Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning. Welcome to the video conference of LOG Commercial Properties on the results of the 2Q 2023. With us today are Sergio Fischer, CEO, and Andréia Vitoria, CFO and Head of Investor Relations. We would like to inform you that this presentation is being recorded and translated simultaneously. The translation feature is available by clicking in the Interpretation icon in the bottom of the platform. For those of you listening to the presentation in English, you can choose to silence the original audio by clicking in the option Mute Original Audio. During the company's presentation, all participants will have their microphones disabled. At the end of the presentation, we will initiate the Q&A session. To ask a question, just click on the Q&A button and state your name and company.
Once your name is called, a request to activate your microphone will pop up, and then you can unmute your microphone and ask your questions. We would like to clarify that any forward-looking statements that might be made during this conference call related to LOG's business outlook, projections, and financial and operating goals, are based on beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors must understand that political, macroeconomic, and other operating factors may affect the future of the company and lead to results that differ substantially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. To open this video conference and the results of the second quarter of 2023, I will turn the floor to Sergio Fischer.
Good morning. Thank you for participating in LOG's second quarter 2023 earnings results call. This quarter, we celebrate LOG's 15th anniversary.
Throughout our history, we have established ourselves as a reference in the development of Class A warehouses in Brazil, being the only warehouse company present in all regions of the country. At the end of June 2023, we posted a new record of a stabilized vacancy of only 0.72%. This is a very strong indicator of the quality of our assets, but also a good benchmark of demand that remains very strong in our regions in operation. In the first half of this year, we achieved gross absorption of 338,000 square meters of GLA, of which 117,000 square meters was in the second quarter of 2023. The highlights being logistics and transportation. This quarter, we achieved an agreement renewal rate of 100%.
We are going through a moment in which the positive dynamics of prices, as well as the slowdown in cost pressure, has allowed the company to develop projects with yields close to 13% a year. This quarter, the company delivered more than 71,000 square meters of GLA, 100% leased into projects in the Northeast. We currently have eight projects under construction in important metropolitan regions of the country. Since the end of the 1st quarter, when we announced our intention to move forward with the recycling of our portfolio, four transactions were concluded with three different buyers, totaling the sale of 375,000 square meters of GLA in 11 assets. With this, we ended the 2nd quarter with a strong emphasis on asset sales. Since May, we have sold BRL 1.2 billion.
Now I'll hand the floor over to Andre, so he can comment on our financial highlights. The second quarter of 2023 reported an adding of BRL 43.9 million. EBITDA in the quarter stood at BRL 70 million, 61% of which was generated by our leasing activities, with an operating margin of 75%. General and admin expenses have remained flat over the last few quarters, reinforcing the company's commitment to controlling expenses. Our operating performance is also positively reflected in the financial results we presented in the second quarter of 2023. Net revenue was BRL 57 million, 17% higher year-on-year. If we consider the assets sold in the period, the increase would have been 40%. Net delinquency over the last 12 months stood at an all-time low of just 0.8%.
Since 2019, we have generated BRL 2.1 billion through the sale of 15 assets. We will continue to recycle our assets as we understand that this strategy is the best way to generate value for our shareholders, monetizing our assets while building cash for new investments. The attractiveness and liquidity of LOG's assets have been one of the key drivers of the success of our business model. In order to maintain the financial strength of our balance sheet, a large part of the proceeds from the asset sales have been allocated to reducing net debt. We have set a debt ceiling compatible with our capital structure, considering the market momentum. Net debt was reduced by BRL 490 million this quarter, representing 19% of net equity and a net LTV of 16%.
We will continue to focus on maximizing results consistently throughout the year, taking advantage of opportunities to develop new projects. LOG continues to focus on several ESG initiatives, maintaining environmental, social, and governance practices in line with the interests and expectations of our customers and shareholders. In fact, emphasizing that 100% comes from renewable sources. We will now move to the Q&A session.
Thank you. We will now initiate the Q&A session. As a reminder, for questions, just click in the Q&A icon and type in your name and company. Once your name is called in, you will see a pop-up to activate your mic. Your microphone. Then you just activate your microphone and ask your questions. Please wait. Our first question comes from Mr. Bruno Mendonça, from Bradesco BBI. Bruno, your microphone is on.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions.
Sergio Fischer and Andre Vitoria, my question is about the average rental ticket, because the operating figures of LOG are quite impressive. You've been delivered 100% leased, and what drew my attention was the 100% agreement renewal rate. The average ticket indicator, it might be a bit polluted because of the sale of assets, because Amazon was a tenant with a higher ticket. Could you please elaborate on that average ticket without tenants, if possible? How did you proceed with the negotiation of the renewal of the agreements, whether you were able to transfer some price adjustments in the renewals?
Bruno Mendonca, good morning. This is Sergio Fischer. Thank you for your questions.
Yeah, there was a drop in the average ticket from, you know, slightly above BRL 20 to BRL 18 because of the mix of tickets that had, you know, a high of leases that had a higher ticket. But we've been able to transfer prices above inflation for the 5th quarter in a row. I don't think this scenario will change. We will continue to move on with this, with this same strategy in this 3rd quarter. But the number will really depend on the number of agreements that are renewed. As we have no vacancy, almost no vacancy at all, it will certainly depend on what will be renewed, you know, throughout the next quarters, to see whether we will be able to transfer prices above inflation. The scenario remains quite positive. It's the 5th continuous quarter with transfers above inflation.
The new projects that are being delivered, this quarter, we delivered 71,000 square meters of GLA, and the average ticket was above 20 BRL. This has been the average of our new leases for this retail product of LOG. We've seen a trend where prices were increasing. In the past, the prices varied more between, you know, stronger geographies, but today, prices are linear, close to 20 BRL or 22 BRL, which is quite positive, and this has pushed the yield of new projects, as we referred to in the beginning of the presentation. The trend is for an increase of the average ticket in view of the new deliveries as well.
This 20 BRL or 22 BRL, this is the standard warehouse with no particular specification in terms of tenant improvement.
Is there any difference related to geographies, or is much more, you know, in a certain region?
Well, it's very linear. The two deliveries we did this quarter was in the North, the Northeast. The ticket was close to BRL 22, as I said. There are some variations. Certainly, some geographies are stronger than others. In the South and Southeast, that number could be BRL 25, but this is better than in the past. The trend is that this will migrate close to BRL 22. Was that the question, or am I missing something? Well, whether this is the standard warehouse or whether there is any tenant improvement when you refer to BRL 20/22.
I mean, the mix of products we are delivering this year, there is only one BTS, that it has a little bit of tenant improvement, which is very close to our standard, and this is to be delivered maybe in the fourth quarter of this year, or the first quarter of next year. The projects we are delivering today is the run-of-the-mill. I mean, the business as usual of LOG's that fits into any kind of operation, any industry sector. This is the LOG's standard delivery with the Class A specification, of course. We anticipate delivering, you know, more standard warehouses.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Mr. Andre Mazini, from Citi. Andre, you may proceed.
Hello, Sergio and Andre. Thank you and good morning. I also have two questions. My first question is about an update on your growth plan.
I think, I mean, we had an increase in interest rates. The company, you know, had some leverage, and now you are de-leveraging, and now we see a decrease in interest rates. Has anything changed in that program of Todos por Um e Meio, all for one and a half? You had some predictions for the end of 2024. Now that you're divesting and in considering a scenario of lower interest rates, what do you anticipate going forward? I mean, you just said that 100% of your projects are already using clean energy. Could you please elaborate a bit more on that? Maybe it's not everything, you know, using that distributed energy in the warehouse itself, I don't think you would have enough solar panels for all of that.
I mean, we already have a very clean energy grid in Brazil. How did you arrive at that number?
Hi, this is Sergio. I will answer the first part of your question on growth, and then Andre will answer the second question. Okay, early this year, we decided to adopt a more conservative position to adjust our balance sheet. We set a ceiling of net debt that would be adequate for this current scenario, and we also anticipated some recycling. We conducted a very strong recycling operation in the first quarter, higher than in past years, because we wanted to have enough cash to continue investing. Well, the positive side of that is, as the market is in high demand, prices are escalating and we see some stabilization and maybe some drop in the construction costs.
We've seen very good opportunities to make new businesses. We, we should deliver projects close to 3% a year, and the mix delivered in the second quarter had a, an yield of 12.5%, which in our view, is quite positive. We wanted to structure our balance sheet so that we could move on with our growth strategy. The speed of growth, I mean, we have the internal capacity of making 400,000-500,000 square meters of GLA a year, pretty much along the lines of last year. This year, I think we would do half of it. We may deliver about 200,000 square meters of GLA throughout the year.
2024 will certainly depend on, on the macro landscape and the, and the capacity of the market, and that, that decline in interest rates that we saw yesterday, which was quite positive. And so I cannot really tell you when we will deliver the entire plan. The, the fact is that we see very-- a lot of good opportunities, and we will keep the balance going so that we can benefit from all the opportunities, and that will be done through recycling. What I wanted to emphasize here is the liquidity of our assets. I think the movement we just did in the past three months with the, the record sales, also, we see a very challenging mac, macro scenario. We saw assets with 8% cap, and in the past, they would be sold at about 7%.
We understand that this momentum will come back in, in the short, in the, the mid-range. The spread trends is that this will increase in a very significant way. We are on the upside in terms of yield and also in the macro scenario. We will continue to pursue this plan. We will continue to invest, at the same time, we will be conservative because we do not want to exceed the ceiling, because we understand that the ceiling that we set is very reasonable for the current moment, and we will continue to monitor the macro scenario. Speaking about the energy part of the question, I mean, I think we have three pillars of ESG. On the environmental side, we are putting more focus on that, especially in terms of energy. We are conducting several studies.
We are using energy coming from solar panels. We constantly monitor this new energy resource. I mean, this can be a trend if you look at the, at the trend going forward. We are also studying, you know, the high, you know, to produce energy. Now, in terms of energy coming from clean and renewable sources, most of the energy we use today comes from the free market. I would say that approximately above 80% of the energy comes from renewable sources, because we believe that this energy comes from renewable sources, is it, and we buy it through the free market so that we can have that certification. Moreover, the new projects that we are building, we guarantee that their energy source is 100% renewable.
We are already getting some requests from customers asking us to, to supply our source, our, our fleet with renewable energy. The main focus now is energy. We will stick to 100% of energy coming from renewable sources.
Perfect. Thank you very much, Sergio and Andrea.
Our next question comes from Mr. André Dibe from Itaú BBA. Andre, your microphone is on.
Good morning, Sergio. Good morning, Andrea. Thank you for that presentation and for taking my question. I only have one question, and it's pretty much a follow-up on that yield cost. You, you saw an upside on that yield curve, and in the release, you said that it was something close to 13%. I would just like to understand the direction and where do you think there is room for further contribution to that upside? Would it come from the stronger demand?
Maybe, you know, with the construction cost being lower, whether you think something could come from savings on the construction side? Looking at a more favorable scenario, where do you think that yield cost could go to? Should it go to something close to 14% or 15%, or maybe I'm just being too over-optimistic?
Thank you for the question.
This is Sergio. The contribution to that increase comes more from price rather than production cost. In the, in the last two years, we saw a spike in construction, construction costs during the pandemic. There was an increase of over 30%. We've also seen in most recent projects, costs coming down a bit or even being flat.
The bulk of the contribution comes from the increase in these prices, because we've seen prices over BRL 20 in any region of the country that you look at. Going forward, we are working with a stability scenario in construction prices. I don't think that there will be any relevant variation, you know, up or down. We are still working with the, the upside scenario because we see that there is room to, you know, push forward the lease prices, and we see customers willing to pay more for that same space all over the country. We are delivering one or other projects close to 14%, and some even higher than that. In terms of the mix, we are operating with 13% yield on cost for our next investments.
Thank you. That's very clear.
Our next question is from Elvis Prudencio, from BTG Pactual.
Elvis, your microphone is able.
Good morning, Sergio and Andrea. We have two questions. The first is about demand, because looking at the vacancy of the portfolio, it, it remains very low, and it's been low for quite some time. I would just like you to give me an update about how do you see demand going forward, and also if you could talk about the pre-leases of the new developments. The second question relates to competition. You said that the average tickets are increasing in all of the geographies where you operate, you know, so I'd just like to understand a bit more your view on competition and the new lease pricing, and whether this could draw the attention of the competitors that were not operating in these regions, whether you see some movement in that direction or not. Thank you.
Elvis, thank you for your questions.
On the demand aspect, We've been experiencing a positive scenario for quite some time. We were able to deliver 100% of the leases, and everything has been quite positive. We like to break down that number every quarter. Demand's separated by sector. Our business, I mean, allows us to get demands from different sectors and different sizes. We've seen, you know, an increase in the liquidity of the assets. We've been navigating quite well in this ocean due to our business model. Things are quite positive. We still have two drivers, which is flight to quality and e-commerce, in high demand. We do not believe that this scenario will change.
E-commerce certainly is not at the same level that it was last year, but the fact that we, we have a nationwide operation, we are still capturing a lot of e-commerce demand, especially out of the Southeast region of the country, and we are, we are quite positive with the outlook going forward. Now, about the competition, I mean, in one or another geography, we see some movements from new entrants, but it's, it's very, you know, one-off thing. In several regions of the country, we are navigating alone. We have the, the customers in-house, we understand their behavior and their needs, and because of that, we can capture clients in different regions of the market, and this is one of our major differentials. We haven't stumbled in any relevant competitor, you know, in the country.
That's, that's fine. Thank you.
Next question comes from Marcelo Motta, from JP Morgan. Marcelo, you may proceed. Marcelo? Marcelo, please proceed. Marcelo, your microphone is on. Our next question is from Jorel Guilloty from Goldman Sachs. Mr. Jorel, your microphone is on.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking my question. I have two questions. My first question is that I would like to learn more about how you see future sales, because we saw that you, you signed many new agreements since May, and many of them, I mean, it says that you will get 50% of the payment now and the rest in the next year or so. I would just like to understand whether you see that future sales will follow the same format. It will be through financing, or you believe that you will be paid cash on spot?
My second question is that I want to learn more about leasing spreads. If I recall, you talked about leasing spreads of approximately 50 basis points above inflation. Do you still see that this is the case, or you believe that there is more, you know, spreading power? Anything you can tell me about leasing spreads will be very helpful.
Hi, this is Sergio. Thank you for your questions. I will start with the leasing spread aspect. Leasing spread will certainly depend on the contracts that are going to be renewed in the quarter. As I said earlier, we have placed positive leasing spreads above inflation, and this has been the case for five quarters, five quarters sequentially. I don't think that this scenario will change.
I think the third quarter, we will just repeat what happened in the past quarters, but it will depend on whether it will be 50 basis points or not, because this will depend on the mix of contracts to be re-renewed in that quarter. The moment is quite positive. We will continue to be able to transfer above inflations, but how much? That will depend on the mix. About sales, how do you see that? We had sales in the peak of the very complicated scenario, high interest rates, you know, real estate funds with no liquidity. Our buyers had no liquidity to buy. I think the scenario will change, and it is changing very quickly. There has been higher demand for the acquisition of assets, and we see now a very positive scenario.
Well, certainly, the conditions of the business will depend on the liquidity in the market, and I think this will improve substantially. Most importantly, it's not really the matter of the selling financing, because these receivables have, have a lot of liquidity, and we, you know, we, we can have resources, but the most important thing is the cap rate. I think in the past, in 2021, we sold assets close to 7% cap, but today, you know, our transactions were close to 8%, and this percentage point is a relevant margin vis-à-vis the delivery yield. Therefore, we see some room for improvement, and the trend is that this will remain closer to 7% in the coming quarters.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Matheus Meloni, from Santander. Matheus, your microphone is on.
Thank you for taking my question.
I think on my side, most of the questions have been answered, but I would just like to understand whether there are any tenants that concern you, especially on the retail side, because we see some companies that are struggling. Do you have any particular tenant that is concerning you?
Hi, Matheus, this is Sergio. Our model of retail, where we have a very diluted geographic penetration, so this is very relevant in terms of the mix of customers. Today, our, our average customer have below 5,000 square meters of GLA. So if I have any problems with any tenants, that will be a one-off situation. If you look at our history, that, you know, the delinquency has been close to 0.8% at the most. This is not a concern for us.
Certainly, there have been some large issues with some clients this year, and we are working on that, especially in the third quarter. We're trying to reduce our exposure to that customer. One case is Americanas itself. That's an example. Maybe we do some move on that, on that end of reducing exposures, but the properties are very liquid. To give you a more objective answer, we have no concerns in terms of the delinquency of any possible tenant.
Thank you. Okay, understood. Thank you very much.
Next question is from Marcelo Motta from JP Morgan. Marcelo, your microphone is on.
Good morning, and thank you. I had a problem with my microphone. I have two questions. If you could elaborate more on your divestments, I just want to understand whether your mindset is to continue selling.
I mean, you had BRL 1.2 billion in proceeds, do you see the possibility of a of doing a faster recycling, and what would be the cap, like 500,000 square meters? Do you have a ceiling in terms of cash or, you know, or leverage? My second question relates to your capital structure. I want to understand what kind of CapEx you see going forward or up to the end of the year. Sergio said that the deliveries would be lower, about 200,000 of GLA. How do you see that cash disbursement until you reach to the point of your net debt for the end of the year? I just want to get a better understanding of your leverage.
Okay, this is Sergio. I'll start with the second part of your question.
Despite the fact that our deliveries will be a bit lower this year of 200,000 square meters, we are already preparing new projects to be delivered in 2024. You will see CapEx running very close to what we had in the first half of the year, you know, close to BRL 130 million. You know, there won't, there won't be any major changes. Now, about divestments, I think this is, it's very, very important that we say that every square meter sold means that we can invest an additional 1.5 square meters. This is very important because we can deliver, you know, very good gross margins. This is very relevant if we want to pursue we, our, with our growth plan. We don't have any guidance for sales, Marta. We're looking at the operations every day.
We will do more things this year. We want to do more things this year, maybe not in the third quarter, but maybe not in such a robust way as we did in the second quarter. This is a tool we have in hand, to be able to grasp all of the growth opportunities, and also to strike a balance and have our net debt under control. In the second quarter alone, we were able to reduce our net debt by almost BRL 500 million, with only that movement alone. The trend is to get a lower number. There will be an additional drop in view of all of the transactions that were concluded in July.
Recycling is here to help us to continue to grow, and for every square meter sowed, means that we can invest in an additional 1.5 square meters.
Thank you very much.
Our next question comes in writing by Mr. Bruno Andrade from LMA Patrimonial.
Where are you building these eight new projects? Are they already leased? Is this a BTS? What is the estimated yield for these new constructions?
This is Sergio now. Thank you for your question, Bruno. We have projects today, but this year we will invest heavily in the Northeast. We have two or three projects under constructions. We already delivered some, and in the Midwest as well. We have a few projects in the Southeast region that will be delivered, not this year, but next year, maybe.
In terms of the cap question, I understand that you were questioning the yield of these projects, and as we said earlier, the yield is close to 13%. In the second quarter, we delivered yields at, in the range of 12.5%, and we understand that once these projects are stabilized, the cap will have at least 12%, you know, valuation or appreciation.
The Q&A session is now concluded. We will now turn the floor over to Sergio for his final remarks.
Thank you so much for joining us today. I would like to emphasize two points that in my view, are very important. One is the liquidity of our assets and the company's capacity to do recycling.
I think we were able to show that in the second quarters, you know, selling 375,000 square meters of GLA, and we see potential buyers, and these buyers have the potential to buy new assets in the future. We, we continue to look at that very carefully as we deliver more growth. The other aspect that I already mentioned, but this is a very relevant moment of the company in terms of pricing, in terms of investments and yield, new investment. This is a very special moment for the company. We see a lot of good growth opportunities. We will continue to grow with great quality and serving our clients, you know, quite well. The landscape will improve, and as we see a further reduction of interest rates, that makes us very optimistic, because we see room to make new investments.
I think the worst is in the past, and we are very optimistic in terms of the future. Thank you all very much, and have a very good day.
LOG's earnings release video conference is now concluded. In case of questions, send your questions to our IR relations team through ri@logcp.com.br. We thank you very much for joining us, and have a very good day.