Immofinanz AG

VSE:IIA

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q1

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

[Audio Gap]

increased by 18% to EUR 43.5 million. And as we preannounced, our net profit was negative with EUR 37.6 million, mainly because of negative revaluation results due to COVID-19 and the yield widening.

Our FFO increased by 3.6% to EUR 29.1 million. However, I have to say that this FFO fully includes the annual coupon payment of our EUR 500 million benchmark bond. And if you would spread this coupon over the year, the FFO 1 would have increased to EUR 38.9 million. This means an increase of nice 38.7% compared to the previous year's quarter.

Our net LTV is still in our target range and below 45% and came in with 43.8%. The cash and cash equivalents in our balance sheet amount to EUR 312.5 million, and we also managed, as already announced, to secure a revolving credit facility of an additional EUR 100 million that has not been drawn yet.

Let us now dive a little bit deeper into the profit and loss statement on Page 6 of the presentation. Rental income was EUR 74 million, and this means an increase of 13.4%. Our results of asset management, as already mentioned, increased nicely by 18.1% to EUR 59.5 million. The results of properties -- of -- the result of operations came in with EUR 43.5 million. This is in line with the increase of results of asset management. We saw a slightly higher other operating expense of EUR 13.8 million compared to $10.7 million in the previous year's quarter. This is primarily attributable to the nonrecurring effect of the resignation of Oliver Schumy from the Management Board.

I mentioned already negative revaluation results. Precisely, this was EUR 45 million, and these negative results also affect our total earnings.

Financing costs came in with EUR 19.2 million compared to EUR 14.5 million in the previous year's quarter. The increase here is based, on the one hand side, on a higher indebtedness of about 9.4%. And we also had a positive effect on the 2019 figures in the amount of EUR 4.2 million because of the coupon [indiscernible] our convertible bond and the adjustment of the effective interest calculation on that effect.

So let us now have a look on the FFO again on Page 7. I mentioned already, FFO increased by 3.6% to EUR 29.1 million. This means $0.29 per share. And I already explained that the FFO is a little bit lower because of the full coupon payment of our 2000 -- of our bond of EUR 500 million.

When we look into the financing costs, they were pretty stable and are in the territory of 1.9%, and our net LTV came in with 43.8%, so well in our target range.

I now come to Page 9, and let's have a look on our solid maturity profile. IMMOFINANZ has a nice level of cash and cash at hand with the revolving credit facility of more than CHF 400 million. We have a low refinancing need in 2020 and also in 2021. When you look into the 2022, you see the convertible bond here. Our convertible bond is due in 2024, however, we show it in 2022 because it has a put option in the right of investors.

Our hedging quote is about 90.8%, and there, we are safe for the time being in case interest rates increase.

Our total unencumbered asset pool amounts to EUR 1.4 billion. And if we include the unencumbered S IMMO shares on top of that, we come to an unencumbered asset base of EUR 1.9 billion. The average term of our financing is just about 4 years.

Let me now hand back to Dietmar Reindl for an update on the COVID-19 situation in our business.

[Dietmar Reindl, executive]

Stefan, thank you. I think this topic is affecting everybody of us, either personally or business-wise or in both fields. What have we experienced in IMMOFINANZ in this situation? We have, by the 21st of May, around 79% of our retail portfolio and about 97.8% of our office portfolio open. The remaining areas are closed due to restriction of governments. At the moment, mainly the 4 Romanian VIVO! centers are still closed.

And today, to give you this new information, we had information from the Prime Minister's office in Bucharest where it was, let's say, announced or at least they shared the opinion that an opening of the Romanian shopping centers might happen as well on the 15th of June, which is excellent news for us.

The rent collection in retail, based on 100% of invoiced rent, meaning contracted rent, was in March, 86.6%; in April where we had deferred a huge part of our rental invoices to September, 37.6%; and in May where we have not fully collected all the rents, we are on the level of 24.4%. And when we look at the situation in our office business, the rent collection in March was at the level of 93%; in April, 85%; and in May, 63.8%. In May, we have not yet collected many, I'd say, properties in Poland where the rent collection comes due to the contracts normally more at the end of the month.

Looking on the effects by country on the next slide, Slide 12. You see that Romania -- retail in Romania was only 34.5% open. This is the country where we have the still strongest effect. On our retail portfolio, in Slovakia, 70.7%. There is only 1 shopping center, VIVO! shopping center in Bratislava, not yet opened, but this will be solved soon. In the other countries, almost all the retail schemes are opened. In some countries, cinemas and children playgrounds are not yet open, but we expect this to be solved as well during June.

On the next slide, you can see the effect of our work in retail. In the STOP SHOP portfolio, we have a very sophisticated camera system where we can follow the footfall daily of each and every shop. And on this graph on the left side, you can see the step down on the first -- the affected weekend in March. And what is interesting in STOP SHOP portfolio is that, starting in Austria in mid of April, when the shops opened again, we see a very fast recovery. And this recovery -- first of all, we're happy about the recovery. Second of all, the analysis shows that retail parks are at the moment not preferred by consumers because they have direct access to the stores from the parking lot. And compared to other public spaces, there is fewer points of contact with other people. And in addition, in our retail parks, we have mainly discount offer.

The VIVO! portfolio on the right side, there you can see the effect that still quite a big part -- so in numbers, 46% of our overall rental space in VIVO! segment is closed, mainly the shopping centers in Romania. That's why the way back is much slower here. But as I announced before, by the 15th of June, we expect as well in Romania the reopening of all shopping centers.

Coming to the outlook. We have, already in the first days of March, taken a lot of operating measures, and we have continued this, and we continue even during what we say the new normal. We have an intensive dialogue with our tenants, and we are, should I say, daily signing agreements, covering the full portfolio with our biggest tenants like Deichmann, KIK, Taco, Pepco, LPP and so on. I can say that we are one of the tougher landlords, but I think we are also very fair landlords. That's why we are coming to acceptable agreements from both sides. I expect that with the 20 biggest tenants, we will have in the first week of June -- and this is about 20 tenants, in the first week of June, we will have, let's say, agreed on how to continue until the end of this year, and these 20 biggest tenants are covering 50% of our retail portfolio.

We are doing a lot in marketing, online and off-line. We are having Facebook events in Romania, for example, with attendance of more than 100,000 people, and we are using our knowledge from the sophisticated visitor frequency analysis in our day-to-day marketing activities. In the office sector, we supported our tenants with a lot of information and instruments in the way back to the office, how to use the office spaces to keep the distancing regulations, how to and where to place disinfection stations and other protective measures.

Let me now give to Stefan for the financing measures.

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Yes. What have we done to further optimize costs in this COVID-19 environment and to strengthen our already strong liquidity position? We have disposed a couple of assets, cashing in here net, after repayment of debt, EUR 22 million in the first quarter. And we have earmarked another EUR 148 million of assets that are shown in our balance sheet as available for sale or held for sale, and we work on further disposals in these difficult times. But we are here absolutely positive that we will further optimize our portfolio and get one of these other transactions done soon.

We have reduced our development pipeline and the current development project costs to a reasonable number of EUR 86 million, and we stopped new projects to save liquidity for the group. We also stopped all purchase activities, and we were able to do so without costs.

Regarding maintenance activities, we did an analysis in the whole group, and we postponed not time-critical maintenance activities to 2021. We further worked on the reduction of operating costs and operating expenses. And wherever possible, we try to grab savings from tax deferrals.

Regarding measures in financing, I already mentioned that we, end of March, signed the EUR 100 million revolving credit facility that further strengthens our already good liquidity position. And we discussed with our banks the deferral of installment payments on the bank loans. We have here already secured by signing contracts EUR 13.1 million of deferral of these installments until the end of 2020. This is about 31.2% of the regular installments that were planned for this year, and we continue to work on getting more of that.

Let me now hand back to Dietmar.

[Dietmar Reindl, executive]

What we are seeing right now, looking at our brands, is that strong positioning of our brands is helping us as well in this situation to maneuver through the COVID-19 crisis. Looking at our retail sector, the low occupancy cost ratios and the strong focus on affordable products makes us even more attractive for customers in these difficult times.

And looking at our myhive brand, myhive, our quite successful office brand, and we have extended already during the last month, even before the COVID-19 crisis, 1 more element to our myhive product is flexibility. So we are offering for small companies but also for large enterprises. We offer flexible solution in terms of the space they are renting. We are offering different types of all-inclusive solutions where you can just take your notebook and go into the office and start your business. You can rent a copy machine, you can rent a printer. We deliver all the services to you. And we as well offer fully furnished offices, which means lower investments for tenants. And as I mentioned already before, all-inclusive services, which makes you much more flexible in moving to offices.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was the presentation of our Q1 results, and we are now ready for your questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instruction] And the first question is from Klaus Umek of Petrus Advisers.

[Klaus Umek, analyst]

I want to quickly understand the termination payments for Oliver Schumy because you mentioned it has [lateral deviation] by assets also. How much was that? And what was the justification that the Supervisory Board granted this?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Thank you, Klaus, for this question. Let me, first of all, say this question should be addressed to the Supervisory Board of IMMOFINANZ. So please understand that we are not able to comment on that. Regarding the amount, it was in line with the Austrian Corporate Governance Kodex that says it's a maximum of 2 years.

[Klaus Umek, analyst]

But what was the amount in Euros?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

We will publish this in the corporate governance report, and we are legally not obliged to disclose this figure yet. But we will do -- as soon as the regulatory requirements are guaranteed, we'll be publishing in the Corporate Governance Kodex.

[Klaus Umek, analyst]

And then you will also comment on the contract for Ronny Pecik. We expect that it's pretty much the same that Oliver Schumy had, right?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

To be honest, we have not received this information. His contract was done with the Supervisory Board, for sure, and I cannot tell you yet. Sorry.

[Klaus Umek, analyst]

Okay. Then, Stefan, you mentioned EUR 148 million of further noncore buildings where you're working on potentially selling some of those, right? First part of the question is, is there anything to be said about that given that it's already, obviously, end of May? Do you think you're going to have anything for us in Q2?

And the second question is relating to the general impression. This is a question for both you and Dietmar. Where do you think are institutional investors right now? Because I think we went very fast from being very worried to, obviously, seeing the light. And the question is simply what is -- what are institutional investors going to buy now that bond yields are so low? So are you receiving more incoming calls? Are people more interested in buying things from you? What is the general impression you have on the portfolio that, as we all know, is extremely high yielding?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Klaus. I think regarding the requests from investors, it's indeed the case that we have lots of calls also in the COVID situation now scheduled for the coming days. A lot of, let's say, digital road shows and calls with investors. So we really see here a pickup again. When you look back a few weeks, the -- yes, let's say, the requests from investors quite dried up. But this is definitely strongly coming back at the moment. And we now with, I think, very strong Q1 figures also will happily take these calls and do our best in the next coming days.

Regarding the sales activities, I think Dietmar will comment on that.

[Dietmar Reindl, executive]

Yes. Klaus, the actual situation is that we are having 3 deals of a bigger size. We are in exclusive phase. They are ongoing, and there is also financing secured. One of these deals, which is the biggest one, representing almost 1/3 of the number you mentioned, this is an equity buyer. So there will be no influence of the COVID-19 crisis on this deal, and we expect signing of this deal in 8 to 9 weeks. So this deal, I'm quite sure. We have 2 deals in Hungary where we are in an exclusive phase, and we are on the way to, let's say, finalize the SBA. These 2 deals as well, I'm quite convinced they will happen.

Then we have 4 to 5 smaller deals where we are still selling smaller land plots, which are not substantial for our business or which are not possible for us to develop. But these deals are of smaller size, and that's quite local deals, so they are as well not affected by the actual situation.

[Klaus Umek, analyst]

Stefan mentioned that you were able to sell around EUR 20 million of noncore also in Q1. Was that above book value? At book value? Can you comment on this?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

It was just above book value, both deals together.

[Operator]

The next question is from Jakub Caithaml of Wood & Company.

[Jakub Caithaml, analyst]

I apologize in advance if I ask something which has been already discussed, it took me a while to join the call. Regarding the revaluation loss, could you break down for us the effect of yield expansion and that of ERV adjustment for the retail assets?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Yes, Jakub, happy to do so. So basically, what we did, you know that we have an external valuation twice a year, and Q1 is an internal valuation. Because of the COVID-19 situation, we here were discussing the anticipated yield widening with valuers. And based on their reports, we had a look into our portfolio. So the range of yield widening that we executed is between 10 and 25 bps, depending on the asset class. There is more devaluation in retail than in office, for sure. And as I said, the range is between 10 and 25 bps. So that's the parts that we have taken in this internal valuation. And what is going to happen in the future, I think, is to be seen and depends a lot on how transactions come back in the market. We see still transactions, as Dietmar just explained, quite positive. And for those who are negotiated by us, we also see hardly any effect of the COVID-19 situation yet on the price level.

[Jakub Caithaml, analyst]

Right. That's very helpful and actually preempted my next question. So for instance, if the realtors in, say, Budapest would have already increased the yield, the prime yield for, say, offices by around 50 bps, that's not -- which would translate to around 10% softening on the prices, that's not representative of the indications that you would be getting on some of the assets that you're looking to dispose in Hungary?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Definitely not.

[Dietmar Reindl, executive]

No, it's not. And we are actually negotiating these deals on the level from beginning of this year. I think that there is maybe some fear more from the political side, but we don't share this view.

[Jakub Caithaml, analyst]

And I appreciate that there is a lot of holding-level financing at IMMOFINANZ, but if you have been in touch with the bankers, do you know how have the spreads on financing of acquisitions, which could be relevant for your counterparties, how they have evolved in the past couple of weeks? How much have the spreads expanded relative to the pre-COVID levels?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Well, I think it's really a difficult question because it always depends on the, let's say, the willingness of risk banks are able to take in these days, and for sure, on the counterparty risk, who is going to buy and what's the security behind. So a broad indication, I think, it's really, really difficult. Deals that have been negotiated precrisis already, I think, have a very good likelihood to go through. New deals, I think, depends a lot who is the borrower.

[Jakub Caithaml, analyst]

Right. Understood. Then regarding dividend, is it possible to give some indication as to your thinking, especially in relation to leverage? I mean should we see, for instance -- we get closer or we slightly exceeded this 45% self-imposed net LTV target in the coming quarters. Would you see this as a strong reason to perhaps raising the dividend policy?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Well, I think what we have said so far is still valid regarding dividend. We all don't know how the crisis will finally affect us, and we decided to postpone this decision to the half year results that we will publish end of August. We will very closely watch how we are affected by COVID-19 until that. And hopefully, we can really then grab the whole situation, and we will then discuss with the Supervisory Board what is the right approach regarding dividend. We will not give guidance on that until that point in time.

[Jakub Caithaml, analyst]

Understood. And last question for me regarding S IMMO and perhaps broader strategic direction and vision for the company. Since we have a new CEO, should we expect the merger negotiations to be restarted? And I mean, if so, can you comment on the expected next steps and on the time line? And also, I mean, would you say that any such combination may relate only to S IMMO? Or could you imagine a more complex transaction with potentially more than 2 parties involved?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Also regarding this point, we have to stick to the things that we also said with our annual results. Currently, S IMMO is not at all a topic for us. We are dealing with the COVID-19 situation. There are no talks with S IMMO at all. And let's see how the whole situation around COVID-19 develops. So no comment from our side in this direction. We keep all our options open here.

[Operator]

[Operator Instruction]. The next question is from Pavel Ryska of J&T Banka.

[Pavel Ryska, analyst]

I have a couple of questions. I will start with the first two ones. First of all, I wasn't here the whole time on the call, so maybe I will repeat something that you already answered. But relating to the asset sales, are these, let's say, asset sales in a normal pace that you carried out and that you want to carry out in the amount that you lined up this EUR 150 million, roughly? Or is this something, let's say, accelerated and motivated by the current situation on the market? So I would just like to clarify this.

And the second question is, could you give us a picture about the current situation with invoices, let's say? What's the percentage of invoices that are clearly overdue at the moment? And maybe break it down according to the asset type, retail versus office.

[Dietmar Reindl, executive]

Let me take the first question, Pavel. The deals are on quite a similar level as also last year. We had a similar amount that we were trading and dealing. But deals as such -- one effect might be that the deals have slowed down to 1 practical effect because viewings during technical disease have been either impossible or quite difficult. That's why we are seeing here a delay, which is related to the phase of the lockdown, if there have been [ technical disease ] in this period.

The second question regarding invoicing, one point is that we have deferred around 75% of the retail rents in April. And as you see, we actually collected more than that. So some tenants did not accept this deferral and still paid the rent.

In the office sector, it's mainly those companies that's around 5% to 6% who are representing services, restaurants, who were as well closed during the lockdown period in different countries. And as you can see in March and partly in April, what we have in the office sector in addition, and this is a lot in Poland and a bit we can see in Austria, that some companies are misusing the possibilities that retail tenants are getting from the state bodies to -- either not to pay rent or to defer rent. So they are trying to negotiate rent discounts as well. And this, except there is very, very special reasons, we do not negotiate with the office tenants.

[Pavel Ryska, analyst]

Okay. And maybe two short ones. Regarding revaluations, are you expecting, let's say, more of the same in the second quarter, I mean in terms of size of the negative revaluations, as it was in the first quarter? Or do you think this will speed up significantly after some external evaluations are done at the end of the current quarter and after all the situation can be, let's say, concluded?

And the last question, which is maybe a little more structural and long run, are there some considerations in your management given the possible home office trend? That means the current lesson that many companies are learning that maybe some of their employees can stay at home and work efficiently still from home and not be in the offices, which could, of course, significantly affect the demanded office space? Or what are the steps that you could take to mitigate or work with this impact?

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Thank you very much for these two further questions. I will pick up the first one regarding revaluation. To give you a very honest answer, I think we all don't know this yet, what is to come, and this depends a lot on, from my point of view, 2 things. The macroeconomic development of, yes, let's say, the rest of 2020 and beginning of 2021, and how this may be also digested in valuation? And secondly, it depends on what will the transaction market do. On the one hand side, we have a very low interest rate environment, and the market is flooded with cheap money, so this is all positive for the real estate sector and should be a good, let's say, basement for recovery of valuation.

On the other hand side, a global economic downturn and a recession, for sure, would have negative impact on the valuation. And we are hearing very direct dialogue with the external valuers, but also those have not yet given an indication how Q2 2020 and onwards will look like. I think this is really depending on a lot of factors that we all cannot grab yet.

[Dietmar Reindl, executive]

Coming to the second question. Let me comment on this. For sure, this is a question we are following extremely closely. Before COVID-19, we said home office is dead. And well, frankly, I will say now, and what was not dead was killed by home schooling for those who have kids. But the serious answer is, yes. What we see there are 2 different groups. The younger generation did not focus so much on home office before, and they would have been able to handle it technically. So they focus more on social contacts. The bit older generation or the old generation, they now learn to handle this home office technically, which was a new experience. And always -- very often, new experiences are a bit tempting.

So there's a lot of talking right now. And mainly a lot of U.S. companies are promoting now home office. In our calculations, long term, we see home office share maybe 5% to 10% on a maximum. And what are we doing in this or what is our strategy? As I mentioned before, we have developed, starting already, let's say, 12 to 16 months ago, our flexible myhive concept where we are sure we can gain quite some market shares in the markets where we are active by giving attractive offers to those companies who cannot plan their need over 5 to 10 years, but to -- they are willing to pay EUR 1 or EUR 2 more, but for that, get flexible solutions. And I think these solutions with the flexible myhive office will more than balance the 5% to 10% which might switch to home office.

[Pavel Ryska, analyst]

Okay. Just to clarify, this 5% to 10% that refers to -- you mean like incremental percentage of office space that can be, let's say, transferred or shifted into home office? Or should I understand it differently?

[Dietmar Reindl, executive]

No, I would say this is number of coworkers. The question is, which is too early, what percentage companies are in the future willing to rent for each, say, coworker. If it's 1:1 or, let's say, per 10 coworkers, they take 80% of the space, this would make this calculation now too complicated. But I think that even if there would be 10% home office share, our possibility, this would result in a reduction of GLA maximum half, like 5%.

[Operator]

And there are no more of questions at this time. I hand back to IMMOFINANZ for closing comments.

[Dietmar Reindl, executive]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending our call. I hope you've got some valuable information from us. And we wish you all the best, and talk to you when we are meeting again for our half year results.

[Stefan Schönauer Bakk, executive]

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.