Hello and welcome to the Gecina Q1 2025 business activity. My name is Laura, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. Today, we have Beñat Ortega, CEO, and Nicolas Dutreuil, Deputy CEO in charge of finance, as our presenters. I will now hand you over to your host, Beñat Ortega, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Hi everyone. Thank you all for being here. Very happy to have the opportunity to present the business for Q1 2025 and answer the questions you may have. During the first quarter, gross rental income was up by 3.6% on a current basis, mainly driven by the like-for-like. I'll get back to it in a minute. The contribution of the newly delivered assets offset the impact of assets transferred to the pipeline Mirabeau-Angivillers, and the disposal of mature assets on the residential side. The like-for-like growth of 3.3% was fueled by the continued effect of indexation, plus 4.2%, and the contribution of reversion captures on new leases, particularly on central locations, including the impact of serviced and operated real estate offering across both asset classes. The solid leasing activity achieved across all geographies once again highlights the dual polarization trends that favor both top-quality assets and prime locations.
In three months, it's been 41,000 sq m re-let or renewed, 33 deals, almost EUR 19 million of annualized headline rents. Last year, overall, we let 83,000 sq m, so we've already done, on three months, the equivalent half of the annual performance of 2024. The overall rental uplift is plus 9%, with 17% in Paris City and 27% in Paris CBD, highlighting the continued reinforcement of polarization. We also see acceleration of the leasing on the residential side as well, with more leases signed on average in January, February, and March than the monthly average last year. Occupancy is expected to improve gradually over the coming quarters. On the pipeline, Icône was delivered in Q1 2025 on time and on budget, to be made available to the client over the coming weeks. The student housing disposal project is on track and expected to close in H1 2025 as scheduled.
The first set of figures for the year laid a solid foundation to secure our guidance that is confirmed for 2025. We look forward to the upcoming quarters with confidence as this Q1 demonstrates the robustness of our business model. Thank you for your attention, and we will be very happy to answer your questions now.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for a brief moment to allow them to queue for questions. Thank you. We'll now take our first question from Florent Laroche-Joubert of ODDO BHF. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, Beñat. Thanks for this introduction. I would have two questions. My first question would be to know if you could give more colors on the visibility that you can have today to increase your occupancy in Boulogne and maybe in other areas that cannot be considered as first central areas. My second question would be on the investment side. Maybe the global environment has maybe a little bit changed since the beginning of the year. How do you see today the investment appetite on your different markets? In this context, how do you feel comfortable maybe to do some acquisition maybe in central areas? Thank you.
Thank you for both of your questions. Lisa, as we've been quite clear about the leasing to be done in Boulogne, we are progressing well. In fact, when you look at since half last year H2, we have signed several leases in Horizon with excellent companies, media companies especially. We already signed a new lease on Sources above 5,000 sq m with another great company, FNTG Company. So it's progressing well. Obviously, it's less easy than Paris CBD, but it's progressing according to plan, let's say. Regarding the investment market, we still see quite a decent appetite even in the last weeks on central locations. The market is, I would say, a bit more fluid than in the last years, still competitive on small assets, well located, well designed, maybe a bit less liquid on outside Paris, obviously, and larger schemes.
We are monitoring the market on both sides, buying and selling, trying to optimize our asset allocation. Nothing more to comment at this stage.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We will now take our next question from Stéphanie Dossmann of Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hello, Beñat. Hello, Nicolas. Thank you for the presentation. I would have a couple of questions then. I saw that your like-for-like rental growth in other locations was down 25%, if I'm correct. I was wondering what kind of reversion do you have on Paris La Défense renewals relating to Colombes? What kind of negative reversion, I suspect? The second one would be on acquisitions. I was wondering if you could talk about Solstice Building, if you can confirm ongoing discussions or not, and the cost, the CapEx needed to refurbish it. Maybe the last one, the last construction cost index was down 2.5%. GDP will be slowing. What kind of indexation are you forecasting going forward? Thank you.
Yeah, you're welcome. Regarding other locations, obviously, it's a small portion of what we own, but still, we face some departures of tenants. We have, typically, I have in mind one in Montrouge where Orange left our asset, and we have already re-let it. It is good news from the first quarter. We have some also departure in Puteaux in one of our asset fields where the former Gras Savoye left, sorry, the new name, and we have re-let already half of the building. Yeah, we are suffering some departures. We are active on releasing, and obviously, it has a negative impact on our cash flow, but again, it's a small portion of what we own. Regarding acquisition, we never like to comment on acquisition before they occur, so I will not comment on that potentially.
As I said, we are monitoring the market both to sell and to buy, like usual. Remember, we have been selling EUR 8 billion of assets, investing similar amounts in the last 10-15 years. We are active on both sides. That is the rationale of our company, but nothing specific to comment on one specific asset. The third is, yes, you have been following precisely the statistics of the indexes. Yes, indexation is decreasing month after month. We think it should land progressively around 2%. That is a bit what we have in mind, potentially a bit lower. We will monitor it along the months in 2025. It has a limited impact on 2025, obviously, because as you remember, the impact on inflation goes through our P&L in the cash flow 12-18 months after it occurs.
That is why we are pretty confident on, and that is the beauty of our business model. We have quite an excellent visibility on cash flows, even on indexation. Yes, it will go down progressively. That goes also along with the interest rates that have also an impact on long-term cash flows. Obviously, there is less inflation. Interest rates should be lower than the peak of the last years. I think all in all, we will monitor the situation, but we are entering into a more normalized inflation era, probably.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Thank you. Once again, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We will now move on to our next question from Christian Auzanneau of AlphaValue. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you. Two questions, if I may. The first is about disposals. Do you intend or still sold around EUR 700 million of residential? Two sub-questions about this. You have something like the target of EUR 1 billion, EUR 1.5 billion, I don't know what, in 2025 or around 2026. That's the first sub-question. The second sub-question is the target of leverage, net debt EBITDA, which will you could find yourself comfortable. The second question is about rising concerns in Paris CBD. As far as we are concerned, we are trying to analyze the changes, the underlying changes there, and we detect a couple of negative things on top of increasing vacancy. That's why it's highlighted by Immostat in Q1 2025. What is your own feeling about this? Nothing critical in my question, but do you find something resembling to another crisis?
Because just vacancy is now close to 500,000 sq m there. Thank you.
Thank you for your question, Christian. Regarding disposal, no specific targets for the year. We try to manage our balance sheet on the safe side. We have no specific on top of the development pipeline that we've been talking about, no specific issues regarding that. We will monitor. We mean monitor it. Really, disposal sheets, we try to look at it as an opportunistic buyer and seller, like I said earlier. Obviously, if we see a good traction on some asset classes or some assets, we will execute, but no specific target on it. Net debt will be there. Obviously, it's a component we look at it. The rating agencies look more at LTV because thanks to the high liquidity of what we own, as you see, now proving both NAV, but specifically the V of the NAV and the V of the LTV.
Have in mind that, again, it's the fourth year in a row that we grow EBITDA and we decrease net debt. We will continue to do like we have done in the past. Regarding Paris CBD, you were asking about our own feeling. Obviously, the macroeconomics and the geopolitical tensions are not helping the leasing activity, but we are still facing a situation where there is a very low vacancy. Even if vacancy has grown, we are still below historical average. Like you saw during Q1 in our results, still significant reversion, still significant appetite. As you may have seen during this quarter, occupancy in our portfolio grew in Paris. We still see a good leasing tension based on that low vacancy rate in the CBD.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you. As a final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. There are no further questions coming through. I will now hand it back to Beñat Ortega for closing remarks. Thank you.
Thank you for your attendance today, for your questions. Obviously, we are fully ready to answer any other questions you might have in the next week. Have a nice day and see you soon. Bye-bye.
Thank you. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.