Doesn’t Look Favorable = DLF. India’s largest real estate developer DLF announced their 3rd quarter earnings this past week and it was not pretty. I think we all understand the economic environment is grim and the real estate market is REALLY grim but hearing Rajiv Singh, DLF Vice Chairman, speak on CNBC-18 you get the sense it ain’t so bad…whatever.
There is no denying it, most real estate developers around the world and in India are living on borrowed time and borrowed money. Rajiv also stated in the same interview that he doesn’t expect homes prices to get cut beyond 20% yet they have a hugh amount of excess inventory. Rajiv mentioned people are not buying because bank rates are too high, I think what’s high is either home prices or Rajiv or probably both.
Real estate projects can simply be classified as:
- New – in today’s environment only a complete moron would loan a dime to a new project
- Partial – Hugh dillema, throw good money after bad?
- Completed – sell or lease at rock bottom prices, this screws up the initial project cash flow calculations. Existing tenants will ask for a rate negotiation (read – lower prices)
For DLF the numbers don’t add up and they are massively over leveraged which is not a good thing. Will DLF or any Indian real estate company file for bankruptcy? No chance, Indian corporate law is so convoluted that filing for bankrupty doesn’t seem to be an option, instead the company will just be a zombie of it’s former self.
Previous posts on DLF:
May 2, 2006 – India’s next crorepati (billionaire): KP Singh
June 8, 2007 – Yes, DLF. Really?
Oct 10, 2008 – Boom to Bust
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