Embassy Office Parks REIT, India’s first listed REIT, on August 6 reported a dip of around 8 percent in its consolidated profits to Rs 204.23 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2020. Profit in the same quarter last year was at Rs 222.03 crore.
Total income also dipped to Rs 549.23 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal from Rs 554.1 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The board of directors of Embassy Office Parks Management Services, which is a manager to Embassy REIT, declared a distribution of Rs 449.9 crore or Rs 5.83 per unit in a dividend to unitholders.
The record date for the distribution is August 14, 2020, and the distribution will be paid on or before August 21, 2020, it said in a statement.
Leases signed for the quarter stood at 5,26,000 sq ft, including 2,01,000 sq ft of new leases at market rents, and 3,25,000 sq ft of renewals at 20 per cent spread to existing rentals, the company said.
“Amidst challenging market conditions, we are pleased to report a resilient set of results this quarter, marked by robust office rental collections, a healthy distribution payout, and our strong financial position. Embassy REIT continues to enable our occupiers to operate while keeping their employees safe,” said Mike Holland, Chief Executive Officer.
“We remain well-positioned to meet the anticipated increase in demand over the coming quarters for institutional-grade office space, and to capitalize on the continued consolidation in office market given considerable future supply shrinkage,” he said.
Rental collections from office occupiers remained robust at 98.9 percent, with office rental collections at 99.2 percent for April 2020, 99.3 percent for May 2020 and 98.2 percent for June 2020 (as of August 5, 2020), he said.
The company said that portfolio occupancy remained healthy at 92.2 percent on the company’s 26.2 msf operating office portfolio, with same-store occupancy of 94.1 percent.
Leases signed for the quarter stood at 526k sf, including 201k sf of new leases at market rents, and 325k sf of renewals at 20 percent spreads to existing rentals. It achieved rental increases of 14 percent on 1.8 msf from 22 office leases across portfolio, the company said.
On business continuity plans, the company said that its priority remained on delivering a safe workplace and business ecosystem for our occupiers and their employees. “A daily average of 13,000 employees are operating from our properties across India,” it said.
“Our properties remained open and complied with all government regulations to support the business continuity of our occupiers; over 90 percent of our over 160 corporate occupiers continue to operate their core business functions from our properties across India,” it said.
It said that it had resumed construction activity on its 2.7 msf of ongoing on-campus development as well as operations on its 477 key operating hotels in June 2020 post lifting of lockdown restrictions.
Embassy Office Parks REIT is the country's first REIT which was listed in April last year.
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