Atrium Ljungberg AB

STO:ATRLJ B

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q3

[Annica Ånäs, Chief Executive Officer]

Welcome to Atrium Ljungberg's Q3 presentation. The heading for this report is: more activity on the market, financial stability and strong residential sales. As a start, I want to update you on our overall key figures. Our property value at the end of the quarter was SEK 46 billion and the contracted annual rent, SEK 2.2 billion. Offices are our -- is our largest segment with 54% of the contracted annual rent, retail stands for 20% and the rest, culture/education, FMCG, restaurants, health care and residential, according to our urban development strategy. And the gearing ratio was 40.5%. So what were the main events for the quarter? The project portfolio increased by SEK 5 billion to SEK 36 billion following a major new detailed development plan that has been initiated with the municipality of Nacka for Central Sickla. Sales for the second block of residential, which includes 56 apartments in Nobelberget in Sickla, booking contracts were already been signed for 30% of the apartment. We have had the opening of a new Torghuset in Mobilia, Malmö with rental apartments, a cinema and a new culture building for children. If we look at the market situation, for offices, we see a stable trend for rents and more activity on the market. We have lowered our yield requirements in accordance to the transactions made in the last week. In our retail segment, we still see an uplift in our shopping centers. But there's a clear difference between different segments, where groceries, food and leisure and goods related to homes is doing very well while fashion and shoes, on the other hand, is struggling. Market prices for residential has increased in all big cities in Sweden with an annual increase of 2% to 5%. Our own sales are performing very well. And then on the financing side, demand in the capital markets has strengthened and prices are pretty much on the same level as in the beginning of the year. So a few comments on the pandemic. There are a lot of speculation of structural changes due to COVID-19. I think people tend to overreact on the long-term effect. There has been a strong trend toward urbanization. People and businesses want to be in a city for a reason, the biggest city, the greater productivity. And I'm convinced that offices will play a central role in our societies in the future. They are needed to encourage businesses, promote creativity and build a strong corporate culture. If we look at the turnover in our shopping centers, we have seen a small decrease in sales. The positive thing is that we have had very few discussions about discounts. The P&L effect for discounts in the third quarter is SEK 1 million. And we see that 97% of rent receivables related to the third quarter has been fully paid. But of course, there still are some uncertainties related to the pandemic, how the development will look and how the effects in the society will turn out, it's hard to predict. SEK 11 million out of the SEK 33 million that was booked as a receivable against the government in the second quarter has so far been granted by the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning. There has only been one case that has been rejected and this was for an insignificant amount.Net letting for the first 9 months amounted to minus SEK 2 million, of which SEK 17 million refers to project properties. Newly signed contracts and termination are distributed among most of our areas and exclude both retail and office premises.And now I will hand over to our CFO, Martin Lindqvist.

[Martin Lindqvist, CFO & Business Area Director of Business support]

Thank you, Annica. Rental income in January to September amounted to SEK 1.789 billion, which is a decrease of 7.4%, primarily driven by the sale of Farsta Centrum and the sale of the residentials in Ärvinge. Central administration decrease is in line with the savings we have targeted. And project and construction work improved by SEK 18 million, driven by improvement in TL Bygg earnings.Net financial items fall due to reduced borrowing following the sale of Farsta Centrum. The changes in value in properties are up slightly in Q3 as well as in Q2. And accumulated January to September, the change is now minus SEK 742 million. We have thus eliminated half of the write-down that was made in Q1, which was then related to the retail portfolio.On a like-for-like portfolio, excluding corona discounts, rental income increased by 0.6% from January to September. At the same time, costs in comparable units decreased by 1.3%. A mild winter and fewer visitors to our properties reduced property costs. And we see a partly corona-related increase in anticipated and confirmed customer losses during the period. The EPRA vacancy rate is stable versus the second quarter and amounts to 8%. If we look at the development of rental income in comparable portfolio broken down in our segments, we see a small recovery in retail, however, a continued negative figure. We see a stable figure for office properties compared with the previous quarter. And as I mentioned, a total increase of 0.6% in comparable unit. The surplus margin in the isolated third quarter amounts to 70%, which is the same as for the third quarter of 2019. We invested approximately SEK 1.8 billion in our properties in January to September. And even if we do not provide any forecast for the full year, we can probably dare to say that we will exceed our target of SEK 2 billion for the full year. Unrealized changes in value amounted to SEK 467 million in the third quarter, entirely attributable to our office portfolio and include both changed yield requirements as well as changed operating net.Since I get some questions on the subject, I would like to remind again that our property portfolio is divided into investment properties under fixed assets and development properties under current assets. And we do not include the leasehold rights in our property value.Our loan portfolio is very similar to the one we presented in the Q2 report, very small changes have taken place. If we look on the capital market, which has been a little stressed before the summer, prices have basically returned to the level that prevailed before the corona pandemic.Interest-bearing liabilities as of September 30 amounts to SEK 18.6 billion and the gearing ratio to 40.5%. If we adjust for the SEK 651 million we have in cash and look at the net gearing ratio, it amounts to 39.1%. The average interest rate is 1.7% with a fixed interest term of 5.2 years.With that, I leave the microphone to Annica, and she will tell us more about the product portfolio.

[Annica Ånäs, Chief Executive Officer]

As I mentioned in the beginning, we have initiated a major new detailed development plan, but -- together with Nacka municipality for Central Sickla, approximately 150,000 square meters. The area stretches from Marcusplatsen in the west to Kyrkviken in the east and contains large car parks and low retail buildings today. The detailed development plan will take about 3 years and the plan is to add 7,000 working places and approximately 500 new apartments. Due to the addition of Central Sickla, we have increased our project portfolio by SEK 5 billion. And the project portfolio now enables investments of approximately SEK 36 billion, where SEK 2.8 billion is for confirmed projects. If we're looking at potential projects of SEK 34 billion, these investments will mostly be in Sickla in Nacka, Slakthusområdet in Stockholm, in Gränbystaden in Uppsala and in Slussen and Hagastaden in Stockholm, where offices represent approximately 60% and residential approximately 40%. Our projects are performing well, and we see very little effects from the pandemic. A very big portion of our project portfolio are situated near to existing or future underground station in the Stockholm area. That's why our project portfolio is so interesting.Let's look closer at our project portfolio, starting with Sickla. Sickla is one of our most prioritized area with a large part of our future project portfolio with a plan to invest SEK 13 billion in the future. The construction of Curanten in Sickla is underway and will become a health care destination with stores, cafés, restaurants on the ground floor. And the first tenants are starting to move in. The project comprises almost 12,000 square meters and includes around 8,000 square meters for health care. And letting rate is now 80%.Another project in Sickla is Tapetfabriken. This is a hotel that will be next to Marcusplatsen. The project is fully let by Nordic Choice Hotel and will be around 240 hotel rooms and a public lobby. And the hotel will be completed in the spring of 2021.At Nobelberget in Sickla, we will build a total of about 500 condominiums. The first block of 68 apartments in the first phase are now completed. And we have sold 93% of the apartments. And we see a big interest in the last apartment. We started selling apartments in the second block a few weeks ago. The sales start was very successful. And we have already signed booking contracts for 30% of the apartment. Occupancy is planned for the summer of 2022.In Gränbystaden in Uppsala, we're building rental apartments. Gränbystaden District 1 comprises 44 rental apartments with commercial premises in the ground floor, scheduled for completion this second quarter 2021. Torghuset in Mobilia is well completed. And we just had the opening of 4DX cinema but also culture center for children called Funnys Äventyr. And it was a very successful opening.One of our biggest projects in Slide 15 in Hagastaden. The building is to be a clear choice of meeting place for everyone working in the life science segment in Hagastaden. The major tenants will be Academic Work. The property is in emerging life science cluster close to New Karolinska Solna. And the project is going as planned and Academic Work will move in, in December 2021. But the project will be fully completed during the spring of 2022.Our projects in Bas Barkarby in Järfälla is under construction. The first phase comprises 24,000 square meters and include some upper secondary school, culture, sports and businesses. The major tenant is Järfälla Municipality of 11,000 square meters. And the project will be completed in the spring of 2022. During the first quarter, we took the decision to renovate the Katarinahuset in Slussen. We took possession of the property in early 2019 and have since then planned for a project. After renovations, the [ house ] will be the future state-of-art offices with a unique view, hotel and several restaurants. We have signed a lease contract of 1,100 square meters with a famous restaurant called Eriks Gondolen and the investment amounts to SEK 980 million and will be completed by 2023.And by that, we close our Q3 presentation. And if you have any question, you can e-mail me or Martin. Thank you, and goodbye.