The company’s collections during the quarter rose 16% from a year ago to Rs 2,750 crore, while revenues from operations declined marginally to Rs 1,750 crore. Net profit for the period declined 42% to Rs 210 crore
“We achieved our best-ever quarterly pre-sales performance at Rs 3,530 crore showing 12% on-year growth in spite of the quarter being the seasonally weakest. Our ‘for-sale’ business has shown a stellar 20% YoY growth for the quarter. With this strong performance, we have achieved pre-sales of Rs 6,890 crore in the first half of 2023-24, our best-ever first half in terms of pre-sales,” said Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO, Macrotech Developers.
According to him, this performance has been delivered despite no new location launches in the first half of 2023-24 and showcases the company’s ability to consistently grow pre-sales in a predictable manner with low variability without being dependent on any particular single location or market segment or a project.
He is of the view that demand conditions continue to strengthen on the back of strong affordability and consumer confidence. Persistent consumer desire to own a quality home with superior set of amenities from branded developers continues to drive consolidation benefiting branded players like the company.
Intense competition among mortgage providers coupled with RBI pause and the expected downward trajectory for rate cycle in 2024 means that the market has already seen the peak of mortgage rate. Likely reduction in mortgage rate as well as government’s affordable housing incentives will act as a further tail wind for the demand especially for the affordable segment where the company has significant presence, Lodha added.During the quarter, the company added two more projects for 1.2 million sq ft area with a gross development value (GDV) of Rs 2,300 crore. According to Lodha, with this, the company has added Rs 14,300 crore worth GDV which is over 80% of its full year guidance of Rs 17,500 of GDV addition.The company has added new projects worth over Rs 48,000 since its public issue following “super market” strategy in each micro-market aided by robust brand and ability of faster turnaround of land assets into cash, he said.
The developer continues to focus on reducing leverage along with robust business development and is on track to achieve its goal of net debt-equity of less than 0.5x and net debt of less than 1x operating cash flow during the year.
During the quarter, the company reduced its net debt by Rs 540 crore to Rs 6,730 crore and its exit cost of debt for the quarter stands at 9.6%.
