Vesta Real Estate Corporation SAB de CV

NYSE:VTMX

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q3

[Operator]

Thank you. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Vesta's Third Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I'll now turn the call over to your host for today's call, Ms. Fernanda Bettinger, Vesta's Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

[Fernanda Bettinger, executive]

Thank you, Rob, and good morning. Welcome to Vesta's conference call to review our third quarter 2021 results. On today's call will be Lorenzo Dominique, Chief Executive Officer; Juan Sottil, Chief Financial Officer; and Laura Ramirez, our ESG Director.

Our results were released yesterday afternoon and can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website, along with our supplemental package and filings with the Mexican Stock Exchange. A replay will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call. Certain comments we make during today's discussion may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning described by the security laws, including statements related to the future performance of our portfolio of financial activities, our pipeline and other investments.

All forward-looking statements represent Vesta's judgment as of the date of this conference call and are subject to risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Investors are urged to carefully review various disclosures made by the company, including the risk and other information disclosed in the company's filings with the Mexican Stock Exchange.

Finally, note that all figures included herein were prepared in accordance with IFRS and are stated in nominal U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. With that, I will now turn the call over to Mr. Berho.

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Thank you, Fernanda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us. I'd like to begin our commentary by discussing the environment we're seeing in the industrial real estate sector and how some of our key operating metrics have trended for the quarter.

Today, we have reached a point where we can confidently say manufacturing has reawakened and invested clients are assertively moving forward and committing to long-term plans.

Vesta has hit the ground running in a revitalized market environment reflected in outstanding third quarter results, driven by considerable year-on-year increases in rents, occupancy and leasing activity.

Revenue for the third quarter increased 9.4% year-on-year to $41 million with NOI and EBITDA margins, which reached 94% and 83.8%, respectively, also reflecting our prudent approach to cost and expense management.

Vacancies and availability within Mexico's industrial real estate market have fallen to the lowest levels we have seen in decades, with demand for warehouse and distribution space considerably outpacing supply, as manufacturers expanded footprints to supply mostly U.S.-based customers and strive to keep pace with exploding e-commerce sales of consumer groups.

We saw the e-commerce trend accelerate during the COVID-19 and is clearly here to stay, resulting in demand for larger logistics and warehouse space. The supply chain issues we saw in recent months further underscore the benefits of near shoring and businesses are urgently stockpiling inventories to mitigate shipping and delivery risk.

What's good for the consumer also translates into a reduction in freight and logistic costs, which improves profitability and proximity to the North American consumer that yields several benefits and compares favorably to offshore producers, enabling reduced delivery lead times and freight costs, while also reducing manufacturing's environmental impact.

Now in particular, lead times are critical to the retailer's ability to make sales. Dealers can complete the sale when the consumers' products stop somewhere in a container from Asia. It's important to note that Vesta's industrial real estate clients in a variety of industry sectors, some have experienced supply chain issues.

Our results this quarter are a reflection of clients resolve to secure best of high-quality buildings for much-needed space, which is more critical than ever to ensure their success.

Vesta's third quarter leasing activity totaled 1.8 million square feet during the third quarter, with 1 million square feet in new contracts. Leasing activity during the quarter included leading global e-commerce retail, transport and logistics. And live manufacturing companies such as O'Reilly Auto Parts, ThyssenKrupp, Kuehne + Nagel and Coppel.

We also saw the most significant renewals to date for the year to reach more than 800,000 square feet. Vesta's inventory building in Guadalajara and Tijuana were pre-leased by O'Reilly Auto Parts and Coppel, respectively, during the third quarter 2021 to become a spec-to-suit buildings, both of them.

The company began construction of 3 new buildings totaling 505,000 square feet, including a 78,000 expansion with ThyssenKrupp and 2 new inventory buildings: one 200,000 square foot construction in Monterrey and one 220,000 square foot building in Guadalajara. As of third quarter 2021, the company's development pipeline reached 1.8 million with an expected $98.8 million investment, 70% of which has already been leased today.

We are excited to announce that the second phase of our Vesta Park in Guadalajara is in progress and during the quarter, we acquired 89 additional adjacent acres in land reserves, ensuring we're well positioned to capitalize on the important demand we're seeing for the highest quality industrial real estate at prime urban locations, which provide committed last mile logistics and demonstrate Vesta's ability to penetrate in the most attractive markets in Mexico.

Vesta has closed more than 18 new leasing transactions since June, signing more than 3 million square feet in new leases year-to-date, the highest number since 2017. This is a clear sign that today's real estate fundamentals are stronger than ever.

Increased occupancy, leasing activity and rents and the opportunity we're seeing have enabled us to confidently upwardly revise our year-end guidance, increasing our revenue's guide to above 6% with an NOI and EBITDA margin increased to 94% and 84%, respectively.

We're also focused on ESG-related deliverables, and during the quarter achieved social investment strategic alliances with Mercado Libre, with PNUD and others during the quarter.

Also, 95% of new construction within Vesta's development pipeline are in the process of LEED certification, fully aligned with our bond commitments.

Finally, our annual Vesta Challenge cycling event sponsorship and registrations resulted in $130,000 directed to 15 local social initiatives related to education, inclusion and community development in the 12 states where we operate.

500 cyclists and more than 100 employees and partners participated in this year's live Vesta Challenge in Querétaro which was also an excellent return to normalcy.

Looking ahead, we're seeing today's strong real estate fundamentals continue. Vacancies in Vesta market are approaching 0 with clear advantages for our company as a well-established, well-capitalized developer uniquely positioned to capture today's exciting market opportunities.

With that, let me pass over the discussion to Juan to review this quarter's financial highlights. Thank you.

[Juan Felipe Sottil Achuttegui, executive]

Thank you, Lorenzo, and good day, everyone. Let me begin with a summary of our third quarter results, beginning with our top line. Total revenue increased 9.4% to $41 million, mainly due to rental revenue coming from new leases.

In terms of currency mix in the third quarter revenue, 83.9% was denominated in U.S. dollars, decreasing from 86.1% recorded in last year's comparable period.

Turning to our cost structure. Total operating costs reached $2.8 million in this quarter from $2.3 million in the third quarter of 2020. This was mainly due to an increase real estate taxes, insurance and other property-related expenses related to Property Condition Assessment and Green Property Condition Assessments commonly known as PCA during the quarter.

Net operating income increased 8.6% to $38.5 million, driven by higher rental revenue, whilst the margin contracted 68 basis points to 94%, mainly due to higher costs from occupied properties.

While administrative expenses were 28.5%, this was mainly explained by noncash expenses due to an increase in the company's long-term compensation plan. In turn, EBITDA reached $34.3 million in the third quarter of this year, a 7.1% increase compared to the prior year quarter, while the margin contracted 179 basis points to 83.8% as compared to 85.6% for the same period of last year.

Moving down the P&L. Total other income reached $14.6 million compared to $1.6 million in the third quarter of 2020. This increase was mainly due to a $26.6 million revaluation gain on investment properties arising from better lease contracts term renewals, improved discount rates and capitalization and the successful execution of new leases and building development in the quarter.

This was partially offset by exchange rate loss and a higher interest expense. As a result, we closed the quarter with a pretax income of $47.2 million compared to $32.7 million in the third quarter 2020, while pretax FFO increased 2.6% to $22.7 million and third quarter of this year NAV per share increased 5.7% to $2.53 from $2.39 in the third quarter of last year.

Now turning to our CapEx and portfolio composition. We invested $30.4 million in the quarter, mainly due to the construction of new buildings in the Northern and Bajio region. At the end of the third quarter, the total value of the portfolio was $2.28 billion comprised of 189 high-quality industrial assets with a total GLA of 31.6 million square feet and with an 83.9% of total income denominated in U.S. dollars.

Year-over-year, our stabilized portfolio grew 5.6% to 31.3 million square foot with occupancy up to 93.1%, down from 91.9% in the third quarter of last year. We ended the third quarter of Vesta of 2021 with a land bank of 40.9 million square feet, up 9.1% sequential due to the acquisition of 89 acres in Guadalajara adjusting to our existing Vesta Park, which will enable us to expand our presence in the logistics and e-commerce sector in that city.

Turning to our balance sheet. We closed the quarter with a total debt of $934 million, and our cash position stood at $374 million. Net debt-to-EBITDA was 4.2x, and our loan-to-value ratio was 35%. The successful completion of our debt and equity offerings provide us with significant financial flexibility to deploy capital and make a strategic land acquisitions to anticipate demand while maintaining a proven capital allocation strategy.

Along these lines, and committed to continue delivering a strong shareholder value subsequent to quarter end on October 15, we paid a cash dividend for the third quarter of 2021 equivalent to 0.416 cents per share in pesos or ordinary shares.

Finally, as a result of the successful execution of our Level 3 strategy and the strong performance we are expecting for the coming quarter, supported by high occupancy levels and rent increases, we decided to raise our full 2021 guidance, we now expect to achieve a 6% to 6.5% year-on-year revenue from our previous guidance of 4.5% to 5.5%.

We're also raising full NOI margin guidance to 94% from 93% and EBITDA margin to 84% from our previous indication of 83%. That concludes our third quarter review. Rob, let's open the floor for questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Gordon Lee with BTG.

[Gordon Lee, analyst]

A couple of questions. First, on land prices, if you were to consider the type of land that you're buying in the regions that you're focusing on, how much is land inflation been year-to-date or let's say, over the past 12 months?

And then the second question, just thinking of the supply chain issues in industries that you service or that your tenant service that might be affected, and I'm thinking specifically of the auto industry where you've had production stoppages, is there a risk you think that if this continues that later down the road, you'll have to offer concessions on the rent front to some of these clients? Or do you think that this is it's nowhere part of the conversation that you're having with them at this point.

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Thank you, Gordon, and thank you very much for being on today's call. I will, first of all, answer your question regarding supply chains. Even that we see that there is clearly a disruption and most of the different business sectors are trying to find solutions for the particular problem, we actually see that in the industrial sector, they might benefit from getting some space for some of their safety stock or safety inventories as we call them.

And I believe that more than asking for some rent relief or whatever, I think they're asking more for that type of support: what do you have available? What can I use? But definitely, I think that not necessarily they will have to push on margins by trying to -- there's really no conversation -- there's no conversation regarding giving any grants or whatsoever.

Actually, we are currently, I think that all of the concessions we did we gave in COVID last year, but it has been incredibly well taken by our clients. They were very happy with our approach to support them on deferrals. And today, I think we have recovered 99% of all of the deferrals because it was part of the strategy to defer over time.

So with that, I think that clients are currently actually happy with us what we did last year. And for the rest of the restrictions regarding supply chain, I think they are working with other vendors or other suppliers.

Regarding land values, it's really becoming more an art than a science to acquire good, well-located land. I think that the example of the acquisition we did in Guadalajara is a good example of that we really want to buy the best land in the best markets because we think that we can be very shaped very well from our competitors by having great located land.

The land we acquired in Guadalajara is an extension of our successful Vesta Park in Guadalajara, where we did the Mercado Libre project and the 2 expansions. We recently signed a new lease with a subsidiary of which is a fantastic company.

And that's why it's key for us to keep on acquiring and having those land reserves and, of course, securing the best possible pricing because in the end, that's why we believe we can achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns, double-digit return on cost, and that's the way we can develop on our strategy of spread investing.

Just to give you an idea on spreading that in which part of the value of the land is -- plays a very important role. We're developing a 10% return on cost. And currently, we're seeing transactions in the 6% cap rates, 6.5% cap rate in markets such as Guadalajara, for example, or in Central Mexico pretty much in the markets -- in the most dynamic markets in Mexico.

So that's why, for us, it's so important to keep emphasizing that we want to keep on doing accretive investments, mostly will conform development and acquiring and securing good pieces of land at good prices is still going to be key for our strategy. Thank you, Gordon.

[Gordon Lee, analyst]

And just a follow up. If you were looking at a piece of land today in, say, Guadalajara or Mexico City, and you were looking at the same piece of land a year ago, how much more expensive is it today?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

I mean if inflation has been probably 5%, I think that from last year, -- actually, many of these negotiations have been already from last year. But definitely, we're seeing some price increase. And interestingly is -- we have seen it also in markets where land has already infrastructure.

For example, in Queretaro, Queretaro, we have seen an incredible increase in land prices mostly inside of industrial parks because they have the infrastructure, and we saw that this year with some transactions where we sold land at probably double the value that we actually developed.

So from last year to this year, I think that it depends market by market. But clearly, I think that it's an upward trend in terms of values.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan.

[Adrian Huerta, analyst]

Two quick questions. Number one, on new construction. We saw a nice pickup on new construction during this quarter, closer to 50,000 square meters of new GLA. What can we expect in the coming quarters in terms of the pace that we can see on average per quarter?

Is this 50,000 something that you're aiming to have at least for the next couple of quarters? And the second one is these land investments. You did this investment in Guadalajara, recently 1 in Monterrey. How much have you spent so far year-to-date? And what can we expect for the rest of this year and for next year?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Sure, Adrian. I think that we're very active in starting new construction soon in different markets. In some of those markets, we already have land, which is great because we are -- we can make sure that we can start construction. Just to give you an idea, now with the new building that we leased, preleased or -- in Tijuana, for an e-commerce company, we're out of stock.

So we're starting a new park, a new Vesta Park, that's where we will develop 1.2 million square feet. In the -- and that's over time. That doesn't have to be immediately, but that's over time, but we have the capacity to develop.

And currently, with vacancies, frankly, close to 0 in Tijuana, this is exactly what we want to achieve. So we're going to be very active in Tijuana. The same for [ Ciudad Juarez ], similar to Monterrey, where we are starting a new park where we are going to be able to develop approximately 2 million square feet.

And in the Bajio market by market, we're going to be cautiously looking at where it makes sense to develop. But very interestingly is that we are seeing a very high level of preleased buildings which is great because this is a way that we can convert some of these spec buildings or inventory buildings immediately to lease buildings or in compromising properties, and we can even lease them before finishing the buildings.

Currently, we have 70% of our buildings under construction are already leased, that's a very good number, a very healthy number. And I think that we can match pretty well today buildings under construction. With the pipeline that we have, we're going to be able to match with good clients and lead them sometimes even before starting the construction.

That's why we really like the model of spec buildings. We've now actually calling them spec-to-suits where we can lease them even before finalizing the construction of the buildings.

All in all, I think we'll make CapEx for next year without being guidance, we believe it could be above $200 million.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Vanessa Quiroga with Crédit Suisse.

[Vanessa Quiroga, analyst]

My question is regarding your investment plans for land acquisition. We saw the acquisition in Guadalajara, and it seems a larger amount than the originally planned when in this presentation that you published for the follow-on -- for the recent follow-on. So I'm wondering if since then, the dynamics of the markets have changed or the land prices have changed in a way that you are adjusting your regional investments?

And then also, I'm wondering if you can comment on how sustainable you think the rent increases that we saw in the quarter are for coming quarters?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Thank you, Vanessa, and thank you for being on the call. We are signaling a sort of surprisingly high numbers in terms of rent increases. We actually see -- we foresee increase in rents being for the foreseeable future for the -- as inflation is picking up, as supply is limited, as demand is picking up from strong demand from the e-commerce sector, from nearshoring trends, we see that rents are only going one way, which is up.

How much? Depends market by market. Our approach is to increase, of course, to have the best possible rent, but also to be very disciplined on the type of tenants and the type of leases we close. If you look at the names of companies we have recently closed from June until today, we have fantastic news. So we want to keep on being disciplined, at attractive rents with very good corporate credit ratings, dollar-denominated leases, and we are very disciplined on that. And like longer leases because over time, we -- inflation hedge, inflation adjusted leases. We have a natural and we have seen that recently with existing clients where we have been -- we are increasing rents 5% every month just by contract because the contracts, as you know, are linked to inflation, which is a fantastic increase in revenue contribution.

Actually -- so on that regard, I think that we're going to keep that discipline and keep absorbing with good clients. On our strategy to certain markets, our focus is to invest in urban areas, which is Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, as we mentioned in our follow-up: $350 million.

Surprisingly, we have seen that some of these markets have behaved even better than expected, and we are just moving quicker to that. That's our strategy in Monterrey. That's why we acquired a second piece of land in Guadalajara.

And as long as we see strong demand, we want to continue developing and being very active in this market. It was part of the Level 3 strategy. We're executing well. We like last mile locations, and we see good demand for that.

[Vanessa Quiroga, analyst]

That's great, Loren. Are you still expecting to invest in Mexico City?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Yes. It's part of the Level 3 strategy, part of the plan, has taken us a little longer. However, I think that the execution is going to be similar to Monterrey, similar to Guadalajara. We're looking for good pieces of land where we can really find attractive returns and make it a big part of the strategy to execute well on the strategy.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Francisco Suarez with Scotiabank.

[Francisco Suarez, analyst]

Congrats to see that the conversation on spec-to-suits is back again in your call, it's great. And also on the production activity in your pipeline, it's impressive. You have been mentioned before, the importance of having -- the strategic importance of having the right pieces of land, the right plots of land with infrastructure and particularly on electricity. Can you disclose how much of your land reserves does have access to electricity. And also if there is any constraint on your side on that particular plots of land that may get in the way with your plans to develop property on the key markets that you are allocating capital?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Francisco, for being on the call, and good questions to elaborate further on part of our development strategy. Most of the land that we acquired has electricity feasibilities.

However, it requires a process in order to, let's say, electrify the parks. And all of them are in different markets with different restrictions. And we have different strategies for each one.

One of the things that we -- that are internally as a structure and you know that we are a vertically integrated company, we decided to have a team focusing on the energy components for Vesta, for the development projects. So we currently have a part of the development team a leader, which is analyzing the different alternatives.

And I can use the example of Queretaro, which is the one that has been a great example in terms of energy. When we acquired the piece of land, it was a wretch. There was nothing in the area, and we invested an important amount, not only on the infrastructure of the Park, but also on the substation on the transmission and the distribution capabilities inside of the Park.

And that has been a major decision -- driver for many companies to establish themselves in parks like ours. So understanding that situation, that's exactly what we are doing in markets like Guadalajara, Tijuana, Monterrey and other markets in the Bajio. So it is important to have a strong department because many clients before asking what's the rental price, they're asking what's your electricity strategy or availability.

And that's why for us, it is very important not only to have the availability, but also the reliability in terms of energy. With that -- having said that, Mexico is really facing major restrictions in terms of energy, in terms of distribution. And many of the companies is one of the challenges they are facing. We have seen that they might find solutions. However, sometimes they might -- it might take them longer than expected.

But for that, I think that it's a good collaboration that we, as a company and developers, have to do with the clients, together with the authorities in order to find ways to get energy in most of the regions. And this is something not only for Vesta but also for all other industrial parks that we're facing, and we're trying to find the best possible solutions.

[Francisco Suarez, analyst]

Great answer. And one last question. You have been very clear that all the -- basically, all the entire pipeline of your new properties are going to be having an [ app ] certification on their lease. Considering the outlook that we have on lease spreads in the future and so on, would it be economically feasible to think that you might also conduct certain retrofits to your existing buildings to increase the share of certified buildings in your portfolio?

I'm not -- I'm thinking about perhaps using Level 1 certified -- certifications and the like and not necessarily the LEED certifications.

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Thank you. You're really on top of this, I like it, Francisco. I think this is a very important matter that -- for us. Definitely, the new buildings have LEED certifications, but also we're analyzing in some of the other buildings without necessarily being retrofits, but we assess property -- green -- we call it, Green Property Condition Assessments to analyze what we can do in many of these buildings to improve them and have them on a high standard in terms of energy efficiencies as well as other -- water consumptions and other processes that might need to have certain green certifications.

And I believe this is not only important for that, this is getting very important for our clients too. As we are seeing that rents are picking up, clients, which actually our focus are great companies, they're also focused on this type of considerations. And additionally, on finalizing on -- because how ecoefficient they want to become and because they also have corporate commitments. But this -- and just to finalize on the chain, and this is where I think you guys are doing a very good job is, this is what we match very well with the investors base and capital markets, which today are every time more and more on top of what companies are doing, what strategies are taking, what type of certifications.

And I think that on that regard, this is becoming really a virtuous cycle between companies, investors and clients.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Valerio Alberto with UBS.

[Alberto Valerio, analyst]

Two quick ones on our side. The first 1 is the original plan to deploy the capital from follow-on 50% this year, there's another 50% in another year, it's maintained despite the construction costs? And a second one on the new negotiations for contracts if the energy reform has been -- already has been a subject on discussion about the new contracts?

[Juan Felipe Sottil Achuttegui, executive]

Regarding our CapEx investment, look, I think that we will invest up to $200 million per year starting next year. We have around, over $400 million in cash. And remember that that's taking into account the sale of properties in December. So it will take 18 months or 24 months at tops to invest the proceeds on the follow on. I did take into account that most of our -- the investments that we have -- that the buildings that we have, have been released, our returns on costs are double digits. So I think that the environment is helping us to displace this money in a way quicker than we expected.

So we're pretty satisfied, we have the financial resources, and we have the financial flexibility. So we're on top of that. On the second question, the energy reform is an important issue for the company and for our clients. So we're very watchful. As Loren pointed out, it's very important that we have the best product in the market, and that implies not only having the best building or the best availability of electricity and the best locations, and availability of electricity is clearly a differentiating factor and it represents a significant investment of the company.

And I have to say that there's few developers in Mexico that can have those types of commitments to invest in the connectivity to the grid. So that's clearly a differentiating factor and a good one for us.

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

On top of that, let me add to Juan's comment because this is a very important matter, not only for Vesta but for also other industrial developers. I have been heading the Mexican Association of Industrial Parks where many of our peers are also participants, are a part of the Board. And we together are collaborating in order to find the best ways and the best means to lobby with different congressmen who require or who are actually the decision makers on how this initiative will evolve over time.

It will be voted for probably for the end of the year. So us as an organization together also with other organizations, this is in a very, very top priority for the competitiveness of Mexico. And definitely, this is going to be -- it is one of the most important factors of why companies are coming to Mexico.

One of them is the proximity to the U.S. Secondly is, of course, the competitiveness in terms of labor, logistics and another important component is energy. And that's why energy is so critical for industrial park developers. It's critical for companies that want to establish themselves.

And with that, I think that it's going to be part of our agenda in the next weeks and months so that we get the best outcome out of this particular initiative.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from [ Neyoke Osuka ] with GBM.

[Unknown Analyst]

[Audio Gap] on your results. My question is regarding the land acquisition that has made. We still cash on hand, these buying opportunities in the northern part of Mexico, where the new sharing trend has boosted the industrial activity?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Can you repeat the question, please?

[Unknown Analyst]

Yes, of course. So with still cash in hand, do you see any buying opportunities in the northern part of Mexico?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Okay. Thank you for your question. Vesta has the opportunity to be an important developer and finding accretive returns to development. That's why our strategy has been and it still is to develop in the most attractive markets, and that's what we're doing, for example, in Tijuana.

Tijuana, we are developing 1.2 million square feet, we have land and we have a strong pipeline and we have attractive returns on cost, 10%, even 11% return on cost.

Acquisitions, we believe, are still in the lower yields, they are probably trending in Tijuana, for example, below 7%. And therefore, we think that our main objective is to develop in the markets like Tijuana or even Ciudad Juarez. Having said that, we are clearly seeing that replacement costs are also increasing. And we always have analyzed opportunistic acquisitions in many markets.

So we're always going to have our eyes open. If it makes sense, from a replacement cost perspective or from a return perspective, we might have those acquisitions. We have been actually very successful and opportunistic acquisitions in one of the markets has in Tijuana. Tijuana, of course, Vesta has the largest footprint of GLA being at above 5 million square feet. And part of that growth has come from acquisitions. But acquisitions in our strategy are only opportunistic and not the core of the long-term strategy.

[Operator]

Our next question is from [ Arnita Cabral ] with Citi.

[Unknown Analyst]

My question is just a follow-up about the energy topic, which is a hot topic today in the world because of the shortage scenario. We've been following the debates about the energy reporting in Mexico that we know it is still under discussion.

But we would like to know how could this potentially affect Vesta? And with this scenario of energy crisis, you already mentioned the things that you did in some projects. We would like to know that solar panel could be part of the solution in the future as we see in China, if we believe that the economics would allow this?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

I did not -- we did not hear very well, I don't know, Juan, were you able to hear better?

[Unknown Analyst]

Yes, sure. Can you hear me better now?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

A little better, yes. Thank you. Sorry for that.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay, not a problem. It is just a follow-up about the energy topic. We've seen the debate about the energy report in Mexico that we know it is still under discussion. My question is, how could this potentially impact Vesta?

And the other one is you already mentioned the development you did about the energy reform. We would like to know if in the future, the solar panel could be part of the solution that we see in China if you believe that the economics would allow this?

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

Okay. So I did understand if solar panels are helpful in the situation of the -- on the implications of the energy reform, I believe? And also the first comment about how the [indiscernible] affect Vesta? Is that [indiscernible]?

[Unknown Analyst]

Exactly. Correct.

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

I'm sorry. There's -- we were not able to hear very well, but let me try to elaborate a little further. So definitely, this energy reform initiative has different limitations. However, focusing a little bit on the type of clients that we have and focusing a little bit on the -- on our implications in industrial parks.

We believe that definitely, there's -- it will be a huge mistake to eliminate private investment in renewable energies. As you may know, renewable energies in Mexico have mostly been done by private investors, not by CFE, not by the government. So by eliminating private investment and eliminating renewable energies, immediately, we will know that we will have to rely only on CFE. And what they generate, what they transmit and that would probably have a negative impact to the many of our clients and potential clients.

I personally think that affecting the renewables would be a major mistake because many of our clients already have good commitments to get a good portion of their energy from renewables as solar panels, as you mentioned, or even from wind turbines and wind generation. So because of their or because they also have commitments.

And on that regard, by affecting the production and generation of renewable energies, we're affected immediately the clients, and they will have to rely only on let's call them fossil fuels or traditional means. So anyways, I think that's a very big implication on top of the other implications on having, again, a so-called monopoly from CFE because CFE did have a monopoly in the years, back in the years.

But today, I think that they don't have the capacity to invest. If Mexico requires 4 megawatts per year, that's a huge investment that somebody has to do, and we don't think that CFE would have the ability to do it. I think they need to rely on private investors. And in the end, that will affect not only industrial parks, but that would -- that will also affect all sorts of industries and sectors and the total infrastructure in the country. So hopefully, this particular report finds ways to not only have attractiveness in renewable energies but also have the reliability to have enough energy for companies that need to have operations in Mexico.

[Operator]

We've reached end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to management for closing comments.

[Lorenzo Dominique Berho Carranza, executive]

[Foreign Language] Thank you, operator. And thank you, everybody, for joining the call. At Vesta, we believe that together, we have weathered the storm. Vesta has successfully emerged stronger than ever from particularly challenging years by continuing to focus on what we do best: develop the world's best and most strategically located buildings, leverage our prudent balance sheet to make targeted strategic land acquisitions, deploy capital and recycle assets while anticipating clients' needs by carefully reading the market and future demands.

We will continue our Level 3 strategy discipline and prudent execution as we nimbly adapt and invest for future growth. We prioritize our investments to the highest return opportunities and remain committed to capital efficiency. As our forward outlook on polls, we expect to deliver on the revised guidance we shared today with the industry-leading returns for our shareholders.

Finally, before you go, we're looking forward to celebrating Vesta's 10th anniversary as a public company during 2022, commemorated with our annual face-to-face Vesta Day. In the following quarters, we will let you know the details for this event. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.