Mindspace Business Parks REIT (NSE:MINDSPACE)
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Jul 24, 2024, 1:30 AM IST
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Q4 23/24

Apr 30, 2024

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Mindspace Business Parks REIT's earnings conference call for financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. 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. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nitin Garewal. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Nitin Garewal
Assistant General Manager of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining the quarter-four and full-year earnings call of financial year 2023/24 of Mindspace Business Parks REIT. At this point, we would like to highlight that the management may make certain statements that may be forward-looking in nature. Please be advised that our actual results may differ materially from these statements. Mindspace REIT does not guarantee these statements or results and is not obliged to update them at any time. I would now like to welcome our CEO, Ramesh Nair, and our CFO, Preeti Chheda. They will first walk you through the business update and the financial performance during the quarter and financial year. They will then open the call to Q&A. I will now hand over the call to Ramesh. Over to you.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thanks, Nitin. Hi, everyone. A very good evening to all of you. The India office market continued its strong performance in the previous quarter, which is the first quarter calendar year 2024. At Mindspace REIT, we demonstrated a very resilient business performance. As market conditions continue to improve, we are very well positioned to deliver strong and profitable growth.

I would like to highlight some key IPC reports on the Indian commercial real estate sector that I came across over the last month or so. I was looking at the JLL report, which stated that gross leasing reached 15.16 million sq ft in Q1 2024 calendar quarter, which is an increase of 14% year-on-year. This is the second highest gross leasing ever recorded in the first quarter of any year as per JLL.

This also marks the third consecutive quarter where gross leasing has crossed the 15 million sq ft mark. Net absorption also went up 11% year-on-year. The main forces behind this, according to JLL, have been domestic occupiers. The quarter set a tone for India's office market to reach and even surpass the past peak levels witnessed in 2023. JLL report also stated that India continues to be the office to the world.

The report also said that the domestic occupiers contributed approximately 53% to the gross leasing activity. The report also spoke about how over the next three to four years, JLL expects the market activity levels of over 60 million sq ft, which was witnessed in 2019 and 2023, and this would become the new normal. Also, in the second half of 2024, the pace of space takeovers anticipated to be significantly better because of the general elections.

It also spoke about how gross leasing is estimated to potentially surpass the 63 million sq ft recorded last year. I was also checking the CBRE report, and the CBRE report spoke about how consistent with the trends from the last six quarters, domestic firms dominated quarterly leasing with a share of 47%. Strong demand is expected to persist throughout 2024. GCCs continue to be demand drivers for the office market.

The Knight Frank report also spoke about how quarter one of calendar year 2024 saw a sustained momentum with transaction volumes growing at a robust 43% year-on-year to 16.2 million sq ft. Transaction volumes in Hyderabad as per Knight Frank have scaled up consistently over the last four quarters of 2023 and reached a post-pandemic high of 3 million sq ft in Q1 2024.

Hyderabad and Bangalore accounted for 75% of all the GCC transactions as per Knight Frank. The Cushman report spoke about how demand is set for continued strength in 2024. Rental growth is coming back. 2024 is likely to see continued improvement in Indian market conditions with GCCs and Indian firms anchoring growth.

So all the four big IPCs, Cushman, Knight Frank, JLL, and CBRE, have spoken about a very robust market for Q1 and also for the rest of the year. So good positive outlook for the Indian office sector for the rest of the calendar year 2024. In March, we hosted an analyst meet at Mindspace Madhapur in Hyderabad. Some of you were present there, but for the interest of the larger audience, let me quickly recap some key takeaways. Hyderabad is the second-largest tech hub in India.

60% of Hyderabad leasing between calendar year 2020 to 2023, those four years, is to GCCs. I'll just repeat it: 60% of the Hyderabad leasing was to GCCs over the last four years. The average annual net absorption in the last five years in Hyderabad was 7.7 million sq ft. This is the second highest average annual absorption in the last five years across India in terms of cities. Hyderabad has a strong GCC presence with more than 180+ GCCs located there, of which 72% are located in the SBD HITEC City Madhapur area where our park is located. Within Hyderabad, the Madhapur HITEC City area is the preferred office market with the highest absorption. It's, incidentally, the second-largest micro-market across India, and it also sees the highest rental and share of net absorption across all micro-markets in Hyderabad.

One thing which was quite surprising to note was that there is no further land available within HITEC City Madhapur area for new development. Mindspace REIT's Madhapur Business Park is the largest park in Hyderabad with an occupancy of over 96.4%. Our park has achieved a 7.6% rental CAGR since listing. It has 100-plus large occupiers, with 57% of the area leased to GCCs. We have infused modern design elements to not only meet tenant expectations but also to exceed them.

The range of F&B outlets within our park creates a very dynamic environment for our occupiers. Our experience center, which will be ready by mid-next year, will be an inclusive ecosystem for all lifestyle needs and is expected to be best in class in the country. We're unlocking value through strategic redevelopment projects, which will add 3 million sq ft in the park.

We also highlighted our potential ROFO asset, which is a 1.8 million sq ft opportunity for us, again located in the Madhapur area, and it's fully leased to Qualcomm. Our Mindspace Madhapur asset was very well appreciated by all the analysts who witnessed it and joined us in Hyderabad. We also highlighted our growth drivers in the analyst meet. For our next wave of growth, we have an organic opportunity of approximately 9.3 million sq ft. This includes vacant area lease-up of 2.4 million sq ft, finishing our 4.4 million sq ft under-construction projects, and future development opportunities of 2.5 million sq ft within the portfolio. Of the completed portfolio, our non-SEZ portfolio has already reached pre-COVID committed occupancy levels at 96%. Of the balanced vacancy of 2.4 million sq ft, which excludes Pocharam, 1.9 million sq ft is in SEZ.

The new flow-wise demarcation guidelines are definitely aiding us in the take-up of this vacant space. Last quarter, we demarcated a building called B5 with 4 Lakh sq ft SEZ space in Airoli. We had already recently completed the upgradation of this asset over the last few months, and we ended up leasing it to a large BFSI tenant in last quarter. So upgradation, demarcation, and leasing, all done. This clearly highlights the strong performance for modern buildings and non-SEZ spaces within the country right now. We have further applied for demarcation of 1.5 million sq ft across both our parks in Airoli. Navi Mumbai is fast becoming a preferred IT and GCC destination with a very accessible talent pool. We expect to lease this vacant space in the next one and a half years. We looked at what makes Navi Mumbai such an attractive location for occupiers.

There is obviously good connectivity, a lot of infra development happening like the Trans Harbour Link, the new airport, the new Airoli Katai Naka Road, which is nearing completion, the new metro line, the Kalwa Bridge, all helping in better connectivity to Navi Mumbai. Navi Mumbai is also rated among the top three cities in terms of overall quality of living. It's ranked the third cleanest city, second time in a row, as per the survey by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

It also ranks the best in terms of traffic index, which means lesser traffic. It is also one of the most preferred talent hubs for talent availability for BFSI, telecom, media, and tech sectors in the country. Navi Mumbai obviously has competitive commercial leasing prices and was also rated among the safest cities to live in in India. We're also looking to divest our non-core assets in Pocharam.

This is about 600,000 sq ft. Apart from the 9.3 million sq ft organic growth, we also have inorganic opportunities supported by a strong balance sheet. In addition to the Commerzone Raidurg in Hyderabad, which leads fully to Qualcomm, and The Square BKC 98 in Mumbai, which leads to JP Morgan, we also have other ROFO assets which we could consider for acquisition at an appropriate time when offered by the sponsors.

Our sponsor also has I'm repeating this: our sponsor also has 15 million sq ft of pipeline in form of assets which are completed or at various stages of development. This is, again, a potential growth opportunity for us. In addition to sponsor assets, we keep also exploring third-party inorganic opportunities. Our under-construction assets within the REIT, such as the R2 Building in Pune, which is 1 million sq ft, will be ready by end of this year.

B1 in Hyderabad, which is a 1.3 million sq ft asset, is expected to be ready by mid-2026. B8, which is a 1.6 million sq ft asset, is expected to be ready by first quarter 2027. The second data center in Mindspace Airoli West, which is 300,000 sq ft, is expected to be ready by early 2025. B17, the mixed-use development in Mindspace Airoli East, is an 800,000 sq ft asset, again expected to be ready by early 2027. Our 9.3 million sq ft of growth opportunity, even at current in-place rents, this is current rents what we're getting, has the potential to generate rentals of another INR 800 crore. This will be fully done in the next three to four years. This is my 3rd earnings call, and in the previous two calls, I had given certain guidance which I will share a quick update on.

I'd said that the occupancy has bottomed out. We can clearly see this, and the occupancy has now gone from 86% to 88.6%. Excluding Pocharam, it's touched 90.6%. I'd said that the IT demand is picking up. The last quarter saw a large deal in our Mindspace Airoli East Park with an IT giant, with IT services. I'd also said that the Airoli leasing will pick up, and SEZ reforms will help in this demand. We leased more than 1 million sq ft in Airoli in the last quarter. I'll repeat it: we leased more than 1 million sq ft in Airoli in the last quarter, and we demarcated space of 400,000 sq ft and leased it fully to a BFSI tenant. Work from home is increasing, sorry, work from office is increasing, which is clearly visible from the physical occupancy.

For our portfolio, physical occupancy today stands at 70%. Last quarter, I remember mentioning it was 65%. Now, coming to key highlights of the quarter and the full financial year 2024. On our operating performance, our performance this quarter has been very, very strong. We leased 2 million sq ft during the quarter, which is the highest-ever quarterly leasing since our listing.

Cumulative leasing for FY 2024 was at 3.6 million sq ft. Excluding Pocharam, our committed occupancy is at 90.6%. Six out of nine parks have occupancy of more than 95%: Gera Commerzone Kharadi, where our occupancy is at 100%; Square BKC occupancy is at 100%; Square Nagar Road, Pune, occupancy is at 100%; Mindspace Malad occupancy is at 98%; Mindspace Madhapur occupancy is at 96.4%, Commerzone Yerawada occupancy is at 96.1%.

We achieved a releasing spread of 17% on 1.9 million sq ft of area relet during Q4 FY 2024 and 14% on 3.4 million sq ft of area relet during full financial year 2024. This increased our in-place rent to INR 69 per month. We are one of the first commercial businesses to receive approval for demarcation of SEZ space. Navi Mumbai, specifically Airoli, has emerged as the data center hub of India. We are strongly exploring if we can get more data centers into our parks using our expertise and experience. Coming to financial performance of the quarter, our financial performance also was very strong with FY 2024 NOI, excluding one-offs, growing at 12% year-on-year, and NOI for Q4 FY 2024 growing at 9% year-on-year. Our distributions for the quarter stood at INR 2,829 million or INR 4.77 per unit.

Cumulative distribution for FY 2024 stood at INR 11.4 billion. On the improving tenant experience part, I mentioned in the last earnings call that we are also creating a team called the Tenant Relations Team. The head of tenant relations has also just joined us. This team actively engages with our clients, gathers feedback, and refines their offerings to deliver client delight, and also works very closely with our asset management team and our engineering teams.

This aligns perfectly with our values of customer centricity, change and innovation, efficiency and excellence, and being responsible. We continue to add the finest F&B choices in our parks. We hosted the Mindspace Premier League across all our business parks, which kicked off with a cricket tournament, which saw remarkable participation by 142 client teams.

We aim to keep improving our environmental efforts and working closely with tenants, partners, and communities on various sustainability projects. We have achieved 28.9% green energy in the total energy consumption mix for FY 2024 of common areas and HVAC for areas controlled by us. Our green building footprint today stands at 99%. Our green certification for existing buildings under operations and maintenance is at 86%.

We will invest further in key areas like sustainability and diversity along with equity and inclusion. As the year 2024 progresses, we expect market conditions to further improve, giving the industry a boost. Mindspace REIT will be in the forefront, helping define the bright future of work, maximizing stakeholder returns, promoting sustainability, working with communities, and creating rewarding careers for our people.

We, as an organization, are working collaboratively towards our vision, which is to set benchmarks in office real estate, building sustainable ecosystems that prioritize well-being, making us the first choice for stakeholders. On behalf of our team, we greatly appreciate your faith in Mindspace REIT. Thank you for your continued interest and support. I will now hand over the call to Preeti for the financial updates during the quarter.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you, Ramesh. Good evening, everyone. I'm happy to present our financial performance for the quarter and financial year ended 2024. We closed the fourth quarter with revenue from operations of INR 5.9 billion and NOI of INR 4.8 billion. Excluding the one-offs, quarterly revenue and NOI grew by about 11% and 9.3%, respectively. Our FY 2024 revenue and NOI also saw healthy growth of 13.7% and 11.9% year-on-year, excluding the one-offs.

Our NOI margin from the core renting stood at 86%. We announced a distribution of approximately INR 2.83 billion, which is about INR 4.77 per unit for the quarter. Cumulatively, for the financial year 2024, we distributed INR 11.4 billion, which is INR 19.2 per unit. Since our listing in August 2020, we have distributed a cumulative amount of INR 39.3 billion, which is INR 66.3 per unit. As we had guided, our distributions for FY 2024 were made entirely from operating cash flows supported by growth in our organic cash flows.

The new NDCF framework announced by SEBI shall be effective April 1st, 2024. The new NDCF format is not expected to have any impact on the quantum of distribution, though we do expect certain changes in the composition of distribution going forward.

During the year, we raised about INR 14.9 billion through NCDs and commercial papers at the REIT level and also at SCV. Our cost of debt stood at 7.8% at the end of FY 2024. Our aim is to have an optimum mix of fixed and variable cost loans. Our fixed cost debt is now 55% of the total outstanding debt. We shall see some marginal increase in our cost of funds due to refinancing of low-cost debt in the next few quarters. Our balance sheet remains robust with LTV at 21.1%. Our net debt as of March 31st, 2024, was approximately INR 63 billion. Of the INR 20 billion debt due for refinancing, we have already refinanced INR 3.2 billion with the REIT-level NCD, which we raised at 7.83% PAPM coupon.

We are in the process of refinancing another INR 11 billion of the debt due for refinancing by June 2024. We also have undrawn committed lines of approximately INR 9 billion. We are seeking and enabling approvals from our unit holders for borrowing beyond 25% LTV, which is required under the REIT regulations, to create headroom to pursue our portfolio expansion strategies, both organic and inorganic.

As of today, we are developing 4.4 million sq ft of new workplaces and constantly upgrading our existing parks to create value for our tenants. With the robust demand from domestic occupiers and GCCs alike, we are dedicated to deploying capital efficiently and expediting our development projects to capitalize on this demand. As Ramesh mentioned, the new SEZ policy reform has been a bit positive.

We have received approvals for conversion of about 4 Lakh sq ft of SEZ spaces into NPA and have also applied for approval of another 1.5 million sq ft. We are awaiting BOA approval for that. As these spaces, when converted to NPA, start leasing, they start adding to our NOI. We expect all these positive developments to contribute to a healthy NOI and DPU growth in FY 2025. With this backdrop, I hand over the call to the operator to open the floor for questions. Thank you.

Operator

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 touch-tone 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 questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. To ask questions, please press star and one. The first question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.

Pritesh Sheth
Associate Vice President, Motilal Oswal

Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. First question is on the demarcation that you indicated, 1.5 million sq ft, which you have already applied. Can you share your experience in terms of timelines, and how is it split between your Airoli assets and Madhapur asset, or is it fully in Airoli? And what should we consider as a timeline in terms of getting the approvals, and when will we start marketing that?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thanks, Pritesh. So almost all the demarcation we have applied for is for Airoli. There is some amount of decent interest for SEZs in Hyderabad-Madhapur, so there is no area which we ask for demarcation there. So we've applied, like Preeti also mentioned, 1.9 million sq ft, and we were the first ones to get the approval for 400,000 sq ft out of that. The government has issued certain clarifications, and we expect approving the remaining area very, very soon.

Pritesh Sheth
Associate Vice President, Motilal Oswal

Sure. So this fully takes care of the 1.9 million sq ft SEZ space which is vacant, or out of that 1.9, 1.5 is what we have demarcated for, and 0.4 is in Madhapur, is it? That is my understanding. Correct on that?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

No. Out of 1.9 million sq ft, 1.5 is where paperwork is happening. 400,000 is where we have already demarcated in Navi Mumbai, and not full floors are vacant. There will be some floors which are, as per the rules, only full floors can be demarcated. So in some cases, those floors will lie vacant, which is half. But given the overall portfolio size, that will be a negligible number, even if half a floor is lying vacant.

Pritesh Sheth
Associate Vice President, Motilal Oswal

Sure. That's it from my side. That were my questions. In case of follow-up, I'll jump back on the queue.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yeah. Thanks, Pritesh.

Operator

Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to participants that you may press star and one to join the question queue. The next question is from Kunal Tayal, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Okay. Hi, this is Kunal. Ramesh, my first question is, if I observe around Q4 your renewal rate was actually very healthy. Is that something you would expect going into FY 2025 as well? And that's my first question, and then I'll have a follow-up.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

So renewals are having quite strong, given the fact that you're spending a lot of money on upgrades. So the typical upgrades include improving the lobbies, changing the lifts, changing the facade and some conditions, making it double-height lobbies, spending a lot of money on upgrades. So all that is happening. So for this year, for the expiries which are coming up, we already have a 70% visibility of the 2 million sq ft of expiries.

So we're already engaging 1.4 million sq ft of tenants will most probably stay back with us. And what we are also doing is proactively identifying which are the tenants where their attendance levels are less than 30%, and we are proactively engaging with them at least 18 months before the lease comes up for expiring to make sure we try and retain them at the best possible way.

So a lot of strategies are going on in the background to retain clients, but there are times when I'll give you an example. Last year, we lost Colliers 300,000 sq ft because they wanted more than 1 million sq ft. But finally, we managed to get them in one of our ROFO assets. 300,000 sq ft went to 1.8 million sq ft in Hyderabad. So sometimes we lose some clients because of other factors beyond our control, but we then keep engaging with them to make sure they stay back.

Speaker 9

Got it. And just given that you'll see 20 24 demand should remain healthy and probably improve through the course of the year, is there some sort of an occupancy target that you would set for yourselves as to what you could exit the year at or through the course of the year? So any thoughts there would be good.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

See, the number one priority for us, see, in a park like Hyderabad, which is probably the second largest IT park, business park in the country, vacancy levels are at less than 4 Lakhs sq ft, which we will anyway lease the next 2-3 Lakhs sq ft we will lease and then balance 1 Lakh with structural vacancy, which is some floor, half a floor there and here, which will remain vacant. So for a park more than 10,000,000 sq ft, that's hardly a number. The biggest challenge is going to be the 1.8 million sq ft, which was the biggest challenge till December 6th of last year when the government's de-notification floor-wise policy came out. That gives us a lot of confidence, and you saw how we leased 1,200,000 sq ft in Airoli.

That 1.8 million sq ft is going to be the focus, the balance 1.8 million sq ft, which is vacant in Airoli. Like I said in my opening speech, we expect to lease that in the next one and a half years, which is a fair, reasonable time frame given that the market conditions are also. Navi Mumbai is a great market, but definitely not as big as Hyderabad or Bangalore as a market size. So there are market size limitations also there.

Speaker 9

Understand. Okay. Then the final one for Preeti. Preeti, when you said that the composition of distribution could change, would this be between the taxable and the tax-free distribution? If that is what it is, how significant a change could it be?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

We are working on the numbers, but directionally, it would be more in nature of ROC. So I think tax-wise, it should still continue to be efficient. ROC doesn't have any immediate tax impact.

Speaker 9

All right. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Parvez Qazi from Nuvama Group. Please go ahead.

Parvez Qazi
Executive Director, Nuvama Group

Hi. Good evening. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats for a good set of numbers. So a couple of questions from my side. First, I believe we have about 3 million sq ft vacant space if one has to go by committed occupancy. So of the 3 million sq ft vacant space, how much would be SEZ versus non-SEZ?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

So this vacancy, now that we have decided to sell Pocharam as an asset, that brings our vacancy down to 2.4 million sq ft, out of which 1.9 million sq ft is SEZ, and 0.5 million sq ft is non-SEZ. Our non-SEZ occupancy, like I mentioned, stands at 96.2%.

SEZ occupancy, excluding Pocharam asset, nearly 86%. So if you look at a park-wise breakup, Square, I said, is 100% occupied. Malad is nearly 100% occupied. Kharadi is 100% occupied. Nagar Road is 100% occupied. Yerawada is 98% occupied. Madhapur is more than 96% occupied. So six out of nine parks are more than 95% occupied. So like in Chennai, for example, which has around 180,000 sq ft space which is vacant, that's one or two deals, and the park will be leased. 400,000 sq ft in Hyderabad in different pockets will also get leased, and that 400 will become INR 150 million in two months, most probably. So that way, not really worried of it much, unlike the situation before the floor-wise de-notification rule was passed on December 6th.

Parvez Qazi
Executive Director, Nuvama Group

Is my understanding correct that of the 1.9 million sq ft vacant SEZ space, we have applied for de-notification of 1.5? I mean, out of this 1.9 and after that, only about 0.4 million sq ft will be left with us in terms of vacant SEZ space?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

That's right, Parvez.

Parvez Qazi
Executive Director, Nuvama Group

Sure. Second question is on the expiries. In FY 2025, we have about 0.6 million sq ft coming up for expiry in Airoli. What are our thoughts there? I mean, how confident we are of re-leasing them within the year itself or maybe in a short period of time?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

We saw nearly 300,000 sq ft of expiries getting deferred from the last quarter, which is Q4 FY 2024, to FY 2025. There were incremental expiries of close to 900,000 sq ft. We also see a 70% releasing visibility for these expiries, like I mentioned before. And this also provides a good mark-to-market potential of close to 16%. We are not very worried on this, and hence, we anticipate to end FY 2025 with a higher occupancy level, which is next March.

By then, the occupancy levels will definitely go up. One or two quarters here and there, things may move up and down. But overall, for the year, we feel occupancy levels will go up.

Parvez Qazi
Executive Director, Nuvama Group

Sure. Thanks. And last question. I mean, we do expect that borrowing rates might go up for maybe next couple of quarters. When do we expect NOI growth to translate into like-to-like NDCF growth?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Next year, should be seeing that because we do expect both NOI as well as NDCF to show healthy growth. I can't give numbers, but directionally, both of them should see a growth. And you should be seeing NOI translate into NDCF.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Parvez, we spoke about how the R2 building in Pune is getting ready. We spoke about how the second data center is getting ready. So all that will have an impact.

Parvez Qazi
Executive Director, Nuvama Group

Sure. Thanks and all the best.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Abhinav Sinha from Jefferies India. Please go ahead.

Abhinav Sinha
Research Analyst, Jefferies India

Hi. It's good to see the uptake in occupancy on the committed side. I just wanted to check that on the actual side, we've seen a decline. And for three parks, the two Airoli's and in Porur, the gap is now 8-10 percentage points. So is it what, three commitments which will execute in 12 months or something, or when will it narrow?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Sorry, Abhinav. Which one are you talking about?

Abhinav Sinha
Research Analyst, Jefferies India

No, sir. I'm talking about the gap between committed and actual occupancies in Airoli East, West, and also in Commerzone Porur.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yeah, yeah. Correct. So these are the ones where the rent has to start which should happen in the next two quarters.

Abhinav Sinha
Research Analyst, Jefferies India

Okay. And you will expect the NOI growth to also sort of pick up in the next couple of quarters because this quarter, we are flattish now, QOQ?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yeah. We should start seeing NOI growing in a quarter or two.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Okay.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

And don't tell me we need to wait long. I think in the next quarter or two, you should start seeing the growth coming in.

Abhinav Sinha
Research Analyst, Jefferies India

And on the interest side, what is roughly your expectation of blended cost to rise by approximately in basis points?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

It should not be material. Abhinav, it should be according to me, not more than, I would say, 20-odd basis points.

Abhinav Sinha
Research Analyst, Jefferies India

Okay. Okay. So roughly 20. That then doesn't mean, I mean, major gap between DPU and NOI.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

It's not very material. We try to minimize as much as we can, but 20 is what we estimate.

Abhinav Sinha
Research Analyst, Jefferies India

And when the R2 and the data center also open up, are we looking at significantly higher P&L interest cost, or again, that is also not very large?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

No, yeah. In the overall scheme of things, I don't think that's too large a hit on our payments. And we will have enough of other rentals also which will start coming in because of the leasing which has happened and that shall happen in the quarters to come. So that should more than offset any of those interest hits.

Abhinav Sinha
Research Analyst, Jefferies India

Okay. Okay. That's good to know. I know you cannot give guidances, but what does healthy mean? I mean, is it double digits?

I can't say that. All I can say, directionally, we are headed to a good, healthy number. I won't be able to put a number to that. But with all the leasing which has happened and also a lot of those leasings translating to rentals in the coming quarters, you should see a healthy growth. That's where I would stop there.

Okay. Okay. So there is one question on the overall rental trends as well. We see some bit of pickup in the market trends this quarter. Just wanted to understand from you, which markets do you see doing better next year? Is it the Mumbai ones or Hyderabad? And what is the extent of rental jumps that we can see in FY 2025?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

So the main thing there, Abhinav, is if you look at the country today, we have 12,000 developers in India, out of which I think less than 20 developers today in the country have a multi-city commercial strategy. So people talk about supply, but a lot of supply in the next two, three years is going to be highly consolidated amongst a select list of developers.

So that's something we should definitely keep in mind because of which rentals will start going up. I was looking at the future RFPs city-wise. This is the JLL data. As per them, there's around 16 million sq ft of RFPs floating around in the four cities where we have a presence. MMR has RFPs of around 4.5 million sq ft. Pune has an RFP of around 4.5 million sq ft again. Hyderabad has RFPs of around 6 million sq ft, and Chennai has RFPs around 1.3 million sq ft.

So healthy pipeline in these cities, especially Hyderabad, there are two new buildings that are coming, the building 1 which is 1.3 million sq ft and building 8 which is 1.6 million sq ft. I would have heard or discussed with clients, at least 5 clients who in the last 3-4 months have spoken about 1 million sq ft plus RFP coming. I'll just repeat it.

At least five clients were talking about 1 million sq ft. So the typical worry which people had about Telangana's government change and all is behind us, or five clients wouldn't have floated RFPs or talking about RFPs in the last 3 months, right? So I think RFPs look quite promising, Abhinav.

Abhinav Sinha
Research Analyst, Jefferies India

Great. Thanks and all the best to the team.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumit Kumar from JM Financial. Please go ahead. Hi.

Sumit Kumar
Consultant, JM Financial

Good evening. Thank you for taking my question and a very good quarter. My first question would relate to the under-construction assets. If you could help us, what is the pre-leasing status here of that 4.1 million sq ft that is under construction?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yeah. So there are three assets: 1.3 million sq ft Pune, which is getting ready end of this year, 1.3 million sq ft in Hyderabad which is mid of 2026, and 1.6 million sq ft again in Hyderabad which is mid of 2027. So all these three assets typically would start seeing inquiries around 6-9 months. I wouldn't worry too much about pre-commitments because if you pre-commit when the building is 1 year away, you don't get the rental upside. The DC which is 300,000 sq ft which is getting ready in early next year, that's already pre-leased.

From a track record point of view, our Commerzone Kharadi, where we have 3 million sq ft, has been fully pre-leased over the years. I wouldn't worry too much given that we have another 9-10 months for the building to get ready. Like I mentioned, Pune RFPs of close to 4.5-5 million sq ft as per JLL data and we being the best located, best business park with the highest quality. I don't see that as something of a worry.

I wouldn't get desperate and start leasing a Building 8 which is getting ready in early- to mid-2027 today because then I will not be able to get the upside in Hyderabad given that I mentioned this during my first speech, that there is not a single, even a half an acre land available in the Madhapur High-Tech City area to develop further.

So I'll need to time it, so make a decision, should I lease now and feel comfortable or wait for a couple of quarters and then lease it? So that shouldn't be a worry at all, Sumit.

Sumit Kumar
Consultant, JM Financial

Sure. And sir, my second question was on the demarcation. So could you give us an idea on what was the cost for this demarcation? I mean, what is the duty give-back or any other cost that you had to incur?

So the current cost is around the INR 300 mark, and it may go up a little bit or go down a little bit, but around the INR 300 mark is a good thumb rule to assume today.

Sure. So thank you. That's all from me, sir. I'll come back in the Q&A more.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thanks, Sumit.

Operator

Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to participants that you may press star and one to join the question queue. Next question is from Kunal Tayal, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

And I'm thinking one follow-up. As we think about the slowdown from NOI to NDCF, it seems like interest expense won't be much of a drag this time around. Typically, working capital might also sort of move favorably amidst higher occupancy. Is there any other parameter you would want us to consider?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

You're saying for the next year you're talking about?

Speaker 9

FY 2025.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

FY 2025. As I said, Kunal, I don't see interest as a challenge to deliver NDCF growth because we will have the top line which will grow because of all the rentals also coming in and the leasing also happening. So that should be more than enough to offset your interest increase. And interest increase that we're talking about is not very material to really change things too much. So therefore, I think we are comfortable on the NDCF growth as well.

Speaker 9

Got it. No, I mean, just to sort of make sure I put that across right, I do copy that interest expense will hardly be a challenge. I was also thinking that working capital might move in your favor with rising occupancy. So is there any other factor which might be an offset because this would otherwise indicate that maybe we are headed for NDCF growth to be better than NOI in the coming year? So that's what I was just trying to clarify.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

No, I don't see any other surprises coming in.

Speaker 9

All right. You're set. Thank you.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

I think, Kunal, from leasing of vacant spaces which you saw, mark-to-market which is still healthy and escalations all happening, I think it should be a healthy growth.

Speaker 9

Yeah. Absolutely.

Operator

Thank you very much. That was the last question. As there are no further questions, on behalf of Mindspace Business Parks REIT, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect your lines.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you, everyone.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you.

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