Vikaash Khdloya, CEO of Embassy REIT, who has resigned from his post with effect from June-end, said the shift towards global captives has been a conscious strategy to tap into the growing market in India which is expected to see the setup of 500 GCCs over the next three years as reported by NASCOMM.

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Speaking to CNBC TV18, Khdloya said, "It has been a conscious strategy to pivot towards global captive centres (GCC) in India. NASCOMM report expects 500 GCCs to be setup over the next 3-years in India. So the global captives are coming to India in a big way and that is where we are seeing the demand come from. So we have shifted towards global captives and large technology companies and together they contribute about 70 percent of our revenues."

“While IT services contribute reasonable chunk of our revenues, it has gone down from 25 percent to 15 percent and that kind of shows in terms of our leasing numbers. We have done record leasing of 51 lakh square feet this year. We have also added 44 new GCC occupiers and they continue to grow in India," he added.

Khdloya speaks after the real estate investment trust, Embassy Office Parks REIT on Thursday reported a net operating income of Rs 2,766.3 crore during the last fiscal year, which is an 11 percent increase from the previous year, 2021-22 fiscal, which was at Rs 2491.1 crore. The REIT has declared a distribution of Rs 2,057.9 crore as a dividend to its unitholders.

In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal, the board of directors of Embassy Office Parks Management Services Pvt Ltd, which manages the REIT, declared a distribution of Rs 532 crore or Rs 5.61 per unit. The distributions of money to unitholders are in the form of dividend, interest and repayment of SPV level debt.

"With this, the cumulative distribution for FY’23 totals Rs 2,058 crore or Rs 21.71 per unit. The record date for the Q4 FY2023 distribution is May 6, 2023, and the distribution will be paid on or before May 12, 2023.

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The company’s revenue from operation rose to Rs 3,419.5 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal, from Rs 2,962.6 crore in the previous year.

According to Khdloya, the company added 44 new occupiers across sectors like insurance, healthcare, retail, and cyber security; increased occupier base to 230 marquee corporates.

Embassy REIT, sponsored by Blackstone and realty firm Embassy Group, is India’s first publicly listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). It owns and operates a 45 million square feet portfolio of nine office parks and four city-centre office buildings in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and the National Capital Region.

Embassy REIT’s portfolio comprises 34.3 million square feet completed operating area, and strategic amenities, including four operational business hotels, two under-construction hotels, and a 100 MW solar park.

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First Published:Apr 27, 2023 6:46 PM IST