Chitti Pantulu

Hyderabad: Real estate major Emaar MGF Land Ltd, which shelved its Rs 7,000-crore public issue plans in February due to lukewarm response from the markets, will revisit the proposal in 18-24 months.

Emaar MGF is a joint venture between Dubai-based Emaar Properties and India’s MGF Development.

Chief executive William R Rattazzi said that withdrawing the IPO proved to be a wise decision in hindsight.

“The market has not returned the value that it deserves,” he said, adding that the size and pricing of the next issue would depend on the market conditions at that time.

Meanwhile, Emaar MGF has gone in for a combination of debt and equity to fund its ongoing projects.

The company, which is raising money at the SPV level, is believed to have tied up $800 million for one its projects. Company officials, however, did not confirm this and asserted that the IPO wasn’t for funding development activities.

Emaar MGF is looking at growing by three to four times this year against last year, Rattazzi said. Towards this end, it will spend over $3 billion in the next five to seven years to develop properties in south India. This includes a $1.4-billion integrated leisure and residential community property in Hyderabad.

Emaar MGF has a land bank of 13,000 acre in 26 cities and hopes to cover 40 cities in the next four to five years, Rattazzi said.

Development of commercial, residential, and hospitality properties in 10 cities is underway. As many as 30,000 rooms would be developed under the hospitality vertical and over 55 million sq ft would be covered under the residential projects, Rattazzi said. He also announced the launch of Boulder Hills in Hyderabad.

In Mohali in Punjab, the company has obtained government clearance to build a 2,750-acre integrated commercial and residential park.

With a capital outlay of Rs 16,000 crore, the Mohali Hills project will have residential plots, town houses and villas as also shopping malls, landscape gardens and recreational centres.

After the UAE, India is the biggest focus for Dubai-based Emaar. The Dubai group’s investments here add up to over 10% of its global commitments, Rattazzi said.

Source : DNA