India's DLF posts 12% rise in Q1 profit as income from JVs jump

BENGALURU, July 21 (Reuters) - DLF (DLF.NS), Indias largest real estate company by market value, reported a higher first-quarter profit on Friday, as lower costs and a higher share of profits from its joint ventures more than offset a dip in revenue.

The company, the first of Indias major real estate firms to report results, said net profit rose nearly 12% to 5.27 billion rupees ($64.3 million) in the April-June quarter.

Its share of profit in associates as well as JVs, such as DLF Cyber City Developers, DLF Midtown and DLF SBPL Developers, climbed nearly 24% and accounted for 48% of the total profit.

Alongside that, a nearly 2% drop in expenses, mostly lower finance costs, helped boost DLFs results and overshadow an over 1% drop in revenue to 14.23 billion rupees in the quarter.

DLF reported 12% growth in its retail business and 21% in its office portfolio. It had recently said it got pre-leasing of nearly 82% of its two new office complexes - DLF Downtown in Gurugram and Chennai.

On the retail front, while a string of interest rate hikes have impacted demand for affordable housing, the demand for luxury housing has remained robust, benefiting the likes of DLF.

The New Delhi-based companys rivals Godrej Properties (GODR.NS), Sobha Ltd (SOBH.NS) and Prestige Estates Projects (PREG.NS) will report results next month.

DLFs shares rose 37.5% in the April-June quarter, slightly outpacing the 34.2% climb in the Nifty Realty (.NIFTYREAL) index.

($1 = 81.9500 Indian rupees)