Phoenix Mills : Transcript of Analysts/Institutional Investor Meet/Con. Call

So should we choose to go down the path of diversifying risk across asset classes, then, at a

preliminary level, I would say residential and maybe warehousing, including some industrial seems

to be a logical extension for us because of our on the ground presence in the key markets in the key

Indian cities and in the past we have repeatedly demonstrated our ability to identify and acquire

suitable land parcels and expedite such acquisitions. We have completed such acquisitions in

probably record time. We have a huge infrastructure team, extremely capable on delivering

projects and turning around the delivery timelines. We have very strong and supportive financial

partners both on the equity and debt fronts. Our existing relationships with retailers give us a lot of

insight on their warehousing needs as well and that gives us the confidence that we’ll be able to

extend those relationships across that vertical, should we go down that path. I think all of this is

giving us a direction on not allocating a lot of capital perhaps, but at least initiating and perhaps

looking at some of these other asset classes such as residential and warehousing, including

industrial.

Puneet Gulati:

That’s very insightful. Thank you so much. How should one think about Phoenix? There have been

many mall operators across the globe and within the cities that you have operated as well, and

many operators have perished, but Phoenix for more than two decades of history as a mall

operator, has survived and thrived and Phoenix as the company has about 100 years of being listed

as well. So what is it that differentiates Phoenix from other mall operators and how sustainable is

that mode in the current environment where you’re seeing some private equity

players

also entering this space.

Shishir Srivastava:

See when we think real estate we think annuity. The retail space or even commercial offices for that

matter have a high entry barriers because you’re looking for land at city center locations where land

prices have become a barrier for entry for many of our peer group. Futher, typically mall require

three to four years of development and another two years of stabilization, during which time the

developers capital remains locked and returns start to get generated only four years or so after

you’ve completed the land acquisition. But that’s the nature right of the annuity business and

because this business itself is capital intensive, it becomes an entry barrier for several of the

real estate developers. However, as you rightly mentioned, it has been almost a little over two

decades that we have been in this business. We have developed our own skills,

domain

expertise, and leasing relationships with our brands. All our malls have become the gateway malls

for new brands entering this country. We focus heavily on experience and curating experiences for

to build over the last two decades. If we look at all of our senior leadership, they have been with us

for more than a decade and their learning has stayed within the organization. We all are extremely

dedicated to making each of our portfolios succeed. I think these probably are the differentiating

factors from the classic real estate development community in this country.

Puneet Gulati:

The other thing now that you’re also growing from just being one mall company in 2007 to now 8

malls and then taking it all the way to 12-13 in next three years. How are you building your

organization strength and how are you thinking about delegation of authority as the structure as

the organization grows into a much, much bigger entity than what it was.

Shishir Srivastava:

So Puneet interestingly, while you say that we are going to have 12 malls operational, from 8 growing

to 12 in the next couple of years, in terms of GLA, this will be about 13 million square feet and then

we continue to have other projects under development which will become operational each year

thereafter. So every year we are going to see one or two million square feet of retail GLA getting

added. But what is equally interesting is that we have further densifying the city center locations so

our commercial office portfolio, which is currently spread between Mumbai and Pune and

comprises about 2 million square feet is going to grow to about 7.2 million square feet in the next

three to four years, so clearly with that asset class also expanding and perhaps us delving into other

asset classes as well, the organization is growing. During 2005, I remember we were a team of five

people and today we are in excess of about 2500 people across the country. As I mentioned

previously, our leadership team has been with us for more than a decade and we continue to bring

in newer talent and they continue to add value over the years. The roles and responsibilities of our

teams continue to evolve constantly and we present them with newer challenges and opportunities

for growth. So I think over the last few years we have made a significant effort and that has been

spearheaded by Mr. Ruia himself in making the organization extremely professional and driven by

a very well thought out strategy and driven by some extremely capable individuals in the leadership

team. Every asset of ours is driven by its own head who is empowered aside from us signing up on

the basic goals for the year, we empower the teams adequately to run their own initiatives to

deliver those goals and we conduct our frequent reviews and help them, handle them and

guide them through that.

Puneet Gulati:

So each individual mall has a separate CEO and runs its own P&L independent of.

Shishir Srivastava:

The center is very empowered, and then we have a regional mall head who is more like a CEO for the

region and each one of them will have 2 or 3 malls under them and they implement Phoenix best

practices across locations, but every mall is operated differently, every mall or every location

deserves its own marketing strategy; there is no one shoe fits all kind of solution.

Puneet Gulati:

And now since we are on this organization structure, let me ask a tricky one which is how do you

think about your role and responsibilities vis-à-vis Atul who has now taken on the role officially as