Godrej to sell commercial assets in 6 months

Realty firm Godrej Properties Ltd expects to monetise commercial properties worth about Rs 1,500 crore at Mumbai, Kolkata and Chandigarh over the next six months and reduce net debt, which now stands at Rs 3,278 crore.

The company is also in discussion with potential partners to add new projects in its portfolio as part of the growth plan, its newly appointed Chairman Pirojsha Godrej said.

Godrej Properties, the real estate arm of Godrej Group, last week announced a major reshuffle in leadership team with Chairman Adi Godrej assuming the Chairman Emeritus role, while Pirojsha was elevated to Executive Chairman from Managing Director and CEO position.

"We expect to complete the monetisation of our commercial assets in next six months and the fund will be utilised to reduce our debt. We have sold about Rs 40 crore in BKC project, Mumbai during the December quarter," he told PTI.

In September 2015, Godrej Properties had sold 4.35 lakh sq ft of office space at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai for Rs 1,479 crore. It has about 3 lakh sq ft of office space left in BKC project and about 1 million sq ft in Kolkata and Chandigarh, totalling worth about Rs 1,500 crore. The company's net debt rose to Rs 3,278 crore in the December quarter from Rs 3,006 crore at September-end.

When asked how his elevation would affect the day-to-day operations of the company, he said: "I will still be deeply involved. I will now focus on long-term plan."

In the management reshuffle, Mohit Malhotra has been appointed as the new Managing Director and CEO of the company.

The company's sales booking rose by 15 per cent to Rs 693 crore during the October-December period of this fiscal compared with previous

quarter despite demonetisation but sales were down 43 per cent from the year-ago period, Godrej said.

"There was some impact of demonetisation. But our sales in Greater Noida and Pune projects were very good," he said.

"We launched Greater Noida project in November where we sold over 7 lakh sq ft with a booking value of Rs 395 crore in last quarter," Godrej

said.

Godrej Properties achieved sales bookings of Rs 5,038 crore last fiscal, highest by any publicly listed realty firm. On new projects, Godrej said the company has added a project with 0.56 million sq ft of saleable area in Q3 of FY17 and is in discussion to acquire more projects in micro markets of the cities where the company already has presence.