Jul 15, 2009 0
High speed rail from the Stimulus and long tracts of downtown real estate that can be reconstructed, the opportunity is immense
more about “Real Estate turnaround – Los Angeles …“, posted with vodpod
The median price surge of 7% to $265,000 reflects a recent trend of higher-priced properties taking a greater market share.
Jul 2, 2009 0
Manhattan apartment prices fell sharply during the second quarter of 2009, as the limited number of deals struck during the darkest months of the economic downturn began to close, according to a series of market reports released Wednesday.
The number of closings fell more than 50 percent, and prices in some categories were reported down as much as 25 percent, compared with the same quarter in 2008. Sale prices were also down from those reported in the first quarter of 2009.
One report, by Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property, put the average price of a Manhattan apartment in the second quarter at $1.26 million, a decline of 24 percent from the same period in 2008, and 16 percent below the previous quarter. It put the median sale price at $795,000, 19 percent below the figure in the first quarter of 2008.
Another report, by Prudential Douglas Elliman, found that the median sale price on the resale of existing apartments was down by 25.6 percent from a year earlier. The report, prepared by Jonathan J. Miller, president of Miller Samuel Inc., an appraisal firm, said that the number of sales was down 50.3 percent compared with the same period in 2008.
The new figures on closed sales confirm the downward trajectory in the Manhattan market that brokers have been reporting for many months. But the report was issued at a time when b
via Sharp Price Drops in Manhattan Apartments – NYTimes.com.
Jun 29, 2009 0
New Delhi: The net debt of the country’s No. 2 listed realty firm, Unitech Ltd will come down to Rs5,000 crore by the first week of July, following an infusion of Rs2,800 crore into the company last week through a private placement of shares, people familiar with the development said.
Better cash flow: Unitech has been raising funds from the beginning of this year to improve cash flow and reduce the company’s huge debt. Madhu Kapparath / Mint
At present, the gross debt of Unitech is Rs7,800 crore, they said.
After a qualified institutional placement (QIP), the company’s debt-equity ratio would come down to 0.52:1, among the lowest in the industry, and the net worth would be about Rs9,600 crore.
With this equity raising, all debt-related issues would be addressed and the focus now would be to build on the sales momentum created over the past three months, during which Unitech sold at least 3,000 flats comprising 4.5 million sq. ft, they added.
Unitech has been raising funds from the beginning of this year to improve the cash flow of the company and reduce its huge debt, which surged to nearly Rs11,000 crore by the end of 2008.
Since April, the company has raised nearly Rs4,500 crore through two rounds of QIP. Besides, it has garnered Rs1,000 crore through the sale of two hotels in Gurgaon and an office complex in Delhi.
Unitech raised Rs1,621 crore in the second half of April through the QIP route at Rs38.50 per share.
Last week, the company launched the second QIP at Rs81 per share to raise about Rs2,800 crore. The company was initially planning to raise Rs1,300 crore but after looking at the robust response from private equity players, it decided to raise about Rs2,800 crore.
People close to the development said Unitech received demand worth at least $1 billion (Rs4,850 crore) for its QIP, mainly from foreign institutional investors.
Apart from reducing the debt, Unitech would utilize the funds raised to develop projects to generate cash flow, which in turn would be used to service the debt, these people said.
The company had last month announced it would spend Rs1,700 crore to construct 20,000 affordable houses to become India’s top realty company within a year. It is aiming to sell 15,000 flats in the current fiscal year.
Unitech will develop affordable houses across the country with an average price of Rs15 lakh. It will construct such houses, whose average construction cost is estimated at about Rs1,000 per sq. ft, on a total area of 16-17 million sq. ft. The company possesses the land to develop these projects and the construction cost would be met largely through advances from customers.
Currently, Unitech has a land bank of about 8,000 acres.
via Unitech
Posted via email from The investment blog on Post
Jun 29, 2009 0
The Dubai developer behind the world’s tallest building plans to merge with three rivals owned by the sheikdom’s ruler, in a consolidation aimed at better coping with a global meltdown fueled weakness in the one-time Arab boomtown’s real estate sector, The Associated Press said.In a statement posted Sunday on the Dubai Financial Market’s Web site, Emaar Properties said its proposed merger with Dubai Holding subsidiaries Dubai Properties, Samar Dubai and Tatweer would create a company with an asset base of 194 billion dirhams $52.8 billion and a debt of 13.4 billion dirhams, or roughly 7 percent of the total assets.”The proposed consolidation would create a robust and strategic asset base while joining the strengths” of the various companies, Emaar said.The deal, first outlined Saturday in a release by Emaar, marks a push to shore up a Dubai property market that has seen values plunge by as much as 40 percent in the first quarter of 2009 as the global economic meltdown hit the sheikdom hard.Layoffs in Dubai’s largely expatriate work force compounded the oversupply of units in the semiautonomous city-state, squeezing prices. The tougher financing climate also led to project delays and cancellations, and the fallout from the overall economic weakness further tarnished the image of an emirate whose famed man-made islands, soaring skyscrapers and rampant consumerism helped cast it as a rising global business powerhouse.As the credit crunch worsened over the second half of 2008, rumors surfaced about Emaar eying a merger with government-run rival Nakheel — talk that the companies and the government denied.But discussions of consolidations continued, built on expectations that companies would need to adopt some sort of measures — beyond the bailouts afforded by the Dubai government — to cope with the difficult business climate.”These comprehensive discussions are driven by a shared vision regarding the consolidation of our respective visible success stories to date and the creation of a world-class group which would be ideally positioned to dynamically help shape and support the ongoing development of Dubai as a world-leading hub,” Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar said in a statement.The companies released few details — including about valuation — saying only that the merger process would take roughly 4 months. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Merrill Lynch were retained as the financial advisers for Emaar and Dubai Holding, respectively.
via Emaar to Merge With Rivals in Dubai – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com.
Sphere: Related Content Apr 3, 2009 0
Struggling to cut costs in a raging recession, companies dumped a near-record 25 million square feet of office space in the first quarter, driving vacancy up and rents down, according to data to be released today by Reis Inc.
Businesses that needed to lease space took advantage of the market weakness to extract concessions out of landlords. But the trends exacerbated financial woes for owners, especially those who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth.
The office vacancy rate nationwide rose to 15.2% from 14.5% in the previous quarter, and likely will surpass 19.3% over the next three months
via U.S. Office Vacancies Hit 15.2% — and Rising – WSJ.com.
zyakaira notes: it is becoming very easy to setup business these days!
Apr 3, 2009 0
Struggling to cut costs in a raging recession, companies dumped a near-record 25 million square feet of office space in the first quarter, driving vacancy up and rents down, according to data to be released today by Reis Inc.
Businesses that needed to lease space took advantage of the market weakness to extract concessions out of landlords. But the trends exacerbated financial woes for owners, especially those who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth.
The office vacancy rate nationwide rose to 15.2% from 14.5% in the previous quarter, and likely will surpass 19.3% over the next three months
via U.S. Office Vacancies Hit 15.2% — and Rising – WSJ.com.
zyakaira notes: it is becoming very easy to setup business these days!
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Archive for Facebook vs Twitter »Can conventional media survive yet?
Sphere: Related ContentThe proposed $30-billion transaction is the fruition of a longtime ambition by Comcast’s 50-year-old chief executive, Brian Roberts, to recast his family-controlled Philadelphia company into a leading producer of movies and television shows and a purveyor of prominent cable and broadcast networks, including the venerable NBC.
Under terms of the deal, Comcast will contribute its entertainment channels, including E and Versus; nine regional sports networks; and about $6.5 billion in cash in exchange for 51% of the new venture, which will continue to be called NBC Universal for the immediate future.
The deal underscores how cable television — not a broadcast network or a Hollywood movie studio — has become the new profit center for media conglomerates.
GE, which has owned the NBC network for 23 years, will reduce its ownership in the company to 49%. The deal sets up GE for a gradual exit from the entertainment business, granting Comcast the right to buy out GE’s interest within eight years. GE placed a value of $30 billion on its NBC Universal businesses.
ADA Reliance (BIG entertainment) has today announced details of its venture with Dreamworks (Steven Spielberg) planning a 40% stake in the final entity capitalised at approx $830 million ($1b at USD rate of Rs. 40) with Disney holding another 15%. The Company holds a target of producing 5-6 films a year. BIG already has agreements with Nicholas Cage’s Saturn, Jim Carrey’s JC23, George Clooney’s Smokehouse, Chris Columbus’s 1492 Pictures, Tom Hank’s Playtone and Brad Pitt’s Plan B among others
Posted via email from The investment blog on Post
As recession-weary Americans flock to the cinema, Hollywood has had good fortune in a year when most other industries are fighting for survival. According to Box Office Mojo, theatrical receipts are tallying close to 12% ahead of 2008. But which studios have lured moviegoers into theaters in this recession, and how can you turn a profit with them?Studios like Warner Bros. and Paramount are outperforming expectations, jam-packing the summer movie season with anticipated blockbusters. However, the real success seems to be coming from small and mid-size films. Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner TWX – news – people , saw its comedy The Hangover pass the $180 million mark, and if it follows the path of Wedding Crashers, a comparable R-rated comedy, it could end up making north of $225 million by the time its out of theaters. What makes The Hangover all the more impressive as a moneymaker is that it was made on the cheap–by Hollywood standards–for a mere $35 million.
via A Hollywood-Ending Portfolio – Forbes.com.
At this point last year, Iron Man had already crossed the $300 million mark, with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull closing in. A 2009 movie of this genre–most likely Transformers–may not break the $300 million threshold until mid-July.
But 2009 may still eclipse 2008’s total revenue and take the crown as the highest-grossing year at the box office. One executive at Time Warner cited a “diverse film slate” for Warner’s success in particular, pointing to its investment in both large and small films.
James Marsh, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray ( PJC – news – people ), was bullish on the sector though he mentioned that not all studios are created equal. “I think the guys that have the most exposure to theatrical [releases] seem to be holding up well,” he said. This, he pointed out, worked in favor of smaller companies.
Though small- and medium-budget films don’t necessarily have the built-in audience recognition of a Batman or Star Wars franchise, their profits are still very realistic. The Proposal, only two weeks into its run, has out-grossed Land of the Lost, a film that cost more than twice as much to produce and had the kitsch value of a campy canceled TV series behind it.
PVR raising another tranche of Private Equity while profit making ventures hold back _TYY4
Hotels begin to fill up again as Indians settle for domestic holidays _TYY4(ftags)
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck
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PVR, Mahindra Holidays coming out with IPOs _TYY4
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Innovative reopens in Bangalore _TYY4
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Hyderabad Metro has finally decided Maytas cannot execute the 12000-crore rupees project #Indian #Stocks _TYY4
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B’lore promo #1: Fast Social media updates leave you dizzy? Feel priceless about it with the New Nokia N97.. http://tr.im/twiN97 <<<Call us
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Market trend unlikely to improve. Time for value buying #Indian #Stocks Spend time at http://bit.ly/ESXFE for an insider view of the budget
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RT @zyaada Check @blrmoneytalkz for Investments #Indian #Stocks #GDOW and @urban_mash for city and lifestyle chatter
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Is Retail going to bounce back? http://bit.ly/5943b (We are at http://advantages.us)
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Market trend unlikely to improve. Good time for value buying
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$FXE Euro likely to reverse trend now and start back to 1.45
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The global credit crisis has hit the Indian entertainment industry as well, contrary to the popular opinion and consensus that entertainment and gaming industry are actually recession proof. And now an interesting theme is emerging out of all this in Bollywood.
After getting the industry status in 1998, Bollywood saw some big corporate houses(Reliance ventured in to Adlabs, Big Pictures, Big Music etc) taking some serious interest in this industry and a host of production companies(PNC, Percept Pictures, Excel Entertainment, Sahara) and distributors came into existence. As a result the industry saw a structural shift, giving rise to companies that could now produce more films in a year, could distribute them on their own and making good margins. This lifted Bollywood out of the shambles that it was in just decade ago. The effect being that Hollywood studios like Disney, Pixar, Fox want to co-produce, and invest in Indian cinema. This will automatically lead to increase in overseas sales which currently contribute roughly 10% of the total revenues.
Bollywood has also grown in size as the producers don’t need to depend on theatrical releases alone in order to recover their investment. Home videos and satellite rights were also contributing significantly to their top and bottom lines.
The studio model and an idea of having a production house was pioneered by none other than Yash Chopra himself, the biggest name in Indian cinema who has given some memorable movies like Chandni, Silsila, Kabhi kabhi etc. However, the recent years haven’t been very profitable for the company. With a host of films like Tashan, Tara Rum Pum, Kabul Express, Roadside Romeo(animated movie,co-produced by Walt Disney), Thoda Pyaar Thodi Magic all failed to perform well at the box office even after having A-list actors in their kitty for every project. The only projects that did well at the box office were noth SRK starrer ‘Chak De India’ and ‘Rab ne bana di jodi’.
YRF seems to be in serious trouble now. They recently laid-off 20 people; apparently they were executive producers. They are also stepping back from the distribution business now, as they are now turning extremely risk-averse. Due to this, Karan Johar(owner of Dharma Productions)who literally admires Yash Chopra’s work and contribution to cinema and is a close family friend, had to find new distributors(UTV Software Communications) for his upcoming releases Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Wake up Sid’ and Multi-starrer film ‘New York’. KJo managed to sell both his movies for a whopping Rs 78 cr.
But in my opinion the biggest cause of YRF’s troubles is not recession(which came in only later) but bad choice of scripts and high cost of production. They also marketed the product in a wrong way, projecting an image of something which was not the true essence of the movie, like Tashan. I guess they did take risks by giving chances to new directors and script-writers but they failed to execute things well. Some of the bets paid off well like Chak De India. But we all know that a company can’t depend on 2-3 break out successes. They have to be consistent in performance and have to market the product for what it is. And these days the ‘word of mouth’ travels 10x faster than before, Therefore a bad movie will die out more rapidly, with box office collections falling sharply in a couple of days time, with bad reviews floating all the over the internet with blogs and discussions dissecting the movie and performances, as opposed to a week’s time earlier on.
I see a leader emerging out of all this chaos though. Progressing gradually and carefully, UTV Software Communications(listed in AIM/BSE in 2005) is now one of the biggest names in the industry challenging established players in scale and box office success across different genres and budgets. They gave a bunch of hits in 2008, like Fashion, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Jodha Akbar and Race. Although Race and JA contributed 30% to the kitty, the company’s business model is to produce a mixed range of films, including small and big budget movies, signing the best talent and bringing efficiency in production costs.
UTV seems to be diversifying their portfolio of movies/IPRs pretty well, producing movies on new and old themes in order to cater to the tastes of diverse and demanding Indian audiences. They are actually carving out a niche for themselves, where people have started associating quality with their name. Although recession has hit them equally, they are not going to scale back this year. They are actually hoping to see some rationalization is their cost structure, which seems difficult, as bulk of the costs are ‘Star Costs’. If they manage to get that correction, then probably they could also get a better ROI(Return on Investment). I guess another big chunk of expenditure is marketing costs, and this has actually increased as a % of total budget of the movie, because pictures are promoted as brands these days and hence involve more investments in marketing them.
In 2008 they produced 10 movies, and this year the pipeline contains 15-16 odd films. The next big one I am really waiting for is Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminey starring Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra expected sometime in June 2009.
As a result of the economic slowdown, I can see a serious shift towards good content, efficient capital allocation and correction in star prices(Akshay Kumar charged Rs 20 cr for Tasveer, and it grossed Rs 16cr at the box office)which was making it difficult to recover costs most of the times. I guess only the strongest and the most versatile can weather this storm and one day an Indian movie produced, directed, distributed and performed by Indian artists, based on an Indian subject would get an Oscar.
Sphere: Related Content Reliance Capital who stock is almost up by more than 45 percent in just 4 trading session has informed that its looking to divest up to 26 percent in its insurance arm Reliance Life Insurance through an IPO as well as by inducting a strategic investor. Reliance Capital holds 100% in Reliance Life Insurance. Reliance Life Insurance would be valued well in excess of Rs 12,000 crore and they will have more clear picture on it in another 3 to 4 months.
Reliance Life insurance is considered to be 4th strongest in line next to ICICI, SBI Life and Bajaj Allianz. They have almost more than 10 percent share in the indian insurance market.
via <a href=’www.rupya.com’>Rupya</a>
zyakaira notes: The 3-4 insurance IPOs including ICICI Bank IPO for separating capital structures and governance would themselves bring companies with a valuation of INR 120000 Crores or around $25 Billion to the listed markets at BSE and NSE. Along with the PSUs and Infra stocks we may be adding market cap equivalent to India’s GDP in these 1-2 years and raising more than $10 billion from the markets
Adlabs Films, India’s largest multiplex chain, controlled by billionaire industrialist Anil Ambani, is launching one of the country’s biggest outsourcing businesses to service the global movie and television industries.
The new unit will digitise films and television shows from clients’ archives or libraries, restore old prints and adapt content for use in different formats, such as DVDs or mobile phones.
Its first contract is from the state-run National Film Archive of India in Pune to digitise and restore 1,000 films.
“One [area of work] is the old legacy content, which has to be converted into digital, including all these studio classics – Paramount, Mickey Mouse and all of that – and then there is all of the television content,” said Anil Arjun, chief executive officer of Adlabs.
Mr Ambani’s Reliance group is not the first Indian company to target media outsourcing, but it claims to be the largest effort yet attempted, with a dedicated workforce starting at 300 people and scaling up to 1,200 in one year.
The company says India’s competitive advantage is outsourcers’ ability to build quickly the scale necessary for large projects, such as the contract from the National Film Archive of India.
Adlabs operates 430 multiplexes in India, the US and Malaysia and has a film and media services unit specialising in post-production and processing among other things.
The company is a unit of Mr Ambani’s Reliance ADAG group, which also has a tie-up with Stephen Spielberg’s DreamWorks. It argues that its 25-year history in the film industry will enable it to trump competition from existing operators that are more experienced in outsourcing.
These include a joint venture between outsourcing company Genpact and media group NDTV, and a separate tie-up between another conventional outsourcing group Infosys BPO and TV 18, a media conglomerate.
The joint venture between Infosys and TV 18, Source18, does not have a dedicated team for media outsourcing but instead assembles teams as necessary when contracts come in.
via FT.com / India.
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