Macrotech Developers to refinance debt up to Rs 2,500 cr by March

According to Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO of Macrotech Developers, the Lodha Group, which is listed as Macrotech Developers, plans to refinance up to Rs 2,500 crore of debt in the next two months to reduce its finance cost before the financial year ends. In the last few months, the company has refinanced a similar amount of debt, lowering its average cost of debt to 11.1% as of December 31st, down from 12.3% in March 2021. The company hopes to end the fiscal year with an average cost of debt of around 10%, down from 11.1% now. The company's India business net debt was reduced to Rs 9,896 crores in the December quarter, allowing it to meet its full-year guidance for the fiscal year 2021-22. After repaying the projects' debt, the company plans to repatriate all of its investments in luxury residential projects in London, as well as the revenue generated from both of these super-premium projects, in the next five quarters. Lodha bought MacDonald House in Central London for 306 million pounds or Rs 3,120 crore in 2013 and a second property, New Court, on Carey Street, next to the London School of Economics and the Royal Courts of Justice, for 90 million pounds or Rs 930 crore in 2014. Both MacDonald House and New Court have been redeveloped into luxury residential properties, namely 1 Grosvenor Square and Lincoln Square, respectively. Both of these properties are worth over Rs 15,000 crore in terms of gross development value. Lodha expects to repay all of its offshore bonds worth $225 million, or Rs 1,678 crore, issued in connection with UK projects in the next four months, well ahead of their March 2023 maturity date. The developer expects the strong sales performance of its two super-premium residential projects in London to help with debt repayment and investment repatriation. In the quarter ended December, sales at the developer's projects 1 Grosvenor Square and Lincoln Square totalled 191 million pounds, or around Rs 1,900 crore. Following the relaxation of international travel restrictions in the previous quarter ended September, pre-sales for the 1 Grosvenor Square development totalled 110 million pounds, or Rs 1,100 crores. Lincoln Square, the company's second premium residential project, has also maintained its strong performance, with pre-sales of 14 million pounds or roughly Rs 140 crores in the December quarter. Macrotech Developers' Initial Public Offering (IPO) of equity shares in April raised Rs 2,500 crore. Following that, in November, the developer raised Rs 4,000 crore from foreign and domestic institutional investors in India's largest-ever Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) by a real estate developer. Image Source