DLF on Wednesday announced sale of its luxury hospitality chain Amanresorts to its founder Adrian Zecha for $300 million (about Rs.1,650 crore).
However, DLF would retain the Aman Hotel at Lodhi Road here as it would not form part of the sale, a statement from the company said. DLF had bought the hospitality chain from Zecha in 2007 for about $400 million.
This is the second big-ticket non-core assets divestment by DLF in recent times. In August, it had sold a 17-acre prime land in Mumbai to Lodha Developers for Rs.2,727 crore.
The deal would help the company to cut its debt significantly from Rs.21,200 crore.
DLF is targeting to bring down its debt to Rs.18,000 crore by the end of this fiscal.
Definitive agreement
DLF’s arm DLF Global Hospitality Ltd (DGHL) and Adrian Zecha, the founder and chairman of the Amanresorts Group of luxury resorts, have signed a definitive agreement to effect Zecha’s management buy-out (MBO) of DGHL’s 100 per cent share holding in Silverlink Resorts, the holding company for Amanresorts.
Shares of DLF rose 1.43 per cent to Rs.226.75 apiece on the BSE in afternoon trading.
Non-core assets
The company has been selling its non-core businesses since last couple of years to focus on core real estate business.
It had put on sale three big-ticket non-core assets — Mumbai plot, Amanresorts and wind-energy. Out of these three deals, two transactions have been closed and talks are in advanced stage on wind energy.
Till September-end of this fiscal, DLF had raised Rs.5,773 crore from sale of non-core assets such as hotel plots and IT Parks/SEZs. The total proceeds after these two major deals would cross Rs.9,000 crore.
From the sale of wind energy, the company expects about Rs.1,000 crore.
The realty major DLF had reported 62.81 per cent fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs.138.51 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012.
Sales during the period under review fell by 19.46 per cent to Rs.2,039.54 crore from Rs.2,532.41 crore in the year-ago period.
