By Sumit Sharma and Pooja Thakur May 13 (Bloomberg) -- DLF Ltd<http://mail.google.com/apps/quote?ticker=DLFU%3AIN>.’s founders sold a 38.6 billion rupee ($783 million) stake in India’s biggest real estate company, raising funds to buy shares in a group venture from D.E. Shaw & Co.
Investment funds controlled by Vice Chairman Rajiv Singh<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Rajiv+Singh&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>and his family offered the stake, equivalent to 9.9 percent of the New Delhi-based company, according to a sale document sent to investors. Some 168 million shares were sold for 230 rupees apiece, according to data on Bloomberg. The Singh family, DLF’s biggest investor, is selling part of its stake at a time when a slowdown in India’s economy has depressed the real estate market. Home prices may have dropped by as much as 40 percent across India in the three months to March 31, according to estimates from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. “You’d appreciate that this was a painful and sentimental decision,” Singh said in an interview on CNBC-TV18 television. DLF would have preferred to sell shares “when the world was more normal,” he said. DLF gained 4.2 percent, or 10 rupees, to 246.2 rupees at 12:05 a.m. in Mumbai trading, after earlier rising as much as 8.3 percent. The founders plan to use the proceeds from the sale to raise their stake in DLF Assets Pvt. by acquiring D.E. Shaw’s shares in the unit, the company said in a separate statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Chairman Kushal Pal Singh<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Kushal+Pal+Singh&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>and his family own about 88.6 percent of DLF Ltd. as of March 31, according to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Lehman Brothers DLF Ltd. delivered only 5.1 million square feet of space to DLF Assets, compared with an earlier forecast of 9.5 million square feet, after tenants canceled lease agreements, Saurabh Kumar<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Saurabh%0AKumar&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Mumbai, said in a note to clients on May 4. He rates the stock as “overweight.” DLF Assets owes DLF about 49 billion rupees, he estimated. In November last year, a fund backed by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sold its stake in DLF Assets to Symphony Capital Partners. Symphony, which holds the stake through a unit, now owns 60 percent of the $1.1 billion investment by overseas firms, Vice Chairman Singh said. D.E. Shaw owns about 40 percent, he said at the time. Deutsche Bank AG <http://mail.google.com/apps/quote?ticker=DBK%3AGR> and JPMorgan Chase & Co <http://mail.google.com/apps/quote?ticker=JPM%3AUS>. arranged today’s sale. Mark Bennewith<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Mark+Bennewith&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for Deutsche Bank, and Ramesh Sanka<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Ramesh+Sanka&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, New Delhi-based DLF’s chief financial officer, declined to comment. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=acAeWQWswVrc&refer=india -- We must have friendship for all; we must be merciful toward those that are in misery; when people are happy, we ought to be happy; and to the wicked we must be indifferent. These attitudes will make the mind peaceful. *Swami Vivekananda* --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
