Realty major DlF plans to divest around 50 per cent stake each in four new housing projects to private equity firms for over Rs3,000 crore, a senior company official said on Sunday.
India's largest real estate firm expects to close some of the deals by June and would utilise the funds to improve its cash-flows that have been affected due to slowdown in housing demand.
"We are looking for private equity in 4 greenfield housing projects in Delhi-NCR and South India," DlF Chief Financial officer (CFO) Ashok Tyagi told the news agency.
He said discussions with few private equity players have started but declined to disclose their names. Tyagi hoped that at least 2-3 PE deals should get closed by June-end. "We are targeting to raise about Rs2,500 crore by June from 2-3 deals".
Asked about the dilution of stake in each of the 4 housing projects, Tyagi said it would be around 50 per cent. On the utilisation of funds raised via private equity at projects level, he said the same would be utilised "to augment the operating cash flow of our development arm DevCo".
DlF has divided its real estate business in two parts - DevCo, under which all residential projects fall, and RentCo, which is the rental business from office and retail projects.
Earlier this month, DlF had reported 9 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs131.79 crore for the quarter ended December due to fall in sales and other income.Its net profit stood at Rs145.29 crore in the year-ago period.
Income from operations fell 5 per cent to Rs1,956.72 crore for the third quarter of this fiscal from Rs2,058.42 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Total income declined by 20 per cent to Rs2,079.82 crore for the quarter ended December from Rs2,590.2 crore in the year-ago period. DlF has a land bank of about 295 million square feet, of which 50 million square feet is under development.