In what could be one of India’s largest real-estate deals, Adani Realty, the luxury residential and commercial property arm of billionaire Gautam Adani, is in advanced talks for a merger with Mumbai-based DB Realty, sources in the know told BusinessLine.
DB Realty has a portfolio comprising over 100million sq.ft and 628 acers of prime property, mostly in Mumbai.
DB Realty is a listed company and after the merger it would be renamed as Adani Realty, the sources said. Simply put, the deal would clear the decks for the back-door listing of Adani Realty on the stock exchanges. Adani is likely to infuse more funds into DB Realty, which would do a fresh equity issuance to the new investor. This comes after DB Realty’s talks with Godrej Properties did not make any headway.
Even since it introduced itself as a luxury real-estate developer in 2006-07, DB Realty and its promoters have had run-ins with the income tax, Central Bureau of Investigation and other investigative agencies. A group company was also declared a willful defaulter by a lender.
In Mumbai, the company’s projects are spread across Mahalaxmi Racecourse, BKC and near ITC Grand Maratha Hotel at Andheri. In a BKC project, it has already tied up with Adani GoodHomes. DB Realty is also involved with a major slum rehabilitation project in Mumbai and owns one the oldest film studios Kamalistan in the city suburbs, which it wanted to develop into a mega corporate park. DB Realty’s BKC residential project is worth more than ₹3,500 crore. Overall, DB Realty is expecting a surplus of around ₹65,000 crore from its nearly two dozen projects mostly in Mumbai.
Looking for funds
According to the sources, DB Realty requires major funds infusion for its ongoing high-end projects and hence Adani Realty is said to be a suitor. Currently, the market-cap of DB Realty is close to ₹2,500 crore and the counter has been witnessing 100 per cent delivery in daily trading on the stock exchanges for the past several weeks. Promoters led by the Vinod Goenka family, Balwa family and a few others put together own close to 69 per cent stake in the company.
Adani Realty has three high end projects in Mumbai, which includes an ongoing site at Ghatkopar, one each in the westerns suburbs and in central Mumbai.
Sahid Balwa, MD, DB Realty, said he would not want to comment on speculative news and an email query sent to the company secretary remain unanswered. Email sent to Adani Group spokesperson remained unanswered.