Mumbai, Aug. 13: Realty giant DLF has sold 17 acres of prime land in Mumbai to Lodha Developers for about Rs 2,700 crore, almost four times the price it paid for the land parcel seven years ago.
DLF had bought the land in 2005 from the National Textile Corporation for Rs 703 crore. The company decided to sell this piece of land as part of the strategy to exit from non-core businesses.
“Lodha Developers has entered into a binding agreement to acquire DLF’s wholly owned subsidiary Jwala Real Estate, which is the owner of the strategic 17-acre Mumbai textile mill property at Worli,” Lodha Developers said in a statement.
“The acquisition is for a consideration of Rs 1,200 crore for both equity and debentures of the company. In addition, Lodha is also expected to take over about Rs 1,500 crore of liabilities that Jwala has incurred for the development since it purchased the property from NTC in 2005,” it added.
The valuation of DLF’s land is lower than Indiabulls’ Rs 1,580-crore deal in 2010 for an 8.39-acre NTC plot.
“The acquisition is three to four times cheaper than deals recently done by other real estate players. At a cost of Rs 5,000 per sq ft, this land acquisition gives Lodha significant competitive advantage to build a mixed-use development over 5 million sq ft at the prime location of Worli,” Lodha said.
DLF has raised nearly Rs 8,000 crore from the sale of non-core-assets (hotel plots and IT SEZs/parks) in the last couple of years. The divestment proceeds are largely utilised to reduce net debt, which stood at Rs 22,680 crore as on June 30.
In the first quarter ended June, DLF had realised Rs 369 crore by selling off non-core assets.
DLF, the country’s largest realty firm, has also put on block two other major non-core assets — luxury hotel business Aman Resorts and wind energy — and expects about Rs 3,000 crore from these two deals.
This is the second high-value land deal by the Lodhas in the recent times. In 2010, the company had bought a 25,000-square metre plot at Wadala in Mumbai for Rs 4,050 crore, termed as the costliest deal in the city.
