EFC Confident Of 50% Top-Line Growth In Design And Build Business Over Two To Three Years

EFC (I) Ltd., a leading player in managed office spaces and commercial real estate solutions, is confident of achieving its target of 50% topline growth in the design-and-build (D&B) segment over the next two to three years, according to its Whole-Time Director, Nikhil Bhuta.

In an interview with NDTV Profit on Thursday, Bhuta expressed confidence in sustaining the topline growth in the D&B segment for the next two to three years.

“Fifty percent growth is pretty much achievable. If you see, it is growing more than 50% in the last couple of years,” he said.

Bhuta also asserted that the company is poised to maintain a healthy profit margin in the D&B segment. “We are consistently hitting anywhere between 24% to 26% on a net margin basis. And that we anticipate continuing for the next couple of years,” he said.

According to Bhuta, two key factors will drive the company’s topline growth to achieve the 50% target in the D&B business.

“One is a relatively low baseline. Second, we have developed eligibility or a kind of qualifications where we can bid for a single contract worth up to Rs 200 crore,” he said. 

Bhuta explained that the company’s ‘integrated business model’ allows all three of its divisions to grow in alignment. The company’s three business verticals are leasing, D&B and furniture manufacturing.

The flex-office segment is experiencing a significant boom. Bhuta noted a "great amount of influx" of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) into India. Further, domestic companies are increasingly choosing to "hand over" real estate management to experts.

The D&B business is benefiting from a strong overall commercial real estate market, independent of the flex-office boom.

The furniture manufacturing vertical is being boosted by "Make in India" policies and the "China alternate" (or China Plus One) strategy, which is helping to organise a market that was previously dominated by imports.

He concluded that the company is "geared up" to make its leasing vertical stronger, targeting the addition of a minimum of 20,000 new seats on a year-on-year basis.

Shares of EFC (I) closed 1.61% lower at Rs 301.95 apiece on the NSE, while the benchmark Nifty50 ended flat at 25,879.15, up 0.01%.