'The next phase of industry evolution will be driven by partnerships, M&A'

With managed campuses becoming popular, Smartworks founder and managing director Neetish Sarda tells Raghavendra Kamath his company's focus is on key enterprise clusters. Edited excerpts:

- NEETISH SARDA, FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, SMARTWORKS

What are your expansion plans and how do you plan to fund them?

Smartworks has grown 1.5 times faster than the industry with a 38% CAGR over the past three years. Today, we have 55 centres with 270,000 seats, making us the country's largest managed office platform. Our focus remains on key enterprise clusters where managed campuses are becoming the preferred workspace format. Growth will be funded through internal accruals given our robust operating cash flows and net-debt-negative balance sheet.

Which segments are driving your growth right now?

We have built a diversified, de-risked portfolio.Around 95% of our revenue comes from long-term rental income - predictable, annuity-style cash flows - and the rest from valueadded services and fit-outs. Unlike traditional leasing which is IT/ITeS-heavy, our portfolio is balanced across manufacturing, BSFI, healthcare, consulting, and technology firms. Demand from Global Capability Centres (GCCs) has been especially strong.

How are rents behaving in key micro-markets?