Raheja-Lupin land negotiations fall apart

MUMBAI: With slowdown hitting the realestate sector, land deals appear to be falling like ninepins. The latest deal tocome unstuck is one involving the K Raheja Universal group andLupin.Sources told TOI that negotiations between the two parties forpart of Lupin's land at Boisar in Tarapur, Thane district, has fallen throughprimarily because of the prevailing uncertainty in the real estatemarket.While officials from K Raheja Universal did not respond to aTOI query on the deal, Lupin's spokesperson, replying to an email questionnaire,said: "Lupin is an innovation-led transnational pharmaceutical company with nointerest in real estate."Incidentally, Lupin had some years ago soldits Bandra Talkies property to a real estate developer. An analyst with aforeign brokerage house covering the firm said Lupin had, at one time, largetracts of land. "The real estate market then crashed. Slowly over the years,Lupin managed to sell most of its properties. It could well be considering thesame now," he said. Lupin has entered the league of the top five Indianpharmaceutical firms. The company hopes to be a $1 billion company by the end ofthe current financial year.It is not just Lupin alone which ishaving to bear brunt of the real estate downturn. Other deals which have hit thedirt in the recent past include Orbit Corporation's deal for a Rs 600 croreproperty with Kotak Realty Fund and Citra Developers and Rs 676-crore bid forthe 134 crore Pal-Peugeot land at Dombivli-Kalyan.