Dear Stakeholders,
I hope that you and your families are safe and doing well. The second wave of Covid-19
had hit the world including India hard and caught everyone off-guard. The ferocity of the
second wave was much more severe than the first one and it also led to greater learning,
and there were some key takeaways for all of us. It is abundantly clear by now that
vaccination is the key to manage this pandemic, achieving herd immunity along with
adopting covid protocols like social distancing, wearing masks and regularly sanitising
hands can only prevent repeated outbreak of the virus. We at Ashiana are encouraging all
our employees and their family members to get vaccinated by organising camps and other
means. In-house Maintenance is the key differentiator for company and one of the critical
tasks was to ensure continuity of operations in all our projects and keeping the residents
safe during this pandemic. We kept on engaging with our customers on a regular basis and
ensured smooth conduct of all the maintenance activities in the projects by strictly
adhering to the Covid protocols.
The previous year was a difficult year for the sector due to unprecedented impact
lockdown had on our operations in the first quarter of the previous year. Despite all
these challenges, I am pleased to share that, area booked in FY21 was 14.97 lakhs
sq. ft. and 1,131 units were booked during the previous year with a sales value of H
534.68 crores. This was primarily due to successful launch of Ph-4 of Ashiana Shubham in
Chennai and Ph-3 of Ashiana Daksh, Ph-5 of Ashiana Umang in Jaipur and complete sale out
of Ph-2 of Ashiana Aditya in Jamshedpur.
On the construction front, we recorded an EAC (Equivalent Area Constructed) of 11.66
lakhs sq. ft. (AHL: 8.76 lakhs sq. ft. and Partnerships: 2.90 lakhs sq. ft.). Our
construction has been generally in line with our commitment. We have been previously
selective and conservative in launch of new phases and had kept our phase size smaller to
keep construction in check and conserve precious working capital. However, with
improvement in sales and new launches in future, our construction commitments will also
increase. We stay committed with our brand promise timely delivery of homes to our
customers. Every year we take a central theme in our organisation and the same is driven
with utmost passion and dedication across all levels. It gives me immense pleasure to
share with you that for the financial year 2021-22 we have taken up execution i.e.
construction as our central theme. Its called
‘‘Need for Speed - Construction Mania 2021-22".
Our target for construction in the current year is higher than what we have achieved
anually in the last 5 years. This ambition is in line with our robust sales in last 2
years which has increased our construction commitments.
Operational Cash Flows, significantly improved at positive H 171.65 crores in FY2021
vis a vis last year positive at H 34.22 crores due to healthy collections received from
newly launched as well as existing projects during the previous year.
Owing to the continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the times ahead are uncertain
but the resilience and tenacity of the company and its employees fuels the ambition to
reach greater heights. With the second wave peakinginQ1ofFY2022,thesector might confront
similar challenges as in FY2021. There has been a rise in commodity prices like steel and
cement which has increased our construction costs. We are hopeful that the adverse impact
due to increased costs can be off setted by increase in sales prices in our projects,
going froward. There is a favorable environment of customer affordability coupled with
very low interest rates and stamp duty waiver in few states which augurs well for the
industry. We have a strong financial position and cash flow visibility for giving a
healthy performance in future. We have been able to create a pipeline of projects in our
areas of operations and once successfully launched, these projects will create a virtuous
cycle of cash flows and profits in the time to come.
The team at Ashiana is truly exceptional and passionate in taking forward the vision of
the organisation in our endeavour to run business in a transparent, customer centric and
sustainable manner.
I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank my management team for the
exceptional efforts they have made throughout the year to ensure strong performance in an
adverse environment. I would also like to thank our joint venture partners, valued
customers, business associates and suppliers for their unwavering support and trust.
Finally, a big vote of thanks to all our investors for their continued belief in our
company.
With best wishes
Vishal Gupta
Managing Director