Prestige Estates Q4 Decoded: Why Revenue Doubled Despite Margin Pressure | Business News | ET Now

Indexado: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Okay, let's move on. It is a sedate start, no doubt. Uh but we're marginally higher as we speak right now. And again, very very stock specific a day. We've in fact now moved up a good half a percent in trade. Uh 117 points up in the green led by ICICI Bank, Kotak, L&T. Some of the heavyweights now fortunately are chipping in along with HDFC Bank as well. But still in the thick of earnings, let me welcome on board Irfan Razack, Chairman and MD at Prestige to talk about how their performance has been. Mr. Razack, always good having you on ET Now. Thank you for your time. But it's just uh you know, looking at your numbers and a lot of questions really coming out. Very strong numbers both on the top line as well as the profits. But having said that, uh margins have taken a bit of a hit. Uh help us understand what went by with this quarter and when can you see a recovery in your margins?

[00:00:52]And good morning.

[00:00:53]>> [clears throat] >> See, margin is a function of revenue recognition uh because all our expenses are front-ended date and the earnings come back and date.

[00:01:02]Uh so, it's a matter of uh how revenue gets recognized quarter and quarter.

[00:01:08]And I would say still the margins are pretty decent. And in spite of that, because a whole lot of expenses which are actually front-ended are booked as as as a as an expense now. Uh but then the revenue comes much much later. The profit comes much later.

[00:01:27]Uh we actually have something like about 65,000 crores worth of revenue that has not yet been recognized. That is where we've already sold the properties and the uh the advances have been received, but these have not come into the books only because of the accounting systems.

[00:01:47]Uh Mr. Razack, fully understand that. Uh give us a sense uh you know, to try and get contextualize the kind of top line growth you've seen. Very very strong there. And you know, the absolute growth numbers look extremely strong. Has there been very strong execution in Q4 that's played out? Is that something that's played out?

[00:02:06]See, execution is something that you have to be consistent with. When you are pre-selling products to customers, you have to make sure that you are on the ball at the on the execution side. Not only on the residential, also on the office and the hospitality and retail.

[00:02:25]You have to make sure that the capex assets also get built quickly and on schedule.

[00:02:31]With we always have challenges. Right now, because we had elections in the last quarter, there was a lot of shortage of labor, and we are hoping and praying that the labor does come back and then the we come back to full strength.

[00:02:48]But then that's part of the challenges, but our focus is to see that we execute, we produce, and we keep the economy turning.

[00:02:57]To labor in just a minute, sir, but talk to us about what the guidance is for FY27. You've beaten your guidance is for FY26, you know, clearly, [clears throat] and congratulations on that. But how's FY27 looking on the slightly elevated base? And is [snorts] the revenue base also elevated with Q4 as concerned?

[00:03:16]See, we have a quite a very high base, which is 30,000 crores, which we actually it shot up from 17 to 30, which is quite a huge jump.

[00:03:26]So, even at this base, I believe that since we are now got our feet firmly entrenched in all the cities that we are working in, we should get a growth of 15 to 20%. That's being very sort of conservative. And if it happens more than that, we are happier. But I think on the conservative note, I would look at a growth of 15% on the previous year, maybe going up to 20%.

[00:03:54]Mr. Razak, on the labor front, do you have any visibility on when things may improve?

[00:04:01]I think that should improve by the end of this month or beginning of June. I think we should have labor coming back towards normal numbers because they all had gone away during the because most of the labor is from the northeast. So, there were elections in the northeast and now since elections are done with, there is festival and once that happens, we do hope and pray that by first week of June, we should come back to normal strength of labor. Right now, we are running at about 60% strength.

[00:04:34]Okay. And and therefore, give us a sense, Mr. Razak, in terms of pricing, how are things shaping up for you? You've also launched a new project in in Delhi NCR, if I understand correctly.

[00:04:49]How is How is the traction there looking like?

[00:04:54]The new project that was launched in April was in Hyderabad. That was a Prestige Golden Golden Golden Telapur, Hyderabad. That's really really met with a great response. So, April has been very good.

[00:05:07]We are also looking at seeing how we can bring a few more launches this quarter.

[00:05:12]We're just waiting for approvals to fall in place and the rare numbers to come.

[00:05:16]But I believe the top line is one side.

[00:05:21]The it's it's all work in progress all the time. We have to make sure the teams are fully charged up and then they keep on doing what they have to do.

[00:05:29]And I think and on the price front, the costs are going up because of the geopolitical situation that is that we are facing.

[00:05:39]And we have to be very very sensitive and very alert on that. And it should not happen that we are running running into commodity shortages or price increases. So, we have to be very very sensitive on that and very very alert on it. And hopefully uh we don't increase the price, but then if there's a if there's a necessity, there there would be no choice to do it.

[00:06:05]Mhm. Okay. Uh and uh Mr. Razak, what's the impact of the of of the labor shortage? If at all I can if I can try and understand that on ground. Does it mean slightly higher costs that you're currently incurring on the labor that you're hiring at this point? Or largely labor costs haven't gone up, it's just a supply deficit that's playing out. Give us a sense of that.

[00:06:29]It's not a cost per se, but it's also a question of speed of execution. So, with the shortage of labor, obviously the speed of execution is slows down. And that's a very demoralizing thing for all the project managers. So, we are hoping and praying that the labor does come back and we go back to full strength and that I believe should happen in about a week or so.

[00:06:53]Right. Okay, Mr. Razak, pleasure having you on the show today. Thanks as always for speaking with us. Thank you.

[00:07:01]Okay.