Mindspace Business Parks REIT (NSE:MINDSPACE)
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345.06
+5.13 (1.51%)
Jul 24, 2024, 1:30 AM IST
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Q3 24/25

Jan 24, 2025

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Mindspace Business Parks REIT Q3 FY2025 earnings conference call hosted by K. Raheja Corp Investment Managers Private 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. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing the star then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nitin Garewal, Assistant General Manager, Finance and Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Nitin Garewal
Head of Investor Relations, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Good evening and thank you for joining Quarter 3 FY2025 earnings call for 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. We do not guarantee these statements or results and are not obliged to update them at any point of time. I would now like to welcome our CEO, Ramesh Nair, and CFO, Preeti Chheda, who will walk you through the business update and the financial performance during the quarter. We will then open the floor to Q&A. Over to you, Ramesh.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thanks, Nitin. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for joining us on this call today. I'm pleased to report another strong quarter for Mindspace REIT. This has been driven by strong performance and positive trends in the Indian commercial real estate sector. Let me start with an overview and outlook of the commercial real estate sector in India. India's commercial real estate outlook looks very positive. In 2025, India's demand for grade A office spaces is expected to stay strong. The last quarter of 2024 followed the steady trends seen throughout the year. Clients today are increasingly looking for grade A quality offices with institutional developers, and we believe we are very well positioned to take advantage of this. On the market front, I'd like to share with you a few insights from the various year-end IPC reports which I read.

The JLL report spoke about net absorption growing year-on-year from 42 million sq ft to 50 million sq ft in the last calendar year, 2024. In 2024, India's office market achieved an all-time high net absorption. GCCs again played a key role, driven by demand from AI, R&D, and engineering. The tech sector rebounded, contributing 26% of the total demand. BFSI manufacturing engineering sectors also saw significant growth. Mumbai, where we have a good chunk of our portfolio, achieved an 18% growth in net absorption, and moderate supply in many markets is helping rental values go up. The CBRE report stated that GCCs contributed 35%-40% of leasing. GCCs' leasing grew over 20% compared to 2023, and reduction in vacancies has led to an increase in trends. CBRE also, as part of their 2025 predictions, spoke about continued demand leading to further growth.

Tech BFSI to drive leasing demand. Demand to further increase in Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. NPA demarcation has led to further leasing of SEZ spaces. The Cushman & Wakefield report again spoke about increased demand for grade A offices and vacancy rate reduction to 16%, which is the lowest in the last three years. Cushman also gave their 2025 predictions, where they believe that their positive momentum would continue, and GCCs' BFSI will keep driving the growth. I recently also came across a research report by Liases Foras on the Navi Mumbai residential market. That report spoke about how demand is surging, driven by all the infrastructure upgrades which are happening in and around Navi Mumbai, especially projects like the new airport. This market in and around Airoli by 2030 is going to see close to 185,000 new residential units.

This residential real estate influx is expected to work in our favor and drive office space demand. You may also recollect the KPMG study which I spoke about a few quarters back, which rated Navi Mumbai among the top three cities across eight different parameters. In summary, the quarter proved favorable for the industry, and research teams at various IPCs hold an optimistic view of 2025. Now let's come to the REIT's performance. On the key announcements of Quarter 3 FY2025, this quarter has been quite exciting for us. We closed a few large pre-leases. We are offering to buy the Hyderabad ROFO asset. We are recording double-digit distribution growth. Our R2 building at Gera Commerzone Kharadi in Pune, spread across a million sq ft, has been fully pre-leased to a large MNC GCC even before completion. We are expected to get the OC in the next couple of months.

We also received OC for our second data center in Mindspace, Airoli, four months ahead of schedule. The High Street Retail in Mindspace, Airoli East, is set to become operational next quarter with the OC now in place. Some retailers and F&B brands have already started pickups here. On our operating performance, as mentioned earlier, we have achieved strong leasing this quarter with several new leases signed. We leased 1.7 million sq ft during the quarter, including a pre-lease of 1 million sq ft. We are on track to achieve our highest gross leasing ever in a financial year since listing. Occupancy rates remain stable at 91.5%. I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that sometimes losing a tenant is not always bad news and can bring in many positives into the portfolio. I'll quote a few examples.

In Madhapur, when a global IT major vacated, they were paying us in the late 40s. This space was taken up by a global BPO major at INR 75. Similarly, when a global IT major gave us space at INR 48, a co-working major took the same space at INR 80. In Airoli East, a global IT services firm vacated a space where they were paying rentals in the early 40s again, which was promptly leased to another global IT services firm at 64. In Commerzone Yerwada, when a GCC of a global bank gave us space where they were paying INR 72, a global energy GCC took the fitted-out space. The global bank also left some of the fit-outs out. We managed to get a rental of 110. This is a very clear opportunity for us when some tenants leave to align our rentals with market values.

Sometimes we also get an opportunity to upgrade the tenant mix, replace underperforming tenants, and get more high-value, stable tenants. We also get to improve efficiency and get an opportunity to reconfigure and upgrade some of our older spaces. I'm also very happy to report that we achieved a 100% occupancy rate in Commerzone Porur, Chennai. With this, we have no space left to lease in Chennai. Our market position remains strong with six out of the nine parks maintaining occupancy rates more than 96%. We achieved a re-leasing spread of 26.4%, which increased our in-place rent to INR 71.4 per sq ft per month. Also, the government's streamlining of the SEZ demarcation process has accelerated the conversion of spaces in our parks into NPA. Coming to the financial performance of the quarter, revenue grew by 7.6%, NOI by 8.3% year-on-year, respectively.

Our NOI came in at INR 5.2 billion. Distribution, like I mentioned earlier, saw an increase to 10.9% on a year-on-year basis, came in at INR 3.15 billion. A strong balance sheet, low debt levels provide us with the financial flexibility to pursue growth opportunities. On the portfolio growth side, thank you once again for attending our analyst meet held in Altimus in November last year. At the meet, we shared our plans to focus on more than just organic growth. We are looking to expand through acquisitions as well. The proposed purchase of the ROFO asset in Hyderabad is a step in that direction. We're also evaluating another potential third-party acquisition opportunity in Hyderabad. I also wanted to take this opportunity to give a development update on what's happening. Happy to report that our projects are progressing well.

The three projects which we are expected to be completed this financial year all are on track. The 315,000 sq ft B8 data center in Mindspace Airoli West has just been delivered ahead of schedule. The million sq ft R2 building in Gera Commerzone Pune is being delivered in the next couple of months again on schedule, and the 67,000 sq ft High Street Retail Complex, which we have branded as Mindspace Fusion, has also been completed, and tenants have started fit-outs. This space is going a long way in energizing not just our business park in Airoli East, but also the micro market as a whole. At Mindspace Airoli East, we shall be commencing work on two buildings in the coming financial year. One of them will be a mixed-use asset building with a 280-key Hyatt Regency.

This will be one of the few five-star hotels in Navi Mumbai and will elevate the positioning of our park. In financial year 2026, we will upgrade four more buildings in Airoli East in a phased manner. At Mindspace Airoli West, we have handed over the second data center building at PDG to PDG. As mentioned earlier, we now have two operational data centers, and three more are slotted for future development. Upon completion, the business park will have five data center buildings. The total footprint of data centers will stand at around 1.7 million sq ft. With this, we become India's only REIT having a strong data center footprint in the portfolio. In Mindspace Madhapur, construction of the two buildings under redevelopment is underway. We are on track for delivery in FY 2027. The experience center is scheduled to be ready by Q3 FY 2026.

This will be one of our finest offerings, setting a benchmark in luxury club experiences. Also, excavation work is underway at Building 18. This again is planned to be a mixed-use development to create a thriving ecosystem. Six buildings in Mindspace Madhapur have already been upgraded, and four more are underway. At Gera Commerzone Kharadi, as I mentioned earlier, the entire building has been pre-leased to a large GCC client, ready for occupancy starting Q1 FY2026. We have also recently added around 37,000 sq ft of recreational space in this park for enhanced tenant experience. Commerzone Yerwada, we have again started with the upgrade of our first building in this park. External common areas are also being revamped with new features. Coming to asset management, I wanted to throw some light on the kind of work we are doing for clients.

In our asset management team, we prioritize client safety, health, and wellness in Mindspace REIT. We recently completed a life cycle assessment study for all our critical equipment. We have strengthened our fire safety measures and are compliant with all regulations. To ensure, again, client convenience, we have an enhanced focus on design from enhancing workspace design with efficient space planning, upgraded lobbies and facades to elevate tenant experiences and productivity, and also focusing more on how we could improve our terraces, our landscapes, and the glass quality focused on functionality and sustainability. On the amenities and tenant-centric initiatives, we recently hosted many of our clients at an event in Mumbai. We called it the Table Talk. This is a platform where we listen, learn, and work together with our clients to shape our future approach. We also launched our quarterly newsletter, Mindscape.

For the employees of our clients, we hosted nine events in the last quarter. We also ensured last-mile connectivity through EV buggies operational in Hyderabad and Gera Commerzone Kharadi. In a recent third-party survey of tenant employees, we identified the top five most essential requested amenities from our clients based on feedback from clients, and these are pharmacies, medical centers, gyms, convenience stores, and creches. I'm happy to report that we have either operationalized or signed MOUs with operators for all five of these amenities across all our larger parks. To enhance tenant satisfaction, we have also introduced our hotelization initiatives in our business parks. These initiatives are designed to infuse the sophistication and service standards of premium hotels into the workplace, elevating the tenant experience. We are also reinforcing our commitment to customer centricity with initiatives focused on strengthening tenant relationships and improving their overall experience.

All these efforts are aimed at positioning us as a trusted partner in our clients' overall success. Coming to ESG, furthering our focus on ESG and in alignment with our vision statement, which is to set benchmarks in office real estate building sustainable ecosystems that prioritize well-being, making us the first choice for stakeholders, we have taken solid steps in ensuring ESG compliance. On the environment side, we achieved a score of 99 out of 100 in the GRESB Assessment. We earned a prestigious five-star rating with 91 out of 100 in the Standing Investment Benchmark. We achieved an impressive score of 70 in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which is DJSI, placing us amongst the top 10% of the real estate equity REIT category globally. 99.9% of our buildings have now achieved platinum ratings. As of Q3, 32% of our energy comes from renewable sources.

Our net zero is being validated by SBTi initiatives. Our overall efforts include net zero targets, green certifications, solar installations, and biodiversity projects. Regular meetings focusing on ESG targets, development plans, and collaborations with top vendors are also in place. On the social side, we received 10 Sword of Honor awards for our outstanding safety practices. This is 10 out of 10 parks. All have the Sword of Honor now, so well done by our asset management department. We are creating designated feeding areas and shelters for our furry friends within our business park. We prioritize safety of our women staff and clients, and safety training programs are being implemented. We are always looking out for opportunities to increase diversity in outsourced staff and client engagement has been expanded. On the governance side, happy to announce that we have launched the Investors Portal.

This portal allows investors to review their unclaimed distributions and tax data using specific login credentials. In conclusion, the industry trends appear to be positive. We believe we can sustain this progress. Our focus on client centricity, innovation, tenant satisfaction, and sustainability positions us well for the future. Thank you all for your time. I'll now hand it over to Preeti for further financial updates of the quarter.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you, Ramesh. Good evening, everyone. I'm happy to share with you all the financial results for the quarter ended December 2024. We delivered a strong NOI growth of 8.3% year-on-year for Q3 FY2025. Our NOI for the quarter was INR 5.2 billion. Also, the revenue from operations for Q3 FY2025 grew 7.5% year-on-year to INR 6.4 billion. As we had guided, we have delivered a healthy distribution growth of 7.8% for nine months FY2025, and more particularly for Q3 FY2025, our distributions grew by a healthy 10.9% year-on-year. This quarter, for the highest distributions listing of INR 3.15 billion. In aggregate, for YTD December 2024, we distributed INR 9.2 billion.

Our loan-to-value continues to remain low at 22.6%. This comfortable level of debt gives us enough headroom for acquisitions and development within the portfolio. Our cost of debt slightly increased by around 14 basis points to 8.07%. This was mainly because of refinancing of a bond, which we had raised three years back at a lower interest rate. While the interest rates still remain at high levels, we have been optimizing our debt mix to reduce our borrowing cost. As Ramesh mentioned, during the quarter, we received the ROFO notice for Commerzone Raidurg Hyderabad ROFO asset.

We have evaluated the potential acquisition opportunity and made an offer to the shareholders of the SPV for the approval of our board. Pocharam Asset Divestment Process is underway. We hope to understand the interest from potential buyers over the next few weeks. With improving occupancy at our parks, completion of buildings under development, rental growth, among others, we expect the performance of Mindspace REIT to remain healthy. With this, 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 their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants who wish to ask a question towards the management may press star and one at this time. First question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Good evening, everyone. First is on the increasing expiry that we have seen this quarter and for the next year across assets. Any specific trend you look at and you want to highlight on that, or is it just a regular course? And based on that, what's the outlook on occupancy now, probably by this year end and next year? That would be helpful. That's my first question.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Pritesh, this year, we have close to 2.7 million sq ft coming up for expiry. Out of this 2.7 million sq ft, we managed to retain 0.8 million sq ft, 800,000 sq ft of clients. The balance, 1.9 million sq ft of clients exited. In this 1.9 million sq ft of clients who have exited, we have already re-leased 1.2 million sq ft to newer tenants. When I was looking at this data over the last four years, I said this year is 2.7. In the last four years, the average expiry has been around 2.8 million sq ft, which is in line with the last four years' average, is what we are seeing this year also.

But some good news on that is that the next two years, when we check the data, the expiry is 1.5 million for next financial year, FY2026, and for FY2027, 1.3 million sq ft. Overall expiry, we are able to fill it up, and there is enough pipeline in the market given the good, robust demand in the market. Like I mentioned earlier in my earlier part of the speech, sometimes tenants vacating gives us that opportunity to bump up our rentals also. On the overall outlook of leasing, gross leasing, like I mentioned, in the first nine months has been 4.9 million sq ft.

The last four years, again, average has been 4 million sq ft of gross leasing, and we are already ahead of the number in the first nine months. There could be a chance we could end up doing a gross leasing by 7.2 million sq ft this year. We're seeing some strong demand for our B1 building in Hyderabad and some very good potential inquiries. Hopefully, we should be able to come back with some good news on that soon. We would be at around the 92.5% to 92.89% towards the end of this financial year from an occupancy point of view.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

Okay, got it. That's uncommitted occupancy that you believe.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yes, by March 31st of this year, we are expecting between that range, 92.5% - 92.89%.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

From there on, you would further increase based on the gross leasing trend and the expiry that are ahead of us?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yes. If you look at the overall vacancies today, most of it is in Navi Mumbai. Hyderabad has a vacancy of around 350,000 sq ft of a park where we have 13 million sq ft. That's hardly anything. We are confident that 350 will become around 150 in the next couple of quarters. Navi Mumbai, again, I was just checking with my leasing team. In the last two, three months, the inquiries have actually doubled. We need to convert some of these inquiries, but we have clearly seen doubling of inquiries. So again, Navi Mumbai looking positive. We had one last tenant vacate in Airoli, which led to that 150-odd thousand sq ft of vacancy. But again, that 150 would become 100 in the next 50,000 sq ft of vacancy in the next 60-odd days. So that also would come down.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

Okay, okay. That's pretty much helpful. Just on SEZ demarcation, if you can highlight how much is under process, what's the completion timelines, and by when do you expect to use it, especially in Airoli East where our vacancy is a bit higher?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

So NPA, what we have done is close to 2.1 million sq ft. Of this 2.1 million sq ft, we have already leased a million sq ft, which leaves us with vacant NPA of around 1.1 million sq ft. Again, on the vacancy front, out of the 22 lakh sq ft which we have vacant, 2.2 million sq ft vacant, 0.8 is SEZ, and 1.4 is non-SEZ. The occupancy for SEZ is close to 93.2%, and for non-SEZ, it is 90.1%. We are confident in Airoli by end of next financial year, we should be touching the 96%-97% kind of a number in terms of occupancy. But a park of that size where we have 10 million sq ft also will have some vacancy or the other coming up.

We study the market very, very carefully, or we wouldn't have announced building 15, which is the 1.5 million sq ft, and building 17, which is the 800,000 sq ft building in that location. We're seeing increased traction, but in terms of vacancy, Navi Mumbai still has close to 1.7 million sq ft lying vacant.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

Got it. That's helpful. That's it from my side for now, and all the best.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you, Pritesh.

Operator

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 Abhinav Sinha from Jefferies India. Please go ahead.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

Hi, and congrats to management on the strong upmove that we are seeing now across most parameters. So my first question is on rentals. You have hinted at slightly higher rentals going ahead. I think we are now around 5-odd% ROI increase. So when do we hit those double-digit sort of growth numbers here?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

I don't see double digits happening in my 25-year career. I've seen very less times, even during peak of maybe 2007 when rentals were going up. That time also was like 7%-8% kind of a number. 10% rental increases on a year-on-year, it's quite difficult. I think 5%-6% is more realistic, which is also in line with typical escalations which we sign. 4.5%-5% is the kind of escalations we get from our clients. So expecting 10%, I think, is a little being very positive, Abhinav. That's a little tough to achieve. We've seen very few markets, which is like Hyderabad, once in a while we have seen that kind of behavior.

But what also typically happens, Abhinav, is when a market becomes overheated, like today Madhapur is very overheated, there's absolutely no space available, no land to develop. We see cost-conscious tenants kind of migrating to non-expensive markets. That's how today Whitefield, you look at it. You saw Outer Ring Road going to 110-120. And then people started looking at Whitefield, which was at 55 back then, and it has become 70. So the market overheats, typically it kind of starts getting demand flowing to other markets.

Abhinav Sinha
Analyst, Jefferies India

Thanks. I think that's a very frank answer. But let me flip it in. So when do you see Navi Mumbai overheating? Is it like two years away with those 80-plus rentals?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

I think all the MOUs Fadnavis has signed over the last two days. Hopefully, some of it will come towards Navi Mumbai also. But I don't foresee Navi Mumbai being overheating like that, Abhinav. To be honest, I don't see that happening.

Abhinav Sinha
Analyst, Jefferies India

Right. So my second question is on the uptake that we are seeing in gross leasing this year. So there has clearly been a contribution from the return to office, which is playing out particularly in IT. Do you think this is done now, or we have another sort of four-quarter sort of tailwind here?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Not exactly. Abhinav, great question. And I was sitting with the teams yesterday to check what's the attendance level of our portfolio companies. And it's kind of. It was in the early 70s in the last quarter, and it's kind of come to the 75%-76% mark. Now we don't see a big jump happening. Typically, on a lighter note, many CRE heads tell me as soon as they start seeing that some of these big companies are letting go of employees in the U.S., that's when attendance immediately picks up the next day because everybody wants to come and show me their bosses and show attendance. But we're not seeing some big bumps happening because most companies have learned how to work from home.

That hybrid model has started working. They all have policies, which was not there two years back. So we're not going to see some big jumps on that happening. But every company we know are pushing out of the 200-odd office occupiers we have in our portfolio. In the last 17 months, I've been with the company. I would have met with more than 90% of them. And in the 90% of the companies I have met, I would say maybe 10% of the companies are still big supporters of work from home. The balance, 90% of them are pushing their employees to come back to work, but they will always have a flexibility. So many people can come to office, and some people will have the flexibility to work from home.

Abhinav Sinha
Analyst, Jefferies India

Great. And finally, I think one last question from my side. So on the ROFO asset, what are the timelines and mix between debt and equity that we should look forward to here? Thank you.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

See, on the timelines, like Preeti said, ROFO notice was received during this quarter, and we have done our DD and evaluation and presented the opportunity to the board. The board has cleared the acquisition. We made the offer to the seller, and once the seller accepts the offer, we will go back to the Board and then go to the unit holders. Preeti, you want to talk about the ratio debt?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yeah. So this is going to be through preferential issuance. So basically, we will be taking over the SPV's debt. And then, of course, once we take over, we will look at refinancing. So maybe let the announcement happen after the Board approves both the seller's acceptance. You'll get the further details then.

Abhinav Sinha
Analyst, Jefferies India

Thanks, and all the best to the team.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thanks, Abhinav.

Operator

Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. We have a follow-up question. It's from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

Yeah, just two more questions. First, on the third-party acquisition that you're looking at, same strategy you highlighted during the annual day. I just wanted to get some details or some thoughts behind it. Would it be like larger acquisitions? I mean, larger asset that you would be looking at, like about 1 million sq ft, etc.? And in general, what's the value for us for REIT in those acquisitions? Is it like lower vacancy and hence it would be like a stress buyout from us, which will eventually give us value? And will these acquisitions be dividend and NAV accretive right from day one, or probably we'll have to communicate to the investors that, look, maybe a couple of quarters you'll have to see through this, and eventually these sort of acquisitions will create a lot of value for investors going ahead.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Pritesh, on the third-party acquisition, we obviously will look at good long-term buys. It's still quite premature. We're still evaluating. Three, four things we typically look at from a checklist perspective is, one, it should have the seller should be ideally an institutional owner. Is there going to be any redevelopment kind of potential in the long run? Like I said, is there any extra benefit the location will get from added infrastructure which the government is providing? And some of these markets have spillover benefits from reduced vacancy in some of the other micro markets in the city. So these are some of the things we would look at before looking at a third-party acquisition.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

Got it. And just one last on the pre-leasing that we did for Kharadi, our two building. Can you share some terms in terms of are the rent-free period in line with what we have been doing? And rentals, are we asking for a little more than what we are generating for existing tenants? So some details on that.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Definitely, Pritesh. So we've got a good rental. Obviously, we have signed an NDA with them, but it's a good rental. And also, it was the last building in our campus. So with that, we reach 100% occupancy. It is still 100% because this building did not receive the OC, so we don't calculate it in our vacant space. So rentals are in line with the best possible in the market. Not a worry, in spite of it being one large GCC.

Pritesh Sheth
Analyst, Axis Capital

Okay. Okay. Got it. That's helpful. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Puneet from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Puneet Gulati
Analyst, HSBC

Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity. My first question is, when you think about growth and you're talking about acquiring third-party assets, would it necessarily be in the cities that you operate, or would you be keen to enter into cities where you've not been, like Bengaluru or Gurugram? Any thoughts there?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Obviously, in the cities we operate, Chennai, the REIT is full now. We don't have anything, so we could be looking at Chennai as an opportunity. Hyderabad, we are the largest developer, largest portfolio, most of the best located park. Pune, again, we are very clear number one. Mumbai, again, and commercial, we are very clear number one. We have looked at opportunities in Delhi and in Bengaluru before. There were times when we were the L2 bidders. In some cases, we were L3 bidders. So the focus will be on all six cities.

We want to have a pan-India presence. Right now, we are in four cities, but we look at Delhi and Bangalore definitely.

Puneet Gulati
Analyst, HSBC

And even from the parent side, is there an initiative to acquire land and do greenfield and then pass it on to you, or that's still early stages there?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Oh, that's a very serious strategy for the parent sponsor to find land and build and give it to us eventually. So that continues.

Puneet Gulati
Analyst, HSBC

No, no. I meant in new cities like Bangalore, Delhi, NCR, not in India.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yesterday, Bangalore, South India head was looking for land opportunities in Bangalore. So that continues.

Puneet Gulati
Analyst, HSBC

Okay. And secondly, I noticed that flex space operators are almost 10% of your total tenant portfolio. Do they get any sort of preferential rentals given that some of their tenants can also potentially move in, or are they dealt in the same way as normal tenant?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

So again, in line with the market, Puneet, the flex has today become 18% of the market. And we would be, I think, in the 8% odd, 8, 9% odd from a portfolio point of view. And yeah, it's around 10% now. That's the kind of number we would like to kind of maintain. But again, if you look at when we do flex deals, Fadnavis, you can do a flex deal from a speculative point of view. The flex guy just takes the space and then hunts for clients. So a lot of time, if it's 10%, where the client is already there, and this is going to be a back-to-back deal.

In those kind of deals, obviously, there is a lot more security from a flexible flex player point of view. We don't offer any preferential kind of deals there. We give exactly the same market rates we have. And our model, again, is plain vanilla leasing to the flex players. It's not that we invest in the fit-out and then give it to them. There are those kind of models also. We give market rentals based on where the market is currently.

Puneet Gulati
Analyst, HSBC

So no revenue share kind of agreements?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

We haven't done any deal like that. And like I said, most of our deals are backed by a tenant. It's a back-to-back deal which most of our flex operators have.

Puneet Gulati
Analyst, HSBC

So actually, that sounds very interesting. I mean, I would wonder why would they not come straight to you and go via flex operator route if they know where they want to be? You can also do a bit of CapEx, right, for them?

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Yeah. We have a deal that we build. We are investing INR 4,000 crores in CapEx, which means obviously we know how to build buildings. Doing fit-outs also. We have done so many fit-out deals. We also have a hospitality arm which understands. So we also have our campus, which is our facility management arm. There are clients who come and tell us, "Can you do it for us?" And we have done those kind of deals also where we do the project management. We do the facility management for clients. But we are fine giving it to the top coworking operators who are well capitalized and where there is less financial risk for us.

Puneet Gulati
Analyst, HSBC

Understood. Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you so much and all the best.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thanks, Puneet.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Tanveer Sharf, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Yeah. Hi. Actually, my question is more around, in general, about REITs and InvITs. In the middle, there was some talk around having them included in the frontline Nifty. Have you all heard anything from SEBI or any other governing body regarding where we are with this particular intention? Because globally, REITs and InvITs are a part of the frontline Nifty. Actually, SEBI director has also been promoting it, but I don't know if it's going to happen this year or next year or when. But do you have any idea what is stopping it, or is there any roadblocks for that?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

So that's one representation which has gone from the REIT invest associations also to SEBI. And I believe they would be reviewing this, but difficult to put a timeline to this.

Speaker 8

Okay. So not on the timeline, but do you know what the main concern is or what is blocking this action?

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

So as we heard, I think there was some reservation from the mutual fund industry. They had some reservations. But I think SEBI would be doing consultation with all the stakeholders to understand. But at this point in time, difficult to say where it is and when do we see this resolving.

Speaker 8

Okay. Okay. Thank you so much.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

There was one small error. The flex spaces, I just checked the numbers again. It's 6.6%. So it's not 10.3% which came in the slide. I just checked the numbers. It's 6.6%. Mr. Tanveer, does that answer your question?

Speaker 8

Yes. Yes. I'm done. Thank you so much.

Operator

As there are no further questions, we will conclude the call. On behalf of K. Raheja Corp Investment Managers Private Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

Preeti Chheda
CFO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you all.

Ramesh Nair
CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

Thank you.

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