Carlson to Open 100 More Hotels in India by 2015

Global hospitality major Carlson, which runs 5-star hotel Radisson, plans to open 19 more hotels in India by the year-end and 100 by 2015 with a total expected headcount of 30,000 by then, a company official said. The US-based hotel chain currently employs around 10,000 people across its 34 hotels (3,234 rooms) in India.

“We plan to open 19 more hotels this calender year. These hotels will help generate 6,000 employment opportunities,” said Hubert Joly, president and CEO, Carlson Hotels. The company has already signed management contracts for about 54 hotels, of which 19, with a total of 2,670 rooms, will open this year. The total project cost of these 19 hotels is estimated at around Rs 2,250 crore.

Of these 19 hotels, 11 are Radisson to be opened in Agra, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Ghaziabad, Goa, Greater Noida, Haridwar, Hyderabad, Ranchi and Rudrapur, Joly said. While two Country Inns will come up at Gurgaon and Mussourie, one Park Inn will be opened in New Delhi (CBD) and five Park Plazas will open at Bangalore, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, and New Delhi (Dwarka).

Park Plaza is in 3-4 star hotel segment and Country Inn and Suites and Park Inn are in the mid-segment. About 90 per cent of the hotels are operated, globally, through management contracts and franchise model. “We are quite optimistic about the India’s tourism and travel growth story. We see India as a strategic destination with enormous opportunity and hence plan to scale-up our operations here,” Joly added.

Scam Hit Adarsh Housing Society Faces Demolition Threat

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has ordered the removal of the scam-tainted Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society building in Mumbai within three months. In a press release issued on Sunday, the Ministry said it has decided to remove the entire structure as it is ‘unauthorised’ and as no clearance under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 1991, was obtained.

The Ministry had considered the other two options of removal of that part of the structure in excess of the floor space index or recommending that the Government take over the building for a public use to be determined later. Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for environment and forests, said the option of removal of part of the structure was rejected since it would have been ‘tantamount to regularising or condoning an egregious violation of the CRZ (Coastal Regulatory Zone) Notification’.

The other option was rejected on the grounds that even though the final use may be in the public interest, it would still be tantamount to regularising a violation of the CRZ Notification. Besides, there would be substantial discretionary powers that would vest with the State or Central Government in case of takeover. Ramesh said that any other decision would have diluted the strong precedents that have been set in judgments of the Supreme Court and different High Courts and that ‘ignorance of law can never be an excuse for non-compliance’.

The Adarsh society, which was originally meant for allotment to Kargil war heroes and their families, has been the centre of a controversy on charges that several politicians, bureaucrats and army men were allotted flats there. It is also alleged that the building got speedy approvals for land allotment. Post the revelation, Ashok Chavan, the then Maharashtra chief minister, was forced to step down from his post. The matter is being currently investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Ansal sells properties worth Rs 1,714 cr in Apr-Dec 2010

NEW DELHI: Realty firm Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd today said it sold properties worth about Rs 1,714 crore in the first nine months of this fiscal and its sales realisations improved by 24 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

“The total sales booked in the first nine months of the 2010-11 fiscal is 15.81 million sq ft aggregating sales value of Rs 1,713.79 crore,” the company said in a presentation, outlining the operational updates.

The average sales realisations have improved by 24 per cent to Rs 1,084/sq ft in the first nine months of this fiscal as against Rs 872.81/ sq ft in the year-ago period.

The company had set a target to book sales of 16 million sq ft in the current fiscal, out of which 15.81 million sq ft has already been booked, it added.

Out of the total sales booked, the hi-tech township ‘Sushant Golf City’ in Lucknow and ‘Esencia’ in Gurgaon contributed 8.63 million sq ft and 2.31 million sq ft, respectively.

In terms of location, Uttar Pradesh accounted for 60 per cent of the sales booking, followed by Haryana at 33 per cent. The sales was maximum in plots at Rs 623.54 crore, followed by villas at Rs 475.4 crore.

Ansal API has a 301.78 million sq ft of total saleable area in-hand, out of which 83 million sq ft valuing Rs 6,926 crore has been sold till the third quarter of this fiscal.

In the first six months of the current fiscal, Ansal has reported 54 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 61.55 crore against Rs 39.89 crore in the corresponding period of this fiscal.

Realty companies’ financial woes to mount

MUMBAI: The woes of realty developers may not ease anytime soon as pressure to repay debt and redemption of quasi-equity instruments continue to be a major task for them.

Repayment of structured quasi-equity instruments totalling Rs 3,000 crore held by foreign investors is due in the next couple of months and this is expected to stress already cash-strapped developers.

Redemption of these instruments is likely to coincide with developers’ loans that were rescheduled by banks two years ago and are now expected to come up for repayment around March.

As external commercial borrowings are not allowed in the realty sector, some cash-strapped developers had placed non-convertible debentures with non-banking finance companies, listed these debentures and then offered these to foreign investors.

At least four developers, three from Mumbai and one from Bangalore, had raised over Rs 1,000 crore almost a year ago through this route. These funds raised by some realtors through quasi-equity instruments around three years ago went to supporting their ongoing projects and land acquisitions.

However, most of these foreign investors may not be interested in converting these instruments into equity and hold stake in these realty projects, given the weakening demand for residential units and possibility of a fall in prices, analysts said.

“Builders will find it difficult to repay overseas investors since few local banks are willing to take large exposures. With the stock market entering a bearish phase, the prospects of IPOs are also dim,” said a senior official of a realty fund.

In a few cases, the matter may boil into legal disputes. “However, many of the structured papers are not enforceable debt and foreign investors may be left with little recourse,” he said.

Consensus on a fall in realty prices hereon is getting stronger as almost all the market participants, including consultants who undertake sales of these projects on behalf of the developer for a fee, have also estimated at least 15% correction.

Mumbai, the country’s financial capital that led the appreciation in realty prices in the past 12 months, is now expected to lead the correction in property prices owing to buyers’ resistance to higher prices, rising interest rates, tightening of credit, and an excess supply scenario.

An indication of this has already come through falling numbers of registrations at stamp duty and registration offices across Mumbai. After gaining nearly 40% in the past one year, residential property prices in Mumbai have already surpassed their last peak witnessed in 2007 and scenarios are almost similar across major locations such as the National Capital Region , Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Interest rates that have started moving higher are impacting affordability and delaying decision making and all of this is not allowing the demand to get converted into sales since the past two quarters.

Parsvanath Aims Big-Plans to Generate Revenues Worth Rs 13000 Crore by 2013

Parsvnath Developers, New Delhi-based real estate company, is planning to generate revenues worth Rs13,000 crore in the next two years. The company, which currently has debt of Rs1,100 crore, also plans to become completely debt-free by March 2013. The revenues were Rs455 crore during first six months of the current fiscal.

“About 80 million square feet (msf) is on fast-track execution, which we plan to complete by March 2013. Out of this, 40 msf is pre-sold and will generate Rs4,000 crore for us. The remaining 40 msf will generate another Rs9,000 crore. So as of now, we are focusing to complete the 80 msf and generate large cash for the company. The moment we achieve this, our balance-sheet will be completely debt-free with large cash reserves,” said Pradeep Jain, chairman, Parsvnath. The company owns a total of 195 msf. The properties are mainly located in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

On debt reduction plans, Jain said, “Our debt position is very comfortable. From a peak of Rs2,200 crore, we are almost half at around Rs1,100 crore as of now. By the end of this calendar year, we hope to bring the debt at around Rs500-600 crore.” The current debt-equity ratio of the company stands at 0.43%.

“Debt servicing will be done completely through internal generations and no fundraising at the parent company level is on the cards as of now. Also, funds already raised on the special purpose vehicle level and through the forthcoming deals will not be utilised for the repayment of the debt. We may monetise non-core assets if required,” Jain said.

The company may monetise its properties in Cochin, Mysore, Chennai, Palghat, Nanded and Coimbatore if required depending on the valuations. There are no concrete plans as of now. The company last week also entered into a project level private equity deal worth Rs 100 crore with Sun Apollo. It has picked up a 49.9% stake in the Parsvnath Buildwell Pvt Ltd, the SPV developing Exotica in Ghaziabad spread over 31 acres. The deal proceeds will be used for project implementation as well as marketing.

US Based Developer Donald Trump Plans Luxury Residential Tower in Mumbai

US billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump is entering the Indian property market with a luxury residential tower in Mumbai, more than two years after announcing plans to expand in the south Asian nation. Trump, who has joined with Mumbai developer Rohan Lifescapes Pvt for his first venture in the country, expects to start marketing the project by March, quoted Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son and executive vice president at the Trump Organization LLC in the report.

“We are doing a very luxury project with Rohan Lifescapes and we’ll be in India later this quarter to launch it officially,” he added. He declined to give further details on the project. The Trump development is being built on the site of a former hospital in south Mumbai, in a neighborhood dotted with jewelry stores, the only Porsche showroom in the city and next to a Mercedes showroom, said two people familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified before an official announcement.

Rohan Lifescapes focuses primarily on redevelopments. It has more than 60 projects spread across 54 sites, according to its website. It has developed more than 20 million square feet of homes and offices and is currently developing 3.45 million square feet of projects in Mumbai, according to its website. “Our entry has to be in Mumbai and that’s where everything is going on right now in terms of the high-end real estate,” the younger Trump had said earlier. The billionaire has branded buildings from skyscrapers in Manhattan to condominiums in Tijuana, Mexico, Trump World in the South Korean capital Seoul and the Trump Towers Istanbul

Arabian co, Simplex Infra get contract to build World One

MUMBAI: Lodha Developers has awarded civil construction contract of its proposed world’s tallest residential building, World One, to a joint venture of West Asia-based Arabian Construction Company and Simplex Infrastructures  The contract is worth 450 crore and is scheduled to be completed in 38 months.

The project at Lower Parel in central Mumbai has been in the news ever since it has been launched in June. There have questions over the status of approvals from the ministry of environment and the director general of civil aviation.

However, according to the company, the construction contract for the tower has been placed as it has received the approvals. “We have all the necessary approvals, including from the ministry of environment and the director general of civil aviation and the construction of World One will kick off from the first week of February,” said Abhisheck Lodha, managing director of Lodha Developers. The DGCA nod is needed because of the builiding’s height.

With a height of 450 metres, World One will surpass the current tallest residential building Q1 at Gold Coast in Australia that is 323 metres high.

Arabian Construction has constructed some of the tallest buildings in the world, including 100-storey Princess Tower and Pentominium in Dubai.