DEXUS (ASX:DXS)
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Earnings Call: H1 2025

Feb 17, 2025

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Thanks for joining us for our first half-year results presentation. I'd like to begin today by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands and waterways on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay our respects to elders past and present. Today you hear from Keir on the financials, Andy in office, Chris on industrial, and Michael Sheffield on funds management. We're pleased to recently announce the appointment of Michael, along with Jason Howes, to lead the funds management business. Michael will be focused on driving the performance of our existing funds, and Jason on the products we offer to meet the changing investment needs of our clients and partners. In addition, we have appointed Kellie Lord to lead our shopping center business. Concluding today's presentation, I'll provide a summary and then open up to any questions that you may have.

DEXUS is a unique investment proposition. We have scale across the real assets spectrum. We have a diverse capability set across all major real estate sectors and a meaningful infrastructure business. Each of these pillars are scalable with the potential for continued strong returns. We also benefit from deep access to diverse pools of capital through the cycle. Our executive team is now in place, and we're set up to drive sector and fund performance with average industry experience of over 25 years. Our strategy aligns with our strengths and the market conditions. Our purpose, unlock potential, create tomorrow, reflects our unique ability to create value for our people, customers, investors, and communities over the long term. Our vision is to be globally recognized as Australasia's leading real asset manager.

We aspire to be known for our deep local sector expertise, our active approach to management, and as a trusted partner investing alongside our clients. Our people, our focus on sustainability and governance, and a culture of constant evolution and improvement are the levers we use to unlock the potential in the business and enable us to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns over the long term. In August, I outlined our medium-term goals that align to our strategic priority areas of transitioning the balance sheet, maximizing the contribution from the funds business, and unlocking our deep sector expertise. We're making good progress against each of these goals. Of note, we have contracted AUD 515 million of balance sheet divestments since the full-year result. We invested AUD 50 million of retained earnings into DREP2 alongside further external capital.

We finalized key executive appointments, reduced costs, and invested in systems and processes to support the investment performance and platform scalability. We've closed two subscale products and are in the process of reviewing opportunities to launch new scalable products, and we're actively assessing infrastructure opportunities and remain focused on stabilizing the A&P funds to position the platform for when the cycle turns. Turning to the half-year result, we maintained high occupancy across our portfolio and delivered strong cash flows with AFFO of AUD 252 million. Our active approach to divestments has ensured a strong balance sheet with gearing levels at the low end of our range despite the impact of devaluations over the past two years. A number of the core funds outperform their peers and benchmarks, including our flagship diversified property fund, the shopping center fund, and the diversified infrastructure fund.

However, clients are adjusting their strategies and seeking liquidity as expected at this point in the cycle, and as a result, redemptions remain elevated, particularly for core products. Pleasingly, we continue to raise equity for growth-focused strategies like DREP. We remain committed to sustainable outcomes. Some of our sustainability highlights are outlined on this slide, including being recognized as the global and regional listed leader for diversified office and industrial by GRESB, and I'll pass you on to Keir to cover off on the financials.

Keir Barnes
CFO, Dexus

Thanks, Ross and good morning everyone. Turning to the result in detail, in line with expectations, total AFFO for the half was AUD 251.8 million, with the distribution of AUD 0.19 per security reflecting a payout ratio of 81%, aligned with our updated distribution policy announced at the full-year results. Office FFO reduced marginally, primarily due to the impact of divestments, largely offset by fixed rent increases and the recently completed development at 123 Albert Street. For the industrial portfolio, the decrease in FFO was driven by divestments as well as the impact of higher one-off income in the prior corresponding period. Income from co-investments in pooled funds increased by 7.5%, driven by the impact of new investments made during and post half-year 2024.

FFO from management operations increased to AUD 77 million this half, reflecting AUD 23 million of performance fees during the period and the benefit from cost savings, partly offset by the impact of redemptions, disposals, and valuation declines on funds. The impact of redemptions and disposals is expected to continue into next year. We expect further performance fees in the second half of FY25 and have secured circa AUD 20 million of performance fees for FY26. Active management of the cost base has resulted in lower group corporate costs for the period. An increase in net finance costs was driven by higher interest rates as well as lower capitalised interest following completion of 123 Albert Street. Higher funding costs are also expected to impact in FY26. As expected, trading profits were significantly lower following reduced trading volume. Circa AUD 35 million of trading profits post-tax have been secured for FY26.

Lastly, leasing CapEx increased as a result of the impact of higher incentives from deals struck in prior periods flowing through the portfolio this half. Data suggests that valuations are now stabilizing. The chart on the right of this slide shows that current office yield spreads are in line with historic averages, and we are seeing the re-emergence of institutional buyer interest. We're also seeing this flow through to valuation outcomes in our portfolio, where the quantum of valuation losses reduced significantly compared to recent periods. The total portfolio declined by 1.6% on prior book values for the six months to 31 December, with 97% of the portfolio independently valued. Office valuations declined by 2.6% as higher cap rates and discount rates were partly offset by market rent growth. Pleasingly, industrial valuations increased by 1.4%, with rent growth more than offsetting higher cap rates.

Moving to capital management, our balance sheet remains strong, with pro forma look-through gearing at the lower end of the 30 to 40% target range, despite office portfolio valuation declines of almost 28% since the peak in FY22. We have been active with refinancing, resulting in a weighted average debt maturity of 4.5 years, $2.9 billion of headroom, and manageable near-term debt maturities. 83% of our debt was hedged during the period, providing material interest rate protection. Looking forward, there is $1.8 billion of remaining spend on the committed development pipeline, with approximately $1 billion to be spent in the next 18 months. For many years, we have taken an active approach to capital recycling to enhance the quality of the portfolio and the strength of the balance sheet.

We have sold AUD 7.3 billion from the balance sheet over the five years to FY24, despite a subdued transaction market during that period. The portfolio is now heavily weighted to premium-grade office assets in core CBD markets, as well as core industrial assets. Our AUD 2 billion of divestments earmarked for FY25 to FY27, together with the completion of committed developments, will further enhance the quality of our portfolio while maintaining a prudent level of gearing. Thank you, and I'll now hand over to Andy.

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Thanks, Keir, and good morning, everyone. Location remains a key differentiator for performance in the office market. This continues to be demonstrated by our portfolio occupancy remaining well above market average at 93.5%, albeit reducing since the full year, predominantly as a result of the government departing 80 Collins Street in Melbourne. Effective like-for-like income grew by 1.6%, impacted by amortization and downtime on vacancies. On a face basis, like-for-like growth was 2.1%. Leasing volumes of 48,500 square metres for the half were weighted towards smaller deals in the Sydney CBD, and we also saw lower incentives on deals in Brisbane and in Sydney CBD premium assets. As a result, our average incentive reduced to 26.4%, reflecting the quality and location of our portfolio. We are seeing a positive shift in tenant confidence.

In the half, 88% of customers who renewed retained the same space, and only 8% reduced their footprint. Atlassian Central and the first stage of Waterfront Brisbane are progressing well. 71% of income from these developments is de-risked, with average fixed annual increments of 3.7% providing a secure income stream once completed. Looking at our expiry profile, for the next 18 months, we remain below the 13% threshold we have set portfolio lease expiries. Much of the upcoming expiry over this period sits in assets that are well positioned in their markets, including 1 Farrer Place in Sydney, 240 St Georges Terrace in Perth, and 1 Eagle Street in Brisbane. This slide further demonstrates the divergent performance across office locations.

The chart continues to tell a strong story of materially lower vacancy in the Sydney CBD core, which accounts for 77% of our portfolio, our Sydney portfolio, and 36% of our total portfolio, compared with CBD non-core and suburban and fringe office markets. While both vacancy and incentives have increased in non-core locations, premium market incentives in the Sydney core have declined, and more so in our portfolio. We are seeing the same trend in Brisbane. As a result of this dynamic, the spread and effective rents between the submarkets has continued to widen. The office market is at a turning point, and we expect the outlook to improve this calendar year. We are seeing evidence of the factors needed for a recovery, namely growth in demand and a shrinking supply pipeline.

For the fourth consecutive quarter, there has been positive net absorption in the Sydney CBD, with calendar year 2024 reflecting the largest year of net absorption since 2016. Population growth and employment growth will continue to drive demand over the long run. Rising economic rents for premium buildings in Sydney have kept supply in check, and we see this continuing. There is now a circa 20% gap between market rents and the economic rent required to start a new building in Sydney, while forecast completions for the next five years in Sydney and Melbourne are less than 1% of total stock. This is well below the long-term average. With less competition from developments, this should support further rent growth in quality stabilised assets like ours. 33 Alfred Street is 50% owned by our flagship diversified fund, DWPF.

On the doorstep of Circular Quay, it is a great example of the right asset in the right location. Notwithstanding a challenging leasing environment, we have had strong leasing success, with pre-commitments at 85% ahead of completion mid this year. The building has attracted an array of high-quality professional services firms, including Allens and Maddocks, who are motivated to move to a landmark building in a premium location. Rents are 12% higher than the project underwrite and above the market rents that most tenants would have been paying on renewal of their previous space. Positively, the vast majority of tenants are expanding their footprint at this tower. Like its neighbour, Quay Quarter Tower, 33 Alfred Street is a shining example of reuse. The building is being rejuvenated to enhance its sustainability and modernize its functionality to a premium-grade standard.

This approach minimizes landfill waste and extends the life cycle of the building, reducing carbon emissions significantly. Thank you. I'll now hand you over to Chris. Thanks, Andy, and good morning, everyone. Leasing remains a focus, with volumes across our industrial portfolio during the half more than double those in HY24. Despite this momentum, effective like-for-like income declined, and there was a reduction in portfolio occupancy by income due to the vacancy at select assets and the impact of disposals. We note that around 80% of this vacancy is known downtime in just four assets, one of which is undergoing major upgrade works and another in prospective tenant discussions. Our portfolio occupancy by area increased slightly to 97.4%, broadly in line with the national average.

We remain focused on delivering strong total returns across the life cycle of our assets and are willing to accept some downtime if it leads to better deals. The 38% releasing spreads for this period, which includes leasing up some of the previously vacant space, provide support to our approach. Incentives rose to 21.1%, which is in line with what we are seeing across most markets as customers look to invest more in automation and sustainability initiatives. The portfolio remains materially under-rented at 13.5%, creating the opportunity to grow income by resetting the rents on vacancy and upcoming leasing expiries across approximately one-third of our portfolio by FY27. We have developments underway across New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia, and 10 planning approvals achieved for activated shovel-ready projects.

At Jandakot, we completed 20,300 square meters, all of which is 100% leased, with further success on pre-lease deals for assets under development post-31 December. Turning to the industrial outlook, there are some positive signs for 2025. Retail spending has been firming in the past few months, and online spending is rising again. These trends should lead to increased demand from retailers and logistics providers in the year ahead. While vacancy rates have risen in outer markets, they remain low in absolute terms. Supply under construction is in check, and we expect supply to remain constrained across most cities and vacancy to hold. In addition, the recent uplift in transaction volumes relates to data centers, which further constrains supply by competing for industrial-zoned land.

Our national portfolio is better placed as the market starts to diverge by location and quality, with the majority of our portfolio developed by us and located in Sydney and Melbourne. Perth has transitioned from a satellite market to becoming a sizable self-sustained market. Jandakot has given us a large industrial footprint, positioning us well in this budding market, with the country's lowest vacancy at just 1.2%. With a large part of our portfolio located within 30 minutes of households, we are well positioned. Thank you, and I'll now hand over to Michael.

Michael Sheffield
Head of Funds Management, Dexus

Thanks, Chris. Well, I'm excited to be leading the funds management business through its next phase of growth alongside Jason Howes. We are focused on ensuring the funds platform is well placed to continue to deliver for our clients. Our sizable funds management business is diversified across sectors and investor types, with a proven track record of delivering performance for our clients. We have built deep relationships with more than 130 institutional investors. We've been actively divesting assets on behalf of our clients to facilitate redemption requests and maintain prudent gearing levels while enhancing portfolios. We are also working with a range of clients across the platform to explore potential deployment opportunities. The market for capital raising globally remains challenged, and having access to pools of capital places us in a good position for when the cycle turns.

Turning to funds highlights for the half, as Ross mentioned earlier, our flagship funds continue to outperform their benchmarks. Notably, the AUD 13 billion diversified wholesale fund and the shopping center fund outperformed across all time periods. Multiple funds and investments also gained global recognition for ESG achievements. And despite redemptions and subdued capital raising markets, we continue to harness pockets of opportunity where we are seeing investor appetite. We raised funds for the second close of DREP II, and we also deployed funds from DREP I and II, including to acquire an office conversion to student accommodation opportunity. We continue to stabilise the AMP Capital funds and retain our focus on delivering strong investment outcomes for our clients. Thank you. I'll now hand you back to Ross.

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Thanks, Michael. We're at a pivotal moment in the real estate markets as interest rates shift and the conditions for an office market recovery are emerging. Longer-term trends remain sound, with demand underpinned by strong population growth. Barring unforeseen circumstances for the 12 months ended 30 June 2025, we reiterate our prior guidance for FY25. Dexus is well positioned. Our investment portfolio is high quality and will benefit as the market turns. We have the opportunity for growth with a differentiated funds platform, strong client relationships, and active client inquiry for new products and investments, and we are progressing well on the actions to support our medium-term strategic priorities and future growth. Thank you, and that ends the formal part of today's presentations. We'll now take any questions that you may have.

Operator

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press Star 2. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. We ask that you please limit your questions to two per participant, and if you have any more questions, you may rejoin the question queue. Your first question comes from Lou Pirenc from Jarden. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, Ross and team. Yeah, first question, just on the disposals, you mentioned the AUD 2 billion. I imagine that includes the ones that you already did in the first half, or is it AUD 2 billion on top of that?

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Thanks for your question, Lou. Just clarification, the AUD 2 billion was the commitment we made at August last year's results. So we're chipping our way through it with AUD 515 million, so a quarter of the way through.

Great, thank you. And then maybe a bit of color on this trading profit that you've secured for FY, sorry, I think 2026, it is. Is that one asset? Is it a number of assets? And are you hoping to add more to that, or do you think that will be it?

That relates to one specific asset, that's Brook Hollow. In terms of composition of trading profits for 26, it's probably too early to tell, but there are more assets in the pipeline.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Howard Penney from Citi. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Just on the funds management side, just would you be able to provide us with color on where you're seeing sort of the greatest investor interest at the moment across the various funds?

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Hi, Howard. Thanks for your question. I think it's an interesting time for investors as they're trying to probably calibrate where rates are sitting. So obviously, kind of this afternoon will be somewhat important. Investors generally are looking for higher returns, and I don't think that changes with the rate cut if we get it this afternoon. But I think the rate cut will certainly give investors a bit more confidence around the changing direction of the cycle. So I think higher returns, anything in the core plus value-add space, certainly we're having success in our very focused strategies like DREP. So that's a high-returning absolute private equity real estate fund. So that's probably the color we can give you. I don't think it's not limited to one sector. It's probably more driven by the underlying strategies of each of the products.

Great, thanks very much. And just on the industrial side, just to understand the movements in occupancy and incentives there, is that more of a specific, a few specific projects, or has it been a general sort of change in the market at the moment?

Yeah, thanks for your question. In terms of industrial, that vacancy has really been focused in four assets. We'd call them and label them secondary. We're repurposing one at the moment and actively leasing to tenants. But they're really labelled as secondary. As Keir said before, we've had some disposals. That's part of the earlier strategy. And this is really that vacancy is just those secondary assets is the longer callout. In terms of incentives, we've seen a spike in speculative activity in sub-leasing through the second half of last year, and that's had an impact as well with a bit of flight to quality. But we're focused on that space and presently getting great activity on it with the leasing.

Thank you very much. Congrats on the results.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Ben Brayshaw from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.

Hi, Ross. Thanks for the presentation. I just had a query on industrial valuation gains this half of 1.4%. The cap rate's up 10 basis points, but the valuation has increased because of value as attributed in your slide to rent growth. I was just wondering how you reconcile the change in the book value for logistics just in the context of generally downward pressure on net effective rents and lower occupancy levels across the broader market?

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Yeah, great question. So really, in terms of what you've seen from our results, we've had fantastic leasing spreads of circa 38%. So that has really offset some of that Cap Rate softening. And certainly, from what we expect from that leasing success we've had, certainly it's been the better quality assets that we're seeing in Sydney and Melbourne that have helped that increased growth.

I think the short version is you're bringing forward some of that reversion into the valuations, and yes, there's been some softening in cap rates, but I think that timing of bringing that forward and probably a more solid view around what the longer-term growth prospects is, particularly for those high-quality assets. I think Chris's remarks, both today but also at the full year last year, we were predicting this separation in performance between those better assets in the core locations and those secondary ones, and obviously, our portfolio is skewed to those high-quality assets. We've developed a lot of them in the platform, so you're seeing that play through in the valuations, and we expect that will continue.

Yeah, great. Okay, thanks. Just on office, I'm just interested, Ross, if you could maybe just discuss where you see return hurdles for the asset class today, medium to long term. And broadly speaking, just the transaction activity in the market, if you could perhaps just comment on whether you think those return hurdles are sort of reflective of those type of implied returns.

Just a clarification there, Ben. Are you saying it is in our return hurdles or what we kind of think the market expected returns are?

Yeah, so unlevered long-term market-type returns that are used to underwrite assets. I'm just wondering how close you think the market is in terms of transaction activity in recalibrating asset values in line with those returns?

Yeah, so look, if we use discount rates as a proxy here, discount rates on average in our portfolio, let's call it low sevens. What is interesting for us in the transaction market is the flight to quality we're kind of seeing on the tenant side. We're certainly seeing it on the investor side as well. So I think for those better quality assets, I think you will see investors being prepared to price that quite tight. It wasn't that long ago I was very difficult to get set in high-quality office. So we're not seeing enormous depth on the bid right now, but I think selectively for the right asset, we're seeing reasonable levels of inquiry. And we've got, I think it'll be an interesting six months, particularly if we kind of see a rate cut this afternoon. I think that's what investors are looking to see.

They're looking to have confidence that they know that the cycle is turning, but the rate cut will be quite, I think, important to the psychology of that and seeing that we're actually in an easing cycle.

I think Andy mentioned on the call that there was a 20% gap between rents in Sydney and the rent needed to justify new construction. Is the market looking at longer-term growth as having improved for office, or is it a little bit too early to say, in your opinion?

I think the realities of a very significant slowdown in supply does bode well for what rental growth looks like in the medium term. I think that'll play both in terms of what face rents do, but also incentives needing to come down. One of the most pleasing stats for us in this half-year result, from at least my perspective, is the level of over-renting in the portfolio reduced by about a third in the half, and so I think that gives you some sense of the direction of travel and the speed of travel around how some of those fundamentals are changing, again, for us, these are kind of the better quality assets in the core market.

I think where you see that delivering in the physical market, I think you're going to see that demand coming through from investors because they will be prepared to pay for some of that, I believe.

Yeah, great. Thanks for your time, Ross.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Simon Chan from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Ross. Hey, my first question, just opening up to a comment on the funds management business. You mentioned, I think, in your prepared remarks when you were introducing Jason about the changing investment needs of clients and partners. Just wondering what that actually means in terms of the stuff and product they want. Does it mean the likes of DWPF is going to shrink because partners want other stuff? Can you just give me some insights into that, please?

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Thanks, Simon. It's a great question. I think part is probably a reflection around our business and our product suite, and part of the decision is really around our view of the changing needs of customers. Our platform as a whole, we're pretty focused around core, and we have obviously the specialist funds at the other end of the spectrum. We've recognized the need for us to broaden our, and there's a great opportunity for us to broaden our product suite into the core plus value-add space. You will see some of the new initiatives that we bring to market is just kind of rounding out that gap. In terms of the changing needs for what investors want, generally speaking, core has been very difficult to raise money. This is not just for us. This is a global phenomenon.

It's not a surprise as investors are recalibrating their expectations. Also, how they want to invest. Do they all want to be into co-mingled funds? Do they want to do separate accounts, JBs, and those sorts of things? So we certainly see a place for co-mingled funds and pooled funds. These can be very efficient ways for investors to get exposure to a market with low transaction costs, significant diversification. And so they're going to have a place. But as we're expanding our footprint and our relationships and our channels, we just see that there's going to be opportunities to do new things in new ways. And I'm really excited to have Jason joining our leadership team and the separation of responsibilities. He's really going to be working with clients around those new initiatives.

So it's in part a reflection on our business, but in part kind of maximizing the opportunities that we see in the marketplace.

Very good. Hey, can you remind us the structure of the construction contracts you have at a couple of your bigger projects? For example, Waterfront, like you entered into these contracts a couple of years ago, 100% of the work secured now. And the deal with John Holland, is that fixed such that you're pretty much protected?

Yeah, so we're not a principal contractor. I think it's the first point. And so yes, we do look to lay off that risk to top tier, tier one contractors. We have done that with Atlassian. We've done that with Waterfront. Cost and program risk lie principally with them. So there may be a small amount of provisional sums that need to be worked through, as is the case with projects when you can't get all that detail done upfront. But yeah, the risk ultimately sits with them.

Great. Hey, just back to my original question from funds. Can you confirm for us how much is still sitting in the redemption queue at the moment?

The redemption queue, it does move around, and so it is kind of a factor of client requests are satisfying through asset sales and also secondary transactions, so I think with the full year last year, we said it was circa AUD 2.5 billion. It's moved a bit higher since then. I think the kind of the pleasing things for us is we are seeing some traction in some of those newer products and strategies, and at this point in the cycle where we see the discounts on secondary starting to tighten up, we would expect to see a significant portion of those redemptions met through secondary trades of some description.

Thank you very much, Ross. Cheers.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Adam Calver from CLSA. Please go ahead.

Hi, Ross and team. I mean, occupancy is falling this half, and you've got 4.4. It looks to be expiring in the second half. What's the outlook for office occupancy and how do we think about that going into FY26 as well?

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Yeah, hi. Occupancy at 93.5% did step down from the prior half. It was 94.8%. That's as a result primarily of the Victorian government coming out of 80 Collins Street, along with an expiration at 30 Hickson Road and 222 Lonsdale Street in Melbourne. I think the thing to note is that the vacancy in our portfolio is highly concentrated. So the cost of that vacancy really sits in three assets: 80 Collins Street, 30 The Bond, and Australia Square. Looking forward, we do expect with a couple of expiries that occupancy will step down again before the full year. Those expiries are at 30 Hickson Road and 80 Collins Street. And so occupancy at the full year, noting that we don't guide occupancy, will probably be closer to 90%.

Yeah, okay. Okay, thanks. That makes sense. I mean, and I'm just trying to think. I mean, I know they give guidance in FY26, but just the direction of travel for FFO in FY26, if you were able to allow wealth, get some high trading profits, retain your performance fees, limit redemptions, have some high net operating income, does FFO go up?

Thanks for your question. Look, I think it's certainly too early to provide guidance for FY26. What we can say is that there are a number of moving parts. So this year, we are cycling a year of elevated performance fees, though pleasingly, we have secured circa 20 million of performance fees in FY26. Conversely, trading profits will be lower in 2025. But as we mentioned earlier, we've secured circa AUD 35 million post-tax of trading profits for 2026. Outside of that, finance costs will be higher in 2026, and we'll continue to progress asset sales, and are conscious that there are some market headwinds that will continue to impact. But when we look at positive contributions, I mean, pleasingly, the data that we're seeing indicates that we're approaching the bottom of the cycle.

And we'll see where we land today, but certainly expectations of rate cuts, office sales stabilizing, and office markets starting to improve along with investor appetite. So I think it's too early to say what the contribution from growth initiatives will look like. But there's some interesting things in the works, and we'll provide an update in August.

Great. Thanks, Keir. Thanks for your positive. Thanks, Ross.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from David Pravica from Macquarie Group. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Ross, Keir, and team. Thanks for taking my questions. Just the first one on funds management. If you could provide a bit more color on your infra exposure and what opportunities you're seeing in that sector, please.

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Thanks for the question. So the existing platform has got a concentrated exposure around transportation and a pretty diverse portfolio of PPPs and energy. In terms of the areas that we're focused on, it is obviously leveraging on those existing footprints, but also areas that, to be frank, we can bring the rest of the platform to bear. So student accommodation is really interesting, and we've seen an example in our special situations fund where we're using the infrastructure team and our special situations investing team to kind of create some value there. So I think anything that's infrastructure that has real estate-like characteristics where we can kind of bring the platform to bear is where we're prioritizing our time at the moment.

Thanks, Ross. Second one is on developments. Just wanted a bit more color around how committed developments are progressing like Atlassian and like Waterfront, please.

I might ask Andy to touch on office and then Chris on the industrial. Sure, so Atlassian, it's progressing well. I mean, they're pouring level seven as we speak. The core is up to level 13, so it's well and truly out of the ground, and we're expecting PC late 2026. Waterfront plinths, we're expecting PC early 2028. They're not quite out of the ground, but if you've gone past it, you would have seen that they're very nearly out, and once they're out of the ground, it's far more straightforward, but PC still early 2028, and as we said earlier, that's sitting at 52% leased.

In industrial, we've got approximately 10 projects nationally at the moment, and they're progressing well in Jandakot, New South Wales, and Melbourne, sorry, Perth. And majority are committed in terms of project and principal contractors, and we're certainly seeing great progress on those and a number of that speculative activity as well. So yeah, highly active sites. Thanks. And just my final question. On office, you spoke to lower office incentives in Brisbane as well as Sydney CBD core premium. But just curious to know what you're all seeing more directly in Victoria, please.

Look, good question. Victoria is definitely the weakest of the national office markets. And our portfolio in Melbourne is currently at, well, at the half, it was 89% occupied. And so that's where we've got a lot of work to do, especially at 80 Collins Street. Incentives in Melbourne are quoted on a net basis, and it's not uncommon to see 45%-55% incentives struck in the market.

Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Richard Jones from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Ross. Just post-adjustment and carrying value last year and six months ago. Just wondering if you can provide an update on the potential sell-down progress on a stake in that development and/or third-party incoming interest that you've had on it.

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Hi, Richard. Thanks for the question. I think we did, I think, telegraph to investors in August that we didn't envisage a sell-down event certainly in the next 12 months, and I think that continues to be the case. We would like to maximize value on that exit and that sell-down, and selling an asset in a construction site in an increasing rate environment is probably not the best thing. So I think the next few months will be interesting with investor sentiment and does that change around if we see kind of rates cutting, and I think it's something that will certainly be on the agenda second half of the calendar year for us.

Okay. And a second question just on the trajectory of funds management earnings ex performance fees. I know there's a five-year loss that you take on development management in the first half, which is, I think, now eight months of loss-making in that part of the business. Is that a cost allocation issue, or is it an activity level that has that side of the funds business loss-making?

I'll let Keir maybe answer. I think it's more milestone-driven.

Yeah. Thanks, Richard. Ross is right. This is milestone-driven. So the cost allocation is often more stable, albeit we have done a lot of work on the cost base. But in terms of the revenues, because they're milestone-driven, they do tend to be lumpy. But broadly speaking, over the life of a project, it washes its face.

Okay. So trajectory over the next eight months, how does that look in terms of milestones?

Look, certainly we think that for DM next half, it will be better than what we've printed for this half. FY26 is too early to provide guidance at this stage.

I think just development management as a business line, generally for us, is not a huge profit-making exercise. We do it for a few reasons. One is it's creating product that we can't buy ourselves. Two is actually the performance ultimately is driven by those assets, and giving that stock into clients is really important to the funds management business. So it's an important activity. And obviously, we make fee streams from whether it be property management, leasing, and funds management once we complete those assets. But as a line item in the P&L, it has never been and is unlikely to ever be kind of a material profit contributor.

Thanks, Ross.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Tom Beder from UBS. Please go ahead.

Good morning, team. I'd just be interested in where the releasing spreads were in office on an effective basis and also on a face rent basis.

Ross Du Vernet
CEO, Dexus

Yep. No problem. Hi, Tom. So as Ross mentioned, the over-renting has improved, and so you'd expect the releasing spreads to also have improved. On a face basis, the releasing spread was 5.9%, call it 6%; that was for. On an effective basis, it stepped down 11.5%, and that was 16%.

Okay. Great. Thank you. And then maybe just so I know you gave some good color around the Waterfront progress, but I guess be interested just in where that sits relative to your budgeted timing or program, given the known productivity issues in Queensland. Are you getting sort of on track, essentially, from a timing perspective there?

Look, there are some market productivity issues that we're not immune from. And it's been really a lot of the challenge in that development is actually getting out of the ground, given the nature of it, building in the water. And so to get to this point without any material delays is actually a real credit to the team and to the contractor. And throughout the program, there will be times where the construction program and PC date can be adjusted under the contract. We haven't had one of those yet, so it hasn't been adjusted. And look, the delays getting out of the ground to this point aren't really material, and there is time for the team to make it up before the program is reviewed.

Have there been any conversations about variations with the contractor or requests for extra payment because of unforeseen conditions, be it at the project level or more market-wide issues?

Look, that's an important partnership that we're managing. And the contract does pass those risks of program and cost through to the contractor. And so we don't want them to hurt unnecessarily, but they're in the business of pricing these contracts, and we're working closely with them to manage a great outcome for the project. I mean, Waterfront Brisbane is going to be the most amazing addition to the Brisbane CBD skyline. And I'm really optimistic for the leasing of the balance of that space.

Thanks.

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