...Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Q2 and H1 FY 25 results conference call of The Phoenix Mills Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Management of the company is being represented by Mr. Shishir Shrivastava, Managing Director, Mr. Kailash Gupta, Group CFO, and Mr. Varun Parwal, Group President, Strategy, Audit, and Head, Corporate Finance. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing stars and zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to hand over the conference to Mr. Shishir Shrivastava. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to have you all here today to discuss our performance for the second quarter and half year ended September 2024 . I hope you've had a chance to look at the results presentation shared by us. The same is uploaded on the stock exchanges as well as our corporate website. Let's start with an overview of our performance on a consolidated level. In Q2 FY 25, we achieved an operating revenue of INR 918 crore, a 5% increase year-on-year. EBITDA for the quarter reached INR 518 crore, up 2% year-on-year. To provide a more accurate picture of our core business performance, we have adjusted the figures to exclude the contribution of the residential business, which is inherently variable in nature.
Excluding the residential business, we witnessed a 22% growth in operating revenue, which reached INR 870 crore rupees. EBITDA for the second quarter stood at INR 502 crore rupees, up 19%. Similarly, for the first half of FY 2025, adjusted for the residential business, operating revenues reached INR 1,742 crore rupees, up 23%, and EBITDA for the same period was at a historic high of INR 1,027 crore rupees, up by 20% on a year-on-year basis. This is the first time our EBITDA has reached the 1,000 crore mark, and we hope to see this trend continue and grow from here. Moving on to our retail portfolio.
For quarter two FY 25, retailer sales, that is consumption for Q2 FY 25, reached INR 3,279 crore, up 24% year-on-year, driven by the fast ramp-up of the newly launched malls. On a like-for-like basis, which is excluding Phoenix Mall of the Millennium, Pune, and Phoenix Mall of Asia, Bangalore, we saw consumption growth of 5%. Retail rentals for the quarter grew 22% to INR 474 crore. In line with retail rentals, retail EBITDA also increased 22% to INR 495 crore for the quarter. On a like-for-like basis, in Q2 FY 25, retail rentals and EBITDA both grew 5% compared to the same quarter in the previous year. For the first half of FY 25, retailer sales reached INR 6,496 crore, up 25% year-on-year.
Like-for-like consumption growth was 6% for the first half of FY 2025, again, excluding Phoenix Mall of the Millennium and Phoenix Mall of Asia from the mix. Retail rentals grew by 26% to INR 958 crore. Overall, retail EBITDA for H1 was INR 1,010 crore, up 27% year-on-year. On a like-for-like basis, retail rentals grew by 6% and EBITDA grew by 7%. Phoenix Mall of the Millennium and Phoenix Mall of Asia, which have been operating for nearly a year now, have demonstrated excellent consumption growth, each approaching the INR 500 crore mark in the first half of the financial year. Looking at category-wide performance, jewelry was our top performing category for the quarter, with a growth of 33% across the portfolio on a like-for-like basis. Gourmet food and hypermarket saw a growth of 12% during the quarter.
FEC and multiplex declined by 15%, primarily due to fewer blockbuster releases during the quarter. Moving on to the occupancy highlights. In September 2024 , leased occupancy across our major malls was at about 97%, and trading occupancy was almost at about 92%. Our newer malls have seen a fast ramp-up in trading occupancy with Palladium, Ahmedabad, which has achieved a strong trading occupancy level of 94%, with the multiplex commencing operations in Q2 FY 25. Within almost a year since launch, Phoenix Mall of the Millennium has reached a trading occupancy of 87% in September, and Phoenix Mall of Asia saw a trading occupancy of 78%. We also have substantial area under active fit-outs, and both these malls are on track to cross trading occupancy of over 90% in the coming months. Our future plans.
We are committed to enhancing the performance of our existing malls through active mall management and exceptional customer service, with a focus on bringing the best and the latest brands and elevating customer experience by adding more F&B and entertainment spaces. We are making significant progress towards the launch of the retail block opposite PVR at our flagship property, Phoenix Palladium, Lower Parel, Mumbai. Retailers have commenced fit-out activities, and we anticipate operationalizing this 250,000 sq ft retail GLA by the end of 2024. Our development pipeline remains robust, with approximately 3 million sq ft of retail space currently under development and slated for completion by FY 2027.
Further, I'm pleased to share that our phase one of our new city center lifestyle destination in Thane will feature a destination retail development in the range of 1.2-1.5 million sq ft of leasable area. This is as per the plans which are currently under design development. And we continue to have more FSI potential to develop other asset classes in subsequent phases. With the recent land acquisitions in Bangalore, Coimbatore and Chandigarh, Mohali during 2024, we continue to build out a strong pipeline of retail-led, mixed-use destinations going up to 2030. Looking at our commercial offices business, as of September 2024, occupancy across our operational office assets in Mumbai and Pune stood at almost 70%, with gross rentals averaging around INR 118 per sq ft.
During the first half of FY 2025, we achieved gross leasing of approximately 150,000 sq ft across our operational office assets. For Q2 FY 2025, income grew by 19% to INR 54 crore, and EBITDA was at INR 34 crore, up by 31%. For the first half, FY 2025, income stood at INR 105 crore, up 17%, and EBITDA grew by 31% to INR 66 crore. The growth in this segment was led by improved rent-generating occupancy at Art Guild House, Mumbai, and Fountainhead Towers in Pune. Looking ahead, we have initiated pre-leasing activities for Phoenix Asia Towers in Bangalore. The construction of this asset is complete, and we are awaiting the occupancy certificate. We are also nearing completion of our offices in Pune, which are Millennium Towers, and also in Chennai.
Our office developments in Bangalore, Pune and Chennai will take our commercial office portfolio to nearly five million sq ft. Our hotels have delivered a stellar performance this quarter, with the St. Regis leading the way, where occupancy improved by three percentage points to 85% for both Q2 and H1 FY 2025, driven by increased corporate events and wedding festivities in the city. This led to a 15% growth in the average room rate to INR 17,320, and a 19% increase in RevPAR to INR 14,694 for Q2 FY 2025. For the first half of the year, ARR and RevPAR at this asset grew by 7% and 11%, respectively. At Courtyard by Marriott, Agra, occupancy for Q2 FY 2025 stood at 67%.
The property achieved a 9% growth in ARR, reaching INR 4,569, and a 5% increase in RevPAR to INR 3,044 during Q2 FY 25. Looking at our residential business, for the first half of FY 25, the business achieved gross sales of 78 crore INR and collections of 125 crore INR. The average sales price across our two residential assets, One Bangalore West and Kessaku, both in Bangalore, is approximately 26,000 INR per sq ft. We currently have approximately 390,000 sq ft of ready inventory remaining to be sold at these two projects. This brings me to the end of the performance update across our businesses. Here's wishing you all a happy Diwali and a prosperous new year. I would now like to request Kailash to take you through the financial performance.
Thank you, Shishir, and good morning, everyone. Let's begin with the financial performance of our standalone business.
Sorry to interrupt, sir. Sir, can you come a little bit close to the microphone?
Okay. Is it better?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Let's begin with the financial performance of our standalone business. The Phoenix Mills, on a standalone basis, primarily consist of the Phoenix Palladium and a small component of offices at Phoenix House. For Q2, FY 2025, income from operations reached INR 116 crore, a 3% increase over the same period last year. EBITDA for the quarter remained steady at INR 72 crore, with a margin of 63%. Moving to our consolidated business, last year, we realized significant revenue and profit from sale of ready inventory in our Bangalore residential projects. Additionally, the receipt of OC for Tower Seven at One Bangalore West boosted our revenue.
Adjusted for the ready business, consolidated operational revenue across the annuity portfolio for the quarter was INR 870 crore, growing by 22% year-on-year basis. Consolidated operating EBITDA, excluding revenue, grew by 19% Y on Y basis, reaching to INR 502 crore in Q2 FY 2025. Updates on our debt and liquidity position. I'm pleased to announce that our credit rating was recently upgraded to double A positive, and with a positive outlook, reflecting our growth trajectory and disciplined financial approach. As of September 2024, our liquidity position was at INR 1,974 crore. Compared to March 2024, our group level gross debt increased marginally by 13 crore to INR 2,437 crore.
Our group level net debt position improved to INR 2,405 crore as on September 2024. The net debt to EBITDA ratio remained healthy at 1.1x, and we have successfully reduced our average cost of debt to 8.67% in the September 2024. We remain committed to reducing debt and optimize our cost of debt this year. Notably, all of our recent land acquisition has been funded entirely through internal approvals. Just to give you the perspective, our total CapEx in the first half was at INR 1,380 crore, which includes the land acquisitions of INR 740 crore and a construction cost of approximately 640 crore.
The entire funding is done from the equity, participation from CPPIB at INR 270 crore, and the balance was funded through the internal approval. So this, this show the discipline, kind of discipline which we are following in the business side. On a cash flow, for the first half of FY 2024, we generated a net cash flow of around INR 1,000 crore from operation, and during Q2 FY 2025, we generated a net cash of INR 486 crore from the operation. To provide further context, after accounting the interest payment on our existing debt, our operating free cash flow, net of taxes and interest, was at INR 380 crore. Excluding the revenue business, the operating cash flow for Q2 FY 2025 stood at INR 378 crore, a 24% increase from the same period last year.
With the upcoming festive and winter season, we remain optimistic about our performance in the second half of the year. We have a strong development pipeline in place extending up to 2027. With recent acquisition in Thane, Bangalore, Coimbatore and Chandigarh, we now have a that pipeline visibility going up to 2030, which we'll announce maybe in, you know, very shortly. We expect to double our operational annuity portfolio area between now to 2030. Leveraging our strong balance sheet, we are committed to delivering our under construction projects on time and deploying capital judiciously to expand our portfolio. This brings me to the end of the financial performance update. Wish you all a very happy Diwali, and let's get into a Q&A.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take our first question from the line of Puneet Gulati from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much, and then congratulations on nice ramp up for your new roles. My first question is, you know, if you can give some color on what you're seeing in the first 25 days of this month. How is the start of the festive season and this month in terms of consumption levels?
Hi, Puneet. Thank you for your question. You know, this month has been a bit of a mixed bucket in terms of performance across the country. With Chennai and Bangalore seeing the heavy deluge, we have seen quite an impact on consumption, perhaps to the extent of about 20 or 20 crore or so because of the rains itself. Mumbai, Pune seem to be pretty much you know moderate so far. But starting yesterday, with the two weekends of the festive season, we are you know we are quite geared up to see high footfalls and high consumption.
Also, as you are aware, you know, even in times where one generally has been seeing a decline in sales across retail brands across the country, not just in our portfolio-
Yeah.
We drive consumption slightly differently, and therefore we've not seen a degrowth, we've only seen a positive growth. As we mentioned, like-for-like growth excluding Phoenix Mall of the Millennium and Phoenix Mall of Asia, Bangalore, like-for-like growth is in the range of about 7%-9%, averaging there. This is for the month of October despite the rains in Bangalore and Chennai.
... And that should, that's helpful. Just a small observation here. In your other category for last quarter, there's a sharp 21% decline. I know it's a small part of your overall business, but what all does it capture?
What all does others capture?
Yeah.
Other income would typically be parking income, marketing income, and, you know, event space rentals, et cetera.
Okay. Understood, and secondly, if you can comment upon, you know, you've done three acquisitions of late and some progress on Thane side as well, so Coimbatore, Mohali, Thane, if you can give some sense of what are the rentals on which you've underwritten the retail portfolio, and what is the total area you're looking to build there?
I would like to put it like this, that we are looking at our business plan is underwritten with conservative rentals.
Yeah.
Right? But, despite that, I would say that by the third year of operation, we should be in the range of about a 14% yield on cost. We have underwritten the rentals looking at what are the rentals in competitive malls in that vicinity, and we've kind of just used that as our base approach, though we typically track, you know, maybe 15% higher than what the market average would be.
Understood. And lastly, if you can comment on the progress on your office leasing side.
Office leasing has seen a good progress. We've, as you can see, our EBITDA, our gross revenue and EBITDA is up, significantly compared to the previous year. We are waiting to get the OC in Bangalore. It's about 800 and odd, 800 odd thousand sq ft of GLA. We have, transactions which are, in place and, will get executed soon after OC, for about, I think about 200,000 sq ft almost, and a lot of discussions in pipeline. Historically, Bangalore has seen the highest ever leasing in the country in this, first half, in this, financial year, and, we are, happy to see the traction find its way to our asset as well.
Okay. And Pune side?
Pune, under development, I think, we may be about, six months away from, OC. So we are also actively in the marketing phase there. There has been a lot of site visits, a lot of RFPs, which are under discussion now. So we will report, you know, as soon as we have confirmations, we will let you know what area has already been signed up.
Understood. That's very helpful. Thank you so much, and all the best on the share value.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Praveen Choudhary from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for taking my question. Hi, Shishir. Hi, Kailash. Hi, Varun. Congratulations on, again, good results. I'm looking at just one number, and I'm trying to decode as much as possible, so please indulge if you can, so I'm looking at the PAT number, which is net profit after minority interest. And when I look at last quarter, it was down 3% year over year. This quarter is down 14% year- over- year. Again, obviously there is a residential angle to it. So two questions there. One is, how should we think about the residential business margin for you? Is it a 5% margin like business or 15%? And then second thing is that, you have given us, excluding residential EBITDA growth, I think probably for the first time.
Would you ensure that you will continue to give, or can you give retroactively before so that, that's a real way to understand the growth? And the reason to... There's a disconnect between these two, because if you remove the residential part of the business, it's nicely growing the IT business, both in EBITDA and revenue terms. But as I said, in the mall, even if I remove the residential part with some assumption of margin, it still shows year-over-year decline. So can you just help us reconcile that? Thank you.
Okay, Praveen, I'm going to try and respond to a couple of questions and a few you'll have to repeat again, because that's, you know, that was a long, long list of many questions. Firstly, yes, in Q1, we had disclosed the EBITDA numbers without excluding the resi business, and we will continue to do that as we've done in Q2 as well and going forward. I just want to clarify that, for us, 390,000 sq ft in Bangalore. Our margin is 3%-50%, so that it's not a declining margin business for us, or this is already inventory, we've already incurred all the costs there.
Even when we are looking at the development in Kolkata, the residential development in Kolkata, the margins are, you know, would be similar in a similar range or maybe 5-10% here, less than that, but it's not a 5% or a 10% or a 15% margin business for us. Would you like to repeat your question?
Sure, sure. Both are helpful information. I was not talking about EBITDA margin. I was thinking of net margin, because one of the main questions I have is, your EBITDA growth is fine, like for like, or excluding residential, that's very strong. We are talking about PATMI growth, which is where, because of minority interest, maybe minority interest is growing very fast. Those malls which are JV projects are doing very well. That's why there's a disconnect between the speed at which you're growing on the top line, and EBITDA is not showing up in my net profit line. And I'm trying to reconcile it, and that's why I was using that.
Yeah.
A few lines on what has impacted the net profit margin. One is, our liquidity has reduced, so our other income from interest and investments, et cetera, has certainly reduced. The taxes have gone up because in many of our newer malls, we have, you know, we don't have any debt and, or very nominal debt, so the tax impact is high. In the older malls, we have utilized, you know, accrued losses, so taxes have started, you know, increasing. So these are a few of the lines which have impacted our net profit, if you were to look at it. I didn't quite get the point on the JV businesses, because we do consolidate all the numbers.
We own majority, more than 50% in all of our JVs, so we are consolidating all the lines there. I don't think that-
Right.
Perhaps you're looking at after the, you know, minority shareholders' interest. So yes, there is a, you know, in the case of the CPPIB JV, there is a 49% sharing of there. And in the case of our joint venture with GIC, there is a 33% share that they have. Having said that, you know, I would also like to point out a very interesting fact here. All of our operating assets, excluding the ones which are new, where we have certainly built out all the remaining asset classes, but all of our assets, which are currently generating 200+ crore of revenue or of rental income or even EBITDA, these numbers are coming out of about 1 million or 1.2 million sq ft of GLA.
All of them have the potential of additional FSI, which we are exploiting and we are constructing and building, and they will each become, you know, developments in the range of three to five million sq ft. So you can imagine the potential growth arising out of these additional area, which is all, you know, being, which are all annuity assets. For example-
Mm-hmm.
If you look at Phoenix MarketCity, Bangalore, we have about one point two million sq ft of retail space currently. We're adding another five hundred odd thousand sq ft. We have the Grand Hyatt Hotel coming there. We have the offices block coming there. Plus, we've acquired the adjacent land, which once we are able to amalgamate, that will give us a further potential of another two million, one point two million, one point five million, somewhere in that range. So the incremental cost for developing these asset classes are very low because we own the land. Yes, you are paying for premium FSI and construction, but the return or the yield on all of this is going to be significantly higher.
All of this is playing out between now and 2027, where we've explained how our portfolio is going to grow. This is an important factor I would like you to bear in mind, which will obviously have a significant impact on our PAT going forward.
Makes sense. Thank you so much. I mean, I guess, the strategy is unquestionably correct. We also see that recent land acquisitions will ensure the visibility till 2030 in terms of newer malls and newer offices coming through. Some investors do ask, "Is there a gap between now and 2027?" and probably that you are trying to answer that question by saying some of the FSI you will explore it. But is there something you want to talk about between now and 2027, when either Surat or Kolkata comes through, and after that it looks very smooth, that we can see some slowdown? Meaning that there is the gap between the reported growth and the like for like growth will narrow, means they will be similar, which will reduce the overall growth for the company.
We understand the office coming through, and we understand the Palladium extensions coming through, but still it won't be same as what we have seen in the last twelve months, where you have four new malls coming in. Is there anything to fill up that gap?
Yes. So, offices are all, as we mentioned, going to be operational between, let's say, you know, we should get the OC in about a month's time in Bangalore or six months' time for the first phase in Millennium Towers, another four months thereafter for the second phase of Millennium Towers. So incremental area, and of course, Chennai as well, we have another five hundred thousand sq ft of offices in Chennai, which will come online. We have Palladium, as I mentioned, another two hundred and fifty thousand sq ft, which will be operational very, very soon. So over the next 24 months, I think every quarter you're going to see maybe two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand sq ft becoming operational of either retail or office.
So I think that these are certainly going to help bridge the gap. There could be maybe a one quarter, you know, impact because between leasing and trading, so one can, but one can safely assume that there is a significant growth coming out of these inorganically through these expansions.
That is very reassuring. Thank you so much. And, again, happy Diwali in advance to everyone in the management team.
Thank you so much, Praveen. Happy Diwali to you!
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to answer queries from all participants, kindly restrict your questions to two at a time. You may join back the queue for follow-up questions. We'll take the next question from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, Shishir. Congratulations on a decent quarter. Shishir, my first question is on consumption. We have seen a decline of 4% in Palladium, 2% in Bangalore, so Pune also 5% and 3% in Palladium, Chennai. I just wanted to understand if you can help us with some data points over the last few months, so how has been the revenue share and the minimum guarantee tracking? Is there a divergence building between the two now because of the slowdown in sales of the retailer? And would that in any way impact our... I mean, will they come back to us and negotiate again for a lower rate if they are not able to do well in their portfolio?
Hi, Parikshit. Thank you for your question. So in the last twelve months, generally, I would say minimum guarantee at an average across our malls may have gone up by about 10%. And as we know that, you know, in the last quarter or last two quarters, retail consumption has been muted. We've seen a growth in our malls. It's not been there pan-India in other standalone stores, et cetera. But so I would say a 5% growth, 5%-7% growth is what we have seen. Consequently, because the minimum guarantee, and you are very well familiar with our model, Parikshit, every cycle of three years, you see that, you know, MG moves up and catches up with the incremental rent that we get out of the revenue share.
So it takes another two quarters or three quarters before the revenue share starts moving up again. So perhaps we may see an impact of the slow consumption across the country, but we are confident that with our initiatives, it may be a two quarter lag, but again, we will start seeing incremental rents being contributed out of revenue share as the consumption moves up.
Okay, but you are seeing some divergence between the two, so revenue share is tracking down and MG is tracking higher, so over this period?
No, it's not tracking down or tracking higher. It. This is the way our model has worked over the last 20 years. Every three years, you see a significant jump, as you know, you end, as contracts near end of tenure, and you enter into renewals, or even within five-year contracts, at the end of three years, there's a significant jump in MG. So this is the way the model is. MG moves up, then it takes and catches up with the overall rent that we were deriving as a combination of MG plus the incremental rent from rev share. So when MG moves up, it catches up to that. That becomes the new base, and over a period of two or three quarters, consumption then tracks up and starts contributing further incremental rent.
See, typically, we've always seen an average of incremental rent being in the range of about 11%-12% over and above the minimum guarantee. So we remain confident that over a period, we will be at that, we will continue to be at that.
Okay. So second question is on the multiplexes, which is about 14% of the tenant mix, and F&B 11%. So on one end, we have seen both multiplexes tracking down by almost 11% in consumption, and F&B has been muted 0% to 2%. So they take up almost 25% of the area, but they're not growing, and both are interrelated. Though they contribute very low, I mean, mall multiplex is about 4% to the consumption, but still occupying a lot of space, and we've not been getting good content and a blockbuster content of late, for some time now. So, and I think you did mention that you are looking at adding more area under this umbrella.
So, given that, how do you see growth coming in when large part of the area will not contribute towards rental growth or consumption growth?
Hi, Parikshit, Varun Parwal. I think just clarifying on the first part, family entertainment centers, which comprise of retailers like a Timez one or a Play 'N' Learn or Game Palacio or other gaming centers, is at about 5-6% of our overall retail leasable area at this point in time, and multiplexes are at about 8-9%. The family entertainment centers, of course, you know, have been seeing a very strong growth, and they have been acting as crowd pullers, and they have been helping us increase the dwell time that consumers have.
... And multiplexes for, you know, reasons that have been discussed in various other forums, they have seen a bit of impact on consumption because of the sort of content that's coming out. But I think as we look forward, we see the content pipeline increasing and improving, and we are seeing a lot of blockbuster lineups scheduled now for the period from November to March. So we are hopeful that it's, it's, we are through the worst of the cycle for the multiplexes, and going forward, we should start seeing improving numbers. And at the same time, with our family entertainment centers and our own in-house Fan Park and open spaces, we have done a lot of events for which the response has been, you know, phenomenal across cities.
That continues to act as, you know, getting people an experiential revenue to come and spend time in the mall.
Okay. So, just on that, this is the last question on this Thane thing. So now we have two large malls in the vicinity, from about two-kilometer radius. And, I understand one of the peers has, who has bought a land nearby, is looking to sell, in the market to sell the land where he was planning to build a multiplex. So what gives us confidence that, you know, in a market where already two large assets are there, one peer is looking to exit, so what gives us confidence that, again, we can repeat Phoenix Market City kind of a model in this micro market?
Yeah, I think it's going to be an interesting development to see how Thane is shaping up. We believe that there is, Thane does have the, you know, the size of the market to, can absorb another one or two million sq ft of retail, retail GLA. We are going to clearly build something which is best-in-class, new age. We are going to be leveraging our relationships with the brands to get the best brand mix over here. When we purchase, you know, typically before we acquire any land, we do extensive research and extensive conversations with our brand partners who lead the mall occupancy, global and Indian brand partners.
We have a lot of interest from the best of brands to be a part of this mall. We are very, very conscious of the competition there, and clearly our efforts are going to be to build the best asset that there is in that micro market for time to come, and that should, you know, that will be the foundation of driving our success.
What is your rental year, kind of, starting rentals?
We have underwritten our rentals in the range of about INR 175, but that's only for the business plan and for, you know, for the acquisition, evaluation and feasibility. We're confident that the market is going to be closer to about INR 180-200, in that range. I think that puts us in a very, very, very good space.
Okay. Okay, Shishir, thank you, and wish you a happy Diwali. That's all from my side.
Thank you very much. Wish you a very happy Diwali, too, Parvez.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Parvez Qazi from Nuvama Group. Please go ahead. Mr. Qazi, can you please unmute your line?
Yeah, hi. Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. So my first question is regarding the Thane land parcel. When do we see the completion timeline for the mall, which we intend to develop in the first phase? Second is with regards to the Kolkata residential project, what could be a potential launch timeline there? And third, at a slightly broader overall level, I mean, slowdown in urban consumption has been talked for now last couple of quarters. We have, in fact, done quite well. So what additionally can we do in terms of either category mix change or other things which we can try to kind of tackle this situation? Thank you.
Thane, if I may just clarify, Parvez, your first question was on Thane? I couldn't hear you very clearly.
So, the completion timeline for the Thane Mall?
Okay, so we are currently, you know, in advanced design development stages. I think we will go into approvals, maybe in the next month and a half or so. Typically, it may take a quarter or so to get the approvals. I would think that we should be in a position to break ground in about six months from now. Typically, the first phase, which is the mall, takes about four years to build out, and so in about four and a half years, one can expect that, you know, the mall will be ready for retailers to do their fit outs and soon after that, commence their construction operations.
Sure. For the Kolkata residential project?
Kolkata residential, we expect to launch this in Q1 FY 26, sometime in April next year. And, the pre-marketing activities will start even, probably in the last quarter of this financial year.
Sure. And regarding the overall urban consumption thing, what can be done?
... we will continue to focus on what we do best, and which is make sure that, you know, see, we've continually been very innovative in the way we are driving the right profile of customers to our malls, and driving consumption. And we're going to continue to do that. We have some excellent lineups of some large, you know, events, performances at all our malls with great artists, a lot of F&B-based events. We did, I don't know if you're aware, we did the MasterChef, you know, we did the MasterChef event in Bangalore, where we had the judge, the 12 judges from Australia visit us, and this ran over three days. All three days were sold out. Tickets were priced at INR 6,000 a head, and they were all sold out.
So these are the quality of events that we run there, which drives the, you know, which drives consumption. Over and above that, we have the best of artists performing on across our destinations. We have the best experiential events, decor, which all is driving consumption. So we will continue to do that and continue to do that the best way we can. Which is why, again, if you just correlate with retailers' pan-India consumption and versus the store consumption recorded by their stores in our malls, you will see that they track far, far, far better than they do across the country.
Sure. Thanks and all good.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we'd like to remind participants to press star and one to ask a question. Next question is from the line of Kunal Lakhan from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking the question. Just on the consumption side, right? If you look at the-
Sorry, Kunal, can you use the answer mode? Yeah.
Is it better?
Yes, Kunal, please go ahead.
Yeah, sure. So, just on the consumption side, so if you just consider like the malls, which have been stable, like, in terms of, say, occupancy is above 90%. So if you exclude, say, Ahmedabad, which saw uptick in the occupancy as well as, you know, trading density, the overall consumptions, rather same-store consumption, was like, say, less than 3% up. Right? How does this like, you know, how should one look at this number like, you know, going ahead, right? Now, I remember in the past, you've spoken about, like, you know, your mature malls should clock somewhere in the range of, like, double-digit consumption growth on a steady-state basis.
How do you look at this number now, you know, in context of, like, the slowdown that we are seeing overall in consumption across India? I understand your consumption at your malls is doing better, but, you know, overall slowdown is there. So how do you see this number for steady-state malls going ahead?
Kunal, you have to actually look at historically how we've trended over the last 15 years, and we've typically been in that double-digit growth for the last 15 years. I believe that, with our, you know, simply with the way people, the way our shoppers are growing in numbers over a period of time, I think this, to me, personally, this may be a blip for a couple of quarters, fueled by many reasons. Whether it is, you know, the pricing inflation in retail, whether it is, generally, you know, we had elections and you had dry days and all of that this year.
I think it's a blip that one may see for a couple of quarters, but again, over the long run, I, we remain confident to see double-digit growth in consumption across the board. And we are conscious of the fact that, as, you know, the malls age, as the market actually continues to, you know, at some point it's not going to keep growing, but there is going to be some kind of a leveling off in consumption trends. So we focus on how we're going to grow the business, and we continue to focus on looking at new geographies where we can enter. And, I think that strategy has played out well in times where organic growth has been moderate, but we are-
Okay, and just to understand, like, now, this, let's say, 10%, double-digit consumption growth, how do you, you know, break this up in terms of, like, say, in terms of pricing led, in terms of volume led, volume of footfall led, how do you, you know, break that up internally for yourself?
Okay. If we just look at Phoenix MarketCity, Mumbai, right, which has recorded double-digit growth. We've seen the bringing in new brands and new categories as well. We've seen F&B with cafes and bars showing a significant increase in consumption. Return to the multiplexes are weighted because that, that I think is going to fuel more consumption. But hopefully with new blockbusters being released, that will play out well. We got Decathlon in at the Phoenix MarketCity, Kurla again, which is under fit out. This is going to certainly bring in a different category and a new brand in driving that. Interestingly, as the occupancy of the offices continues to grow, that keeps adding, you know, captive audience to the mall for the entertainment and F&B.
And that category, that again, is going to, you know, aid consumption growth. So similarly, again, as we see the mall, the office occupancy of Fountainhead Tower Three in Phoenix MarketCity, Viman Nagar, that will aid consumption as well. As Phoenix Asia Towers, 800-odd thousand sq ft get occupied in Bangalore, that will aid the consumption at Mall of Asia. So there are multiple strategies at play here, which help us, you know, get into a 10-11% kind of a growth.
Sure, sure. And my second question was on the Tier 2 city opportunity, right? I mean, we have seen some capital deployment there in the last few years, and, you know, particularly in last quarter, also, Coimbatore and Chandigarh. So how should we look at incrementally, you know, on the capital deployment side? How much would be the focus towards Tier 2 towns? And just in overall, you know, just view on the whole-
We've been very clear about our growth strategy and cities which are, you know, of interest. I think it's repeated in every investor presentation, and we are simply going with that and checkboxing that. You can see Thane, Coimbatore, Chandigarh have been checked boxed. We still are looking for options in Hyderabad, NCR, Navi Mumbai, Goa, Jaipur, Kochi. These are markets that we believe are, you know, well worth our investment, and we'll see. We should achieve our target growth of target yields of 14-15% on mall stabilization in each of these locations, you know, after three years of operations, and steadily increasing and going up to 20% thereafter. So we've been quite clear.
If you are asking us what is our Tier 2 strategy, just look at the Slide number 10 on our presentation, and I'll-
In the corporate presentation.
Sorry. Which, which presentation?
This is in the corporate presentation.
Look at the Slide number 10 of our corporate presentation, and you will see the cities of interest. These are the cities that we're focused on.
Sure. Understood. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as the last question for today. On behalf of The Phoenix Mills Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.