DLF Q1 profit falls 38 pct as costs bite

MUMBAI (Reuters) - DLF Ltd, India's largest real estate developer, reported a 38 percent fall in quarterly net profit, weighed down by higher expenses on land and property development.

DLF, which builds homes, offices and shopping malls, said late on Monday net profit for the June quarter was 1.81 billion rupees, compared with 2.93 billion rupees a year earlier. Sales and other receipts rose 5.3 percent to 23.14 billion rupees from 21.98 billion rupees.

Analysts on average expected the company to post net profit of 1.23 billion rupees on revenue of 20.63 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine.

Founded by billionaire K.P. Singh, DLF sold a stake in its insurance joint venture last month but is yet to divest other non-core assets, including its luxury hotel chain Amanresorts, to pare its debt of 217 billion rupees at end-March.

 

The New Delhi-based developer, valued by the market at $4 billion, has lost about 40 percent of its value since the beginning of 2013, in line with the drop in the sector index, but higher than the 2.5 percent fall in the wider market index.

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Jijo Jacob)