Lodha records Rs 4,570 crore pre-sales in Q2, net profit up 87%

Lodha Developers has recorded pre-sales of Rs 4,570 crore for the quarter ended September, up 7% from a year ago, marking its highest-ever second-quarter performance. The listed company's net profit rose 87% to Rs 790 crore, while profit margin expanded to 20.4% from 15.8% a year ago.

Revenue from operations rose 45% to Rs 3,800 crore, while collections increased 13% to Rs 3,480 crore. Adjusted operating profit stood at Rs 1,310 crore, up 37% from a year ago with an operating margin of 34.4%.

During the quarter, the company achieved its full-year business development target of Rs 25,000 crore in gross development value (GDV), with one new project worth Rs 2,300 crore added in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region in addition to the five locations with a GDV of Rs 22,700 crore added in the previous quarter.


'We find strong market momentum with continuing strength in walk-ins and conversions. Our non-launch weekly sales are now approaching Rs 300 crore per week, with the strength of diversified spread of projects. With significant launches planned in H2, following the resolution of the Environmental Clearance process by the Supreme Court in August, we are on track to deliver our full year pre-sales guidance of Rs 21,000 crore," said Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO, Lodha Developers.

During the quarter, Lodha also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Maharashtra government to set up a Green Data Centre Park at Palava, with Amazon Web Services and STT, a Temasek company, as anchor operators. The park has potential scalability to 3 GW, the company said.

Lodha added that incentives from the state government and a draft central policy for data centres are expected to boost growth and long-term value creation.

Around one-third of the company’s business contribution is expected to come from markets outside Mumbai driven by geographies including Pune, Bengaluru, and Delhi-NCR. The company is in advanced stages of finalising a land transaction in the NCR within the next 1-2 quarters.

The developer's net debt stood at Rs 5,370 crore at the end of the quarter, with a net debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25 times, below its stated ceiling of 0.5 times. The average cost of debt declined to 8%, down 30 basis points during the quarter.