Lodha Developers Limited

Quarter ended Jun 2026

2026-07-27 Transcript PDF
Moderator

We have the first question from Pritesh Sheth from Axis Capital.

Axis Capital

A couple of questions on the data center side. Firstly, just wanted to understand the value of the land sale that we d id this quarter. And I'm assuming everything would have been recognized in revenue as well. And what kind of margins we are reporting for those land sales? That's my first question.

Abhishek Lodha

Pritesh, in terms of the value of land sales for this quarter, the total, including the data center and some other sources of land sales was approximately INR 1,200 crores of pre-sales. Out of that, the revenue recognition is not 100% because there are certain activities that we need to complete for the buyers at the site. So, to that extent, the revenue recognition has been at about 85% to 90% of that number. And in terms of the contribution to PAT from the land sale, that is approximately about INR 600 crores.

Axis Capital

Got it. Contribution to PAT, INR 600 crores. Okay. And just a follow -up. So , 660 acres, everything falls under that MOU, which we have with Maharashtra government or for now, it's just 400 acres and then we can expand to 660 acres?

Abhishek Lodha

The 660 acres is now part of the green data center, which is approved by the government of Maharashtra.

Axis Capital

Okay. Awesome. And just on the rentals part, right? I think earlier, we had an estimate of INR 30 billion rentals coming from the power shell that we are targeting. In the presentation, now I see INR 20 billion plus kind of a number. Is it just a conservative estimate? Or this is something which is now revised downwards based on the transactions that we are seeing on the market? Or how should we think about it?

Abhishek Lodha

Pritesh, there may be some gap in understanding. There's been no change in our numbers. So, we had suggested that our rentals would be growing by 10x from the INR 3 billion level at the end of fiscal '26 to INR 30 billion at the end of fiscal '32. Of that, the contribution was from all the 3 verticals, i.e., data centers, retail and office and warehousing and industrial. And that same breakup continues. The current numbers are definitely, in our opinion, have some upside potential to it, but these are our current projections.

Axis Capital

Sure. Got it. So, for data center powered shell, it would be INR 20 million per megawatt kind of annual rentals that one should expect, right?

Abhishek Lodha

Yes, a little over INR 20 million, yes.

Moderator

The next question is from Abhinav Sinha from Jefferies.

Jefferies

Good to see the strong P&L numbers that we have this time. Just a couple of questions on data center bit. So firstly, on the incremental size that we have allocated for the business, wh ere are we on power availability? And what are you expecting on the demand side, which has prompted this big jump?

Abhishek Lodha

The demand environment for data centers continues to strengthen. we have to note that this is not demand which is national or regional. This is global demand. And as data center operators look to locate their sites, they will look at Virginia, they will look at Scandinavia, they will look at Johor and they will look at India. So therefore, from an Indian perspective, it's impor tant to note that this is not about competition within India, but it is about how India can position itself and gain share at a global level. Given India's very critical competitive advantages, primarily in terms of time because from breaking ground to getting a data center operational in India can be done in under 3 years compared to 4.5, 5 years in the West as well as in terms of cost where the cost of building power shell as well as turnkey shell in India is almost half of that in the West. Plus, the fact that the government in India is very proactive, both at the state levels and equally and more importantly, at the central level as we saw with the tax exemption granted for data center operators where the usage is outside India. So , with all these facto rs in place, India is emerging as a strong location. The reason for the expansion of our park, we believe that the park has created immense credibility given that 3 top operators, AWS Amazon, STT, which is Temasek and KKR subsidiary; and now Digital Edge India, which is a joint venture between Digital Edge Singapore and NIIF, which is 49% owned by the Government of India, funded by the Government of India. These are all evidences of how important this part is to the global ecosystem. We now expect to further scale up our efforts to do development of clientele in the U.S., which is where most of the demand is likely to be eventually catered and coming from and hope that we can further increase capacity. We think that in this segment, capacity attracts deman d, and that's really our direction of play. And so far, that's played out reasonably well. We also are making good progress towards the leasing of the first of our boxes, which will be held on our balance sheet. And we hope that in the course of this fiscal year, that will also come to fruition. Your last point in terms of incremental power, that's an activity which we continue to work on. And we'll, of course, update as and when those further get fructified. But I would like to conclude by stating that t he positive mindset of the government and the regulators is very supportive of expanding India's data center capacity and our park in Navi Mumbai/Palava is a key part of India's budding ecosystem in data centers.

Jefferies

That's very helpful, sir. Second question on Palava bit. There seem to be some uplift in sales in the current quarter and Mr. Bindal also hinting at better outcome there during the year. So , what do you see as, let's say, the launch time line of the premium inventory there? And can we see big price uplift this year or maybe that can take another odd year?

Abhishek Lodha

Abhinav, we expect that the connectivity, which is ready, physically ready will open after the monsoon. And if that happens, then of course, we expect to see that it will lead to much greater and improved connectivity to the location from Airoli as well as Mulund. This will not only unlock the higher categories within residential. And therefore, we can count on that starting to surface from the fourth quarter, though I would say meaningful impact might not be visible in the numbers till early next fiscal. But this will also start unlocking the LandCo side because as this connectivity comes through and as we know that next year on 15th August, the bullet train is going to start operations on a part of its leg, not to Palava, but on a part of its leg. And with both of those things, the LandCo, which is about selling the land that we have surplus for noncompeting uses, for example, affordable housing or back office, that w ill also benefit from this connectivity. So , I would say is that calendar year 2027 is when we see a significant impact.

Moderator

Next question is from Kunal Lakhan from CLSA.

My first question is on the pre-sales guidance. We maintained th at guidance. And does that factor in the sustained impact of the Middle East war on the NRI demand? And if say, hypothetically, if the war ends, is there an upside potential to this guidance?

Abhishek Lodha

This question is something which is very difficu lt for us to form a view on because when will the war end, what will be the nature "of the end"? And how will that impact demand? I think as I mentioned in my remarks, so far, what we see is that the impact is contained. The duration has extended beyond wh at we assume, but we don't yet, given the other strengths, I expect that in spite of that, we will maintain our pre-sales guidance. And let's review it once it actually ends and what that nature of the end is. Thank you.

Just on the data cent er bit, when do you expect the leasing activity for the data center to commence? And what kind of demand are you forecasting in terms of like it will be like simple racks/cabinet demand or it will be more, so to speak, like hosting the servers and the end -to- end build-to-suit kind of demand. So, what kind of demand you are expecting there?

Abhishek Lodha

In terms of leasing, as I mentioned in my response to Abhinav and now, we expect that the leasing for the first of the boxes within that 1 gig of power sh ell that we intend to build will conclude in this fiscal year. We are in talks with a couple of large operators for that and hope that there will be good progress over the next 6 to 9 months. As we have laid out earlier, our current strategy is to move fro m the sale of land to in addition, building powered shell. That means that we build the physical box and enable the power up to one point in the box. The activities after that, which is the MEP and HVAC, which takes it from powered shell to turnkey shell. And thereafter, in the turnkey shell, the fit out of the racks and the chips, those are not within our purview of focus right now because we don't really believe we yet have the technical competence for that. Over time, we might move from power shell to t urnkey shell, but that's at least a couple of years out. So as of now, it's only powered shell and then the operators, the hyperscalers, the Neoclouds, the colo players, they take it further from here and then they add various layers of value. So , we are really looking at it from a very wholesale perspective at this stage. We are not in the business right now of a business model of putting in the chips and the ra cks, which is highly capital intensive and also at risk of technological obsolescence as well as depreciation risk. We are not in that part of the business.

Understood. And just the last one. On the data center bit again, similar to the committed supply of, say, 3 gigawatts on the electricity side that we have from state as well as National Grid, do we also have a commitment on the water supply side, especially considering the usual pressure on water resources that we have?

Abhishek Lodha

I think it's important to understand that water consumption in data centers does not use any freshwater. There is 0 planned utilization of any freshwater in our green data center park. The reason it's referred to as a green data center park is because it will operate at amongst the highest levels of sustainable data centers anywhere in the world. And the water that will be used will be all recycled water. The Mumbai region, the MMR as a whole generates about 3,500 MLD. I'll repeat that number, 3,500 MLD of recycled water, which is generally thrown out into the sea. Now with the build -out of infrastructure and under the leadership of the Honorable Chief Minister and his long-term vision, a large part of this water rather than being thrown into the sea will beco me a revenue source for the municipal corporations and municipal councils by being redirected for usage at the data centers. So again, I repeat, there is 0 usage of fresh water at any of the green data center parks, and it is about utilizing the water, which would otherwise be thrown out -- the recycled water, which would otherwise be thrown out into the sea. If that 3,500 MLD was to be effectively used, Mumbai could probably support upwards of 40 gigawatts of data centers. But obviously, that's a long, long story, and we are not aware as and when that will happen. But yes, we do have good availability of recyc led water from the industrial areas around where our data center park is located. And again, I repeat, there will be our data center park will only use recycled water, which would otherwise be thrown out into the sea and not use any freshwater.

Moderator

The next question is from Akash Gupta from Nomura.

Congratulations on a great set of numbers. So, my first question is with respect to your Palava land parcel. Right now, what I understand is out of 4,000 acres, you have allocated roughly 600 acres towards the data center. My question is, is there a change in strategy for the Palava land parcel where we move primarily from residential to more towards data centers eventually where this mix, which is currently at probably 15% eventually moves to 20%, 25%? Or is there a constraining factor where this type of story can never happen?

Abhishek Lodha

I think we would all agree that many of you have been tracking our company for long that 2 years ago, data center was virtually 0. Hence, what it really tells you is that our land at Palava and Upper Thane is hugely valuable because this kind of large aggregated land in touching the Navi Mumbai and Thane is hugely valuable and rare, and it can be used to put to various uses. So far, we've developed more than 1,000 acres for residential and related uses. And as you now mentioned, there is about 600 acres earmarked for data centers. We still have significant amount of land other than what's been earmarked for these 2 in the order of plus 1,000 acres, which is yet to be earmarked for any use. And therefore, can be allocated to whatever use makes most sense, including based on market demand factors and so on. Now on the residential side, as the connectivity to Airoli and Mulund concludes after the monsoon this year. And over the next 2 to 3 years, as the bullet train comes through, we expect a significant upside in the residential demand as well as the price points. Further, we expect that the LandCo that we are now slowly getting into shape will from fiscal ' 28 start showing that the land in Palava can be used for other noncompeting uses at similar price points, about INR 500 million per acre, things like back office, things like affordable housing and so on. So , there are various uses of this land, including, of course, the fact that the data center is now at about 600-plus acres.

Moderator

The next question is from Gaurav Khandelwal from JP Morgan.

I just have one question. I know that our focus metrics have evolved, but could we get some sense on how are the embedded margins this quarter, excluding the land sales?

Abhishek Lodha

The embedded margins excluding the land sales for this quarter are at around the early 30s mark.

Got it. So, this is still within the guidance range of 32% to 34%, which we had guided for this year?

Abhishek Lodha

That's correct. Of course, the margins for what we guided to are the margins for the company. We don't guide to margins by any segment. So obviously, there is outperformance this quarter where the margins are much higher, but that's got to do with the fact that we've done in this quarter approximately half of the land sales that we would expect to do in the year. So that sort of forward loading has moved the margins up. So , I would not change or expect that our margins will be in the 40s for the full year. Our guidance of the early 30s stands.

Got it. And just a follow -up question on the land sales. Are you having any discussions? How does the pipeline for land sales look for the rest of the year?

Abhishek Lodha

I think as I mentioned, the data center piece is gathering a lot of momentum. The demand is strong. And without revealing competitive information, I can only say is that there is more demand than we can currently supply.

Moderator

The next question is from Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities.

HDFC Securities

Congratulations on the land deal. My first question is whenever you sell a land, say, 1-acre land to a data center client, so how much capex do you need to incur on that on a cash flow basis? I mean you did tell you made 40% margin. So, I just want to understand how much cash flows that would result in?

Abhishek Lodha

I'll defer that question to Sushil to respond to, please.

Sushil Kumar Modi

So basically, from a cash flow standpoint, effectively most of the sales price adjusted with the tax effectively gets to the cash flow on the net basis.

HDFC Securities

But do you need to incur any capex while selling this land to say, data center client? So, you have a historical land cost. And on top of it, you need to provide a minimum basic infra, some connectivity, some plug -and-play kind of infra. So typically, if you have an RFQ for, say, 100 acres or say, 1 acre, how much typical capex would go on a per acre basis to realize the INR 42 crores on that land?

Sushil Kumar Modi

Parikshit, yes, you are right. Obviously, when we look at the overall infrastructure, we are not looking at the infrastructure for any specific particular box. That is more for t he entire 3 gigawatt as of now that we are developing. And to that extent, yes, we would have certain expense, certain capex to be incurred, but those are in the bigger scheme of things are not too material, but yes, let's say, a number of more like INR 500 crores to INR 700-odd crores that we will incur over a period.

HDFC Securities

Okay. Second question to Abhishek. Abhishek, you have already sold land to AWS, STT and now Digital Edge. So, has some work started there? And a related question, so when we also start building out our data center over the course of next 2, 3 years, so will we compete with these players? How will it work? Just wanted to understand that.

Abhishek Lodha

In terms of whether work has started, yes, several of the players have c ompleted their design and tendered their works and have obtained their approvals and some of them have commenced physical activity at site. In terms of we also expect for our own box to start physical activity on site in the course of this calendar year. In terms of competing, I think it's important to note that the powered shell solution that we provide is not provided by any of the other players. So,neither the co -lo players nor the hyperscalers look at providing the solution of powered shell. So , I thin k what we are doing through our action of providing both land as well as powered shell solution is expanding the market because we are giving solutions which currently are not available from any other solution provider.

HDFC Securities

Okay. Sir, last q uestion on the key markets on the residential side. If you can help us understand, I mean, how is Bangalore behaving? What's your initial view on NCR? Even in MMR, especially on the luxury side, have you seen any improvement on the luxury sentiment? I think last quarter, we had some fall-through sales because of the geopolitical. Have you seen the demand coming back now? Any sense on that?

Abhishek Lodha

Yes. I think in MMR, the impact of the start of the Middle East crisis that has abated. So, we've gone back to a normalized behavioural pattern in terms of the closure of high -value sales. Bangalore is shaping quite well. We had, as Prashant mentioned, the launch this quarter, and that's started off very well, ahead of our expectations. So that's shaping we ll. NCR, of course, we will have a launch in the second half of this fiscal year, and we'll see how that goes. This is how things have evolved for us in Pune and Bangalore remain cautiously optimistic.

Moderator

The next question is from Biplab from Emkay Global.

Biplab

My first question is on the data center, 660 acres that we have earmarked. How much capacity do you think that can be developed ultimately on the 660 acres? And for that full build -out, how much power requirement would be needed?

Abhishek Lodha

The answer really is evolving because technology continues to evolve quite rapidly. The power density of land has changed quite significantly and currently runs at somewhere between 11 megawatts to 15 megaw atts per acre. So that's really the number right now. But what it will be in 2 years or 4 years' time is very difficult to know because obviously, power density seems to be moving upwards.

Biplab

So how much power tie-up do you have currently?

Abhishek Lodha

We currently have tie-up for 3 gigawatts.

Biplab

So, 3 gigawatts data center, we can build without any new tie-up that is.

Abhishek Lodha

That's correct.

Biplab

Okay. And second question is on the overall competitive advantage. You and other players are also getting aggressively into data center. So just trying to understand what is the competitive advantage for a player like you? Is it primarily access to large contiguous land parcels and tie - up to power? So, suppose if some developer hypothetically, he has both a lot of land parcel in Navi Mumbai or Delhi and also has a power tie -up. Do you think they can also become a competition?

Abhishek Lodha

Yes. So, I think the primary requirements for this business ar e land, contiguous land, power and water, recycled water. And now as the business starts moving towards, I would say, a level of growing up/maturing, it depends on the ecosystem, who's already present there, what is the infrastructure which has already been built out and the relationships that one has with the various capacity builders. So, it's a business where others can, of course, try to compete, but we believe that there is a clear competitive advantage that we have because we've been on this for seve ral years and have built an ecosystem as well as deep relationships in addition to, of course, the physical infrastructure that you already highlighted.

Moderator

The next question is from Jatin from Bank of America.

Kunal

This is Kunal. Abhishek, continuing on the previous topic, just wanting to better appreciate the doubling of land price point in 12 months. So how much of this would be coming from the fact that as demand for data center land goes up, the market itself has risen? And what component comes from the fact that you're able to offer something unique in the land parcels that you own?

Abhishek Lodha

Kunal, I think it's important to note that the early price points that we offered were really to create the location. So , I would say that those pr ice points were below market, and that was really the cost of creating the location and establishing the ecosystem. Having now incurred that cost in the earlier transactions, we are moving more towards market price. We think fair market price is closer to about INR 650 million per acre. And we hope that over the next 18 months, we can reach that level. In terms of value addition, as Sushil highlighted, we obviously incur a modest amount of cost, perhaps about 10% to 15% of the sales price at the current l evel of about INR 420 million per acre towards building out some infrastructure and making the land ready for them to start construction soon. So,there is a variety of things which goes into it. But yes, I would say is that the fair market value of the land that we have is more like INR 650 million per acre.

Kunal

Got that. And then just a quick follow -up. I heard you on the commitment or the access to 3 gigawatt of power that you already have. But we also hear that data center also needs access to power f or long durations. So , would you be signing up contracts with the power agencies for, let's say, a 10- to 15-year contract? Or would it be like in short burst and then there might be the risk of price increase beyond that?

Abhishek Lodha

I think the fact, Kunal, is that these are all rapidly evolving fields, and we continue to work with experts and build out our own internal capabilities around that. We also work very closely with our clients who are actually the ultimate consumers of the power. So, we will be looking at all of those, but it's not that we are the consumers. So , the consumers are the end occupiers of the spaces. So, we work closely with their strategy.

Moderator

We'll take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Anand Kumar for closing comments.

Thank you, everyone. I hope all the questions were answered. In case you have any more queries, please reach out to either me or Chintan in the IR team. Thank you.

Moderator

Thank you very much. On behalf of Lodha Developers Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect your lines.