 "Construction, building, real estate")
Realty firm Macrotech Developers, also known as Lodha, on Saturday, reported a 25 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 505 crore for the third quarter ended December 2023 (Q3FY24), from Rs 405 crore in the same quarter of the previous year (Q3FY23).
Total income for the third quarter was up 55.6 per cent from a year earlier to Rs 2,959 crore on the back of strong demand from its clients.
“Strong underlying demand on the back of rising incomes, ample job creation as well as enhanced consumer confidence enabled us to achieve our best Q3 pre-sales performance of Rs 3,410 crore,” said Abhishek Lodha, MD and CEO, Macrotech Developers.
“New tailwinds for housing will further strengthen demand in 2024. Latest communication from global central banks suggest peaking of interest rates and steady reduction in benchmark rates will commence in 2024. This will likely result in lower home loan rates in India, strengthening demand,” Lodha said.
The company added three new projects for 2 million sq. ft. with a gross development value (GDV) of Rs 6,000 crore, taking its 9MFY24 business development to Rs 20,300 crore – surpassing the company’s full-year guidance of Rs 17,500 crore.
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“Substantial high pace of business development showcases the attractiveness of brand Lodha to landowners leading to a burgeoning pipeline of new attractive opportunities which will enable us to sustainably grow our business in future. To capitalise on some of these opportunities in the future while keeping our deleveraging journey intact, our board has approved to have enablers in place for raising capital to be pursued if needed,” Lodha said.
Macrotech Developers have their properties across locations in India – Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Thane. In addition to these, the Group also entered Bengaluru. “We had an excellent response to our first launch in Bengaluru – the entire phase-1 inventory of the project was sold out within the first three days of the launch. The icing on the cake was that our superior quality product, aimed at an upgrade in lifestyle, was priced at a substantial premium to the existing projects in the neighbourhood,” added Lodha.
Lodha said that net debt for the company remained largely “stable” during the quarter at Rs 6,750 crore. “Reflecting the strengthening balance sheet, our exit cost of debt for the quarter further came down by over 10 basis points to almost 9.5 per cent. We also exited our UK investments with the receipt of the entire balance as per our earlier communication,” he said.
Macrotech Developers declared its results on Saturday when markets were closed. On Friday, shares of the company closed down 0.4 per cent at Rs 1,057.75 on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange).
