Good evening, everyone. A very warm welcome to all the Embassy REIT's first quarter of FY 2027 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Our speakers will address your questions during the question and answer session at the end. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce our host for today's conference, Sakshi Garg, Head of Investor Relations and Strategy for Embassy REIT. Ma'am, you may begin.
Thank you. Welcome, everyone, to the first quarter FY 2027 earnings call for Embassy REIT. Embassy REIT released its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, a short while back. As is our standard practice, we have placed our financial results, earnings presentation discussing our performance, and a supplemental financial and operating data book in the investors section of our website at www.embassyofficeparks.com.
As always, we would like to inform you that management may make certain comments on this call that one could deem forward-looking statements. Please be advised that the REIT's actual results may differ from these statements. Embassy REIT does not guarantee these statements or results and is not obliged to update them at any time.
Specifically, any financial guidance and pro forma information that we provide on this call are management estimates based on certain assumptions and have not been subjected to any audit review or examination procedures.
You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information, and there can be no assurance that we'll be able to achieve the same. Joining me today are Amit Shetty, our CEO, and Abhishek Agrawal, our CFO. We'll start off with brief remarks on our business and financial performance, and then open the floor to questions. Over to you, Amit.
Thank you, Sakshi. Good evening, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our quarter one results. We're happy to report a strong start to FY 2027 with another successful quarter. We delivered a robust financial performance, growing our revenue and our NOI by 17% and our DPU by 9% year-on-year. On the leasing front, we signed 1.3 million square feet across 17 deals, welcoming 10 new occupiers into our portfolio. What really stands out is the quality and profile of these tenants.
Majority of them are large global enterprises with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion. A significant number of them are deeply embedded in the AI ecosystem, spanning sectors like semiconductor, cybersecurity, robotics and automation, and networking infrastructure. Beyond the new entrants, established GCCs continued to expand. Over 60% of India's GCCs leasing during the quarter was by these existing companies.
Their growth is being increasingly led by an influx of newer functions and a mandate to drive innovation and efficiency on a global scale. With over 250,000 AI or machine learning professionals already employed within the Indian GCCs, India has emerged as the largest hub for this talent outside the U.S. Bangalore, in particular, remains central to this narrative, and we believe it will play a pivotal role in the strategic AI build-outs for these global organizations. Market data continues to validate this thesis.
India's office sector recorded its highest ever absorption this quarter at 23 million square feet, up 14% quarter-on-quarter and 12% year-on-year. Not surprisingly, 44% of this was contributed by GCCs and around 30% was led by Bangalore. With this backdrop, let me delve deeper into our quarter one leasing performance.
We leased a total of 1.3 million square feet during this quarter, including 0.7 million square feet of new leases and 0.6 million square feet of renewals. GCC contributed up to 81% of our total leasing with this demand primarily driven by telecom, technology, research, consulting, and analytics sector. 86% of our new leasing was contributed by 10 new entrants in our occupier register. Interestingly, of this, 21% demand was driven by AI-related sectors.
Turning to rent reversions, we achieved 10% combined leasing spread in quarter one and continued to lease above market rents. New leasing during the quarter were signed at an average of 8% premium to the market rents, reflecting the strong occupier demand and pricing power embedded in our portfolio. Let me now give you a closer look at Embassy Manyata, our flagship asset.
For newer blocks in this asset, we are signing leases at above INR 125 per month, implying around 20% premium to the market rents. Over the last two years, we've increased the in-place rent of this asset by around 16% and expanded occupancy by 10 percentage points to 93%. Around 0.5% of vacancy in this asset is in Block H1, which is currently undergoing refurbishment and is due for completion within the next three months. We have a robust leasing pipeline for the entire block and are targeting to convert it within this financial year.
Overall, as of June 26, we maintained our portfolio occupancy at 90% with now four out of five cities at overall 90% occupancy level. A few other quick updates. During the quarter, we completed the construction of 0.6 million square feet Block 1 at Embassy Splendid TechZone in Chennai.
This building is fully leased, and we expect to receive the occupancy certificate by the end of next month. Our total development pipeline now stands at 6.2 million square feet with around 60% already pre-leased for delivery scheduled over the next 24 months. We've also launched a new hotel last month, a 211 key, four-star Hilton Garden Inn at Embassy Tech Village. I'm happy to report that this hotel has clocked ADRs of over INR 19,000 for the full first month of its opening.
Another 318 key, five-star Hilton Hotel, a 37,000 convention center, and a 75,000 square feet of retail area at the same complex are all slated for launch during the course of the year. Also today, we have announced that Four Seasons will conclude its management of the hotel at Embassy ONE in Bangalore, with effect from February 28th, 2027.
We are currently evaluating potential new hospitality operators and look forward to finalizing a new partner in the near term. We are pleased to have been included in some of the new launch domestic indices, the Nifty REITs & Realty Index, the Nifty REITs & InvITs 90:10 Index, and the BSE REITs and Commercial Real Estate Index.
These benchmarks are expected to pave the way for launch of new index link products, support greater market visibility, and broader investor participation. We are also look forward to securing inclusion in the mainstream domestic equity indices in the upcoming rebalancing cycle. From a return standpoint, Embassy REIT delivered a total returns of 19% in the last 12 months, driven by 12% price appreciation, 7% distribution yield.
These returns are particularly noteworthy in the context of a broader equity markets, which generated negative returns over the same period, reinforcing the stable and differentiated risk-return characteristics of the REIT product. Our unit holder base has continued to grow steadily and has now surpassed the 150,000 mark. I will now hand over to Abhishek to present our financial updates.
Thank you, Amit, and good evening, everyone. Let me take you through the financial highlights for the quarter. We delivered strong double-digit year-over-year growth and reported our highest ever revenue and NOI. We grew both our revenue and NOI by 17% year-over-year to INR 1,241 crore and INR 1,020 crore respectively. This increase was mainly driven by an uptick in our portfolio occupancy and rentals, as well as the new buildings delivered during the previous year.
Our hotel segment NOI grew by 6% year-over-year with an occupancy uptick of 100 basis points to 61%, as well as an ADR growth of 5%. Our solar plant continued to run at optimum capacity and generated 44 million units in Q1, and recorded a stabilized quarterly NOI of INR 23 crore. We declared distributions of INR 598 crore or INR 6.31 per unit for the quarter, representing a 9% year-over-year growth.
This increase was driven by an uptick in our NOI, which was partially offset by the higher interest expense. During the quarter, we raised around INR 3,045 crore of debt at 7.46% per annum blended interest rate through a combination of commercial papers, NCD and bank loans.
Post this, our net debt stood at INR 21,879 crore, implying a 31% leverage ratio at 7.3% average in place interest rate. Around 60% of our debt book is locked in at fixed rates. Lastly, on the forward financial outlook. Based on our YTD performance, we remain on track to achieve our FY 2027 guidance. We continue to expect our NOI to be in the range of INR 4,150 crore-INR 4,350 crore, and DPU to be in the range of INR 27-INR 28.6 per unit.
At midpoint, this guidance implies a 13% growth in NOI and a 10% growth in DPU on a year-on-year basis. We remain committed to delivering this growth to our unitholders while optimizing our balance sheet and maintaining strong cash flows. With this, let's now move to Q&A, please.
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 the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question.
We would also request participants to restrict their questions to two per participant. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Girish Choudhary from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of performance. My first question is on the DPU guidance and the quarterly run rate, right? I mean, this quarter was INR 6.31. I mean, the full year guidance, like you mentioned, was INR 27-INR 28.6. This implies a meaningful step up for the rest of the year in terms of quarterly distribution. If you can just highlight the specific drivers of this acceleration, like anything for us to understand on the working capital or the taxes. That would be my first question.
Any other question that you have, Girish?
The other one would be in terms of the Splendid TechZone. You mentioned about OC coming in a month from now. When should we build the rentals to start from that asset once the OC comes in? The third one is on the Four Seasons transition. If you can just explain us what prompted the change and incrementally what type of operator or positioning you are evaluating. Should we expect any closure or renovation expenses as and when the transition happens? Yeah. These are my questions.
Girish, the first question on guidance. See, we are on track to meet the guidance. If you look at the INR 6.31 that we are distributing this quarter, if you compare it with the previous year's same June quarter, it is 9% higher. At midpoint, we have guided around 10% higher. What typically happens is the property tax gets paid during the first quarter, hence, the first quarter number looks a little lower, but it catches up. That has been the trend always, and we are confident that this year also, we will be able to meet the guidance.
Moving on, Girish, onto the second question regarding the Splendid TechZone. This is block 1. The construction is fully complete, Girish. We are just waiting for the occupancy certificate from the authorities, which we expect between 15th of August to 30th of August. Right. To your second part of the same question regarding there is a rent-free. I would not like to discuss the quantum of the rent-free, but it's a standard rent-free as per market practice. Moving on to the third question regarding the FS transition.
It was a mutual decision between us and Four Seasons to part ways, we've just secured the board approval to execute the termination agreement. We will now go out into the market and solicit a new operator for this hotel, in due course, we'll come back and update the market. There will be some upgrade cost.
It's too early for us to comment on the upgrade cost. We will come back and update the market in due course, once we have finalized the operator. Hope that answers.
Yeah, sure. This is helpful. Thank you, and all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Yashas Gilganchi from Bank of Baroda Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thank you for taking my questions. I see that you have approximately 13 million square foot of potential acquisition opportunities. I'm trying to understand what drives the decision to acquire a ROFO asset. Is it largely contingent on the sponsor? When it comes to third-party acquisitions, how do you describe the current market? What I'm trying to understand is what would make you decide to acquire an operational asset?
We've always maintained the fact that there are three principles on which we acquire our assets. The fundamental principle being that it has to be in the top six cities of the country and in the relevant micro market where there is corporate leasing activity. That's the first one. The second one being the asset quality should match our current asset quality, and the third one being that it should be DPU accretive.
If it meets these criteria is when we actually acquire these assets. Having said that, both we are looking at sponsor and third-party acquisitions like we've disclosed in the past. This 12 million square feet-13 million square feet of pipeline is across these five cities in India. Hope that answers.
Yes. Thanks. With approximately 50% of your outstanding debt maturing over the next three years, do you expect to refinance a larger portion of your debt into fixed rates? Also, how do you expect your average cost of debt to trend over this period?
Yes. As of now, we have around 60% of our debt, which we have moved to fixed cost. We'll continue to see where the interest rate trajectory is, and based on that, we will decide. At one point of time, the fixed rate debt was almost around 66%-67% of our portfolio. I think if we get good rate, we can go to that. If we see that the interest rate trajectory is moving upwards, we may want to lock in more debt at fixed rates.
What will be the final number, that we will have to decide based on how the market moves, because the market is very dynamic right now. On the average rate, we expect that if there is no change in the repo, I think we should be in the zip code of 7.5% by year-end.
That number keeps moving based on how the interest rate trajectory is.
That's clear. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raj Kadam from Nuvama Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations on a great quarter. I had a question related to the property tax demand relating to Manyata Business Park. Can you please elaborate what is the reason for not recognizing any provisions for that? If there's any adverse impact of that, what would be the impact on distributions?
Raj, what we have done is that if you look at our financials, there are two cases which is related to property tax. One of the case where we have a very strong position, we have not recognized most of the provisions. On the other case, we have provision in the financials, which will cover the impact if there is any adverse decision which comes out. Also, we have paid significant amount under protest for this case, which is already paid for. Even if it goes adverse, I don't think any impact is coming on the distribution anymore.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parvez Qazi from [Nuvama Group]. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, and thanks for taking my question. Except Pune, our assets in most of the cities already have pretty high occupancy levels. What is the outlook for the Pune asset? Just wanted to get your views on that.
Parvez, Pune, like we've always been maintaining, there are large citywide infrastructure projects that have been actually getting completed. The first one being that of the metro. Three trials of that metro is already complete, and we are hopeful that at least till Balewadi, it'll be operational in the next month or two.
By the end of the year, the complete line will be operational. With that, we hope to see more traction from the Pune market. Having said that, Parvez, we've actually done about 140,000 square feet of leasing, predominantly renewal, but also there has been one new leasing trade that we have done in Pune. We are seeing new inquiries coming up in the city, simply because from an arbitrage perspective, the market's also moved up.
The eastern side of Pune is already at about INR 100 -INR 120, and the central Pune is about INR 80, while we are in the INR 55 -INR 60 bracket. Therefore, we are seeing some traction from the IT sector, the technology sector as well. Early days though, but we are hopeful with all these improvements that Pune will actually, it's just matter of time, that the occupancy will take up.
Sure. Thanks and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may please press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. A couple of questions.
Sure, go on.
Yeah. Firstly, on the projects under development, I see couple of projects timelines have been pushed out, Manyata block and the Phase 2 of Business Hub, by almost nine months. Any specific reason for that? Second, on the ADRs that you are now getting for the newly opened hotels, which is INR 19,000, and this is, I suppose, it's not a luxury one. It's, I think, a three-star property for which we are getting this ADR. What would be the expectations for the five-star hotel that would come up? Yeah, those are my two questions for now. Yes.
Pritesh, you're right. There is delay in two of our properties, that's Manyata Block B. This is primarily because of rerouting of a nala, which is a man-made nala that's actually passing through our property. Hence, there was a delay in approval. Having said that, this is a fully pre-leased block and the tenant is fully aligned, and they're aware of this, so there is no risk to the tenancy.
Having said that, there is a nine-month delay in that delivery of that building. Coming to Hub, again, there was a design change that we did. Also, the metro that is opposite this building will actually be operational by the end of 2027. Therefore, from a timing perspective, we also believe that timing this closer to metro will see more leasing velocity as well.
These are the two reasons for the delay of these two blocks. On the hotel side, you're right. This is the Hilton Garden Inn that we've currently opened. This is the 211 keys Hilton Garden Inn in Embassy Tech Village in Bangalore. Currently, we are achieving INR 19,000 ADR. The Hilton five-star will definitely be north of this, but it's too early for us to comment because the launch is planned towards the end of the year. Closer to that, we'll update the markets.
Sure. This INR 19,000, should we take it as a stabilized rate or these are initial retail demands and once corporate demand starts coming in, this should get down to maybe INR 13,000, INR 15,000 as an average rate?
Interestingly, you ask this question, Pritesh. This is probably the highest demand or the most supply-constrained hotel market in the country. It's got about 1,200 room keys in that micro market with about 71 million square feet of corporate occupier in that 12-kilometer stretch. We believe that this will only grow from here, and we don't see any slump of this rate.
Sure. Got it. Thanks. Thanks for the clarification. One last on the cash taxes part. As a percentage of EBITDA, it was closer to 10%. Usual average has been 5%-6%. Should we consider this as new normal in terms of cash taxes or was there some one-off this quarter?
Pritesh, actually, the way we look at cash tax is as a percentage of revenue. It was always around 6% or lower. If you look at the INR 97 crore that we have for this quarter, it includes some amount, almost around INR 30 crore, which was basically paid for previous year. It took us some time to finalize the number and pay it off. We paid that amount somewhere around in April.
Hence, if you strip out the INR 30 crore of last year, which we paid now in cash, it's around INR 67 crore, which is around 5.4%-5.5%. It is in line, it's just that the INR 30 crore got actually paid in cash this time.
Sure. How should we think as a steady unit? This is how we should look at even going forward, like two years, three years, five years, 10 years, on a longer-term trajectory?
I can tell you maybe about, let's say, one or two years, we should look at around 6% of revenue as the cash tax.
Okay.
The tax, with every budget it keeps changing. Maybe for now, I would say 6% for this year and the next.
Sure. Perfect. That's helpful. Thanks. That's it from my side. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhinav Sinha from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi. A couple of questions. Firstly, on the hotel, what should we see as its impact of the opening on DPU or NOI in the next, let's say, two to four quarters?
Abhinav, you want to complete all the questions?
Yeah. Second one is actually related to CAM charges. We have seen few markets seeing sharp jump in minimum wages and on-the-ground wages for workers. What have you seen on ground and do you see your margins coming down? Those are the two questions. Thank you.
Okay. Abhinav, on the second one on the CAM charges. We are also seeing that, let's say in Bangalore, the minimum wages are increasing. The way our contracts are drafted, this will all get passed to the tenants with a markup, which is a regular contracted markup. For us, there is no negative impact. On the first question, maybe I would.
Like I said, we don't see any impact on Four Seasons currently, given the fact that it's too early and we are thinking of closing this hotel only towards the end of the financial year. However, once we have the operator finalized, we'll come back and update the markets.
Right. No, actually my question was more on Hilton openings and are they going to impact the-
Okay.
DPU or yeah.
On the Hilton side opening, obviously there will be a positive impact on the DPU, given the fact that this Hilton Garden Inn was opened slightly ahead of schedule that we had anticipated. Also the ADRs that we are actually currently achieving was actually over the budgeted ADRs.
Also, Abhinav, if I have to just add, let's say this hotel that we opened in this month only, it's not even a month and it is GOP breakeven. That's the kind of response that we are getting.
Yeah. Okay. That's what I just wanted to understand. Thank you so much for that answer.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deep Shah from [360 ONE Capital]. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is around our debt. If I look at our debt schedule, roughly about INR 7,000 crore worth of fixed debt comes up for refinancing in remainder of 2027 and 2028, and a small number of floating rate debt. I want to understand as a strategy, is there something that we spelled out as to whether we would like to refinance them with fixed debt itself or we are flexible?
Any broad thoughts on that, given nearly half of our debt comes up for refinancing in the next 20 months, 21 odd months? That's my first question. The second question is, if I look at the under-construction pipeline and completion, it seems that we have some reasonable completion also coming up in 2028.
By that metric, would it be fair to assume that our DPU growth rate, even in 2028, would be slightly lower than NOI? Would that be a fair assumption? That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you, Deep. On the first one, while I agree that almost around INR 7,000 crore of debt is coming up for refi, the strategy that we are building is more near term. Let's say for this year, almost around in total INR 4,300 crore to INR 4,400 crore of debt. We are flexible, and I'll tell you why.
Because it will depend on where the interest rate is at the time of refi, because from here to September, we have only INR 300 crore, INR 400 crore, which we have to refi. The next one comes in October. At that particular point of time, we will want to see. If the interest rate is going north, we may want to take more of fixed and long-term debt.
If the interest rate is going down, we may want to do short-term for a while and see if the interest rate goes down at the bottom of the cycle, we will want to do some debt and take some money, which is long-term, and which is at fixed rate. It's very flexible right now. Having said that, we will want to insulate our financials. If, let's say, we get some debt which is very long-term, five-year, seven-year, 10-year paper, we may want to take that money.
Deep, on the second one, if you look at the difference between NOI to NDCF growth is also because of the interest rate which comes in. If we deliver all these assets, the contraction between that variance will not take place in the current year, I would say, or in 2028.
Once we have completed all the deliveries, maybe that is when the contraction will start. What happens is, the winding up of non-cash happens within the, let's say, six months or three months period of rent-free, but the unwinding happens over the next four and a half to five years.
Yeah. Fair enough. That's very clear. Just a follow-up to your first answer. Whilst you clearly laid out that the preference will be to insulate the portfolio, of course, if we get a competitive rate. Usually in this volatile market, and maybe I understand some of it could be speculation.
But do you think there is great appetite for such long-term papers or even the investors are looking at it from a short-term perspective, given how volatile the macros are? I understand this could be speculative, but just wanted to get your thoughts, given you are doing this much more closely than what we understand.
No, you are absolutely correct. As of now, very long-term paper, like five-year, seven-year, 10-year papers are very difficult to find in the market. Investors are also looking at shorter-term papers. You are correct.
Understood. This is super clear. Thanks for all the answers and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one at this time. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one now. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ask a question, you may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
A couple of follow-ups. First thing, if you can highlight on the leasing demand sentiments. I know industry numbers are coming pretty strong. We also had a good leasing quarter. What we had also heard about was some deferrals in terms of demand given the geopolitics. Anything you sensed, or if that wouldn't have been there, would this number would have been higher or it's pretty normal on ground?
Actually, we are actually seeing this very normal right now. Earlier, when the war started, we saw some travel deferment, and some decisions were slower. Of now, it's just become business as usual for us. The travel has, again, regained momentum. Corporates are coming back, taking decisions. Just to give you some stats, the last two quarters we've seen 110 new GCCs entrance into the country.
The country has done phenomenally well, a record of 45 million square feet of gross leasing absorption across first half. The supply that came into the market was about 31 million square feet, 32 million square feet. The rental rates, like I mentioned, has actually started moving up, and we've started to see that premium that we're getting to the market consistently over the last three quarters. I think overall it's very positive.
The RFPs in the market, we are seeing about 22 million square feet of RFPs. Pretty much 60% of this RFPs is towards Bangalore. That is again, a strong suit for us. Overall, from a leasing demand perspective, it has been really robust and we are very happy with it.
Sure. Couple of follow-ups. These RFPs, I thought a few months back this number was 30 million square feet RFPs, which is now 22 square feet?
No, I am talking about, Pritesh, the RFPs in the REIT operating our footprint markets only.
Okay. Fair enough. On the rentals, you mentioned in your commentary about getting 20%-25% premium rentals in the market at Manyata. How would otherwise the portfolio average be? Are we getting this premium only on our Bangalore assets or at a portfolio level, we still get around 10%-15% kind of premium across our assets?
It's across the country, Pritesh. Obviously, it's a function of quality, flight to quality. Given the fact that our properties, our asset qualities is always grade A+, we are getting this premium across all our properties.
Sure. Just one last on solar. We are clocking INR 23 crore NOI since last two quarters.
Yeah.
Is this a new normal, new average now?
Absolutely. This will be the stabilized generation and the revenue as well.
Sure. Perfect. Okay, thanks. That's it from my side. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, on behalf of Embassy REIT, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.