Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning. I'm pleased, together with Stéphane, to report Klépierre's 2023 full-year earnings, and I'm proud to say that it's a very strong set of results. First, we generated EUR 2.48 in net current cash flow, or a remarkable 10.7% growth year-over-year. This is also 5.5% over our initial guidance of EUR 2.35. With an outstanding momentum from top to bottom line, we delivered strong operating performance, as illustrated by the 8.8% like-for-like increase in net rental income and the 9.6% increase in EBITDA. Throughout the year, our venues have been attracting more and more visitors, translating into a 6% increase in retailer sales, with all countries and segments contributing to the growth. The very high leasing demand for our irreplaceable shopping centers has driven occupancy rate at 96% and a 4.4% positive reversion.
Meanwhile, average lease duration in our portfolio has increased to 5.1 years. In an evolving environment, achieving such results takes a clear positioning. We own and operate a highly desirable portfolio in Europe's largest cities, with catchment areas over one million inhabitants, having a revenue per capita 20% above national averages. Whereas online pure player posts decelerating performance, brick and mortar is a unique profitable solution for banners. As such, Klépierre malls welcome more than 700 million visitors every year and constitute an unrivaled means for retailers to access consumers. In the context of retail polarization, there is no physical substitute to our dominant places. They are here to stay, and we will continue to drive solid leasing demand and gain market shares. It also takes a scalable long-term leasing strategy.
Indeed, to continue to offer operating outperformance and profitability to banners and meet consumers' expectations, we have been curating the mix through two main initiatives: one, attracting and upsizing omnichannel retailers; and two, pushing up dynamic segments like health and beauty, sports, services, and entertainment to replace outdated concepts. Consequently, we supported the expansion of growing retailers, asking for more and larger stores. Let's take a few examples. Nike and JD Sports have increased by 67% and 47%, respectively, the total area they rent with us since 2019. Same goes with Rituals, up 143%, Normal up 160%, Primark up 48%, or Starbucks, that almost doubled its footprint. In this context, in 2023, we continue to experience a strong demand for leading brands. This materialized through 1,700 deals signed, up 22% over one year in volume, and a 20 basis points increase in occupancy and a positive reversion.
The dynamic leasing momentum observed over the last two years is already ongoing in 2024. Now, let's review our top-line performance in two more details. In 2023, we delivered an outstanding 8.8% like-for-like increase in net rental income. The year was notably characterized by the 6% increase in retailer sales, slightly above the level of indexation. In this context, we managed to keep occupancy cost ratio stable at 12.8% and maintain our reversionary potential. We also outpaced indexation by 300 basis points, activating multiple operating levels, with a 110 basis points increase in collection rate at 97.5% and the delivery of a 21% like-for-like increase in additional revenues made of turnover rents, car park revenues, and mall income. And lastly, we capitalized on the full-year impact of positive reversion and further improved our operating margin.
This year, we will continue to unlock embedded growth potential, not only through indexation and reversion, but also through incremental sources of organic growth, like in 2022 and 2023. We are confident in our ability to deliver at least 4% increase in EBITDA in 2024. Now, turning to the balance sheet. Since October, we have noticed a pivot in long-term interest rates on the back of easing inflation and more moderate stances from central banks. In this context, for the first time in more than five years, the value of our portfolio remained stable over six months, as did the EPRA NTA at EUR 30.10 per share. Given recent inflation evolution and consensus peak in rate cycle, the stabilization trend should pave the way to a bottom out in asset valuations. One additional evidence of this trend is the EUR 169 million disposal, closed or secured, 20% above book values.
As a matter of fact, our strong results are also a demonstration of sound financial discipline, enabling us to operate with sector-leading metrics. By actively monitoring our cash-related debt metrics, we currently enjoy a leverage ratio, net debt to EBITDA, of 7.4x and an interest coverage ratio of 8.4x. With these levels, we belong to the tier-one companies within the listed real estate industry. The average maturity of our debt is 6.3 years, and cost of debt remained very low at 1.5%. We are 98% hedged for 2024 and 84% hedged for 2025. Over the year, we took advantage of the strong liquidity available to Klépierre in the financing market and raised new long-term financing, totaling more than EUR 1 billion, with a close to seven years weighted average maturity.
We also improved our liquidity position by signing EUR 725 million of revolving credit facilities, and we now rely on a EUR 3 billion liquidity position. Our sector-leading balance sheet and strong and growing cash flow generation is the lifeblood of our action. This provides us with capacities to fund sizable cash distribution to shareholders, as illustrated by our 8% average dividend yield in 2023. Going forward, as we always did, we will continue to work on our portfolio to deliver further value creation. Coupled with divestment of mature properties and currently non-yielding lands, we have room of maneuver to redeploy capital in higher returning opportunities, including extension and refurbishment with at least 8% return and targeted and opportunistic acquisitions. Last November, we opened a large extension in Grand' Place, in Grenoble, which is now fully let and welcomes the first Primark megastore in the region.
This development is already a great success, with performance exceeding expectations: footfall increased by 60% compared to 2022 in December, and the return on investment of this project is 8%. Next year, we will complete the reshaping of Maremagnum in Barcelona, just in time for the America's Cup. Time Out Market will open its second concept in Europe and the first in Spain, and yield on cost is 13.5%. Lastly, I'm delighted to announce that we recently launched the redevelopment and extension of Odysseum in Montpellier, currently welcoming more than 12 million visitors per year. We are adding 8,200 square meters and restructuring 12,000 square meters. Yield on cost of this project is 9%, and delivery is planned in phases in 2025 and 2026. As a direct result of our redevelopment initiatives, Klépierre venues are gaining market shares in recent years.
Concretely, our actions are bearing fruits, both in terms of retailer sales and footfall. Let's take a few examples. At Gran Reno, following the extension in 2022, retailer sales are up 77% for a footfall increase of 40%. At Saint-Étienne, refurbished in 2023, retailer sales increased by 79% when the number of visitors was up 23%. Campania and Emporia posted 26% and 19% increase in tenant sales after releasing. This being said, we have also demonstrated our ability to take advantage from targeted mall acquisitions. We recently acquired O'Parinor, together with Sofidy, a super regional shopping mall in Paris, anchored by international banners and posting EUR 7,000 sales per square meter with a footfall in excess of 11 million. Klépierre, we liked as an asset, property, and leasing manager.
Our equity investment is expected to generate a strong double-digit annual cash return from year one, and the closing of this transaction is planned in the weeks to come. Looking in the recent past, we have a good track record in accretive acquisitions. As a proof of that, the values of Nueva Condomina, Oslo City, and Plaza Río 2 increased by 61%, 34%, and 33% since their respective acquisitions. I think those are fantastic achievements. Our leading portfolio is perfectly positioned, a unique footfall over EUR 700 million every year, high sales per square meter with low OCR. Our malls are the preferred location for retailers, as evidenced with a high NPS score of 62 points, up 35 points versus 2017. Coupled with targeted investment in our malls and a changing mix, we are confident to attract more visitors in our venues.
Based on 2023's very strong results, the supervisory board will recommend that the shareholders at the forthcoming annual general meeting approve a cash distribution of EUR 1.80 per share, up 3% compared to last year. This witnesses Klépierre's uninterrupted dividend story and our best-in-class risk profile. Klépierre expects to grow EBITDA by 4% in 2024, and factoring in the impact of higher interest expenses of EUR 0.11 per share, we guide for a cash flow per share between EUR 245 and EUR 250 in 2024. To conclude, let me talk about corporate social responsibility. Beyond our strong achievements, especially in terms of energy consumption and path to net-zero carbon portfolio, I am proud to announce to you that Klépierre has once again been recognized for its leadership in transparency and performance in the fight against climate change by CDP. The group is included for the third time on the A-list.
This reflects the consistency of our efforts and our commitments to build the most sustainable platform for commerce by 2030. I will end my remarks on this and open the floor to questions. Thank you for your attention.
This is the conference operator. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Florent Laroche-Joubert with ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Jean-Marc Jestin. Thank you very much for this presentation, and congratulations for this publication. I would have three questions, if I may. So my first question would be, so what is your confidence to see retailer sales continue growing in 2024 at Klépierre's shopping centers? My second question on the investment market, so we see that we have a stable valuation of assets at Klépierre. But how do you assess the appetite of potential buyers on the investment markets, and have you seen any change recently? And my third question, it's about your recurring EPS in 2023 and the guidance for 2024. So we see that you have exceeded significantly your guidance in 2023. So why not again in 2024? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Florent. So for sales in 2024, it's always a difficult exercise to predict what will be sales. But the way we look at the macroeconomic in Europe, first of all, we have the south of Europe, which is very strong, and the rest of Europe and the north of Europe very resilient. So the growth in the south is really GDP growth is very sustained for 2024. And more importantly, labor market and wage increases are very important all over Europe. So we feel confident that sales in 2024 will be comparable to 2023. That's the basis of our assumption for the guidance, and we will see how it develops. So when we look at the sales in January 2024, we are flat compared to 2023. And I will remind that 2023, January, was a very strong month. So it's a first month, which is encouraging.
For the investment market, I will make it very short. The investment market is very quiet. We have been nevertheless able to dispose of some non-core assets, not for a huge amount, for EUR 169 million, above book value 20%, which is, I think, a great achievement. But the investment market today is not back to normal. And I think this will become more interesting, I would say, in the second half of the year or beginning of 2025 when interest rates will definitively go down. So we still have a discussion with investors on non-core assets, and I am confident that we will also dispose of some non-core assets in 2024. For the EPS, thank you very much for telling that we have beat the guidance in 2023. But I think we did that for the last 10 years.
The past never predicts the future, but we are very confident about the guidance. I think what is also very clear is that the organic growth going forward is very strong. We are guiding for the first time the market on the EBITDA growth, 4% at least, which is also a good sign that we are confident with the market and confident to meet the guidance. We will do our best to outperform.
Okay. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Stéphane Alfonso with Invest Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, and thank you for this presentation. I would have two questions, if I may. So the first one on appraisers assumption, in particular regarding the NRI trigger of +2.8% on average. Will it be possible to give us the levels of indexation that IPRESERVE are forecasting for 2024 and 2025? And could we have an idea of the reversion rate that was captured in France in 2023? And also, how has evolved the vacancy rate there? Thank you.
So in the IPRESERVE assumption, we have a 2.8% NRI trigger. They take into account a 2.5% indexation in 2024 and the same level in 2025. In terms of reversion and vacancy in France, what we can say is that vacancy has decreased in France in 2023 compared to 2022. We do not itemize all the figures, but in France, we have seen an improvement in terms of vacancy.
But maybe just to complement what just Stéphane said, I think in the overall performance, France has been probably the country which has been the most impacted by bankruptcies. Even though this has not been very significant, we have seen during the course of 2023 a high number of stores being closed and being relayed. So this has had quite a non-negligible influence on occupancy.
So I would characterize the occupancy in France still suboptimal compared to 2019, while in the other countries, we are above 2019 levels. So that's a complement to Stéphane's comment.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question is from Frédéric Renard, Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, guys. A question on my side, maybe regarding your leverage. Where do you want to go in terms of your net debt to EBITDA? Do you feel comfortable today at those levels? And what can you say about a potential share buyback at some point in time?
Okay. In terms of leverage, so net debt to EBITDA for 2023, it's 7.4. Obviously, this is much better than what we have seen in 2022. So we have improved the ratio. We have, obviously, some room of maneuver compared to our rating at Fitch and S&P. So we are comfortable at this level. And even increasing slightly, we will still have some room of maneuver for the rating. So I will characterize this level like giving us some room for opportunity. In terms of share buyback, as usual, it's one of the options we have on the table. When we look at how we can grow our net current cash flow per share, we have other options. As discussed by Jean-Marc, we see also some opportunities today in the market in terms of acquisition. But share buyback is definitely one of the options we have on the table.
If we want to grow the Net Current Cash Flow per share, it's accretive, obviously. And maybe just also to just complement, I think we need to look at leverage with the other metrics of the company, so 2023. But like I will say, the last seven years, we are always able to grow dividend, reduce debt, and growing cash flow. So I think we are very comfortable with this level of debt, also meaning that we have a discipline on CapEx and development projects going forward. So we are able to maintain a very strong balance sheet and also growing dividend and decreasing absolute level of debt. So I think it's a remarkable performance for the industry.
Thank you. And so do I understand that if you can find opportunities in the markets, and I mean by that accretive opportunities like you did with O'Parinor, then share buyback could be an option to consider?
I think we can't say that. We just say that this is, by definition, an option. In the past, we did. We have plenty of room of maneuver to continue to grow the business because the balance sheet is very strong. So don't misunderstand us. There is no plan today to buy our shares back. And this is something that has not been discussed by the board of Klépierre. So we'll see in due time.
Thank you.
We missed someone.
Maybe we have some question on the chat.
Ms. Aboulkhouatam , could you please repeat your question?
Yes. Good morning. Do you hear me?
Apparently, you were lost in the translation somewhere. Good morning.
My question would be on the investment. I know the question was already raised. Just to know if you see more opportunities coming or more distressed sellers like the transaction of O'Parinor coming for 2024?
I think if I want to characterize it simplistically, I would say that the traditional investment market with the usual suspects is very quiet. But it's fair to say that we are probably seeing and going to see more opportunistic transactions when the sponsors have to refinance their properties, as we have seen that with O'Parinor transactions. So yes, I'm confident that we will see more opportunities going forward of that kind.
So we have a question on the chat from a French asset manager. How do you see the dividend growing in the coming years? Do you have targets in terms of dividend payout or dividend yield? On this one, I would say that we increased this year in 2023 our dividend by 3% compared to last year, EUR 1.80 compared to EUR 1.75. I think it's fair to say that we want to see the dividend growing slowly with our business growing and our result growing along the time. We don't have a target in terms of dividend payout. But we obviously look at what are the peers in the market for dividend yield.
When we see that among the large cap real estate companies across Europe, cash dividend yields are between 5%-8%, I think we are really at the top of the range because compared to 2023 average share price, we are 8%. So I think we are where we want to be in terms of cash dividend yield compared to our peers.
So there is another question in your presentation. You mentioned the decreasing exposure to fashion retailers. To what extent do you see fashion further? I don't see the end of the question. Probably it's further going down. So yes, but it's not new news. I think the fashion industry is going through a quite deep transformation where we see large retailers taking more space and smaller retailers decreasing space or going out of business. So I think this trajectory will continue. We will see probably in the coming three to five years a couple of % less of small fashion stores and would be replaced by other activities as we show in our presentation. So as we speak today, health and beauty, sports, entertainment, food and beverage, services, convenience, which probably will take the lead in the coming two or three years.
So another question in the chat, again, a French asset manager. We have just seen Henderson and Eurofund acquiring the mall Isla zul in Madrid from Nuveen. Did you look at this asset, and did you make any offer?
Thank you. So I'm not going to answer directly to this question. So we keep our strategy secret. That's an asset that we know very well. And we also know it's very close to Parquesur . So maybe between the lines, you can understand what I mean.
So another question in the chat. So from Daniela Lungu , January 2024 sales flat versus January 2023 show significant deceleration compared to +6% in full year 2023. Any more color on why you consider this to be a strong position?
Well, I think you look at the glass half empty or anyway, I think the way we have given the guidance for 2024 is to have sales at least at the level of 2023. It's difficult to predict what will be the final outcome in the next 12 months. My point was to say that January 2024 was in line with our estimates. I will not comment more than that. 2023 has been stronger, and we expect 2024 to show at least strong resilience and probably also some growth.
Daniela, I think also you should take into account that in 2023, we had 5.8% indexation in average in our portfolio. When we have +6% retailer sale, it does mean it's very consistent. What is important is the consistency between indexation and retailer sale in order to keep the occupancy cost ratio quite stable. This is what is important in our business going forward. Okay.
Thank you very much. We have no more questions. Thank you for attending this call, and thank you for the question. See you soon. Have a good day. Thank you. Bye-bye.