GIC likely to ink pact to buy 40% stake in DLF arm by month-end

New Delhi: Realty major DLF’s promoters are likely to enter into an agreement this month with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC to sell their 40 percent stake in the rental arm in a deal estimated at around Rs13,000 crore. [caption id=“attachment_2683116” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] In October 2015, DLF had announced that its promoters would sell their entire stake in the DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL), which holds the bulk of the commercial assets of the group. The promoters had in March this year entered into an exclusivity pact with GIC to negotiate on this transaction. According to people aware of the matter, both the parties are likely to sign definitive agreement by end of this month. The people had earlier said the deal is likely to be valued at around Rs12,000-13,000 crore. The promoters would infuse a large portion of proceeds from this proposed deal into DLF, which in turn would use this amount to cut its net debt that has reached nearly Rs26,000 crore. In an analyst presentation uploaded on Sunday, DLF said that “the company and investor are in the final stages of discussion on the documentation. The transaction shall be put up to Audit Committee/Board for final approval”. Later, in a conference call with analysts, DLF’s senior executive director (finance) Saurabh Chawla said the proposed transactions is at the “fag end of the process” and hoped that the deal would be concluded in the near future. Chawla said after the agreement between the two parties, GIC would approach the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for approval, while DLF will have to seek shareholders nod. He said the CCI approval could come by early November. DLF is expected to achieve a rental income of over Rs3,000 crore in the current fiscal, of which about Rs2,600 crore pertains to the DCCDL. On the sales bookings, Chawla said the company achieved gross sales bookings of Rs110 crore in April and after that it has halted sales as the real estate regulatory law (RERA) came into effect from 1 May. The RERA requires all ongoing projects to be registered with state authority to start sale and advertisements. He expected the sales to resume from next month. Chawla said the company’s operations have suffered in the last few quarters because of demonetisation and the RERA, but hoped markets to pick up in next 2-3 quarters.