Two Fold Rise in Sobha Developers Q4 Profit

Sobha Developers’ revenues have more than doubled during the fourth quarter of the financial year 2009-10 on the back of improved sales. Revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 403 crore as against Rs 163.5 crore for the corresponding period of last year. Net profit for the quarter was Rs 55.7 crore (Rs 7 crore). The board of directors has also recommended a dividend of Rs 2.5/share.

“This has been a good quarter not only for our real estate business, but also contractual business as revenues from contracts amounts to Rs 95 crore. “While our margins for the real estate business is over 35 per cent, it is over 15 per cent for our contractual business,” said J C Sharma, managing director, Sobha Developers. The company has sold over six lakh sq ft this quarter.

For the financial year 2009-10, the company’s revenues stood at Rs 1,118.5 crore (Rs 990.5 crore), while net profit was Rs 136.7 crore (Rs 109.7 crore), up 25 per cent. “We are back to the good growth figures that we saw till 2007. The slowdown has made us a better company,” he said. The company hopes to clock over 3 million sq ft of new sales in the current year, he added.

What has also contributed to the company’s balance sheet is a leaner organisation. The company’s staff cost has come to Rs 76.8 crore (Rs 100.9 crore). “During the recession, we rationalised and downsized considerably. But we have now started increasing our employee strength,” said Sharma. He added that the company has also started providing salary hikes to employees from January this year, and “we have also restored the cut-backs in salary,” he said.