Thank you very much, and good morning, everybody. So, as you just heard, my name's Scott Kelly. I'm the CEO of Real Asset Management. We're pleased to be able to present a solid set of results for the RAM Essential Services Property Fund this morning. The plan is to take around 20 minutes or so to run through the presentation, then leave some time for questions thereafter. I'm joined today by Matthew Strotton, Head of Real Estate at RAM, and Peter Granato, who's the Fund Manager for RAM. In terms of the agenda, I'll take you through the highlights, and then Matt and Peter will take you through the bulk of the presentation, being healthcare fundamentals, portfolio and financial performance, portfolio recycling, value-add pipeline. Then I'll summarise, and as I said, leave a bit of time for questions at the end.
In terms of overarching comments, I would lead in by saying that the portfolio remains healthy with solid cash flows from essential services. The balance sheet has been well managed, and we continue to execute our capital recycling as we shift towards a higher healthcare weight and demonstrate the ability to access liquidity through the cycle. That ability is standing us in good stead as we start to acquire high-quality assets on attractive yields, and we have an example to talk through today. Turning to page four, let me skip you through the highlights. Leasing remains strong with 34 deals done in the year, with spreads of 3.8%. In doing that, we've also extended the WALE out to 7.1 years, which represents a 9.2% enhancement.
Occupancy has ever remained very high, in the very high 90s, and we've enhanced the tenant mix with the introduction of Ramsay Health Care into the portfolio this year. Important to highlight that the tenant mix remains highly diversified. In terms of cap rates, we've consistently indicated that we thought we'd land around 6% by the end of the cycle, and that's where we are with a five basis point move over the year, with 74% of the assets being externally valued over the last 12 months. Our capital recycling continues. Since we started the program, we've sold just under AUD 120 million of assets. I want to dwell on one small but important sentence on the top right of this page.
It says, "Potential to acquire to accelerate progress with cost-effective multi-asset transition." That refers to us working on a larger portfolio-type deal that would see us execute the program faster and in a more cost-effective manner. We'll keep you posted on that as we progress that deal. As we shift the portfolio, we do so whilst managing the gearing position. In the short term, it has lifted a couple of percentage points, but clearly post the indicated transactions, we'll return to the longer-term average of around about 35%. With that, I'll hand over to Matt.
Thank you, SK. And just picking out or picking up on a couple of those points on slide six. So if 2025 was a year of realistically stabilization and capital recycling for RAM, responding to what has been challenging cyclical conditions, 2026 will be a year of transition. We wanted to amplify our prior messaging about our stated and highly convicted objective to transition RAM from 50/50 healthcare and retail towards a pure healthcare portfolio. Now, why are we doing this?
We're doing this to provide investors with a clear sector allocation decision, to provide our investors with a realistic alternative in pure healthcare, to allow us to reposition and recalibrate the fund at a point in time when capital markets are presenting us with a unique opportunity to do so at relative value, and to provide investors with a longer duration, lower income volatility, and lower capital volatility offer. Like you, we've been witness to a stabilizing cycle now, the commencement of a new interest rate cycle, further corporate activity, particularly in healthcare, diminishing but still relevant liquidity pressures, re-emerging, albeit inconsistently spread investor demand, and finally, certainly from our perspective, a more rational and realistic market sentiment on the financial health in the healthcare sector. We have been watching these intently and responding.
We've been busy looking at alternatives for our retail assets, working overtime on deal flow origination, and responding to these same conditions, readying for further activity, and we are progressing well. We firmly believe in this pathway and look forward to updating you in the coming quarters. Turning to slide seven. So as we downweight in retail, what about the use of fund proceeds? Our objective is to buy at the right time, sourcing when there is a cyclical high depth in deal flow, in parallel with maximizing our engagement and flow of information with our operators. We're aiming to secure across a broad subset, considering opportunities across the risk spectrum and originating discussions invariably all off-market.
We are targeting private, non-profit anchored hospital schemes, day hospitals in particular, mental health hospitals and primary healthcare, and we continue to engage and seek opportunities in surgical hospitals and other specialist services and further services and further other adjacencies in the medical sector like life sciences, research and laboratories, and medical storage and distribution. You will recall our central tenet in healthcare is to secure pipeline and build strong operator-led relationships. We want to build these relationships where we can provide a service as an active partner to be an extension of their in-house real estate team, which enables us to be prepared and contribute and respond to shifting real estate needs. These needs include upgrading or remixing physical services within our tenants' offer, any possible new developments or site aggregation and expansion. This has proven to lead to new opportunities.
Finally, we do continue to target a greater level of tenant diversification. That is a priority within our next planned phase of growth for healthcare. This was exemplified through the Ramsay acquisition last year. Just turning to slide eight. So where is pricing today? Where are cap rates for healthcare and retail, and where are we in the cycle? This particular chart depicts historic cap rate data for both neighborhood retail and medical center and hospital cap rates, along with the forward-looking data, which is a combination of our internal view and market consensus on where we believe cap rates to be heading.
We have speculated both internally and with our discussions with you, our investors, regarding the retail sector, that the strength and now stabilization in retail market fundamentals, those fundamentals in leasing, leasing spreads, the normalization of CPI, the effect on reviews, and sales levels or turnover levels stabilizing, combined with escalating investor demand, would translate to firming cap rates somewhat ahead of healthcare, which means to us that now is a highly opportune time to reweight out of retail into healthcare. This relative value is highly identifiable and highly attractive to us. I'll hand it back now to Pete.
Thank you, Matt, and good morning all. Now moving on to slide ten. I'm once again pleased today to take you through the key aspects surrounding the portfolio performance. The fund continues to perform over FY25, generating stable and secure returns from the 26 properties valued at AUD 671 million. As you can see from the graph on the right, 70% of the portfolio by value is located within the populous Eastern States. Occupancy levels remain strong and have been maintained at a healthy 98%, with income underpinned by major retail and healthcare tenants. Pleasingly, the portfolio WALE remains at a tad above seven years, which is an outstanding result given the passage of time. Key drivers are attributable to the continued leasing efforts, portfolio composition, and divestment of shorter WALE assets.
Renewal retention rates remain strong, with circa 95% of FY26 expiries in advanced stages, while approximately 70% of income expires from FY30 and beyond. As you can see from the graph on the right, 88% of the income is exposed to annual escalators that continue to drive annual income growth. In terms of reviews, the weighted average rent review fixed is now at 3.49%, and the blended rate average rent review now equates to a healthy 3.38%, which remains above current inflation levels. We continue to work closely with our tenants and explore ways to support their evolving needs. Leasing efforts and asset management initiatives remain a key focus, and we will continue to support value across the portfolio. Final comments on this slide relate to valuations, which have stabilized at the 6% level, with the portfolio now weighted at an average cap rate of 6.09%.
With further detail to follow in later slides. Turning over to slide 11, which shows a great visual of the geographical diversification of the portfolio, once again highlighting the weighting of the portfolio towards Eastern States. The enhanced and evolving tenancy profile, which is diversifying both across tenant and healthcare subsector, now includes the likes of Ramsay Health Care, Healthe Care, St John of God , Sigma , Woolworths , Coles , and among others. 50% of the portfolio combined is now derived from our private hospital assets and our major supermarket tenants, with the portfolio now comprised of approximately 70% national tenants. As you can see, this is an evolving list and includes many ASX-listed groups and major players which we're committed to partner with. Moving on to slide 12, portfolio resilience. So this slide is quite self-explanatory, and I'll focus on the key highlights and items not previously discussed.
We've achieved comparable annual growth of 3.2% on a like-for-like basis. Leasing spreads have come in just under 4% and continue to outpace inflation. 45% of the leases have fixed annual reviews, which support income growth as inflation cools, and net leases and fixed annual reviews remain the targeted position. Approximately 62% of leases are on a net basis, which provides our natural hedge against increases in operational expenditure. Supermarket growth has normalized in recent times. However, the 2.8% MAT growth remains well in line with our peers and slightly ahead from our December results. We remain focused on supporting MAT initiatives and are currently working with our major tenants on a range of refurbishment programs as they seek to deploy capital to stores and improve MAT. Moving on to slide 13, which steps through the key components of our valuations.
Since December 2024, we settled on three lower-value medical assets and redeployed these funds into the Ramsay Anchored Care and Surgical Centre. We continue to externally value a high proportion of the portfolio, with 74% of the portfolio externally valued within the past 12 months. As foreshadowed, we predicted valuations would stabilize towards 6% level as we progress through the late stages of the cycle. This is reflected in the weighted average cap rate of 6.08%, and by way of peer comparison, we remain in line with our listed peers and slightly softer than compared to our listed healthcare peers. The weighted average cap rate for our nimble, smaller private hospitals and day surgeries now sits at 5.77%, and these assets are supported by long-term tenants and a WALE in excess of 10 years.
In summary, we believe we're in the late stages of the valuation cycle and the valuations have stabilized. We see a positive outlook for the valuations off the back of interest rate reduction tailwinds, continued income growth, which have been largely attributable to the current valuation improvements, and the right signals of cap rate compression on the horizon. We continue to remain focused on growth strategies that support valuation growth in the near term and beyond. So now moving on to next slide, slide 15, which focuses on financial performance. The fund has delivered a healthy distribution of AUD 0.05 per unit to our investors. Funds From Operations have arrived at a pleasing AUD 24.5 million or AUD 0.0489 per unit, which aligns with the ongoing acquisition and divestment activity.
As you can appreciate, this activity has impacted throughout the year, and in terms of our year-on-year comparisons, the fund has achieved comparable growth of 3.2%, as I mentioned earlier. The FFO was marginally below the distribution and largely attributable to the aggregation of the timing impact of some leasing deals that have pushed out into the later part of the year and early into FY26. We also saw additional costs associated with the effects of cyclone Alfred. Finance costs have stabilized driven by transaction activity, the share buyback program, debt movements, and an active approach to hedging. You'll also see that management fees have reduced, reflecting a lower assets under management from the portfolio transition. The securities buyback completed at the end of Q3 FY25 as the fund continues to look ahead to deploy capital into accretive acquisitions and value-add activities.
Next on to slide 16, balance sheet and capital management. A strengthened and flexible balance sheet will provide the fund with the levers to facilitate growth. As you can see, gearing has moved to 38.8% as the valuation outlook improves with interest rate tailwinds, continued income growth, and positive signals of cap rate improvements on the horizon. Gearing will be actively managed as we progress through the cap, as we continue through the capital recycling process. As you can also see on the slide, NTA is currently sitting at AUD 0.81 per unit. Other key metrics include borrowings. The balance as of 30 June was just under AUD 268 million. That was drawn out of the AUD 340 million syndicated facility limit at a weighted average cost of debt of 5.18% for the year.
The ICR covenant remains at 1.5 times, which is a key attribute of the financing and provides the flexibility of the fund, with the ICR standing at 2.02, a comfortable level above the ICR covenant. The interest rate environment has been ever-changing, with international and domestic influences playing their part. We've been active managers in this space, and hedging will continue to be dynamically managed with a lower-cost approach to managing the hedge position. Now moving on to slide 17. So this slide is quite self-explanatory. However, I'll touch on the main points. Once again, near-term capital management activities will center around dynamically managing the 1.5-year hedging profile and the 88% hedged position in a prudent manner. We have actively secured an extension to the syndicated facility out to January 2027, with more than sufficient time to step through the financing options in the lead-up to expiry.
The fund remains well-positioned to support acquisition, disposition, and value-add activity with a headroom of AUD 72 million. I would like to now hand you over to Matt, who will take us through capital recycling activity. Thanks, Matt.
Thanks, Pete. So first, moving on to slide 19. So as noted and picking up on earlier comments, 2025 was indeed a year focusing on capital recycling. As the signs did become clearer to us on the direction of the cycle and as we prepared for our healthcare transitions, we have responded to those market variable signals and interpreting the sentiment and value indicators just like you. Our buyback was concluded in March, and as noted earlier, we've been quite active in reviewing ways to crystallize our retail holdings and reallocating to accretive opportunities and to manage leverage. We are looking at opportunities across the spectrum. Just moving forward quickly now to slide 20. During the year and in last year's presentation, we highlighted our intention to recycle around AUD 100 million in assets, assets that in effect had run their strategic course.
We managed to reach this objective and indeed exceeded this amount, reaching AUD 120 million in sales, averaging a sales yield of 5.7%. We continue with this program into 2026, albeit on a more select basis, notwithstanding the plans to downweight and reallocate in retail, considering multiple alternatives, and just moving forward, one more slide to 21. Finally, from me, a summary again of our transaction in North Queensland this year through the acquisition of the Ramsay-anchored Care and Surgical Centre. This was indeed a pleasing addition to the portfolio, particularly given the value equation, but importantly, due to the strategic position of this asset and Ramsay's retention and position within the care market. We are continuing to source opportunities like these assets that do have both near-term value-add potential, lease-up alternatives, and physical improvement opportunity as we engage more with individual operators.
So watch this space for more opportunities like this to emerge. And with that, I'll hand it back to Chris Cartrett.
Yeah, thanks, Matt. Now moving on to the next slide, slide 23, which focuses on key contributors for growth. As we've mentioned previously, we're now playing offense and remain focused on unlocking embedded values in the portfolio, which is important. Once again, we're pleased with our latest development at North West Private Hospital, with the CAFA now complete and operational. This project was delivered by RAM and Healthe Care development teams, both on time and on budget, which is a great example of collaboration. Certainly, this circa AUD 77 million project was rentalized at a 7% yield on cost and supported by a 30-year lease, which in turn increased the fund WALE. The CAFA will improve profitability, which is critical of the hospital and represents stage one of the broader master plan while providing a blueprint for further development with one of our major tenants. So moving on to slide 24.
Certainly, we continue to maximize the value across our assets and manage our balance sheet prudently. We're engaged with our tenants and continue to pursue value-add projects and intend to execute these when tenant-led timing is right. We continue to master plan and refine our near-term value-add projects, which, as you can see, amount to approximately AUD 105 million across our main private hospitals. As we continue to look forward to some of our exciting retail schemes, such as Ballina and Rutherford, which are now surfacing as schemes we very much love to pursue. Certainly, these projects will be underpinned by anchor tenants that will form part of our near-term capital planning activities. Other schemes extend to Mowbray and Willetton, which amount to approximately AUD 35 million and potentially growing.
Certainly, for these projects, development approvals are in place or progressing, and we are continuing to engage with our anchor tenants and work through their underlying requirements and commercial terms. Now on to slide 25, which does step through key attributes to our value-add projects. The first category, we sort of looked at these in different categories just to sort of outline the way that we think and approach the portfolio and certainly value-add opportunities. The first category of the activity very much is focused on tenant-led expansions. Touched on all these certainly before and as evidenced by the North West example, but certainly their strategy is high yield on cost outcomes based on a fixed or floating metric. We very much focus on providing a pathway for the tenant to increase operational profits by providing real estate solutions that are flexible, adaptable, and meet their evolving needs.
And as we sort of mentioned, and you can see on the list, most of the schemes are focused on our private hospitals. Certainly, if you look at the next category, which very much focuses on the repositioning of tenants, and as we know, this can be done in a number of ways. This approach, like others, is focused on a staged approach that improves overall profitability of the operator, and it can be done simply by reshaping a tenancy over time or investing in our assets to achieve better leasing outcomes. While the final category focuses on typical brownfield opportunities, which we'll continue to explore. On one final point, an interesting feature of the fund is the low site coverage ratio.
In particular, it's approximately 10% for the healthcare portfolio, which is largely where the tenant-led yield on cost opportunities lie, and approximately 20% if you look at it from a broader fund perspective. This underutilized land bank presents an opportunity to unlock embedded value and growth over time, and certainly something which we'll continue to explore. I'd now like to pass over to Scott, who will step through the outlook in closing. Sorry.
Thank you very much, Pete. So I'll briefly sum up on slide 27 before handing over to Q&A. So growth is coming through in decent NOI improvement, and leasing spreads have consistently been above inflation. Natural inflation protection also comes through in the weighted average rent review, which is also in excess of CPI. 97% of the income comes from essential service tenants, generating solid, reliable cash flows, which is the essence of this strategy. The tenant mix is diversified, it's high quality, and it's been enhanced this year. Again, we've been busy. Our ability to access liquidity and evolve the portfolio through the cycle is a real strength. That has allowed us to maintain a comfortable level of gearing, execute a buyback, and start to shift the portfolio in the direction of accretive opportunities.
We intend to accelerate that activity in the coming year with favorable market conditions, as Matthew outlined earlier. Looking forward, our guidance sits in line with analyst Consensus, which equates to an 8% plus yield, with almost all of our income being tax-deferred. Consensus would suggest that we're looking for a period where rates continue to creep lower. Other pressures have also eased, which means that being in a position to redeploy capital into high-quality acquisitions and re-engage a well-considered value-add initiative pipeline is an enviable one. With that, I'll hand over to Q&A.
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 a request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before you ask your question. Your first question will come from Tom Beadle with UBS. Please go ahead.
Morning, Tim. I'd just be interested in what you've done to the hedging profile on slide 16, how it sort of goes down in 2026 and then jumps back up at a fairly high rate in 2027. I'd just be interested in the thinking there. Have you done something to change swaps, or how do you see that debt cost headwind in 2027?
Yeah, sure. So let me just pull up the detail. So what we've got, I guess fundamentally, we've been active in the hedging space. There's been a range of hedges that we've put in place, which do carry through into future years. Obviously, all of our hedging does expire through FY27, but there's been nothing hugely material. It's just been the natural roll-off of the hedging. We do have in FY25, a hedge did roll off, and so the pricing did move upwards.
So you haven't cancelled any swaps or paid any capital to put new swaps in?
We did put in a new swap of AUD 50 million at 3.5% that will carry through up until June 27.
Okay, but no capital outlay to put that swap in?
No, no capital outlay, no.
Okay, thanks. And then just on the guidance, appreciate you guys give DPU guidance. You only give a payout ratio range. But where do you see the payout ratio? Is it going to be closer to the 95% or the 100% in your view on 26?
Yeah, we've got a lot of moving parts. Tom, as I'm sure you can appreciate. So we're probably, if you were to press us, probably towards the higher end of that payout ratio.
Okay, thanks. And then maybe just a final one. You're clearly sort of buying stuff opportunistically. You feel it's the right point in the cycle and maybe buying a bit ahead of selling. Could your gearing temporarily exceed the 40% as that plays out over the next year, or do you think you'll definitely keep it beneath the 40%?
Yeah, highly unlikely. So probably as high as it's going to be. And we would anticipate it falling as we move through the capital recycling program.
Okay, great. Thanks.
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 will come from Winston Sammut with E&P Financial Group. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Can you hear me okay?
We can, Winston. Good to talk to you again.
Okay. Yeah, good. Let me paint a picture first. Since the 10th of April, when there was an announcement about Kieran Pryke coming to the board, there's been no announcements whatsoever regarding any of your activities in terms of the investments or acquisitions, which I find very strange. But does that mean that you've done nothing in the last six months or so since a proper announcement? And if not, why haven't you actually made announcements to shareholders, unit holders, and investors? That's point number one. Point number two, the sector in April was up 6.3%. In May, it was up 4.9%. In June, it was up 1.6%. In July, it was up 3.4%. And in August to date, it's up 4.5%. Cumulatively, that's nearly 23% upside in the sector overall. What has REP done?
It's gone from AUD 0.58 at the end of March to AUD 0.62, which is 6.9%, which I find very disappointing, notwithstanding all the activity that you're talking about. In addition, the NTA continues to fall from AUD 0.88 to AUD 0.81. This thing should not be listed. You're getting a management fee. You're not providing any information to investors. And I need you to answer those issues and what you intend to do about, I mean, the stock is down another cent today, notwithstanding the results.
Yeah. So I'll just spin you through those, Winston. So I mean, Kieran was a good addition to the board. There's nothing to announce. So what we're trying to do.
Sorry, hang on, hang on. What do you mean this? What do you mean there's nothing to announce? You've done no transactions since April?
If you let me explain, Winston, I'll have a crack at it, mate, all right? But what we're working on, as we alluded to in the presentation, I said there's a small, but I don't think you joined at that point because it was on slide one. There's a small but important sentence on the highlight slide, which indicates that we're working on a multi-asset deal. So we're working on a large deal to accelerate the capital transaction. So when we're working on a large deal, that obviously takes a bit more time. We had previously been selling assets around the AUD 20 million mark. As we've highlighted in this presentation, that's a cumulative being about AUD 119 million worth of assets.
So we have been doing that, but we want to do it more cost-effectively, hopefully, and we want to do that more quickly, which means we're working on a bigger deal. It doesn't mean that we're not doing anything. It just means that we don't have anything to announce to the listed environment. We've alluded to it as much as we can, but when we announce that, it'll be a bigger announcement rather than a series of small ones. So it's not that we've been inactive. The second one about the sector, I don't know what index you're looking at, but I suspect it's the broader REIT sector, REIT index. If that's the case, I mean, you should probably split out Goodman. You should split out the large-cap REITs, which have moved quicker than the small-cap REITs. It's been a feature of the market that small-caps have underperformed.
So happy to delve into some analysis there. In terms of the NTA, yeah, it's fallen. I mean, I don't think you need, but it hasn't fallen recently. It's been 81 for about the last year. So there's no downward movement in the NTA that should be concerning. So we have been busy. The NTA has been stable, and the fund has been performing in line with small-cap REITs. We have to also accept that there has been some noise with another fund manager in the healthcare space around one of their tenants. That hasn't helped market sentiment in the short term, but it has created more opportunity for us to redeploy capital into the healthcare sector at attractive, accretive yields.
Yeah, I'm sorry. If you have a look at slide 30 or 31, the NTA at the end of 2024 was AUD 0.88. Today, 30th of June is AUD 0.81. How can you say it hasn't moved?
That would be relative to where we were at December. Obviously, in June, it was 88.
Financial year 2024, AUD 0.88. Financial year 2025 is AUD 0.81. To me, that's a call.
It is, Winston. But what we're saying is, it's the same NTA as we reported at the half-year. I don't think we're unique in terms of slightly softening cap rates over that period of time, which are reflected in a movement in NTA.
Okay. So why is this thing listed? Since listing at AUD 1, the stock price has never, it may have traded above AUD 1 for a very brief period of time, but it's continued to fall over the five years, and now we're down to AUD 0.61. Where is the value for investors?
Yeah, well, the value for investors is.
Why should we? You're going.
Yes, the value of investors is, so since we listed on the 21st of October 2021, that coincided with obviously some significant macro headwinds, which have affected all REITs, including small-cap REITs. So yes, it has been, unfortunately, in terms of timing. Where's the value for the investors? The value for investors is hopefully in some recovery as those headwinds become tailwinds. So if you think about, if you took Tom, for example, who was just on the call from UBS, if you look at his target price, it's AUD 0.75. So I think there is value. I mean, we're going to run out of time here, Winston, but ultimately, happy to take more of your questions offline as we did last night.
Thank you. Your next question will come from Robin Young. Please go ahead.
Yeah, I just wanted to understand the leap up in the property expenses, notwithstanding the incentives that you're putting out. Is that something we should expect to continue going forward? And then how much of sort of the turnaround in the portfolio is getting reflected in that line? I don't need to think about that going forward, please.
Yeah, in terms of incentives, obviously, we've run across the breadth of retail and healthcare. We do have, through the year, some incentives that certainly went through in relation to one of the majors in particular, Woolworths, Mowbray. So what we're going to see, I guess, in a smaller fund, some of these movements are quite amplified. But certainly, in a general sense, retail incentives are very much normalizing. We're getting good, strong retention rates across our tenants. We've obviously executed the Healthe Care deal and yield and cost position, which translates to income. And certainly, we feel we're very much positioned into 2026 quite well.
2026 should be more like 2024, or is 2025 the level going forward?
In terms of incentives, is that?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's part of that, obviously, the North West Private Hospital, giving you that 30-year WALE. I presume that maybe you had to do something there, or just trying to understand. It's quite a big leap.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Look, it'd be more toward prior years as a reference point.
Right. Excellent. Thanks, guys.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Kelly for any closing remarks.
No, I think we've summed it up in the presentation, and we look forward to expanding the conversations with many of the people on the call today. Thank you very much for your attention.