UK REAL ESTATE INSOLVENCIES DOUBLED SINCE Q3 2007

Real estate and construction firms have been the worst hit in Britain by the global downturn, with the number going bust more than doubling since the credit crunch started two years ago, according to a report on Friday.

Some 1,573 companies in the property sector went bust in the second quarter, compared with 696 in the third quarter of 2007 when the run on British bank Northern Rock occurred, accounting firm Wilkins Kennedy said on Friday, citing data from the UK Insolvency Service.

The sector, which includes developers, agencies and investors, as well as construction-related businesses, represented 24 per cent of all British insolvencies in the second quarter to be the single largest group, it said.

The property downturn has also hit the hotel sector, where insolvencies nearly trebled to 53 in the second quarter of 2009, from 18 in the third quarter of 2007, despite more British staying near home for their holidays, Wilkins Kennedy said.

"Despite the rise of the 'staycation' UK hotel groups are going under at a faster rate than ever ... banks are understandably reluctant to lend to companies whose underlying assets are based on property," director Anthony Cork said.

The Insolvency Service announced on Aug 7 that second-quarter company liquidations jumped 39 per cent year-on-year to 5,055, while personal insolvencies jumped to a record 33,073.

DEMAND-STARVED REALTY SECTOR TO GET BOOST IN 2010

The year 2010 appears to have brought cheers to the demand-starved realty sector. With signs of economic recovery emerging in the country, the real estate sector has been predicted to see increased business activities. According to global real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield, India cities would witness a strong-end user demand for commercial real estate in 2010 with New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore leading the pecking order. These cities would see a combination of improving sentiments with increased expansion of businesses that eventually favour the commercial landlords. On the residential realty side, IndiaProperty.com has found via a survey that around 56% would show interest in buying a house. Also, Mumbai and Chennai have emerged as the favoured property investment destinations with Bangalore being the third favoured destination.

The Cushman & Wakefield Economic Pulse said most of the cities would enter a bottoming phase in terms of rents this year. “The year 2010 is also shaping up to be a strong year for real estate investment. With demand from real estate end users returning, we think investors in core real estate assets will start to aggressively explore opportunities to deploy their funds. This demand will be underpinned by the supportive monetary policy that most Asia-Pacific economies will adopt in most of 2010,” the report says.

IndiaProperty.com, the site that offers comprehensive property resources, conducts online surveys every quarter to get first-hand feel of the attitudes and preferences of property seekers value in the real estate sector.

Of the 1,500 individuals surveyed, 56% respondents consider making a property investment in the next 6 months. Of those surveyed, 46% prefer 2BHK, 23% 3BHK while 20% prefer to buy an independent house. Also, 10% of people are ready to invest in property worth Rs 75 lakh. As many as 33% of people assume property rates will remain the same for 6 months and 24% rates are likely to increase by 10% in the next 6 months.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, it was feared that massive unemployment would reverse the urbanisation trend of major developing cities in Asia as lack of jobs forces migrant workers to return to their rural hometowns. Even under such adverse conditions, studies have shown that there is no conclusive evidence of such a drastic structural reversal.

The latest residential market review by Knight Frank, 367,000 units (equating roughly to 533 m-sq ft residential space) are expected to come up across seven...
Source:Financial Express

YSR'S DEATH MAY HIT INFRA COMPANIES

The death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash this week is likely to affect infrastructure companies more than any other enterprise in the state, reports Business Standard.

Reddy’s tenure was known for infrastructure development, including the construction of massive irrigation projects, modern ports like Krishnapatnam and Gangavaram and the proliferation of special economic zones (SEZs) and establishment of manufacturing units (see table). The Rs 12,132 crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project was also his brainchild, the report added.

All the major infrastructure companies in the state including Maytas Infrastructure, the Ramalinga Raju-promoted firm recently taken over by IL&FS, IVRCL, Nagarjuna Construction Company, Indu Projects, Navayuga Engineering and Gayatri Projects have benefited from Reddy’s programmes and they would be at a loss if his successors did not continue these with the same as vigour as he did.

Assocham president Sajjan Jindal pointed out that a lot of domestic and overseas investments had flowed into Andhra due to Reddy’s “investment friendly policies.”

IRB INFRA QUALIFIES TO BID FOR RS 22,000 CRORE ROAD PROJECT

IRB Infrastructure Developers said it has qualified to bid for projects worth Rs 22,000 crore from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Gujarat State Road Development Corp (GSRDC) among others.

"As regards to the future growth opportunities available, the company has qualified to develop projects worth Rs 22,000 crore," IRB Infra chairman and managing director V Mhaiskar told shareholders at the company's Annual General Meeting here.

These include projects from NHAI, GSRDC, Government of Rajasthan and Maharashtra state PWD, Mhaiskar said.

Mhaiskar said IRB Infra recently emerged as the lowest bidder for four Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects, amounting to Rs 4,300 crore.

It has also been selected by Maharashtra Government to develop the Rs 150-crore greenfield airport at Sindhdurg.

"The current order book of the company will almost double to around Rs 10,350 crore from Rs 5,900 crore as on March 31, 2009, with these new projects in hand,” said Mhaiskar.

In the last 30 years, IRB Infra and subsidiaries have built or operated and managed 1,440 kilometre of road length and has emerged as the largest toll operator in the country with daily toll revenue of around Rs 2 crore.

PUNJAB TO TAKE UP RS 31,248 CRORE INFRA PROJECTS VIA PPP MODEL

The Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) will take up new projects under the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode valued at Rs 31,248 crore, reports Financial Express.

According to the report, around 62 projects are on anvil. The most ambitious of these projects are five expressways -- the Mohali-Phagwara Expressway at Rs 2,500 crore, the Mohali-Banur-Baddi expressway, the expressway for Amritsar Airport at Rs 300 crore, the Pathankot-Ajmer Expressway up to the Punjab border, among others, the report added.

The other PPP projects include two ring roads -- the Amritsar Ring Road to be laid at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore and the Ludhiana Ring Road at an estimated cost of Rs 2,300 crore. The projects include six roads -- the Batala-Beas road at Rs 50 crore, the Karatpur-Kapurthala-Nakodar road at Rs 70 crore, the Amritsar-Sri Hargobindpur-Tanda road at Rs 80 crore, the Sirhind-Morinda-Ropar road at Rs 60 crore, the Hoshiarpur-Phagwara road at Rs 60 crore and the Jagraon-Raikot-Malerkotla road at Rs 65 crore, it said.

The PIDB plans to spend Rs 468.72 crore to construct railway over bridges (ROB), railway under bridges and high-level bridges, the report continued.

State PWD (B&R) minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa said that out of the 28 ROBs planned, eight bridges had been completed in Mansa, Lehragaga, Sangrur, Dhuri, Phagwara and Dasuya. An amount of Rs 103.34 crore was spent on these bridges. Work on three bridges at Sara Ka Pattan at Ropar, Bhagi Choe at Hoshiarpur and Mukhu at Gidderpindi was in progress. The total expenditure incurred on these projects was Rs 301.50 crore so far.

The PIDB has proposed two metro rail projects at Ludhiana at an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crore and the other in Amritsar at Rs 4,500 crore. A project for a mass rapid bus transport system in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar at Rs 15 crore and nine interstate checkpoints are planned at a cost of Rs 300 crore, the report said.

Other PIDB projects under the PPP mode include the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences at Jalandhar at Rs 225 crore and a super-speciality hospital at Mohali at Rs 200 crore. The city will also get a sports complex at a cost of Rs 150 crore. Also in the pipeline is the Punjab Habitat Centre at Rs 200 crore, a hotel-*** recreational facility at Bathinda near the proposed Rs 18,500-crore thermal plant coming up with FDI from the LN Mittal Group, touted to be biggest ever FDI flow to Punjab, it added.

The PIDB and the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) plan to develop 5-star and 3-star hotels in the proposed new city centre in Amritsar.

PIDB has floated expressions of interests from international bidders and joint venture parties for developing the hotels on a design, build, operate and transfer basis, the report said.

KARNATAKA FOCUSES ON INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

Karnataka is focusing big on infrastructure development, if the plans and projects in the pipeline are anything to go by. According to V Madhu, principal secretary – Infrastructure Development Department, Karnataka Government, there are 224 projects worth Rs 1.38 lakh crore under various stages of planning and progress in the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Madhu said the Government is trying to double the rail infrastructure in the State at an investment of Rs 18,000 crore and energy infrastructure at Rs 80,000 crore by 2017, improving the existing road infrastructure by 2020, and also increase the number of airports to 12 from the current four and airstrips to 12 at an investment of Rs 1,500 crore by 2010-11.

Talking on the current PPP projects in the State, Madhu said that the significant ones include airports at Hassan -- for which agreement has been already signed, Bellary -- for which tendering process is on, Bijapur -- PPP agreement to be signed soon for this, Shimoga and Gulbarga, and 12 airstrips; high-speed rail link to airport at Rs 6,000 crore; 10,000 km of road projects at Rs 45,000 crore; the Devanahalli Business Park at Rs 9,500 crore; Devanahalli Convention Centre to be developed by the tourism department; logistics park near the airport for which tendering notification would be made soon and two mono rail projects in Bangalore.

JAIPRAKASH ASSOCIATES, IDFC TO BE INCLUDED IN CNX NIFTY INDEX

Infrastructure firm Jaiprakash Associates and core sector financier Infrastructure Development Finance Co (IDFC) are on their way to join the Nifty-50 club, the National Stock Exchange said on Friday.

The two companies will be replacing of aluminium major Nalco and telecom service provider Tata Communications, which are on their way out, it added.

The changes will come into effect from 20 October 2009 NSE said in a statement.