Singapore Government Sells 3.8% Stake In DLF
The Singapore government’s stake in DLF will reduced to 0.3 percent from 4.11 percent.
The Singapore government sold 6.8 crore shares in DLF Ltd. for about Rs 1,300 crore through open market transaction on Monday.
After the transaction, the stake of the investment arm of the Singapore government in domestic real estate company reduced to 0.3 percent from 4.11 percent, according to its exchange filing. The shares, in a bulk deal on the National Stock Exchange, were sold at Rs 191 apiece.
French investment firm Societe Generale acquired 1.17 percent in DLF, newswire PTI reported. HSBC and other investors who had participated in DLF’s recent qualified institutional placement issue worth Rs 3,200 crore, too, bought shares, it reported quoting anonymous people.
Shares of DLF slumped the most in a month after the bulk deal today. The stock of the KP Singh-led company fell 8.4 percent compared with a 2.2 percent decline in the NSE Nifty Realty Index.
Investments of GIC—Singapore government’s sovereign wealth fund—in DLF is worth $1.8 billion, and the latest sale could be possibly to rejig its portfolio, Ashok Tyagi, chief financial officer at DLF, told BloombergQuint over the phone.
Debt-Free Company
DLF is aiming to become a debt-free company by raising capital via qualified institutional placements and from promoter infusion of capital.
The company has also received an approval from GIC to transfer certain rent-yielding assets and commercial land parcels of DLF Cyber City Developers to settle inter-company dues worth Rs 8,700 crore, according to the recent investor presentation. The full settlement is expected by September this year.
GIC’s unit Reco Diamond has a 33.3 percent stake in DLF Cyber City Developers—DLF’s rental arm.
DLF has a net debt of Rs 7,224 crore as of December 2018, as per the company filings. Going into the financial year 2019-20, the management is targeting to reduce the debt to Rs 1,574-1,774 crore.