DLF

** India’s DLF DLF.NS climbs 4.6% to 771 rupees

** Set for fifth straight session of gains

** Realtor's consolidated net profit jumps 39% Y/Y on strong demand for its luxury offerings

** Despite no significant launches in the quarter, DLF's pre-sales were above estimates, says Jefferies

** DLF maintains a "robust" pipeline of projects, including key upcoming launches such as Privana Phase 3 in Goa and Mumbai, that will significantly contribute to its sales momentum, say JP Morgan analysts

** Avg rating on DLF, rivals Sobha SOBH.NS and Prestige Estates Projects PREG.NS at "buy" - data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, all three stocks record fall - DLF 6.7% vs PREG 14% and SOBH 13%. Realty index .NIFTYREAL down 11.4%

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))

May 19 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• DLF Q4 CONSOL NET PROFIT 12.82 BILLION RUPEES; IBES PROFIT EST. 7.07 BILLION RUPEES

• DLF Q4 CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 31.28 BILLION RUPEES; IBES EST. 23.6 BILLION RUPEES

• DIVIDEND OF 6 RUPEES PER SHARE

Source text: ID:nnAPN2TRJ5Z

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

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April 16 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• ENTERS AGREEMENT TO SELL KOLKATA IT/ITES SEZ LAND

• SALE CONSIDERATION APPROXIMATELY 6.93 BILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nBSE5sLhNb

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];;))

** India's top real estate firm DLF DLF.NS climbs as much as 2% to 710.05 rupees following meeting with analysts on Friday

** DLF management estimates doubling rental income to 100 bln rupees ($1.16 bln) by FY30, raises dividend payout ratio to 50%, expects to bring net debt to zero by FY30, brokerages say

** Retail income doubling and strong cash flow generation should make DLF attractive for long-term investors - Jefferies

** Analysts at Motilal Oswal see healthy pre-sales collections for co, large land bank to support long-term growth, steadily growing rental income and reduction in debt as key positives

** BofA analysts say co's growth outlook for the residential projects portfolio is strong

** DLF sees 10%-12% annual price increase in Gurugram, analysts at BofA added

** Stock down ~16% YTD

($1 = 85.9510 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru)

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Feb 19 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• DLF LTD - NCLT APPROVES AMALGAMATION OF FOUR DLF SUBSIDIARIES

• DLF LTD - NCLT APPROVES DEMERGER OF THREE SEZ UNDERTAKINGS INTO DCCDL

Source text: ID:nBSE79WDs1

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

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Feb 18 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's Tesla TSLA.O is looking to hire senior staff in India, job advertisements posted this week showed, signalling progress in the electric vehicle maker's plans to enter the world's third-biggest auto market.

The postings come less than a week after Musk's meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Tesla has for years planned an India market entry and even setting up of local manufacturing. Some executives were hired around 2022, though some top-level people quit the company after Tesla put its India plans on hold back then.

With the automaker again scouting for showroom space in India since late last year, it has now listed 13 jobs on its website and social media platform LinkedIn for various customer-facing and back-end roles based in Mumbai, India's financial capital.

Among them is a "store manager" role responsible for overseeing and driving sales at the location, one job listing showed, a sign that Tesla is looking to open a showroom in the city. Delivery operations and customer support specialists are also being sought, the ads showed.

The listings come just after Modi met Musk in the United States last week, and discussed issues including space, mobility, technology, and innovation.

Musk has long criticised India for having high import tariffs of around 100% on EVs, and his company has repeatedly lobbied to relax them. The move, however, has faced opposition from local automakers who think Tesla's entry can hit their EV plans.

Last year, Musk was set to meet Modi during a trip to India where he was expected to announce a potential $2 billion-$3 billion investment, but the visit was called off after Tesla decided to lay off 10% of its global workforce amid declining sales.

In November, Reuters reported that Tesla was also scouting for showroom space in the country's capital city of New Delhi, and was in early stage talks with real estate developer DLF DLF.NS to help secure a location.

(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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Feb 1 (Reuters) - Shares of Indian real estate companies rose on Saturday after the government announced measures to boost the spending power of the middle class in Asia's third-biggest economy, likely spurring investments in the residential housing space.

India's plan to cut income tax rates in the 2025-26 budget was widely welcomed by investors and experts, as it boosts disposable income in a country grappling with sluggish consumption in recent quarters.

The Nifty realty index .NIFTYREAL rose 3.3% and was set for its best day in nearly eight months.

Eight of the ten members in the sub-index were trading higher, with realtors Prestige Estates PREG.NS, DLF DLF.NS and Sobha SOBH.NS climbing between 2% and 6%.

"This move is expected to strengthen demand for affordable housing," said Anuj Puri, chairman of ANAROCK Group.

Middle-class homebuyers, landlords, and investors can now benefit from reduced tax liabilities, better affordability, and fewer compliance hassles, Puri added.

Badal Yagnik, CEO of Colliers India, also echoed the sentiment and said the rationalization of taxes and enhancement of exemption limits can boost disposable income, spurring consumption levels and real estate investments, particularly in residential real estate and alternate financial instruments such as REITs.

The government also made room for homeowners to claim two self-occupied properties as tax-free, as compared to only one earlier, a move likely benefiting residential real estate investment.

This step minimizes tax pressures, promotes homeownership, and facilitates real estate investment, especially in second homes and Tier 2 and 3 cities, Puri said.

Other consumption-linked sectors were also trading higher on the day after the cut to income tax.

(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)

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By Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - India's DLF said on Monday it would take more than four years to build its $4 billion ultra-luxury project near New Delhi and that Indians living abroad were joining locals in snapping up apartments in one of the country's priciest developments ever.

DLF DLF.NS is targeting buyers as a rise in wealthy Indians has created not just a rush for high-end homes but also for Mercedes and Lamborghini cars, watches and even luxury bathrooms, trends that are emblematic of India's divides as hundreds of millions still depend on government food handouts.

Around 173 of the 420 units on offer have already been sold at $8 million each, and the $4 billion project is effectively being priced at $742 per square feet, DLF says. That compares to an average 2024 apartment price of $817 per square feet in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, according to Knight Frank.

Apartments will be handed over as bare shells to customers who will spend more to design them internally, and will take more than four years to build, Aakash Ohri, chief business officer for DLF, said in an interview, detailing the plans for the first time.

In India, the "luxury market has just begun ... After Delhi, Mumbai should be a good market to be around in the luxury space," said Ohri.

DLF, India's biggest real estate developer, has historically focused on markets near New Delhi.

Sales of ultra-luxury homes, which Anarock Property Consultants classifies as those priced above $4.6 million in India, in 2024 rose 17%.

Early demand for the project took DLF's sales bookings for April-December to $2.2 billion, the company said on Friday, above its own full fiscal-year outlook of around $2 billion.

The new project will offer a so-called "lake park", which will have cascading lakes, cinemas, an on-call chef and indoor sports facilities, Ohri said.

Ohri said that 12% of the 173 units sold were booked by non-resident Indians (NRIs).

"NRIs don't want to compromise on their living in India ... They are living in estates and plush homes all over the world. And they feel that India should be no less," he said.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya. Editing by Aditya Kalra and Mark Potter)

(([email protected];))

Jan 24 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• LUXURY PROJECT THE DAHLIAS IN DLF 5 GOT 118.16 BILLION RUPEES OF NEW BOOKINGS IN OPENING QUARTER

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];;))

By Aditi Shah and Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's Tesla has resumed its search for showroom space in New Delhi, two sources told Reuters, in the first sign it is rethinking entering the Indian market after putting its investment plans on hold earlier this year.

Musk said in April he would meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a trip where he was to potentially announce an investment of $2-3 billion in India. However, he called off his visit at the last moment after Tesla decided to sack 10% of its staff amid falling sales.

Tesla TSLA.O, which had paused its search for a showroom in India in recent months, is now in early-stage talks with DLF DLF.NS to help secure space in the capital region, said the two sources, who have direct knowledge of the situation.

A third source said it is not certain that Tesla's talks with India's biggest property developer will lead to a deal and the electric vehicle giant is also in discussions with others.

Tesla and DLF did not respond to requests for comment.

One of the sources said Tesla is looking for 3,000 to 5,000 square feet (280-465 square metres) to create a consumer experience centre as well as a space three times larger for its delivery and service operations.

Tesla is evaluating multiple locations including DLF's Avenue Mall in southern Delhi and the Cyber Hub office and retail complex in nearby Gurugram city, the source added.

Foreign retailers including Japan's Uniqlo 9983.T, Spain's Mango and Britain's Marks and Spencer MKS.L also have outlets in the Avenue Mall, where Tesla is looking to secure an 8,000 square feet showroom space, the second source said.

Tesla's search is still "exploratory" and nothing has been finalised, the first source said.

It was not immediately clear whether Tesla will consider importing cars at the tax rate of as high as 100% or if it will make investment commitments under India's new policy, which would allow it to import certain EVs at a lower rate of 15%.

After Tesla did not deliver on earlier investment plans, India's government is trying to relax certain provisions of its policy to attract automakers such as Hyundai Motor 005380.KS and Toyota 7203.T which have expressed initial interest.

India's EV market is small, making up about 2% of total car sales of 4 million last year, but the government wants to increase the share to 30% by 2030.

Tesla's showroom hunt comes as Musk's Starlink is also considering entering India after winning a lobbying battle against billionaire Mukesh Ambani over how New Delhi should allocate spectrum for the service.

(Reporting by Aditi Shah and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Alexander Smith)

(([email protected]; +91-11-4954 8023, +91-11-3015 8023; Reuters Messaging: twitter: @aditishahsays))

Dec 3 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• APPOINTS BADAL BAGRI AS GROUP CFO EFFECTIVE DEC 6, 2024

• ASHOK KUMAR TYAGI TO CONTINUE AS MANAGING DIRECTOR

Source text: ID:nBSE5HW4f1

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];))

Nov 29 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• SUBSIDIARY ENTERED INTO AGREEMENT TO SELL AND TRANSFER ITS KOLKATA TECH PARK BUSINESS

• DEAL FOR 6.37 BILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nBSE7tSTRZ

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];;))

** Shares of Indian real estate firm DLF DLF.NS climb 3% to 799 rupees

** Co posted 24% rise in Q2 consol adjusted profit, 47% jump in revenue

** DLF top gainer in Nifty realty index .NIFTYREAL, which is flat

** YTD stock had risen 11%

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

Oct 25 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• DLF Q2 CONSOL NET PROFIT 13.81 BILLION RUPEES

• DLF Q2 CONSOL REV FROM OPS 19.75 BLN RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: [ID:]

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];))

** Shares of real estate developer DLF DLF.NS rise 2% to 867 rupees

** Stock among top gainers on Nifty realty index .NIFTYREAL, which is up 0.03%

** Co to launch ultra-luxury "Dahlias" project in Gurugram; to be the most-expensive residential real estate project in India, MoneyControl reports

** The project has a revenue potential of around 340 bln rupees ($4 bln), report says, citing PropEquity

** Co did not immediately reply to Reuters' request for comment

** DLS is among eight of 10 "buy" rated stock on the realty index - LSEG data

** Median PT on the stock from 15 brokerages is 940 rupees - LSEG data

** Stock up 20% so far this year vs a ~35% gain in the realty index

($1 = 83.9360 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru)

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MUMBAI, Sept 26 (Reuters) - India's DLF Cyber City Developers has accepted bids worth 5 billion rupees ($59.8 million) for bonds maturing in three years, two bankers said on Thursday.

The company will pay an annual coupon of 8.12% on this issue, and had invited bids from bankers and investors on Wednesday.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on Sept. 26:

* Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 83.6420 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia
Editing by Eileen Soreng)

(([email protected]))

MUMBAI, Sept 17 (Reuters) - India's DLF Cyber City Developers has accepted bids worth 6 billion rupees ($71.67 million) for bonds maturing in 9 years, 11 months and 13 days, according to two bankers.

The company has offered a coupon of 8.10% on the notes. The coupon will rise by 25 basis points if the credit rating slips by a notch.

It had invited bids for the issue earlier in the day.

The bond issue has a put and a call option at the end of every three years until maturity.

Axis Bank is the anchor investor for the issue and will buy 1.8 billion rupees, the term sheet showed.

In January, DLF Cyber City Developers had raised 6.20 billion rupees via bonds maturing in three years and five months at a coupon of 8.40%.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on Sept. 17:

* Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 83.7150 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Bhakti Tambe and Dharamraj Dhutia)

(([email protected]))

MUMBAI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - India's DLF Cyber City Developers plans to raise 6 billion rupees ($71.48 million) through bonds maturing in 9 years, 11 months and 13 days and has invited bids on Tuesday, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.

The company has offered a coupon of 8.10% on the notes.

The coupon will rise by 25 basis points if the credit rating slips by a notch, according to the term sheet.

The bond issue has a put and a call option at the end of every three years until maturity.

Axis Bank is the anchor investor for the issue and will buy 1.8 billion rupees, the term sheet showed.

In January, DLF Cyber City Developers had raised 6.20 billion rupees via bonds maturing in three years and five months at a coupon of 8.40%.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on Sept. 12

*Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 83.9350 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Bhakti Tambe; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

(([email protected]))

** Shares of realty developer DLF DLF.NS rise about 4% to 852.95 rupees

** Stock leads gains in realty index .NIFTYREAL, which is up about 2%

** JP Morgan reiterates "overweight" rating on stock, hikes PT to 1,000 rupees from 925 rupees earlier, an implied upside of 21.71% over last close

** Brokerage sees upside to presales, margin and cash flows in fiscal year 2025, after co posted rise in profit in June quarter

** Adds, DLF will surpass a coveted $1 bln operating cash flow at group level in FY2025, riding on strong sales cycle and compounding of free cash at its rental business

** Says, DLF's relative valuations are attractive compared to peers, adds company's capital discipline has been better now compared to past

** DLF shares up 17.4% in 2024 so far, compared to 33.2% rise in realty index .NIFTYREAL, according to stock exchange data

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]; +91 9769003463;))

July 25 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• Q1 CONSOL NET PROFIT 6.46 BILLION RUPEES

• Q1 CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 13.62 BILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE2Cg7dB

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];))

May 13 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• DEMAND MOMENTUM IN RESIDENTIAL SEGMENT IS EXPECTED TO STAY STRONG

• PLAN TO LAUNCH MORE THAN 11 MSF OF NEW PRODUCTS DURING FY25

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE80mhJx

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];))

May 9 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• DLF PRIVANA WEST ACHIEVED SELLOUT VALUED AT ABOUT 55.90 BILLION RUPEES

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];))

May 6 (Reuters) - Dhabriya Polywood Ltd DHAB.BO:

• DHABRIYA POLYWOOD LTD - GETS ORDER WORTH 167.6 MILLION RUPEES FROM DLF GROUP

• DHABRIYA POLYWOOD - GETS ORDER FROM ADANI GROUP VALUED 17.7 MILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE1vWjkx

Further company coverage: DHAB.BO

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Repeats story first published on 14 March

By Krishn Kaushik

NEW DELHI, March 14 (Reuters) - Behind the doors of a small, non-descript office in the heart of New Delhi lies the headquarters of an electoral trust run by just two men that is the largest-known donor to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to a Reuters review of public records.

The Prudent Electoral Trust has raised $272 million since its creation in 2013, funnelling roughly 75% of that to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party. The trust’s donations to the BJP total 10 times as much as the $20.6 million it issued to the opposition Congress party, the records show.

The previous Congress-led government introduced electoral trusts in 2013 to allow for tax-exempt contribution to parties. It said the mechanism would make campaign financing more transparent by reducing cash contributions, which are harder to trace.

But some election experts say the trusts contribute to opacity around the funding of political parties in India, where this year’s general election – due to be called within weeks – is expected to return Modi to power for a rare third term, polls predict.

While Prudent does not disclose how donations made by individual corporate donors are distributed, Reuters used public records from 2018 to 2023 to track flows from some of India’s largest companies.

Eight of India's biggest business groups donated at least $50 million in total between 2019 and 2023 to the trust, which then issued cheques for corresponding amounts to the BJP, according to the Reuters analysis.

Four companies whose transactions were identified by Reuters - steel giant ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel ESRG.UL, telco Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, infrastructure developer GMR and energy giant Essar - have not given money to the party directly and do not appear on its donors' list.

GMR and Bharti Airtel said in response to Reuters questions that Prudent determines how their donations are distributed.

Prudent decides "as per their internal guidelines, which we are unaware of," said a GMR spokesman. He added that the company doesn't "like to align with any political party."

Bharti Airtel, which created Prudent before transferring control to independent auditors Mukul Goyal and Venkatachalam Ganesh in 2014, said it has "no influence on the decisions, directions and mode of disbursal of funds."

Spokespeople for the other groups did not respond to calls, text messages and emails.

Goyal and Ganesh did not respond to questions sent via email and post. When asked on a brief phone call about how Prudent functioned, Goyal said: "That is something we do not discuss."

Prudent - the largest of India's 18 electoral trusts - is legally required to declare how much it has collected from each donor and the total amounts disbursed to each party.

But it is the only one among India's four largest electoral trusts to accept contributions from more than one corporate group.

Trusts "provide one layer of separation between firms and parties," said Milan Vaishnav, an expert on Indian campaign finance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think-tank.

Political finance in India is widely seen as murky, with most political donations in India undisclosed, Vaishnav added.

BJP said in its latest public disclosure in March 2023 that its political war chest - funds it had available including cash reserves and assets - was valued at 70.4 billion rupees ($850 million). That gives it a colossal financial advantage over Congress, which had 7.75 billion rupees in funds.

BJP spokespeople did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

The records show that Prudent was also the largest-known donor to the Congress party in the decade to March 2023.

LAYER OF SEPARATION

India's Supreme Court said in a February campaign finance ruling that corporate contributions are "purely business transactions made with the intent of securing benefits in return."

Reuters was unable to establish if political parties know the identities of donors that give through trusts that receive contributions from multiple groups.

MV Rajeev Gowda, head of research for Congress, told Reuters that electoral trusts are a "semi fig-leaf" and that he believed parties knew the donors' identities. Gowda, who doesn't manage the party's finances, didn't provide evidence.

BJP's next largest known donor is Tata Group's Progressive Electoral Trust, which has given the party 3.6 billion rupees collected from the salt-to-airline conglomerate's companies. Progressive is also Congress's next largest donor, having given it 655 million rupees.

Progressive's by-laws require it to distribute funds proportionate to the number of seats held by each party in parliament. Prudent has no similar restrictions and Reuters' analysis of its donations found no such pattern.

NEAR-INSTANT TRANSFERS

Trusts are allowed to retain a maximum of 300,000 rupees for annual operating expenses. Remaining funds must be disbursed in the fiscal year they were received.

In its analysis of contribution reports filed by Prudent to electoral authorities, Reuters identified 18 transactions between 2019 and 2022 in which the eight corporate groups made large donations to the trust. Within days, Prudent issued cheques for the same amounts to BJP.

Before the 18 contributions, which are not exhaustive of all the donations made by the groups to Prudent, the trust did not have sufficient funds for the payments to BJP.

Companies tied to billionaire L.N. Mittal's ArcelorMittal group were among Prudent's most prolific donors.

On July 12, 2021, for instance, ArcelorMittal Design and Engineering Centre Private Limited gave Prudent a cheque for 500 million rupees ($6.03 million). The next day, Prudent issued a cheque to BJP for the same amount.

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India also issued 200 million rupees to Prudent on Nov. 1, 2021, and 500 million rupees on Nov. 16, 2022. The respective sums were sent to BJP on Nov. 5, 2021, and Nov. 17, 2022.

A spokesman for ArcelorMittal did not respond to requests for comment.

Bharti Airtel, meanwhile, issued 250 million rupees to Prudent on Jan. 13, 2022 and 150 million rupees on March 25, 2021. The trust sent out cheques to BJP for those amounts on Jan. 14, 2023 and March 25, 2021.

And three companies in the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group - Haldia Energy India, Phillips Carbon Black and Crescent Power - cut cheques for 250 million rupees, 200 million rupees and 50 million rupees on March 15, March 16, and March 19, 2021 respectively. On Mar. 17, BJP received a 450-million-rupee cheque from Prudent; a 50-million-rupee cheque followed on March 20.

The RPSG group did not respond to requests for comment.

Donations from Serum Institute and companies in GMR Group, DLF Ltd DLF.NS and Essar Group moved to BJP immediately after Prudent received them.

Reuters was unable to identify a similar pattern of funds being sent to the trust and transferred to Congress immediately afterwards.

However, Reuters found similar patterns involving two regional parties. Megha Engineering and Infrastructure transferred 750 million rupees to Prudent across three transactions on July 5 and July 6, 2022. The trust issued a 750-million-rupee cheque on July 7 to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, a centrist party in Telangana state, where Megha group is headquartered.

And property developers Avinash Bhosale Group, based in the western Maharashtra state, gave 50 million rupees to Prudent on Nov. 27, 2020. The trust issued a cheque for that amount to the Maharashtra Pradesh Nationalist Congress Party, which is independent of the national Congress party, on Nov. 30.

The corporate groups did not immediately return requests for comment. BRS's general secretary said he was "not aware" of specifics about the donations, while a senior NCP official said that the party had recently split and "every record will not be available with us.

CAUSE OF CONCERN?

Public records and party reports show BJP's war chest has swelled since Modi became prime minister in 2014, from 7.8 billion rupees ($94.09 million) in March 2014 to 70.4 billion rupees in March 2023. Congress' funds increased from from 5.38 billion rupees to 7.75 billion rupees in the same time period.

The financing gap between the BJP and Congress is a cause of concern, said Jagdeep Chhokar of Association of Democratic Reforms, a Delhi-based civil society group that was the main petitioner behind the electoral bonds challenge in the Supreme Court.

"Level playing field is an essential part of democracy," he said.

Some BJP officials have said in the past that the large sums it has raised on its books are an example of its transparency.

BJP has been the major beneficiary of electoral bonds, a mechanism that allowed donors to give unlimited amounts to parties without public disclosure.

It received some 65.66 billion rupees of the 120.1 billion rupees worth of such bonds sold between their January 2018 introduction and March 2023. Such bonds made up more than half the contributions received by the BJP in all but one fiscal year since their introduction.

The Supreme Court called the mechanism "unconstitutional" in February and ordered the government-owned State Bank of India, which issued the bonds, to release buyers' details. Specifics are set for release by March 15.

($1 = 82.7710 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik, Additional reporting by Aditya Kalra, Kripa Jayaram and Sumanta Sen; Editing by Katerina Ang)

(([email protected]; +91 8527322283;))

March 27 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• DLF - APPROVED RE-APPOINTMENT OF RAJIV SINGH AS WHOLE-TIME DIRECTOR DESIGNATED AS CHAIRMAN

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE5Whcq4

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

(([email protected];))

MUMBAI, March 26 (Reuters) - India's DLF Home Developers has accepted bids worth 6 billion rupees ($72.1 million) for the sale of bonds maturing in three years and one month, three merchant bankers said on Tuesday.

The real estate company will pay an annual coupon of 8.50% to the investors of this issue, and had invited commitment bids for the same earlier in the day, they said.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on March 26:

* Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 83.2792 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia and Bhakti Tambe
Editing by Sonia Cheema)

(([email protected]))

MUMBAI, March 19 (Reuters) - India's DLF Home Developers plans to raise 6 billion rupees ($72.35 million) through the sale of bonds maturing in three years and one month, three merchant bankers said on Tuesday.

The real estate company will pay an annual coupon of 8.50% to the investors of this issue, and has invited commitment bids for the same on March 26.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on March 19:

* Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 82.9250 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

(([email protected]))

Adds reporting credits. No other changes

By Krishn Kaushik

NEW DELHI, March 14 (Reuters) - Behind the doors of a small, non-descript office in the heart of New Delhi lies the headquarters of an electoral trust run by just two men that is the largest-known donor to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to a Reuters review of public records.

The Prudent Electoral Trust has raised $272 million since its creation in 2013, funnelling roughly 75% of that to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party. The trust’s donations to the BJP total 10 times as much as the $20.6 million it issued to the opposition Congress party, the records show.

The previous Congress-led government introduced electoral trusts in 2013 to allow for tax-exempt contribution to parties. It said the mechanism would make campaign financing more transparent by reducing cash contributions, which are harder to trace.

But some election experts say the trusts contribute to opacity around the funding of political parties in India, where this year’s general election – due to be called within weeks – is expected to return Modi to power for a rare third term, polls predict.

While Prudent does not disclose how donations made by individual corporate donors are distributed, Reuters used public records from 2018 to 2023 to track flows from some of India’s largest companies.

Eight of India's biggest business groups donated at least $50 million in total between 2019 and 2023 to the trust, which then issued cheques for corresponding amounts to the BJP, according to the Reuters analysis.

Four companies whose transactions were identified by Reuters - steel giant ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel ESRG.UL, telco Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, infrastructure developer GMR and energy giant Essar - have not given money to the party directly and do not appear on its donors' list.

GMR and Bharti Airtel said in response to Reuters questions that Prudent determines how their donations are distributed.

Prudent decides "as per their internal guidelines, which we are unaware of," said a GMR spokesman. He added that the company doesn't "like to align with any political party."

Bharti Airtel, which created Prudent before transferring control to independent auditors Mukul Goyal and Venkatachalam Ganesh in 2014, said it has "no influence on the decisions, directions and mode of disbursal of funds."

Spokespeople for the other groups did not respond to calls, text messages and emails.

Goyal and Ganesh did not respond to questions sent via email and post. When asked on a brief phone call about how Prudent functioned, Goyal said: "That is something we do not discuss."

Prudent - the largest of India's 18 electoral trusts - is legally required to declare how much it has collected from each donor and the total amounts disbursed to each party.

But it is the only one among India's four largest electoral trusts to accept contributions from more than one corporate group.

Trusts "provide one layer of separation between firms and parties," said Milan Vaishnav, an expert on Indian campaign finance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think-tank.

Political finance in India is widely seen as murky, with most political donations in India undisclosed, Vaishnav added.

BJP said in its latest public disclosure in March 2023 that its political war chest - funds it had available including cash reserves and assets - was valued at 70.4 billion rupees ($850 million). That gives it a colossal financial advantage over Congress, which had 7.75 billion rupees in funds.

BJP spokespeople did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

The records show that Prudent was also the largest-known donor to the Congress party in the decade to March 2023.

LAYER OF SEPARATION

India's Supreme Court said in a February campaign finance ruling that corporate contributions are "purely business transactions made with the intent of securing benefits in return."

Reuters was unable to establish if political parties know the identities of donors that give through trusts that receive contributions from multiple groups.

MV Rajeev Gowda, head of research for Congress, told Reuters that electoral trusts are a "semi fig-leaf" and that he believed parties knew the donors' identities. Gowda, who doesn't manage the party's finances, didn't provide evidence.

BJP's next largest known donor is Tata Group's Progressive Electoral Trust, which has given the party 3.6 billion rupees collected from the salt-to-airline conglomerate's companies. Progressive is also Congress's next largest donor, having given it 655 million rupees.

Progressive's by-laws require it to distribute funds proportionate to the number of seats held by each party in parliament. Prudent has no similar restrictions and Reuters' analysis of its donations found no such pattern.

NEAR-INSTANT TRANSFERS

Trusts are allowed to retain a maximum of 300,000 rupees for annual operating expenses. Remaining funds must be disbursed in the fiscal year they were received.

In its analysis of contribution reports filed by Prudent to electoral authorities, Reuters identified 18 transactions between 2019 and 2022 in which the eight corporate groups made large donations to the trust. Within days, Prudent issued cheques for the same amounts to BJP.

Before the 18 contributions, which are not exhaustive of all the donations made by the groups to Prudent, the trust did not have sufficient funds for the payments to BJP.

Companies tied to billionaire L.N. Mittal's ArcelorMittal group were among Prudent's most prolific donors.

On July 12, 2021, for instance, ArcelorMittal Design and Engineering Centre Private Limited gave Prudent a cheque for 500 million rupees ($6.03 million). The next day, Prudent issued a cheque to BJP for the same amount.

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India also issued 200 million rupees to Prudent on Nov. 1, 2021, and 500 million rupees on Nov. 16, 2022. The respective sums were sent to BJP on Nov. 5, 2021, and Nov. 17, 2022.

A spokesman for ArcelorMittal did not respond to requests for comment.

Bharti Airtel, meanwhile, issued 250 million rupees to Prudent on Jan. 13, 2022 and 150 million rupees on March 25, 2021. The trust sent out cheques to BJP for those amounts on Jan. 14, 2023 and March 25, 2021.

And three companies in the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group - Haldia Energy India, Phillips Carbon Black and Crescent Power - cut cheques for 250 million rupees, 200 million rupees and 50 million rupees on March 15, March 16, and March 19, 2021 respectively. On Mar. 17, BJP received a 450-million-rupee cheque from Prudent; a 50-million-rupee cheque followed on March 20.

The RPSG group did not respond to requests for comment.

Donations from Serum Institute and companies in GMR Group, DLF Ltd DLF.NS and Essar Group moved to BJP immediately after Prudent received them.

Reuters was unable to identify a similar pattern of funds being sent to the trust and transferred to Congress immediately afterwards.

However, Reuters found similar patterns involving two regional parties. Megha Engineering and Infrastructure transferred 750 million rupees to Prudent across three transactions on July 5 and July 6, 2022. The trust issued a 750-million-rupee cheque on July 7 to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, a centrist party in Telangana state, where Megha group is headquartered.

And property developers Avinash Bhosale Group, based in the western Maharashtra state, gave 50 million rupees to Prudent on Nov. 27, 2020. The trust issued a cheque for that amount to the Maharashtra Pradesh Nationalist Congress Party, which is independent of the national Congress party, on Nov. 30.

The corporate groups did not immediately return requests for comment. BRS's general secretary said he was "not aware" of specifics about the donations, while a senior NCP official said that the party had recently split and "every record will not be available with us.

CAUSE OF CONCERN?

Public records and party reports show BJP's war chest has swelled since Modi became prime minister in 2014, from 7.8 billion rupees ($94.09 million) in March 2014 to 70.4 billion rupees in March 2023. Congress' funds increased from from 5.38 billion rupees to 7.75 billion rupees in the same time period.

The financing gap between the BJP and Congress is a cause of concern, said Jagdeep Chhokar of Association of Democratic Reforms, a Delhi-based civil society group that was the main petitioner behind the electoral bonds challenge in the Supreme Court.

"Level playing field is an essential part of democracy," he said.

Some BJP officials have said in the past that the large sums it has raised on its books are an example of its transparency.

BJP has been the major beneficiary of electoral bonds, a mechanism that allowed donors to give unlimited amounts to parties without public disclosure.

It received some 65.66 billion rupees of the 120.1 billion rupees worth of such bonds sold between their January 2018 introduction and March 2023. Such bonds made up more than half the contributions received by the BJP in all but one fiscal year since their introduction.

The Supreme Court called the mechanism "unconstitutional" in February and ordered the government-owned State Bank of India, which issued the bonds, to release buyers' details. Specifics are set for release by March 15.

($1 = 82.7710 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik, Additional reporting by Aditya Kalra, Kripa Jayaram and Sumanta Sen; Editing by Katerina Ang)

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March 13 (Reuters) - DLF Ltd DLF.NS:

• UNIT APPROVED RAISING OF FUNDS UPTO 6 BLN RUPEES

• DLF HOME DEVELOPERS APPROVED RAISING OF FUNDS BY ISSUANCE OF NON-CONVERTIBLE DEBENTURES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nNSEcctXPs

Further company coverage: DLF.NS

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** Shares of property developer DLF DLF.NS rise as much as 2.8% to 888 rupees, their highest level since Feb 18, 2008

** DLF said on Tuesday its unit entered a settlement agreement with Axis Trustee Services and IREO to acquire land parcels in Haryana, Gurugram for 12.41 billion rupees ($149.7 million)

** Average analyst rating at "buy"; median PT is 786 rupees, a discount of 9% to stock's last close - LSEG data

** Stock trading above 50-, 100- and 200- day simple moving average since Oct 26, 2023

** Stock up nearly 22% so far in 2024 vs a 15.5% increase in Nifty realty index .NIFTYREAL

($1 = 82.8900 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Anisha Ajith in Bengaluru)

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