DLF shares rise 11%; 8th most valued firm

MUMBAI: Shares of DLF Ltd jumped 10.85 per cent in the real estate major's second coming to the capital market, making it the eighth most valued firm on the bourses in terms of market capitalisation.

The scrip listed at Rs 582 on the Bombay Stock Exchange against the issue price of Rs 525 and soared to a high of Rs 714.25, briefly propelling the market value to over Rs 100,000 crore.

"The market capitalisation of DLF is right now between Rs 95,000 crore to Rs 1,00,000 crore," DLF Group's CFO, Ramesh Sanka said.

The DLF counter saw hectic profit booking and share price, when last tracked at 1200 hrs, was Rs 549.70 on the National Stock Exchange showing a gain of Rs 24.

Billionaire KP Singh-promoted DLF, which had delisted from Bombay Stock Exchange in 1982, was ahead of ICICI Bank and State Bank of India in terms of market cap. Only Reliance Industries, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Infosys, TCS and Reliance Communications had higher market value on BSE.

"We will put highest practices of corporate governance in place in the interest of the shareholders," Singh said after striking the gong to mark the listing on the bourse.

In the first 15 minutes of trade, the scrip reported turnover of around Rs 330 crore as around 60 lakh shares changed hands on the BSE.

The company had offered 17.5 crore equity shares through 100 per cent book-building process. The proceeds of the issue, which got oversubscribed 3.5 times, would be deployed to meet costs of construction, land acquisition and repayment of debt.

Global financial firm Merrill Lynch Capital Market holds 1.26 per cent stake in DLF. The developer is planning to set up 35-40 new movie screens across the country with an investment of about Rs 160 crore over the next two years.

Talking about DLF's SEZ plans, Singh said, "DLF will have product specific and multi product SEZs, the product specific IT SEZs were already being developed by the company in Chandigarh and Chennai and for multi-product SEZ we are awaiting government's policy."

"We will go to any place to construct real estate where there is growth opportunity, though right now our focus is on the four metros," he said when asked whether DLF will be making a foray in tier II and III cities in future.

"We will work towards not only enhancing the values of our stake-holders but equally contribute towards building a new India," KP Singh said.

Talking about future plans of the company, Sanka said that DLF planned to list five group companies in the next five years.

"DLF Asset Ltd floated by DLF Group was the company that will be listing on bourses in next 18 to 24 months," he said.

"DLF Assets will buy already developed assets from the money raised in the market and will be renting them which will provide the investors the gains made from hike in rents year after year as well as and hike in the value of the real estate bought," Sanka said.

Lehman Brothers has made an investment of $200 million into DLF Assets as per announcement made by the company on Wednesday.

Earlier, DE Shaw, a global investment firm, made an investment of $400 million in DLF Assets.

DLF will also be listing its other group companies set up in joint venture with overseas companies for promoting its hotel, insurance, construction, engineering and Design businesses.

These companies are DLF Hilton, DLF Laingorourke, DLF Nakheel, DLF WSP among others.