Raymond looks to double real estate business in 4 years

After demerging and listing the lifestyle business in 2024, Gautam Singhania-led textile maker Raymond is set to list its real estate business come July 1. The company is also looking to vastly expand the real estate business across the Mumbai metropolitan region and will also target the Pune market, Raymond Realty's CEO Harmohan Sahni tells the THE WEEK.

"If you look at the GDV (gross development value), currently what I have signed, that pipeline is ₹40,000 crore. Out of that, we have already launched ₹10,500 crore worth GDV. We are expecting that each year we should be adding ₹6,000-8,000 crore of GDV going forward, which translates to about 15 per cent addition every year on our existing GDV," he explained.

Raymond had entered the real estate business back in 2019, when it had decided to monetise the vast land parcel that it had in Thane, where it earlier had its factory. Of the 100 acre of land that it had started with there, its currently developing around 40 acre, with 60 acre still to be developed.

While the development of the Thane land bank will continue, Raymond is also expanding in other areas of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Earlier this year, it announced a residential project in Wadala, Mumbai and also partnered to develop a project in Mahim. It is also developing a project in the suburb of Bandra. It will follow an asset-light business model to expand in the real estate business.

"Currently as a strategy, our entire expansion is joint development-led. So JDAs (joint development agreements) are our preferred choice. We are not looking to buy land anywhere. The key reason for that is it preserves the capital and also gives me the opportunity to expand much more with the same capital," Sahni said.

It will target 4-5 new micro markets in the MMR region and also explore potential opportunities in Pune. Raymond may have entered the real estate business from the perspective of land-monetisation, in Thane, but its now a full-fledged mainline business for Raymond, according to Sahni and has the potential to be among the largest business in the group, he added.

"We are looking to double our size in the next 3.5-4.0 years. That will put us in a different trajectory and different league in terms of revenue and profit," he noted.

The company is looking at a 20 per cent annual growth over the next 3-4 years. In the financial year 2024-25, Raymond Realty had reported a revenue of ₹2,313 crore, up 45 per cent from a year ago. Its full year EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) had risen 37 per cent to ₹507 crore.

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