerging visibility that the upward trajectory of mortgage rates is likely to end in the first half of the calendar year 2023.

“We believe that 2023 will continue to see strengthening of sales from trusted developers, who have a track record of high-quality product and reliable delivery,” Lodha said.

The company’s net debt stands at Rs 8,042 crore reducing by Rs 753 crore. In the next two quarters, the company is targeting net debt of less than 0.5 times equity and less than one time its operating cash flow.