Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the HealthCo Healthcare and Wellness REIT FY22 full year results briefing. All participants are in a listen only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on the telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sam Morris, HealthCo Senior Portfolio Manager. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning to everyone on the call. Joining me today is Christian Soberg , CFO of HealthCo. Before we commence, we acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia. We celebrate their diverse culture and connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to their elders, past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We are pleased today to provide an overview of HealthCo's inaugural full year results. Starting on slide three. There are three key takeaways from today's presentation. First, we have exceeded our IPO PDS forecast through portfolio lease up, rental growth, acquisitions and developments. Second, in addition to the strong embedded growth you'll see in the portfolio today, there is an extensive development pipeline in excess of AUD 500 million.
Thirdly, you will see we are undertaking proactive capital management in response to the changing macro environment. In particular, continued discipline with regard to acquisitions, particularly in a competitive environment. We have sold the St. Mary's development site at a 71% premium to book value and we are also announcing an on market unit buyback. Let me start the presentation with the highlights from the financial year 2022 on slide five. Operationally, we delivered 100% unadjusted cash rent collection with a portfolio occupancy of over 99%, and we extended the weighted average lease expiry to 10.2 years. This is a testament to our portfolio strategy. We designed the strategy to provide strong downside protection through high quality tenants and target sub-sectors. In terms of growth, we have made progress on settling the AUD 200 million in committed acquisition in the ten months since IPO.
We have also made great progress with the committed development pipeline. As I indicated earlier, we have a total uncommitted development pipeline in excess of AUD 500 million, which will provide unitholders with future earnings and valuation growth. In terms of financials, we delivered an 18% improvement in FFO versus the PDS. We met the PDS forecast distribution per unit guidance of AUD 0.075, while NTA per unit increased by 8%. Notably, we maintained a strong and flexible balance sheet. We have a current net cash position to fund our accretive development pipeline, as well as future acquisition opportunities that we expect to emerge in this environment. Let's now turn to our proactive capital management initiatives on slide six. The current economic environment absolutely calls for disciplined and proactive capital management to preserve funding capacity and flexibility.
With regard to acquisitions, while we evaluated over AUD 2 billion in opportunities, we committed to under 10% of these. In the last half in particular, with a marked increase in long bond yields, we remain disciplined in pricing opportunities. We will only seek to deploy capital when an opportunity meets our risk adjusted return hurdles. The current market conditions underscore the value of our development pipeline in terms of attractive risk adjusted returns versus acquisitions. We made strong progress with The George hospital development in Southwest Sydney, which is on time and on budget. Christian will provide a further update on the development program later. We are also in active discussions with a number of major healthcare operators to establish new property partnerships. These partnerships will create further off-market opportunities for HealthCo.
As I mentioned in my introduction, the third key takeaway from today's presentation is our proactive capital management strategy. Following an unsolicited bid, we are pleased to announce a binding agreement to sell St. Mary's at a 71% premium to book value. This sale delivers immediate upside in excess of our forecast development profit. The sale further fortifies the balance sheet to maximize our flexibility. As an extension of our capital management strategy, we have instituted a unit buyback. This will enable the REIT to take advantage of market volatility and buy back units below net asset value. Moving to slide seven. The key point here is the 90% NOI growth potential in the current portfolio. You've already seen 35% of this NOI growth delivered to date.
The key future growth drivers in the portfolio are settling the remaining childcare acquisitions and delivering Camden Stage One, The George and the Proxima developments, which are on track. We expect HealthCo to exercise its option to acquire HMC Capital's stake in the Camden Stage One development. I now wanna make a few important comments about the portfolio, starting with slide nine. As an Australian owned and operated business, we're absolutely focused on and committed to playing a key role in the provision of high quality health and care assets to underpin the national agenda to meet the demand for health and care services and infrastructure. We know this leads to improved outcome and creates healthy communities. The 39 properties in the portfolio are targeted to the key growth corridors of Australia's major metro centers.
Our five target sectors are and will continue to be underpinned by powerful and persistent mega trends, such as an aging population and increasing health spend. Turning to slide ten. Now, we have enhanced key portfolio metrics since listing. These include an increase in portfolio value since IPO of 30%, an improvement in occupancy, an increase in the WALE to 10.2 years, and a compression in the portfolio cap rate to 4.9%. Now, turning to slide 11, I wanna touch on some key portfolio strengths. We see our long term leases to high-quality tenants with contracted rental growth as key mitigants to rising inflation and interest rates. The portfolio consists of a diverse range of quality health, government, and care tenants. The tenants are spread across resilient health and wellness sub-sectors, which are critical components in health and care delivery in Australia.
Importantly, our leases have contracted rental escalations across 100% of the portfolio with a weighted average rent review of 3% per annum for leases with a fixed review. Of our total leases, 33% benefit from CPI or better escalations, which are attractive in the current environment. Turning to slide 12 and the important challenge of sustainability. Following the release of HMC Capital's inaugural sustainability report in December, HealthCo's ESG achievements build on HMC Capital's wider program. Of particular mention at this early stage are our active implementation of a smart energy management strategy, including solar at our health hub in Rouse Hill, Ballarat and Cairns. We've set gender diversity targets of 50%, which we have met across HMC Capital's workforce and HealthCo's board.
We recognize that there is more to do and are committed to that task, but believe these initial steps are a meaningful demonstration of our commitment in that regard. I will now hand over to Christian to provide more detail on our investments, financial results, and guidance before I return to concluding remarks.
Many thanks, Sam. Starting with an overview of our investment focus on slide 14. Over 70% of our portfolio is located across the key population growth corridors of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast. Our assets and development sites are ideally placed to service Australia's ever-growing demand for both private and public healthcare services. Turning now to slide 15 to provide more color on the investments we have made since the IPO. We hit the ground running and announced AUD 200 million of investments in October last year. These investments included the acquisition of a large metro childcare portfolio for AUD 108 million and HMC Capital's share in the Proxima and Camden Stage One developments. These investments materially increase the scale of our portfolio and will enhance returns and key portfolio metrics, generating yield on costs greater than 5%.
As Sam said earlier, we have also entered into an agreement to sell St. Mary's for AUD 35 million. This represents a 71% premium to book value and is a good example of a proactive capital management approach. Now moving on to developments, which is a core part of our growth strategy. There is a summary of a AUD 500 million development pipeline on slide 16, and I want us to take a look at these projects in more detail, starting with Camden in Southwest Sydney on slide 17. The AUD 500 million Camden Precinct represents a significant growth opportunity for HealthCo, underpinned by three key factors. First, the precinct is located in the fastest growing LGA in Australia, growing at a CAGR of 4.5% over the next 20 years.
Second, the private health insurance coverage in the local catchment area is over 60%. Third, the area desperately needs new hospital infrastructure. We've identified a current supply deficit of over 800 beds, so this project is ideally positioned in terms of location, timing, and its focus on services critical to a young and growing community. Turning now to slide 18 for an update on the development of The George Private Hospital component of Camden. Let me just draw out three key points about The George. First, the hospital addresses the services supply gap and provides much-needed maternity and pediatric services to the local community.
Second, the AUD 80 million development of The George is on budget and on track to be completed in Q3 FY23. It will deliver a return on investment capital in excess of 5%, with Acurio entering into a long term lease term of 15 years with options and CPI rent escalations. Now turning to slide 19 to provide an update on Stages two and three of Camden. Let's start with a brief recap on Stages two and three. Stage two of Camden will be a significant new private hospital with over 200 beds. Stage three will be a large health research facility which will complement the two private hospitals in the precinct. In terms of progress, we are in advanced discussions with a number of leading national hospital operators to become our partner for Stage two.
We are also in discussions with leading cancer care operators to complement the two hospitals. Beyond these near term projects, we have a growing development pipeline for the medium term. One such opportunity shown on this page, which is the potential for expansion of our health club at Rouse Hill in Sydney, which is located directly opposite a new and significant public hospital development. I also want to provide an update on our developments in Queensland on slide 20. First, Springfield. The construction is well progressed and pre-commitments have increased to 99%. The step-up in pre-commitments supported an AUD 11 million increase in the valuation of the asset to AUD 34 million. Second, Proxima on the Gold Coast. Construction is progressing well, and pre-commitments are now in excess of 65%, including from the Queensland Government.
To summarize, our development pipeline is strong and a key contributor to our future growth. I now want to provide an overview of the strong set of financial results we have delivered in FY22. Let's start with the earnings summary on slide 22. There are three points that we want you to note. First, HealthCo delivered FFO of AUD 0.051 per unit in FY22. This result exceeded our IPO forecast by 18% and exceeded previously upgraded guidance of AUD 0.05 per unit. Second, we recorded a statutory profit of AUD 49.6 million. This is driven by a positive fair value movement of AUD 35.1 million. Third, the FY22 distribution of AUD 0.075 per unit was in line with our PDS guidance. Now turning to our strong balance sheet on slide 23.
NTA increased to AUD 2.01 per unit. This represents an increase of 8% since the IPO. I'd also like to note that the investment property portfolio recorded a net valuation increase of 5.3%. Turning now to capital management on slide 24, which summarizes our strong liquidity position. We had net cash of AUD 30 million as at the end of June 2022, pro forma for the sale of St. Mary's. As and when we draw down debt, we will review hedging arrangements on an ongoing basis. I will now move on to provide guidance for FY23 on slide 26. We are expecting FFO of AUD 0.068 per unit. This represents year-on-year growth of 10% on an annualized basis. Distribution is expected to be AUD 0.075 per unit.
This distribution provides a sustainable base for growth, and we further expect the distribution to be FFO covered by the end of FY23 on a run rate basis. The bottom line from my point of view is that HealthCo is well-placed to continue to perform strongly and reliably for our unitholders. I'll now hand you back to Sam for concluding remarks.
Thanks, Christian. We are pleased with the progress made following the listing in September of last year. To recap on the three key takeaways from today's presentation, we have exceeded our IPO PDS forecast through active portfolio lease up, rental growth, acquisitions, and developments. We have clear embedded growth in the portfolio to realize today, which in combination with an extensive development pipeline, will deliver growth for unitholders. In the changing macro environment, we are being proactive when it comes to capital management. In closing, Christian and I would like to thank the entire HMC Capital team, our HealthCo board, and importantly, our tenant partners, for their contribution to our inaugural full-year results and strong outlook. I will now hand back to the operator to take questions. Thank you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Simon Chan from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, guys. First question is just on a bit of a clarifying one. Slide 16, the development pipeline. I think you guys gave some disclosure around more than 5% yield on cost. I do, especially in relation to the Camden Stage and Stage Three. I do recall in the past you guys have thrown out a 7% number out there. Just wondering, is there a metrics change or something's changed with the scope of the projects?
Hi, Simon. Sam here. That metric on the seven was in relation to an IRR, and what we're quoting here is a yield on cost.
On a like for like basis, everything's the same then?
That's correct. Yeah.
Great. I think in your opening remarks, you guys spoke about having only executed on 10% of the deals you've done some due diligence on. Just wondering what happened to the other 90%? Like, was it just pricing that got too hot for you guys to handle? Or yeah, can you talk a bit about that?
Hi, Simon. Yeah. Pricing is absolutely a critical factor when we assess opportunities, but also is tenant covenant, asset attributes, fit for portfolio. We take all those things into consideration when looking at acquisitions. Certainly pricing has been challenging. That being said, I think given the changing macro environment, we're seeing recent examples of that pricing cooling, which fills us with some confidence, particularly given the strong balance sheet we have.
Simon is.
Sorry, Simon, it's Christian here as well. Just to add to that as well, is we obviously had a strong focus on development pipeline as well, so we'll continue to allocate capital where we see the best returns for our capital.
Sure. Just based on your early comments, and you're suggesting that perhaps back half of this fiscal year, you guys could be in the running for more acquisition sense given the cooling market.
Absolutely. That's all on the table. We're certainly focusing on our development pipeline as it stands, but we're having some really promising discussions, particularly in regard to partnerships with operators and tenants where we're looking to create off-market opportunities.
Sure. Just my final one, Camden Stage One, can you just confirm for me, what percentage stake will you guys own upon completion? Will it be 100% or will it be 80%?
Simon, at completion, we've flagged in this presentation that we intend to exercise our option to acquire HMC Capital's share in Camden at a 5% discount. Assuming we acquire their stake, we'll end up with 92% of Camden Stage One.
Okay. Now, because it looks to me. Again, back on slide 16, HCW REIT's share of estimated investment is AUD 40 million. Again, in a previous presentation, you've given a smaller number. Is that just a percentage stake thing or has cost gone up?
No, that hasn't been a change. What we're expecting is to acquire HMC Capital's stake, which will be 46% at completion. It's based on the current fixed D&C contract. That's where we're giving guidance around just in excess of AUD 40 million for the acquisition of HMC Capital stake. There hasn't been any change.
Okay. That's fine. Just, yeah, six months ago was a different number in the slide, but that's okay. Thanks, thanks for answering my questions this morning, guys. Cheers.
Your next question comes from Stuart McLean with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Just first questions around the kind of sources and uses of capital. Just kind of trying to weigh up comments around the attractive development pipeline, comments you just made about acquisitions as well as the buyback. Is there the capital as it stands today to do all of Camden, to do a buyback and to acquire assets? Or it seems like if you acquire assets, the development pipeline is going to have to be reduced in the absence of additional equity inputs.
Just to clarify. Hey, it's Christian here, Stuart. Just to clarify your question, when you refer to Camden, are you referring to Camden Stage One or Camden Stage Two as well?
Yeah, more so Stage Two. Just thinking about, you know, the uncommitted pipeline, sounds like you're still keen to progress there. How do you afford that pipeline and the buyback and to look at acquisitions?
Yeah. I think there's a few points to make there, Stuart. I think the fact is that we have a strong balance sheet. We've got net cash on a pro forma basis at the moment that we obviously look to deploy in an accretive manner going forward. As it pertains to Camden Stage Two, there's obviously the timing factor there. It's, we've provided some guidance as to when we think that project will go online. There's clearly a time critical we need to commit capital onto that. Up until that point, we'll continue to deploy capital on our committed acquisitions and committed developments, and there's funding capacity over and beyond that.
When it comes to Camden Stage Two, we think we've got several options as to how to address the funding of that development, but also to note that we think that HCW is the natural owner of that asset. With regards to the on-market buyback, as I said, we've got a strong balance sheet, but we recognize we currently trading at a discount to NTA. An on market buyback is part of our proactive capital management strategy that we will deploy as and when it makes sense for us to do so. We're not saying we will deploy it, but it gives us a tool to do so if it makes sense.
You mentioned funding strategies for Camden Stage Two. What are those strategies as opposed to just using balance sheet capacity?
I think on that we got balance sheet capacity that we have that there may be other options. Obviously noting, as you're aware, HMC Capital also has a stake in Camden Stage Two as well. We will continue to review options as we progress the planning and the discussions with the operator Sam referred to earlier during the presentation.
Okay. Thank you. Secondly, just on the distribution, essentially a cut there, taking FY22 on annualized basis. Can you just talk through there, you know, the level that you've now set it out at AUD 0.075, why is that the right level, and ability to get that covered relatively quickly?
Yeah. I think we've sized it to provide a sustainable base for growth going forward, which we've always said that's where we're going to do. As I mentioned earlier during presentation, the distribution is going to be FFO covered by the end of current financial year on the run rate basis. To take you up from AUD 0.068 in terms of the FFO guidance to AUD 0.075 for the distribution, that reflects the full annualization of Camden Stage One coming on stream and also the full year impact of the pending childcare acquisitions as well, which we have announced and will continue to settle throughout the course of FY23.
Okay. Great. Thank you. That's it for me. Thanks.
Your next question comes from Sholto Macpherson with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Couple of follow ons from what's already been asked.
Sorry, Sholto, you're coming in and out.
Hear me now?
No.
Is that better? I'll take it off. Hang on. Can you hear me now?
We can.
Okay, cool. Dodgy headset. Look, I think if you look at the cost of debt, you guys are in a good position not to have any debt. Have you seen bidding sort of soften in the last quarter as the ten year end cost has gone up when you look at assets in terms of depth of buyers?
When looking for acquisitions on market?
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I think it certainly took its time to wash through the system, but we're having active conversations with vendors that have now readjusted anywhere from 50-100 basis points. But I just want to reiterate that pricing is one lever that we look at. Again, it's tenant covenant as asset attributes, et cetera, that are really important, when we're looking at acquisitions, but absolutely.
All right. If you look at the development returns, they're still quite attractive relative to the price, which is probably yesterday's pricing. Do you prefer to just keep developing and would you prefer to start buying assets if the price is right, and then sort of pause some developments for the following, which is Hugh's question.
I think to sum that up, yes.
Okay. You've got with the cash come back from St. Mary's, you've got about AUD 38 million pro forma cash. So with development CapEx, you'll probably be drawing that down with the buyback, you know, next sort of six months, increases to the buyback. What cost of debt would you be sort of looking at? Have you gone to market to see what your sort of cost of debt would be at present if you went to draw down debt?
Yeah. I think what we provided in the guidance as well is that we're assuming average BBSY of 2.7% throughout the year, which provides an all in debt cost of around 4.3%. That's what we're assuming for FY23. Yeah. We, as I said, as well as we look to deploy our balance sheets, we will look to enter into hedging arrangements as well as and when it makes sense for us.
With the buyback, just on, you've had a 19% discount to the new NTA, assuming your cash is about 1.5, you know, your equity yield on the guidance at 4.2. You've got about a 2.7 spread. Obviously that increases leverage more than buying or developing assets. What's the. It's pretty tight return versus development. What would make you hit the buyback? Would the share price have to be a lot lower than it is today, given the returns on development and acquisition are probably higher and with less leverage?
As I said, Sholto, I mean, all we've said is we're establishing an on market units buyback program as and if and when we will deploy that program. We'll continue to monitor when it makes sense to do so.
All right. Great. Thanks so much for your time.
Pleasure.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Jeffrey Pow with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, guys. Thanks for the presentation today. Just a quick one from me. I mean, you talked about the opportunities coming across, you know, that you guys have seen, but, you know, they're not stacking up in terms of pricing. You are seeing cooling. Which, you know, which subcategories across healthcare are you seeing the most cooling? And which portions are you seeing that are still resilient? If you could provide, if you have, you know, cap rates, you know, your cap rate outlook across those subcategories, that'd be very helpful.
Hi, Jeffrey. Where we're really seeing the opportunities, I think we're having a number of discussions with private hospital operators and aged care operators. I think what's gonna be really important, though, is tenant selection is critical. That's something that's gonna be a real focus for us and something to keep an eye on. As far as cap rates as we see them, we're not gonna really crystal ball. You'll see there was a slight tightening of our portfolio cap rates. You know, other than that, we probably won't provide too much more guidance on when to see it going from here going forward.
No, thanks for that. Just on the lease up of Proxima, I mean, you guys had the pre-commitments there, but just given the current environment, would you expect some tenants potentially, you know, taking longer to make decisions on expansion? Or just, you know, given, you know, healthcare and just given the demand and growth we're seeing over the next few years, you know, that isn't really an issue. Is there any sense of slowing in terms of that, like, tenant demand or still same course as what you expected at IPO?
It's in line with what we expected, and we'll expect to see a continued increase in pre-commitments going forward. Also to note that we got a one year rental guarantee as well after completion as well, just in terms of the financial aspects. We're confident we'll see continue to see increase in pre-commitments.
Thanks, Sam.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. That does conclude the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.