Macrotech Developers Q1 sales bookings up nearly 3-fold to Rs 2,814 crore

Realty firm Macrotech Developers on Wednesday reported a nearly three-fold jump annually in its sales bookings at Rs 2,814 crore in the April-June quarter of this fiscal on strong demand for its residential properties.

Macrotech Developers sells its properties under Lodha brand. It has a major presence in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune market. The company has recently forayed into Bengaluru.

In a statement, Macrotech Developers said it has achieved a pre-sales of Rs 2,814 crore during the first quarter of 2022-23 fiscal, showing a robust increase of 194 per cent from the year-ago period.

The sales in April-June 2021 were impacted due to the second wave of the Covid pandemic.

The collections from customers in India rose 53 per cent annually to 2,616 crore. Net debt reduced by Rs 450 crore to Rs 8,858 crore.

Commenting on the performance, Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO, Macrotech Developers, said: "Q1FY23 was our best ever 1st quarter with Rs 2,814 crore of pre-sales from our India business."

Macrotech Developers has given a sales bookings guidance of Rs 11,500 crore for the current fiscal, higher than Rs 9,024 crore registered in the last fiscal.

"We are carefully monitoring the impact of inflation and rising interest rates but have not yet seen any impact on housing demand from quality developers," Lodha said.

He noted that housing industry in India is in a structural upcycle over the medium and long-term, driven by good wage growth, increase in the relevance of housing to the family after Covid, and consolidation of supply with high-credibility developers.

"Further, our London investments continue to track towards repatriation of Rs 1500+ crore starting in FY23, which will further strengthen the cash flows of the Indian business," Lodha said.

The company continues to see good momentum across all segments, with the affordable and mid-income segments being particularly strong, he added.

"We believe that significant growth will come from these segments in the next few years as per capita income grows in India and households which have hitherto being unable to afford housing start becoming 'housing-capable'," Lodha said.

During the quarter, he said the company signed up three JDA (Joint Development Agreement) projects for 5.1 million square feet area with a GDV (Gross Development Value) of Rs 6,200 crore.

"On the back of strong attractiveness of our brand to land owners and therefore, a robust pipeline of JDAs, we expect to add new projects with a combined GDV of Rs 15,000 crore in FY23," Lodha said.

During the June quarter, he said the company has taken two new initiatives -- first the entry into the Bengaluru market and secondly its platform with Bain Capital and Ivanhoe Cambridge to create high-quality green digital infrastructure (logistics and industrial parks) across India.

"We expect both of these to contribute to growth from FY24," he said.