Hello, everybody. I'm happy, together with Paul, to welcome you to this audio webcast and conference call to comment Covivio's H1 2023 results. Let's start page three with some introductory comments on our key achievement in H1 2023. First, in a challenging economic, financial, and investment market environment, we managed to keep a healthy balance sheet despite significant value adjustment and thanks to new disposals, agreement, and scrip dividends. Second, we kept on benefiting from our quality portfolio with a 7.6% like-for-like rental growth and a 95.8% occupancy rate. Linked with values, EPRA NAV was down to EUR 91.1 per share, we managed to maintain gearing close to below 40% policy and published a stable EPRA earnings. This strong operational performance also enable us to slightly raise our 2023 guidance.
On page five, we are on track with our disposal program. Over the semester, we agreed on EUR 250 million new disposal in group share with -1.2% margin, really close to 2022 appraisal values. At end June 2023, we are well on track to achieve a EUR 1.5 billion disposal program by end 2024, with already EUR 550 million realized in seven months, knowing that on top of that, we also have more than EUR 350 million under advanced negotiations. I'm on page 6. One of our priorities was to lower CapEx and reinforce centrality on our office pipeline. As you can see, following three deliveries, one project sold, Anjou, and only one new commitment in city center, pipeline decreased by 33% to EUR 1.6 billion.
This office pipeline is high quality, 82% in city center and 62% prelet, with a 5.5% yield. Some comments about our H1 2023 deliveries, page 7, totaling EUR 316 million. We delivered in Q1 Maslö, a core asset in Levallois, which was 43% prelet. Over the semester, our letting teams managed to increase the occupancy to 68%, proving the quality of the asset. In Q2, we deliver an expansion to Dassault on Vélizy Campus, a core asset with more than 7% yield, reinforcing the long-term partnership for more than 15 years now between Covivio and Dassault in this area. We also delivered Le Floria , a smaller non-core asset in Fontenay, in the east of Paris, which was refurbished in order to sell the asset.
In parallel, page eight, we launched one new office project in Paris CBD. It's a former Orange asset, well located, close to all public transportation, in an area with quite no vacancy for quality buildings. Here, we are planning a complete repropositioning to deliver in 2026, a brand-new building with terraces, services, and with high certifications. The amount of CapEx to be spent is rather limited compared to the total budget and should generate a marginal yield on cost of 6.3%. In the end, this is totally in line with Covivio's strategy to benefit from central positioning and improve the portfolio quality, but also generate higher earnings. Last point on our priorities, to strengthen balance sheet, page nine.
The scrip dividend, which was a success, we got the support of a large part of our shareholders, with a 79% subscription rate, implying a capital increase of EUR 279 million. To sum up, page 10, good progress on balance sheet priorities, on track on the disposal program, a refocused pipeline, and the scrip dividend to strengthen equity. I will now leave the floor to Paul, who will comment the operating performance and the results.
Thank you, Christophe. Hello, everyone. Let's start this path by the markets. Overall, supportive markets, as you can see, page 12. Starting with offices. The office market is mixed, you know it. Work from home has impacted the office demand, which is decreasing actually in H1. At the same time, we continue to see a solid demand from tenants for city centers. Look at the example in this slide of Paris. Decreasing vacancy rate, 2.5%. Increasing rents by 9%. German residential, the gap between supply and demand continue to increase. The consequence, you see that in the slide, increase in rents by 16% on average in Berlin. In hotels, growth is robust. RevPAR are up by 13% year-to-date, and even by 20% in May and in June.
What does that means for our operating performance, starting with offices, page 13? We signed, during the first half, 44, sorry, 1,000 square meters of new leases, both in city centers and outside city centers. In city centers, we increased occupancy on Maslö. Christophe mentioned it. We also increased the occupancy to 95% on Zeughaus in Hamburg. Outside city centers, in a more difficult market, we were able to fully let our tower of CB21 in La Défense, and we were also able to relet more than half of the Atlantis building in Issy-les-Moulineaux few months after the departure of the tenant. Office rents in benefited also from accelerated indexation, as you can see on this page 14. As a consequence, like-for-like rental growth stands at a very good level of 5.3% at the end of June.
On occupancy rates, let's say we had two periods during this semester. A decrease in occupancy in Q1, following the delivery of Maslö and the departure in Atlantis in Issy-les-Moulineaux. In Q2, with a strong letting activity on those same assets, we were able to recover one point in occupancy rate up to 93%. Despite the polarization of the office market, we were able to record a 5% like-for-like rental growth, and this is thanks to the quality of our portfolio. Look at the page 15. 2/3 of our office portfolio, as a reminder, is located in city center, benefiting from high indexation and positive reversion in the first half. This portfolio is well occupied, long-term lease, and a strong 6.3% like-for-like growth. Core asset outside city centers, it's 26% of the portfolio.
Like-for-like rents are up by 4.9%, mostly thanks to indexation and despite a negative reversion on 1/3 of this portfolio. This portfolio, as a reminder, is mostly let to large tenants with long-term leases. Dassault Systèmes, we mentioned it just before. Thales, also Telecom Italia. Finally, on non-core assets, it's obsolete buildings to be sold or to be transformed into residential. Nevertheless, we have a rental growth, which is still positive at 2.7%. Moving to German residential, page 16. The operating momentum here is also good. We recorded an acceleration of the like-for-like rental growth from 3.1% to 3.8%. Occupancy rate, you can see that on the left part, is maintained at a very high level of 99%. This rental growth is expected to continue.
As you can see on the right part, first, thanks to the indexation, inflation start to have positive impact actually on the indexes, like the Mietspiegel. Look at the Mietspiegel in Berlin, +5.4%, and a new update to come next year. Second, thanks to the reversionary potential, and in H1, we were able to record a +20% uplift on our relating, of which 27% in Berlin. Last but not least, hotels. Page 17. Performance, you see that, very strong, +20% like-for-like revenue growth. As you remember, we have three kind of revenues that we show in the left part of the slide. First one, variable leases, mostly in France. Revenue here are now well above 2019, benefiting from central positioning and from refurbishment that we have done over the last years.
Second, operating properties. It's in Germany, it's in France. We had a very strong +54% like-for-like growth. Here, we also had a positive base effect, especially in Germany, with the first half of 2022, which was still impacted by Covid. Third type of contract, fixed leases, +10% like-for-like growth this year, thanks to indexation, thanks also to the variable component we can reach on those leases, following the outperformance of the hotels. It's mainly the case in the U.K. Asset management in hotels is a boost to our performance. It was the case last year, it has been the case in the first half, and we continue to work during this semester on further asset management action. You see that, page 18.
On the left part, on lease properties, we signed a new lease with Meliá in 2023. On three assets, it's in Spain, and on this, we increased the rent by more than 30%, with a 9% yield on cost. On the right part, on operating properties, we also launched EUR 30 million of CapEx programs in hotels in Lille, in Bruges, and Berlin, so big tourist destination, with an average of 10% expected yield on CapEx. To sum up this part, in office, our city centers enable us to catch a very good performance. In German residential, we benefit from inflation and the lack of offer, which start to impact positively the rental growth. In hotel, performance is very strong. Let's go through financial results, starting by appraisal values, page 20.
Value declines were expected in this semester to reflect the new interest rate environment. As a whole, we had a -5.5% like-for-like decrease over the first half on this portfolio. Cumulated, you see the next column, that means a value decline over the past 12 months of close to -8%. In offices, city center assets show more resilience on the back of rental growth, while, as you can see, non-core assets recorded a -18% decline, which bring a cumulated value decline for this pocket of -25% over the past 12 months. German residential, the drop has been -7% in H1, equally spread actually between our different locations. That means -9% decline over one year.
That means also that the price now per square meters in our, of our portfolio in Berlin, it's EUR 3,200 per square meters, while in parallel, we have done the privatization at EUR 5,000 per square meters. In hotels, to conclude, values were more resilient, benefiting from the higher initial yield post-COVID, and from the increase in revenues, and the yield that you saw here, 5.5%, is increasing by 50 basis points over the first half of this year. This value drop directly impact our NAV. You see that on page 21. EBITDA is down by -8.7% to EUR 9.2 billion. On a per-share basis, it's -14% at EUR 91.
You see in the bridge, the main component of this decline, as I said, is a property value decline of - EUR 9.5 per share. We also had the scrip dividend option impact of - EUR 3.6 per share. Financing. On page 22, we had a busy first half, EUR 765 million of financing and refinancings secured in this first part of the year, with a 6.6 years average maturity. We extended the maturity of all the credit lines maturing in 2024, and started to reduce also the maturities of 2025. For 2024, the remaining maturities are first a bond, EUR 3 million, coming to maturity at the end of next year. It's fully covered by our liquidity, and mortgage financings that are under refinancing process as of today.
Thanks to this activity, you can look at the KPI on the right part of the slide. We keep a healthy debt profile. Maturity is stable, 4.7 years. Liquidity position has actually increased significantly from EUR 0.8 billion to EUR 1.15 billion, and our debt is hedged at 90%. Alongside this refinancing activity, we also reduced the amount of the debt, as you can see on the page 23. A decrease of EUR 175 million during the first part of the year, thanks to scrip option and to the cash sales. Taking into account the disposal agreements, as you can see, the net debt would go pro forma further down by EUR 300 million. All this leads to sound debt metrics, that we show on page 24.
Despite value decline and despite interest rate increase, you see loan to value 40.7%, close to our policy of below 40%. ICR 6.1 x, well above covenants. Cost of debt is increasing on a limited basis from 1.24% to 1.46%, and Net Debt/EBITDA is improving, down to 13.5 x. All this enable S&P to reiterate its rating at BBB+ stable outlook at the end of May. That's for the balance sheet. In the meantime, our operating activity has been strong, as I said before, and you see the results, page 25. I will focus on one number, 7.6% like-for-like rental growth, a high level with growth across all asset classes. Half of this growth comes from indexation, mostly on offices. We saw it before on.
0.7% of the growth is linked to rental uplift, especially in German residential, and three points, as you can see, comes from the variable revenues in hotels. Despite disposal program, revenues are up also at current scope by +5%, and the occupancy rate 95.8% for seven years maturity. Let's now look at the EPRA earning evolution, page 26. The stable EPRA earning in H1 compared to last year. As you can see in the bridge, we add on one side the negative impact on revenues linked to the deleveraging through the disposals. We have also the impact of this new environment in the cost of our debt and in the decrease of the property development activity.
Despite that, we are able to keep an EPRA earning stable, first, thanks to the positive contribution of the development pipeline with the deliveries, and second, thanks to the strong like-for-like rental growth, I commented it before. To conclude on this results part, just further achievement also on the ESG, the certification of our portfolio is now at 93.5%, of which 63% of our office are now certified very good or above, and we increase our debt linked to ESG KPI up to 50%. This ESG policy and performance has been rewarded during the first half by our shareholders through the approval of the sale on climate resolution and by our rating agencies as S&P, with a score of 85 and a status of sector leader. Thank you. Now, I let the floor to Christophe.
Thank you, Paul, for commenting this strong operating performances and good set of results in this challenging environment. Let's now give some comments about the outlook. What we intend to do over the coming semester is to keep on benefiting from the pricing power we mostly see across our activities. In offices, page 29, indexation is expected to remain elevated over the coming quarters across all geographies, with latest indexes between +6 and +7%. Overall, in the market, the polarization is increasing. As you know, we split our office portfolio in three categories. For our 67% core city center asset, they are located in strong letting market with increasing pricing power. There, we intend to capture the reversionary potential , which was 17% in H1.
For our 26% core outside city center asset, we plan to have internal asset management to increase or maintain occupancy, sometimes accepting lower rents. To conclude, our 7% non-core asset, here the idea is to reduce the exposure to this asset, converting them into resi or through direct disposals. To conclude on our development pipeline, mostly the city center, we'll also deliver EUR 83 million of new rent by 2027. On German resi, the fundamental on the operating side are really strong, with widening housing shortage. Regulated indexation indices are increasing everywhere, and also here in Berlin, where we have the largest exposure and where market rents record some of the highest increase in Germany year-on-year. We keep on benefit from high positive trends over the coming years, which should provide a solid like-for-like rental growth.
Moving to hotels, the momentum is positive. The increase in average daily rate and RevPAR is impressive, and occupancy is now back to 19 levels, with buffer remaining. Hotel my expectation were reviewed upward by Oxford Economics by +10% for France and +20% for Italy. There are major events to come, especially in France, that will boost demand for hotels. Meanwhile, the offer is decreasing through Airbnb regulation in big cities and a reduced pipeline of hotels under construction in Europe. As a whole, Covivio will benefit from these trends with high indexation on fixed lease, growth expected in variable revenues, and new asset management opportunities.
In the short term, thanks to higher contribution of indexation, and once again, a better growth than expected in the hotels, we increased our 2023 guidance to EUR 420 million versus EUR 410 million initially announced. To summarize this presentation, first, we are well on track on our disposal program. We once again record the strong operating performance. For the future, we benefit from a central portfolio with pricing power. We also increase our guidance. Thanks for listening to this presentation. We are now ready with Paul to answer your questions.
Hello, this is Florent Laroche-Joubert from ODDO BHF. Could you hear me?
Yeah, yeah, we hear you. Go on.
Hello, Florent.
Hello, sir. Thank you very much for this presentation. Maybe I would have a few questions. On the disposals that you have announced today, is it possible maybe to have more color on the assets that you have disposed? And for the coming period, could you please give us maybe an update on your view on the investment market? Have you seen a difference today on the different players on the investment market compared maybe to the start of the year? And maybe also a question on your occupancy rate in offices. We have seen that your occupancy rate has been volatile, let's say in H1 2023. What could we expect in H2 2023? Thank you.
Okay, first, on the disposals. In offices, we have sold one development project in Paris, which is Anjou , and non-core assets, mostly in Italy, for a total amount of EUR 268 million, with on average, -2% margin. In German resi, we sold EUR 24 million in the first half, on which two small asset for EUR 15 million, in line with June values, and a EUR 9 million privatization with 48% margin. In hotels, we sold mostly two assets in Southern Europe, in Spain and Italy, close to book value. That's on the, what we have in this, new, disposal agreements.
On the investment market, what we see really is a slowdown in the investment market everywhere in Europe today, with a lot of people that are waiting exactly where the value will be in the future. We have a lot of other discussions, because that's EUR 350 million of advanced negotiation we give also in this presentation. Mostly, I have to say, in the office sector, that we will continue to... Where we will continue to have the most part of the disposals. We have discussion with end users, but also with long-term investors, that, and in different sectors.
On the occupancy rate, you know, the evolutions, H1, as Paul explained, it was just linked to two assets, mainly, and that was Maslö delivery, 43% only occupied in the first half. And Issy-les-Moulineaux Atlantis, that was vacated, fully vacated in the first quarter. As you have seen on these two assets, we increased strongly the occupancy during H2. What we expect is that this situation will continue in the second half, and we hope really to continue to improve this occupancy rate in the second half, I have to say today. Also, in the letting part, a lot of discussions, and we are pretty confident to be able to achieve an increasing occupancy rate at year-end.
Okay. Thank you. That's very useful.
We have another question from Ms. Soo-Huynh of Barclays. Ms. Soo-Huynh, the line is open. You can press star six to activate your microphone.
Hi, team. Can you hear me?
Yeah.
I think so. Two questions for Paul, please. The first one on refi. The refis you've done, EUR 765 million total share. Can you provide color on what the all-in cost was, and where you see average cost of debt lending this year and next? Second question would be on the earnings guidance upgrade. Can you explain where the EUR 10 million upgrade is coming from, exactly? Thank you.
I will let Paul answer these two questions.
Thank you, Céline, for those questions. First of all, on refinancing, but, well, a big part of the refinancing is actually undrawn credit line, so no earning cost on this, apart the non-utilization fees, which are very limited. What I can say, is that on average, we had a slight increase in the margin, but rather limited. We also did a cap on a bond with a yield of 4.6%. On German residential, we did some mortgage loans for 10 years at a coupon of, let's say, 4%. Interesting, still interesting level of margins. Going to your question on interest rates, cost evolution.
Well, the decrease of the net debt enable us also to increase the level of the aging ratios for 2024, which is currently at 86%. We are close to 80% also for 2025. That means that this increase of the cost of debt will be very progressive in the next in the next years. We shared in the capital market day, that we expected the cost of the debt to reach 2.5% within 2026. I think that following this first half, we have postponed this increase even further, which is a good news.
On the earnings.
On the earnings, sorry, on the guidance. Well, half of it is coming from indexation, which is more important than what we initially anticipated, especially in Italy and in Germany. The other half is coming from higher performance in the hotel part.
Thanks, Paul.
We have another question from Ms. Meertens of Kempen. Ms. Meertens, the line is open. You can press star six to activate your microphone.
Hello, all. Thank you very much for the presentation tonight. A quick question on leverage and disposals. You mentioned there's another EUR 350 million in the pipeline or is in advance in negotiation. Can you perhaps give some more color on what you expect in terms of timing? Is that expected to come before the end of 2023? Also more aligned with that, what is your target or your expectation in terms of LTV before the end of the year? You're now slightly above your own target of 40%. FRLTV is even 43%-44%.
Curious to see what your views towards that, and also if you have any discussions with credit rating agencies, and if they are a bit more worried about your LTV, given where valuations currently stand and might go the second half of the year?
Well, on disposals, timing of the disposal, but we are under discussions with those EUR 350 million. Let's say that we expect to secure it within the next few months, which means closing, will it be at the end of this year or early next year? We will see.
At this stage, we will not increase the target of EUR 500 million that we give. Perhaps we'll do more for this year, you know, all the discussions today with the potential buyer are really volatile. That what we experience, I have to say, in some discussions in the first half. really we have is this EUR 250 million of discussions, and we hope to do most of them this year, but that will really depend on each discussions. on the second part of the LTV target and the questions.
LTV target, it depends on the, on the values. The target is to continue to reach our LTV policy of below 40% through our disposal program. That's what I can say at this, at this stage.
We have, I have to say, a large buffer in term of rating, because today, we are far away for the... The exchange we have today with S&P, it seems that there is no immediate risk on any downgrade, especially with what we've done in the first half and what we expect to be delivered in the next one.
As a reminder, S&P updated their rating, and they confirmed the BBB+ stable outlook at the end of May. Fully aware of this current environment, and I think the actual results goes in the right direction for them.
Okay. Thank you. That's already very helpful. Two follow-up questions on that. Do you have an idea on or maybe S&P gave you an indication on what the amount of value write-downs you could still have, or maybe in other words, what LTV they would accept for this rating? Secondly, at least during the Capital Markets Day, you were also vocal on disposals in the German resi segment. Up until now, it's not that much. Maybe you can perhaps shed some light on progress there, and if we can expect more in that segment as well.
Well, on values, what I can say at this stage is that, basically, the value decline for the past 12 months, as you have seen, has been quite significant, - 8%. Your, your question was on the buffer. That means that including the preliminary disposals agreement that we signed, not yet closed, our buffer to the BBB+ rating is 10% of value decline.
Without any other disposals. That, that's why, we are really at this stage, confident of to keep this rating in the near future. The second question, on the disposal, on the resi part, first half was really quiet, I have to say, on the resi market, for two different reason, I have to say. The first one is that on the block sales, investors were waiting on the evolution of values. I have to say that what we have now in the values at the end of June, and that at this level, that we just closed these two disposal block sales, that we just have in the figures. I hope that the situation could change in the second half.
On the privatization, I have to say in the first half, we don't have a lot of assets to be disposed. The assets that were privatized was really, vacant asset, for people that want to occupy the asset. We really expect to have an increasing amount in the second half, because we will put other buildings under privatization. We are really more optimistic for these figures for the second half.
Okay. Thank you. That's, that's very helpful.
There is no further questions from our callers. Thank you very much.
We have two questions per call to edit questions.
Yes, first question is on the hotel segment. Q1 like-for-like was +58%, H1 is +20%, that implies like-for-like figures of 3%-4% in Q2. Actually, no, because in H1, in Q1 2022, we didn't updated the rents on the U.K. portfolio. As you remember, we renegotiated the U.K. lease last year, the update has been made in H1 2022. That's the first explanation, which is quite mechanic. The second explanation is that the volume of activity in Q1 is smaller than in Q2. To make it short, activity has been robust in Q2, even higher than in Q1 when we compare to 2019 figures in our hotel.
Yes, especially, for example, in Germany, where we are lagging behind the rest of Europe in hotels. May and June were really good, and over 19, that was not the case of the first months of this year. The other point was?
Other point was on asset valuation, does the appraisals take into account the reversionary potential on our office in their hypothesis, and to what extent? Yes, they take a reversionary potential. Most of the case, they are quite cautious, so that means that they take essentially negative reversionary potential, and we have more difficulties to make them take the positive reversionary potential that I would say. That's for office.
There is another question?
Mozzi from Bank of America. Mr. Mozzi, the line is open.
Yes, good evening, everyone. just wanted to make sure that I understand very well what you just said previously about the leeway, the headroom you have on your debt covenant, leaving you only 10% of asset value decline before you reach one of those covenant. Is it the way I should understand thing, or we should understand thing, or there is a big nuance here I'm missing?
Not covenant. Covenant, it's 24%, 24%.
Okay.
It's not covenant.
What is the 10%?
The 10% is for the BBB+ rating, and again, it's value decline without any further disposal versus what we have as of today.
we know that it's.
Okay.
Mechanical S&P, if it will be the case, it will be, we could discuss. That was on this part.
Sure. Can I ask a question? Do you have any bonds covenant around unencumbered asset ratio? If that the case, what is the percentage, and where are you at end of June? What sort of headroom leeway do you think you have in terms of capacity to move some of your unsecured debt to secured debt?
The only covenant that we have on our bonds is that the unencumbered value has to on the resi market, for two different reason, I have to say. The first one is that on the block sales, investors were waiting on the evolution of values. I have to say that what we have now in the values at the end of June, and that at be equal to the volume of the bonds.
Okay.
headroom.
100% then?
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
Okay. Have you a clue of how many room that leaves to you in term of capacity to move from unsecured to secured?
I think we just demonstrated, during the first half, linked to the EUR 765 million of refinancing, which are mostly secured actually, yeah. That demonstrates the capacity to continue to work with the banks and the confidence of the banks to work with us.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Okay, there are no further questions. Thank you, everybody, for listening to us, and, perhaps see you soon in the future roadshow. Bye-bye.