DLF profit rises 27% to Rs 656 crore in December quarter on higher sales

New Delhi: DLF Ltd on Wednesday posted a 27 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 655.71 crore in the December quarter, boosted by higher income and lower expenses while sales bookings jumped to a record Rs 9,047 crore on strong demand for luxury homes.

Its net profit stood at Rs 517.94 crore in the year-ago period. The sales bookings stood at Rs 2,507 crore in the third quarter of the previous financial year.

Total consolidated income rose to Rs 1,643.51 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal from Rs 1,559.66 crore in the same period a year ago, according to a regulatory filing.

DLF's total expenses declined to Rs 1,131.97 crore in the December quarter from Rs 1,151.62 crore in the year-ago period.

"In line with the company's stated intent and strategy to consolidate the rental business, the board has approved the sale of one of the company's assets namely 'DLF Centre', a commercial building in the Central Business District of New Delhi to DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL), a material subsidiary of the company of on aggregate consideration of Rs 825 crore," the company said.

DCCDL is a joint venture between DLF Ltd and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. DLF has around 67 per cent stake in DCCDL.

In a statement, DLF said it achieved the highest quarterly sales booking of Rs 9,047 crore backed by multiple launches during the December quarter. The company sold 1,113 luxury apartments in Gurugram for Rs 7,200 crore within three days of pre-launch.

"We launched three new products totalling over 5 million square feet during the (December) quarter across multiple segments. The launches during the quarter were DLF Privana South, Gurugram - a luxury high-rise development, Central 67, Gurugram - a shop-cum-offices plotted development and The Valley Orchard, Panchkula-low-rise independent floors," the company said.

DLF said it witnessed a healthy demand momentum across all these products and both projects in Gurugram were completely sold out within a record time.

"With this strong performance, the new sales bookings for the nine-month period stood at Rs 13,316 crore and hence will be comfortably exceeding our full-year guidance," the company said.

Stating that the sustained demand momentum across all segments continues to be encouraging, DLF said it would continue to focus on strengthening the new product pipeline and it plans to launch in a calibrated manner across key markets.

"We improved our net cash position to Rs 1,246 crore at the end of the quarter. The strong performance was backed by strong collections and focused cash management," the company said.

On commercial real estate, DLF said the office segment exhibited a sustained performance while retail real estate continues to deliver healthy growth.

"Our non-SEZ (office) segment continues to operate at healthy occupancy levels of 97 per cent. Our new office developments across Gurugram and Chennai continue to garner strong interest from large occupiers and consequently have achieved a pre-leasing of approximately 91 per cent," DLF said.

The government's decision for the amendment in the SEZ regulations allowing floor-wise denotification should lead to recovery in the SEZ segment too, it said.

"We expect normalcy to return to occupancy levels in this segment over the next few quarters," DLF said.

On a standalone basis, DLF's net profit rose 57 per cent to Rs 463.66 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal year from Rs 294.86 crore in the year-ago period.

Total standalone income rose to Rs 1,117.40 crore in the latest December quarter from Rs 973.89 crore in the year-ago period, as per the regulatory filing.

DLF is India's largest real estate company in terms of market capitalisation.

DLF Group has 215 million square feet of development potential across residential and commercial segments. The group has an annuity portfolio of over 42 million square feet.