Ladies and gentlemen, good day, welcome to Sobha Limited Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call hosted by ICICI Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode, there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Adhidev Chattopadhyay from ICICI Securities. Thank you, over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us on the Sobha Limited Q1 FY 2027 results call today. As always, from the management we have with us Mr. Jagadish Nangineni, the Managing Director, and Mr. Yogesh Bansal, the Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Over to you. Thank you.
Thank you, Adhidev. Good evening, everyone, thank you for joining us on this Q1 FY 2027 earnings call. I thank all the investors, analysts, stakeholders for taking time to be with us today. Our operational update was earlier shared in the month, the detailed investor presentation is available on our website. Today, I'll briefly cover the key business and operational highlights for the quarter, our CFO, Mr. Yogesh Bansal, will walk you through the financial performance in greater detail. I'm pleased to share that Q1 FY 2027 has been a landmark quarter for Sobha in terms of sales. We achieved our highest-ever quarterly real estate sales, recording sales value of INR 3,656 crores, representing a 76% increase year-on-year.
We sold 2.34 million sq ft across 1,432 homes with an average realization of INR 15,655 per sq ft, reflecting the strength of our product portfolio and brand. Bangalore once again emerged as our strongest market, contributing 57% of the quarterly sales of about INR 2,067 crores, driven by good response to our launches of Sobha One World and Sobha Sacred Grove, a plotted development. The NCR region also delivered its highest-ever quarterly sales with a sale value of about INR 1,384 crores, mainly driven by a successful launch of Sobha Crescent in Gurgaon, reaffirming our strategy of expanding in high growth micro markets. Together, these launches significantly contribute to our record quarterly performance. In Sobha One World, out of the overall 3,484 homes across 47.4 acres, w e released 3.4 million sq ft.
Out of the released, we could sell about 40% at the launch. In Sobha Crescent, we sold about 60% in Q1 FY 2027. During the quarter, we launched three new projects across Bengaluru and Gurugram with a combined saleable area of 6.89 million sq ft and a potential sale value of about INR 10,000 crore. These launches further strengthen our development pipeline and provide strong visibility for future growth. Execution continued to remain our core strength. During the quarter, we completed 677 homes covering 1.08 million sq ft across multiple projects. Consis tent project delivery remains central to our business model and enables faster revenue recognition while reinforcing customer confidence in the Sobha brand.
We plan to complete 6 to 6.5 million sq ft for FY 2027 as against last year's completion of about 5.4 million sq ft, which can be about 20% higher.
Our development portfolio continues to provide strong long-term growth visibility. We currently have a forthcoming launch pipeline of about 20.77 million sq ft across 17 projects. Of this, we are confident of launching nine projects aggregating approximately 8.2 million sq ft during the remaining period of FY 2027. The planned launches comprise four projects in Bengaluru, about 3 million sq ft, two projects in NCR, about 2 million sq ft, one project in Hyderabad, which is about 1.7 million sq ft, and two projects in Kerala at about 1.5 million sq ft. This pipeline provides us with confidence in sustaining the growth momentum over the medium term. As of end of Q1 FY 2027, we also have 14.94 million sq ft of unsold inventory.
B oth put together, the forthcoming launch pipeline and our current unsold inventory, we have a strong visibility of inventory to be sold in the coming quarters and the years. We envisage our net debt to be at about zero level for this year. Another important strength of our business continues to be our balance sheet. We ended the quarter with a net cash position of about INR 659 crore while maintaining a low leverage, low borrowing cost of about 7.62%. Our operational cash inflow remained quite healthy at INR 1,924 crore, despite higher investments in land acquisition and project expansion. This financial strength gives us flexibility to continue investing in future growth while maintaining a prudent capital allocation strategy .
On the financial performance front, we reported a total income of INR 1,330 crore, representing a growth of nearly 48% year-over-year. The remaining P&L details will be covered by our CFO. Our future earnings visibility continues to be very strong. As on end of this quarter, the company has INR 20,553 crore of revenue yet to be recognized from the sales that have already been done. We would see margin expansion as we complete the projects that we have sold from FY 2023. Our backward integrated operating model continues to differentiate Sobha in the market. During the quarter, our other businesses generated revenue of about INR 170 crore, and we have a good order book visibility for those businesses. Our commercial rental has a total income of about INR 23 crore.
In the steady state run rate, we expect in this financial year also to be similar to last financial year in terms of revenue for the other businesses. Looking ahead, we remain quite optimistic about the new launch pipeline that we have. We see a good customer demand for our products, and we believe the company is well-positioned to sustain this growth momentum and deliver long-term value. With that, I would like to hand over a call to our CFO, Mr. Yogesh Bansal, who will take you through the financial performance in greater detail.
Good evening, everyone. Q1 FY 2027 quarter reflects improved revenue and profitability, healthy operating cash generation, and continued strength in our balance sheet with a net cash position. Our total operations cash inflow during the quarter increased by 8.2% year-on-year basis to INR 1,924 crore. Real estate collections stood at INR 1,756 crore compared with INR 1,599 crore in Q1 FY 2026. Collections from contractual and manufacturing businesses stood at INR 168 crore. Total net operation cash flow we generated INR 312 crore. During the quarter, project-related expenditure increased in line with increase in construction activity. We also incurred higher sales and marketing expenditure in line with increased sales and new project launches. The company generated cash flow of INR 290 crore. During the quarter, we invested approximately INR 370 crore in land and approximately INR 70 crore in CapEx.
The quarter recorded an overall net cash outflow of INR 149 crore. This net cash outflow was primarily attributable to planned investment in land and future development opportunities. These investments were undertaken while retaining a strong liquidity position and a net cash balance sheet. Coming to P&L front, total income for Q1 FY 2027 stood at INR 1,330 crore, representing an increase of approximately 48% year-on-year. Real estate revenue increased by approximately 60% to INR 1,107 crore compared with INR 690 crore in Q1 FY 2026. Revenue from the contractual manufacturing and retail business stood at INR 171 crore, compared with INR 162 crore in corresponding quarter of the previous year. Profit after tax stood at INR 50.7 crore, compared with INR 30.5 crore in Q1 FY 2026.
The improvement in profitability was supported by higher real estate revenue recognition and improved revenue mix and continued financial discipline. During the quarter, our residential real estate contributed revenue of INR 63 crore from the delivery of 1.24 million sq ft, comprising 819 homes, reflecting our continued focus on timely project execution and delivery. Our balance sheet continued to be a key source of strength. As on 30th June 2026, gross debt stood at INR 1,110 crore, while cash and cash equivalents stood at INR 1,769 crore. Our net debt ratio stood at negative 0.14, and our average borrowing cost is 7.62%. Our strong cash position, low leverage, and competitive borrowing costs provide us with the flexibility to fund construction, land acquisition, and pursue growth opportunities without compromising financial discipline.
We have projected receivable from sale and unsold value approximately INR 31,000 crore. Against this, the estimated remaining cost to be incurred is INR 19,000 crore, resulting in projected margin cash flow INR 12,000 crore from completed and ongoing projects. Together, these figures provide substantial visibility for future collection and cash generation and give us additional headroom to invest in future growth. For FY 2027, our financial priority remains focused on maintaining a strong and liquid balance sheet, improved collection and operating cash generation, and discipline in capital allocation. It has remained well positioned to support sustainable business growth. Thank you once again for joining us today. With that, we can open the floor for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Girish Choudhary from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Jagadish. Congratulations on the strong pre-sales. Firstly, obviously, you've had a strong start to the year, if you could just give us the pre-sales growth or the booking value you're targeting for FY 2027. As a follow-up, you mentioned about 8 million sq ft of launches for the remaining nine. If you could give the GDV and also the timelines on the key projects which we should look forward to.
Thank you, Girish. In the last quarter, end of the financial year, we have guided for at least 30% growth in the pre-sales. That I think we should be able to continue to achieve. If all the launches happen within time, probably we can do slightly better than that. As of now, I think I continue to aim for that in terms of pre-sales. Coming to the exact timing of these remaining project launches of about 8.2 million sq ft, like in the opening comments I have given. All these about nine projects, we would be able to do it within the next nine months. Most of them, this quarter would be about three projects, which are couple of projects in Kerala and one plotted development in Bengaluru, and probably a small, 0.4 million sq ft project in Bengaluru.
Other than that, the remaining projects would be coming in Q3 and Q4.
Got it. That's useful. Secondly, what we noticed also, collections were relatively modest considering the pre-sale. Was this primarily a timing issue because a large part of sales came towards the end of quarter, and should we expect material improvement from this quarter onwards?
Yeah, that's right. What you mentioned was right. One is, the collections from new sales have come towards the end of the quarter, and hence there is more collection that would be coming from these new sales, but part of the collections only have come in this Q1. Second is, typically, our milestone billing collections this time were relatively lower because some of the milestones we could not achieve due to labor shortage mainly in April and May. Hence, the corresponding billing could not happen. Hence, there is a small shortfall there also. Otherwise, in general, things seem to be good in terms of overall cash flow visibility.
Okay. We are on target to do the INR 2,000 crore, I think, which was guided in the past for the year?
INR 2,000 crore of operating cash flow?
Yes.
Yes, that is on an average for the next few years. If you take an aggregate level of what is the marginal cash flow. As we grow, we should be able to touch that number.
Lastly, if I may, on the land payments, we have seen around INR 370 crore during the quarters, higher than the normal run rate. If you could explain for FY 2027 and FY 2028, what are the commitments, and then from a business development point of view, what are you seeing?
Yes. This quarter, in addition to our normal commitments of the existing lands, we have invested in couple of new lands. One small land we have bought in Mumbai, and we have invested in a new opportunity in Greater Noida. Put together, these are the two new ones. Otherwise, the rest are towards commitments of the future forthcoming projects that we have already declared.
Got it. Thank you, and all the very best.
Thank you, Girish.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to three per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we would request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Puneet Gulati from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much. My first question is one with respect to your disclosures on the forthcoming project, where you talk about potential sales value of INR 295 billion, and versus that, the margin that you talk about in slide 15 is INR 68.3 billion. This is a lot lower than what you had in the previous presentation at close to INR 86 billion of margin and a smaller sellable value for forthcoming project. What is the change here?
You're right, Puneet. Good evening. The main difference for the new forthcoming majority, the mix of the projects, a greater mix is towards joint development, and hence that's the marginal cash flow you would have seen reduction. Second is, earlier in this marginal cash flow for forthcoming projects, we had Hoskote. Hoskote is one of the main projects, which was our own land, and hence the marginal cash flow was much higher.
Okay. The GDV that you state is basically including the landowner share?
Yes. This is a gross value of the entire project.
Okay. That's fine. Secondly, while you talked about potential two acquisitions this quarter, one in Mumbai and then one, sorry, the other one I missed out.
In Greater Noida.
Have you paid for both of them?
Yes.
Okay. How should one think about full year allocation of capital towards land? What is the run rate one should assume?
We have done From a land payments point of view, we would be roughly similar to land for last year. Going forward, there would be an incremental Last year, we did about INR 1,160 crore, this year we already did about INR 370 crore. We have identified a couple of opportunities where I think we can invest in Bangalore and in NCR. If we are able to complete those transactions, then we might look at closer towards INR 1,500 crore-INR 1,600 crore this year.
Okay. That's relevant. Lastly, in your nine project launches, does that also include the balance phase of One World or that's separate?
No, that doesn't include balance phases. Like I said, we have taken the entire project of Sobha One World in the new project launches in Q1.
Understood. That's relevant. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you, Puneet.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jagadish. Congratulations on a great quarter on pre-sales. My first question is, the way we were forecasting this quarter, the first half was a washout because of geopolitical issue. Just wanted to understand what led to this strong demand coming back towards the second half of the quarter. Both in Gurugram and Bengaluru, and also wanted some color on Noida, how the Rivana has done after there were some delays, you said the sales could have got pushed on. Just your sense on the demand, what has just surprised us positively, and where do you think the real estate cycle currently is?
Thank you, Parikshit. Like you have seen in Q1 or let's say Q1 of this calendar year, we had been preparing for these launches for some time, and hence the time advantage that we had got in terms of preparation is what I believe is what led to a stronger performance in this quarter. For any new launches, like you know, it's not only dependent on the timing of the launch, but also the extent of preparations for that. In that aspect, we were much better prepared, and hence there is a stronger response, is what we can see in Q1. Otherwise, the overall demand scenario seems to be quite stable from what we have seen in terms of the launches and also what we are witnessing post the launches also. It's been quite steady.
We believe that it is a reasonably good demand scenario. What we would like to see is how the supply is going to come up. Specific to your question related to Rivana has also been quite steady. It's not a project where it is much higher. We have not seen much higher sales through at the launch. Post that, during the quarter, it has been quite steady in terms of monthly sales and the quarterly sales.
Okay. My second question is on the INR 1,500 crore tentative. You said if the deals could get close of INR 1,500 crore, CapEx on land may happen this year. Just wanted a breakup of how much will be Bengaluru and how much will be contribution from NCR and MMR on this, and whether is it right to assume that out of this INR 1,500, roughly INR 15,000 crore worth of GDV, INR 12,000 crore-INR 13,000 crore of GDV additional happen?
Yes. From a remaining capital allocation, part of that is towards our current commitments for the 20.77 million sq ft. That's roughly about another INR 400 crore. Our past commitments, those are also, that's about another INR 200 crore. Those are about INR 600. That already we have done about INR 370, remaining is about INR 600 crore. That INR 600 odd, we should look at the current opportunities that we are pursuing. It's still a little early to disclose that, but it's at a good valuation, and hence we should be able to Typically, in any new land buy, we see that the value of the land is between about 15% of the total sale value. It would be in a similar range.
This will be largely in NCR, the INR 600-INR 700 incremental beyond the existing, the past commitments which you said. Out of the INR 600 crore, how will be the geographical breakup of this?
Majority is in Bangalore, the remaining is split largely between NCR and a little bit portion to Mumbai.
Okay. This is the third question on this first quarter. How much was the contribution from the Sobha One World out of the total INR 20,000 odd crores of sales? How much was the contribution? Because the numbers look like a lower, the numbers that we have. Was there any spillover you're going to book in Q2 out of this? Just wanted the total cumulative sales on this and how much has been recognized in Q1.
You have seen about 45% of the overall sale is from One World Sale, the remaining is from Banga lore and NCR have contributed close to 87%.
Sorry, NCR how much?
Bangalore and NCR together have contributed about 87%.
Out of the total 3,600, 45% comes from your Sobha One World?
Yes.
Is there any pending sales to be recognized? This numbers then looks little slightly on the lower side compared to what you have released. It's about 1,600. I mean, were you able to book the entire sale, or there's a passover which will happen in Q2 from this, that you could not realize in the Q1 numbers?
Yeah. Like I mentioned, we have released about 3.4 million square feet of the total. Within that, we have done about 40% of the sale.
That's about totally 1,800 odd. About INR 2,300 crores could be a spillover, which may happen in FY in the Q2 quarter. Hello?
Yes, Parikshit.
There was some spillover into Q2, that means.
Yes. I mean, that is a characteristic of any new launch or ongoing operation. There would be naturally be some spillovers sales that are being put in the previous time period.
Okay, sure. Thank you, Jagadish. I wish you all the best.
Thank you, Parikshit.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Biplab Debbarma from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jagadish and team. Congratulations on the great start to FY27. The first question is on the Mumbai and Greater Noida business development you did in this quarter. Could you give us some details, like are these outright projects, and how much you paid for these projects? What would be their GDV when they're expected to be launched?
The Mumbai project is about 1.3 acres, and we bought the land for about INR 180 crores. The Greater Noida project is a joint development for which we have paid certain dues for the authority and for the landowners. Both put together, the GDV for this would be about INR 2,700 to INR 3,000 crores.
They would be launched in this financial year?
The Greater Noida one, we are envisaging to launch this financial year. Mumbai one, we would endeavor to do it. Considering the approvals, uncertainty of a clear timeline, there is a lot of work to be done there. Hence, although our endeavor is to launch it this financial year, so currently, I have not included that in the projection that I have given in terms of 8.2 million square feet for this remaining nine months.
Second question is on the margin. I mean, last quarter, you mentioned that margin will see revival from the second half of this financial year.
That's right.
Margin continues to be low, sir. Do you maintain that margin will see uptick in second half of this financial year? What kind of margin do you think we'll see in the second half of financial year, as reported margin?
Right. Biplab, you're right. I still expect the margins to be significantly better in the second half. I mean, sequentially, it should start looking better. Depending on the number of completions that we can do, Q2 might be similar. Q3 and Q4 sequentially should become better as we complete some of our high-margin projects and start handing over. Our expectation is that by Q4, currently we are at about 9.7% EBITDA. As we leave the end of Q4, hopefully, we should be able to do closer towards 17%-20%.
Okay, that's it. My third question is on the remainder of the year. You said 8.2 million square feet launches. That translate into how much of GDV?
At the current average of INR 15,000, it should be about INR 12,000 gross.
Okay. Thanks, Jagadish, and all the best.
Thank you, Biplab.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Fenil Brahmbhatt from Choice Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hello.
Congratulations for the good set of numbers. I have two questions for you. First is on this approved NCDs of INR 1,000 crores. When we are planning to issue these NCDs, in the next quarter or there is any timeline? If you can throw some light on that would be helpful.
Yes. We envisage the usage coming in the next couple of quarters. We would do it in tranches, as and when we identify the acquisition opportunity or, let's say, firm up the acquisition opportunity, we would go ahead with the funding of NCD. It need not be at one shot, but as and when it's required. At least I would think that we will take it in tranches.
Okay. All right. I just want to understand the project completion for FY 2027 and FY 2028. Which projects are at the finishing stage, or we are planning to deliver in next three quarters or next remaining FY 2027? If possible, you can give some highlights for FY 2028 projects as well.
For FY 2027, like I mentioned, we would endeavor to complete about 6 to 6.5 million square feet, versus what we have done, about 5.4 million square feet last year. There is a list of projects that we would complete as per the timeline of the completion. We can provide you that list separately, Fenil, if that's okay.
Okay. Yeah. That's all from my side. All the best for the next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you, Fenil.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a great start to the year. Just dwelling some more on launches again. Second phase of Sobha Crescent is planned for next year or this year?
Good evening, Pritesh. Thank you. Crescent phase II will happen during this financial year, most likely towards the end of Q3 or beginning of Q4.
Okay. 2 million sq ft in NCR, which you said, is basically phase II of Crescent and the Noida project, Greater Noida project.
Yes.
Bangalore will have the Crystal Meadows now converted into those apartment projects also included in current year's pipeline?
That's right.
Okay. Perfect. Just on Mumbai, I can't see the new latest addition in our forthcoming or subsequent pipeline. Rather there is one acre of Mumbai, but I thought that's the second part of the Parel project. Is it included in the current pipeline or since we are not sure of the timeline, we have not included it in the forthcoming subsequent plan right now?
Right. The one that you are seeing in the forthcoming pipeline is the second phase of the current project, which is Sobha Inizio. The one that we have just acquired, that we have not yet included. Based on the timeline, once it gets firmed up, we would include it subsequently.
Sure. Got it. One last, again, on launches. I think last time we had a six lakh sq ft of commercial project in Gurgaon. That I don't see currently in the pipeline. Has the plans been shelved for that commercial project now, or has anything changed there?
Good observation, Pritesh. That particular project, we endeavor to launch and develop it. We have, in fact, the entire TDR for it, and we can develop the entire project. Currently, we are looking at evaluating an option of launching it, but not actually selling it, but retaining for our rental income. That we are in a evaluation phase, and hence we have removed it. If we decide to do part of the development as a sale model, we'll bring it back.
Sure. Perfect. That's pretty helpful. That's it from my side, and all the best. Thank you.
Thank you, Pritesh.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shubham Selvadia from Tikri Investments. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Sir, my question is regarding labor law. Sir, in Karnataka, recently in May month, there was a hike of 60% in minimum wages. Have you evaluated any impact on cost?
Good evening, Shubham. Yes, there has been, and we are still under the evaluation phase. Largely our technician force that we have, that is above the minimum wage. However, it would have a little bit of impact on our overall cost. That is yet to be assessed, but I think we should be able to absorb it within the budget that we have allocated for the projects.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Shubham.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for participating in today's call. I hope we have answered most of the questions that you had. In case of any further queries or more details, you can please reach out to us. Wish you the very best. Thank you, and have a good evening.
On behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.