Lar Espana Real Estate SOCIMI SA

MAD:LRE

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Operator]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Lar España's Q1 2024 Business Update.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Hernan San Pedro, Lar España's Investor Relations and Corporate Communication Director. Please go ahead Hernan.

[Hernan San Pedro, executive]

Good afternoon. This is Hernan San Pedro speaking. Welcome to our Q1 '24 business update presentation. The press release has been sent on the presentation and financial reports are also available on [indiscernible] website and on the Lar España official web. Presenting for us today is Jon Armentia, Corporate Director and CFO of Lar España. And after the presentation, we will hold as usual a Q&A session.

Now let me hand the call over to Jon Armentia. Please, Jon?

[Jon Armentia, executive]

Thank you, Hernan, and good afternoon, everybody. First of all, I want to thank all of you for being here for our Q1 2024 business update presentation.

At the end of the first quarter of the year, we can affirm that our business strategy continues to produce very positive results. Both our portfolio of assets and the management developed by Grupo Lar as well as our type of retailers, mean that Lar España has been able to achieve sales of close to EUR 230 million in the first 3 months of 2024 at 7.5% more than in 2023. Our gross rental income has increased by 4.8% in like-for-like terms, resulting in an increase in recurring net profit of 20.8% compared to the same period of the previous year.

This reducing our net loan to value to 29.5% and after having approved our highest ordinary dividend at the last General Shareholders' Meeting with a 12.9% dividend yield.

I would also like to highlight the leasing activity that Lar España has had in the period. During these 3 months, more than 5,000 square meters have been rotated and 31 operations have been signed. A total amount of EUR 1.7 million in rents have been negotiated in the period with a rent uplift on top of the indication of almost 1%. These good results in terms of leasing have been accompanied for yet another quarter by a very good business performance in our main retail categories. As can be seen in the current slide, large business activities, such as fashion, food, dining or health and beauty have grown significantly in their shares compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

It's also noteworthy as can be seen in Slide 9, the resilience of our business. As the graph show both from the point of view of sales and footfall. The results are unquestionable. Growth is continuous in both of them quarter-on-quarter since 2021 with an average cumulative road of 16.4% in sales and 11.3% in footfall.

We can see in a slide 10, that in this period, we have achieved very solid operating and financial results. We have had good results in terms of both gross rental income, EUR 23.7 million and net operating income, EUR 19.9 million, both figures increasing significantly versus the previous year's figures. Our recurring net profit reaches EUR 17.4 million, 20.8% more than in the same period of 2023 with ordinary EPRA earnings of EUR 15.3 million, which represents a growth of 19.4% compared to the previous year. At the end of March, our portfolio with a gross asset value of EUR 1.3 billion percent and EPRA topped-up net initial yield of 6.8% and an occupancy rate of 97%.

As can be seen in Slide 11, both in terms of net profit and the evolution of NTA per share Lar España business shows its strength and resilience quarter after quarter. From a global perspective, the evolution of our net profit is positive and stable as well as in terms of NTA per share.

In Slide 12, we can see our financial profile. It's worth pointing out that it is an optimal combination of debt, cost and maturity. Our net loan-to-value decreased in this quarter to 29.5% with an average cost of debt of 1.78%. Furthermore, I would like to remark that all our debt is at fixed rate, unsecured and green with an average debt maturity of 3.5 years. As I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, Lar España has recently approved a dividend of EUR 0.79 per share that has been paid this morning, demonstrating once again our unquestionable commitment to shareholder remuneration. With a dividend yield of 12.9%, we are facing our largest disbursement in terms of ordinary dividend in our history. Today, we can say that Lar España has distributed more than EUR 390 million among its shareholders since its birth 10 years ago.

Furthermore, it's worth highlighting that this commitment to the distribution of profits among our shareholders remains stable despite our positive evolution in terms of market capitalization. Thus, we can say that despite having obtained a share valuation of more than 45% in 2023, our dividend yield has hardly been affected and remains one of the strongest in the Spanish stock market.

In 2024, the trend seems to be the same as we have seen an increase of 17.4% in our share price during the first quarter of the year. If we look at our peers, the difference is substantial.

As we can see in Slide 15, Lar España is above our peers listed in Spain in terms of dividend yield as well as above the records of the Ibex Top Dividend index. From a European perspective, there are also significant differences compared to our peers. In the following slide, we can see in the P&L statement how the results of Lar España have been very positive in this period. This quarter, when analyzing the P&L, it's very important to highlight that last year in Q1 2023, we had 2 very important extraordinary impact.

Firstly, last year, we had Rivas and Vistahermosa retail Parks in our portfolio that after being sold in July 2023, they are not included in the Q1 2024 P&L. Additionally, last year, we carried out a bond buyback in Q1 2023 with a significant extraordinary impact in the P&L of the previous year. Given what I have earlier said, it makes sense to focus on the company's recurring results, which show a more comparable picture. This being the case, we can see that recurring revenues and operating results have increased by 3% compared to same quarter in 2023. Additionally, thanks to the great improvement of the financial result, increase in financial income and reducing financial expenses, recurring net profit has experienced a considerable increase of 21% to EUR 17.4 million in the first quarter of the year.

In terms of ESG, we continue with our policy of applying best practices in the environmental aspect. Our decarbonization strategy aligned with SBTi marks different monitoring points in the short and long term. Climate Neutral by 2030 with 60% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 versus 2019, and Net-Zero by 2050 in Scope 1, 2 and 3. In terms of certifications, 100% of our assets are certified by BREEAM, highlighting in 2024 the ones obtained by Lagoh Shopping Center, achieving a double outstanding rating in both asset performance and building management.

I would also like to share with you the performance of our assets for the year 2023 in terms of emissions and consumptions, which were published in our 2023 annual report last month. We have significantly reduced our carbon footprint in comparison to last year, almost 25%, continuing our trend of the previous years. Regarding the energy consumption, the improvement is also demonstrated with a decrease of 7% compared to 2022.

Additionally, the company is working on a plan to reduce water consumption at asset level. We also maintain our objective of applying the best possible ESG practices developing initiatives in the field of accessibility and sustainable mobility all social initiatives. At Lar España, we strive to be aligned with the best practices in corporate governance complying today with close to 100% of the recommendations of the CNMV Good Governance Code. Additionally, based on TCFD, we have analyzed the risks and opportunities from the perspective of climate change. Lar España continues to advance ESG practices with recognition from third parties, such as the upgrade from BBB to [indiscernible] in the ESG MSCI rating, the certification of 100% of our debt as green. Our inclusion in the Ibex Gender Equality Index with 40% of the Board of Directors represented by women. And now I would like to end with a few brief conclusions.

In summary, we are facing another quarter of good and solid results for Lar España, which highlights the growth of both grow rental income and net operating income both figures increasing 4.8% and 5.2%, respectively, versus the previous year's figures. Our recurring net profit, excluding the extraordinary impacts in Q1 2023 also increases by 20.8% with a moderate net loan-to-value that drops to 29.5%. Robust figures that allow us to maintain our commitment to shareholder remuneration and distribute a historic dividend for Lar España of more than EUR 66 million.

As we have highlighted throughout the presentation, a quarter of results that allow us to trust in a positive evolution of the business for the coming quarters. And now I give the floor back to Hernan, who will give way to the Q&A. Thank you very much.

[Hernan San Pedro, executive]

Thank you very much, Jon.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] I now hand over the call to Hernan San Pedro.

[Hernan San Pedro, executive]

Hello again. The first question we have for Jon is from sell-side colleagues around loan-to-value. Jon, can you clarify us if the loan-to-value presented now is after before the payment of the dividend and some color about the future level of dividend the company is expecting?

[Jon Armentia, executive]

Okay. Thank you for the question. And the first one, regarding LTV, the 29.5% is before the dividend payment is the net loan-to-value that we have had March 31. After the dividend payment and the one that we have just paid this morning, the pro forma net loan to value of the company will be 34.5%. Looking at the future, and taking into account that the cash position of the company today, well, it's around EUR 200 million. What we expect is to increase this net loan-to-value ones that we are able to invest in new assets. We will be more in the range in a normal situation of a net loan-to-value close to 40%.

About the dividend. As you know, our dividend policy is to distribute 100% of the ordinary EPRA earnings, plus 50% of the capital gains linked to divestments in account of this, last year, we distributed EUR 66 million, that was EUR 59 million ordinary EPRA earnings plus EUR 7.5 million extraordinary linked to the divestments. For this 2024 and although we haven't had in this first quarter, as I said before, Rivas and Vistahermosa retail parks, where we expect this to have an ordinary EPRA earnings and an ordinary dividend aligned with the one that we distributed in 2023.

[Hernan San Pedro, executive]

Okay. Thank you very much, Jon. The next question is from Buy-side colleagues and it's around acquisitions. Can you confirm us that you maintain your strategy to acquire new assets?

[Jon Armentia, executive]

Yes. Well, as you know. One of the -- I would say maybe the key target or the objective that the company has today is the rotation -- the asset rotation plan that we have -- as you know, last year, we carried out the [ acquisition ] of the 2 retail parks. That was the first step of our asset rotation plan. And after that, we are focusing in new investments and for this 2024 and taking to account the cash position of the company is key for Lar España to work in new investments and when we expect and looking at the future is to be able to announce in the coming months and new acquisition for our portfolio.

[Hernan San Pedro, executive]

Thank you, Jon. Next one is from sell-side people. Thank you for the presentation and taking our questions. I just have one on financial expenses. Is there a reason why financial expenses were lower. Was there something extraordinary? And what can we expect for the next quarters? Thank you, very much.

[Jon Armentia, executive]

Yes, the main reason why we have been able to reduce in this first quarter, the financial expenses has been the bond buyback that we carried out in the last year in 2023. Taking into account this, we have been able to reduce to have that, I would say, positive impact in our P&L for the coming quarters in 2024 and take into account that we are able to maintain the same picture with our bond buyback will be increasing in line with the one that we have had in this first quarter of 2024.

[Hernan San Pedro, executive]

Thank you, Jon. Next one. How do you see asset values involving in the year?

[Jon Armentia, executive]

Well, we have not started to work in the June valuations. We'll be doing from next week. But what we expect and after speaking with some companies with different forms of -- regarding the valuation this year, and although it's true that we expect to see some kind of decrease in interest rates in the coming weeks. What we see for this year. We expect some stability, stability in valuation for 2024.

[Hernan San Pedro, executive]

Thank you, Jon. And the last one around linearization. Can you expect or give us any color around the amount of the linearization year-end -- at year-end?

[Jon Armentia, executive]

Okay. Well, as you know, this linearization effect has been very high during the previous years, and it's true that year after year, we have been able to reduce that as we expected, and during the first quarter of the year, we have registered an impact of EUR 0.5 million more or less for the rest of the year for 2024 for the whole year, we expect to be in a figure between EUR 1.5 billion, EUR 2 million.

[Hernan San Pedro, executive]

So that's all. Thank you very much, Jon. Thank you very much, everybody, to attend the call. Please feel free to contact with us with Jon, with me with all the Lar España and Grupo Lar teams if you need any other question or do you need more information. So thank you very much. Good afternoon, and happy weekend.