Shareholders okay IndiaBulls Realty's 200 mn pound London property sale

Indiabulls Real Estate on Saturday said shareholders have approved proposal to sell its London property to promoters for 200 million pounds in an annual general meeting held on September 28.

Earlier, the company had disclosed its plans to focus on its India business and cut down on debt.

The resolution to sell the London property has been approved by the requisite majority of shareholders, stated a BSE filing by the company.

In the notice for AGM, the company had said, "In light of continuing Brexit related issues and uncertainty around it, the London property market remains sluggish. The Great Britain Pound has also had a sustained depreciation from around the time of Brexit referendum result."

The continued uncertainty associated with Brexit continues to provide headwinds against both the London property market as well pound as a currency, it said.

As per assessment with lenders, a further loan of approximately 133 million pounds is to be availed to complete the ongoing construction on 22 Hanover Square property (London property) and the company would not like to incur this further additional debt on its own balance sheet, at this point, the statement said.

Explaining further, it had said, "To reduce the debt of the company and to have its more focus on Mumbai and NCR markets, the board of the company, had on earlier date already authorised and approved divestment of company's direct or indirect stake in London property."

It had also informed that the promoter of the company has come forward to acquire the London property for an aggregate consideration of 200 million pounds, which is significantly above the cost of its acquisition i.e. GBP 161.5 million and CBRE, UK recent valuation i.e. GBP 189 million.