Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Aroundtown H1 2025 Results Presentation Conference call. I'm Sheri, the Chorus Call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing STAR and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press STAR and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast at this time. It is my pleasure to hand over to Aroundtown .
Please go ahead.
Good morning everybody. Thank you for joining us for Aroundtown 's H1 2025 Results Call. You can view this presentation on Aroundtown 's website, either on the Home section or under Financial Reports of the Investor Relations section.
Guiding you through the presentation today will be CEO Barak Bar-Hen, CFO Eyal Ben David, Executive Director Frank Roseen, Chief Capital Markets Officer Timothy Wright, Chief Sustainability Officer Limor Bermann, Deputy CEO Kamaldeep Manaktala, designated CFO Jonas Tintelnot, and representatives from Grand City Properties are also present for the duration of the call. All participants will be on a listen only mode. Following our presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. With that, I would like to hand over to Barak and the rest of the team who will guide you through the presentation of our results.
Good morning and thank you for joining us for our H1 2025 Results Presentation. Over the past month, we have observed positive development, and we believe that we could be at a turning point at the macro level. The struggling German economy is showing signs of recovery, with sentiment improving and GDP growth is expected to return to positive territory. Government stimulus plans are driving investments in critical infrastructure, and we're beginning to see the positive effects from renewed private sector activity. At the same time, financing conditions have eased following the ECB's rate cuts.
The.
Trend in the transaction market has followed and accordingly we have seen more transactions across the various markets. However, this recovery has not been symmetric across all market players, with smaller players and less liquid players continuing to face refinancing challenges which can open growth opportunities for us. Throughout the recent periods we focused on strengthening our balance sheet and reducing leverage. The measures we have implemented include significant disposals, proactive liability management exercises, and exchanges of perpetual notes. Our activities demonstrated our long-standing financial discipline which resulted in a 5% decrease in our LTV from 45% in June 2024 to 40% as of June 2025 and created a high headroom to capture growth opportunities and scale up our strong operational platform, putting us in a strong position to capture the opportunities to come. We are also encouraged by the continued support of our investors.
Strong demand for our recent bond issuances underscores both confidence in our strategy and the broader recovery in the market since significant headroom relative to our leverage metrics and rating thresholds. We have the flexibility to pursue selective and accretive opportunities. This allows us to begin shifting our focus back towards external growth and the creation of additional long-term value. We will walk you through this development and more in the upcoming slides. In addition, we have some updates to our management. After 17 fulfilling years serving as the company's CFO, Eyal has decided to step down from his position. Jonas Tintelnot, already serving as the Deputy CFO for the last three years, will be appointed as the new CFO of the company. Our key banking partners have been working closely with Jonas for many years.
The change is part of an ordinary leadership transition and will become effective until the end of the year 2025. To ensure a smooth transition, Eyal will remain as an advisor over the coming periods. Earlier this year, Timothy was appointed as Chief Capital Markets Officer of the company, complementing our management. Many of our investors and analysts who cover us know Timothy well for many years. In his previous role as Head of Investor Relations, he has gained long-standing experience in capital markets and especially investor relations within the group for more than a decade. Third to that, Kamaldeep , who has previously been our CEO of Hotels, was promoted to be Deputy CEO. On slide 4 we present the financial highlights for H1 2025. Net rental income amounted to EUR 591 million, stable compared to H1 2024.
Despite significant net disposals over the last period as a result of a solid like-for-like rental growth of 3%, adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR 501 million, stable compared to H1 2024. Despite disposals of around EUR 800 million since end of June 2024, FFO1 amounted to EUR 150 million, slightly lower mainly due to higher perpetual note attribution which offset the strong operational growth in H1 2025. The full portfolio was externally revalued, resulting in a positive like-for-like value change of 1.4% compared to 12-24-2020, driven by strong operational performance. EPRA NTA came in at EUR 7.8 per share, higher by 5% compared to December 2024. We continue to make progress on obtaining green certifications. 60% of our commercial portfolio is green certified, with 72% of offices and 55% of our hotel assets having green certificates.
LTV stands at 40%, significantly below our internal Board of Directors long-term guidance of 45%, maintaining our wide headroom to covenants. Liquidity remains solid at EUR 3.4 billion and we have gross debt reduced by around EUR 720 million in H1 2025. Tim, please continue to the next slide.
On slide 5 we summarize our key strategic growth drivers. Now that we believe that the market has reached a turning point, we see ourselves well positioned to take advantage of rising opportunities. We will continue to focus on internal growth and operational efficiency in parallel with our ongoing disposal activities. Our transaction teams remain alert to external growth opportunities. We are exploring the feasibility of converting some of our properties into data centers where power is accessible, and we continue focusing on innovation as long term solution for ESG and efficiency. We will go into detail of each point in the following slides. On slide 6 you can see our internal growth drivers. We continue to drive growth through rent reversion, targeted investments, and operational efficiency.
We have a rent reversion potential of approximately 76% to capture by closing gaps to market rents, reducing vacancy rates, and benefiting from indexation as well as the regulatory mechanisms in our German residential portfolio. Our focus on locations with strong fundamentals further enhances this reversion yield potential, which continues to expand over time with increasing market trends. Through targeted CapEx measures, we aim to extract new income drivers as well as capture the embedded potential faster. The measures include repositioning and upgrades of properties as well as select conversion projects. These measures are executed on a selective basis at a low risk and high accretion to rent. On slide 7 we present our strategic realignment, which marks a shift in our approach from a defensive stand to a focus on driving growth.
Over the past four years, we have.
Executed a disciplined deleveraging strategy disposing approximately EUR 10 billion of primarily non-core but also mature assets since 2020. We have also rebalanced the portfolio asset types over this period, with the office share reducing from 44% in 2021 to 38% now, while residential increased to 34% from previously 30% and hotels increased to 22% from 18%. These efforts have not only improved asset quality but also enabled us to successfully navigate the past challenging period as well as supported our balance sheet strength through targeted disposals and liability management. Our investment property portfolio has evolved accordingly, decreasing from EUR 29 billion in 2021 to EUR 25 billion currently. We have positioned ourselves well to restart external growth supported by a conservative financial profile and substantial liquidity balance of EUR 3.4 billion.
Our strategy is designed to balance growth with financial discipline, maintaining significant headroom to covenants and capitalizing on market opportunities as they arise. On the next few slides we present the drivers behind our planned top line and bottom line growth through a balanced combination of internal and external drivers. On slide 8 you see, as we believe we are at the turning point and start seeing opportunities arise, we are putting back our focus on external growth. We are utilizing our wide deal sourcing network built over two decades which provides us access to accretive off-market transactions. We are currently in initial stages of screening a sizable pipeline. Our external growth strategy is expected to be further supported by capital recycling, disposing of low-yield assets to support funding of acquisitions with high return potential, all while maintaining a conservative balance sheet.
On this slide we also present our main acquisition criteria. Our primary focus remains on accretive acquisitions and locations with strong fundamentals. We have launched the Turnaround Capital Fund, our European opportunistic real estate fund, to support our acquisition strategy. TAC is a real estate investment fund set up together with institutional investors designed to support growth in real estate properties by seizing market opportunities and acquiring quality properties in locations with strong fundamentals, enabling us to pursue selective accretive acquisitions in a leverage-light manner. TAC has secured EUR 400 million in capital commitments to date, of which the group component is about 60% with potential to scale up to EUR 1 billion, so our position will be diluted as the fund grows. We are the external partner of the fund and plan to use this platform to drive external growth while maintaining a disciplined capital allocation and keeping low leverage.
On slide 9 you can see another key growth area that we are looking at, which is data centers, a real estate asset class where we see potential for additional internal growth and a growing asset class which may become another layer of diversification in our portfolio over time. Here we outline the strong fundamentals of the German data center market. Germany hosts one of the world's largest Internet exchange points, making it a key low latency hub for data exchange. Frankfurt ranks among the top global data center locations, with Berlin, Munich, and NRW also seeing very high demand and planned investments from major cloud providers. Importantly, our portfolio overlaps with the top five data center markets: Berlin, Hamburg, NRW, Frankfurt, and Munich, positioning us well to benefit from this long-term growth trend.
On slide 10 we present the opportunities we see in this market and our strategy to capture value from the data center sector. Data centers are one of the fastest growing asset classes in real estate, with high investment expected for the coming years. Data center capacity is expected to increase by 78% in Germany over the coming years, and as the highest demand areas show strong overlap with our portfolio, we see potential to create significant value in the segment. We are pursuing a dual track approach to take advantage of this opportunity. In the short term, we are reviewing partial conversions of commercial and development assets into edge or colocation centers. Through this approach, we obtain incremental grid approvals and utilize existing building infrastructure with targeted upgrades to enable low latency compute in key locations.
Mid to long term, our strategy is to unlock full building conversions for hyperscalers or wholesale colocation use. This will be unlocked by securing higher energy capacity and full permits over time. Currently, we're making progress in our analysis of the portfolio to identify optimal data center locations. We have already filed for permits and secured initial power allocations for selected sites, including in Berlin. Turning to slide 11 where we give an overview of two projects through which we aim to be part of shaping the future of real estate. We put a strong emphasis on innovation and continuous improvement, exploring new and innovative ideas in order to drive meaningful change in the real estate sector.
At the forefront of the strategy is Atex, our proptech startup accelerator developed in collaboration with leading proptech venture capital firms Fifth Wall and NOAH, alongside real estate investors like Roundhill Capital and since July also Vonovia, Europe's largest listed real estate company, which validates the necessity of innovation in our industry and the effectiveness of the accelerator and puts Aroundtown in the front line. Through ATX startups gain access to mentoring and resources to accelerate innovation in areas ranging from asset optimization, energy efficiency, financing, and climate tech, allowing startups to test their ideas in real world environments and get immediate feedback to improve their product. This translates into proptech solutions that enhance NOI and create risk-mitigated investment opportunities. We will discuss some updates relating to ATX later in the presentation.
In addition, we launched AtWorld earlier this year, our next generation workspace platform with now over 270 locations and growing rapidly. Driven by third party space providers joining the platform, the network's endless scalability offers great flexibility to users at low cost. AT World provides a wide range of different spaces tailored to the varying needs of users from hotel lobbies and office common areas to cafes and dedicated co-working locations all within a user-friendly mobile app. You can sign up for free and for a free membership trial and try it out or reach out to us under thisisatworld.com if you would like to know more. Now let's discuss our portfolio. Frank, please continue on the next slide.
Thank you, Tim. Moving to slide 13, we present an overview of our portfolio breakdown. Our portfolio includes 22% hotel properties, 34% residential properties, office properties with 38%, and the remaining 6% being logistics and retail assets. The portfolio remains well distributed across top locations in Germany, the Netherlands, and London, together making up 88% of the portfolio locations. Our largest cities are Berlin at 24%, London at 8%, Frankfurt at 6%, and finally Munich at 7%. The long-term fundamentals of these markets remain intact, and we continue to see solid upside potential in the mid to long term. You can find more detailed breakdowns with area views of our assets in main cities in the Appendix.
On slide 14.
We highlight how our diversified asset base remains the foundation of our resilience and growth potential. Our broad exposure across various asset classes enables us to unlock synergies and to mitigate downside risk, positioning us to navigate fluctuating market conditions with confidence. Our expertise across residential, office, and hotel segments allows us to identify and execute on an asset's best use, whether this is achieved through repositioning, conversion, or operational optimization. For example, we are converting select trophy spaces into serviced apartments where returns are more attractive. In a similar fashion, innovative processes developed in one segment can be streamlined across different segments. This flexibility not only allows us to enhance operational efficiency, but also supports stable cash flows. Residential assets provide downside protection during economic downturns, while office and hotel segments offer greater upside during periods of growth.
This balance of fundamental drivers ensures that our portfolio remains well positioned across cycles with manageable sensitivity to market headwinds. Importantly, due to our expertise in all asset classes, our typical allocation strategy benefits from this flexibility. We are able to reallocate capital dynamically to the most promising sectors, allowing us to capitalize on market dislocations and selectively pursue high return opportunities. On slide 15, we present the main portfolio KPIs along with an overview of our tenant composition. As of June 2025, the total portfolio value is EUR 24.9 billion, generating EUR 1.15 billion in annualized recurring rental income, which reflects a rental yield of 5%. WAULT remains solid at 7.4 years and we have seen a value increase like-for-like of 1.4% in the first half of 2025. Driven by operational growth, the maturity schedule has no significant concentration of leases expiring in any single year, providing further downside protection.
Vacancy stands at 7.5%, stable compared to the end of 2024, and in-place rent increased to EUR 11.3 per square meter. Our tenant base remained well diversified with around 3,000 commercial tenants and a highly granular residential segment. The top 10 tenants continue to present less than 20% of the total rental income, highlighting limited exposure to any single tenant. Kamaldeep, please continue to the next slide.
Thank you, Frank. Good morning. On slide 16, we present an update on our disposal progress. In H1 2025, we completed approximately EUR 400 million of disposals around book values at an average rental multiple of 20x. These transactions cover a range of asset types, with the majority being office and residential properties and the balance being hotel building rights and retail. The disposals were primarily located in Berlin, Wiesbaden, Bremen, Frankfurt, Enschede, and other locations. We signed approximately EUR 170 million of disposals in the first half of 2025, providing additional capital which supports deleveraging and can be utilized to fund growth opportunities. We currently hold EUR 600 million in assets held for sale that we expect to dispose over the next 12 months. As previously mentioned, we plan to continue with selective disposals of lower yielding assets and development rights to support funding for our acquisition opportunities.
On slide 17, we provide a closer look at the performance and positioning of our office portfolio. The majority of our office assets are located in our top four strategic cities: Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, and Amsterdam, which collectively represent 60% of the total office portfolio. As of now, 72% of our office portfolio holds green certifications, and we continue to make steady progress towards certifying the remaining portfolio. The office portfolio recorded a like-for-like rental growth of 1.5% in June 2025, driven primarily by rent indexation and rent reversion. Our tenant base remains well diversified, with approximately 75% of rental income coming from public sector entities, multinational corporations, and large domestic firms. While the broader economic environment continues to weigh on occupier decision making, we are seeing signs of recovery. We anticipate further improvement in office demand mainly in the second half of 2026.
Slide 18 provides an overview of the office market, which is showing early signs of recovery supported by macroeconomic tailwinds. The German government's announced stimulus package is expected to be a key driver of this momentum and includes EUR 500 billion for infrastructure and no more constraint on defense spending. Fiscal expansion is projected to boost GDP growth by approximately 2% annually over the next decade, with forecasts pointing to 1.1% growth in 2026 and 1.6% growth in 2027. These developments are already translating into improved office market dynamics. In the first half of 2025, office take-up in Germany's big seven cities increased by 9% year- on- year, with expectations for full year take-up to exceed 2024 levels, and investment volumes rose by around 20%. While business confidence remains cautious, the trend looks positive.
We believe these structural and cyclical improvements will support a gradual recovery in office demand, particularly in core urban markets where we maintain a strong presence. Turning to slide 19, we show the overview of the selected office properties that are being repositioned into centrally located service apartments and long stay accommodations. These conversions are designed to meet rising demand in key urban markets while unlocking value from under-rented assets. We have already secured lease agreements across eight assets located in Berlin, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Hanover, and Rotterdam. These assets collectively encompass approximately 1,200 rooms designated for conversion. Development of these assets is progressing well. The conversion process for the Rotterdam and one in Dortmund are in progress, while planning or permitting is underway for the remaining projects.
Currently, no income relating to these leases is in our run rate, and we expect an incremental rent of around EUR 17 million from these leases. In parallel, we are reviewing additional projects where we see good potential and are in the process of securing additional leases. We will update the progress in the coming periods. Turning to slide 20, our residential portfolio continues to deliver outstanding operational results supported by strong market fundamentals. In June 2025, we achieved 4% like-for-like rental growth driven by rising in-place rents and a persistent supply-demand imbalance. Market conditions in Germany and London remain resilient, positioning us well for continued growth in rental income and cash flow. Slide 21 highlights the continued strength of our hotel portfolio, which includes over 150 hotels across key European tourist and business hubs. These assets are leased under fixed long-term agreements with inflation-linked or step-up rents.
In June 2025, we recorded 4.2% like-for-like rental growth supported by our repositioning efforts. With tailwinds from a strong travel industry across Europe, international travel and overnight stays are steadily increasing. We continue to view hotel properties as a main segment in which we are developing. In the hotel segment we feel comfortable to grow beyond our primary locations as the hotel properties are leased to external single tenants who operate them while our team provides active asset management and monitors the tenant activity. Our recent CapEx programs relating to the repositioning of some of the hotels have proven to be successful and are set to contribute approximately EUR 50 million in incremental annual rental income over the coming years. Let me hand over to Limor for.
The next slide on slide 22 and an update on ATX, our proptech accelerator. Since launching in late 2024, ATX has already gained strong momentum. Recently, Vonovia, Europe's largest residential real estate company with over 500,000 residential units, has joined ATX as a strategic partner. With Vonovia joining our existing partners Fifth Wall, NOAH, and Roundhill Capital, the program now offers access to a broad and diverse portfolio across residential, commercial, and hospitality sectors. Our first cohort of startups has already delivered encouraging results. Some have moved into commercial deployment and secured follow-on funding, and 3 out of 5 startups from the first cohort continue to engage with us beyond the program. From time to time, we will spotlight examples from our ATX accelerator.
One such case is the startup Mapmotor, which uses AI to streamline energy efficiency, planning, and retrofit strategies, delivering results 20 times faster and at 25% of the cost. We have partnered with MAC Motor to support the decarbonization of our U.K. assets. The solution has already been validated with direct feedback and translated into commercial contracts with us, marking a step forward in our sustainability roadmap. Our second cohort of five startups will launch in Q2 2025. These startups specialize in areas of fintech, tenant satisfaction, decarbonization, deep tech, and material science. Jonas, please continue to the next slide.
Thank you.
Turning to Slide 24, we present an overview of our like-for-like rental growth with growth across all our asset types. The breakdown shows the benefits of our diversified portfolio, with a hotel portfolio showing the highest growth after a few challenging years during and after the pandemic. Residential rental growth is also showing very sustainable momentum. In offices, we captured solid like-for-like rental growth, capitalizing on our high diversionary potential. The gap to market rents of our portfolio allows us to offer competitive rents and focus on our occupancy levels while still capturing some of the embedded upside, offsetting the impact from the continued sluggish economic performance as we see the economic sentiment improving. With the German economy poised to shift back to growth, we see our portfolio well positioned. Moving on to Slide 25, we present the financial results for the first half of 2025.
Net rental income amounted to EUR 591 million compared to EUR 588 million in 1H24.
This was a result of solid like-for-like portfolio revaluation.
For like rental growth that offset the impact from net disposals in the period. Operating and other income, which is mainly composed of recoverable expenses on tenants, decreased by 8% year- over- year, while property operating expenses also decreased by 6%. Both items were mainly impacted by disposals carried out between the periods. Finance expenses declined by 6% to EUR 113 million in the first half of 2025 compared to EUR 120 million in the same period of 2024, resulting from our proactive measures such as debt repayments and hedging activities, further supported by the downward trends in market interest rates between the periods. This positive impact was partially offset by lower cash earned in our cash position as well as the higher rates of the new bond issued in 2024 and 2025.
We revalued the full portfolio on June 25th, which resulted in property revaluations and capital gains amounting to EUR 383 million, solidifying the positive valuation trend and the continued improvement in the overall environment. This increase in property values was driven by sustained operational growth while rental yields were broadly stable.
As such, the positive revaluation result was.
Strongest in residential, hotels recording 1.7% and 0.8% like-for-like for LAE growth respectively. Office assets record an increase in value of 0.4%. Overall net profit for the period amounted to EUR 578 million compared to a loss of EUR 330 million in 1H 2024, mainly as a result of positive property revaluations. On a per share level, net profit amounted to EUR 0.32. On slide 26 we present our adjusted EBITDA and FFO results. Adjusted EBITDA in the period amounted to EUR 501 million, remaining stable compared to the same period in 2024. This was driven by strong operational growth and improved operational efficiencies, which more than offset the impact from net disposals in the period. FFO1 amounted to EUR 150 million compared to EUR 154 million in 1H 2024.
This was a combined result of the growth in adjusted EBITDA, the lower finance expenses, and the expected high perpetual notes attribution per share. FFO1 amounted to EUR 0.14, also stable compared to the EUR 0.14 per share in the same period of 2024. FFO2, which includes the disposal gain over total costs, amounted to EUR 200 million. Turning on to slide 28, we highlight our EPRA lab metrics. EPRA NRV amounted to EUR 10.5 billion, increasing 4% compared to December 2024. EPRA NTA amounted to EUR 8.6 billion or EUR 7.8 per share as of June 2025, increasing 5% compared to December 2024. This increase in EPRA NTA metrics was mainly driven by the positive property revaluations recorded in operational profit. On slide 29 we present an overview of our strong financial profile and our debt maturity profile.
LTV decreased to 40% mainly as a result of both net disposals and positive property revaluations in the period. We continued to maintain a large balance of unencumbered investment property, which amounted to EUR 17 billion or 70% of rental income. Our ICR was 4.2x and net debt to EBITDA 10.4x as of June 2025. The strong and conservative approach is also reflected in our high hedging ratio of 97%, keeping the cost of debt low at 2.1% and limiting the negative impact from volatility. We have issued in Q2 a EUR 750 million straight bond at a coupon of 3.5%, showing significant decline from the 4.8% in the previous issuance less than a year earlier. Last month we tapped this bond by another EUR 150 million following reverse inquiries and reduced our issuance spread by further 50 basis points. The significant reduction in the marginal cost.
Of debt is a combined result of.
Our improved financial position as well as improved base rates acknowledged by our strong investor base. Our maturity profile was extended as a result of the recent issuances and buybacks, and the average debt maturity was 3.7 years, which extends to 4.5 years if we account for our liquidity position. We continue to maintain a high level of financial flexibility as we have strong access to different sources of financing from the capital markets, supported by our strong credit rating of BBB from S&P, our high amount of unencumbered assets with diverse asset types and locations, and strong mortgage banking relationships, as well as undrawn RCFs in the amount of EUR 0.9 billion, which have an average maturity in 2H 2028. Finally, on slide 31, we confirm our full year guidance for 2025.
We're guiding for FFO1 in the range of EUR 280 million-EUR 310 million, which translates to EUR 0.26-EUR 0.28 per share. We expect positive impact from continued rental growth, hotel repositionings, improved operational efficiencies, and our proactive approach to hedging and leveraging. At the same time, we expect some offsetting effects from the full year impact of disposals closed in 2024 and 2025, higher coupon payments on perpetual notes compared to 2024, as well as reduced interest income on our cash balances. Currently, we do not have significant external growth included in our guidance, which we expect will only have a limited impact on the current year but would be supportive of growth in the coming period.
This concludes our presentation. As always, you can find further material in our appendix. With that, we would like to start the Q and A. What factors influenced your decision to consider restarting external at this stage? How will this impact your financial position?
Besides being in a strong position in terms of low leverage, headroom to covenants, and liquidity, we believe to be at the turning point and start to see good opportunities entering the market. We believe the current market situation could open a window of opportunities where we can use our competitive advantages in terms of a deal sourcing network, agility, and ability to transact swiftly as well as in terms of access to deals, liquidity, strong balance sheet, and more. We have a long track record of acquiring high quality properties in off market deals and below market prices and create a strong base for future value creation. We have optimized our operational platform and Aroundtown is geared up for external growth and can scale up at a low marginal cost.
The window of opportunity has been created as the recovery in the market has not been symmetric and we see smaller players still struggling with upcoming refinancing. The change in market outlook further supports our shift in strategy as the German economic outlook is improving with sentiment turning more positive and GDP growth expected to return to positive territory. Furthermore, financing conditions have improved following the ECB rate cuts and improved investor sentiment. As a result, we see the overall outlook and momentum turning positive and seek to start early to capture this turning point. Internally, we have done a lot of work in recent years to strengthen the balance sheet and reduce leverage.
The measures we have taken such as asset disposals, liability management, and perpetual note exchanges are reflective of our strong commitment to maintain a strong balance sheet and now put us in a healthy position to take opportunities. We're looking to drive external growth while maintaining our strong and conservative balance sheet.
Could you provide an update on the recent performance of your hotel portfolio and share your outlook for this asset class over the coming period?
Our hotel portfolio continues to deliver strong performance, supported by a favorable market environment and the positive impact of targeted repositioning across selected assets. This is reflected in the 4.2% like-for-like rental growth achieved as of June 2025, compared to 2.6% in June 2024. The European hospitality sector entered 2025 with solid underlying momentum, although the drivers have evolved compared to the previous year. In 2024, growth was primarily fueled by leisure demand and a packed calendar of major events with strong international demand. In contrast, 2025 is characterized by a more balanced demand profile. Conferences and business travel are back in force, complementing resilient leisure, which bodes well for sustained performance. Looking ahead, we see sustainable demand continue. We are well positioned to capture this upside through repositioning and contractual rent step-ups and indexation, which together drive strong internal growth.
As the hotel properties are one of our core focus, it is also one of the asset types we would like to expand externally.
How would you describe the current leasing dynamics and occupancy levels in your office?
Portfolio in the first half of the year? We continue to feel the headwinds in the office sector. Demand in H1 25 was below the long-term average as a result of the volatile and sluggish German economy, which is the main driver of office demand. We are seeing positive signs here, with economic outlook and sentiment improving as the economy is picking up. Additionally, supported by government stimulus in Germany, we expect office demand to pick up as well. At the same time, new office supply remains limited as construction activity remains low and conversions to alternative uses reduce available space, creating a favorable long-term supply-demand dynamic. In terms of like-for-like, we have seen inflates rent increase continue to drive positive total like-for-like parental growth amounting to 1.5%, predominantly due to indexation.
We continue to identify office properties that are suitable for conversion to commercial, residential, and also to data center. The fact that we have a diverse operational expertise enables us to find the best use for our portfolio. We have signed multiple office to service apartment conversions, which are expected to start generating rent already in 2026, and are actively evaluating data center opportunities in select locations, which should enable us to increase rents and unlock additional value. During H1 25, we prolonged 80,000 square meters of leases with an average vault of 5 years and an average in-place rent of EUR 4.5 per square meter, which is 2% over former rents, and signed new leases for 65,000 square meters with the goal of 8 years and an in-place rent of EUR 15.7 per square meter, which is 5% over the former rents.
With an underrented portfolio offering high revisionary potential combined with targeted conversions and CapEx investments, we are well positioned to capture demand and drive rental uplift once demand starts to pick up again on the back of a stronger German economy.
Can you share more details on your like-for-like rent performance?
We recorded a like-for-like rental growth of 3% across the portfolio, with the strongest growth in Berlin, Stuttgart, Hamburg, London, Amsterdam, and Leipzig. The residential portfolio continued to benefit from the structural supply-demand imbalance, supporting solid like-for-like growth of 4%. The hotel portfolio posted the strongest growth of 4.2%, driven by contractual step-ups and indexation, while the office portfolio recorded 1.5% growth despite market headwinds. The strong performance in residential and hotel, which together form nearly 60% of our portfolio by value, highlights the strategic advantage of our diversified strategy, supporting continued robust total like-for-like rental growth. We expect the positive trend to continue, particularly in the hotel and residential segments, underpinned by favorable market fundamentals.
In the office sector, we expect rental growth to remain slightly positive in the near term, driven by rent increase and indexation, and expect office rent and occupancy like-for-like to move higher once the economy picks up. Looking ahead, we will continue to unlock value through repositioning and selective conversions, and we expect like-for-like rental income growth of 2%- 3% in 2025.
Could you provide more details on the revaluation results? What are your expectations for the remainder of the year?
Hi everyone, it's Eyal. As part of our H1 2025 report, our full valuation was done for the full portfolio by independent external valuers. As a result, we recorded a positive 1.4%. Like-for-like revaluation, 1.7% comes from the residential assets, nearly 1% in the hotel properties, and 0.4% in the office properties. The positive valuation results were driven by the strong operational growth. The valuations were supported by the recovery of the transaction market and by the reduction of the cost of financing. We will conduct another full valuation as part of our annual report, and we expect values to move in line with operational growth. Looking at yields, these have remained broadly stable compared to December 2024, and we don't expect material yield compression in the near term. This could be an additional value driver on top of the operational growth in the medium term.
How do you assess your current liquidity position? Will deleveraging remain a key priority going forward?
We maintain a strong liquidity position, which has been instrumental in navigating recent market volatility. While we continue to believe that maintaining a large liquidity position is important, the improving market environment suggests that maintaining current levels is not needed going forward. Our primary focus remains on using available cash to reduce debt, either through liability management initiatives, scheduled maturities, or acquisitions. We continue to see strong demand for our bonds in the capital markets, reflected by the high demand for our Series 41 bond issuance in May. Following the issuance, we continue to see yields improve, supported by lower spreads, and following reverse inquiries and strong investor appetite, we decided to tap the issuance by an additional EUR 150 million, bringing the total volume to EUR 900 million. The issuances followed our strategic financial approach focused on expanding our maturity profile.
Further.
The proceeds combined with existing liquidity and disposal proceeds have been used for gross debt repayments of EUR 1.9 billion year- to- date. We continue to reduce leverage, which is reflected in our low LTV of 40%, down from 42% at year end and 45% in June 2023. Looking ahead, we seek to balance a conservative financial position along with external growth. We expect to use capital for selective and accretive acquisition opportunities, but are also expecting to recycle capital from disposals. We do note that we have headroom into our credit ratios and are not constrained to net selling and have the capacity to grow the portfolio.
Could you provide an update on your disposal progress? Do you still expect to remain a net seller in 2025?
In the first half of 2025, we signed disposals totaling approximately EUR 170 million and closed approximately EUR 400 million of disposals. The closed disposals were diversified across asset classes with half office properties, a third residential properties, 11% hotel properties, and 9% in development and investment properties. Disposal locations included Bremen, Frankfurt, Berlin, and NRW as well as non-core locations. Closed disposals were executed at a slight premium of 0.3% to book values and at the multiple of 20x . Looking ahead, we intend to continue selective disposals to support capital recycling consisting primarily of our remaining held-for-sale portfolio as well as selected non-core assets and development rights. In addition, we look for capital recycling opportunities where we can deploy proceeds into accretive opportunities. Remaining a net seller depends on the opportunities we might find for acquisitions.
As in the past, we keep external growth through opportunistic acquisitions and will buy only if we find deals which fit our acquisition criteria.
Could you provide some more color on your acquisitions? What is your strategy? Do you plan acquisitions outside your key regions?
In H1 2025 we had acquisitions amounting to approximately EUR 235 million, most of which relate to acquisitions in several properties in top seven German cities and residential properties in London. The acquisitions were carried out at a multiple of 15x . We are currently working on an early stage pipeline of several hundred million euros including properties in Germany's key cities, in London, as well as other locations. We're also exploring entering in new strong international cities when we see strong fundamentals combined with an attractive return, including large cities in America and GCC for the residential and hotel segment. We are also exploring a wide range of new locations for hotel acquisitions as we have always been comfortable to expand into new regions which benefit from strong demand and can achieve high profitability. Our acquisition strategy is both disciplined and opportunistic.
We seek out financially mismanaged or underutilized assets in locations with strong fundamentals where we believe operational improvements or strategic repositioning can unlock significant value. This often includes properties affected by market inefficiencies or price dislocations, with particular focus on assets that offer higher yields or have the potential for stronger returns post restructuring. While our focus remains on established markets highlighted by our recent investment in Germany's top cities and London, we are continuously scanning for opportunities also beyond our traditional regions and we would execute on such opportunities if we believe they would be accretive. Our core locations will remain Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K., which will remain over 80% of the portfolio.
Regarding your data center opportunity, will this be driven more by converting existing commercial space or acquiring new assets? How intense is the permitting and conversion process for data centers versus conversion of office space into residential?
We focus for now on the conversion potential of our portfolio as well as we keep eye for acquisition opportunities, and we expect data centers to be part of our portfolio in the long term. We would also consider data center as an acquisition opportunity at a later stage. The main constraint is getting the energy allocation in markets where the grid currently has not much additional capacity. We thus follow our dual track approach to obtain part of the potential now, which can be utilized for edge or colocation data centers while applying for higher power allocation in the mid to long term. The conversion to service apartment is much simpler, as these are usually in the same zoning type and thus require the more standardized building permit, which can obtain usually within 6 to 12 months post application.
How has a downgraded S&P rating played into your more positive posture towards external growth?
With the rating affirmed at BBB Stable, we maintain a strong investment grade rating and have significant headroom to our rating thresholds, providing us with greater financial flexibility. We remain committed to our rating and seek to execute our growth strategy with a focus on capital recycling and keeping headroom to our covenants. This should also support credit metrics such as ICR, while the additional value creation we expect supports growth and leverage ratios.
Do you expect to distribute dividends next year?
Our actions in previous periods have strengthened our financial position and have helped us to successfully navigate past market volatility. Thanks to our proactive approach and improving financial environment, we have further enhanced our financial profile, and we have seen strong support from capital markets, which has allowed us to extend debt maturities. While we continue to see relatively high uncertainty in March of the first half of 2025, impacting our decision not to pay dividend for 2024, our operations and valuations have remained solid, and now we see the economic outlook turn more positive. Looking ahead, we are confident regarding a dividend distribution for the year 2025, assuming market conditions do not.
Can you provide an update on the current level of green certifications across your portfolio and share your expectations for the future development?
We have continued to make strong progress on green certifications since our last update in May. Our commercial portfolio certification now stands at 60%, up from 53%, with 72% of our office portfolio now green certified compared to 65% previously. Our hotel portfolio is now 55% certified, up from 50%. Looking ahead, we expect to continue progressing on this front by leveraging the expertise and processes we have developed. However, given the size of our portfolio and the capacity constraints of certifying bodies, we anticipate that achieving full certification will take several more years.
Before we invite your direct telephone questions, we would like to answer questions that we have received. Those are the questions that we received prior to this call. We can now start the open session for your questions. We would appreciate if you can ask all your questions at once and we will answer them one by one.
Thank you, Madam. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press STAR and one on their touchtone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, please press STAR and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets when asking questions. One moment for the first question. The first question is from Ellis Acklin of First Berlin.
Yes, good morning everyone.
Thanks for the detailed presentation and for taking my questions. Just two follow ups for now. As part of your data center presentation, you mentioned that this could become a new asset class in the portfolio in the future, and I was wondering if.
You could talk a little bit about.
How the rent contracts for these assets would be structured compared to, for instance, your office leases. On the same topic, what are the.
Chances that you might be able to.
Get your first data center online as.
Early as next year?
I noticed a note in there about having the grid permits for Berlin already. That's it.
Thank you.
Hi Ellis, thanks a lot for your questions. Look, we're in a very early stage of analyzing our portfolio. We definitely see a lot of overlap with the grids, with the Internet exchange points. We definitely see here a potential that some of our assets can be converted to data centers. Note that it will take a few years because especially the power approval will take some time. The energy grid right now is in some locations at its capacity, so the municipalities, regulatory bodies and such, they need to build up their grid's capacity. It's a good long-term potential clearly that we're tapping here.
As we just now highlighted, we have the dual track approach of gaining some short-term energy and building permits approvals, which can then be used for an edge or a smaller colocation, with the further potential of a hyperscaler or a large colo in the future. In general, the leases with these type of assets are clearly you can have the operating part of it, but you can also have just a long-term lease with a tenant inside who operates the assets for yourself. We will explore along the way how we want to see how this will play out. Right now we're in the analyzing phase, so we really have all the optionality available right now that we can go forward.
I would like just to add on that we are in discussions with several potential partners that are already operating data centers in the market and have already access to hyperscalers and potential 10 and we are, as Timmy said, considering combining both to be also part of the value that comes from the operation itself when it comes to the property company. The property company will have a standard lease agreement for the lease, and if we decide to be also part of the operation, there will be additional value that comes also for that investment as well. Thanks.
The next question is from Manuel Martin of ODDO BHF.
Thank you for taking my questions. Two questions from my side, please.
One is a follow up question.
A potential dividend payout for 2025.
Would you consider to return to your
Old payout ratio of I think it was roughly 70% of FFO or would you consider rather to step in gradually.
Paying out the dividend? That's the first question.
Second question on the office portfolio, what?
Are your expectations or your view on.
The like-for-like rental growth of your office portfolio in the future?
Because there are signs.
I hope that the economy might improve in Germany, but it's not 100% certain. What's your feeling?
Your view on the evolvement of the.
Like-for-like rental growth there, please.
Thank you.
Hey Manuel, thank you very much for your questions regarding the dividend. You heard our message on it and we clearly have some time to take a decision here until next year. You know the policy, the policy is 75% of FFO1 per share. This is as I said so there's no further decision being made here or anything like this. Next year is the time when we revisit the payment and potentially any other factors also influencing it. Regarding the office portfolio, look, we clearly outlined that the economic impact or the economic activity is the strongest impacting factor for the demand for office space in our locations. The German government's stimulus package, clearly for us, but also for the general market, improved the outlook, improved the business sentiment. Clearly that already has some impact on the behavior of our tenants when they're looking for space.
We're staying here conservative, we are looking at the current situation and are happy about the positive outlook. Currently we definitely see still positive like-for-like around the level of 1%- 2% which is basically capturing some part of the reversion of potential. As we also outlined, we have the gap to the market rents. It gives us a competitive edge here to keep tenants inside, attract new tenants who are looking maybe at office spaces and would be attracted by attractive cost structure, anything like this. Regardless, we would still be able then to capture some of the potential. Right now, this is less of focus. Our focus is really to utilize this potential to keep and attract new tenants because the potential remains and we can attract it at a later time as well.
The next question is from Rob Jones of BNP Paribas.
Hi, yeah, thanks for that. A couple from me, just one on the revaluation, obviously offices, I think.
We're up about 40 bps.
Hotels 80 bps and resi up 1.7%. The other parts of your portfolios, that's kind of developments, retail, et cetera. When I back calculate that, it looks like it's up about 4% in the.
Half or maybe even more than 4.5%.
Maybe I'll just comment on that.
Second question was external growth.
Are we talking about levering up again if the opportunity arises, or are we only funding acquisitions through ongoing disposals? The last one was just with regards to the hotels commentary you made around kind of potential acquisitions in markets like the U.S. My understanding of the U.S. hotels market at the moment was we were at a peak cycle.
RevPAR was underperforming Europe. Travel demand for U.S. declining, ADR growth was soft versus Europe.
Just wanted to comment in terms of why or where you think that U.S. hotels opportunity is. Thanks.
Hi Rob, thanks for the questions. On the revaluation, you're right. Also on the retail and logistics, we have a nice revaluation. Like for like, we have some new leases signed and we have over 4% like for like revaluation gain. Also, some permit achieved for some of the portfolio there on the hotels. What we see, we don't have any specific deal at the moment. We are looking on several ones. There is no specific specifications to give you what we see in a specific location. It was important for us to mention that currently in Germany we don't find very accretive deals that bring in yields above our average. We are clearly scanning all the market and therefore we also open with very limited, let's say, capacities to look on other large international cities.
We feel very comfortable on the hotel side and also on the revi side as we mentioned. There is no specific deal and therefore there is not much to say about what we see in the hotels in the U.S. specifically in comparison to what we see here. We are very happy with the performance of the hotel here. Clearly, once acquisitions will take place, we will come and update you in the next calls.
Also, we were always happy to enter new markets with hotel properties because they're easy to manage from a further distance because the tenant basically takes over most of the management. It's less, let's say, workforce-intense investment. Entering a new market was always easier for this with that asset type. The other question on the leverage. Clearly, leverage is an impacting factor. Please know we have significantly reduced our leverage. We have significant headrooms now. If you look at the LTV leverage to our Board of Directors limit of 45% and now we're in the LTV of 40%. If you look at the S&P ratios, also if you look at the bond covenants, either way, we definitely have good headroom now. That headroom gives us definitely flexibility to maneuver.
We will continue disposing what we also mentioned and disposing will be utilized as a capital recycling measure to sell assets, use those proceeds buying assets higher yielding, positively impacting our FFO1 eventually. Leverage is clearly a factor we continue always looking at. Short term can move in both directions. Clearly, long term it's important for us to maintain a strong credit rating and strong headroom to all our covenants.
Just to add on that, clearly it's not that we are limiting the acquisitions to the level of the capital recycling. We look at disposals as part of the funding for the new acquisitions, but it's not a kind of limit. We look at this really on an opportunistic level. Sometimes you cannot really time an acquisition with the timing of the disposal. Overall, we do see that the disposal funds will go into acquisitions. Maybe we'll also utilize some existing cash and it will impact a bit our relative fee. We are going to keep a conservative financial profile and headrooms to our relative fee ratios. Thank you.
The next question is from Jonathan Kownator of Goldman Sachs.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my question. Just to follow up on the acquisitions, please. You've already made some acquisitions, so it.
Would be good if we could have a bit more details on that EUR 225 million.
Million, I believe, of acquisitions.
What type of acquisition yield you're targeting, perhaps for different asset classes.
If you could also provide a separate question, please, an update on your vendor loans. Thank you.
Sorry, I actually have another question. I have another question, which is for all your conversion projects which are starting to grow, particularly in the office space, are these still included in the vacancy?
Numbers or have they been excluded from the vacancy numbers?
Thanks.
Thanks. On acquisitions, as we said, we're looking at it really opportunistically. We're expecting that the transactions that we will do will be accretive and therefore expect them to yield more than our current yields. Maybe not necessarily at the date of the transaction, but following if the position is to be made. We do expect a higher rental yield than what we have now. When it looks to acquisition, focuses are on hotels and residentials. We might also look at other asset classes, including office properties, if it's really with a bargain deal. I think the main focus is on hotel properties and residential properties. On the vendor loan, vendor loan was reduced to EUR 300 million from EUR 500 million end of last year. It was a repayment of over EUR 100 million in cash. There was a conversion which took place already in Q1 of some properties.
Some of the loans into properties already took place in Q1. We expect that the remaining all will be converted or will be repaid. The average maturity is somewhere in mid next year and between Q1 to Q2 in 2026. We are happy with both currently. When we're looking to acquire, for us, getting back properties generating rents and very nice ones, let's say, it's positive for us as well, or we get the cash and will use it to utilize it also for part of the acquisition on the conversion. Currently, the portfolio is some of these properties are already part of the portfolio with the vacancy. Once these properties will be, let's say, completed, the conversions, the vacancy will be filled. Thank you.
The next question is from Stefan Scharff of SRC Research.
Good morning, gentlemen. I have a couple of questions. The first question is as an internal.
Driver of growth, you want to reduce the gap to market rent in your properties.
How is this affected by this still quite sluggish economy in Germany, the third year in a row having a recession or at least no growth at all? Also, the prospects for the second half of the year might be quite shaky. The second question is about your new AT World as a new income driver. How is this business segment developing in terms of revenues for the first six months, and let's say, how many members could you attract so far? The next question is, how do you see the repositioning of office properties into residential space? As you all know, there is a big overhanging in demand for residential space in all German metropolitan regions. There might be the possibility for conversion from office to residential, but this might be also too costly in many cases.
How is your view here?
My last question is about the Turnaround Capital Fund, the TAC fund. How is this fund doing? Can you give us a bit more details here? Thank you.
Hey Stefan, thanks for your questions. Yeah, the gap to market rents is existing as it is. Clearly, this is the current rental level of our assets compared to.
The.
Observable market rents for that specific asset. This information is actually provided by the valuators to us. Now I agree with you, the current sluggish economy doesn't give much potential to capture that potential. We see it here actually as a competitive advantage that compared to the market rents around the area of these assets, we're able to provide rental levels which capture some of it. This puts us in a better position while still definitely offering something that the market is not really able to offer right now, and the potential remains. We can capture their potential then in the future when the economy.
Is.
Picking up and the demand is increasing along. Plus, also market rents could develop further in the future with the economy picking up vacancy rates. Market vacancy rates are relatively low. There was not much supply into the market, no speculative construction really. That is why it could be clearly something that could happen when the economy picks up, that the vacancy is being filled up very fast and then market trends move further. That is clearly something to see for the future regarding AT World. Yes, we clearly see it as a potential income driver. Right now we're in the ramp-up phase. We launched it in March and our marketing campaign was basically launched at awareness, making everybody aware of what we have and educating the market what it is.
Obviously, it's a new concept and only in the last, let's say, one and a half months, we actually launched campaigns also with the free trial memberships, also going to companies for the B2B potential B2B clients, also our tenants and so on. We're in the ramp-up phase and because of that there's nothing material that we can present yet. We expect to see positive impact here on our numbers next year and stronger performance the year after in 2027.
Let's just say that it's not that we are expecting that the world will become now a very huge impact on our all numbers. It's just an additional item that creates some additional value or can create some more income, give another alternative usage for our offices in different locations, and try to gather more clients into our properties. We look at it more as like a flex office space and creating this membership club. We're not expecting that the numbers of AT World will become now so massive that will be, let's say, material. It's just another way of us to create in clientele and bring tenants into our offices.
Your question regarding the office to resi conversion. We're targeting serviced apartments, so furnished apartments short term, so not the classical residential apartment. We're targeting in locations of really strong cities as you pointed out where there's a really high demand and low supply of residential. There is a very strong demand for serviced apartments. We already have some serviced apartments conversion, for example now Hilton in Berlin, and we converted some of the units which have a very strong demand. General serviced apartments is a strong demanded asset class, especially for newcomers to the city and effectively don't find space or people who come for a few months. Either way, there's no regulation. It's more a commercial aspect of the rental situation, so we can follow more the market rental levels. That's why it makes it more economically feasible to convert office assets to resi.
We see here a yield on cost of around 15% on average. Your question on TAC is going well. We're now at around EUR 400 million. Size of the fund could clearly further increase. Also, our stake within the group now is around 60% of that, and there have been some acquisitions in the U.K. in residential and in offices. Next question please.
The next question, sir, is from Paul May of Barclays.
Hi guys, just a couple of questions from me. I think you mentioned around the quality and location of your offices and seeing a benefit in terms of take up coming through particularly in better quality offices. Obviously your vacancy rate still remains very high, and I think got slightly worse quarter- on- quarter. I wondered if you can get comments on sort of marrying those two sides, obviously a lot of comments around data center conversions, and I think you sort of put some management of expectations around the timing of those. My understanding of the market is the tenants prefer a simple box rather than a complicated office conversion. There seems to be a sufficient amount of supply coming through in the seat boxes. Just wondered, is there a reason nobody else is really doing this?
Is it because there's not really the tenant demand for office conversions of data centers just because they're not efficient, particularly from a cooling perspective? Just one of your thoughts there, and then just on the leverage side, obviously managing leverage moving forwards. A big part of your deleveraging has been through not paying a dividend and has been through disposals. Now you're looking to manage leverage or improve leverage. I think was the comment still while paying a dividend, which I think increases leverage because you over distribute on a cash basis if you go back to 75%, and you're looking to recycle capital. Also, I think there was a comment saying you're looking to use new capital to make acquisitions, not just recycling. I just wondered how you're going to manage that leverage position given most of the benefits on the leverage are now being reversed.
Thanks, Paul, for your questions. Yeah, so again, we pointed out, I think, a few times that the economy is the impacting factor right now. Economy remains unfortunately weak. There were just recent updates that the GDP growth was again negative in Q2 in Germany. With the potentially increasing economy and economic activity, the companies will expand their office footprint. We have a nice slide where we show the correlation in the past periods of positive economic activity and an increase in take up in office space. That's something that clearly we're also expecting now. Location is always a factor in any real estate business you're in, so in office space as well. I think you know our portfolio well. Clearly, we provide also a lot of information. If it's on our website or presentation, you see that we're really strong locations in the top cities.
We definitely see also benefiting here from an increase in the economic activity in the future. The data center conversion, yeah, let's say the market is also evolving a lot. If you talk about AI now, clearly having a very strong demand on data centers. You see the EU basically like kind of like announcing a tender on big AI data centers within Europe. You also see autonomous driving potentially also in an industry which needs data centers. What we're saying is we think a lot of data center demand in the future will be from central city center data centers with low latency, also them being connected with each other. It's not data centers operating independently from each other, but as a full network.
Let me just add on that. I think the key point of data center is power. You have power, you have the ability to make a data center. We manage to secure even, let's say, in Frankfurt and also in Berlin, power. I think once you have the power, you have the ability to, let's say, create the demand and bring a tenant in. Some of the properties that we are looking at are a conversion, but some of them are completely new build where we have a plot. If it makes sense to take away the building and build a single tenant as the box as you defined it, then we do it. The numbers and the yields are very, very high. That basically justifies both options.
Clearly, once we get to the point of the decision and the economic calculation, we will take both options into consideration and we do the best. The best way we look on data centers, as we say, is not to stop only on letting the property, but also participating in the value creating as part of the operation, and therefore efficiency of the data center is something that we will clearly take as part of our considerations on leverage. Important to mention that yes, we want to keep our leverage, let's say, conservative with headroom. We plan, as we said, we see positive that we distribute dividend next year. As we mentioned, there was also a question before. What will be the ratio? Will you keep the old ratio? Will you adjust? I think all these elements will be taken into consideration once we decide to pay the dividend.
If we see that acquisitions went very well and if we distribute a full amount of dividend like last time, will harm our leverage and we might distribute a bit less. This is part of the decision that we'll take in the next year. Also, when it comes to acquisitions, we have held for sale in the amount of EUR 600 million that we expect to dispose in the next 12 months. This will clearly be one funding source for our acquisitions. Again, acquisitions are opportunistic. It is not that we have a target that we want to buy X amount. We will take all these elements as part of our consideration and as part of where the leverage of the company.
The next question is from Neeraj Kumar of Barclays.
Morning everyone. I have a couple of questions. The first one is regarding your hybrid coming up for the call next year. I appreciate you have some time to decide the action on that one. I'm just trying to understand the thought process better here. That hybrid resets to a coupon of around 4.75% whereas the new issue hybrid price is around 6%- 7%. Looking at the pricing of your long end hybrids, there's a differential of 1%- 2%. I'm just trying to understand, do you think calling with the new issue hybrid is a reasonable compromise over there in your eyes or is that too much to give up? The second question is regarding the convertible bonds.
Is that something you're considering to diversify your funding sources and keep the cost of debt low or do you think the share price is too low for writing such an option?
Hi, thank you for your questions.
First of all, in relation to your.
Question on the 2026 hybrids.
So.
Clearly, we see the market is very supportive for new hybrid issuances. We've seen other peers have done transactions, which is supportive of our internal thinking. If I look at the trajectory of our hybrid pricing, obviously it is going in the right direction. We've seen the yields on our hybrids improving materially. Now, if this trend continues, then I think replacement hybrid is an economically viable option.
Clearly, we have to look at the.
Market sentiment and market conditions at that time. There is some time to go until the 2026 first reset date. It's also not a purely mathematical decision.
We have to see what the.
Market sentiment is at that time.
On the convertible bond, yes, actually it's option two. We feel that currently the share price is still too low. We are observing and getting several offers from several banks about that option. It's part of our consideration. If we feel that, let's say, a new liquidity coming with a very low coupon is in more importance, we will consider it, doing it even earlier than higher recovery of the champagne. Thank you.
The next question is from Mary Pollock of CreditSights .
Hi, thanks for taking the question. My first is also on the TAC fund. I just want to make sure I understand here you're saying 60% owned by the group. How much percent ? What percent of that is owned directly by Aroundtown and what is Grand City? Also, Grand City on their call made it sound like the focus was predominantly residential though I understand from you it also includes other asset classes. Who at Aroundtown and I understand Grand City will be getting management fees for resi buildings built under TAC, will Aroundtown be getting any management fees for, say, an office or hotel acquired by the TAC fund? On the Hybrids, I also just wanted to ask, obviously sentiment right now is very strong.
Is there any reason you would bring up your issuance to try to make the most of such an accommodative bond market?
Thanks.
Thanks for the questions regarding TAC. As also Grand City Properties mentioned in their discussions, the idea is that when it comes to residential properties, Grand City Properties will be the one that executes the transaction with the majority of the 60%. That's a participation of the group and also we manage it. When it comes to commercial properties, this will be done and executed by Aroundtown . Regarding the hybrid, yeah, as we mentioned, we are observing and we also saw the, let's say, shrinking of the yield. We are happy. We still think that there is a bit more way to go and we really wish to see that the yields will continue to shrink. That will make it even more, let's say, feasible. We are here monitoring the market closely.
We have some time, so we don't need to do it immediately and we will really take the opportunity once we feel it's really the right moment to make that option or to take that option.
Thank you.
The next question is from Kai Close of Berenberg.
Yes, hello. Good morning, gentlemen. I've got two quick questions. The first one is on the lower property operating expenses in H1 compared to H1 last year. Is it a function of the smaller.
Portfolio size or is there.
Anything else which caused the reduction at the second?
Session is on the swing in the.
Share profits from equity and equity accounted.
Industries may have been leveled from, of course, changed from -41 last year to almost 14 clubs in the first 30 years.
Thanks, Kai, for your questions. Referring to the property operating expenses and the decrease, it's coming from two sources. One is the lower portfolio and the fact that we sold properties. The second one, the majority of the property operating expenses are related to ancillary expenses that we are charging the tenants. You could see that since that part of the energy expenses went down between the two periods, we charge less and also the expenses are lower. You will see that it's aligned with the property operating income that we have on the income side. The income side was reduced and also the property operating expenses were reduced. Referring to the joint ventures or the participation from JV, it's coming and taking our position from their P&L. Last year in the period, many of them recorded, like we did, negative revaluation.
They have losses from revaluation of the property and we took part of that. In this period, they were balanced or positive. That's why we see a positive line also in our report.
Thank you.
The next question is from Bart Gysens of Morgan Stanley.
Yeah, hi, good morning. I have two questions, two follow up questions effectively on questions that have been asked already. Firstly, on the vendor loans, can you please clarify? You've been talking about how some of these have been repaid and some of them you've taken the asset back. Can you please clarify what's been the total amount of vendor loans that you've provided, how much of this has now been repaid for, how much you've actually taken the asset back for, how much you've extended or amended the vendor loan, and how much is still outstanding? That would be my first question and my second question is on the dividend. I appreciate a lot of emphasis on that, but it matters, right? You said you will be reinstating this dividend. Can you specify whether that definitely will be a cash dividend?
Because you know, current consensus is for $0.03, effectively an 11% payout ratio. The equity market is not putting much at the moment, is not assuming that you're going to pay much of a dividend. Can you please clarify whether or not this will definitely be a cash dividend?
Thank you.
Thanks, Barak. On the vendor loan, in this period we took over EUR 140 million of properties and there were EUR 100 million repayments, and that's basically the decline from EUR 550 million end of last year to EUR 300 million this year. About the dividend, we didn't decide yet if it will be a cash dividend only or a combination with the scrip. In the last times, we were actually combining both. I assume we will continue with this trend of combining scrip dividend and cash payments, but this is something that we didn't yet decide and we'll take the final decision prior to the announcement of the dividend. Thank you very much.
At this time there are no questions registered. Back to you management for any closing remarks.
With that, I'd like to thank all of you that participated in this call and the questions you raised before and during the call. All the best and goodbye.
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