Saturday, March 7, 2009

Hindustan Construction Co to complete Lavasa ahead of schedule

Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) is expecting a total revenue of Rs 1,47,000 crore over the next 10-15 years from it’s Lavasa hill-station project being developed near Pune.

The project will be completed ahead of its schedule, said Ajit Gulabchand, CMD, HCC and chairman, Lavasa Corporation.

“We have sold out all 1,400 apartments and villas in the first phase of the township and have begun work for phase II. The project is expected to be completed by 2015 instead of 2020 as scheduled earlier,” said Gulabchand.

“There have been no cancellations despite current market conditions. The company is working on several new tie-ups in the area of architecture, animation, design, filmmaking, hospitality, education and industry,” he said.

A total of six hotels will be coming up at the project site, with a combined capacity of 1,000 rooms.

Accor will be opening a Pullman and Novotel hotel in the project. Thus far, around Rs 1,500 crore has been invested in the project and it has been funded by a debt equity ratio of 2:1, he said.

Peak investments required for this phase would range Rs 2,000-5,000 crore, he noted.

The Lavasa hill-station project is being developed by HCC along with the Avantha group and Venkateshwara Hatcheries. HCC holds 65% stake in Lavasa Corp, while Avantha Group has 16% and Venkateshwara Hatcheries 12%; 5% is held by local entities.

Axis Bank, Allahabad Bank and Bank Of India together hold around 4.5% in the project and have invested aorund Rs 450 crore in it. Gulabchand said the company will not dilute its equity further at this stage. “Lavasa owns stakes in properties in the project from 11% to 100% in some cases. In the Accor project, Lavasa holds 26% stake; it holds 20% in the NASA space project coming up here,” he said.

On the upcoming Gujarat project, Gulabchand said the company will conduct studies over next couple of years to decide the kind of model that needs to be created. The total investment in this project is around Rs 40,000 crore.

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