RIL Property mulls quoting rents in dollars as rupee collapse poses fresh challenges 

RIL Property PLC is exploring if it can quote rentals in US dollars as a hedge against the escalating maintenance and other costs of their commercial rentable space in Colombo as the sharp weakening of the rupee has posed fresh challenges to the real estate developer, which is recovering from the pandemic-induced slump. 

The landlord of Grade A office blocks at its Parkland complex in Colombo which has 268,000 of rentable square feet came under pressure from the sharp increase in maintenance costs amid rising inflation, a condition which was exacerbated by the rupee weaknesses in its final fiscal quarter ended in March.

Meanwhile, the company also had to rearrange its offering to offer smaller and more affordable rental space to their occupants while offering more competitive rates to recapture market share lost during the first year of the pandemic as the companies shifted to remote working, cutting down on their rentable office space to minimise rental costs. 

According to the company’s Chief Executive Officer L.K.A.H. Fernando, this somewhat offsets the gains the company achieved from the recovery in the occupancy levels in its fiscal year ended in March 31, 2021, although they were able to get back up the average occupancy level of Parkland to 95 percent from 88 percent at the beginning of the financial year, with 90 percent retention ratio. 

The average occupancy of the company fell to 78 percent at the height of the pandemic in 2020, the company said.  RIL Property offers a steal peak of the country’s commercial rental market which is currently undergoing some rough times due to the squeeze in top and bottomlines of their commercial occupants.

These conditions and the extreme volatility have prompted the management to assess if it could quote their rentals in US dollar terms, the company’s Chairman, Sunil G. Wijesinghe told shareholders. 

“The changes to monetary policy including the rising interest rates, together with the increased maintenance costs will have an unavoidable negative impact on the bottom-line,” Wijesinghe told in his annual letter to the shareholders of what could be expected in the ongoing financial year for the company. 

“We are responding proactively to the dynamic macro environment with new strategies, including plans to quote our rates in dollar terms,” he added as the company is reassessing its strategy to confront the new challenges in the macroeconomy. 

In its final fiscal quarter ended in March 31, 2022, the company reported revenues of Rs.2.67 billion compared to Rs.4.24 billion in the same period in 2021, logging 37 percent slump.  The company reported a loss of 19 cents a share or Rs.152.8 million compared to a profit of 41 cents a share or Rs.202.9 million in the corresponding period in 2021 amid the revenue squeeze, sharp increase in other expenses and nearly six-fold jump in finance cost between the two periods.

However, for the full financial year ended in March 2022, the company reported earnings of Rs.690.2 million, slightly up from Rs.662.2 million on annual revenues of Rs.14.45 billion, flat from a year ago.