Indian retailers put cash & carry on backburner
The company has already booked Rs 5,450 crore (Rs 54.5 billion) revenue from sale of 5 million sq ft it has sold to DAL. DLF on Tuesday clarified to the exchanges that it had been looking at various options from time to time but no definite option had been presented to the board so far for its consideration.
"The inspiration to develop smaller and cheaper apartments comes from the Nano car, which is eliciting a tremendous response. I am sure our project will see a similar response, given the fact that we will come up with such low-cost apartments in metro cities," said R Nagaraju, general manager, corporate planning, Unitech. It plans to launch mid-segment residential projects in metro and suburban cities over the next few months.
Developer to bid for work from those who win the final contract.
Public money to remedy firm's cash flow being mulled. The Games are scheduled for next year and plagued by failing deadlines and other problems. The Delhi Development Authority, nodal agency for implementation, may announce the rescue package by next week, sources in the agency say.
Thomas Cook India, the country's largest travel-related service provider, said it slashed about 7 per cent of its workforce in 2008 and shut a few of the retail outlets as part of a plan to cut cost and boost profits.
Companies are either taking small government projects alone or bidding for larger ones with consortium partners. The companies, which had 18-75 per cent of their order books in property development, say they are facing payment delays of 20-90 days from some of the private developers, blocking their working capital requirements. Some of them take a week's advance payment from developers to execute their projects.
Reliance Retail has added 485 stores in the last one year, taking the total count to 950 and the footprint is now spread across 77 cities (58 in the last one year) across India. While his critics say Ambani may have lost the plot as the progress of his retail plans are nowhere near what he had sought to achieve, others feel the Reliance chief is just being pragmatic given the not-so-conducive environment for expansion in retail.
After a lacklustre winter season sale, apparel retailers are now planning to cut their summer purchases by as much as 20 per cent to save holding cost and reduce pressure on working capital.
According to sources in the Future Group, it plans to tie up with international retailers in different segments. "We can certainly look at bringing in foreign capital to our subsidiaries now," said a group official, who did not wish to be quoted. Under the new guidelines, downstream investments by an Indian company that has foreign investment but is owned and controlled by Indians will not be considered as FDI.
Facing acute liquidity crunch and poor buyer sentiments, the country's biggest property developer, DLF, has stopped work at two of its biggest mid-income housing projects. The move comes after the developer stalled at least a quarter of its commercial projects.
Though end-of-season sale is common in the first week of February, what is interesting this time around is the quantum and timing of the offers. Retailers are giving away 20-25 per cent additional discounts, compared to the last year. Also, they began giving discounts at least three weeks before the ususal timing.
The retailer, which runs a supermarket chain under the More brand, is targeting annual sales of $4.5 billion (Rs 22,000 crore or Rs 220 billion) by March 2014 from Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) in the current financial year. The retailer clocked sales of Rs 500 in the previous year. In 2007, the company had talked about a Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) investment plan.
Less than half-a-dozen people have evinced interest in buying the eight apartments owned by the late Harshad Mehta and his family, partly due to a last-minute case filed by the stockbroker's mother, Rasila S Mehta.
Jaybharat Textiles & Real Estate, a textile company that forayed into real estate three years back, today has a market capitalisation higher than Grasim Industries or Tata Motors.
Most of the funds have not signed any deals in the past few months as realty prices fell sharply and economic slowdown deepened across the world, which slowed the flow of funds significantly. Red Fort plans to deploy Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) in the current quarter and is in talks with a Mumbai developer. But Bedi says finance is a big issue now as most of the projects have been delayed or are yet to take off.
Companies in the fast moving consumer goods, insurance and entertainment sectors offer the highest number of MICE trips to employees and sales dealers. The trips are offered as incentive to achieve sales target. Under the incentive package employees and dealers are allowed to take their families for the trip making it a much sought after reward.
The move is expected to give high retail exposure to its products in innumerable kirana stores in the country, without having to spend much on advertising and marketing expenses apart from generating business volumes. When contacted, Reliance Retail spokesperson said: "As a policy, we do not comment on speculation." In a recent reshuffle at the company, Reliance Fresh head Gunender Kapur was made head of private labels business in the company.
The managing director of a US-based pension fund blamed the fall on the carnage in stock markets globally and the heavy pullout by investors. "Last year saw unprecedented pullouts by hedge funds as they faced huge redemption pressure. Lots of investors believed they had paid too much and sold off. Most of the funds were listed in 2006 when realty prices were high. But now, prices have come down in most parts of the world."
Valuations of projects dated, says valuer. Also, angry shareholders could come together to oppose the proposed reverse merger.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances