Good day, and welcome to the Shurgard Half Year 2024 Report Announcement Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions during a question-and-answer session. To register to ask a question, you may press the star and one on your touchtone telephone anytime. To retract from the queue, you may press the pound key. Please note, this call may be recorded, and I'll be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ms. Caroline Thirifay. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Erica. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the H1 2024 results. I'm here with Marc Oursin and Jean Kreusch. Before we begin, we want to remind you that all statements other than statements of historical facts included on this call are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected by the statements. These risks and other factors could adversely affect our business and future results that are described in our earnings release and in our publicly reported information. You can find our press release and an audio webcast replay of this conference call on our shurgard.eu website. With that, I will turn the call over to Marc.
Thank you, Caroline. Good morning, everybody. So, I'm on page two, which is the agenda of our today call. This agenda is actually articulated around, first, our continued strong execution. Secondly, our financial strength momentum. Thirdly, the overview of acquired Lok'nStore portfolio. And last but not least, our growth potential. And again, demonstrating that Shurgard is a unique platform with significant runway. Going to the H1 results, which is page three. Thank you. So we have a growth across all our markets, and this has been translated by a revenue increase of 8.2% in H1, supported by actually, a continued strong growth, in several countries as Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium. And by the way, continuing the positive trends we had in Q4 2023 and Q1 2024, and we come back to that later.
All of that has been supported by the same-store property revenue. You know that the same-store pool is roughly more than 90% of our revenue. And, the growth of this perimeter has been 4.5%, and this was mainly fueled by the increase of our pricing dynamics in terms of results, which is a 5.1% increase of the average rate increase. Occupancy-wise, we have been able to keep it high at 89.5%, with an increase of 0.2% in the average net rent per square meter versus last year, 2023. And as we were mentioning, the normalization of the revenue growth, and Q2 is the third quarter in a row with a stable positive growth rate between 4% and 5%.
As a reminder, Q4, we were at 4.2 in 2023 versus Q4 2022, Q1 2024, 4%, and this third quarter in a row at 4.9%, which is, by the way, significantly above our peers in Europe. So operational execution, excellent, driving strong top and bottom-line growth. On the next slide, page four, you have simply the graphic of what I was just mentioning. So you see the red line, which is quarter-over-quarter, the revenue growth of the same store, and then the dark blue, which is the split with a light blue between in-place rent growth and occupancy. So you can see that the deceleration that we're experiencing in 2023 has stopped. It's the other way around, and this has been fueled by the average in-place rate for the same period of time.
If we go to page five, talking about the growth of the revenue is also linked to digitalization and leading operational platform. We have been able to have a stable margin, all-store at 62.9, with an increase of our expenses of 4.4%. And of course, the digitalization has been able to mitigate globally this increase. And if you go to the same-store NOI margin, we have been able to have a margin stable at 64.7% versus the prior year. All of that, revenue growth, good management of our OpEx due to digitalization, has driven up our NOI by 7.5% total company.
Bottom line, in terms of Adjusted EPRA earnings , we have been able to reach a bit more than EUR 78 million, which is a growth of 7.7% over the period, with an Adjusted EPRA earnings per shar e that is sorry, EUR 0.01 lower than last year due to the equity raise that we had in 2023. Some details regarding this digitalization. I mean, we have started to talk about that already a couple of years ago. On that slide, we are showing you what we call the customer journey from left to right. You start from the need, and you end with the service and the satisfaction of customers. On the left, of course, the first, I would say, brick or starter of that is the website, the device, which is the mobile phone.
One of the key elements here is the pricing transparency. The price you see on the website through the phone is the price you're gonna pay, and we have other features that are available to help the customers to find the right fit to the need they have. Secondly, in terms of lead execution, you remember that we launched what we call e-Rental, which is a fast and secure and easy way for prospects to find a solution to their need and we did this in the year 2020, during the first year of the COVID. And since then, it has reached, up to now 50% of all the move-ins we do across all the countries. And there is no major differences between the seven geographies where we are.
At the beginning, this tool or this, let's say, channel of conversion or making business, was overdeveloped for millennials and Generation Z. The proportion of these generations were clearly higher than what they were doing historically in the company. And since then, we have a normalization here, too. All generations are using this tool more or less the same way than the youngsters. So fantastic achievement, and it continues to grow, by the way. We will see how we'll end the year 2024 and 2025. Second step has been also for us to develop comprehensive and develop mobile app. And here, what we can say, we have really enriched this mobile app with different features, and today, 40% of our customers are using it, which is, we believe, a great achievement. Thank you to the teams who have actually made this happening.
Last but not least, I would say that in terms of customer satisfaction and easiness, we have equipped, and this was two years ago, 100% of our properties with this device, what we call access control, this little red box you see on the picture. Customers are able to use their phone Bluetooth-wise to access the premises and the building, and therefore, the floor where they are renting. Today, we can say that customers are happy. We have a Google review score of 4.8 on average per property across Europe, almost on the 300 properties we have, with 400 reviews last time per property. So clearly, this digital customer experience has been a key element of the transformation of the company the past three years.
If we go then to now the next slide, which, let's, we will talk about the physical growth of the company, what we call the pipeline. So we have a very large and attractive pipeline, in the sense that today we have a capacity that will be delivered for the coming three years, so 2024, 2025, 2026, representing 365,000 sq m. By the way, close to 4 million sq ft, which is very massive, or as a percentage of the total existing square meters we had at the end of 2023, more than a quarter, 26.2%, which is extremely significant. This pipeline, this future physical growth, represents more than EUR 1 billion of direct project cost, exactly EUR 1.047 billion.
We expect a yield at maturity from this investment of 8%-9%, which means in million euros, actually an additional NOI at maturity per year of EUR 90 million. So, pretty strong and promising. You have on the next slide, page eight, actually, the breakdown per year of what we have done. It's all the dark blue bars from 2020 to 2023 in thousands of square meters. And you see the breakdown of the pipeline, the 365 per year. So of course, Lok'nStore is a big chunk of the 200,000 you see for 2024. But then, 2025 and 2026 are already at very high level, and the red line is simply expressed as the percentage of what it is versus the existing size of the platform.
So the message here is the largest square meter-wise or footage-wise expansion per annum in the industry, and the coming three years are secured, and it is extremely significant. Then, if we go to page nine, we have done here a zoom on the Q2 results. Specifically, Q2 are confirming what we have said for H1 and therefore for Q1. The revenue growth has been able to reach 9.2%, again, driven by Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and the U.K. Clearly, these 4 markets are high performers. Then this revenue growth has grown up the NOI revenue by 8.8%, also based on the cost management. And our same-store pool did 4.9% for the same period of time.
This is spread or explained by still a higher occupancy, almost 90%, 89.8%, with an increase of the average square meter rented of 0.4%. And at the same time, our average rental growth did increase by 5.4% with this continued pricing power that we have. Bottom line, the Adjusted EPRA earnings grew by 4.2% over the period of Q2. So again, solid operational performance, higher occupancy, significant rate growth, and stable margin for the company. If we go to the next page, sorry, page 10, so with the 2024 outlook. So this 2024 outlook excludes Lok'nStore acquisition. I repeat, this 2024 outlook excludes Lok'nStore acquisition. So first, due to the good numbers we had in H1 and the good start of Q3, we have upgraded actually our revenue growth guidance.
That was, if you remember, 7.5%, at least for the year, and now it is at least 8% for the total revenue growth for the year 2024. All the other items regarding the guidance are the same. So that's why, again, this rate for us is simply the synonym of the confidence we have with our resilient operating model. And based on that, I turn to Jean for a part of the presentation. Thank you.
Thank you, Marc.
As you saw, we continue to show a very robust performance in the first half of the year. Our revenue total company has grown by 8.2% at constant exchange rate for the half year, and by 9.2% for the second quarter. We are pleased with the first half of the year, which has shown continued resilience and improved trends on our top line, while we confirm our ability to keep costs under control through the scalability and continued digitalization of our platform, as Marc explained to you earlier on.
On the next page, our same-store property operating revenue continues to show a strong and stable growth of 4.5% for the six months, with an occupancy at 89.5%, an increase of 0.4 percentage in average rented square meter over last year, and an average in-place rent up by 5.1% at constant exchange rate versus 2023. At country level, Sweden has now turned with improved occupancy and some positive pricing dynamics in the second quarter. All our countries are reporting stable or improved year-on-year revenue growth in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. On page 13, our EPRA NTA per share increased by 4.4%, reflecting the growth of our NOI, while the interest cap rate at 5.1% improved by 0.1%.
We drew EUR 130 million on our bank loan facility in June to finance the repayment of EUR 100 million USPP tranche and some acquisitions. We still have EUR 320 million available on this facility, plus a EUR 250 million RCF, in addition to the EUR 500 million bridge loan to finance the Lok'nStore acquisition. Moving on to page 14. We continue to show a very strong balance sheet. We have a cash balance at the end of June of EUR 209.6 million, combined with a low LTV at 15.4%, a net debt to underlying EBITDA of 3.8x, and an ICR of 13x.
Post Lok'nStore acquisition, we remain in a very strong position with a LTV around 24% and a net debt to underlying EBITDA at around 6x. We confirm the payment of half year dividend of EUR 0.15 per share, payable date September, and I will come back on this later. We will also offer an optional scrip dividend. Now, moving to the next page. We are very pleased to be the first European self-storage operator to be awarded by S&P a BBB+ with stable outlook credit rating. The rating framework implies the following: LTV between 25%-35%, debt to EBITDA between 4-7.5x, ICR 3-3.8x, PSA support, Public Storage support, execution of our financing strategy.
An immediate benefit of the rating will be a 20 basis point reduction of our credit spread on our banking facility to 100 basis points, as of the next interest period in Q4. Our BBB+ rating clearly emphasizes our strong financial position and prudent financing strategy. This strong investment grade rating will also further widen our access to debt capital market, such as rated public bond s. It clearly increase optionalities to finance the project. To finish, on page 16, I would like to come back on the scrip dividend. The board indeed decided that it will offer the shareholders the option of getting cash and/or shares for the payment of the EUR 0.58 dividend end of September. The modalities will be communicated on 5 September .
Our largest shareholders confirmed their intention to opt for shares in lieu of cash dividend, representing around 70% of the total dividend payouts. Now, with a strong financial position in mind, let's go back to Marc for an update on the Lok'nStore acquisition.
Thank you, Jean. So we're on page 17. A couple of reminders regarding this acquisition. So the acquisition of Lok'nStore, a modern, high quality purpose-built portfolio and attractive pipeline. And again, you have a couple of pictures on this slide demonstrating what I'm telling you. This acquisition provides us 171,000 sq m of additional, let's say, yes, square meters. And this actually represents two full years of Shurgard's targeted annual expansion. You remember that we always guided the market with 90,000 sq m per year only, and it's doubling our size of store in the U.K. The total cost of this acquisition only, including pipeline, is a bit more than EUR 600 million, EUR 613 precisely. And our expected yield advisory is 8%.
Based on that, if you go to the next page, and focusing a bit on key KPIs related to this portfolio in terms of characteristics also. You see this is excluding management contract, but including pipeline. So first, we have 82% of that target of that purchase, sorry, that are freehold. By the way, in the case of Shurgard, we are at 93% before the acquisition. In terms of purpose-built, the proportion is higher than Shurgard, 76%, so almost three quarters, but for us it's less than two-thirds, 63%. Then the modernity of the portfolio too, so 43% have been actually built since January 2022, so a bit more than two years ago, while in the case of Shurgard UK, we are talking about only 13%.
The good thing is that the average size of the assets also, we have very close numbers, 5,000 square meters for 5,100. And in terms of average unit size, a bit more than Shurgard, 6.9 square meters, when in our case it is five. And you have a couple of pictures, again, demonstrating this. Good news, too, is that we have been able, in the case of Basildon, so the picture on the top left, great property in the East of London, facing close to the Thames. We've been able to acquire the leasehold, actually, a couple of days ago. So again, high quality, young portfolio, mainly freehold and purpose-built.
If you go to the next page regarding the, let's say, the geographies and the demographics, and you have a schematic map on the left. I would say what you need to remember, this is a highly concentrated portfolio. If you look at this kind of triangle, which is all the dots that are the Lok'nStore or ex-Lok'nStore properties, into it around London, we have more than 80 properties into this area when you make the sum of former Shurgard plus Lok'nStore, which means that we have a leadership position on this territory. And secondly, the Greater Manchester, well, as we have always said, is a great area by the population, 5 million people, and here we start to have a footprint which help us to continue the growth there.
In terms of demographics, if you compare actually London, Southeast, and Manchester versus the rest of Shurgard, actually, we have a high level of penetration, 89% versus 94%. And if you look at even more in detail, actually, the composition of the catchment areas within 20 minutes driving time. Why this number? Because usually we have 80% of our customers within this driving time range. We have a very similar number of units per inhabitants. Units, I mean, all in, all the industry, so meaning that the supply is the same. So all in all, an attractive new market for us, highly complementary with the Shurgard London-focused portfolio.
And then if you go to the next page, talking about the returns, as we have said, we are looking at to do 8%, through this acquisition in terms of NOI yield, and this is based on two major things. First, revenue increase, and then I will talk about it, OpEx reduction, and more than OpEx, actually, cost reduction. So the revenue increase, will come from, I would say, two buckets. The first one is the open stores today, where we own the business, so this is excluding third party. And obviously, the game here is to drive up the occupancy from 67% on August first to 90% within two years, and having a 2% CAGR growth of the rate within five to six years.
At the same time, the pipeline that will be delivered in the coming two years, same thing, same logic, occupancy will reach 90% after two years of operation and—of conversion, sorry. Meanwhile, the CAGR rate should be 2% for the coming 5-6 years post opening. As a reminder, we have put on the right side what we have done in the U.K., the past 5 years, which was 9% CAGR, so we feel quite confident about the numbers that we have put in our business plan. Regarding the cost reduction, these are the two boxes that you have on the right.
We are looking for EUR 4-5 million, sorry, for the first full year in terms of cost reduction, meaning operating costs, G&A, and tax synergies, and all of that will be supported by, as you've understood, the digitalization of our platform in order to get to the 8% within 5-6 years. So where are we? August 14 versus August 1, which was the closing of the deal, page 21. So great news, this is a successful integration. Why do we say successful? Because day one, all the data, customer data, and all these property data were on our CRM system.
We have been able to integrate also on the website, day one, all the properties, meaning that you go to Google Maps on day plus one, which was August second, and you type Shurgard Basildon, you are right away with the regular page from the website. Then we have been able to integrate our pricing model also at the same time, so promotions are in place and our systems are in place for the whole network. e-Rental is available since day plus two, and you remember that in the U.K., 50% of the move-ins are coming from e-Rental. And we have been able also to integrate all the calls to our phone systems and the sales calls to our contact center that we have in the U.K..
Meanwhile, the training of the team started actually just before the closure of the deal, and continues today to be the most efficient as we can. So, I would like to take the opportunity here to thank all the Shurgard teams who have participated to this fantastic, I would say, achievement. Which means that since 2nd August, we are doing advertising on the web for all the properties with our pricing systems. We do move-ins the way we usually do, e-rental, calls, and we are able therefore, to monitor the performance. So now the game is clearly focusing on growth. You understood that with the previous slide. Let's go to 90% and cost reduction with the use of our platform. Then, if you go to page 22, and here talking about the future Lok'nStore acquisition impact on our numbers.
So Q3 2023 disclosure that is taking place on November, early November. Actually, we integrate in these Q3 numbers, two-thirds of the quarter, August and September, the consolidation of the Lok'nStore portfolio. That's one information. Secondly, here, the second bullet point is actually repeating what we have said regarding the accretion of this deal when we came to the market, which means that the accretion on our adjusted earnings per share will be neutral in 2025 and accretive as of 2026 and onwards. Also, as a reminder, we maintain our financial, and Jean explained to you our target to keep LTV below 25%, and 4-5 times net debt over EBITDA medium term, and allowing us short- to medium-term, the ability to be actually up to 35% and above 5x .
Knowing that today, the pro forma leverage of this acquisition is at 24%, and in terms of multiple net debt over EBITDA, that's 6x. So clearly for us, the growth accelerating in the U.K., a key target market, clearly, with the acquisition of Lok'nStore fitting our, completely our strategy. So if you go to the conclusion on page 23. As a reminder, clearly, operational execution excellence is there, and that's why we have raised our full year revenue guidance with this growth across all markets, and also based on our digitalization and leading operational platform. The growth accelerated has come from, of course, this acquisition of Lok'nStore, and you understood the quality of this portfolio and the importance of the size relatively to Shurgard. And also Germany, where we have done a couple of acquisitions and increased by 46% the size of this market physically.
Three, even more than that, the future growth secured for 2024, 2025 and 2026. So more than a quarter of the twenty end of 2023 footage, so 365,000 square meters, so 4 million sq ft, representing more than EUR 1 billion of investment with this 8%-9% return, which brings us at maturity, more or less EUR 90 million per year. And all of that in a frame and supported by a strong balance sheet with a modest level of gearing and significant liquidity with these two major events. And great news that our first European self-storage operator awarded with BBB+ with a stable outlook, and this optionality of scrip dividend offered to our shareholders. So clearly, all of that demonstrating that we are the growing number one platform and brand in Europe with an operational execution excellence.
On this, I turn to Caroline.
Thank you, Marc and Jean.
Thank you.
Now, I would like to remind you two points. First, we are organizing a German market day on September 17, during the EPRA conference in Berlin. We will host an asset tour, followed by a presentation on Germany. It's open to all investor and analysts. You can register for our presentation via email. Secondly, a conference call will be scheduled for Tuesday, 5 November, to discuss our Q3 2024 results, incorporating for the first time former Lok'nStore portfolio. Now, we open the lines for your questions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, at this time, it is star one to ask a question. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing the pound key. We'll go first to the line of Marius Preel from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thank you for the presentation and for taking my questions. Shall I go through the questions one by one or ask them all in one go?
Go one by one.
Yeah, one by one.
One by one.
I'll go one by one. Thank you. Okay, so firstly, around the revenue growth guidance, I suppose, you know, the tick up, what is your expectations for same store revenues in the second half, based on the trends you, you've already started to see through the third quarter? And can you provide any just high-level assumptions around what you expect the Lok'nStore acquisition to add on top of this, on in terms of the top line for 2024?
So if you look at our same store, I mean, the trends have been very stable over the last couple of quarters, so we're expecting to remain around that trend for same-store occupancy. And yeah, and then the Lok'nStore, I mean, as Caroline mentioned, I mean, we have a more detailed view with our Q3 results. I mean, as Marc explained, we just integrated them. It's gonna take us the next couple of months to have a better understanding exactly of where we believe we'll be landing.
Okay, very clear. So in terms of the trends you're seeing through the third quarter, are you starting to see potential customers more willing to agree deals? And have you seen any stabilization in the level of discounting you've been required to offer to secure those occupiers?
Okay. Marius, the line is not that great, but what I understood from your point is regarding the same-store growth for the rest of the year. Yeah, the start of Q3 is perfectly in line with H1, and therefore, that's why we were confident, you know, to increase the guidance. And again, the dynamics behind this same-store rental growth are still the same. I mean, we still have a good level of demand and with an occupancy, which is high in all markets, and at the same time being able to push through our pricing power, so to have a very good rental increase.
Yeah.
We don't see any changes here. We continue to also have, you know, move-out ratios that are quite stable, with which, you know, as Marc mentioned, is quite positive for rent increase as we continue to see more and more tenants staying around term with us.
Okay. Thank you. Sorry for the bad line. Hopefully, it's a bit better now. But just finally, what are your current thoughts around the financing plans of Lok'nStore, currently financed with a bridge facility? Any comments around that would be helpful. Thank you.
I didn't really get the start of the-
Refinance.
Oh, the refinancing of the bridge loan. Well, so in terms of the Lok'nStore refinancing, I mean, we have time first. I mean, it's a two-year bridge loan, so we have plenty of time. I think one of the benefits we have now, I mean, as you see, we've been able to get a triple B plus rating, stable outlook from S&P. We're very pleased with the outcome. And clearly, this rating will increase optionalities in terms of where to refinance such a bridge loan. For example, we now have access to the, you know, rated public bonds market, which would be, you know, a good way for us potentially to refinance that bridge loan, which was not available to us before. So quite.
You know, we're very happy, and we're very positive with that BBB+ rating because the optionalities for refinancing are increased.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We'll go next to the line-
Thank you.
John Vuong from Van Lanschot Kempen. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, team. Thank you for taking my questions. Just on the scrip dividend, I think it's a new policy that you're bringing forward. Is this something that you're intending to keep for the future years? Also take into consideration that your pro forma leverage is above target, while at the same time, you plan to continue to add projects to your pipeline.
I mean, clearly, I mean, it will be up to the board to decide, but, you know, it is an optionality we have, that we can use, in order to keep our leverage under control. If you look at the LTV, there we are fine. I mean, from an ICR point of view, we are below our guidance, and this will be slightly higher, but over time, with the scrip dividend, it's clearly something we can, you know, we can bring back under control, and continue to grow.
As you know, our two main shareholders with the scrip dividend, I declare the intention to participate through shares, so not to take the cash, which means that 70% of our, you know, payout is already covered. So the cash, you know, we retain additional cash.
Okay, that's clear. Then on the Lok'nStore acquisition, you mentioned that it already has been integrated in your pricing model with the promotions in place. Given your platform and I suppose also your philosophy on optimized pricing, I suppose that's a bit different from the previous owner. Did you already make large changes here in terms of approach, or does it take perhaps a bit longer given the required training for the staff?
Actually, it will not take long. It's immediate, in the sense that, because they are on our system, 50% of the move-ins are coming from e-Rental, so it's simply between the website and the prospect. There's no, there's no human interaction here. And on the call side, we have a contact center in the U.K. that will work and assess the prospects. Therefore, it will be also very fast.
So John, to be clear, it's already in place.
Yes.
You know, day two, day three after the integration, everything was on our system, on our platform, with our methodology, with our people. So, you know, we are firing on quite quickly and making sure that everything goes extremely quick, from that point of view. So it is happening as we speak.
Okay, I suppose my question was more about the promotions that you're giving. Is that materially different from the previous owner?
Yes, yes, the previous owners, I mean, you know very much that, you know, we have a very specific pricing model working on occupancy. If we see that occupancy is low, we will lower prices, offer more promotions in order to boost that occupancy and increase the rent up as fast as we can. Because we believe that having high occupancy level will give you more pricing power going forward, because you have a larger base of customers that's gonna stay long term. That's our methodology. Most of the players in Europe are not following that, as you know, and are keeping their prices high with lower occupancy. So that was the case of the previous owner. So
In the industry, in Europe, as Jean said, the players are using occupancy as a variable of adjustment.
In our case, we manage occupancy. That's the key difference, which is, by the way, what the American operators are doing. We believe that methodology long term gives you more growth.
Okay, that's very clear. Thank you.
Thank you, John.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Frédéric Renard from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I have three questions. Maybe a first one on the performance. Your average occupancy rate is trending down, but you continue clearly, as you mentioned, to have a good pricing power. The question is: How sustainable is it, and do you expect competition in some countries to limit your ability to continue to lift prices in order to maintain occupancy rate, as you mentioned, that it's a key driver of attention for you?
Okay, so, again, here, the occupancy is, well, to us, has a slightly decreased. When you see the, we're talking about a couple of basis points, so to us, it's not at all alarming. The other, even the other way around, we're able to keep the occupancy at a high level of almost 90% for the same store. And then, again, the average increase of the rental rate is coming from mainly, as Jean explained, the existing customer base that we're able to increase. So it's a, it's a different, it's a different thing. So, for the time being, you know, we have been able to keep high occupancy during also major negative macro events, so we don't see why we will not be able to continue so.
And thirdly, with a, for the time being, stable slash even decreasing churn of our existing customers, which means that the customer base is still at the same kind of level, we are continuing to be able to increase the people the way we were looking for.
Okay. That's clear. Then another question on the NOI margin. You said during the presentation that you had flat NOI margin, but actually down 40 basis points year-on-year. I just want to make sure on your guidance, because you guide for flat NOI margin over the year. Is it flat, flat, or is it flat, slightly down?
No, it's, it's flat, flat. I mean, if you... We book most of our real estate tax, you know, according to our forecast in the beginning of the year. And if you recall, last year, we had significant increases in the U.K. for real estate taxes. And real estate taxes are, the timing is in April. So we got those increases last year in April, so we're now fully comparable. But in the first quarter, we had still lower real estate taxes for first quarter 2023 versus 2024, while now we are fully comparable year-on-year, so margins should be improved.
Okay, understood. Then last question I have: how do your triple B rating and the rating framework provided by S&P, and I mean by that, that they said that to allow you to keep your triple B rating, you should have a net debt to EBITDA of 4-7.5 x, for instance. And if I take that into account and the scrip dividend, how do you reconsider the way you will finance the Lok'nStore deal? It's a bit the same question on Marius, but rephrasing differently. Because clearly for me, even post-deal with Lok'nStore, you would still have your triple B rating and therefore access to the bond market.
Good, good understanding. That's exactly the case. I mean, the triple B plus rating takes into account the Lok'nStore acquisition and the scrip dividend.
What I mean by that, if you remember, you communicated to the market that you will finance by both a mix of equity and debt. Does the triple B rating change your way you see it, basically, that's the-
I would say the BBB+ rating, combined with the scrip dividend, is clearly, you know, the way we are planning to finance this acquisition.
Opportunities to finance this acquisition.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you.
Frédéric, it's BBB+. I do insist on the little plus.
I said triple B plus, no? I meant triple B plus. Anyway, that's great.
Anyway, thank you.
As a reminder, press star one to ask a question. We'll go next to the line of Rob Jones with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Great, thank you. So three questions. One on e-Rentals. Obviously, really positive to see a significant ramp up in the potential customers that are using your e-Rental platform. And I wonder if you had a monetary figure in terms of the difference in customer acquisition cost for a customer going down the e-Rental route and the utilization of your digital technologies versus the traditional route, so we can get a bit of a flavor for the potential further upside if we go from, say, 50% to, I don't know, 85%-90% over the next few years.
Thank you, Rob. So, pretty ambitious, yes, 80%, 90% a few years, but if you would have told me-
It should be 100, right? Like, if I'm, if I'm Uber, I'm 100%, or if I'm Eats, yeah, I'm 100%.
Yeah, yeah. But, but, but, Rob, I mean, clearly, you know, you would have told me four years ago, you know, Marc, you're gonna do 50% of e-Rental, I would have said it's crazy, it's impossible. So maybe the 80% will be there within three or four years, who knows? We'll see that. But back to your question and the cost of acquisition, I would say that technically, yes, the cost of acquisition is lower because you don't have.. You know that we have on average, around two people per property. So of course, this cost of labor, which is roughly 8% of our revenue, is actually saved in a way, if you go for e-Rental. But I would say that more holistically, the e-Rental combine to the density of properties that we have in certain geographies.
Let's take, for example, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Copenhagen, have been able to help us to create what we call a management with clusters, where you have remotely managed stores and service stores. And the remotely managed, of course, get the benefit of that proportion of e-Rental and the density of stores. So it's not purely specifically the cost of acquisition of a given customer who is choosing a way to be, let's say, converted to and get a move-in. So, for example, phone or what we call walk-in, someone pushing the door and coming versus e-Rental. More than that, the proportion, the very high proportion of e-Rental in our total move-in, combined with the density of properties in certain areas, have allowed us to change the way we are operating, I would say, the network.
This is driving the cost down, as John explained, if you look at what happened already in 2023, and even in 2024, we have been able to really mitigate the natural indexation of, of labor in short, with a very significant way. And we will, you know, our strategy of development, so it's a self-feeding strategy in a way, in the sense that we want to continue to open properties in areas where we are and in countries where we are, and therefore, to create more and more density of properties, which brings us the capacity, due to the size of e-Rental, the share e-Rental, to do, I would say, more and more clusters with remotely managed properties.
Okay, very clear. The second of three was on rate growth. So obviously, really strong rate growth in a number of your geographies, picking out the U.K. as a good example. But when I look at Sweden, for example, the rate growth, I think, was relatively close to zero. Any signs of that ramping up going forwards or, or the reason why that remains, comparison to the wider portfolio?
Yeah, no, Rob, Rob, let's be super positive about Sweden. Of course, you know, the cons versus the other countries make the Swedes a bit behind the game, but I'm sorry, you know, before running, you need to walk. I mean, and Sweden was negative the past year. We are now positive, which is great, you know, for four quarters in a row since 2023, we're negative.
Yeah.
And this quarter is starting to be positive. So we expect Sweden to continue to grow, I would say, positively in terms of successful revenue. By how much? I don't know yet. It will depend on the intensity of the competition we are facing. But the good news, it looks like that it's softening in terms of aggressiveness from the competition.
Okay. And then the final one was just on guidance. Obviously, you've, at this stage, chosen to exclude Lok'nStore, when you're giving your, guidance for year-on-year growth through FY 2024. I guess two part. One, why, why still exclude, Lok'nStore in that guidance? And perhaps maybe more relevant when we get the Q3 update, and obviously, Lok'nStore will be consolidated as part of that. Will you change your guidance to include Lok'nStore for FY 2024?
Yeah. So we decided to exclude it because obviously we only have, you know, less than two weeks of operation here, so it's quite early for us to really understand and get a complete picture from a, you know, revenue and bottom line point of view. So, you know, as Caroline mentioned, we do that in Q3. And in Q3, clearly, our outlook for 2024 will take into account Lok'nStore.
Very clear. Thank you very much. See you later.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have a question from the webcast. First one, do you plan to leave behind Lok'nStore property to Shurgard?
Indeed, yes.
Yes. Okay, another question. What will happen to the managed store from Lok'nStore?
Okay. So here, there are 17 what we call third-party managed stores, you know, and these third-party managed stores, well, are for us interesting for two reasons. The first one is these properties or some of them are in locations fitting very well, I would say, where we are already and complementing the network. And the second interest is that this management brings us fees. If you recall, I think we shared this information. They are on average bringing GBP 100,000 per year of fees per store. So it is money, clearly. It's not a major amount of money versus the challenge that we have, which is to bring 8% of return versus the EUR 600 million, which is roughly close to EUR 50 million within 5-6 years.
But it's nice to have, and it will give also opportunities to us. So to make a long story short, we are first starting to have met the different owners, and in a couple of months, I would say early 2025, we'll have a much better view of how this, let's say, line of business is delivering numbers and potential to us.
We have a question from Vincent Jamaer from Degroof Petercam. Congrats on the solid results. Any positive or negative surprises on Lok'nStore since the full takeover in August compared to your expectations?
Yeah, the surprise to us, well, and John Thomas, who is here, can elaborate more than me, but to me, the positive is that Shurgard, again, has demonstrated its capacity to roll out its system within a couple of days. And day one, day two, so August second, we were fully up to speed to do business the way we usually do business. So that's, to me, a fantastic achievement and demonstration.
Secondly, regarding the properties and the people, I mean, I've recently done a complete, almost complete tour of all the properties, and I've met, I would say, good people, motivated, happy to wear the Shurgard uniform, so our light blue shirt and black pants, so it's gorgeous, and they're happy to wear that, and happy to also, share with us, you know, for certain geographies, some specificities, and that's what it was good to see. So people are motivated, the systems are in place and working on.
Thank you, Marc. We have another question: What is the highest LTV that you are allowed to have?
Well, in our guidance, we said that, you know, 25% is our target. With the Lok'nStore, we'll be at 24%, so below the target. But, you know, guidance, we also say that we can go up to 35% if we do a major acquisition. So we're well within the LTV guidelines.
And once again, as a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question on the phone lines, it is the star and one, star and one on the phone lines.
Okay, I don't think we have any additional questions. Thank you all for joining us today, and we look forward to reconnecting in this venue soon.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you. Have a good day, all of you. Thank you. Goodbye.
Bye. Thank you.
We'd like to thank everybody for their participation on today's conference. Please feel free to disconnect your line at any time.