Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Oberoi Realty Q1 FY25 earnings conference call. We have Mr. Oberoi, the Chairman and Managing Director of the company, and Mr. Saumil Daru, Director of Finance of the company, with us for the call. Please note that this call will be for 30 minutes, and for the duration of this conference call, all participants' lines will be in listen-only mode, and this conference call is being recorded, and the transcript for the same may be put on the website of the company. After the management's discussion, there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone phone.
Before I hand the conference over to the management, I would like to remind you that certain statements made during the conference of this call may not be based on historical information or fact, and may be forward-looking statements, including those related to general business statements, plans, strategies of the company, and the future financial condition and growth prospects. The forward-looking statements are based on expectations and projections and may involve a number of risks and uncertainties, another factor that could cause actual results, opportunities, and growth potential to differ materially from those suggested by such, such statements. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Oberoi, the Chairman and Managing Director of the company. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to all of you as per the time zone from which you have logged in, and welcome to the conference call Q1 FY 2025 results and business updates. Thank you all for taking time out for this call. Before I begin, I would like to share with you a few quick business updates. I'm happy to announce another healthy quarter with strong profitability and encouraging sales traction at 360 West Worli. We've also witnessed a strong leasing interest across our office assets and expected occupancy to ramp up in the next few quarters. We are gearing up for our Pokhran, Thane launch, and also towers in Goregaon and Borivali in the upcoming festive seasons. With this, I now open the floor for question and answer, and both Saumil and I will be happy to take your questions.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press stars and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Karan Khanna from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I had a couple of questions. First, if you can talk about the Kolshet Road project, and if I look at slide number 24, is it fair to assume that the quarter-on-quarter increase in terms of units booked can be partly attributable to any changes that you've made in the payment plans for this project? And, given that you have a fairly large amount of inventory coming up in the Thane micro market, what initiatives are you taking towards accelerating sales in this project and potentially Pokhran Road, as in when you launch it?
Hi, Karan. Firstly, Forestville as a project is doing really well. We are ahead of our schedule in terms of execution. People are able to see the progress, and, you know, people have also appreciated the design and quality of work that we are doing. And the outcome of sales is absolutely that. We've kind of understood the Thane market. People take their time, and people who have come and visited us, three or four months ago, have actually come in and bought apartments. So we've literally never lost a customer. He's only, like, waiting in transition, literally, and eventually comes in, completes the sale. So really, no change in, you know, no change in, I would say, payment plan or anything like that. In fact, for us, Thane, Thane is a new micro market.
People have now seen the way we are working and appreciate the quality, and hence, there is this bump up, and I can only tell you that it'll only keep improving. And if you'll also see that it's virtually a cash flow positive project, as we speak. So all in all, very happy with the way things are going. And, I feel, you know, people are literally waiting for Pokhran Road project to get ready. I have a lot of people, inquiring about it, and, you know, we are fingers crossed. With God's grace, I guess, we should be having a good launch there as well.
Just on the Pokhran Road, is it safe to assume that, by the festive season that's around Diwali, is that you're expecting to launch this project? And if you can also talk about, phase-wise, how big would the first phase be in terms of the launch?
So we are, we are starting execution on five towers. L&T is being awarded the contract. They have already started work as we speak. And yes, we are gearing up for the festive launch, and we probably might, you know, work will start on all five towers. We probably might launch one or two towers, you know, and then probably build it up.
Sure. A second question on 360 West. We've observed a couple of quarters of, you know, decline in the ASPs. Is it because of lower flows, or is it because of increased competition that you're seeing, potentially from other players in the micro market? And as a follow-up, what sort of a visibility do you have on sales velocity for this project in coming quarters?
So, you know, frankly, these are lower floors. And, you know, without sounding pompous, there genuinely is no competition to the product we've built. And, you know, our partners also sold out on all his inventory. So today, we literally have a monopoly on the inventory, and, I see this trajectory going only better.
Sure. And then lastly, any further updates on the Gurgaon and Adarsh Nagar projects since the update that you shared last quarter?
So Gurugram, also, you know, we got conveyance of the property. We've registered that. We did it only last week. And, even Adarsh Nagar work in progress. And, I guess, they are also slated for probably end of this year or early next year, sort of, launch.
Sure. Thanks, and I'll come back in with you. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Puneet Gulati from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi, Puneet.
Thank you, Saumil. Hi, Mr. Vikas, how are you? So congratulations on great, you know, numbers. I think very happy to see your 360 West going well. Do you see this kind of traction into the coming quarters as well?
You know, frankly, I thought this should have started a lot earlier. Only fingers crossed that it continues this way. And you all know, I mean, obviously, like, you know, there was a fire sale by our partner for his inventory. Now, that is all, you know, historic data. Going forward, we have monopoly and, you know, there is really no competition for the product that we have. And you know, a lot of what is being built is probably three years, four years, you know, in delivery, or at least two, 2.5 years. So we have a clear run there. And again, you know, probably not even comparable product.
You know, I think, if things go well, which they should, we should continue to see similar, you know, sales in 360.
Okay. And I also saw, again, INR 475 crore of sales from INR 120 crore is collected. Is there a payment plan, or is it just a quarter-related issue?
No, this actually happened in the second half of June. You'll see all the money coming within this quarter now.
Okay.
The sales were at the second of June, and, you know, so they'll all come.
Okay. Understood. And on your rest of the projects, Adarsh Nagar, Tardeo, Gurgaon, you said end of the year. So is the design and all, all in place or... And RERA approvals also look close to coming? Or do you think when you say launch, you mean, you know, start of construction, and then you launch later next year?
No, you know, so the design obviously is in place. We continue to keep improving, improvising, and massaging the plans and all that, you know. But, yeah, I mean, good work in progress. We really know what we want to do and how we want to do, and at the right time, we will launch both these, all these.
Okay. And lastly, on your Glaxo Worli project, any thoughts on what you're going to do there now?
So, I don't know whether I told you all last this thing. We are going ahead with the mall. We are doing an office building and a small, very small boutique hotel. So we are now gearing up to launch that also.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
We will start work, probably within the next two quarters.
Next two quarters. Understood. And what would be the, developable area there or carpet area?
We are hoping it should be somewhere around 1.8 million sq ft, 1.6-1.8 million sq ft.
1.8 million sq ft carpet?
Correct. It's massive, really massive.
So, what is the configuration likely to be for mall, office, and hotel? Any broad thing.
Right now, what we are targeting is anywhere between 6 and 7 lakh sq ft of mall. A very small component of hotel, probably 80-100 thousand sq ft, and the rest of this is office. So let's say 1 million sq ft of office space.
Okay.
you know, give or take 100,000 sq ft for hotel, and another 600,000-700,000 sq ft of mall.
Understood. That's very helpful. Thank you so much.
Thanks.
All the best. Yes.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Praveen Choudhary from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, Praveen.
Thank you. Hi, Vikas. Hi, Vikas. Hi, Saumil.... First of all, congratulations on a very strong quarter. I know this is despite no new launches, and the margins have been very steady and very strong, so congratulations. I have two very quick questions, if I may. The first one is 360 West. Once again, I'm following up. I think it was a very strong quarter. What are the factors which determines whether you sell two units or 10 units in a particular quarter? Considering, as you mentioned, there's no competition and there's obviously a lot of demand. The second question I have is on balance sheet. Your balance sheet is very strong, it's getting better. Can you talk about the use of cash in terms of annual land banking versus construction versus capital return? Thank you.
So, Praveen, firstly, you know, it's the price and really the profile of people. We want to ensure that we sell these apartments to the right kind of people, because we have, you know, by default, I wouldn't call it by design, created a community that's gonna be like the envy of everybody. Everybody in the city would want to be in a building like this. So it starts with, you know, the profile of the person, and obviously, like, you know, we have certain expectations from this project. We really worked hard on this. We built a quality, you know, way beyond, you know, anyone else's imagination. And, so, so obviously, it's, it's also price. And, the... What was your next question? Sorry. Oh, that was the balance sheet bit, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Now, I'll let Saumil take over.
So, yeah, Praveen, hi. So, you know, a pretty interesting challenge in terms of, you know, capital allocation. From our perspective, you know, the only thing that as developers, you know, that comes in, is the lumpiness that comes in when you are doing a land acquisition. So you keep, like an individual, you keep saving, and, then, you know, when that one chance which comes in, is when you go for it. So, as far as, you know, construction costs are concerned, those usually and very typically get managed out of the cash flows itself as far as raising is concerned.
So where we also end up doing a little bit of borrowing, and that is strategically, is using, you know, bank funding for doing constructions of the annuity assets. So that is how we would, you know, want to typically look at it. You would be aware that the Reserve Bank does not permit the commercial banks to lend for buying land. So any which ways, you know, your sources of funding available for buying land then either gets restricted to equity or, you know, the bond markets. So, we have to keep toying, you know, between that. As I said, the construction cost is managed.
As far as return of capital is concerned, I think, you know, it would be a fair amount of time before we kind of get to that situation. In all fairness, if you look at it, you know, and despite the balance sheet being very strong, we still have a net debt. So I would prefer to look at that bit, you know, a lot, I mean, a lot, lot later. But considering the kind of plans we have for what we intend to do around CapEx and, you know, for some of the transactions that we are looking at in the pipeline, we believe that, you know, we will always be able to deploy the cash that we generate in, you know, our own business.
If you look at the kind of ROC and everything, that is now, you know, showing up on the financials, and everything that we are doing and that we have done is now contributing to the P&L, whether it be 360 West, whether it be Commerz III, or pretty soon it will be the, you know, Sky City Mall, which will also start coming in. So all the capital employed is also generating returns. And we believe that if we are able to reinvest, you know, the cash flows that we are generating, that should happen at a healthy rate of compounding. So I think return of capital is long way away.
The other two bits, I believe, you know, I hope I have answered your question.
Yeah, very clear, Saumil, and thank you, Vikas, for explaining the first question as well. Can I check, when I last time checked, 360 West, by the way, it's super impressive building, and the units. The other tower, apparently those are even bigger floor plate. When will they be launched, or are they already ready to be sold? Thank you.
So, our show apartment there is getting ready. We should be ready with that by September. Our partner has sold a few flats there, so there is definitely traction. In fact, it's equally good, or I would probably consider it to be a little better than the other towers that are already selling. Once we have made our show apartment and, you know, given a peek into how people can use this 15,000 sq ft of carpet area, I think you'll see a lot of sales happening on that account also.
Got it. Once again, thank you and congratulations.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. First question is on the, you know, leasing. So we had a, you know, very heavy traction now in Commerz I. It's almost like... I think it's almost leased out. Commerz II is 93%.... you know, what should we expect from Commerz III? We have obviously read few transactions in media, but, you know, what would be the expectations in terms of leasing by end of this year, considering the interest that you are getting right now?
Yeah, Pritesh, Vikas here. Yes, absolutely correct. We are ourselves very pleasantly surprised with the traction we've got. You know, probably at the end of this year, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if we are 99% or even 100% leased out between all three buildings. That's the confidence my, you know, lease, leasing team or the CEO of our leasing business is, talking about. So, yeah, I mean, you know, the buildings turned out really well. More than 50% is, being occupied by, or close to 50% is occupied by Morgan Stanley. And, we have other very good tenants for Com III. So all in all, really leasing looking very good. Very, very good. In fact, at some point, I'd love for you all to come and have a look at what we built.
It is the tallest commercial building in the city or in the country. And really, you know, with 52 elevators, really state-of-the-art, designed by Woods Bagot out of New York. This building could be anywhere in the world. So would love to show any of you, you know, yeah.
And, you know, considering we don't have too much of vacancy right now in the first two towers and, you know, healthy pipeline for Com III, are we looking to, you know, I mean, starting to ask for a better rentals in Com III, you know, versus our usual run rate of around INR 250 odd per sq ft? you know, are we looking to better that in terms of rentals as well? Or, you know, for now, the focus would be on leasing it out.
So, you know, frankly, our focus is on getting the right tenants. We have got really marquee tenants. If, if you offline when, you know, discuss with the team, they'll be able to tell you. For us, that's a bigger kick, and, you know, it gives us pride. It also, you know, like, retains the value or enhances the value of the building that one has already built. So focus will be on that. Increase in rent will be a by-product. We are not, you know, obviously, like, we'd rather choose a good tenant over a higher rent. Both, if we get, will be most welcome, but, that's where we are for now.
So that's helpful. On the Sky City Mall, you know, any initial leases that we have signed, you know, and what sort of occupancy you'll be starting at for that mall?
So, you know, as far as leasing goes, I feel we will be probably 80%-90% leased within this year itself. And most of it will be ready, some of them will be in their fit-out, depending on the size and all that. But that mall is got its destiny of its own, you know. And really, I'm, you know, very pleasantly surprised with the traction, with the quality of people we are getting there. And again, you know, this is one place I'd love for you guys also to come and visit and see how well that's turned out. You know, both from design and finish and, you know, the feel of that, it's got a very different energy.
Sure. Just one last, on, you know, Blackstone. What was the thought process behind moving to, a mixed-use commercial sort of a project, versus, you know, earlier planned residential? Is it, you know, since we have that Adarsh Nagar project as well, which would be coming up, was that the thought process behind doing this, keeping this as a purely commercial and doing a residential there or, something else?
You know, with the assets that we already have and are being leased out, we see anywhere between INR 1,200, INR 1,300, INR 1,400 crore of rent already coming in.
Yeah.
If we put this in, we can bump this up by another INR 800-INR 900 crore, probably even more. So this, you know, the assets that we have in our hand gives us a clear visibility of, you know, anywhere between, you know, INR 2,000-INR 2,300 crore of rent from these assets. So it's a, it's a... It's something that really, you know, we feel good about. It's a great location.
Okay.
This way we get to retain the asset. And, you know, again, having built the second mall and, you know, the kind of traction we got, we feel, you know, we can really give this city a state-of-the-art, you know, high-end mall and another office building that, you know, will really stand out. We want to make a marquee building. I feel, all these things put together, you know, kind of, are compelling us to do what, what we are just discussing.
Sure. That's pretty helpful. That's it from my side, and thank you all the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Lakhan from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening.
Hi, Kunal.
Hi. Just on, just to follow up on the earlier question, as of June, how much area in Commerz III is leased out?
We are about 70% leased out. A little more than uncertainty, I guess. But, again, we are in advanced talks with people. We are very confident by the end of this year, we will be done with all these.
Sure, understood. My second question was on our Mulund project. The traction there, again, like now considering it's a completed project, the traction remains quite soft. I mean, we have close to about, you know, 700 odd units unsold there. What is the strategy there, and, you know, what kind of timeline you're looking at to, you know, monetize that?
No, so we are only waiting for, you know, we've got part OC, or rather OC for the project that we had launched. We now are getting balance occupation certificates. One of the buildings, we should probably get it within this week or early next week. Once that happens, we'll open it up for sale. In fact, Mulund's been, you know, probably really very well-performing, and we are actually very happy with it.
By when do you think you'll be able to monetize this, this inventory?
Again, you know, so Mulund and Borivali both give you a kind of a sales run rate when they were under construction, anywhere between INR 800-INR 1,000 crores a year. And, let's say now with these each, with these buildings ready, I feel, the run rates will only go up. And, unlike Borivali, we don't have additional phases coming out here, though we have, you know, a small component of commercial there. But by and large, like I said, that, you know, we will, we should be able to sell the rest of the inventory in the next two years, I guess. And this is all like, you know, inventory built, paid for, you know. So in a way, it's just money, you know?
Understood. And my last question is on, you know, last quarter you had touched upon, or rather given some updates on Tardeo and Pedder Road. Any further update in terms of, you know, approvals there or in terms of, you know, launch timeline?
No, it's work in progress. Like I said, that first week, that, you know, coming festive season, we are focusing on our a tower in Goregaon, and we are looking at a tower in Borivali. So these are, you know, set for the coming festive season, and everything else is work in progress. They will start.
Anything in particular on Tardeo and Pedder Road, like next year, next fiscal or, you know, subsequent fiscal?
Should be. I mean, you know, like I don't want to commit, you know, it could be, you know, the last quarter of this year, it could be first quarter next year, but that's about it. So it falls within that gamut.
Understood. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhruvesh Sanghvi from Prospero Tree Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, Dhruvesh.
Yeah, hi.
Hi, Vikas, and Saumil. So, just wanted a little bit more clarity in terms of the launching, because I missed the first five minutes, and if you would have done it. If you can just give us a broad roadmap on launching, apart from the last comment that you made about Borivali, Goregaon, in terms of Thane and the other smaller projects that you have. And any update on the Worli GSK additional land that you... I mean, it is there. We originally thought about a mega mall there, but it is on our bench for some time, so somehow there. Yeah, that's the only question. Thank you.
Okay. So yes, Dhruvesh, you are right, we did answer. In fact, we are looking at a tower in Goregaon, a tower in Borivali, and a couple of towers in Pokhran Road for the festive season. So this is as far as the launch goes.
Thank you.
With regards to Worli, we are looking at starting that project. We want to now build a mall, an office building and a very small hotel on top, just to kind of, you know, brand it. And that's really what we intend to do.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we will take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Oberoi for closing comments.
Thank you all for taking time out for this call. We really look forward to hearing from you on an ongoing basis. Please feel free to reach out to our investor relationship team, and when you have any questions, of course, and thank you again. And like I said, that, you know, we'd love to have you guys visit some of our sites, you know. Again, you know, please connect with our IR team, and they'll organize the same for you. Thank you, and have a good day ahead.
Thank you.
On behalf of Oberoi Realty, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.