The Hindu Business Line : Patel Engg: Eyes on real estate foray

Patel Engineering, a civil construction company, has said that it is foraying into real estate business. Business Line had reported in January 2006 that the company was preparing to enter into such a new venture. During the quarter ended December 31, 2006, it incorporated 5 wholly-owned subsidiary companies "to exploit the existing land bank of the company at prime cities in the country over the next three years", Patel Engineering conceded in a note to its quarterly results, which was taken on record by the company's board on Tuesday.

According to market sources, the land bank consists of a total area of 700 acres, spread across Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. "All are high value urban land and some of them being in the prime areas in the respective cities", a source involved in the project said to indicate possible benefit accruals for the current shareholders. The combined traded volume on the NSE and the BSE in the counter was 7.76 lakh shares. Though it closed flat at Rs 462, intra-day it touched a high of Rs 486. EPS as on December 31, 2006 stood at Rs 5.04. It has also informed that its current order book stands at Rs 175 crore, up 21 per cent from March 31, 2006.

Jayanta Mallick

More Stories on : Stock Markets | Stocks | Ear to the ground | Real Estate & Construction

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page