Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Oberoi Realty Q3 FY23 earnings conference call. From the company we have with us on the call Mr. Oberoi, the Chairman and Managing Director, and Mr. Saumil Daru, Director of Finance. Please note that this call will be for 30 minutes, for the duration of the call, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. This conference call is being recorded, and the transcript for the same will be put up on the company website. After the management discussion, there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during this conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone telephone.
Before I hand the conference over to the management, I would like to remind you that certain statements made during the course of this call may not be based on historical information or facts and may be forward-looking statements, including those relating to general business statements, plans, strategy of the company, the future financial condition and growth prospect. The forward-looking statements are based on expectations and projections and may involve a certain number of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, opportunities, and growth potential to differ materially from those suggested by such statements. Mr. Oberoi, the Chairman and Managing Director of the company. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to all of you as per the time zone from which you have logged in. Welcome to the conference call of Q3 FY23 results and business updates. Thank you all for taking time out for this call. While globally, we are all combating pressures of inflation, domestic consumption here has been robust and demand for residential segment has been well established. The resilience of Indian economy in the coming years will be something to closely watch for. The demand for commercial, industrial, warehouse is being fueled by increased consumption, e-commerce and broad policy level support. Before we begin, I would like to share with you some quick business updates. I am pleased to announce that ORL successfully concluded the acquisition of residential premises in 360 West.
We all, we now almost own the entire inventory available for sale, which puts us in the driving seat for future sales. With conclusion of this transaction, we have also freed up a lot of management bandwidth as well. We're also happy to announce the acquisition of another 8.5 acres of land in Pokhran Road. This is purchased from Blue Star. This will also give us an additional saleable area of about 21 lakh sq ft and another 1 .5 lakh sq ft of commercial area. With this, I want to hand over the call to my Group CFO, Saumil Daru, after which we will be taking question and answers. Thank you. Hi, very good afternoon, everybody.
If we can, move into the question and answer, you know, the operator can give time for people in the queue to form.
Sure, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question at this time 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 then two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question is from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Vikas. Congratulations on the 360 West deal closure. My first question is on 360, sir. Now, we have seen such a large sale of inventory as reported by the media reports. Do you think the pipeline is still very strong for this product? What could be probably the leads running now? On the pricing also, if you can give some view because this seems to be at a huge discount to the current prevailing prices.
Hi, Parikshit. Firstly, you know, the deal itself shows the ability of the brand to be able to sell such large inventory. That's one. This is actually not the real pipeline that we have. This is over and above the pipeline that we have been having. You all know that my partner had, you know, debt obligation. He has prudently sold his inventory and made sure that he's repaid all the debt. This actually like I said that the building now has occupation certificate. The purchaser of this large inventory also happens to be marquee names. Like I said that we have a separate pipeline for the rest of our inventory. We are very confident that we will be able to sell the rest of it.
This, you all know that this is, you know, gonna be, all cash, for the company. The entire expenses are paid for. Now, I mean, you know, having transferred the inventory into ORL, we've also paid part of the tax and, stamp duty. We will net off a lot of cash out of this deal.
Okay. The second question is now both Mulund and 360 West have OC, and they will generate an excess of INR 7,000 crore- INR 8,000 crore of cash flows. This one interrelated with the BD activity. We have been talking for more than a year that we are accelerating our BD and land acquisition, but we have not seen any large announcements coming out, while our peers have been going out all guns and announcing big deals. If I combine the two, how do you see deployment of this excess cash flow, surplus cash flow which will get generated in terms of BD and growth? What if you can break it up in resi and commercial?
Parikshit, it is nobody's guess that obviously all the money that will get generated will get deployed back into business. We are in the market looking for land and, you know, again, not that it's a big deal, but buying Blue Star next to our property in Thane is a testimony that we are in an investment mode irrespective of whether we get these cash flows or not. Now, having got this in place that much more, focus is absolutely on BD. Like I also said in my statement that this has freed a lot of management bandwidth. We will use this now going forward in making sure that we acquire more land.
How big maybe the BD pipeline with us next year?
Again, like I said that, you know, I don't want to give any forward-looking statement. All the money that we get generated will go back into BD. I mean, you know, let's say if I'm generating INR 6,000 crore-INR 8,000 crores, I wanna go and buy, you know, land worth that much and more. Because all our residential projects are cash flow positive. You are only looking at just two projects where construction is done and we have so much receivable. If you see all our land parcels, look at Goregaon. Even Goregaon is cash flow positive. For us, I mean, you know, this additional cash has to be deployed in buying new land.
Okay. Just the last question is, are you on track to launch the Thane Pokhran in this quarter, Q4 ?
Yes. you know, we are fully geared to launch, Thane in the Q4 . I mean, that's really our internal plan. Ballpark date is about 16th of March, and we are really working towards it.
Both Kolshet and Pokhran, both?
It will be Kolshet and Pokhran will follow immediately after that. We want to get the master plan of Kolshet right. We want to get the master plan for Pokhran right. We have pretty much cracked it, but we want to make sure that. See, this is a large development. We want to commit to building, you know, phases, but we also want to have flexibility in changing the sizes, like how we did Goregaon. We have learned a lot out of the Goregaon layout and want to implement all the learnings. Just for everybody's reference, Thane is as big as Goregaon is.
Both will get launched in March only, or Pokhran will be later than March?
No. Pokhran probably will be a quarter later and, yeah.
Thank you. Thank you, Vikas, and all the best to you.
Thank you, Parikshit.
Thank you very much. Our next question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for your opportunity and congrats on the Thane land transaction. Firstly again on 360 West. Will partner continue to sell units at, you know, with the pricing which he has sold the previous transactions for? Just in terms of, you know, the units that got sold, are each one of those for end consumption or there would be some units who can again come back as an inventory to the market?
You know, to answer your first question, my partner now does not have much of an inventory left. He's pretty much done with it. Like I said, that we will almost be the sole sellers. I can't comment on people who have purchased. They have purchased, they paid stamp duty, and a lot of them are almost wanting to start interiors. I'm hoping that they are not going to be reselling. One can never say. I mean, you know, I would love to believe that they have acquired something, such a nice building. I don't think anybody in their right mind would want to sell. If, let's say, financial compulsion require them to, there's nothing stopping anybody.
As far as we are concerned, like I said, that we have our inventory and we will be going about selling them.
Okay. Just a clarification, you know, partners would still have, you know, good chunk of units because we had 63, probably the project had around 120 odd units. Out of 50 odd units, 28 are sold, so he still has, like, around 25, 30 units, right?
He has his majority stake now is in A Tower. He also is keeping a few for his family, and that's why I'm saying that there is not much of an inventory left for him to sell.
Okay. Okay, that's clear. Second, again, on business development, pertaining from previous participants. You know, we have a lot of cash generating that, you know, there are players who are, you know, doing business development. A couple of days back, there was a news about, you know, Ambani's developer buying a land in Andheri. Where are we, you know, not making progress in, you know, sourcing such lands? Is it, you know, a specific margin that we are particularly looking for and that we are not getting or what's the strategy there?
Our strategy is very simple. If you see all our land acquisition has been marquee land, you know. We don't. Hello?
Yeah, yeah. I can hear you.
Just one moment. The line for the management dropped. Let me reconnect him. Mr. Oberoi is now reconnected. Please proceed, sir.
Hi. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay. Sorry, just repeat your question, please?
Yeah. On the land transaction. I was asking about, you know competition acquiring. Yeah.
You know, if you really see all our land acquisition have been marquee land. We are very, very clear that, you know, when I say that in my head that I'm a customer-centric company, I want to make sure that all my land parcels are well located. That's point number one. Number two is we wanna make sure that they are of a particular scale. That's point number two. After that, you know, they are purchased from good sellers. Like, most of our lands are purchased from multinationals. You know, we do have our own set of parameters where we want to deal for land and we'll continue to apply those parameters. That's about it. There is enough and more available.
I just wanna tell you that we are looking at 15 million sq ft at Thane itself, you know. Like I said, that it's actually another Goregaon in the making. If you see the amount of money we've generated in Goregaon, we'd probably end up doing more than that in Thane. That's simply because, you know, the pricing. I mean, in Goregaon we started at INR 2,500 a sq ft. In Thane we will start at, you know, my neighbors are selling at INR 20,000 and INR 22,000 a sq ft. Again, like I said, that there is enough and more with the company. We have very good pipeline, you know, for land transaction also. We are absolutely not worried.
You know, the, you know, we've been in the business now, I mean, listed for the last 10+ year s, and this question keeps coming again and again. Just before when we bought the Tata Steel property, there was this question. After that we bought Thane, again, there is this question. Again, I mean, I'm not saying that it shouldn't be there, but we are very mindful and we are really looking at, you know, BD in a very big way, and we will continue to do that. We like buying land in large chunks and that kind of, you know, works for our strategy.
Sure, sure. That's helpful. Anything you want to comment on your expansion strategy outside of Mumbai? There was one transaction obviously which was reported in media as well about you looking at land in Gurgaon. If you can comment on, you know, that part of your business.
I said that we have done an MoU and we are now close to doing the definitive agreement. If everything goes through well, you'll hear something in the next quarter that is done. And there, again, is marquee land, good quality land, and, you know, it'll be a great launch for ORL there.
Sure. That transaction is still on? No.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. That's it from my side and all the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Murtuza Arsiwalla from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Just to clarify on 360 West. Oberoi Realty now has no stake in the partner share of inventory which is there in 360 West, and we are only concerned with the inventory that the company has bought over. Is that understanding correct?
Correct.
Also your presentation does not have any details on 360 West. Should we assume no sales this quarter, or how should we think of it?
Correct. You're absolutely right. In light of our own settlement taking place, we obviously, I mean, you know, had to suspend, almost suspend sales, you know, because we were, you know, figuring out how do we really, you know, bifurcate our areas and, you know, how does ORL end up buying its stake and stuff like that. We had paused for a bit. We'll start rolling.
Going forward, whatever comes from 360 West is really from Oberoi's 100% owned inventory.
Absolutely.
Okay. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Kunal Lakhan from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi.
Hi, Kunal.
Good evening. Hi, Vikas.
Good evening.
Just to follow up on the previous question. You bought 40, 63 units from Oasis Realty. What will be the unsold units remaining in Oasis Realty?
Again, you know, whatever is my partner's inventory, tower A and a few flats in tower B, very few. And some that, like I said, that he's keeping for his family. That's about it. Nothing else.
That leaves a lot of inventory, right? About 123 units we had at the end of September quarter. That would leave, you know, 60 units in Oasis Realty, of which we sold, the whole transaction happened with Dhvani and family.
In fact, you know, that's only part of the inventory. There is more that he has sold and you will see that happen.
It's already sold. They're just being registered and all that is happening.
Okay. All that inventory would be still in Oasis Realty, where we have a 32.5% stake, right? Is that understanding correct?
No. There is more to it. Let, you know, there are many things that are playing out. Let that happen, you will know it, when things, actually happen on ground.
Okay. Just going back to your previous statement that so our stake in the project is now restricted or limited to 63 units, and we don't have any other interest in that project. Is that understanding correct?
Almost correct. Yes.
Okay.
Like I said, that there is still dotting the I's and crossing the T's of the entire process. Once that is done, you will have full clarity. This bit is done. You know, whatever was, like, whatever inventory we owed to ourselves, we have taken that. The permission that we had, you know, asked for from our AGM, from our investors at large, whatever we went to, we've got that done.
Okay. Sure. Also, secondly, like there were no sales in Goregaon this quarter, and we have taken a price hike this quarter. How should we read this? I mean, is the price hike getting absorbed in the market, or we are getting any pushback on the pricing side?
You know, there is obviously, you know, it's not like I would say pushback. They are getting to. See, secondary sales, ready sales are happening at a much higher price . Number one. Number two, we have only put cost and other things for, you know, from that point of view. I'm again saying that, you know, it'll, it started. I mean, you know, we have the what you call footfalls happening, and it'll culminate into sales going forward. I don't see that as a problem.
Okay. Sure. Lastly, like, you know, this Khale Pokhran Road has, I understand, like, you know, you're still, you know, trying to get the master plan right. It's, it's been a while since, you know, we've been talking about this launch. How certain are you that this will happen in Q1, you know, because we were planning to launch it in Q3?
Correct. Very, very certain. There is no doubt about that. That's not a problem.
Okay. Sure. Sure. Thanks, and all the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Mohit Agrawal from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Yeah. My question is on your earlier statement that, you know, both Kolshet and Pokhran would get launched within a gap of a quarter. Are these two products very different in terms of pricing and ticket sizes? How? Because these both are going to be in initial stages, how are customers gonna differentiate? How are you gonna differentiate between the two projects?
Okay. Good question. They are, you know, locationally very, very different, and they will be different from price point of view, and there'll be marginal difference in area also. All three positive.
Okay, understood. Anything on the I-Ven? Have you decided on the configuration or what kind of launch you want to do when you want to do a launch on I-Ven?
You know, like I said, that our management bandwidth, our mental bandwidth and all of that is now free from Worli. We will now start focusing on other things. I-Ven is on top. I-Ven is on top priority.
Is it decided will it be a residential or a commercial or a retail?
You will know, you know, in one quarter now. We have plans for it, but we, like, want to keep it tight-lipped now.
Okay. A last one from me. you know, post this Worli transaction, is it on a net basis, is the debt going up like you've invested INR 4,000 crores and I think construction cost has come back, but net-net is there a net debt increase?
I'll let Saumil answer that.
Yeah. Hi, Mohit. Saumil here. For the Worli transaction, we did take on debt to basically fund, you know, the outflows that we mentioned in the release to the exchanges. Simultaneously, you know, as you are aware, the Mulund project also the OC has come through. We also expect the loan over there to kind of, you know, start coming off as the collections come in. You know, by the end of March, with some of the sales in Worli, if that happens, then, you know, we'll also look at deleveraging on this loan which we have taken for 360 itself.
In the end, as of March, I would want to believe that, you know, our net debt ratio should come back to what it was, you know, at the end of December.
Okay, understood. That's clear. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Sameer Baisiwala from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you so much. Good evening, everyone. Can you talk a bit about the rental rates for Borivali Mall and Commerz III?
Hi. Good evening, Sameer. Borivali Mall, again, I mean, you know, we have topped up finished superstructure, interior work in progress. One of the marquee international brands, also signed other than the cinemas, cinema brand. A huge attraction, I can say that, you know, it's surprising. I think we can, I mean, without, you know, breaking any rule of forward-looking statement, I can only tell you that we can literally close the entire mall in, you know, one quarter. That sort of demand. Again. Very good rentals, I would say. That's one. What else did you wanted to know, sorry, sir?
For Commerz III, rough rental rate?
Commerz III, you know, the market, I would say, I'll just tell you about the market. On a carpet basis is at about INR 250. We are hoping that we should be somewhere around that on carpet area.
Okay. That's great because...
They're depending on the size of the, you know, size of the deal. Like, if somebody is, you know, taking a large area, then you do give a discount. It oscillates between anywhere between INR 220 a square foot to INR 250 a square foot. On cap rate.
Okay. If I have to take a guess for Borivali Mall, because on an average, once you're fully done, INR 200, INR 250, is that range plausible?
Per square foot?
Per square foot. Yeah.
You will be pleasantly surprised if you have, you know, set your expectations at that. I think we could beat it by 50% also.
Uh, five zero? One five?
Five zero.
Okay. Okay. No, that's great. Basically what math is running in my mind, is our journey from, you know, roughly INR 350 crore rental to, I think, INR 1,200 crore that we have, you know, articulated in about a couple of years from now. Do you think with these numbers we are well on course for that, or it looks like we may fall a bit short on that?
No, no. I think we are pretty much on course to get that. Pretty much.
Okay. Okay. Okay, that's great. Because, you know, any thoughts on the budget announcement regarding, you know, the capping of the capital gains at INR 10 crores for the residential units? Do you think because you do luxury housing, so...
Yeah. You know, in fact, you know, for me, I feel that this is one market which actually is not sensitive to any of these. Luxury globally, I mean, if you see, they've always ended up doing well, irrespective. You know, it doesn't really matter for them whether, you know, the cost goes up or goes down by whatever. I don't see this as a bummer at all. I just don't see that as a bummer.
Okay. Final from my side. In Goregaon, you have launched two towers and three more are left, right?
Correct.
Any thoughts on that? When would you be launching the third tower?
You know, two things. In fact, one I did not answer the last time. I mean, the last question they asked is that we've increased price. Firstly, I don't have much of an inventory left, I mean, of four bedrooms, of the locations that people have been wanting. They're all sold. Me increasing the price, you know, whether I increase the price or I don't, my sales wouldn't go up because I don't have the inventory these guys want. You know, for me also, I also saw that, Exquisite and Esquire continue to sell at 30% and 40% higher than the prices that I am actually selling today at.
We did a simple math that if people are willing to pay today for something that is ready, and I am likely to give this product three years later, if I were to discount that or whatever time that I've committed, if I were to discount that, I'm still selling this cheaper with the current pricing that I'm offering. Hence we increase the price. Now, like I said, that we, when we launch the third tower or the fourth tower, I already have people who have said that, "Whenever you open it, whatever price you open, I want this side of the inventory and, here's, you know, like my commitment to it or whatever." Of course, I can't take checks, but they are, like, ready to close it today. It's that kind of demand for Goregaon.
That's great. What's the time for the third tower launch?
Again, you know, I don't know how many of you know, but we have started work on all the two of the three towers already. In fact, not only started, we are at level four or level five and all that. We are not wasting any time doing that. We know that this is like literally like a running tap for us. You know, whenever we open, we can sell. If I'm already working my profit recognition, revenue recognition, all that happens simultaneously. It doesn't hurt the company delaying that launch, you know. We're only building it up and so on and so forth. Everything is set. We could either look at September or, you know, something like that. Maybe September, October, that sort of launch.
Okay. Thanks for the update.
Thanks, Sameer.
Thank you very much. Our next question is from the line of Dhruvesh Sanghavi from Prospero Tree . Please go ahead.
Sir.
Yeah.
One question related to the pre-planning in terms of building. How does the approval allow you to probably retain the configuration? Positively so because you said that you will use this learning. Sometimes, let's say now Exquisite or Esquire has a 1,300 or a 1,500-carpet range, and, you know, none of our few, the incremental projects have something like that. Let's say if we decide to choose on 1,300 and 1,500, but if we were already building, does the regulation allow you to probably change and the plinth work can be replanned in between? Just some thoughts to understand how the industry and regulatory body works.
You know, how we do it is our own trade secret. I don't want to diverge much into that. Like I said that, you know, if you see these are all termed as future projects and the plinth is not always done, you know. We obviously haven't started work there, and these are parked as future projects, and that's how one can do it. Anybody can do it. What do you all know?
Basically, that flexibility is there and you have cracked that model in terms of making it as ready as possible and then changing it dependent upon the market requirements and your understanding of it.
What we do is we allocate locations for the buildings that we want to build and we mark some sort of footprint because it's very important for us to make sure that all the buildings get a particular view and all that. We play within the marking that we have in our hand and all. Like I said, this is our little trade secret. I don't know how much of it is one, but nevertheless, we enjoy doing this.
One more. The way you are saying that, you know, Thane is part two of Goregaon. At least in your master planning and your broader estimates of, you know, how long can this take? Is the master planning being done thinking that, okay, in 10 to 12 years we should be out, instead of 15 or 17 years or some thoughts around it? Of course, this is too long, but just to understand what kind of launch we can expect, maybe we can reverse it in our head.
See, I, like I said, that Thane could be potentially be one, 15 million sq ft. Like, even if I were to launch, let's say, you know, 1 million or 2 million every year, we are looking at a 10 to 12-year horizon. You know, this also will also like absorption, what's the velocity? All that needs to be tested. I feel that, you know, when we do our development, we make sure that the entire market gravitates towards or rather into our project, not even towards that area. We try to get maximum from the entire market into our project. We've been successful in doing that in Goregaon. I feel we will. We did that in Goregaon.
We would hope to pretty well do that in Thane as well.
Right. One strange advertisement on the website, I assume that that might be from a broker. It says 2 and 3 BHK launch in South Mumbai by Oberoi Realty. This is the first time I ever saw a 2 BHK written under the name of Oberoi Realty. Is this true or? If so, can you give some understanding of what this project is in Mumbai?
Please forward that to us. We will have, we'll complain to cybercrime and get this guy knocked off. There are many of these who, you know, like we come across many such advertisements. People have started advertising, you know, for Thane also, and it's a real pain. Yeah, we can't help it.
No problem. Fine. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we take that as the last question. I'll hand the conference over to Mr. Oberoi for closing comments.
Just give me a second, ma'am.
Sure.
Thank you for taking time for this call. We look forward to hearing from you, on an ongoing basis. If you have any queries, please feel free to reach out to us, you know, and we'll be more than happy to answer the same. Thank you again.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Oberoi Realty, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.