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DLF Ltd (DLF) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

DLF Ltd (NSE: DLF) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Jan. 27, 2025

Corporate Participants:

Ashok Kumar TyagiManaging Director

Sriram KhattarVice Chairman and Managing Director, Rental Business

Aakash OhriJoint Managing Director and Chief Business Officer

Analysts:

Praveen ChoudharyAnalyst

Pritesh ShethAnalyst

Analyst

Amit GoelaAnalyst

Abhinav SinhaAnalyst

Parvez QaziAnalyst

Samir JasujaAnalyst

Puneet GulatiAnalyst

Kunal LakhanAnalyst

Presentation:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to DLF Limited’s Q3 FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call. We have with us today on the call, Mr. Ashok Tyagi, Managing Director, DLF Limited; Mr. Sriram Khattar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Rental Business; Mr. Aakash Ohri, Joint Managing Director and Chief Business Officer; and Mr. Bhadal Bagri, Group CFO, TLF Limited.

As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ashok Tyagi. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Ashok Kumar TyagiManaging Director

Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the DLF Limited Q3 Analyst Call. You know as you must have seen the presentation by now, we’ve had a pretty solid quarter last quarter on both the development and the rental businesses. I mean, Dahlias obviously was the prime highlight of the last quarter and I think we did a sales of almost INR11,800 plus crores. You must have seen the cash flows for the quarter are also extremely healthy at INR1,800 crores. In fact, we are now sitting on a total cash balance of almost INR4,500 crores. The profit after tax for the quarter is INR1,000 crores, which again after a long time we have hit the four digit category from an operation standpoint.

We had promised a series of metrics over the last two to three years that we will be doing. And I think you’d be glad to know that we are by and large achieving most of them be it on sales, PAT, cash flow, margins, and on the rental business. And we hope that we continue to sustain this in the quarters to come. Frankly, you must have seen that — I mean, while obviously during the course of the call, Aakash will speak a lot about the Dahlias and about how spectacular a success it’s been. But in all fairness, frankly, I wouldn’t be lying to say that it sort of has also surpassed our own — our targets and vision that we had for the first-quarter after its launch, and we hope that this sustains. We have other products in the offering as well, which will — which are outlined in the presentation.

You may also have seen the notes to account that we have also made a provision of about INR900 crores towards discharging certain tax liabilities under Vivad Se Vishwas. These pertain to the old SEZ tax issues that we have been — we had about almost 12 to 14 years back. And even though we have won those cases at every conceivable appeal level from CIT appeal to income tax tribunal, but given the fact that it would take at least maybe a decade more for it to be finally adjudicated in both the High Court and the Supreme Court levels. We just wanted to ensure that we future proof our business from this uncertainty, residual uncertainty around that. And hence, we have moved into do that. This will extinguish in excess of INR2,000 crores of our contingent liabilities in our books as well.

Before I hand over to Sriram to speak about the rental business, I’d also take this opportunity to introduce our new CFO, Badal Bagri, who has joined us in December. Badal comes from an extremely checkered career with GE, GE Capital, Airtel, Reliance, and we hope that he brings in extremely strong controls and extremely strong business awareness for him to take DLF all to even higher heights.

Sriram, I’d request you to chip in with some words about the rentco business.

Sriram KhattarVice Chairman and Managing Director, Rental Business

Thank you, Ashok. So this is the first time we are changing the format slightly, where after Ashok gives the opening statement, I’ll spend a little time on the rental businesses. And this has happened because when we speak of rental businesses, the first thing that comes to our mind is DCCDL, the subsidiary that is there along with GIC. But as we see the future and as we see now, the rental income on the DLF balance sheet also is continuing to increase. And therefore, we will talk a little about the rental business in totality. And so it will be DCCDL plus plus. So you’ll please have to pardon me if the figures are not that very accurate to start with, but I promise you by the next quarter, these will be completely fine-tuned as the overall rental business.

I’ll first like to touch upon the vacancy level in offices and retail. Our vacancies now have come down to 7.2%, which in offices, which at the beginning of the year were at 9%. And the 7.2%, the vacancy in our non-SEZ portfolio are down to about 2% now, whereas the vacancy in the SEZ portfolio hovers around 12%, 12.5%. We are working quite hard in Q4 to see how we can bring it down to around 6%, 6.2%. Retail vacancy continues to be around 2% in the portfolio, which is really a function of the churn that happens in the portfolio, and the leasing, and before one tenant vacates and the other comes in.

The capex program on the development of new assets is going quite strongly. We have commenced construction on downtown Gurgaon Phase 2, where we have 4.5 million, 4.6 million on offices, and 2 million of retail, the construction has commenced there. The construction of Downtown 4, which was the last building in Phase 1, is getting completed. We expect the OC to come in this quarter. Tenant handovers have commenced and the 2.1 million tower is now fully leased other than 60,000, 65,000 square feet, which we hope to complete within the next two months. Downtown Chennai, Downtown 3, which was fully leased, we expect the OC anytime now, and the rental also to commence in about four to five months’ time. Construction on downtown 4 and 5 in Chennai, which is about 3.6 million, started in Q3 and is progressing well.

The construction on the three malls which were in — which are in the DLF portfolio, which total up to 1.3 million is moving [Technical Issues].

Operator

I’m sorry, sir, you’re not audible.

Sriram KhattarVice Chairman and Managing Director, Rental Business

Hello? Can you hear me now?

Operator

Yes, sir. Please go ahead.

Sriram KhattarVice Chairman and Managing Director, Rental Business

Which was in the two malls in the Delhi NCR were a little delayed because of the grab and the stoppage of construction, but otherwise, we are on complete track on that. The construction on Atrium Place is moving on track. Atrium Place, as you know, is a joint venture with DLF Holdings two-third equity, and Hines US holding one-third equity. 2 million should get completed by early next quarter, and Phase-2, which is 1.1 million, will be about 10 to 12 months after that. Our SEZ, the total stock that we had, which was vacant was 2.3 million square feet, out of which we have applied for 2.2 million square feet for denotification. 1.9 million of that has been approved by the Board of Approvals. And out of this 1.9 million, 1 million has already been leased.

On sustainability, we continue on our path to be the global leaders. We, as you know, have achieved lead platinum for all our operating buildings. We have got lead platinum zero for water discharge for all our buildings. Both are sort of leaders in globally. And now we are working on lead zero for waste, where about 60% of the portfolio has got lead zero waste. And by 30th June, we plan to convert the entire thing — the entire portfolio to lead zero waste. We are working on our carbon neutrality and sometime in the coming quarter or the quarter after that, we will make an announcement on when we believe we will be completely carbon-neutral.

ICRA who and CRISIL who rate our debt, ICRA has improved our rating from AA plus stable to AA positive a few weeks back. CRISIL is in the process of reassessing our rating and their report should come out by probably February end. During the quarter, DCCDL sold its IT park in Kolkata, which was 1.2 million square feet asset, we sold it for INR675 crores and we got cash of about INR637 crores after adjusting for the security deposits and the net — the current assets. This is from my side.

I will now hand over to —

Ashok Kumar TyagiManaging Director

We can now open for the Q&A.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions].

We’ll take our first question from the line of Praveen Chaudhary from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Praveen Choudhary

Thank you so much for taking my call and congratulations for a phenomenal pre-sales quarter. I have two questions. The first question is related to the demand situation in Gurgaon. There has been lot of market data points suggesting that there might be some overexuberance in the last 12 months. So if you can update us a little bit on the Gurgaon market? Whether it matters to you for your Dahlia project or not, but in general?

And the second question was related to the investment property. It seems like there are a lot of completions going to happen. Just wanted to understand again in terms of long-term target for that asset? Will you monetize it, would you divest it, or would you continue to keep both assets together as in DP and IP business together in the business? Thank you.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Well, talk on the demand, please.

Sriram Khattar

Okay. So as far as the demand is concerned, I feel that the markets in Gurgaon are now maturing, and Gurgaon is no more a geography related purchase story anymore. It’s agnostic to investments that are coming into Gurgau are from all over the world and of course, all over the country. So what is happening today, I will speak for DLF first, where a DLF product is now almost a kin like right now what people are doing is it’s a — it’s something which is being compared to what people generally like investing in stocks and the market and all. So a DLF product that way with the liquidity it has and the appreciation that it is given people across the board and Gurgaon markets that has already given that particular increase is why it is being preferred. In fact, today, price points, the CRE, which is a data analysis company, has started to compare price points of Gurgaon to Dubai and London and all. See, we are not into all that speculation.

But all I can say to you is that the way the infrastructure is being planned in Gurgaon, the proximity to the airport, most of the Fortune 500 companies, I mean, a very robust office business, leisure, hospitality, the best homes to live in. I think the quality of life that Gurgaon today gives to — in its entirety is something that is driving this growth. It is no more an investors market. People want to come and live here. And of course, it has given a very strong rental returns to people who don’t live here and who own properties here. So from all aspects, Gurgaon is something that I feel, contrary to what you are saying, it’s just about establishing itself after almost a long time and I see this trend going-forward, you know. That’s what I feel. Yeah.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

And Praveen, I’m sorry, I didn’t fully understand your second question, investment properties.

Praveen Choudhary

Yeah, I was asking — thank you so much. I was asking that you know the DCCDL as well as your own business are both growing very well. My question was that, is there a chance of monetizing those assets so you can use those money to higher returns? That was the question actually.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

No. So we remain frankly equally committed to both the businesses, the DevCo and the RentCo. And frankly, neither us nor our partners, GIC are in any hurry of any form frankly for the monetization exercise. As Sriram pointed out in his opening remarks, we have just begun the next huge capex build-out cycle. And I think clearly, we should at least wait for that its completion in the next four to five years before something of that sort happens.

So at least right now, we are staying committed on the operating piece of the business. And frankly, there are no immediate plans on any monetization.

Sriram Khattar

Operating and growth.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Operating and growth.

Praveen Choudhary

Great. If I can have — thank you. And if I could have just follow-up on last question from my side is Mumbai and Goa market where you are expected to launch some really marquee projects, and you have been waiting for. Could you update us in terms of either timing or what should — what is, if any, the delay — the reason for delay, and also how is the demand looking at this point in time? Thank you.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So the demand is —

Aakash Ohri

Yeah. Just one more thing, Praveen, since you all work on numbers and not on the motions, basically, Gurgaon, if you see 15 months when three projects that we had to do, I’m talking about DLF right now, we did about INR22,000 crores. And in the last 12 months, if you just see the Privana, Dahlia, and the other stock that has been sold is about INR24,000 crores. So if you see the kind of business in Gurgaon, that’s just DLF’s numbers. I’m sure if you just add up everybody else’s, you will see the kind of numbers that Gurgaon is continuing to do. And these are hardcore money in the account. That is one.

Then going back to Mumbai and Goa, Mumbai right now I’m seeing a good kind of demand of Mumbai, I’m seeing the expectations also quite reasonable in terms of what we are looking at, what price points approximately. But overall, I think there is a good amount of excitement for a DLF product to come into Mumbai. Goa is one of its kind. It’s a super luxury project in Goa, as you all know, and that has its own set of demand. So overall, right now, so far so good.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Yeah. And again, Praveen, to your point, there is no delay happening in Mumbai or Goa. But yes, those are newer geographies for us from an approval standpoint and the approval cycles are underway in both the places. Hopefully, once the approval cycles come complete, we should be in a position to launch. Right now the way it looks, it looks Mumbai should launch first and Goa maybe after some time. Thank you.

Praveen Choudhary

That is super clear. And once again, your products are exceptional. So keep it up and congratulations.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. I now request Pritesh Sheth from Axis Capital to please accept the prompt on his screen. Pritesh, I request you to turn-on your webcam, unmute yourself, and go ahead with your questions, please.

Pritesh Sheth

Yeah, am I audible?

Operator

Yes.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Yes, Pritesh.

Pritesh Sheth

So congrats on great performance. First, I just am trying to understand the mix of demand that we’ve got in Dahlias, how much is incumbent population from NCR, India, NRIs, whatever insights you can provide us because these numbers are like beyond our expectations. So just trying to understand where that’s come from.

Sriram Khattar

Yeah. Pritesh, so it’s the golf links community first, in that order, I’m going, then NCR, then NRIs, and then rest of the country. NRIs have contributed to about 12% of our sales in Dahlias. About 50% has been the community, friends and family and people who live there, who have been referred, who are there as tenants, their references. And the rest I’m seeing a good traction coming from the other metros as well as Tier-2 cities that I saw, in fact, I mentioned in one of the calls even for Camellias.

So that’s the kind of — so you see, if you recall in one of the conversations I’d also mentioned that every product that DLF is bringing in today, we are doing a global launch, you know. So we are not only geography specific as far as our launch is concerned, but I think post the approvals and all, then we go ahead and kind of go see the market everywhere else, and — but we are in continuous conversations with our customers all over the world and in India. And I think that is what has given us this first fill in.

Pritesh Sheth

Got it. Interesting. Just two more again on Dahlias. One, on the pricing side, while whatever we have sold is at INR65,000 per square feet roughly on sellable and whatever inventory that is left is right now priced at INR85,000 per square feet. Are we like — since we are going to phase it out, are we building some bit of price increase in those numbers, or whatever is left is anyways like high-ticket size and the base price itself is going to — was always planned to be higher than the initial units?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Yeah. I’ll — so Pritesh, just one mathematical correction before I hand it to Aakash. INR65,000 is the average price that we have obtained in the first 173 apartments. We have exited more at a mid 70s price point right now. So really the delta is from mid 70s to mid 80s and not from INR65,000 to INR85,000 really in that sense. And B, of course, the way the pricing grid and the attributes of each apartment are, virtually no two apartments have the same price really, you know. And so it’s a very complicated grid that Aakash has created because only he understands. And hence, I will hand over to him.

Aakash Ohri

Yeah. So basically, how this is working is that this was the first price and of course, there was a community offer and all that, which going-forward, you will see that also being withdrawn. And the inventory available, right now, there was a certain mid floor and low. So obviously, the price points for the others as they come along will be at higher price points.

We have achieved some benchmark pricing here as well, which are — which is — which are very, very encouraging. But at this point in time, I don’t want to just give you a number for the sake of it, but extremely encouraging to see what our first phase of price exits have been. So have you been able to answer that question, Pritesh?

Pritesh Sheth

Yeah, yeah, absolutely clear. And how are you planning to phase it out now with the balance inventory, so we’ll have some bit of sales?

Aakash Ohri

Yeah. Right now, I think we are taking a very short breather, very short, but I think we will get up because sometime around mid this year, we will be doing our experience center. That will be another show and tell that’s going to be another experience that people will go through, and of course, before that, I think just give us this little time to just be kind of in a way I love to say celebration, but recalibration is what I can say. I mean, we are not — you know, so that’s where we are right now. But I think, see, again, a product like this is going to be hard to beat and I say this with utmost humility that I don’t think you’ve seen a product like this. Also a $4.5 billion launch for one condo in the world, I don’t think there is any comparison. But also it’s a very far — I mean, you know, as an Indian, I think I’m extremely proud to see a product like this unveil in our country. So there is — there will be enough coming in.

And again, as one more last thing I’d like to say to you is that, see, with Dahlias, we’re not in a hurry to sell-off everything. If you remember, I’d given you a four-year sales plan earlier, right? So in super luxury, this is not like, say, a Privana or a Floors or anything else that I’d like to do first day first show that those numbers itself have been large. But the per unit cost here, I’d rather you benchmark our success with the per unit sale cost rather than the inventory cost. There you will get far more confidence and you will see those numbers getting better with every sale.

Pritesh Sheth

Amazing. Just one last from my end on the rental side. I know like you want us to look at combined, but just wanted to get a sense of plans at the DLF side of commercial. Since we are almost done with the three malls and Atrium Place, what’s next for DLF side of commercial business, like will we take up a few more projects there or probably right now the focus would be on the two downtowns and then move on to the Cybercity 2, which is always planned for? Yeah.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So Pritesh, obviously, you are right that we are in the next 12 months focusing on completing the three plazas and Atrium Place. And on the Cyber City side, there are two downtowns. But clearly, I think Mr. Khattar and the team is working on the next sequence of options on the DLF side that we could potentially commence construction on. And Sriram, if you want to add anything?

Sriram Khattar

Yeah. So there is a fair amount of potential that we have, and we are assessing the potential in New Gurgaon and Hyderabad to see what we can do there. I think by the time we have the next analyst call after the 12 months are over, we will have far more clarity on that. But clearly, the growth rate of rental assets in the books of DLF will be higher than the growth rate of the rental assets in DCCDL, primarily because DCCDL has a very large base compared to that of DLF.

Pritesh Sheth

Got it. That’s very helpful. That’s all from my side and all the best. Keep. I mean, you’re doing amazing work. Thank you.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Thank you, sir.

Analyst

Thank you. I now request Amit Goela to please accept the prompt on his screen. Amit, kindly turn on your webcam, unmute yourself and go ahead with your questions, please.

Amit Goela

Yes. Yeah, hi, sir. Congratulations on a great set of numbers. Sir, I’ve got two questions. One is for Sriram. The share amount DCDL, if you look at it, your debt-to-EBITDA has been consistently coming down, whereas your rentals have gone up, like it’s now down from 5.6 to 3.2, 3.3. Now you’ve got almost 12 million square feet coming up for expansion. So do you think the same trajectory will continue or there can be some changes there?

Sriram Khattar

Well, I think the trajectory will by and large continue, but we have started discussing with the shareholders that having come to a figure of between 3, 3.5, should we go down further or should we look at using the cash generation for future expansion. I think that is still in the melting pot and we are working on what to do further.

We realize that just reducing debt for the sake of reducing debt is not a good idea, especially for an annuity company and we are sort of focusing on it. Do we have a ready answer? Not yet, but in the next few months, we will.

Amit Goela

Thanks, Sriram. Tyagi Ji, I’ve got one more question for you. Sir, excluding Dhalias, you’ve got almost INR30,000 crores of revenues to be booked now going-forward. Like how do you see this panning out because this should throw up a lot of cash also as the revenues keep getting. One is the cash from the sales which is happening upfront and then the actual cash coming from the business?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So, Amit Ji, the issue is that across Arbour, the two Privanas that we have launched now Dahlias and going-forward the launches that we will. A lot of cash, you are correct, will keep on accumulating in the system. You know, I mean, frankly, the way it’s structured, a large chunk of it will continue to be escrowed in the 70% RERA account. As you may have seen, I think in December, it’s INR7,000 crores is escrowed in the RERA account.

And I think really, Amit Ji, by the time our natural completion cycle of the high-rises that we have launched, which is Arbour onwards, which we expect in about 27 odd months from now. Once that cycle begins completion, you will see hopefully a far robust jump in both the revenues booked as well as the cash flows unlocked from RERA in that sense.

So the next two years, frankly, would be more calibrated but still generate a lot of cash, but a lot of it could still stay trapped in the RERA account. Hopefully, from early ’27, ’28 onwards, we expect this the virtuous cycle of the high-rise completions to come into play and that’s where you really see serious amounts of both cash and margins being recognized in the book, sir.

Amit Goela

Okay. Thank you, sir. Sir, just one last question. Sir, in terms of like given the kind of size which has been acquired like now, construction also becomes very critical. So sir, like what kind of square foot construction you are like in terms of million square feet or like you’re looking at an annual basis and are you looking to hasten up the process so that like the whole delivery cycle shortens a little bit like?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So I think including the two downtowns that Sriram spoke about, I think our total square footage under construction is now approaching 40 million square feet. We believe that with the current bandwidth that we have, I think a number of between 40 to 50 is what I think we should be efficient at. Our number beyond that could begin testing us really. So — but again, I think to a large degree, it’s about internal bandwidth Amit Ji, and it’s about the contracting ecosystem, which we have — I mean, you’ve heard us earlier also on the constraints that are there.

We continue to sort of negotiate them on a project-by-project basis. But I think really if you were to ask us the one serious constraint to a growth beyond this number would be the contracting ecosystem. But I think we can comfortably handle between up to 40 million to 50 million square feet of construction at a certain degree of, you know, on a simultaneous basis, sir.

Amit Goela

Okay. Okay. Congratulations again, sir. Thank you so much.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Thank you, Amit Ji.

Amit Goela

Thanks, Sriram.

Sriram Khattar

Thank you, Amit.

Operator

Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Abhinav Sinha from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Abhinav Sinha

Hi, and congrats to the whole team on strong set of numbers. Sir, just quickly on the pipeline on figure 7, the launch — sorry, slide number 7 launch calendar. So this year, we now have Mumbai to come and Privana Phase 3 is next year, right?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So Abhinav, three projects, Goa, Mumbai, and Privana Phase 3 are all under the approval process. Our current reading of it is that it looks that the Mumbai approval should come, hopefully in the next few weeks, and we should be able to launch it. And the other two could overflow into the next quarter.

But again, while we have to report on a quarterly basis, this is not unfortunately a business which is executed on a quarterly basis. So our three projects are

Under the approval cycle, and you know, we are hopeful at least one of them should be able to make it to the finishing line within this quarter.

Abhinav Sinha

And sir, can you detail the Mumbai product now or till too soon?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

No, right now, let the approvals come through, but we’ve already whatever it’s a premium-plus product. It’s going to be bringing the DLF lifestyle there, it’s going to have your DLF kind of clubhouse, and the services available, and it’s 1,100 to 1,500 odd. So basically, I think right now, post the approval process, I think I’ll be able to detail it further.

But the overall basic stuff that I had mentioned — I mean, what we had mentioned earlier also stays and it’s going to be a good product for that PG [Phonetic]. So something which is efficiently done. So yeah, it’s going to be a nice product.

Abhinav Sinha

Sure. And Tyagi sir, last question on the cash — the tax settlements that we have done, there is no cash impact, right, on a net basis?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

There will be a cash impact, which has not happened in Q3. This is a process to Vivad Se Vishwas, which is that you apply for the settlement, they then approve the settlement. Once they approve, then within 15 days, you have to deposit cash. So as we speak so far of the INR900 crores, about INR300 crores is the amount that has been accepted by the department and which is in the process of getting paid out.

The balance quantum should definitely happen this quarter, but hasn’t happened yet.

Abhinav Sinha

Okay. So the whole INR900 crore will be impacted in the fourth quarter, right?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Q4 may you will see a INR900 crores cash outflow, absolutely.

Abhinav Sinha

Yeah. And sir, what your liability used to be there against the DCCDL, SEZ? It’s now over after this thing, right?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So [Foreign Speech] or against SEZ of DCCDL, with this, hopefully, our entire liability stands extinguished.

Abhinav Sinha

Okay. Great and all the best to the team.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. I now request Parvez Qazi from Nuvama to accept the prompt on the screen. Parvez, please turn on your webcam, unmute yourself, and go ahead with your questions please. Parvez, can you unmute yourself, please?

Parvez Qazi

Yes. Am I audible now?

Operator

Yes. Please go ahead.

Parvez Qazi

Yeah. Thanks for taking my question and congratulations for the great performance in Dhalias. So a couple of questions from my side. I mean, Tyagi sir said that we expect two out of three projects maybe to spill over to FY ’26. I think we had also mentioned that we’ll probably see the launch of the project on the IREO land that we had bought in FY ’26. So apart from these three projects, what could be the potential launch pipeline that we can see in FY ’26?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Parvez bhai, we have a tradition that we speak about the pipeline for the fiscal year in the annual accounts closing call, [Foreign Speech]. So let that tradition stay. And right now, but I think you are — I mean, look, the good news is that currency, our transparency on the sales pipeline, all of you know the projects that we are working on, be it Sector 61, the IREO land, be it a couple of other projects in DLF City, be it the next phase of Privana, the next grounds in Chandigarh, Mumbai.

So I think clearly some of these will eventually fold into ’26 — into ’25, ’26 fiscal. But I’d say that we are in the final throws of our planning exercise for that. So I request that just hold your horses till the end of Q4 and we should be able to give you far more greater clarity. But there’ll be no surprisingly new product, it will be a part of this basket that you are well aware of.

Parvez Qazi

Sure, sir. The second question is our thought process towards future business development. I mean considering the kind of strong cash flow that we are seeing. Do we have plans to, let’s say, buy more land in Gurgaon or maybe cities other than Gurgaon? What is our thought process there?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So [Foreign Speech], in all fairness, yes, we have cash. But as I explained to Amit Goela Ji, as we speak at least right now, a lot of that cash is still trapped. And you know that even though we are sitting on a huge net cash surplus situation, we still have a gross debt. So I think our A, short term goal is also to actually get rid of that monkey of our bags as well. But clearly, if it’s an interesting and a multiplicative land parcel that we get like the one that we procured last year, you know, we definitely be more than willing to enter into discussions on that.

The second point also you must appreciate is that unlike some of our other peers, there is enough land banks that we have both in Gurgaon, Delhi, Chandigarh, at least these three. The Mumbai project that we are currently launching the first 900-odd, 1000 square feet, frankly, the way we are accumulating the entire area, I think that number itself should hopefully over-time cross a significantly higher number than that and that will keep us busy for maybe the next few years in Mumbai.

So I think we have enough on the ground. But if we get something truly interesting or truly cost effective, definitely you are right, we have the balance sheet now to be able to go and try those. But obviously this is also a time when the sellers have also become more aggressive in terms of the price points that they’re looking for. In many cases, it may not always make sense.

Parvez Qazi

Sure, sir. And lastly a question for Sriram sir, would be great if you could give your estimate of the kind of rental income in FY ’26?

Sriram Khattar

So FY ’26, the rental income will be about INR6,300 crores to INR6,315 crores DCCDL and about INR1,200 crores in DLF.

Parvez Qazi

Sure, sir. Thanks and all the best for the future.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Thank you.

Sriram Khattar

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. I now request Samir Jasuja from Prop Equity to please accept the prompt on the screen. Samir, please turn on your webcam, unmute yourself, and go ahead with your questions please. Samir, can you unmute yourself, please?

Samir Jasuja

Yeah, sure. Hi, congratulations everybody on the fantastic results. I just wanted a few clarity on the cost of construction. It go a long way that, for example, if you’re selling Dahlias, let’s say INR80,000 a square-foot. And if you’re selling Privana, let’s say, INR20,000 a square foot, there would be some value addition in terms of costs that you would be incurring higher on the Dahlias project.

It will go a long way for the customer to understand and the analysts to understand as to what the component or the percentage of cost of construction is to the sale value of the asset. And if that Srriram sir can also answer on the commercial side, because we have less visibility, we keep on getting asked questions why the cost of construction of DLF much higher than their peers?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Okay. So Samir, frankly, I don’t have an answer for the last part of your question as to why is our costs higher except a factual acceptance that, yes, our cost is higher. That’s it. So if you see — if you check out our filings on the Privana piece, I think our construction cost is ballpark in the range of INR8,000 odd a square-foot, INR8,5000 on a sale price of about INR20,000, which broadly is a 40% ratio.

In Dahlias, frankly, we are expecting construction cost to be in the range of ballpark 25% to 28% to 30% of our total sale price, you know, because the construction cost — and in all fairness, Samir, I mean, I have to concede that we are in the process of fully pulling together the entire construction budget for Dahlias because it’s not just the buildings that we are making, but also the infrastructure that we are creating along the Dahlias, which is where you will take some more time for us to fully understand the cost implications of it. But we expect that and say in the Pirivana, the cost to revenue ratio would be ballpark in the 40% piece. And in the case of Dahlias, I think we should be hopefully not more than the mid-20s.

Samir Jasuja

So that would mean about INR15,000 to INR20,000 a foot on Dahlias?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

[Foreign Speech] Imean, we don’t know including infrastructure, yes, including infrastructure, the numbers could approach those things. But frankly, as I said, I think we are maybe a quarter away from having a complete grip on these numbers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the number does enter those ranges that you’re talking about.

Samir Jasuja

And sir, the same question to Sriram sir with respect to being lead certified and all that, what is the real cost of construction that happens? And this — sorry, it was on carpet area or super area, sir?

Sriram Khattar

Super. So Samir, on the rental businesses, say Block 4 DLF or downtown in Gurgaon, our cost of construction is about INR6,200, INR6,300 a square-foot on GLA. Now this is about two years before Block 5, 6, and 7, and 8 come into play. And therefore, if you add the annual inflation to it and then you add the additional cost of the structure because of the change in the building codes that are likely to come, we are already planning for that. I would guess our cost will go up to about INR8,000, INR8,200 a square-foot.

Samir Jasuja

This is for office areas, sir?

Sriram Khattar

Office areas.

Samir Jasuja

And retail GLA is 50%. So will that be INR12,000?

Sriram Khattar

No, in offices, the ratio is one is to 1.43. In retail it is 50%. And in retail because the level of finishes and common areas have to be done very differently and it’s not a bare shell in that sense, that cost will be in the ballpark of INR10,000 to INR10,200 a square foot.

Samir Jasuja

Got it. Thank you so much, sir.

Operator

Thank you. I now request Puneet Kulati from HSBC to please accept the prompt on the screen. Puneet? Yes. Puneet, you may please unmute yourself and go-ahead with your questions.

Puneet Gulati

Okay, great. Yeah. Yeah, thank you so much. My first question is, first of all, congratulations on Dahlias. Extremely well done. On Dahlias to start with, have you offered everything the entire 420 units to customers or was only a certain part of the inventory initially offered and more will be opened up later?

Sriram Khattar

No, so thanks. Dahlias, as far as the inventory is concerned, most of it was offered. Some basically are higher flows and they have different price points and therefore, they come in different phases. But anybody who’s wanting to pick up anything at a future price point is more than welcome. But right now, it was — I mean we did not hold back on inventory. We let people choose and the price points were according to the — you know what they chose. And of course, every — I repeat, every apartment in Dahlias is differently priced from the other.

Puneet Gulati

Understood. That’s helpful. Secondly, on the — you know, the office portfolio DCC deal, there was a the sale of Kolkata asset. What drove this sale of asset? You’re not short on cash. Any thoughts there?

Sriram Khattar

Well, if you look at the total rental portfolio of DLF, it is in the — if you look at the office’s portfolio, it’s about, 43 million, 44 million square feet. The Calcutta two assets were totaling INR2.3 million. In a city where there has been incremental leasing of 1 million, which is expected this year compared to a country’s leasing of about 80 million. And we also saw that while the rentals were going up, whilst they were going on in absolute terms, relatively they were not making any dent on the P&L or the balance sheet.

We also realized that if we have to put our management time and if we have to use our skill sets, we would rather expand in geographies which give us rentals which are three, four times the rental that we were expecting in Kolkata. So the shareholders discussed this about eight, nine months back and then decided that if we get a sort of a benchmark price, we should go ahead. We were able to achieve it and therefore, we disposed that asset.

Puneet Gulati

Understood. That’s very clear. Thank you so much. And on the tax side, should we think that INR900 crore full hit will come in Q4 itself or could there be more? You mentioned the number of INR3,000 crores to start with.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So the book hit will be — the book hit has been taken in Q3. So there’s no book hit has been booked in the Q3. And the cash outflow will happen in Q4. And no, it’s a finite number of this INR900 odd crores that is there. So there is no probability of it increasing on account of Vivad Se Vishwas right now.

Puneet Gulati

Okay. And that number is closed because even in this quarter, you recorded only INR116 crore — sorry, INR16 crore of cash outflow in DLF?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Cash outflow [Foreign Speech].

Puneet Gulati

And post that, should we think of tax outflows in similar ranges or would you be going back to 25% of PBT as cash outflows?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So I think we are possibly a couple of years away from hitting that full total cash outflow because of certain accumulated losses and all that we had — that we still have in our books. But I think eventually, obviously, at some stage, the cash outflow in tax should be the equal to the book outflow in tax, but I think we are hopefully about two years away from that situation.

Puneet Gulati

Understood. And lastly, in your planned projects, this time in the slide, you’ve excluded some projects, the 5.5 on Super luxury gone down to 4.5 and similarly on the luxury 3.8 now?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Because the Goa piece, if we have just moved to the next quarter, I mean, in that sense. So to the next fiscal. So that’s what.

Puneet Gulati

Okay. So Goa was super luxury. So that’s out. And 5.8 luxury is down to 3.8. So what has moved out there?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

But basically again as we mentioned in the call earlier, the Pirivana Phase 3, which frankly, I’m not ruling out, right now we are also conservatively planning for the next fiscal given the state of the approval right now.

Puneet Gulati

Understood. That’s helpful. And lastly, I think for Aakash, I think this is a major benchmark you have achieved. What is the next aspirational benchmark for you in terms of product and sales?

Aakash Ohri

I was just told before the call by Mr. Tyagi and Mr. Khattar to be — don’t celebrate right now. So I am still in a very muted mode. I don’t know what to say to you. But extremely grateful for the support that we’ve got. I think it’s a validation of what DLF Super Luxury does. And again, it’s a validation of the people who’ve been through the experience and have supported us and the word of mouth things.

So right now I think what we’ve done right now is the first phase and I’d like to continue this run and it’s just that we’re taking a very short breather to just to recalibrate and restrategize as to how we want to bring in the rest because as we had mentioned earlier, also that initially we thought there will be — we plan to bring only a 10% stock in, but as you see, it’s about 41% odd.

So right now, without compromising on the valuation and the price points, I think the focus will be that. And also, we will kind of now expedite the entire show tell experience. But mostly the endorsement has come in from people within, and I think I’d like to continue to invest in them.

Puneet Gulati

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

Aakash Ohri

Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. I now request Kunal Lakan from CLSA to accept the prompt on his screen. Kunal, you may please unmute yourself and go-ahead with your questions.

Kunal Lakhan

Yeah. Hi, am I audible?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Yes, sir.

Operator

Yes.

Kunal Lakhan

Yeah. Hi, good evening, everyone. Sir, my first question was on your residual portfolio. If you look at DLF 5, there is still additional area of about 20 million square feet odd. And I think last quarter you had mentioned about like that going-forward DLF 5 would be say Camelias plus or even like similar to Dahlias kind of a vision you have for the rest of the portfolio.

In that context, how should we look at the monetization timeline, and how would you bring this product like to the market and what is the timeline for this?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So in all fairness, I think as Aakash mentioned earlier in the call, Dahlias total amortization timeline is in the three-odd — three years plus range really frankly. And depending the pace at which it monetizes, is obviously you are right, we have both the plans as well as the area identified very clearly on what will be the successor to Dahlias in that sense.

We just have to keep on finding out flower names which end with LIA, but I’m sure there are enough available still. And so I think that will happen. But at least given that we are only a quarter from the Dahlias launch, I think your question while strategic may still be a trifle premature. But obviously, as we sort of start saturating the Dahlias, the next phase we are I think, prepared for what the next phase would be and the phase after that, etc.

And I think you are right that ballpark 20-odd million square feet of development area still is very clearly available in DLF 5. And I think it will take the time that it will — but I mean again, given that super luxury, you know these things obviously will also sell at a certain pace over time in that sense and that’s the way it will be.

Kunal Lakhan

Understood, sir. My second question was on the overall segmentation pertaining to us as well as the overall market, right? So when you look at say Dahlias, right, almost like say, INR65 crores, INR70 crore kind of ticket sizes. And then there is Privana, which is in the range of say, INR7 crores to INR8 crores kind of ticket sizes. But there’s nothing in between like between INR8 crores to say INR60 crores, INR70 crores.

That segment of the market, do we intend to cater to? Is there enough opportunity over there? And I mean, what’s the demand situation there and how do we plan to cater to that?

Aakash Ohri

Yeah. So you will see there is a segment that we are planning between this as well, and that you will see in the coming years, especially next year onwards, you will see all of that coming into the market for sure. We’d like to cater to this entire spectrum. And so yeah, I mean, in fact, that is something that is planned already and previously, what you had mentioned about Dahlias and the DLF 5 and all that, I think that one kind of product benchmark or the geography in specific has been established for the super luxury business.

And I think that’s what we’d like to continue because you know, one, the expectations, second, the kind of infrastructure work, third, the other things that we are kind of putting it together there. I think that’s a story that will be almost akin to what the Central Park in America is. I mean if you see that, I mean that’s the only analogy I can use, and that’s how it’s going to be.

Kunal Lakhan

Sure. Sure. And my last question was on any update on the REIT side of where is — where we are, what are the partners thinking on those lines?

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

So I mean, currently basis our discussion with our partners and there is, as we mentioned earlier in the call, no immediate plans of any monetization excise on the Cyber City front. In fact, we’ve just now started the mega capex build-out in both the downtowns of Gurgaon and Chennai. And frankly, only once this cycle completes, I think would be the right time.

But again, this is the — as we have maintained in the past also that the triggering off of the monetization of Cyber City will be a decision to some degree, which will need to be initiated by our partners because we clearly have no desire for volume diluting our scale. And we’ll clearly — we are duty bound to honor their request as and when it happens. But I don’t foresee that happening for the next few years.

Kunal Lakhan

Okay, very understood, sir. Thanks and congratulations for the great quarter and all the best, sir.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Thank you, sir.

Aakash Ohri

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the call —

Sriram Khattar

Sorry to interrupt. I would like to make one clarification. I think Parvez asked a question of FY ’26 rentals and I told him in DLF, the rentals will be INR1,000 to INR1,200. I would stand corrected, they are INR800. INR1,000 to INR1,200 was for the following year and therefore, I heard on that. My apologies.

Operator

Thank you, sir. I now hand over the call to Mr. Ashok Tyagi for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Ashok Kumar Tyagi

Thank you so much. And I think today we truly had a very, very engaging call. And you know, hopefully, we continue to stay focused on the path that we have chosen. I mean, I’d just like to have a sort of moderating tone, which is that while obviously we are all very buoyed by the Dahlias sales. I think the metric that should truly excite us is not the INR11,800 crores of the pre-sales, but the fact that INR8,000 plus crores of pre-margin has been booked on account of the Dahlias sales.

Because I do believe that at some stage the industry and the analysts following the industry have to come out of this pre-sales, you know, sort of mindset and focus on the two metrics which matter, which is margins and cash flows. And I think we are very clear that, that is the sort of direction on which we’ll continue driving our own DevCo and hopefully that’s how we will.

Thank you so much again. And hopefully, by the time we come back to you with our annual results in May, we should have some other — some further developments to report. Thank you once again.

Sriram Khattar

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you members of the management team. On behalf of DLF Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now exit.

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