Lodha Group lays off 400 employees

Amidst rising debt which has crossed Rs 25,600 crore, and falling sales, Macrotech Developers, formerly Lodha Group, has given pink slips to around 400 employees.

However, a spokesperson for the largest realty player in India attributed the lay-offs to performance reviews.

The retrenchments at the company promoted by Mumbai BJP chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha come at a time when the economic growth has dipped to a six-year low of 5 per cent, which has led many to fear if the spectre of job losses across sectors awaits next.

The Lodha group company was downgraded with a negative outlook by two global ratings agencies last month, Moody's Investors and Service and Fitch Ratings, on concerns on liquidity and falling sales.

According to a recent ratings issued by India Ratings, a division of Fitch, the gross debt of Macrotech rose 13 percent to Rs 25,640 crore in FY19.

"The company, across its projects, gives direct and indirect employment to nearly 50,000. These lay-offs are a part of our annual performance appraisals," a spokesperson said.

The impacted jobs include mid-to-junior level employees of the company and also contractual resources, sources said.

These mid-to-junior level employees and contract workers, including engineers, architects and salespeople, were working at various projects, said the source.

The president of Association of Property Professionals, a forum of brokers, Ashwin Jain said lay-offs have become common in the realty space.

He added there was an expectation that after the elections, things would get back to normalcy, but it hasn't happened yet.