Earnings Call: Q1 2021

May 6, 2021

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to DIC's Q1 2021 Conference Call. Today, I'm joined by my colleagues, Patrick Weiden, CMO of DIC Asset Dirk Uhme, our Head of Accounting and our Investor Relations team, headed by Per Schlinkman. As usual, I will give a quick presentation of our results for the Q1 followed by a Q and A session. Dear ladies and gentlemen, I will start with a quick overview of the highlights of the Q1 2021, which I will present to you in detail on the next slide. After a strong final and the good results of last year, we started 2021 with the same dynamic performance. End of last year, we signed a large number of successful transactions, which we successfully closed in the Q1 of this year and get the results out of it. And we have completed the integration of the logistics expert RLI investors. We merged our operational teams, and we have already jointly launched a first logistic fund with a target size of €400,000,000 We also further extended our ESG activities and set another milestone for the company with a 1st placement of ESG linked promissory notes. After the 1st 3 months, we had 3 focused themes: growth, logistics and ESG. Among others, we can state now, we have priced in our assets under management over €10,000,000,000 to €10,600,000,000 which is a plus of 26%. Our letting performance increased by 50% year on year to 55,800 square meters and was characterized by larger leases of logistics basis. The EPRA vacancy rate decreased year on year by 2 50 basis points to 5.9%. Overall, we achieved an FFO of €26,500,000 which is on the previous year's level and in line with our target for this year. Due to the disposal gains, the FFO II rose by 33% to €38,500,000 Before we jump into the details now, let me highlight the current market situation and our expectations for the rest of the year. The ongoing lockdown and the 3rd corona wave are delaying the economic recovery in Germany. Nevertheless, we see an increased positive sentiment among the office players in the market, especially as everybody has recognized that we didn't see any sharp price reactions. Brands at least are stable or even further rising. The investors used the time in the Q1 to finalize transactions from the last quarter and to define their investment strategies for 2021. In the letting market, we see the first signs of economic recovery and optimism, so that positive impulses for the office letting market can be expected for the rest of the year. Deferred rental decisions from last year are back on the agenda, so that companies are now faced with a challenge of actively making rental decisions. At 3.9%, the vacancy rate in the top 7 locations is still well below the important 5% threshold. As the vaccination in Germany progresses from the middle of the second quarter on, economic activity is expected to expand strongly. Economic experts expect GDP growth of 3.7% in 2021. And we have a clear opinion on the home office discussion. We are convinced that the office is of significant value as it is in the central as it is sorry, the central place for employees for successful collaboration. The employees' need for an on-site communication, the sense of belonging and identification with their company and the corporate culture will be the future driver for the stronger desire for a more user oriented office space. And we are actively shaping this future of the office with our services on our platform. Therefore, we established a special business development group at DIC to take care of this. To summarize it, we are positive for the rest of the year. And by the way, there's a very interesting study touching this from the University of Darmstadt, which was published some weeks ago and it's worth to read it. Looking on the development of our platform, we can say one thing for certain. We keep growing. Our assets under management crossed the €10,000,000,000 mark at the beginning of the year when we finalized the acquisition of RLI Investors, which is a plus of 26% compared to the Q1 of last year. Through the acquisition of RLI, we add logistic assets worth more than $700,000,000 to our platform. Year to date, we have completed transaction with a total volume of around €274,000,000 2 properties have been acquired so far for the commercial portfolio around €101,000,000 These include the Erfurt Kreuz Logistics Park in Amstadt for warehousing purposes as well as the flagship property in Cologne with a blue chip tenant Daimler AG. On the disposal side, we successfully sold 2 properties in the institutional business of around €173,000,000 Also, our letting teams started strongly into the year 2021. The letting performance increased by 50% year on year to 55,800 square meters. Of this, several large volume new logistic leases with a total of around 26,100 square meters were contracted. The total contracted rent of all leases during the Q1 amounted to €6,600,000 The development of like for like rental income for the entire portfolio under management was almost constant. The decline in like for like rental growth in the commercial portfolio was mainly due to the rent adjustments of the Kaufhof properties last year. As already mentioned beginning of the year, the lease expiries of the overall portfolio are on a very low level, only 3.7% of the rents are due to expire until the end of the year. Roughly 70% have a remaining term until 2025 or even longer. Therefore, we are focusing on reducing vacant spaces in our existing stock. Ladies and gentlemen, just a week ago, we highlighted the acquisition of a fully occupied flagship property in Cologne with a car manufacturer and blue chip company Daimler as the single tenant. The total investment costs for the property are approximately €71,000,000 As of today, the lease would expire in 4.7 years at the end of 2025. However, the tenant has 2 renewal options of 5 years each. The gross rental yield relative to the purchase price exceeds 7%. The property offers several opportunities to us. The submarket between Cologne's districts of Ehrenfeld and Braunsfeld has established itself as a technology and automotive business cluster and shows considerable development potential in the future. Also, the city of Cologne is looking for ways to turn this district into a living and working area in the future and will create a new urban development plan in these years ahead. Therefore, this acquisition is for our balance sheet portfolio not only immediately starts to generate attractive rental cash flows, we also have the chance to closely monitor and actively position ourselves in a dynamic environment of Western Cologne and to realize additional value potential in a scenario where the tenant would leave the property. With Slide 7, we are taking now a closer look into the development of our own portfolio, the commercial portfolio by each asset class. Office properties remain the largest asset class with 67% of the market value. The most important changes compared to the previous year are the acquisitions in Ashbourne and Hanover in June 2020, the disposal of the Wilhelminenhaus property in Darmstadt and the addition of the completed Unite offices in Offenbach at the beginning of this year. The Unite Offices property was acquired at the end of 2019 via forward deal. We were able to reduce the EPRA vacancy rate by 2 50 basis points year on year to 5.9% due to the very good letting performance and fully let acquisitions. The average rent in the commercial portfolio rose to €10.62 due to strong lease signings. The weighted average lease term remained stable at 6.2 years. And for the first time, we separately disclosed the properties we are holding for warehousing purposes on our own balance sheet and in the commercial portfolio. These properties are already earmarked to be placed with new investors at a later stage in our institutional business segment. Why are we doing this? Why is the warehousing of properties for us an attractive way to generate additional income? What are the benefits for DIC and why is our business model well suited for it? The answers are as follows. We know the local markets and are on-site, which enables us to take advantage of interesting opportunities by securing them at an early stage. Thanks to the financial and liquidity strength of our balance sheet as a real estate company, we can even accelerate the growth of our institutional business. Through these strengths, we have the flexibility to invest our free cash at hand for a certain period of time. In the placement and holding phase, we can optimize the operation of the property, implement identified CapEx measures and reposition the property in the letting market if necessary. This generates additional rental income in the warehousing phase. At the time of placement, we received then attractive setup and management fees as well as sales profits. On the following slide, Slide 9, we want to give you an update on the successful integration of RLI Investors. We are happy that we are now joined by 16 employees who will help us to further drive our investment strategy in the logistics area. We are managing 37 logistic assets worth €720,000,000 generating roughly €41,000,000 of rental cash flow for around 24 institutional clients. Very quickly, the DIC and RLI teams jointly worked together and started the 1st logistic fund, which targets investments in light industrial, urban logistics and logistic assets in Germany and India and established European neighboring markets, Spinelux and Austria. The Fund is supposed to reach a total investment volume of €400,000,000 and targets a return between 4.5% to 5%. The corona pandemic has changed the world and at the same time given the topic of ESG an additional boost. In addition, there are new laws and regulations such as the European Green Deal, the ESG disclosure regulation and the EU taxonomy, the aim of which is to ensure that capital flows in the EU is channeled into environmentally sustainable economic activities. Some of the regulations still seem inconsistent, but the fact is that they will find their way into investment decisions and business processes. Therefore, it's also important for us to make ourselves fit for the tasks of the future in addition to our operational and financial targets. The topic of ESG is an obligation for us. Real estate investments according to ESG criterias are not only due to a legal obligation. They are also extremely attractive because sustainability brings many returns for the environment and for our investors. With our operational and financial targets, we want to reach the next level in ESG as well. Next level because this topic is not a new one for us. We can already look back on numerous successes. In the last 10 years, we have also managed and aligned our business and our 360 degree value creation in accordance with sustainability criteria. To name just a few examples of our ESG milestones. Already since 2011, we have been supplying our common areas in our own portfolio with 100% green electricity. Since 2011 2012, we have implemented green clauses in our standard rental contracts and in the service contracts for our facility managers. And in a large number of projects and repositionings where we realized modernization and renovation measures, we have ensured that the property is optimized in terms of sustainable energy use and consumption. Since mid of last year, we have established an ESG working group and at the beginning of this year integrated the topic ESG as a strategically critical area of responsibility within our organization. This is led by the newly created position Head of Sustainability. In a few weeks, we will publish our next sustainability report, which will report on our ESG performance in 2020 as well as on our new short term to midterm goals. In concrete terms, this means that we will add further qualitative and quantitative targets to our ESG strategy. Ladies and gentlemen, our ESG journey continues. So look forward to the publication of our next sustainability report at the end of June. With the placement of our first ESG promissory note for €220,000,000 we have already set another ESG milestone and once again done important pioneering groundwork for our industry. The weighted average annual interest rate is 1.78%. The average maturity of the tranches is 4.2 years. We attracted around 60 German international institutional investors, some of whom already managed the investment capital according to ESG criterias. The demand was so high that our offer was oversubscribed several times. A new promissory note is linked to specific ESG criteria. By linking the coupon to a measurable sustainability KPI, we set concrete guidelines for our investment and refurbishment activities. If we achieve a green building share of more than 20% in our own portfolio in the medium term, the coupon will decrease by 5 basis points. We are making a positive contribution to climate protection and at the same time, we are able to reduce our financing costs over time. This is a win win situation for all stakeholders. Thanks to our 300 degree value creation approach, we were again able to benefit from several revenue streams in the Q1. Our income streams in Q1 still show a strong resilience. Also, cross rental income decreased year on year, mainly due to the sales and transfers of warehousing properties. We were able to realize management fees that increased by +18%. In addition to stable income from profits from associates, our disposal gains increased significantly to €12,000,000 due to the disposal of the properties in Helmin House in Darmstadt. Overall, the profit of the period increased by 38% to €22,200,000 in the Q1 of 2021. Now we have a brief look on Slide 13 at the development of the FFO. The net rental income was affected by the transfer of warehouse properties among other things. However, this reduction has been compensated by higher management fees in the institutional business, thanks to our strong growth year over year. Our OpEx increased due to the growth of the platform and the acquisition of RLI Investors. Thanks to the optimization of our financings and due to less provisions needed, we also saw positive effects from our net financing results and net other income. Our FFO excluding disposal results reached €26,500,000 which is on the level of the previous year, while our FFO 2 including disposal results stood at €38,500,000 a plus of 33%. Let's have a quick view on the balance sheet and the main changes since year end 2020. At the end of Q1, the balance sheet shows the integration of RLI as well as the placing of the first tranches of our ESG promissory note. They were the main factor of the increase of total assets by 8%. The increase of the investment properties due to the addition of the Offenbach United property is also reflected in the balance sheet. The acquisition of RLI Investors led to an increase of goodwill by €11,900,000 and an increase of the intangible assets due to capitalized service contracts of €32,700,000 The equity in the balance sheet increased by €22,000,000 to €1,130,400,000,000 The equity ratio was slightly lower compared to year end 2020, which is due to the addition of new long term financial debt, respectively due to the placement of the first tranches of the ESG promissory note. Looking at our valuation and the adjusted NAV, which takes into account both the value of our balance sheet portfolio as well as the full value of our asset management business, we saw an increase to €22.32 per share, driven by the positive profit of the period of the Q1 2021. The loan to value increased slightly to 44.8% as at the reporting date. The adjusted LTV that is taking the full value of the institutional business into account increased slightly to 40.1%. For 2021, only around €20,000,000 of bank liabilities are still open for refinancing. Ladies and gentlemen, to sum it up. After the good start into the year, we confirm that our forecast for 2021 remains unchanged. The corona pandemic may still be visible around every corner in the 1st month of 2021. But I can tell you this. We already sense a change in the contact with everyone we work with. More than ever, our clients and partners are preparing to accelerate their business again. Along with a rising number of people who got vaccinated, the moment is approaching that will allow people to breathe again that will bring life back into the cities and offices. We are convinced that we are on the verge of a significant recovery in the second half of the year and we are in an excellent starting position for this restart. Because we have also been strong in the past months years and have achieved our goals and because we still remain strong in the future. Many thanks for your attention. Now we are ready to take your questions. Thank And we'll now take our first question. It comes from Stefan Scharf of SRC Research. Please go ahead. Yes. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Stefan here from SRC. The first question is about the letting performance, quite good. You more than tripled the new lettings to 41,000 square meters in the Q1. Can you give us more insight about the square meter prices you were able to negotiate? The second question is about the commercial portfolio. You could buy €100,000,000 in the Q1 and your full year target is to buy about €200,000,000 to €300,000,000 which seems now quite conservative to me also in regards to your good healthy balance sheet and the low LTV. And the third question is about your OCI income. You had an OCI income in the Q1 of EUR 2,600,000 Perhaps you give can give us a bit more color here? Good morning, Stefan. Thanks for the question. Let me start with the question 2, yes? We have done the deal in Cologne. And let me tell you, it was a very interesting deal, and we started this around 6 months ago or so. So normally, we expect this to be closed at the end of 2020, but it didn't happen. So we have it now in the New Year. And our goal is to reach the €200,000,000 to €300,000,000 border, so to say. We will see what the New Year brings. But yes, I think it's conservative. So we have also a pipeline for the commercial portfolio in place with which shows very interesting assets for the commercial portfolio. So yes, maybe a little bit conservative, but we didn't know what 2021 brings on the transaction market. So they are still quite good. Some of the assets are at very high prices. Some are off market. So we are in a good shape and let's see what the rest of the year brings. But I can say clearly, we confirm our numbers for the forecast and sorry, and stay with the €200,000,000 to €300,000,000 for the commercial portfolio. Okay. Yes. Stefan, Per speaking here. Maybe I can take the question. Well, let me take the question on the average rents we were able to sign in the Q1. So they range between €9,000,000 to €10,000,000 per square meter. But please bear in mind that we, of course, signed lower average rents for the logistic leases, which are on the level between €4,500,000,000 to €5,000,000 So on average €9,000,000 to €10,000,000 Offices, of course, on average higher. And logistics, as known, is on the level of €4,500,000,000 to €5,000,000 on average. Okay. And the OCI income in your P and L? Yes. That's again my turn. So this is the fair value adjustment of our share in the opportunistic GmbH, which increased by 2,600,000 Okay. Okay. Thank you. Our next question comes from Tom Kerstase of Commerzbank. Morning. I've got two questions, please. First one, could you give us the like for like change in vacancy year on year, please? And secondly, the warehousing assets, what's the holding period that you hold them for? And is there any scope for recognizing valuation changes during that holding period? Good morning, Tom. So let me start again with the second question. Yes, we have 2 assets in the warehousing phase at the moment. These are the assets as a seed they are the seed portfolio for our logistic funds, which we have started now. Yes, at the average, we think that we stay with our warehousing 8 to 12 months. It belongs a little bit to the kind of warehousing we have. So if we have a seed portfolio for our fund, I think it's a shorter period normally than we have an asset for an individual mandate or separate account. So at the end of the day, we expect the 2 assets we have in the warehousing now to be there for around 6 months. But as said for special purposes like individual mandates, we expect them to be 8 to 12 months. And sure, so if we are doing warehousing, as I had explained, for two reasons. The one is that it may be a big asset, which where we have the chance to buy it and then bring the money together for the equity. So it takes a little bit of time and brings us setup fees or markup fees. And on the other hand, more the kind of value add investments where we think that we can create value during the holding period. So either by doing new rental contracts, reposition it, doing CapEx or so or doing something in ESG. But this special assets we have in the warehousing now, we are not working on it. These are 2 new assets. We are only having it in the seed portfolio to show our customers what we think we could buy in the logistic area for what payback and that they have the chance to bring their money in and get the yes, the right details, the cash flow out of it from the first point in time. Yes. Tom, maybe and again, let me answer your question on the like for like vacancy rate development in the commercial portfolio, so our own balance sheet portfolio. So it came down from a level of 7% by 40 basis points to 6.6%. Thanks very much. Our next question comes from Philipp Kiser of Warburg Research. Hello, everybody. Yes, just three thought questions. The first one regarding the lagging performance once again. So could you indicate how much of the strong lagging performance is linked to the RLE integration? Are there any lettings that came from that integration? And the second one regarding the commercial portfolio, could you indicate which kind of retail assets are still in the portfolio? Are there any or do you see any major still major risk from kind of high street shopping retail? Or is it only just food and good retail? And the third question is, yes, regarding the economic outlook and more people get vaccinating also in the near future, are there any kind of reopening asset class you may have a look on it, kind of hotel for the institutional business or from my side? Yes, thanks for the question. Good morning. So the letting performance, we have run about 26,100 square meter in the logistics area. So this is nearly half a little smaller than half of it what we did in the Q1. We had a total 55,800 square meter done. The second question, according to the retail assets, so as you remember, we have the 2 Kaufhof assets in place in Liberkudin and Kemnet. And all the others of our, in the meanwhile small retail portfolio are food anchored retailers not on high street. We have sold every high street retail things in the past. And the third one is the Opti asset in Brem, the former Kaufhof asset, which we have repositioned in the meanwhile or repositioned, yes, during the next month, so to say, until Opti transforms into this asset. Excuse me, may I have forgotten the third question? And is there any kind of reopening asset classes you may take a look a closer look like hotels after more and more people are getting vaccinated? Yes. In our own portfolio, we do only have 2 hotels in the institutional business. We have, I think, 4 hotels placed in the moment. And yes, I see what's going on in the market. Some of the guys say we are investing in hotels now because after vaccination, the business coming back. We are not at the moment, but what we see is there is coming more and more interest from institutional investors in the retail segment. So we have also seen portfolios on the market. And so we are also thinking about this because we get the questions from institutional business investors, which ask us whether we would recommend investments in this kind of asset. And I think if they're mainly food anchored, this is a good investment also for the future. And so to say it clearly, hotel not, but retail food anchored, yes. Okay, perfect. Just a short, yes, to the letting performance. So basically, all the new logistic leases came from the ROE integration. So most of the letting performance is driven by ROE integration or Yes. Yes, definitely. They were for the 2 existing funds mainly for the 2 existing funds in the board, so called board RLI investment, yes. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next question comes from Joachim Schmidt of Metzler. Thank you. Good morning. I have just one question on the release of provisions in Q1. Does this refer to provisions for rent receivables? That's my question. Good morning. Now this is for not necessary CapEx NTIs. So we did this for CapEx NTIs, but they were not necessary, so we put them out. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from Kai Klase of Berenberg. Yes, good morning. I've got two questions, if I may. The first one is on Page 27 of the Q1 report. Could you indicate why the OpEx on the second reporting, why the OpEx in the funds business went up by a third? Was for the obviously, it has grown the OEMs, but for the commercial portfolio, it went down. So what changed or if there was any change in the allocation of overhead and G and A costs, if there was any reason for? And second question is on the level of personnel expenses, which went also up in Q1, presumably because of the ROE takeover and integration. Is this now a level which we should expect to be stable or let's say sustainable over the year on a quarterly basis? Good morning, Kai. To answer the first question, yes, we have a shift into the yes, from the business into the institutional business. So on the one hand, we have the RLI costs in, so the board platform, so to say. On the other hand, we are working more for the institutional business in total. So what we are doing in the the institutional business in total. So what we are doing in the segment reporting is we are analyzing what work was done for what segment. And if you look on the FFO in total, you can also see the FFO shifted to not fifty-fifty but a higher number in institutional business, lower number in commercial portfolio. And at the end of the day, the OpEx is in the same range. So mainly work was done for the institutional business. And maybe also your question was on the what can we expect as a run rate for OpEx going forward. So taking into account now that we have integrated ALE and, of course, the growth of our platform, you can assume that if you take the number for the Q1 times 4 or let's say roughly €57,000,000 is kind of the run rate we see for OpEx going forward. And this includes the personnel costs? Yes. This includes the personnel costs and all the admin costs and the LE integration. Thanks so much. Our next question comes from Manuel Martin of ODDO BHF. Please go ahead. Thank you. Maybe we can have a look at the institutional business, please. Is it possible for you to provide us with some details on the fees of €24,000,000 which DIC earned in the Q1? For example, splitting, for example, how much transaction fees are there, how much performance fees, how much management fees so that we can have a bit of flavor there, please? Yes. Good morning, Manuel. So for the €24,000,000 if you split it into recurring and nonrecurring, so to say, transaction related fees, you have run about 8.5 percent recurring fees means 35.3% and 15.5% in transaction related fees, which means 64% to 6%. So these are mainly acquisition fees and the performance fees we get out of the deals we have done or we have signed end of last year. So in December, we have signed nearly 80% of all our transaction volume for 2020. And so the deals are now closed. And so we get the acquisition and performance fees mostly out of this, besides the normal increase of our asset management and property management fees. Okay. Okay, thanks. Any idea of the transaction volume that was behind the Q1 figure in institutional business? You mean what relates to the fees or? Yes, it relates to the fees. I mean, I suppose there were some purchasing and deposit transactions in Q1? Yes. It's one is the Wilhelminhaus in Darmstadt. We have signed end of last year, but the deal is completed in the Q1. And the second one was the founding of our new big fund where we had a seed portfolio of 4 assets with around about EUR 780,000,000 last year. And some of the deals were completed beginning of this year. And so we get the fees out of them out of that deals when the deals are closed. And therefore, we get the transaction related fees in this quarter. As said, for our Wiel Minh house in Darmstadt, it's the most interesting part and the closure of the seed portfolio for the big fund. Okay, understood. Thank you. Thank you. It appears we have no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call back to Sonya Verghese for any additional or closing remarks. Yes. Thank you very much for attending our call today. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact us or especially Per Frinkmann or Maximilian Poyer. Thanks again. Good week and see you next. Bye.