NEW DELHI: Engineering and construction company Punj Lloyd is exiting real estate business by ending its two-year-old joint venture with NCR-based realty firm Ramprastha group. Ramprastha group will buy Punj Lloyd’s 50% stake in the joint venture company that was supposed to develop 29-acre residential project in Ghaziabad.
“We are no more interested in being a developer. Ramprastha will buy our stake and a deal is being worked out,” Punj Lloyd chairman Atul Punj said, adding that a bad real estate environment had prompted this decision. Punj Lloyd was supposed to do the entire construction for the Ghaziabad housing project.
Mr Punj said his company will continue to take housing construction orders, but had abandoned its ambition to become a developer. The company is executing some state-promoted housing projects in the Middle East.
On the possibility that a stable UPA government will mean more infrastructure projects and thus more business from India for the company, Mr Punj sounded sceptical : “It will depend on how fast the government moves on the infrastructure projects. Allocation has never been a problem in India, but the implementation has been.” India’s share in Punj Lloyd’s total revenue today stands at 20%.
The company today has a order backlog of $4 billion. It has increased its average ticket size of orders from $25 million three years ago to $225 million now. “We are targeting an average order ticket size of $500 million now,” Mr Punj said.
Loss in FY09 due to SABIC case: Atul Punj
New Delhi: Engineering firm Punj Llyod on Tuesday said it had reported a loss of Rs 253 crore in the just concluded quarter due to the negative impact of around Rs 220 crore incurred on a litigation between UKbased subsidiary Simon Carves and SABIC Petrochemicals. “There was a unplanned and unexpected negative impact due to a litigation with SABIC Petrochemical and our subsidiary Simon Carves. We just opted to write it off and stop speculation once for all,” said Punj Llyod chairman Atul Punj while addressing a press conference.
Source:The Economic Times