DLF to invest a third of IPO proceeds in land

Mumbai, India: DLF Ltd has said it would invest Rs 3,500 crore - roughly a third of its planned initial public offering (IPO) - in building up its land reserves. This is significantly lower than its earlier plan of investing Rs 6,500 crore for the purpose.

Announcing its plans here today, DLF said it hoped to raise Rs 9,625 crore through a public issue of 1.75 crore shares in the price band of Rs 500-550 between June 11 and 14.

The new shares on offer will constitute 10.27 per cent of DLF’s post-sale capital. The share sale will give DLF a market value of as much as $24 billion, more than double Unitech’s, India’s biggest property developer.

The real estate major added that it can develop up to 575 million sq ft of real estate space on 10,255 acres (4,150 hectares) of land that it owns or has rights to in 31 cities. The company currently has 44 million sq feet of land under development.

Over half of its land (nearly 5,269 acres) is located in the National Capital Region, 2,708 acres in other major cities and 2,278 acres in the rest of the country.

The company said its current land reserves are sufficient for its planned developments over the next 10 years and provide it with a major competitive advantage, as well as protection against land price inflation.

“We aim to build up land reserves at competitive prices at strategic locations in the country, to gain from them during the upside in the economy,” said DLF Vice-Chairman Rajiv Singh.

While DLF and its subsidiaries own 11.3 per cent of the land reserves, they have sole development rights for 44.6 per cent of the total.

They have agreements to purchase or letters of acceptance for 35.9 per cent of the land, while the rest are joint developments with partners, the company said.

DLF filed its first prospectus in May 2006, which it had to withdraw on account of regulatory objections in August, following complaints by minority shareholders. The company filed a renewed prospectus in January this year. The Delhi High Court recently cleared the issue.

DLF will foray into newer areas in the future, including airport management, financial services, asset management, leisure entertainment and hospital properties, among others.

“We may foray into newer areas if good opportunities are available at any point of time. We can also tie up with foreign partners for the ventures,” Singh said.

DLF is promoted by billionaire Kushal Pal Singh, whose wealth doubled last year to $10 billion, according to Forbes. Singh, 75, a former Indian Army officer, bought land in Gurgaon, 17 miles (27 km) south of central New Delhi, in the early 1980s.

He developed Gurgaon as a significant suburb of the national capital, carving out residential plots and condominiums and commercial buildings that house offices and retail outlets.

Merrill Lynch and Kotak Mahindra Capital will manage the IPO, and Citigroup Inc, ICICI Securities, Lehman Brothers Securities, UBS AG, Deutsche Equities India and SBI Capital Markets will also be the sale arrangers.

Source: BS Reporter.

DLF gets IPO nod

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury Kolkata, India: The real estate giant are now coming up with a bang. DLF has got the nod from Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its Initial Public Offering (IPO), which is expected to raise a record Rs 13,600 crore.

If all goes well, DLF’s market capitalisation is expected to be around Rs 1,05,00 crore, equivalent to $25 billion, which will place DLF at seventh position in market capitalization rankings in the world. And after the IPO, DLF Universal’s promoter KP Singh will be among the richest Indians.

The approval, which will make a way for the DLF plan to put its fist on the capital market. It is worthwhile to mention here that the company had filed a new prospectus in January this year after its first attempt came to a stand still due to certain objections over the complaints by the minority shareholders'.

DLF owned by KP Singh proposes to enter the capital market with a public issue of 17.5 crore equity shares of Rs 2 each. The post-issue dilution would be over 10% of the equity capital of DLF. While he will continue to own 87.5 per cent stake in the company. "The company could raise more than or equal to Rs 13,600 crore," a company official had said in January. The fund would be deployed to meet construction cost, land acquisition and repayment of debt.

When asked when the issue would open, the company official said: "We are on the job." Merchant bankers, however, said it would take at least a month as the issue size is big. In its second attempt, the DLF plans to raise about Rs 13,600 crore but with lesser shares being offered through the IPO, reflecting the company's increased valuation over last year. DLF last year, proposed to offer 20.2 crore-equity shares, but the prospectus containing that offer was withdrawn.

Despite the severe beating, reality stocks have taken in the secondary market, the price band for the DLF issue was expected to be between Rs 550 and Rs 600 a share, said an investment banker on the condition of anonymity. As the face value of the equity is Rs 2, according to SEBI guidelines, the issue cannot be priced less than Rs 500 a share. “Since the minimum price cannot be below Rs 500, the price band is expected to be at around Rs 550-600, and the final price could be at the upper limit,” said the banker.

DLF executive claimed the Reserve Bank of India had allowed foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to invest in the company’s IPO, and the real estate major was expecting good response from institutional investors, including mutual funds, banks and insurance companies. Depending upon the success of the DLF issue, investment bankers said, another realty company, Omaxe, could enter the market.

DLF will use its IPO proceeds in part to acquire land, complete on going projects and retire debts. The company's vice chairman Rajiv Singh says that land acquisition programme will cost Rs 6,500 crore (Rs 65 billion), while the completion of on-going projects will cost about Rs 3,100 crore (Rs 31 billion). The company, at present, has loans worth Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion).

DLF Vice Chairman Rajiv Singh said that the IPO proceeds will be utilized for land acquisition, which will cost about Rs 6,500 crore and the DLF hopes to complete the construction of some on-going projects, which will take about Rs 3100 crore within a few months from now.

Singh further said that DLF retains the rights to prepay loans that the company holds to the extent of about Rs 4,000 crore. This is an overall statement of objectives. It will be decided after the exact issue size is finalized. The deployment will be decided thereafter. Principally the money is for acquisition and for completion of our projects.

When asked about the Special Economic Zones three special economic zones, which are multi-product ones in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Manesar, Singh said that. DLF have received approval to set up four special economic zones of a very large size. Three are going to be a multi purpose special economic zone and one is going to be a collection of product specific zones in Amritsar.

According to Singh, as far as the investment programme goes, no exact number is quantified as yet. The land acquisition proceedings still need to take place. DLF do estimate the total investments processing would be of Rs 40,000-50,000 crore (Rs 400-500 billion). But DLF's investment in this would be restricted to much smaller amount, which will be known after the projects are specifically conceptualized.

The start is due in Amritsar not in Ludhiana. Amrtisar is the first one, which will get off the block. We do hope that we will be able to start something physically on the ground in a few months time. We should be up and running in terms of marketing.

The DLF is also targeting 100-125 hotels in the next five-eight years while some in the next few months. But Vijay Singh declined to comment on them and said that future forecast at this juncture in an IPO process is something business hotels should be the first ones to take off. But said that substantial sites for the location of such hotels. As and when our partnership gets finalized, we will implement these projects rapidly. Some of them are going to be independent sites and many of them are going to be co-located with the other development projects of the company, whether in retail space or in IT park space.

Singh further added that there has been some kind of trouble between the Delhi Development Authority as well as the Delhi high court regarding the joint venture of the company with Indiabulls which is just a co-investment into a particular project.

When asked about the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance for the FIIs to come into the pre-IPO placement, Singh said that in pre-IPO placement, we are not contemplating any FIIs. The pre-IPO placement will only be for the domestic investors and institutions. We may be able to give you some details about this in a few days time. Only one thing I can say is, unfortunately, we are constrained in terms of making a projection at this moment in the IPO process.