Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to earning conference call of Nexus Select Trust for Q4 and FY26. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing * then 0 on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pratik Dantara, Chief Investor Relations Officer and Head Strategy from Nexus Select Trust.
Thank you, and over to you.
Pratik Dantara
Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining the earnings conference call of Nexus Select Trust for quarter 4 and year ended March 26.
Before we proceed, I'd like to highlight that the management may make certain statements that may constitute forward-looking statements. Please be advised that our actual results may differ materially from these statements.
Nexus Select Trust does not guarantee these statements or results and is not obligated to update them at any point of time. Specifically, any financial guidance and pro forma information that we will share on this call are management estimates based on certain assumptions and have not been subjected to audit, review, examination procedures.
You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to achieve the same. Joining me today on the call are Dalip Sehgal, Executive Director and CEO; Rajesh Deo, our CFO; Jayen Naik, President Operations; Nirzar Jain, President Leasing.
As always, we'll begin with brief remarks on our business and financial performance, and then open the floor for questions. Over to you, Dalip.
Dalip Sehgal
Thank you, Pratik. Good evening, everyone.
It's my pleasure to welcome you to the earnings update call for quarter 4 and full year ending 31st March 26 for Nexus Select Trust, India's first listed REIT. This year marks a significant milestone for us as we complete 10 years of building the Nexus platform.
Over the past decade, we have created a resilient portfolio of 19 malls across 15 cities, comprising nearly 11 million square feet of operational retail space that witnesses good footfalls of around 14 crores or 140 million. Today, our portfolio generates annual consumption of over INR 14,000 crores and delivers close to INR 2,000 crores of net operating income.
Across our malls, we host nearly 1,100-odd brands across 3,200 stores, offering a healthy mix of leading international and domestic brands. Most importantly, the Nexus portfolio today supports a large ecosystem with over 5,000 employees working across our portfolio and more than 20,000 tenant employees serving customers everyday.
The ecosystem is more than 25,000 people, the Nexus ecosystem. Before we delve into the quarter and the year-end performance, I wanted to spend a couple of minutes on the emerging macro trends in the retail real estate landscape in India.
Demand supply dynamics, one: Grade A demand supply dynamics continue to be extremely favorable for us, with no near-term new Grade A supply of any large scale in primary Nexus catchments. Two: Turning to the global headwinds arising out of the Middle East conflict, as all of us know, we remain mindful of the macroeconomic issues that may arise, whether it is inflation, higher input costs, etc., etc.
Currently, happy to note that we're not seeing any slowdown in decision-making on the deal front. In fact, our long-term leases and strong balance sheet position us very well to navigate this cycle.
Consumption trends in April and May have remained healthy, with strong high double-digit growth in April and in the first two weeks of May. The consumption trends are still very, very strong.
March also was in high double digits. We've seen now for almost 10 weeks a very, very strong growth trend.
Occupancy: Our retail occupancy stands at 97%, which is 400 bps ahead of the market. This is on the back of proactive leasing, high-quality mall infrastructure, prime infill city center locations, and best-in-class management team.
Now coming to our quarterly performance: On the consumption front, growth momentum remained robust, building on the strong trajectory witnessed over the previous three quarters. We ended Q4 with robust footfall growth of 8%, and this translated into healthy consumption growth and revenue growth of 19%.
Backed by this strong operating momentum, we delivered another solid financial performance, with retail NOI growing by 11% year-on-year in quarter 4 FY26. On the back of this performance, we are pleased to declare a distribution of INR 346, translating into INR 2.286, I repeat, INR 2.286 per unit and a year-on-year growth of 14%.
Importantly, this marks our 11th consecutive quarter of 100% distribution payout post-listing, underscoring the stability, resilience, and predictability of our cash flows. I'm pleased to share that we have achieved our FY26 distribution guidance of INR 9.1 per unit, implying a growth of 9% year-on-year over the previous year.
Since our listing in May 23, our unit holders have benefited from a combination of steady income growth and capital appreciation, translating into an overall return of more than 75%, more than 75% during the year. Our NAV has increased by 8% to INR 164 per unit, INR 164 per unit.
Now, let me walk you through some category-wise trends. Fashion, which was on a slow track the earlier year, is now growing quite rapidly.
It accounts for 50% of our consumption, and it grew by about 12% in this quarter, driven by a sharp uptick in demand for value fashion and ethnic wear, making it the third quarter of strong performance. Fashion growth seems to be back on track.
Jewelry recorded its highest ever quarterly sales since listing, driven by rising gold prices, addition of new jewelry stores across our mall. Our overall consumption contribution from jewelry has increased by 300 bps to 7% since March 25.
March 25 to March 26, jewelry has increased by 300 bps in terms of consumption and is now 7% of our portfolio. Three, family entertainment centers, including multiplexes, sustained robust momentum with 18% growth in quarter 4 FY26, and you would have seen the results of the cinema operators also yesterday, which were very good indeed, this was aided by blockbuster titles like Dhurandhar 2, Border 2, and many other good Hollywood films as well.
Electronics witnessed 22% growth during the quarter, driven by very strong demand during key promotional events such as Republic Day and end-of-season sales. Let me now walk you through our leasing and marketing performance.
On leasing, we continue to witness robust demand from international and domestic brands. Supported by this robust demand, we re-leased 9 lakh square feet during the year at an 18% mark-to-market spread.
During the year, we have strategically churned approximately 4 lakh square feet, 4 lakh square feet of space ahead of expiry, achieving healthy spreads, reflecting proactive asset management. Coming up in the coming years, lease expiries, we expect about 12 lakh square feet on an average lease expiries annually over the next 4 years.
About 12 lakh square feet of average re-leasing will come up every year over the next 4 years. In terms of rentals, 45% of our gross rental portfolio will be expiring over the next 4 years, and this should, with re-leasing, give us a 20% mark-to-market.
Now from a marketing standpoint, we curated experiential events like Bhajan Jamming, which is in today, music concerts, theater performances, etc., across all our malls during the year, augmenting footfalls and generating 6 crore revenue. On the digital front, we have installed six anamorphic screens across our malls, and we have partnered with around 120-plus brands, generating a revenue of INR 3 crores.
Coming to our digital engagement, happy to announce our Nexus One app now has over 1 million users, with 1.5 lakh monthly active users and 56% customer repeat rate. Nexus One app remains among India's top-performing mall apps with a 4.4 rating on the App Store.
Indeed a great achievement. Now let me walk you through our acquisition strategy and performance of recent acquisitions.
Over the past decade, we have built a robust portfolio through a disciplined third-party asset acquisition-led strategy, focusing on under-managed or under-leased assets or under-invested assets and unlocking value through our operational expertise. The core strategy remains unchanged, and we will continue to see significant headroom to drive growth through our proven playbook on acquisitions.
In addition, as we look ahead, we remain firmly aligned with our vision on doubling our portfolio by 2030. To support this vision, we have further sharpened our acquisition strategy by introducing three strategic pillars during FY26.
First, we are pursuing strategic tie-ups with reputed developers for under-construction malls. This approach enables us to enter new markets where we currently have no presence, while also strengthening our footprint in existing markets where acquisition opportunities may be limited.
In line with this, we have partnered with Suvodh Runwal Group to develop a 7 lakh square feet mall in the MMR region. Second, we are driving strategic expansion within our existing malls as well.
During the year, we completed a bolt-on acquisition of prime 60,000 square feet of retail space within the Nexus Elante complex in Chandigarh. This demonstrates our ability to unlock incremental value within our current portfolio, and we'll continue to pursue such opportunities.
Third pillar: In our handset pipeline, which provides us with visibility on potential future acquisitions, our sponsor currently holds the South City asset in Kolkata, acquired in 2025, which could present a compelling opportunity over time. Now coming to our acquisition pipeline, we have built a robust pipeline of eight assets across India, with two assets under due diligence and Diamond Plaza, Kolkata deal closing underway.
We expect to continue the momentum on acquisitions built over the last year and will look to add two to three assets every year to our portfolio. Our LTV stands at 18%.
With Diamond Plaza, it will still remain 18%. Cost of debt is at 7.3%, which is 60 bps lower than March of 25, significantly below our acquisition cap rates.
This is significantly below our acquisition cap rates. Supported by robust acquisition pipeline, strong balance sheet, low leverage, and close to US$1 billion of debt headroom, we are well-positioned to drive this phase of our inorganic growth strategy.
Now turning to the performance of our recently acquired assets: Both Vega City in Bangalore and MBD in Ludhiana, Punjab, witnessed robust tenant growths, growing at 15% after acquisition, and with a footfall of 9%-plus, so that's really good in terms of the two malls that we acquired. Now coming to our HR initiatives: During the year, we launched Aarunya, an education program for frontline staff in strategic collaboration with Medhavi Skills University, and partnered with Welingkar Institute of Management to launch India's first postgraduate program in mall management, reinforcing our leadership and long-term talent vision.
Lastly, turning to our unit price performance: Our unit price has appreciated over 50% since our IPO in May of 23. Our unit holder base has expanded to over 70,000 compared to 24,000 at the time of listing, reflecting both greater breadth and depth of our investor base.
Stepping back, FY26 delivered record performance, demonstrated resilience across cycles, and validated every pillar of our growth strategy for financial year 27, for which we are now targeting a DPU growth of 9%. Lastly, summarizing our performance: One, consumption momentum remained robust with double-digit growth in FY26, and we expect the momentum to sustain in the coming months.
Delivered strong NOI growth of 13% in FY26. Sharpened our inorganic growth strategy with introduction of three new pillars, expected to add two to three assets every year to our portfolio.
Leased 4 lakh square feet ahead of expiry. 45% of our gross rentals expected to expire over the next 4 years with a 20% mark-to-market potential.
We achieved our FY26 distribution guidance of INR 9.1 per unit, 9.1 per unit, and we expect to distribute 9.8 to 10 per unit, INR 9.8 to INR 10 per unit in FY27. With that, let's now move on to the Q&A session.
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session.
Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press * and 1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press * and 2.
Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
We'll take our first question from the line of Mohit Agrawal from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Mohit Agrawal
Good evening, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on your guidance.
When I look at the 7% NOI growth guidance at midpoint level, can you break that down into what is the contracted growth assumed here, what is the rev share, mark-to-market gains, and the marketing initiatives? You could kind of give some breakdown.
Also, what is the implicit consumption growth that you've assumed here for this 7% NOI number?
Dalip Sehgal
Okay. Pratik, you want to answer this?
Pratik Dantara
Yeah. Mohit, on the NOI guidance, I think the way we kind of break it down is at least 90% of because it's 10-11% of our rentals that have that mark-to-market, the balance rentals typically would grow at about 4 4.5%, which is the annual escalations, of annually compounded 15% every 3 years.
That gives you about 4.5% growth. We get typically a 20% mark-to-market on an average about 10% rentals expiring every year, so that gives you about 2% growth.
That takes it to about 6.5%. Then depending on the consumption growth that we forecast, we get the balance growth, which takes it closer or just about above 7% there.
Does that answer on the NOI front? On the consumption front, I think the assumption is about 8% standard growth, which is what we've assumed or what we've achieved in the past is what we'll kind of project for the future as well.
So 8% consumption growth is what we're planning in FY27.
Mohit Agrawal
Yeah. Pratik, but then have you also considered the impact of the acquisitions, because the headline 7% number seems to be considering that the consumption growth has been so strong, are we being conservative here?
Do you think that we could see surprises on this one, on the positive side?
Dalip Sehgal
Yeah. This is organic, no acquisition built-in.
Dalip here. To answer your question honestly, yes.
It's a year where all of us have to be a little cautious, I would imagine, because of whatever is happening around the world. Like I said, April, May have been very good, and we do hope that this kind of a consumption trend will continue.
You are right, we have actually been a little conservative. The original model is around 8% or 9%, and the intent would still be to ballpark get into those numbers.
Mohit Agrawal
That explains. The second question is on the like-for-like 15% for fourth quarter and 9% for FY26.
Could you give that number if you exclude the non-rev-share segments like jewelry or maybe some part of electronics? Where would that number, after excluding those segments, be?
Dalip Sehgal
12%.
Mohit Agrawal
12% for fourth quarter, and for 26?
Dalip Sehgal
About 14%. Nahi
Rajesh Deo
nahi. Like-for-like.
Dalip Sehgal
Like-for-like. That would be around I would imagine
Rajesh Deo
8%.
Dalip Sehgal
7 or 8%.
Mohit Agrawal
Perfect. My last question is on Select Citywalk mall.
Over the last 3-4 years, the rental growth has been kind of sub-5% per annum. If you could explain how to understand that, has that mall achieved some sort of a maturity or what kind of initiatives you are taking to kind of speed up the rental growth from here on?
Dalip Sehgal
I'll request Nirzar to answer this question. Nirzar?
Nirzar Jain
Hi, Mohit. Nirzar here.
On the rental growth in Select City, the rentals were very high, we changed the loading. When you look at the per-square-foot rentals, they show 3-4% on the loaded area.
If you actually take it on the carpet area, they have increased almost 8-9%. We are still getting very healthy spreads in terms of the overall rental outflow, and that's kind of contributing to the NOI growth as well.
Dalip Sehgal
Yeah. I think the other thing is in Select, there are large number of or reasonable number of international brands which are on revenue share, it's not just the MG.
The rev share also goes up as they grow. What we are seeing now is some resurgence of brands like Zara and H&M and so on and so forth.
My sense is that Select also will perform better in FY27
Mohit Agrawal
in terms of rental improvement
Dalip Sehgal
overall, MG plus rev share.
Mohit Agrawal
Great. Thanks a lot.
Those were my questions.
Dalip Sehgal
Thank you.
Rajesh Deo
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Sumit Kumar from JM Financial.
Please go ahead.
Sumit Kumar
Hi. Good evening, sirs, and thanks for the opportunity.
My first question is on the follow-up to the last one. Jewelry as a category has been doing well for the last two quarters.
How does that translate into rental growth or it's sort of dependent on expiry and then a mark-to-market or sort of a releasing spread on that?
Dalip Sehgal
Jewelry now is about 7% of our business in March in quarter 4. Two questions you asked.
What happens to rentals? Just to give you a sense, typical rentals on, let's say, fashion brands is anywhere between INR 140 to INR 160 a square foot, whereas for jewelry it is INR 280 to INR 300 a square foot.
That is the kind of uptake that you see once you re-lease it. Secondly, unlike fashion which occupies a lot of space, jewelry does not occupy much space.
Even today, maybe about 2 2.5% of our GLA would be jewelry, accounting for 7%, and accounting for per-square-foot rentals which are twice of the fashion average and probably close to three times our overall average.
Pratik Dantara
Sumit, the other point is I think when we focus on some of these high-value categories, right, these categories not only enhance the overall mall sales, but they also improve the quality of the footfalls, they strengthen the overall category mix, they also elevate the overall look and feel of the mall. All of this actually creates a positive rub-off effect on some of the other categories as well.
We witnessed some of that on Akshaya Tritiya as well. When we compared Akshaya Tritiya this year versus Akshaya Tritiya last year, we saw that with the increase in salience of jewelry brands in our portfolio, that actually had a rub-off effect on some of the other categories, and the share of growth on that day of some of the other categories was as high as 54%.
That was the thesis of increasing some of these high-value categories, and it just kind of got validated when we kind of looked at Akshaya Tritiya sales.
Dalip Sehgal
Yeah. The fact is that from a consumer perspective, if there is no jewelry in a mall on occasions like Akshaya Tritiya or if you're shopping for a wedding or for any other occasion, you would probably go to the high street and buy, and hence the mall would lose that footfall not just for jewelry, but for all products and categories.
That's what we've seen that even on Akshaya Tritiya, the growth without jewelry was also upwards of 45%. What it has done is brought in better quality footfalls, people who obviously come to buy gold, but also want to then spend time, maybe buy some stuff for the kids, eat a little bit.
F&B went through the roof that day, and so on and so forth. I think there's a positive rub-off.
The immediate rub-off, like I said, is the fact that the trading densities are 10 times of what it is for fashion, rentals are at least twice, if not 2.5 times, and the fact that you're getting exceptionally high number of footfalls because if you have the full line of jewelry, which we have, for example, now in Elante, we have that in Seawoods, then the Akshaya Tritiya customer is very happy to come to the mall and spend the day there.
Sumit Kumar
Sure, sir. Fair enough.
My second question will be on the Kolkata acquisition, Diamond Plaza. What was the strategic rationale of doing this acquisition, because this asset is on the smaller side.
Is it entry to the market or anything else that you have looked at?
Dalip Sehgal
Smaller size?
Pratik Dantara
Relatively smaller.
Dalip Sehgal
Which one?
Pratik Dantara
Diamond.
Dalip Sehgal
Oh, Diamond. Diamond, Diamond.
Yeah. No, fair question.
I think if you look at East, our presence has been very, very limited. We've had one mall, very well performing mall in Bhubaneswar, and otherwise our footprint in the East, like most big mall operators, has been very weak.
As Blackstone bought the South City Mall, which is the best operating asset, and Diamond Plaza the DD is done and hopefully that'll come into the fold. We're trying to build a portfolio.
Sometimes what happens, and this is a very well performing mall while it is small, is that when you're looking at a portfolio in a city, there's only that much that you can buy, and this is one of the assets that was doing well, we certainly did buy it. We're also looking at the other cities as well in the eastern part because there is a lot of growth happening in the East, and over the next 3 to 5 years, if we have to double our portfolio and our business, I think we'll have to have a strong presence in the East as well.
Sumit,
Pratik Dantara
I think more from an investment highlights standpoint, right, I think Kolkata has limited supply of retail space per capita, and that's lowest amongst some of the major metropolitan markets that are there in India. From a market standpoint, there isn't good retail space.
I think second is the location of this mall. It was city-centric in northern Calcutta and in a dense residential catchment area, which actually worked.
I think there's enough upside here possible. It seems to be not a very well managed mall, and therefore there's upside potential possible, which is typically the Nexus way of acquiring and then turning around a mall.
I think while we'll come up with more specifics once we close the transaction in quarter 2, I think this is what we can share at this point of time.
Sumit Kumar
Sure, Pratik. Thank you, and all the best.
Dalip Sehgal
Those were
Sumit Kumar
my questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
Dalip Sehgal
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, would like to remind participants, to ask a question, please press * and 1 on your phone.
Next question is from the line of Parvez Qazi from Nuvama Group. Please go ahead.
Parvez Qazi
Hi, good evening. Thanks for a great set of numbers.
A couple of questions from my side. First, we've obviously delivered strong consumption growth both in Q4 as well as in FY26.
You gave a category-wise description of that. Looking at other way, what would have been, let's say, contribution of footfall growth versus higher trading density which led to this kind of a consumption?
Dalip Sehgal
Okay. Footfall growth in the quarter, if you see the number is around 7-odd percent.
I'm now looking at the overall number, growth has been around 14-15% in terms of consumption. Two things: one is that, yes, footfall growth has helped, especially because I think a lot of these footfalls were movie footfalls, and that does lead to better consumption of entertainment.
On the other hand, I think higher-value categories like jewelry, like electronics, beauty, those are the categories that are helping us build the trading density as well. Like I said, jewelry, for example, has anywhere between INR 16,000 to INR 20,000 trading density per square foot, and fashion would have around INR 2,000 a square foot.
TD also gets built, area required is low, and yes, the footfall growth, my sense is a lot of it actually did come from better-performing cinemas, and that obviously helps the rest of the categories as well.
Parvez Qazi
You said 7% was footfall. You gave another number of 14-15%.
What was that? That was trading density or
Dalip Sehgal
Consumption.
Parvez Qazi
Consumption. Consumption.
Sure. The second question is, you said April, May have been strong just like March was.
Has there been any change in consumption patterns in terms of categories in, let's say, April, May compared to, let's say, anytime in FY26?
Dalip Sehgal
April, because of Akshaya Tritiya, obviously jewelry did extremely well and that contributed to the growth. Akshaya Tritiya growth also, as Pratik pointed out earlier, half of the growth came from jewelry, the other half came from all the other categories.
All the other categories, if you exclude jewelry, the growth was 40%. It's across categories that there has been a growth.
Number two, your second part of your question was around
Parvez Qazi
Which category did well in May?
Dalip Sehgal
In May, for example, there is no jewelry upside in the sense that, yes, we have added more stores, there'll be some upside, but there's no Akshaya Tritiya. Yet in the first 15 days, and as you know through our daily reporting system, we get sales every day.
I think as of yesterday, we had about high double-digit growth in May as well without jewelry actually contributing very significantly to that growth. My sense is that April certainly, some of it was the fact that we had more stores, etc.
Of course, the fact that Dhurandhar 2 did extremely well in April as well. Yeah.
In May, bar for a couple of Hollywood movies, I don't think anything significant has happened in the first few weeks, but yeah, overall consumption still remains quite strong. Also, there is another point of view and maybe you will have some sense of it from other people as well, is that there is a large consumption improvement in the domestic market primarily on account of what we believe, and it's hypothesis, maybe we are wrong, is that this 97,000 crores of international travel and holidays which have not happened at all because of various problems and the fact that airfares have gone through the roof, etc.
Out of that 97,000, I would have imagined that some of it would have gone into investments, but looking at the stock market again, not so sure how much of that would have gone there. A large part of it, and I don't have a firm number, but I do believe that a substantial part of that is also coming to consumption, especially in malls.
Imagine a family with young kids who had planned to go overseas on holiday, but because of the costs, etc., are unable to do it, what would they do? On a weekend, you would take your kids out.
They would not be sitting at home. Holidays have started, what do you do?
You take them to the mall, and you will eat and you will spend some time. To my mind, I think this is where the share of wallet of the malls has actually improved in terms of overall consumption.
Parvez Qazi
Sure. Last question, we have a very strong acquisition pipeline.
Now I believe yields in the market have already started rising. From a timing perspective, what's our thought process?
Do we wait to get maybe better cap rates at the time of acquisition, or we still go ahead? What's our thought process towards that?
Pratik Dantara
Parvez, I think the way we've also called this out in the past, we typically like to maintain at least 150 to 200 bps spread between the cap rates that we trade at versus the cap rates that we acquire. Historically, whatever we've acquired has been in that range of 9 9.5%, closer to 10%.
I think that's how we'll kind of also look at deals going forward. Obviously, with the interest cost kind of going up, we'll be very prudent at what cap rates we acquire.
I think we've now got multiple other levers apart from just third-party acquisitions that we kind of looking at, and I think as we add some of those levers into the portfolio, we'll see the funnel of assets coming into the portfolio being much, much larger going ahead.
Parvez Qazi
Sure. Thanks, and all the best.
Dalip Sehgal
Thanks, Parvez. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Gaurav Khandelwal from J.P.
Morgan. Please go ahead.
Gaurav Khandelwal
Hi, thanks for taking my question. Good evening.
I've got a couple of follow-ups on the Kolkata acquisitions. One, on the Diamond City acquisition, what is the kind of acquisition cap rate that we are looking at?
We pay 350 crores, but where is the NOI roughly? That's number one.
Number two, on the same asset, let's say we are able to close it by first half of the year, how much upside would it imply to our NOI DPU for the full year?
Pratik Dantara
Gaurav, we haven't still closed the transaction. It's still in the process.
It will take a few more months to close it, and hence we'll not be able to kind of get to the exact cap rates and upside that would be possible. It will depend on when the asset comes in and what's the balance period that the asset remains with us in the year.
Directionally, what we've spoken about it being acquired at a purchase consideration of close to about 347.5 CR, and the cap rates will be similar to the range that I had indicated earlier. I think it will be in those kind of cap rates.
Expect it to be in that range, but the exact nuances, the details around what will be the DPU accretion, etc., will probably come out when we actually close the transaction. We'll put up a presentation on it.
Gaurav Khandelwal
Got it. Secondly, can I check, is there an update on the South City Mall asset as well in terms of acquisition timeline?
Pratik Dantara
Not at this point of time, but yeah, I think it should at some point of time come into our portfolio, but there isn't a firm timeline to it. Look,
Dalip Sehgal
I think the only update is that a lot of issues that were there, including Sri Lanka property, Dubai, etc., are getting sorted out. I think that's the good news.
Exactly when this will happen, we'll just have to wait and see.
Gaurav Khandelwal
Got it. Do we have a sense if that closes in FY27 itself or could it extend to FY28?
Pratik Dantara
No directional sense to it.
Dalip Sehgal
I think another couple of months we'll be able to tell you and give you a better picture.
Gaurav Khandelwal
Okay. All right.
Thank you so much. Those were all my questions.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Girish Choudhary from Avendus Spark.
Please go ahead.
Girish Choudhary
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.
Firstly, on the releasing spreads, we have generally seen a healthy 18% to 20%. Also if I look at the expiries coming in, you are more or less guiding for that.
Just wanted to understand from your conversation with tenants, do you think the current spreads are structurally sustainable or are we approaching affordability thresholds for certain categories?
Nirzar Jain
Hi. Nirzar here, Girish.
I think the spreads that we will sustain that. If you see our track record in the past, we've kind of sustained that including tough years through COVID.
Currently, we see no pressure in the conversations. Retailers are still upbeat in terms of off-take, expansion of spaces.
The portfolio is also very well leased at 97%-plus. That also helps us to kind of manage the demand better.
No pressure there and we're confident of maintaining similar spreads.
Pratik Dantara
Girish, if you kind of look at slide 16 that we've kind of called out, right, saying that when you look at supply, there isn't near-term Grade A supply in our markets, especially in the primary catchments that we are present in, and a lot of the supply that's coming, one, it is back-ended and it's expected to come only in 2028, and that also is limited to about three or four cities, right? Three, four cities would have that, not in our primary catchment, but the cities are large enough to have it, and at the same time, a lot of it is going to come only in 2028.
I think we're kind of pretty confident that we can maintain this 20% mark-to-market run rate going ahead as well.
Girish Choudhary
Got it. Got it.
That's helpful. Secondly, on the strategic churn and the portfolio optimization, I see that you have already re-leased around 0.4 million square feet ahead of expiry.
Just want to understand at a portfolio level, how should we see in terms of identifying more such opportunities and can this become a slightly larger part of the NOI growth which is not baked in?
Nirzar Jain
Hi, Girish. Nirzar here.
I think when we build in our AOPs, we factor in some of this. Even last year, what we did in terms of the 0.4 and the overall 1 million activity, our natural expiries were just about 600,000, and we did 1 million.
It's kind of built in into our plan based on timing, which particular mall needs attention. We're kind of creating those opportunities in the coming year as well.
This year we are aiming higher than that looking at the expiry schedules, and in fact some very interesting new brands that we are bringing to each of our respective malls in this plan.
Pratik Dantara
Girish, I think typically whatever is the expiry, natural expiry that comes up, the area, you can kind of safely assume that you typically do about 20-25% more than what that natural expiry is. I think on an overall basis, we end up doing anywhere between 1.3 to 1.5 depending on the year.
Got it.
Girish Choudhary
Got it. Yeah.
Those were my questions. Thank you, and all the very best.
Nirzar Jain
Thanks, Girish.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from Jatin from Bank of America.
Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, and thanks for the opportunity.
Wanted to check with you on your plans for your debt mix for the next year. Last quarter, we were roughly at 52% floating, that has actually gone up to 59%, and with some expectations on the street that rates might go up, what's the plan on this front?
How much in your current DPU guidance of 9%, how much increase in interest cost are you baking for FY27?
Rajesh Deo
If you look at, the floating has gone up because the Bajaj Finance loan that we had taken, we've taken up a top-up to kind of repay the commercial papers that we were carrying. Hence, the floating has gone up.
If you look at the interest rate has come down to around 7.3, and we are saving around 25 to 30 crores annually. The annual budget that we have prepared is based at a 7.5% rate of interest.
Understood. Got it.
Very clear. Finally, a bookkeeping one.
For the full year, how much was the LFL NOI growth? Thank you.
Rajesh Deo
For 26? FY26?
For 26, yeah. About
Rajesh Deo
7%, yeah.
Sure. Thank you so much.
All the best.
Rajesh Deo
Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Siddharth S from Nuvama.
Please go ahead. [unclear] I'm sorry, you're sounding muffled, Siddharth.
[unclear] No, it is still muffled, Siddharth. I think your network coverage is not proper.
[unclear]
Rajesh Deo
No. No, not really.
Siddharth, we can't hear you. Very, very muffled voice.
Yeah. [unclear] No, Siddharth.
Operator
No, not really.
Rajesh Deo
Maybe, Siddharth, you want to reach out to us separately, because the voice is really muffled. We really can't hear you.
Siddharth Shah
[unclear]
Operator
Thank you. That was the last question of our question and answer session.
As there are no further questions, on behalf of Nexus Select Trust, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Rajesh Deo
Thank you.
Dalip Sehgal
Thank you.
Pratik Dantara
Thank you.
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