Lodha may raise Rs 700 crore from Canadian-fund CDPQ for Palava city
Realty major Lodha Developers is likely to raise Rs 700 crore from Canadian pension fund CDPQ for the development of its ongoing 4,500-acre integrated township 'Palava City' near Mumbai, according to sources. The talks are in advance stages and the deal is likely to be concluded soon, they added. Mumbai-based Lodha Developers, which aims to launch an over Rs 5,000 crore IPO when the market condition improves, has also decided to exit the UK property market and is in advanced stage to sell its two residential projects in central London for about Rs 4,200 crore. With these two deals in pipeline, the company would be raising nearly Rs 5,000 crore and this fund would be utilised to prepay/repay its debt of around Rs 18,000 crore. The sale of housing projects in London and fund raising for its township project Palava city are part of the company's strategy to reduce debt and strengthen its balance sheet. A spokesperson of the company declined to comment on the Palava deal. On India business, Lodha Developers' MD Abhishek Lodha had said on Wednesday that the company achieved sales bookings of Rs 4,200 crore in the first six months of this fiscal and sales have been good in October and November. The company expects its sales bookings to cross Rs 9,000 crore for the entire 2018-19 financial year. "Our 50 per cent of business is mid-income housing," Lodha had said. The company is also developing rental assets worth Rs 10,000 crore, of which one-fourth is completed. Its annual rental will be Rs 175 crore by March 2019. Meanwhile, Lodha Developers got approval in July to hit the capital market with an initial public offer (IPO) of about Rs 5,500 crore. The share sale, if successful, would be the second biggest IPO in the real estate sector after DLF that raised close to Rs 9,200 crore in 2007. This would be the second attempt by Lodha Developers to launch a public issue and list its shares on the stock exchanges. Lodha Developers had posted a 32 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 790 crore during the last fiscal from Rs 599 crore in the previous year. Total income rose by 22 per cent to Rs 9,700 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 7,957 crore in the previous year.
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