DLF Assets Raises $450 Million from Symphony Capital; Singapore IPO On Cards
DLF Assets, the property fund of DLF Ltd, India’s largest real estate developer by market capitalisation, has raised $450 million (Rs 1,831.5 crore) from Symphony Capital, a London based investment firm. DLF Assets has earlier received $200 million from a fund sponsored by Lehman Brothers and $400 million from another global investment firm DE Shaw for an SEZ project. The investors got the representation on the board of directors of DLF Assets. DLF Assets Pvt. Ltd. or DAPL is independent of DL. It was set up for bidding along with other companies in potential assets sale by DLF Ltd.
Meanwhile, DLF Assets owes money to DLF, a major chunk of which it planned to pay off via its proposed listing as a real estate investment trust (Reit) in Singapore. But due to poor market sentiments and a global market slowdown, it had to put off its listing.
It was looking to raise $1 billion through the public issue. DLF Assets has however paid up the bulk of money it owes DLF for the last year but still owns Rs, 1900 crore. The fresh infusion of funds from Symphony Capital would enable DLF Assets to partly pay up the money it owes DLF.
Further, seeing DAPL’s inability to raise funds through an IPO, the parent company DLF has also reversed the sale of Rs 1,500 crore worth of office assets to the group company DLF Assets, thereby reporting a reduction of Rs 800 crore in the PBT for the quarter ended March ‘07. Had the sale not been reversed Q4 PBT could have been Rs 3,500 crore versus the reported Rs 2,704 crore. The reversal of sale is on account of properties not qualifying as IT/ITes SEZs.. DAL will now hold only IT/ITeS properties and this action will benefit DAL.
The sale of commercial assets to DLF Assets contributed Rs. 2,207 crore to DLF Ltd.’s revenue and Rs. 1,564 to its profit before tax in 2006-07 making up around 55% of DLF Ltd’s revenues and 61% of its pre tax profit. “The main reason for the increase in sales revenue of DLF Ltd. was the sale by us of certain commercial properties to DAPL,” DLF had said in its IPO prospectus.
