Macrotech Developers (erstwhile Lodha Developers) has reported net consolidated loss after tax of Rs 933 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2022. The company had registered profit after tax of Rs 233.36 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, according to its BSE filing.
According to the company, one time provisioning of Rs 1,177 crore (no cash impact) against UK investments resulted in lower reported PAT for this quarter. Company would benefit from the tax break on the same over time, it said in the media release.
The company’s net consolidated income stood at Rs 1,761.23 crore in Q2 FY23, a drop of 17.61 per cent from Rs 2,137.76 crore it recorded in the similar quarter last year.
Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO of the company said, “We achieved our best ever Q2 pre-sales performance at Rs ~3,148 crore showing 57% year-on-year (YoY) growth. With this strong performance, we have achieved pre-sales of Rs 6,004 crore in H1 FY23, our best ever first half in terms of pre-sales. During the quarter we have added four projects for 2.2 million sq ft area with a GDV of Rs 3,100 crore. With this, we have added Rs 9,300 crore of GDV which is ~62% of our full year guidance of Rs 15,000 of GDV addition.”
During the quarter ended on September 30, 2022, the company has alloted 18,000 equity shares having a face value of Rs 10 each upon exercise of options granted under the Macrotech Developers-Employee Stock Option Scheme 2021.
Lodha continues to focus on reducing leverage along with strong business development and is on track to achieve its goal of net debt:equity <0.5x and net debt <1x operating cash flow. During the quarter, the company reduced its net debt to Rs 8,795 crore. The company has also been able to reduce its interest cost to 9.9% – a ~60 bps reduction in H1 FY23 in spite of significant 190 bps increase in benchmark policy rates, the company said in a media release.
“Further, we have fully repaid the US$225 million bonds, six months ahead of its scheduled maturity and have no further obligation on Indian balance sheet in relation to UK investment. In addition, this quarter saw repatriation of Rs 100 crore from UK to India. Despite challenging economic environment in the UK, we expect to further repatriate Rs 1,000 crore from the UK to India in CY2023 which will strengthen the cash flows of the Indian business. With this repatriation, we will have no further investment outside India and will solely focus on capitalizing on the immense growth opportunities that we see in India for the next 10-15 years,” added Lodha.
