DLF Q2 PAT seen down 20.6% to Rs 296 cr

Real estate firm DLF is set to report second quarter numbers today. Analysts on an average expect the profit after tax to fall by 20.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 295.9 crore in the quarter owing to higher interest expense. In June quarter, interest cost had jumped 25 percent YoY to Rs 622 crore.

Revenues are seen going down by 8.8 percent YoY to Rs 2,307 crore during the quarter.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are expected to go down by 10.6 percent to Rs 1,047.4 crore from Rs 1,172 crore YoY as costs have increased due to DLF outsourcing construction to 3rd party vendors.

Operating profit margin is seen falling by 92 basis points to 45.38 percent in the July-September quarter of FY13 as against 46.3 percent in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

The company has debt of Rs 22,700 crore as on November 2012.

Analysts expect DLF to report around 1.6 million sq ft of sales in the second quarter as against 1.32 million sq ft in previous quarter as it did not launch any significant project in the September quarter, which will result in flat revenue QoQ. Even last quarter bookings were down 80% QoQ due to no new launches.

Investors should watch out for its closure of NTC mills asset sales and Aman resorts.

In the second quarter, DLF sold the 17.5 acre land parcel to Lodha for Rs 2,725 crore and received an initial tranche of Rs 500 crore.

During the July-September period, real estate firm launched Bella Greens, a luxury-end villa project at Bannerghatta Road, Bengaluru, re-affirming its strong focus on premium projects in FY13. All eyes are now on successful launch of super luxury Magnolia II in 3QFY13 that will hold the key to improve its operating deficit.