Raymond is betting big on real estate, a business it forayed into, in the year 2019, after launching its maiden project in Thane in Mumbai. The company is now eyeing more projects in Mumbai, including bidding for stressed assets.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Raymond Realty's newly appointed CEO, Harmohan Sahni spoke at length about the Thane project and the company's expansion plans.
“The demand has been really incredible; whatever we launched in the market, 75 percent of that is completely sold out and we will be launching another million square feet sometime around Diwali. So our first three buildings should be ready by December 2022, which will be way ahead of the schedule that we have promised in Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA). The RERA dates are December 2024,” he said.
On expansion, Sahni said, “We have just finished doing our 5-year plan. So we have a strategic plan in place. Currently, we are just focusing on Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). We are looking at western suburbs in MMR, the central suburbs, even SoBo (South Bombay). So in the next 5 years, we hope to expand into all these markets and all this will happen by virtue of the cash flows, which are generated from the realty business because the current project itself has enough cash flow to support all this expansion.”
He further said that his company is even looking at stressed assets and bidding for them actively through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) process, but it’s not looking at late stage brownfield projects; the company is focusing on early-stage brownfield projects because it can add value.
On FY22 growth, he said, “Last year, we did about Rs 125-130 crore worth of topline, but this year, we are looking at almost a 5-6 fold increase in that and most of it is locked in.
“So, in spite of the pandemic, we did as well as we did in the pre-pandemic. Now we hope to regain. Our numbers have bounced back immediately right after the lockdown got over. So we hope to do about 450-500 units sale this year also which will be slightly better than last year,” said Sahni.
Source: https://www.cnbctv18.com/business/raymond-betting-big-on-real-estate-says-eyeing-more-projects-in-mumbai-10475871.htm