Hello, welcome to the Gecina 2026 half-year earnings presentation. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants on the phone are able to ask questions by dialing key five on their telephone keypad. Today, we have Beñat Ortega, Chief Executive Officer and Nicolas Dutreuil, Deputy Chief Executive Officer 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.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review our performance for H1 2026. Three themes will guide today's discussion. The first half of 2026, we continue to deliver growth in both revenues and earnings. This growth comes with stronger long-term fundamentals, a higher quality portfolio, and healthy leverage. We are actively working to build tomorrow's self-funded, sustainable growth for the next years. I'll come back to this point at the end. Let's start with H1 2026 achievements. Leasing activity was sustained this semester. We signed 48,000 square meters in six months, sustaining a rental uplift of 13%, while keeping our occupancy high around 94%. Looking ahead, our pipeline of surfaces under term sheets now reaches 50,000 square meters, including discussions with major tech players. We expect this discussion to close before the end of the year.
On the multifamily side, we signed 650 leases with a strong increase in occupancy, up 170 basis points year-on-year. This shows the ramp-up of the strategy we've been deploying for two years now. Furnished and serviced apartments, as well as co-living solutions alongside our traditional family units. A good example of the way we capture strong rental uplift is the proactive rollout of our fully managed offices. We offer a plug-and-play product, one point of contact, one invoice, and flexibility. The market is ready to pay for that. It now represents more than 16,000 square meters across 16 buildings in central Paris, where this offering is most relevant. Based on market trends for traditional leases, we achieve rents 30%-40% above market values after deducting our costs, including CapEx.
Basically, we achieve rents similar to redeveloped assets without entirely vacating the building for 18 months or 24 months. This is particularly relevant for typical small-sized traditional Parisian office assets. We have already targeted 40 assets. We expect to double this portfolio by the end of 2028. We are also working hard on customer satisfaction to retain our tenants for longer. This enhances our visibility on occupancy higher for longer and strengthens portfolio resilience overall. Thanks to proactive renewals and renegotiations, our tenant retention rate was 10 points higher this year than the three-year average. This reflects a broader market trend, one that was probably reinforced recently. That helps explain the apparent subdued take-up since tenant retention doesn't fully show up in market data in France. This translates into our capacity to grow revenues.
Our rental income grew by 2% on a like-for-like basis, outperforming indexation by 100 basis points in a context where inflation has been slowing down until recently, which is no surprise. It's even been up 7.6% on our as-in portfolio, thanks to a solid catch-up in occupancy and growing rents per square meter. On a current basis, the contribution from our different growth drivers, organic growth, the immediate accretive acquisition we made last year in Paris, as well as recent pipeline deliveries, offsets the disposal of mature residential assets, as well as asset repositionings and potential conversions. Going from the top line to the bottom line, we continue to optimize our property costs to generate a solid increase in the rental margin, up 160 basis points year- on- year.
Zooming out to the broader cost base, H1 confirms a significant decrease in our EPRA cost ratio from 21% in 2021 to 14% now. Same focus on financial costs, which remain well contained thanks to our strong aging policy and disciplined financial strategy. All in all, earnings continue to grow, and we confirm our guidance for 2026, recurring net income expected to be between EUR 6.7- EUR 6.75 per share.
We deliver this growth while improving our fundamentals from portfolio quality to tenant base robustness of our financing platform. We have obviously worked on improving the quality of our portfolio. In a context where more than 4% of office stock was converted into housing or hotels in Paris' most sought-after locations, we have been firmly anchoring our portfolio in the prime sign of the market and where prime rents continue to grow in real terms after incentives and above inflation.
This is a long-term effort, it requires consistency over time. Thanks to proactive disposals, even in subdued Investment markets, acquisitions and redevelopments, Paris and the share of our rents has already grown by seven points since 2021. Those seven points will become 20 points by 2031, all else equal, representing a doubling of our Paris and the office rents in 10 years. At the same time, we have made our portfolio more prime. 65% of our office portfolio has been restructured over the past 10 years, and we have identified 40 assets to further deploy Yourplace, our fully managed office offering to be more appealing against our competition.
On this journey, we have also reinforced the quality of our tenant base, we take pride in hosting more blue-chip names you see on this slide, French or global leaders alike in our portfolio, the last one being Mondelēz Group in Boulogne last month. Values are holding firm, broadly stable, like for like. Central location values, in particular, are up 0.3% in an investment market where Paris now concentrates 75% of transaction volumes in line with what we observe in 2024 and 2025. This isn't a surprise. The investment market generally tracks the leasing market, tenants favor centrality and quality. One important news behind the figures, we have also renewed our independent appraisals, all assets have been assessed by a new appraiser this semester. One of the key fundamentals we pay great attention to, as you know, is our financing structure.
Summarizing H1 in a nutshell, our credibility was confirmed again, with both rating agencies reiterating our best-in-class credit profile for the eighth consecutive year. The bond we issued in May, EUR 500 million over five years at a very competitive spread of 68 basis points, is a further proof of our competitive advantage against our peers on the bond market. In this context, we continuously maintain visibility with stable leverage. All future growth already funded for this year. I'll come back to this. Strong liquidity with new credit lines and bonds, Efficiency of our financing platform with strong hedging and contained cost of debt at 1.6%. Stable debt as our model funds its own future revenue and value growth.
In six months, we closed EUR 250 million of disposals of mature assets at a rent loss rate of 3.1% to fund the CapEx of the redevelopment pipeline launch end of 2024. Another EUR 80 million was secured in July at a rental loss in average of 2.4%. This year's financing need for developments is EUR 265 million. The return on CapEx invested in Paris and the redevelopment is 10.6%. This is how we approach capital allocation tools on an agnostic basis, always with the aim to combine improving portfolio quality to drive future long-term rental growth, keeping leverage at a safe medium long-term level in support of our rating, Selecting the most cash flow accretive investment for shareholders, and Adjusting at any time for the best option. Signature in Paris CBD is a good expression of this approach.
It's a destination asset for corporate headquarters and already a leasing and value creation success just 12 months after acquisition. Our leasing progress is 15% above our initial underwriting. EUR 150 million of value has been already created in 12 months. Through this transaction, we have reinforced the portfolio quality with more prime central value. The CBD share of our portfolio grew by 4%. We funded the acquisition and refurbishment without impacting leverage by selling a mature student housing portfolio yielding below 4%. Value creation is already there, with an updated yield on cost of 7% on actual rents. Let me now turn to how we are building tomorrow's value creation. We look at the markets, it's important to stress that Paris stands out as one of the few global cities offering such a diversity of tenant base.
It's the leading financial hub in continental Europe and a corporate industrial powerhouse hosting 88% of CAC40 headquarters. Additionally, in a centralized country like France, it's also home to most national and global public institutions. It's less known, Paris is also becoming continental Europe's leading hub for AI and tech. Several reasons explain this. The depth of the talent pool in Paris, scientists, engineers, data specialists, the existing ecosystem of hundreds of startups and AI leaders and capital velocity with strong public and private investment now reaching EUR 109 billion after Choose France. It already shows up in the figures, the real estate figures. Tech companies take-up has doubled between 2023- 2025, concentrated in prime sub-markets with major collection from Datadog, Mistral AI, or ChapsV ision. Same story on Gecina Trend Four.
Tech, Fintech and Healthtech rents have doubled across our office portfolio between 2021 and today. Tech now represents 17% of our total office rents. Zooming out a bit. In the last weeks, we have interviewed together with Ifop, 500 French CEOs regarding AI. 2/3 said they have already an AI strategy deployed or working on one. Interestingly, nine in 10 of those business leaders surveyed think that artificial intelligence will impact the office, not to replace it, but to make it more strategic and collaborative. Among 72% of leaders who expect their real estate strategy to evolve in the coming years, the main move expected is flight to quality, favoring central offices best connected to public transport, flexible and collaborative workspaces, amenitized and serviced office buildings to attract and retain the best talents. The destination assets we are designing are aligned with these trends.
They are also modular by design to adapt to evolving needs. This thinking on the product is key, in my view, to meet the market with the right offering and deliver the expected annual rents of EUR 80 million- EUR 90 million once delivered and fully let. The first signs are encouraging. Signature now is 60% secured. We have advanced discussion on three quarter of Arches, a healthy pipeline of visits and discussions across all projects, including a first fully managed office in Yourplace project. In May, we also launched Works on Shape, the new name of the T1 Tower in La Défense. We bring the codes of hospitality, modern services and curated design to transform the experience of this tower.
This 18 months refurbishment will reposition the tower on the strong side of the market, where you have seen that vacancy has been down recently. We already have interest, though it's still early for prospects to commit. Looking forward, we have already confirmed guidance for 2026. The next cycle of growth is progressively taking Shape. 2027 will be likely a transition year, with much depending on the pace of pre-leasing of the Paris and the yield pipeline. From 2028, in a normalized inflation environment, rent contribution from the redeveloped assets will sustain rental and earning growth together with the progressive re-leasing of Shape. As you can see, we are working hard on the short term to deliver growth today, while also preparing tomorrow's value creation, always with the same discipline on capital allocation to extract more value.
Thank you all for listening. We are now happy to answer your questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial hash five on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial hash six. The next question comes from Florent Laroche-Joubert from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Hi, Beñat. Thank you for this presentation. I would have two questions. The first one on the asset value. I understand that you have a new app with us. Could you maybe give us maybe more colors about the comments on the valuations for your central assets and also maybe a comment on what has happened in La Défense? I think there's a one-off effect maybe on T1B. Maybe after that, I can ask you my second question.
Yeah. Listen, the trends in Paris central locations are a bit the same regarding rents. We had a positive cash flow effect on our Parisian assets and appraisals have, based on the current situation, expanded a bit the yields on the prime portfolio. That's why growth has been a bit more limited than the previous semester, with no major changes regarding appraisals. On La Défense, yeah, there is a small impact on La Défense on the T1 and B towers. That explains most of it.
Okay. Thank you. Maybe my second question would be on the leasing side. I think this is the first time that you report the square meter signed on term sheets. I understand that when you sign on term sheets, the rents are quite secured, let's say at 99% or something like that. How can we compare this volume of 50,000 square meters signed under term sheet compared to a previous period? Is it above, same or below that what you were able to sign in the past?
I would say that the situation in France is a bit in a wait-and-see mode. That's why we gave a bit that indication. Conversations take longer than before. That's why we have more volumes in term sheets before going to Signature than what we had before. As it was a sizable amount against what we signed during H1, we thought it was interesting to guide you a bit on what were the current discussions with tenants.
Okay. Thank you very much. That's always good. Thank you.
The next question comes from Ebrahim Homani from CIC. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, if I may. The first one is about the rental margin. Is there room for further improvement in H2? My second question is about your dividend distribution policy. What payout-
Okay.
Ratio to expect in 2026 given the recurrent rental improvement?
Ebrahim, can you just repeat the question, please? We just got interrupted in the call.
Oh, sorry.
Can you just repeat your question, please?
Yes.
Sorry.
It was about the rental margin. In H2, is there room for further improvement? My second question is about your dividend distribution policy. What level of dividend could we expect in 2026 given the?
Regarding rental margin, we worked a lot on that during the first half, like we did on the previous years. I think we should be a bit in line in H2 against what we did in H1. Really, it's a series of super small amounts, very detailed work by the teams on both resi teams and office teams, which is paying off now. It should be rather similar during H2. Regarding dividend policy, I think we gave somehow a view that the dividend that we pay today based on the current distribution rate is rather fine, and that we can sustain that dividend for the medium term and progressively increase it alongside with leasing. That's what the message we convey in February during our annual earning call is still in line with what we have in mind now.
Many thanks.
You're welcome.
The next question comes from Benjamin Legrand from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Just two questions from my side. The first question would be on the guidance and what you expect over the second part of the year, considering where you are at the moment. I see it as a bit shy, I was just wondering what you expect. The second question would be in La Défense regarding Idemia, if you have any news coming from them, if they could be staying or not in the tower. Thank you.
Yeah. We had in mind to have a different semester between H1 and H2. It's a lot of small elements, we are still in line with what we are planning to deliver for year-end. That's why, in fact, we have kept the guidance like it was. Leasing is progressing according to plan, that's why we are capable to confirm the guidance even during this complex situation. Regarding La Défense, obviously, I will not be able to comment precisely on one tenant discussion, regarding B Tower, which is for everyone, the building which is next to T1 Tower, where Engie has a sub-lessee, which is called Idemia. We are progressing well on being capable to keep occupancy on that building. Sorry, we are still working on it and negotiating, I will not be able to comment precisely on the specific Idemia name.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Jonathan Kownator from GS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. How do you see the investment market? Obviously, your valuation went down slightly. Values you've changed. Do you have appetite and do you think there's liquidity for additional disposals in the market today? At the same time, can you please also highlight opportunities of reinvestments and how you compare today investment opportunities? Do you see any in the market versus potential share buybacks? Thank you.
Thank you, Jonathan. I think we all saw the stats regarding investment markets in Paris region, which are really shy. Liquidity is pretty limited. Still some in Paris inner city, but still pretty shy. The investment market following [inflation] and the rise in interest rates have been declining in terms of volumes. That's probably why appraisals have thought that it was a slight decompression of our yields. Therefore, no major moves to be expected, in my view, on the Paris investment market.
Do you see-
Same goes with.
Sorry, just follow up very quickly. F or instance, was highlighting that insurance companies have been collecting capital. They've been trying to reinvest in some areas. I mean, they were highlighting actually foreign investments. What are you seeing from that type of investors currently?
A bit, but no massive move. I agree with you. They have collected a series of amounts of money, especially in Assurance vie, so the life insurance business. So far, we have not seen them really active on our market.
Okay.
It might change, but so far I see the market pretty muted.
Okay.
What is left there is probably family office. You saw that there was some rumors regarding Pontegadea trying to buy Capital 8. It might be executed in the next days, but we are not in the deal. Outside of family and pension fund money, not much to say.
Okay. What are you seeing in terms of reinvestment opportunities in the market? Is that something that you would consider currently?
Obviously, I think it's in line with the question regarding share buyback, our hurdle for capital, cost of capital is pretty high. We are obviously very careful and demanding on the returns regarding our positions. As the market has a bit frozen, in the next months, I don't see so many opportunities in the market for our positions.
Okay
It might change. The situation is pretty volatile.
Generally speaking, can you help us understand? Obviously, I understand why liquidity currently is low in the market, but what's your appetite to continue disposals? Obviously, you've been doing some disposals in H1 that are funding your pipeline. What is your appetite in principle to test the market if you find some pockets of liquidity in there?
Our appetite is always the same one. We disposed like EUR 3 billion in the last four years. We try to find as much liquidity as possible on our portfolio, and then to have the means to reinvest in the best cash flow accretive opportunity. We are very pragmatic on the situation. Like you saw, we have secured almost EUR 300 million disposal this year, which is after what we did last year and the year before and the year before, a proof that we are very dedicated, in fact, to rotate capital as fast as possible to generate shareholder return.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
You're welcome. Thank you, Jonathan.
The next question comes from Aaron Guy from Citi. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, team. Thanks for taking the questions. Can I just ask a little bit more for a bit more color on the Paris occupy market? In particular, the supply-demand imbalance. You've got rising tech demand that's pretty dynamic at the moment, traditional businesses fighting to retain talent and also hiring to apply sort of AI. Is there enough supply response? Is there new opportunities in that market when you look at tenant affordability? Should we expect that prime rents continue to rise sort of going forward?
It's the million-dollar question. The last leases we signed in Signature were the highest of Gecina district. Obviously when we deliver prime, flexible, large floor plates, amenitized buildings, next to the best transportation hub in Europe, obviously we can capture even higher rents than before. That's still working pretty well. Obviously that neighborhood concentrates a lot of different occupier which are looking for more square meters and more space or better space. You saw that GLL took some stuff. We had consulting firms. We have seen also tech firms taking square meters in the neighborhood. On the best spots and the best assets, we still see great appetite and growing rents for the most prime assets. At the same time, because the situation is uncertain, and that you saw on our Q1 and H1 results, we see a growing clientele for flex office business.
Coworking occupancy are pretty high, and we have seen great appetite for our serviced office business. That's another way to capture a growing clientele in more general terms. The market is more wait and see. That's why to grow our company, we are trying to build the products and the services, in fact, to capture those growing clientele.
Thanks. Just on investment markets, aside from the specific sort of asset differences and issues, when you look at the investment market more broadly, you mentioned that since the Middle East conflict, there's been a bit of a tempering of demand. If that was to resolve, would you expect some of that demand to come back? Are there any other issues that you think are holding the investment market back?
The Middle East situation has been quite frustrating to be fair, because when we saw what was occurring in autumn, clearly we were seeing a greater investment appetite. Blackstone bought a big asset, and we saw a series of large transaction at pretty tight yields and high value per square meter. Obviously the Middle East situation has frozen a bit the situation. That shows that before that situation and rising interest rates following higher. There was clearly an appetite for prime Parisian assets on the investment market. Because of, again, that balance between scarcity of qualitative products and pretty decent occupier appetite. The situation is still a bit the same. Hopefully, the situation will bounce back if the Middle East situation and interest rate situation clarifies a bit.
Yeah. Just one quick technical one, if I can. Just on the EPS guidance, are there any sort of key up or downside risks that you see within your range?
Not really. That's why we had a quite precise view on 2026 when we gave our guidance, because most of the time in our business, the volatility of our earnings 12 months ahead is into pre-leasing of pipeline. We had a good view on renewals and reletings on our existing portfolio. That's why we gave a tight range in which we are still there. We still have some leasing to do to achieve the higher range of the guidance. That's why we get that. The rationale is because limited pipeline delivery in 2026 gave us a pretty precise view on where we might land for 2026. We are basically in line with the plan for the last month.
Perfect. Thanks, Beñat.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone.
That was on top line. On the bottom line, as we're 100% hedged, therefore that gives you the indication on the earnings.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Ana Escalante from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Morning. Just one quick question on maintenance CapEx. I believe that in full year presentation, you said that you were expecting a run rate just below EUR 100 million per annum, but it looks like this half, you have already spent EUR 75 million in maintenance CapEx. That run rate was more maybe medium-term guidance for 2027, 2028 onwards, and this first half is more of a one-off. Has this changed at all and you now expect to spend a little bit more in maintenance CapEx?
Yeah, thank you, Ana, for your question. You are right in what you say. It is rather a one-off that might last one or two years. What I gave as an indication is we are more catch-up CapEx on our housing portfolio. Some façades to change, some balconies to repair. That takes some time, once that period, about catch-up CapEx on the resi, we should re-enter into a significantly lower maintenance CapEx average.
Thank you.
All right. We are having written questions, I am going to take the one by Sutana One, Sana Ship Tempen , which is the first one. "Who is the buyer of the resi disposals? Could they do more, or do you see more appetite?" The second question is, "It seems the committed CapEx for 2026 is now covered. Is it fair to say that any additional disposals would be recycled, or would you prefer more headroom on leverage metrics?" Regarding resi disposals during H1 and the new one, it is a combination between the core funds looking for resi assets overall. Bed and shed is quite a popular investment strategy these days. Public entities or state-owned entities buying those assets. The last is we have unit-by-unit disposal program on some assets. We have sold probably EUR 25 million of housing assets unit by unit to individuals.
It's rather diversified, and we have, as I said to Jonathan early on, we try to find the best buyers and try to find all the pockets potentially available for us for disposals. Very pragmatically, as we always do, we try, one, to fund the company. That's why funding the pipeline was priority number one. The next one then will be. We will see how the situation evolves during the year. What we do with the additional proceeds, if any. Again, the investment market is not buoyant these days, if any. We will see if we further improve our balance sheet through de-leveraging or we find cash flow accretive reinvestments of any type.
Really, we will look at the situation in the next months very pragmatically, depending on how much we can sell and what is the best option for the long-term prospects of the company.
The next question comes from Kanad Mitra from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Many thanks for taking my question. I was already wondering about touching on your last point, given that liquidity is lower and your business plan at this point is recycling assets into development pipeline. How confident are you to carry out that plan without raising leverage? Another question, again, can you shed some light on the kind of deals that you are seeing in the occupier market, which are AI-led tenants? Just a little bit of color would be nice. Thanks.
Yeah. It's hopefully temporary. We have quite a seasoned and proactive investment team looking at opportunities. We'll, obviously, over the next months, being super proactive, engaging with as many investors as possible to find the best options. We'll try really to continue as we do on the leasing side. In fact, to be as proactive as possible on any type of deal. Regarding leverage and reinvestments, again, we'll observe the situation, and find the best options, hopefully. Regarding the occupier market, on the large deals, and it will not surprise you know that we are quite a diverse tenant base, like I mentioned during the presentation in Paris. When you look at the large deals which are on the market these days, we have energy companies.
We still have some luxury names which are looking for square meters. We signed a lease early on this year with a very well-known luxury company, including service office, by the way, with them. We have also tech names which are pure AI, but also the famous large tech U.S. names. There is French AI companies in the market. Mistral signed a large lease in Paris last year. There are two or three pretty large transactions that might occur. Not sure in our buildings, but let's say they are active on the market. We have seen also banks expanding again their footprint. It's quite diverse, in fact, the leasing market, even if it's quite slow. There are deals in the market.
Thanks for the answers. That's basically it.
You're welcome. Thank you for your questions.
All right. We are having another question on the chat. From Sheetal Jayamani from Deutsche Bank. Two questions here. "Portfolio values were down 0.5% like-for-like with a yield effect partly offset by a rental effect. Do you expect further yield pressure in non-central markets in H2?" That's the first question. The second question is: "You completed the EUR 250 million of disposal in H1 and secured another EUR 80 in July. Is the disposal program logic complete for 2026, or should we expect further asset sales, and any target for 2026?
Portfolio values, yields, and rents, I think it's too early. We just got the H1 presence right now. We will have to observe the market after summer, and to see the way it goes. It's really too early to answer the question. At least we know what was in H1. Like I said, we rotated all our presence also to give you as much confidence in the strength of the way we operate and provide the value of our portfolio in our balance sheets. On the second question, I think we don't have really a disposal program in place. It's really being proactive on capital allocation like we have always been, with those three views, trying to do disposal, improve the average quality of what we have, keep the leverage, and find the more aggressive investment opportunities. We are still in that line.
We start the year with zero, and we try to do as much as we can.
I think we're done with the questions if there is not any more question in the room. If it's not the case, we can give the floor to Beñat for concluding words.
Again, thank you all for listening and for your questions, and we are very happy to meet you very soon after this H1 earnings call. Thank you all. Bye-bye.