EMBASSY — earnings call
The transcript as filed. Every paragraph is addressable: its link names the page and the position it sits at in the call.
Prepared remarks
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call
January 28, 2022
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS
Michael Holland – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Vikaash Khdloya – Deputy CEO & Chief Operations Officer (COO)
Aravind Maiya – Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Abhishek Agarwal – Head of Investor Relations and Communications
...............................................................................................................................................................
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION SECTION
Operator: Good evening everyone.
A very warm welcome to all for the Embassy REIT’s third quarter
FY2022 Earnings Conference Call.
Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode.
Our speakers will
Questions and answers
Embassy REIT
address your questions at the end of the presentation during the question-and-answer session.
reminder, this conference call is being recorded.
I would now like to introduce your host for today’s conference – Mr.
Abhishek Agarwal, Head of Investor
Relations and Communications for Embassy REIT.
Sir, you may begin.
....................................................................................................................................................................
Abhishek Agarwal
Head of Investor Relations and Communications
Thank you, operator.
Welcome to the third quarter FY2022 Earnings call for Embassy REIT.
Embassy REIT released its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2021 a short while back.
As is our standard practice, we have placed our quarterly financial statements, earnings presentation
discussing our performance, and a supplemental financial and operating databook in the Investors
section of our website at www.embassyofficeparks.com.
As always, we would like to inform you that management may make certain comments on this call that
one could deem forward looking statements.
Please be advised that the REIT’s actual results may differ
from these statements.
Embassy REIT does not guarantee these statements or results and is not obliged
to update them at any time.
Specifically, the financial guidance and any proforma information that we will
provide on this call are management estimates, based on certain assumptions and have not been
subjected to any audit, review, or examination procedures.
You are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on such guidance and information and there can be no assurance that we will be able to achieve the
Further, there are significant risks and uncertainties related to the scope, severity and duration of
the Covid pandemic, and the direct and indirect economic effects of the pandemic and related
containment measures on Embassy REIT and on our occupiers.
Joining me today are Michael Holland, the CEO; Vikaash Khdloya, the Deputy CEO and COO; and
Aravind Maiya, the CFO.
Mike will start off with the business and industry overview followed by Vikaash
We will then open the floor to questions.
Over to you, Mike.
....................................................................................................................................................................
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
Michael Holland
Thank you, Abhishek.
Good evening and thank you for joining us on the call.
We have many encouraging items to communicate
We will report on multiple new lease deals, in fact our highest level of new leasing since April
2020, and, again on the delivery of our quarterly distributions – a healthy ₹4,929 million, bringing our total
YTD Unitholder distributions to ₹15,640 million or ₹16.50 per unit.
In addition to our results for the quarter,
Aravind will detail an increase in guidance for our NOI and distributions.
This increase, in spite of the
current Omicron wave, reflects the clear acceleration in leasing activity and our optimism on the growing
demand for India office as we move into FY2023.
On another positive note, it’s one year since the ETV
acquisition and Vikaash will detail a number of areas of outperformance of that asset in that time.
finally, we have today received a Right of First Offer (‘ROFO’) intimation from Embassy Group in relation
to Embassy Splendid TechZone, a 26 acre business park in Chennai totaling around 5 msf when fully
developed, and we will shortly commence our review process on this opportunity.
We are excited by the
potential to continue to expand our portfolio footprint with large scale, high-quality opportunities, whether
through our sponsor or partner network or external market opportunities.
In terms of the external environment, the new Omicron variant emerged in India towards the end of
In just one month, cases in India have multiplied, though, as seen in the West, the impact in
terms of hospitalization and fatalities is limited.
However, there has been a disruption to normal business
operations arising from staff absence and post-testing quarantines, resulting in a delay in the new year
‘back to office’ plans of many corporates.
Active cases in leading Western countries have, after only 4-5
weeks, peaked and, in many countries, we now see a significant downward trend.
If urban India were to
follow similar trends and timelines, we would likely see a peak by early/mid-February, followed by an
active recommencement of ‘back to office’ ramp-up.
In Q3, we saw a very encouraging trend of new lease deals, with multiple new market entrants committing
The conversion of leasing pipeline into signed deals has been impressive despite delays in
some cases due to staff absences, and we are confident that the long-term trend remains intact.
confidence stems from the consistent feedback from our corporate occupiers as well as the clear macro
differentiators for India office which are increasingly translating into the growing leasing pipeline.
First, it is clear that the demand from our customer base continues to grow as the world accelerates its
digital transformation journey.
Many of our occupiers continue to report record earnings, deal pipelines
and accelerated hiring.
As these corporates grow and expand their footprint, India continues to be their
destination of choice given the abundant availability of cost-effective STEM talent.
Second, that STEM employee base is a young demographic in the early stages of their careers who
greatly value opportunities for learning, networking and innovation in the workplaces of these rapid
growth businesses.
In addition, urban India has well-known infrastructure challenges for efficient work
from home, and global concerns around cybersecurity and data privacy continue to increase.
factors drive the importance of physical office for the growing workforce in India.
While ‘back to office’ in
India has been delayed by the recent Omicron wave, the intent from corporate leadership is clear and
physical office continues to be at the heart of their businesses.
Third, at the property product level, this rapidly growing tech and global captive customer base is seeking
higher product standards for their employees.
Institutional-grade, wellness-oriented and green-rated
buildings have been the preferred choice for global occupiers, a trend which will continue given the ever-
increasing focus around attracting and retaining the best talent.
At Embassy REIT, we provide an
industry-leading portfolio of best-in-class properties, which we continue to enhance through our active
asset management and ESG initiatives.
On ESG, we recently set out our sustainability roadmap with 19
specific programmes, each with a defined baseline and mid-term targets.
By way of example, we have
set out our commitment to increasing our renewable energy share from our 2019 baseline of 35% to 75%
We believe that our ESG initiatives further cement our position as the ‘office provider of
As the pandemic recedes, we expect pent-up leasing demand to surge, and that too in a favorable
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
backdrop of constrained market supply, especially in key micro-markets across the country.
fundamentals of the Indian office sector and the strengths of our institutional-grade properties, present
in the right locations, will continue to drive our leasing momentum and growth trajectory.
I will now handover to Vikaash to present our business and operating highlights for Q3.
....................................................................................................................................................................
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
Vikaash Khdloya
Thank you, Mike and good evening.
We continued our positive trajectory on new leasing and development in Q3.
Business and operating
highlights for this quarter include:
Leased 428k sf at 24% spreads across 15 deals, including the highest level of new leasing since April
Delivered 1.1 msf JP Morgan campus within budget and commenced new growth cycle with 1.9 msf
new office development at Embassy TechVillage (‘ETV’);
Launched one of Asia’s largest solar rooftop projects to deliver over 20 MW scale and 30%+ projected
Successfully integrated the ₹98 billion ETV property within a year of acquisition, delivered better than
underwriting on a number of metrics.
Let me cover the detailed updates under 3 broad themes – our leasing performance, our organic growth
updates and our acquisitions initiatives.
First, an update on our leasing performance
As of December 2021, our portfolio occupancy stood at 87% on our 33.6 msf operating area.
we witnessed an uptick in our deal activity as we successfully leased 428k sf at 24% spreads across 15
This included 346k sf of new leases signed at 17% re-leasing spreads and 82k sf renewals at 39%
renewal spreads.
Worthy of particular note is that about a third of our leases during the quarter were to
We added 8 new occupiers, bringing our occupier roster to over 200 of the world’s leading
Deal traction came from anchor sectors including tech, financial services and banks as well
as from high-growth sectors like SaaS, logistics and e-commerce.
In another clear indication, multiple
occupiers have retracted their previous exit or downsize notices and, in few cases where occupiers
already exited during the pandemic, they are now looking to re-lease space with us.
So far, we have
received 8 such requests relating to over 300k sf leases as these occupiers reassess their office needs,
led by rapid business growth and improved visibility on their future plans.
The combination of increasing
demand from new as well as existing occupiers underscores our firm belief that, in India, ‘the office is
here to stay and grow’.
We remain fully on track with our previous guidance on escalations, expiries, and renewals for this
financial year, these details are also included in our earnings materials.
With regard to our new leasing
for FY2022, Aravind had laid a guidance of 400k sf during Q1 earnings call in July last year.
have already achieved ~700k sf of new leasing YTD and, factoring our current deal pipeline of ~400k sf,
we are raising our guidance and are now targeting to achieve over 1 msf new leasing for the full year, a
significant increase compared to our initial guidance.
While the recent Omicron wave may result in short
term delays in deal signing, we continue to see an increase in enquiries, inspections and RFPs from
occupiers from a range of sectors.
The Indian office market is well on its way to a demand rebound with improving business sentiments,
increased offshoring and robust hiring, especially in the tech sector.
As per independent market research
reports, calendar 2021 saw a gross absorption of 38 msf with Q4 alone contributing to half of this.
24 msf of RFPs currently active in our four markets, we expect a continuation of this recovery trajectory,
and Bangalore is expected to be at the forefront of India office demand recovery given its well-established
tech and start-up ecosystem.
Bangalore contributed to over a third of pan-India office absorption in 2021
and currently accounts for over 60% of pan-India active RFPs.
Our 74% concentration to Bangalore
market, therefore, continues to be our major strength and a significant differentiator for us.
Moving to our organic growth updates
During the quarter, we successfully delivered a state-of-the-art 1.1 msf campus to JP Morgan at ETV.
This has been possible due to the seamless integration of on-ground teams soon after acquisition last
year and the successful execution despite Covid disruptions.
Given this excellent result, we have
commenced the next phase of growth at ETV with the development of 1.9 msf Block 8 office buildings as
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
well as ‘Central Garden’, an 8 acre central attraction zone with world-class amenities such as an open
amphitheater, sport zones, F&B and sit-out areas.
These initiatives, along with the recently inaugurated
pedestrian skywalk, are aimed to further enhance ETV’s competitive advantage for years to come.
Beyond ETV, we also continued with construction at full pace with peak labor strength across our sites
for the ongoing 4.6 msf on-campus projects.
The upcoming buildings at Embassy Manyata and
TechZone, totaling 1.9 msf, are on-track for delivery in 2022.
We are also exploring redevelopment of
400k sf across two of the earliest blocks at Embassy Manyata, with potential to more than double the
current leasable area to ~1 msf and thereby create long-term value.
We are currently evaluating the
timing and financial considerations and will keep you updated as we progress.
Further, we are on-track for a June 2022 launch of our 619-keys dual-branded Hilton hotels at Embassy
Manyata and handover to Hilton team is currently underway.
Both these hotels significantly add to the
overall business ecosystem offering of Manyata, our largest property, and increase entry barriers for
other competing office properties for many years; thereby enhancing our office leasing efforts.
has already finalized long term contracts with over 50 leading corporates, and further discussions are
We believe that this launch is well-timed as the hospitality sector is witnessing a gradual
demand recovery.
Worthy of note is that our two operational hotels turned EBITDA positive in Q3, driven
by an increase in occupancy; and while there may be short-term blips with the new Omicron variant in
this quarter, the underlying trend continues to be positive.
Another organic growth initiative that we have undertaken is closely linked to our broader sustainability
We have placed a contract for one of Asia’s largest solar rooftop projects with over 20 MW in
scale and over 30% projected IRR.
This project entails installing solar panels across 8 of our properties.
We have already secured green financing at sub-6% and are targeting to complete installation by early
Post commissioning, over 40% of the total baseline power consumption of our business parks will
be serviced by renewable energy.
Finally, an update on our acquisitions initiatives
Growth is a key focus area for us and in addition to the ROFO opportunity which Mike noted in his earlier
remarks, we continue to actively evaluate acquisition opportunities in the market.
Our acquisition strategy
is based on our previously stated criteria of high-quality, large-scale business parks located in the right
micro-markets of the top 6 Indian cities.
Our business scale, understanding of the office sub-markets, on-
ground network and relationships, our strong balance sheet and well-established access to capital
markets helps us pursue opportunities that are accretive to our Unitholders.
Given it has been a year since we acquired the 9.2 msf marquee ETV property for ₹97.8 billion, let me
give you a 12-month update.
Since acquisition in December 2020, despite the pandemic, we have
increased occupancy by 120 bps to 99%, have added four new growth occupiers and have delivered the
1.1 msf JP Morgan campus within budget.
We have also kick-started the next growth cycle at ETV with
the launch of 1.9 msf new office development, and our showcase ‘Central Garden’ infrastructure initiative.
Construction of 518-keys dual-branded Hilton hotels is planned to commence later this year.
exploring additional FAR opportunities which could further increase leasable area and potentially
As you can see, we have delivered better than underwriting on a number of metrics.
Looking beyond the ETV acquisition, on our December 2019 forward purchase of M3 Block B totaling
0.6 msf at Embassy Manyata, the pandemic and regulatory dependencies have both led to delays in pre-
construction approvals.
For our October 2020 acquisition of CAM businesses of Embassy Manyata and
TechZone properties, we have achieved higher than underwritten EBITDA.
Our strategy of owning and
controlling the facilities management of our properties is also very beneficial during our occupier and
leasing discussions, especially with the ever-increasing focus on wellness and safety.
To conclude, we remain confident of a strong rebound in office demand, the best-in-class quality of our
portfolio and the opportunity to consolidate market share given supply constraints.
New business growth
and need for higher quality offices are the consistent themes during our discussions with occupiers.
remain focused on delivering the next phase of business growth.
Over to Aravind now for the financial updates.
....................................................................................................................................................................
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
Aravind Maiya
Thanks, Vikaash.
Good evening everyone.
We continued our resilient financial performance in Q3.
Key financial highlights for this quarter include:
Grew Net Operating Income by 30% YoY to ₹6,213 million, with operating margin of 84%;
Announced distributions of ₹4,929 million or ₹5.20 per unit, with 83% as tax-free to Unitholders;
Refinanced ₹36.5 billion zero-coupon bond (‘ZCB’) at 6.5%, delivered ~300 bps refinancing spread;
Maintained a strong balance sheet with low leverage of 24% and ₹116 billion debt headroom to
finance growth; and
Enhanced our full year FY2022 guidance for both NOI and distributions, reflecting pick-up in new
leasing activity.
Let me take you through the details.
First, an update on our Q3 Income Performance
Revenue from Operations grew by 31% YoY to ₹7,409 million, reflecting rent escalations on 1.8
msf leases, ramp-up in hotel occupancy and revenue accretion due to Embassy TechVillage and
other completed acquisitions in the previous financial year.
The impact of these positives was partially
offset by a decline in occupancy since the start of the Covid pandemic.
Net Operating Income (‘NOI’) grew by 30% to ₹6,213 million, in-line with increase in our Revenue
from Operations.
Our NOI margins continue to be best-in-class at an impressive 84%, reflecting both
the scale and efficiency of our business, as well as our low fee structure.
Our EBITDA grew by 26%
to ₹6,109 million, in-line with the NOI increase.
Net Distributable Cash Flows (‘NDCF’) grew by 14% to ₹4,927 million, mainly reflecting the
accretion due to Embassy TechVillage and other completed acquisitions in the previous financial
The impact of these positives was partially offset by the interest payments on our new coupon-
bearing bond given our recent ZCB refi on 2-November.
Further, the Board of Directors have declared
a Distribution per Unit (‘DPU’) of ₹5.20 for Q3, representing a 100% payout ratio.
With this, Embassy
REIT has now cumulatively declared YTD distributions of ₹15,640 million or ₹16.50 per unit.
Tax-Free Distributions grew to 83% in Q3, one of the highest in the industry.
Further, we remain on
track to collapse our legacy two-tier holding structure of ETV property and expect to receive
necessary approvals by June 2022.
Post this restructuring, around 85% of our distributions are likely
to be tax-free, thereby enhancing the overall post-tax distributions yield for our Unitholders.
Moving to our Balance Sheet updates
During the quarter, we raised ₹46 billion debt at 6.5% to refinance our in-place zero-coupon bond,
thereby consolidating our entire REIT debt to coupon bearing instruments and simplifying cash flow-
through for our distributions.
This early refinance, through a significantly lower cost debt of 6.5%,
helps us achieve an impressive ~300 bps or ₹1.3 billion proforma interest cost savings annually.
₹46 billion debt raise saw participation by large domestic mutual funds, insurers, banks and
corporates, demonstrating the increasing acceptance of REITs in India and further deepening our
debt pool to fund future growth opportunities.
In addition to this refi, we also successfully re-negotiated
₹21.5 billion of our existing term loans with current lenders to achieve 6.5% interest cost, a positive
spread of ~60 bps.
With both of the above, our overall debt cost at the REIT level is now down to
6.6%, significantly lower compared to 9.4% debt cost for the initial ZCB at IPO.
As part of our overall ESG roadmap and commitments thereon, we successfully secured ₹4.9 billion
of our debt at ETV as green loan from a leading global bank under their ‘Green and Sustainability
linked’ financing program.
This is first of our many initiatives to achieve ₹10 billion cumulative green
and sustainable financing by FY2024.
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
As you can see, our recent debt raise and planned ZCB refinancing has further strengthened our
balance sheet, with low leverage of 24%, and staggered our debt maturities, with less than 2% of our
debt maturing over next 18 months.
We currently have ₹11 billion of liquidity and continue to maintain
AAA credit rating as an issuer.
Further, 63% of our total debt is locked-in at a fixed interest rates
which will significantly help optimize our debt costs, especially in an environment where interest rates
are anticipated to rise.
Additionally, our proforma debt headroom of ₹116 billion provides us flexibility
to capitalize on growth opportunities as laid out by Vikaash earlier.
Lastly, an update on our FY2022 Guidance
As you are aware, previously during the Q1 earnings call in July 2021, we had provided our full year
FY2022 guidance comprising a mid-point NOI of ₹23,700 million and a mid-point DPU of ₹21.50 per unit,
both within a range of +/-3.5%.
We have now updated our numbers based on our YTD performance and
I am happy to share that we are raising our full year NOI and DPU guidance.
We now expect a mid-point
NOI of ₹24,500 million and a mid-point DPU of ₹21.70 per unit for the full year FY2022, both within a
tighter range of +/-1.5% - this translates into a 3% increase compared to our previous NOI guidance.
upward revision in guidance, despite the recent Omicron wave, mainly reflects the positive uptick in
leasing activity we have achieved, apart from improvement in our other business segments.
please note that our guidance is subject to the evolving nature of the pandemic.
To sum up, we remain in great financial shape and continue to deliver on our NOI and distributions.
Further, as mentioned by Vikaash earlier, both our acquisitions in FY2021 have delivered better than our
underwriting and have been accretive to both NOI as well as distributions.
As we evaluate new growth
opportunities, we remain focused on financing these through an optimal mix of equity and debt to ensure
that it is accretive to our existing Unitholders.
Over to Mike for his concluding remarks.
....................................................................................................................................................................
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
Michael Holland
Thank you, Aravind.
So, another very solid and encouraging quarter.
The highest level of new leasing in nearly two years,
delivery of our NOI and distributions, increased guidance for the full year, delivery of the JP Morgan
Campus, an industry leading ESG roadmap and line of sight to potential acquisitions-led growth from an
additional 5 msf campus in Chennai.
The current Omicron blip has a short-term timing impact on ‘Return to Office’ and deal signings by our
corporates, but the necessity for quality office spaces has been reinforced by global digitization and
technology adoption, as reflected in our leasing performance this quarter as well as our strong demand
We continue to expand our tenant base and solidify our relationships with over 200 existing corporate
We are on the path to further grow our business by developing and acquiring quality properties
and to reinforce our position as the landlord of choice and scale for leading global corporations.
Let’s move to Q&A.
....................................................................................................................................................................
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
QUESTION & ANSWERS SESSION
(Note: The Q&A has been edited for clarity)
Moderator
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session.
first question is from the line of Kunal Tayal from Bank of America.
Please go ahead.
Two questions from me.
The first one is as you evaluate the ROFO opportunity,
what does your playbook for acquisitions look like, both from an operational and
financial metric perspective?
And then second, would appreciate if you can give us
some more color around what happens to new leasing decisions because of the
Is it fair to assume that the push out would be comparable to return
to office plans or is it just a physical constraint around signing new deals for now?
Michael Holland
Thank you, Kunal, for those questions.
Just a small point.
A number of us are in
different locations, so if you'll just excuse a little gap between any sort of Q&A.
take the second question in terms of leasing decisions and then I'll ask Vikaash to
talk about the ROFO play book.
So, Kunal, in terms of leasing decisions, we think
that the principle, around whether or not corporates are taking extra space with the
additional growth base, is not changing.
What is happening in these last four weeks
is that there's a disruption to the administrative side of getting business done,
getting leases executed, getting the formal approvals.
So we do think there'll be a
slight delay in closing some of the deals and we've already seen that in the last two
or three weeks.
But overall, we'll see maybe a four to six week delay in actual
closure on deals.
As I say, we do have a strong fairly advanced pipeline of between
300,000 and 400,000 square feet for this quarter and we're very encouraged by the
quantum of RFPs that are out there in the market as Vikaash outlined.
the decisions aren't changing, the administration perhaps is getting slightly delayed.
Vikaash, would you like to comment on the ROFO thought process?
Vikaash Khdloya
In terms of our acquisition strategy, as we previously articulated, we
look at geographies where our customers want to be, and we are focused on the
top six cities.
What we look for is large scale, high-quality or tenanted properties,
ideally with a mix of both completed and on-campus development.
ETV doing better than underwriting and today we are on the lookout for similar large
scale resilient assets which fit well into our portfolio.
Our balance sheet strength,
which Aravind spoke about, really gives us access to capital and it will depend on
the specific deal as to how we structure the optimal mix of debt and equity.
of this acquisition, the opportunity that we have received, we are aware of the
We will now start our evaluation, but this is one of the properties which
has great international occupiers, particularly from the banking, automotive and
services sectors.
The key considerations remain valuation, structuring the deal and
how we finance it through an optimal mix.
So given we have just received the ROFO
notice, we will commence our assessment, but underlying theme for us is how well
does it fit into our portfolio and if it is accretive to our Unitholders.
Moderator
Next question is from the line of Puneet Gulati from HSBC.
Please go ahead.
Puneet Gulati
My first question is on Manyata.
If you can give more color on how the discussions
are progressing for leasing that property out?
The second would be on Quadron.
That property has continuously stayed at below 50% occupancy levels – if you can
give some color on what are the plans for that and how should we think about it
going into next year and the year after?
And third, if you can give more color on the
nature of occupancy in Hilton Hotels, is it largely business travelers or is it occupied
more by leisure travelers?
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
Michael Holland
Vikaash, can I ask you to comment on Manyata and Quadron in terms of pipeline
and the work that we've done at Quadron?
Vikaash Khdloya
Let me take Quadron first.
So Quadron is a business park we own in
the west of Pune.
We did see an exit and a relocation from a large occupier in early
part of last year.
Since then, we have undertaken a complete repositioning and
upgrade of the asset.
So that has come out quite nicely and you may refer to some
of the pictures in our last quarter's deck.
The feedback that we have got has been
very positive and now we are seeing early traction.
We recently signed with a
telecom operator two quarters back and now they are likely to grow with us with
another 50,000 square feet.
We have in the past seen tangible benefits post
refurbishment in our other assets like the 247 Park in Mumbai and we are confident
that we'll replicate the success here.
As we see the deal activity pick up especially
from the technology and the IT services players, we think this park and the West
Pune (Hinjewadi) is really well placed to capture that demand.
So we are taking a
little more forward-looking view on this and we think the occupancy will quickly ramp
up once we see the services sector players starting to take space in Pune.
On Manyata, actually it's interesting that you brought up that question.
a step back, let me give you a quick update on where we are at Manyata today.
Manyata today is about 88% occupied with about a million square feet of vacancy
– this is factoring all the exits that we will have upto Q4.
There are a couple of things
that we are doing in Manyata.
One, we have leased year-to-date about 225,000
square feet of space and this has been significantly higher than the market rent of
₹93 assessed by CBRE.
We have also renewed about 570,000 square feet year-
to-date with a very impressive renewal spread of 42%.
We've seen an exit by one
large legacy occupier in Manyata where the rents were significantly below market
with about 150-200% mark-to-market opportunity.
We are doing a couple of things.
We think the asset is really well placed.
We've seen the recent infrastructure
initiatives on flyover.
We also have the Hilton Hotels which are opening up which
we believe will help in our leasing initiatives plus we are currently refurbishing some
of our vacant buildings so that they are ready to be leased out as and when the
demand picks up.
In addition to that for some of the older blocks, as I mentioned
during my prepared remarks, we have an opportunity to undertake redevelopment.
So while we are assessing for 400,000 square feet of the earliest blocks of Manyata
right now, we have a couple of other blocks where we have the potential to double
the FAR and the leasable area.
So what we're doing as of now is we are seeing
how the demand pans out.
There is an early stage pipeline of about 1.2 million
square feet that we are in discussions with for Manyata.
Seeing how this demand
traction pans out, we will take a call on the timing of redevelopment versus
We remain very positive of the way Manyata as a park has shaped
It's the largest asset in the REIT.
And notwithstanding the FY'23 expiries and
we have about 800,000 sf of that, if I could refer you to the supplemental data book,
we think there's a huge opportunity because of the mark-to-market rents on the
existing vacancy as well as any vacancy that may come up from the FY'23 expiries.
So as and when demand picks up and it certainly will, we think Manyata will be a
huge beneficiary of that.
Michael Holland
On the hotel question, it's a mix.
We mentioned that we saw a good encouraging
quarter to the end of December with 37% blended occupancy.
Slightly different
profile of occupiers for Hilton and Four Seasons and a slightly higher occupancy at
the Hilton GolfLinks – about a 45% occupancy and half of that was corporate and
the balance was staycation type of occupiers.
The Four Seasons on the other hand
was much stronger in the Groups and vacation type of space, much more suited to
those high-end group events.
So encouraging trends in Q3.
Clearly, we've seen a
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
tail off over the last three, four weeks but we're confident over the medium term that
these numbers will improve.
Puneet Gulati
If I can squeeze in the fourth one, you also talked about a 20 MW solar project.
Should we think of it as a business model similar to what you have right now, or will
it operate under different metrics?
Michael Holland
Yes, we've identified approximately 30% IRR on that.
It entails about ₹98 crores of
CAPEX, which as Aravind mentioned, we've funded through a green bond deal.
very appealing.
It helps us to increase that renewable energy proportion in the
It feeds the common parts of the buildings and is in addition to the existing
100 MW plant which has been running since our IPO.
Puneet Gulati
So basically the capacity would go up from 100 to 120, that's how I should think of
Michael Holland
That's correct.
And I think if you look at and compare the proportion of renewable
energy that's utilized in Embassy REIT with pretty much any other commercial office
portfolio in the country, we really are leading the way as part of our overall ESG
efforts, and this is just another that piece that we explore.
Moderator
The next question is from the line of Adhidev Chattopadhyay from ICICI Securities.
Please go ahead.
A Chattopadhyay:
My question is pertaining to the Hilton Hotel which is now opening up next year.
Given the situation on COVID, how do you see the initial occupancy ramping up
and any initial losses or anything, how would you want to recoup that – is there any
arrangement with the hotel operator which you could share?
Second question again
is on the hotel at Embassy TechVillage, which you will start constructing shortly in
If you could share the estimated CAPEX per room.
I know that you may
put the disclosure afterwards but if you could just give us some sense of the range
of where the budgeted CAPEX would be for that asset?
Michael Holland
I can comment from a qualitative perspective and then I'll ask Aravind to speak on
I want to give you two examples.
In the last 24 hours, we have had
two corporates; one, very large US banking corporate, and another a very small
diplomatic type of operator, looking at our office premises and both of them have
given really positive feedback about the fact that we're able to offer these
conferencing and hotel facilities as part of our office offering.
We would love you to
come down and take a look at the new conferencing facility at Manyata which will
be open by May.
We believe that it's going to give us a very strong competitive
advantage in the office leasing market as well as the fact that there is nothing in the
vicinity to match the size and scale of the conferencing side and also the hotel with
its two price points.
And the same comments would apply to the planned hotel at
TechVillage which is probably three or so years away.
But from a qualitative
perspective, this is all part of reinforcing and strengthening the competitive
advantage that we have at Manyata.
Aravind Maiya
We are still working out the numbers in terms of the budget and we're in the process
of finalizing it.
So we will put it out probably next quarter when we launch it.
a broad perspective, you can look at the cost that we're incurring in our Manyata
project, but of course the cost would be a little escalated considering it'll be a more
recent project.
So that's the broad guideline I would give.
And in terms of the
numbers, we will come out with a more formal guidance next quarter in terms of the
overall business which will include what will happen to the overall hospitality.
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
purely from an economic perspective, Hilton is the operator which is entitled to a
percentage of the revenues in NOI and all the other economics will belong to us.
Mike said, we are pretty positive on how this will add value to the Manyata Park as
well as we believe that the hotel per se on an individual basis should do reasonably
Vikaash Khdloya
If I may add, we've seen that for breakeven, we need to achieve somewhere
between 35% to 40% for our Hilton EGL and based on the 50 corporate contracts
that we've already signed and some others in the pipeline, that would roughly
translate to about 35%.
So while we lay out the formal guidance next quarter, the
hope and the target would be to breakeven in the first year itself and ensure that
there is no cash loss for the Manyata Hotel.
A Chattopadhyay:
For the new leases which we are signing, what would be the rent-free period or
when would these commence?
And also considering Omicron impact, could you
just give us a broader sense regarding what is happening with it?
So on the new leases, all that we have signed so far as well as on our pipeline, we
have not seen any impact on the rent free.
Our rent-free ranges anywhere between
two and a half months for really small quantum of space, let's say in front office
format in Mumbai, to about five to six months for really large 400,000 to 600,000
square feet kind of leases.
We have not seen any change in that.
I'm guessing it
may get pushed out by let's say 15 days additional across but not more than that
simply because both our construction work for our 4.6 million square feet as well as
the fit-out work is being permitted despite the lockdown.
A Chattopadhyay:
So there is no change on account of Omicron, just except for the two weeks sort of
delay which you mentioned?
Yes, we have not seen any impact in terms of the rent-free period because the
occupiers have generally made the decision that they need the space and there are
more and more talks of those.
They're looking beyond the short-term blip of
Omicron and looking at how to cater to the people they've already hired over the
last 18-months.
So they are in a higher urgency than us.
Even for the large global
occupier that we just leased out space, they are well underway on their fit-out work.
Moderator
Next question is from the line of Amandeep Singh from Ambit Capital.
Amandeep Singh
So firstly, in terms of expiry we note that a large chunk of Embassy Galaxy is up for
expiry in FY’23 where the in-place rents are also significantly below the market
So any thoughts or early discussions with the tenants with respect to
Similarly, even Quadron has a large chunk for renewal next year?
Vikaash Khdloya
While we will lay out a formal guidance next quarter on our expiries and the way it's
shaping up in terms of renewals and possible exits, I just wanted to make two points.
One, on the current year exit and expiries, we are absolutely in line and on track
with what guidance we read out at the beginning of the year and there have been
no changes to the 1.3 million square feet exit that we had mentioned, and we see
that as a very positive trend.
Coming to FY'23, if I can refer you to slide 28 in the
earnings deck, there are about 2.9 million square feet of expiries in FY'23.
a bit early to say and we are engaging with the occupiers, we are really encouraged
by the growth that we have seen in our tenant base, and we certainly expect to see
an improvement on FY'22 exit percentage of the overall expiries given all the
positive trends that we're speaking about.
Coming to the two specific assets you
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
mentioned, Galaxy and Quadron, while we'll defer any comments till the time we
sign binding documents, but a large chunk of the leases that are coming up for
expiry at both these parks, are already under discussions with occupiers and we
expect an encouraging outcome.
Amandeep Singh
Secondly, this quarter you saw uptick in occupancy at Embassy One and FIFC.
in that context can you help us with your thoughts on the RFPs along with update
on other assets like Embassy Oxygen?
Vikaash Khdloya
We have been very pleased to see some leasing kick-start at FIFC.
It's a fantastic
asset and we've got a really high quality occupier that we've disclosed, we leased
out some space to ICICI Securities here.
Similar is a theme with Embassy One,
where we've leased out to Hyundai, it's one of the important office locations for
In general, what we're seeing is a demand for high quality office spaces post
start of COVID, even if it's at a premium positioning.
A certain segment of occupiers
are really keen to be in these locations with these assets and both FIFC and
Embassy One are premium products.
In terms of pipeline, we have got very
encouraging pipeline at both of these properties, especially at Embassy One, where
we have recently seen a number of enquiries and there are significant amount of
discussions underway So we'll keep you posted in the next couple of quarters, but
we see it as an encouraging trend, especially for our Bangalore properties.
Amandeep Singh
A quick comment on Embassy Oxygen maybe?
Vikaash Khdloya
There are a lot of good initiatives that have been taken by the government in terms
of the infrastructure, in terms of the recent announcements.
We have really focused
on building a world-class Phase 2, i.e., the last tower which is currently under
construction and it's coming up.
Right now, the traction is yet to build up for the
We think it will come after one or two quarters post we see a pick-up in other
cities like Pune, following Bangalore.
So there's nothing which I can say which is in
advanced pipeline right now but with the last tower which is about 700,000 square
feet coming up and with the recent announcements and the infrastructure
challenges some of the occupiers mentioned in Gurgaon, we think in the medium
term over the next three to four quarters, we will be able to secure large global
occupiers like we did in Tower 2 in Oxygen last year, but we'll just have to wait for
some more time.
In the past, during this same year, we leased out about 63,000
square feet to a top-10 global healthcare provider, but we'll have to wait a little bit
more before we see further traction here.
Moderator
Next question is from the line of Vivek Ramakrishnan from DSP Mutual Fund.
Please go ahead.
V Ramakrishnan:
I just have one question which is kind of purely mathematical since you've answered
Aravind mentioned about the AAA rating and the rating rationales talk
about 85% occupancy level.
Would you be able to give any guidance on the kind of
occupancy levels you will maintain over the next quarter or going to next year, given
that there are many vacancies and re-leasing conversations?
Aravind Maiya
So in terms of occupancy, as Vikaash and Mike mentioned, we are as of now at
What's interesting to note in terms of the FY'22 expiries is that a lot of these
expiries have already played out and there is very little left in terms of expiries
coming up for the fourth quarter.
More importantly, in terms of the leasing pipeline
as well, as we've reported, there's around 400,000 square feet of pipeline which is
currently under discussion.
So, all in all, Vivek, as we look forward into the next
quarter as we end the year, we believe that the Q3 occupancy of around 87% might
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
be the lower end of the occupancy level and we see these occupancy levels going
up from here onwards.
V Ramakrishnan:
You had mentioned, Aravind, the importance of the AAA rating.
So would you keep
the occupancy level percentage on a sustained basis, would you keep that as a
back of a mind situation, of course, you don't want the REIT to be unoccupied, but
is 85% an important number for you?
Aravind Maiya
Yes, absolutely, Vivek.
So in terms of the rating rationale from our rating agency
CRISIL, they do understand that the current environment is more a temporary
But if the levels drop below 85% on a continuous and sustained
basis, that is when they would look at relooking at the AAA rating, which we believe
will not happen in the current scheme of things.
Vikaash Khdloya
Vivek, just to add to what Aravind said, of course the AAA rating and optimizing our
debt-to-cost are important to us.
But from a business perspective, the way we look
at deals, pipeline and when we negotiate is, if this the right kind of occupier, will this
occupy grow, what is the covenant of the occupier and other rent, and does it make
sense to transact at these rents.
If you've seen the trend over the last three years,
we've stayed away from doing desperate deals and we are happy to wait patiently
because we are very confident of the product offering as well as the micro markets
So it's a combination of both what Aravind mentioned as well as on the
business, but end of the day, every new lease has to make business sense.
for the exits that we have seen, those have been calibrated decisions to ensure that
we maintain or achieve the mark-to-market, and if some occupiers are not willing to
pay those, we are happy to take a call to churn them and have new-age occupiers
who can pay for the rents that the asset commands.
Moderator
Next question is from the line of Chandrashekar Sridhar from Fidelity International.
Please go ahead.
I had a few questions.
One was on the vacancy which has obviously come in
Manyata over a period of time.
How easy or difficult is this to splice this space up
into multiple occupiers or do you need a similar kind of an occupier to the one which
left to take up that large amount of space?
Second was on the supply, you are
yourself bringing about 3.5 million square feet of supply in Bangalore between
FY2023-25, which is about 1.2 million square feet per annum.
The average addition
in Bangalore would be about 12-13 million square feet, how much of this supply
share is yours on a prospective basis versus where you were historically?
one was just the NOI increase is not translated into that much of NDCF increase in
Is this primarily because of the offset from the interest bearing debt?
The last question was if I were to slightly take a longer term view and look at the
market trends across your properties over the last couple of years, they've pretty
much been where they were, maybe Manyata moved up a bit and Hinjewadi came
Given where we are from a vacancy perspective across most of the markets,
is it a fair assumption that while you still have your mark-to-markets, the market
rents itself across most properties shouldn't really be heading higher?
Michael Holland
Let me just deal with market rents and I'll ask Vikaash to talk about the work that
we're doing on Manyata.
Over the last couple of years, what we've all been doing
is ensuring that we maintain our rentals, that we've secured those escalations that
are there contractually, and that we've endeavored to maintain occupancy and as
Aravind mentioned we think that now we're probably at the nadir of occupancy.
Rents have been flat in most locations at a market level.
Frankly, there was an
expectation in many parts of the market that we would see significant rental fall.
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
That's not something that we've seen in most of our portfolio.
Particularly in
Bangalore, the data shows that we've been able to maintain and in some cases
increase rentals on the new deals.
I think we're going to see some opportunities for
growth over the next 12-months, given what we expect to be a fairly rapid
acceleration in the demand side in the early part of the next financial year.
rental growth is still going to be there.
We've seen some good rental growth at
TechVillage on the deals that we've done off late and we think that's just going to
get better over the coming months.
Vikaash, you want to talk about the different
elements of Manyata and what we're doing to make that appealing to different types
Vikaash Khdloya
To sum it up, we currently have about a million square feet vacant at Manyata and
in the coming year FY'23, we have expiries of about 780,000 square feet.
Obviously, there will be a component of renewal as well in these and some exits
but just for the discussion’s sake, we have about a million and a half square feet on
a pro forma basis vacant to lease in Manyata.
We have done a couple of things
here during the pandemic over the last 15-to-18-months.
One, we have really re-
evaluated all that we can do on the upcoming as well as existing vacant spaces and
we have a full refurbishment program in place which is already underway to ensure
these properties are ready to lease up as and when demand picks up.
question on is it model to a specific occupier need or are the floor plates usable by
Manyata has really large clean floor plates and they can be pretty much
used by any other occupier as and when they come.
So we don't think any retrofit
or customization is required or we have to undo any earlier customization.
Interestingly, what we are also doing is across four blocks, while we mentioned two
blocks of 400,000 square feet, we have potential to also double our leasable area.
Manyata does have unutilized FAR on an overall park basis, especially for some of
the earlier blocks which are of five or six floors.
So we are doing that assessment
As we firm up a plan and get ready for the 1.5 million square feet till
March '23, we would take up some component of the redevelopment opportunity to
create overall value.
Given the infrastructure that we have already put in place, the
flyover, the upcoming hotel and the upcoming retail of about 90,000 square feet,
we feel pretty good about our discussions.
Today, I was speaking to the business
head of one of our largest banking occupiers in Manyata and they are looking to
double their headcount and there's an RFP out for a space take up in early 2023.
So we feel good.
The beauty of Manyata is with its 45 occupiers, a lot of them will
grow and as the numbers of ramp-up ‘back to office’ improve, we'll see a lot of them
taking up more space.
So we'll see multiple smaller deals of 60,000 to 100,000
square feet in Manyata and we are targeting that, by the end of this year, we ramp-
up Manyata's occupancy back to the early 90s that we used to see earlier.
So, it can be spliced up if need be.
Absolutely, Chandra.
Even during the discussions on exit or new leases, we have
ensured that we don't have partial exits or partial leases or inefficient floors being
So we're in good shape there.
Michael Holland
To summarize, Chandra, we can offer floor-by-floor, we can offer standalone
buildings, we've got co-working space, we've got new build opportunities and land
that's available for that.
And that really is part of the beauty of the scale of the
portfolio that we've got.
We're able to offer a flexible solution to an occupier to bring
them in and then we see them growing with us for the long term.
Manyata is a good
example of that.
Vikaash Khdloya
Chandra, we have an active pipeline in Manyata – some of it preliminary but about
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
1 to 1.2 million square feet.
We just need to work through and see how fast we can
push through some of these to deal closure.
In terms of supply, Bangalore has been one of the stable markets because it's a
more mature market and there's more controlled supply by the existing developers.
Whether we take the CBRE forecast or any other market player, it's roughly
estimated that there'll be 12 million square feet supply next year and demand is
also expected to be around 12 million square feet.
So we are looking to ensure that
we bring up our new supply as soon as possible to the market.
Of the 12 million
square feet, there are very few which are high-quality large-scale campus style
We have a couple of other players who are doing decent work in good
quality spaces.
But in micro markets like ETV, considering the amount of RFPs
open today versus the vacancy, we feel really good about the new supply and the
challenge is to get it and deliver it as fast as possible.
So we're not overly worried.
What we have done in our construction program is that we have incorporated and
enhanced some of the wellness and ESG requirements that we stipulate for our
As we move forward, with large banks and technology companies looking
for RFPs, we feel good about both our supply vis-à-vis how we stand in the market,
even the Bangalore market given that it's expected that there will be some supply
from other developers.
Aravind Maiya
Chandra, just to answer your question on the NOI, two perspectives.
look at the Q3 numbers, yes, it reflects the impact of the coupon bearing debt into
the NDCF but from a projection point of view, there's a 3% increase in NOI versus
a 1% increase in our distribution, that's largely coming because a lot of these new
lease-ups start generating cash rent from approximately April '22 onwards.
the delta what you see between NOI increase versus DPU increase.
Moderator
Next question is from the line of Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs.
Please go ahead.
Is there any change in the way we are structuring our lease agreements with new
tenants in terms of force majeure if there's a fourth, fifth wave of COVID or
escalations being more back-ended as they also test the market or are they pretty
much the same as pre-COVID?
Michael Holland
The answer is the latter.
It's very similar to what we've had before, no principle
changes to force majeure and certainly not anything changing on the escalation
side of things.
What has changed is that we're adding into all of our leases, various
clauses that relates to what some people call green leases.
So every new lease
that we do now includes those provisions for the tenants to provide certain data
around energy, water and waste usage and vice versa we share data and
information with them.
This allows us to build those data points into our overall
sustainability planning.
But in principle, that would be the only significant change to
the general lease structure.
Moderator
Next question is from the line of Kunal Lakhan from CLSA.
Please go ahead.
Kunal Lakhan
Just a follow up on the supply question earlier.
Just wanted to understand firstly
how is the occupier preference towards newer assets which are likely to be more
efficient versus the existing assets – do they prefer to be in new buildings versus
the older parks?
And secondly, with a overall high supply expected, will the
occupancy rates really bottom out say in CY2022?
And thirdly, there's a fair bit of
supply which you yourself highlight is not comparable to these but it's still quite
significant; 39 million square feet.
So what does this do to the overall vacancy levels
and rentals in the micro markets?
Embassy REIT
Q3 FY2022 Earnings Call Transcript
J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
Michael Holland
I think that one has to put oneself in the shoes of our type of customer, the lessee
of our building who are, not exclusively but largely, international corporations.
you'll agree that those types of companies are having ever higher and higher
standards in numerous areas like health and safety, comfort for their staff, wellness,
energy efficiency, the ability to provide amenities to their staff and so on.
type of tenant that we're offering our product to, and they are the types of tenants
that are seeking our type of products.
Those types of tenants, and we've got over
200 of them, are not going to go to a sub-standard multi-owner strata sold, inefficient
building, because the rental is cheaper.
So this plays to the theme that we've often
spoken about, this concentration of demand into fewer, larger, more institutional
asset owners like ourselves.
And that's a clear theme that is broadly seen and
accepted in the market.
We think that tenants are looking for more environmentally
friendly buildings, they're looking for more energy efficiency.
We have a program
around that as part of our ESG program.
Much of the capital spend that we've
looked at over the next three years for those refurbishments, which might include
chiller replacements to get more efficiency and so on, we're able to recover those
costs ultimately from the tenants.
We've got a program of around ₹275 crores over
the next three years and it's pretty much a wash in terms of cost recovery.
are investing in keeping our buildings, our products, our overall ecosystem up to
the market and up-to-date.
For example, the hotel or, as Vikaash talked about, the
green areas at TechVillage, the sport zones and so on.
That is the way that we
believe we're going to maintain our competitive edge and maybe even increase that
On occupancy, we've done the numbers – our view at present is that we're
at the bottom with our current 87% and we're feeling really good about the years to
Kunal Lakhan
So you're saying that your numbers do factor in the supply which will come into the
overall system, which will have some impact on the overall rentals and occupancy
levels, but it's unlikely to impact yours?
Michael Holland
What we've done, and we do every quarter consistently, is that we look at what's
the comparable supply in our market and in our sub-markets and we know
specifically the buildings that we're competing against in any particular market.
you look at the supply that's coming forward in say Bangalore and look at the typical
demand side, it's fairly well-balanced.
There are some cities across the country that
may have significant supply-demand mismatch, the most egregious of those we're
not in those cities.
So we're comfortable with the overall situation and yes, we have
built that new supply into our assumptions.
Moderator
Ladies and gentlemen, that was our last question for the day.
conference over to Mr.
Mike Holland for closing comments.
Over to you, sir.
Michael Holland
Thank you sincerely to each one of you for your questions and for your ongoing
As you can tell, we're very encouraged about where we're at and a lot of
these data points that we've spoken about are on our website and in the published
As you're aware, any one of us who's spoken on the call, as well as
Abhishek or Ritwik, we're always available if you've got any further questions.
with that, thank you very much.
Good evening and have a great weekend.
Moderator
Thank you very much, members of management team.
Ladies and gentlemen, on
behalf of Embassy Office Parks REIT, that concludes today's conference call.
Thank you all for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.