Indian real estate companies, which borrowed heavily during the peak of the economic cycle and rosy business forecast, are now caught in the vortex of piling debt post-slowdown. Most of the realtors who went on a land bank acquisition with borrowed money are struggling to repay even the interest and banks look reluctant to restructure the debt any more.
Real Estate is at the epicenter contributing to shape up today’s world. The construction industry is also treated as the backbone in a developing country like ours but in recent times it has been seen slowing down by low margins, negative cash flow from operations, rising interest costs on high working capital , execution delays and poor corporate governance.
Chennai real estate has suffered a major jolt as three of its leading builders, DLF, Hirco and Hiranandani, have been removed from the builders’ body, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI ). Yet another major builder, Vijay Shanthi, has opted out of CREDAI membership on its own. Trouble is brewing in CREDAI’s Karnataka unit too, where four builders have been expelled.
First influencers, then catalysts and now storming into what can be conveniently called last male bastion—Real Estate. Indian Mothers have indeed come a long way to prove that a challenging job of realty business can be managed along with the family responsibilities and upbringing of the children. Track2Realty salutes a few of such Case Studies on the eve of Mother’s Day.
The Central Crime Station (CCS) police of Hyderabad on Thursday, May 10, arrested the Managing Director of a real estate company for duping his customers of Rs 3 crore by promising housing plots to them. Many incriminating documents also seized from him.
Cognizant Technology Solutions has increased its real estate infrastructure expansion in India by nearly $200 million.
The US-based company, which has large offshore presence in India, has revised its investment plan to a total of $700 million in real estate from 2011 through 2015.
Bhasin Group has tied up with Singapore-based Andover Leisure Pte to build a 100,000 sq ft aquarium – which would be bigger than Singapore’s Sentosa and Atlanta’s Georgia Aquariums. It will come up in a mall run by the company in Greater Noida. The aquarium, to be titled Blue Planet, is expected to cost $9 million (Rs 45 crore).
Tata Realty and Infrastructure (TRIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, is foraying into retail and hospitality segments through a new subsidiary, TRIL Hospitality Services. The company, which has about Rs 6,000-crore projects at hand, would also commence work on two more projects, and this would add business of Rs 3,000 crore, said a senior TRIL Infopark executive.
Within hours of Track2Realty reporting that the much awaited Real Estate Regulatory Bill will not be tabled in the current session of parliament, the government has confirmed it by announcing that the Bill is likely to be presented in the next session of Parliament. The Bill is expected to be tabled before the Union Cabinet shortly, said Aruna Sundararajan, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
In the coming months, the pressure will be to reduce debt-to-equity ratios. With so many developers in debt already, the industry is trying to come out of the situation and 2012 will not be much different. It won’t be easy and the developers are trying various routes. Selling of developed projects, vacant land is a route taken by many developers. Several developers are now providing attractive terms to PE funds to securing funding.