DLF, the country's largest real estate player, today said that sale of its wind energy business is closer than that of much talked about Aman Resorts. But both the transactions are expected to close by the end of this financial year itself. It aims to realise between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 crore with these sales.
“Aman Resorts is a complex deal. It will take time. It looks like wind energy will be concluded faster than Aman Resorts," Rajeev Talwar, executive director, DLF, said on the sidelines of a real estate symposium today.
He added that the company is into active negotiations for both the deals and will conclude this financial year itself.
The company got investors’ approval to sell wind business in July.
The wind energy business is expected to fetch the company between Rs 800 crore and Rs 1,000 crore. DLF has an installed capacity of 228.7 MW and owns wind farms in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
DLF’s net debt stood at Rs 23,220 crore as on September 30, 2012. However, the company said that after realisation of Rs 2,727 crore from its Mumbai National Textile Corporation (NTC) land sale to the Lodha Group, the net debt fell to Rs 21,220 crore.
Talwar said that the company would meet its target of reducing its debt to Rs 18,000 crore by March 2013.
However, he denied that the Aman was getting delayed because of the company's decision not to sell Aman Hotel at Lodhi road in the national capital. "Global investors are more interested in Aman properties located outside India,” he said, and added that “Aman resort at Lodhi road is located in the heart of Delhi, which has a huge valuation for a real estate player, thus we would not like to offload it,” he said.
Aman has about 25 properties in 12 countries.
The company’s plans of launching a new project will materialise in the fourth quarter of the financial year now. The company plans to launch about 8.5 million sq ft by March 2013. “December has just three weeks to go, but we will launch projects till March,” said Talwar.
The company has not launched any major project so far this fiscal, which has had a bearing on its cash flows. The realty player saw a 62.8% drop in its net profit for the quarter ended September 2012.
The company also said it would launch three to four projects in Gurgaon by March 2013, which would generate about Rs 15,000 crore sales realisation over the next three to four years.
