Realty spike for textile counters

The record successful bid of Rs 702 crore for 19 acre of Bombay Textile Mills property owned by the National Textile Mills (NTC) lead to a sharp rally in shares of select textile mills in today's trading. The real estate deal was at a huge premium of more than 70 per cent.

Mill stocks were virtually on fire led by Hindoostan Spinning stock which was up 9.83 per cent to Rs 54.25. Volumes at the counter too jumped by a massive 576.7 per cent from 12,163 shares traded on Monday to over 82 thousand shares today.

The other big gainers were Simplex Mills, up 6.45 per cent to Rs 165, Dawn Mills was up 5 per cent to Rs 3,999.10, Ruby Mills was up 4.99 per cent to Rs 286.25, Sri Ganpati Mills was up 4.01 per cent to Rs 35 and Morarjee Textiles scrip was up 3.91 per cent to Rs 140.80. All these counters witnessed a sharp jump in volumes too.

Others such as NRC, Bombay Dyeing and Pantaloon Retail, sitting on excess real estate property, were also in the limelight today. NRC was up 11.02 per cent to Rs 51.40, with volumes jumping by over 300 per cent, Bombay Dyeing was up 7.03 per cent to Rs 350.80 and Pantaloon Retail ended 3.38 per cent higher at Rs 1,326.05.

The Bombay Textile Mills property owned by the National Textile Mills (NTC) fetched a record Rs 702 crore. The bid price was submitted by Jwala Realties Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Delhi-based realty major DLF Properties.

The second NTC mill property, eight acre Apollo Mills, was snapped by Mumbai-based developer and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha's Lodha Group of Industries for Rs 180 crore.

Market analysts said, "All the mill stocks were on fire today in anticipation that the property rates will skyrocket after the recent development of Jwala Realties buying out Bombay Textile Mills property."

According to property consultants, the two NTC properties have been able to cash in on ascending realty rates witnessed in Mumbai over the last one year.

"Only two years back, NTC had completed a valuation of all its mill properties valuing the Bombay Textile Mills land at around Rs 350-400 crore. The high price fetched by NTC lands is only indicative of the potential that the realty sector holds for growth over the next few years," they said.

The eight acre (31, 418 square metre) Elphinstone Mill property has a sanctioned floor space index of 42,951 square metre. NTC will peg the earnest money for this property at Rs 13 crore.

The five acre Kohinoor (3) Mill property has roughly 20,000 square metre of developable land.

Financial property provider Indiabulls had recently acquired 11 acre Jupiter Mill property in March for Rs 276 crore, above Rs 100 crore than the market estimations.

"Around a year-and-half ago, the two lakh square feet of developed land owned by a Glaxo at Worli (Central Mumbai) was sold for Rs 106 crore, which was also a white money transaction," said Tariq Vaidya, head of the Asia-Pacific research wing of realty analysts KnightFrank.

Bolstered by the record bid it has received for two mill land properties put on the block a month ago, NTC will invite bids for two more properties""the five acre Kohinoor (3) Mill and the eight acre Elphinstone Mill""on Tuesday.