Fastighets AB Balder (publ) (STO:BALD.B)
Sweden flag Sweden · Delayed Price · Currency is SEK
48.17
+0.30 (0.63%)
Sep 29, 2026, 5:29 PM CET
← View all transcripts

Earnings Call: Q1 2020

May 8, 2020

Operator

Good morning, welcome to the Interim Report January-March 2020. My name is Anna, and I will be your coordinator for today's conference. During this call, you will be on listening only. However, at the end of the presentation, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions. If at any time you need assistance, please press star zero and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to CEO, Erik Selin, your host for this call. Thank you.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Hi, everybody. Good morning. This is Erik Selin, and I have Marcus Hansson with me also on this little call with Balder for the Q1 report. If we go right ahead, some words about COVID and our actions. Of course, we have a lot of contact with tenants, and the tenants that are having the largest challenges in this environment is, as you all know, hotels and also restaurants and most of the retailers. Some retailers doesn't, but many retailers also suffer from this obviously. What we have been doing is, in general, not giving any discounts or rebates. In some cases, we help good tenants with liquidity that we change from rental payments quarterly in advance to perhaps monthly afterwards. There are a lot of different things we've been doing, and that is looked at case by case. Everything is handled from some weeks ago.

The total sum of deferred rental payments is SEK 135 million, and that is not just for Q2, that is also some deals that is longer. That is the hotel part of the portfolio where we have the bigger tenants, longer deals than just for Q2. We sort of fixed the situation for the whole of 2020. In general, all rents are paid. The effect in Q1 is that we have lower turnover rents in our reports because we are quite clear that there will be no turnover rents for the hotels in 2020. We already took that into account in Q1. The effect is already in Q1. We also have in Collector some extra provisioning, IFRS 9, and that is we think there could be effects. So far they haven't seen anything actually.

We have a drag on Q1 from COVID-19 on those two big items. We have taken possession, now on page three, of some properties in Gothenburg, Linköping, and some retail properties in Finland that's rented by Kesko. We also completed 360 apartments in Finland. Page four, this leads us to some numbers. We had in Q1 a profit from property management, + 7% compared to last year. A weak figure for us compared to last year's. As for that is the corona effect is already in there. NAV SEK 348 per share. Net debt to assets, 49.7%. Rental growth, 3.1%. This is Q1, so nobody knows what will happen going forward. Our guess is Q2, we will not see much.

The question is what happens later, and if there is an effect, I think we can see it in Q3 or Q4 maybe. For the time being, it's still pretty stable. Page five, you see the development, profit from property management and NAV. Nothing dramatic there. Next page, earnings capacity. It's in March, slightly lower than year-end. That is effect in corona-related effect and also lower from associates and a bit more financing costs. In general, pretty stable. Compared to one year ago, it's still a good increase, but we're sort of flat compared to year-end. Next page is page seven, the total income. We have profit from property management, obviously, and then small value changes in this quarter. The net profit was SEK 1.2 billion.

Turning to page eight, investment properties value are up a bit compared to year-end, and that is we bought some assets, we invested some money, and also we have the currency. March 31, the Swedish krona was very weak compared to the euro. I think if we look today it's some billions, it will actually shrink the balance sheet. Right this day, the Swedish krona was pretty weak, and that led the property value to be SEK 161 billion. Page nine, the portfolio. I think it's identical from last quarter, more or less. Residential 60%, office 18%, retail 8%, and other 14%. Of the other 14%, hotel is 8%, retail 8%, and we have the largest part is car retailing. They are actually doing better than you could fear.

If you look at new car sales, the figures are down dramatically, but that doesn't affect their P&L as much as you could guess, because they don't earn much money on selling new cars. The income stream come from service, financing, and insurance. They are, of course, doing less good than before, but not as bad as you might fear just looking at new car sales. Pretty stable, even in this tough situation. Regions are the same. Helsinki is up from Gothenburg. Copenhagen is 80% of the portfolio. Going into page 10, financing. From last quarter, it's a pretty stable situation. In the first month, we were very strong and we made some bond issues. When the corona crisis escalated then, of course, the credit market also turns weak and shaky. We have a lot of facilities and cash flow and liquidity.

Far we've been doing quite well. Also actually did a bond transaction in April in the Euro bond market. For the time being, a bit tougher financing market, obviously, as you know. Next, page 11. There are the charts with the secured debt by our assets, secured debt, our total debt. The trends haven't changed anything in Q1. We don't think that will change much in Q2 either. Finishing with share price. We have the graphs, and you see the long-term trend. Obviously, share price over time correlates reasonably good with NAV and profit from property management. This was a brief recap. Now we open up to see if there are any questions.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press dial one on your telephone keypad. We do have questions coming through. Let's just take the person's name, and then I will introduce them. Thank you. We do have the first question from Simen Mortensen from DNB. First, please go ahead, the line is now open.

Simen Mortensen
Analyst, DNB

Hi, Erik. Do you take this in English? The output was in Swedish. My question is, first of all, in terms of rental payments, can you please give us how it has been? We are now in May. How have the tenancies you communicated on Q1, but prepayments for May, how is that looking? Both not just for hotels and residential, but also for rental apartments. Can you give us some details on that?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

No rental apartments. Nothing happened at all, actually. They prepared this before.

Simen Mortensen
Analyst, DNB

For hotels and retail for May.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

No, they handled. They are already dealt with, so there are nothing new in May.

Simen Mortensen
Analyst, DNB

Okay. You have some development projects, some where you also sell residential homes.

Could you please give us an update on what you are seeing in terms of sales in that part of your operations during COVID-19?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Yeah, sure. Selling apartments been obviously much slower the last month. You could guess there would be zero selling, but it actually isn't true. They've slowed down dramatically. What we've been doing right now is that we have some projects that we actually pushed the start forward from May to November, May to September, just to see what happens, so we don't just continue to invest. We have delayed some construction starts. Not that we couldn't start, but I think it's not a big risk to wait a quarter or two. There could potentially be strategies coming up or maybe lower construction prices. From a tactical point of view, we delayed some starts. The ongoing project is working well. All the construction works are working well, so no disturbances in construction as such. A new [resi] that's been completed, also worked reasonably well in moving in tenants.

It was a bit more tricky in Denmark and Finland because there are more restrictions than in Sweden, but still worked out pretty well. Just to summarize it, right now it's slower activity in selling apartment, obviously, but it's not zero. We have pushed some construction starts till after the summer, and we can delay it more if we want to. It's up to us.

Simen Mortensen
Analyst, DNB

Yeah. Delay the projects. Are they majorly referring to residential developments or?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Yeah.

Simen Mortensen
Analyst, DNB

Delaying all your projects.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

We only have residential development, more or less. We have one big hotel we are building. Otherwise, it's residentials we're building.

Simen Mortensen
Analyst, DNB

Thank you, though. My questions for now.

Operator

Next question comes from Tobias Kaj from ABG. Please go ahead, your line is now open.

Tobias Kaj
Analyst, ABG

Thank you. Good morning, Erik and Marcus. I would like to start to ask regarding the deferrals of payment. How much of the SEK 135 million is to monthly payments, how much is longer deferrals to 2021 or longer than that?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Longer than 2021 is zero. I think the majority is quarter to monthly, Q2 and Q3. I don't have the exact figure. This is nothing we worry about because it's a big tenant, but we have right now no worries that it will not work out.

Tobias Kaj
Analyst, ABG

If you say that the majority is monthly, does that mean that almost half is longer than just to monthly to next year?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

No, if you have a bill for Q2 and Q3 that summarizes, and Q4, and that summarizes up to this SEK 135 million. It's not just only Q2. Maybe we should have been more specific there, but that's.

Tobias Kaj
Analyst, ABG

Okay. Are you worried that the situation will be materially worse when you're about to collect Q3 rents, for example?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

No, I don't think so for Q3, but you never know. It's impossible for anyone to know. If I'm guessing, as of today, I think still Q3 will not be that bad. If it continues, I think Q4 or Q1 in that case. The large tendency is sort of no, we don't see anything happen there near term.

Marcus Hansson
Head of Finance, Balder

It's not really so dramatic either. Out of the SEK 135 million, it's more like they were going from quarterly to monthly payments, and we have already received two months of the three months that we have agreed on for Q2. The agreements we do this with were strong tenants, as Erik said, so we're quite certain that these will follow the payments. It's just giving them an easement on the liquidity situation which happened so quickly.

Tobias Kaj
Analyst, ABG

Okay, thank you. You mentioned that you have adjusted the earnings capacity and deducted the turnover component base for hotels. Can you say how big that is, roughly?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

I think it may be SEK 10 million per month. We just count rents, we have sort of zero turnover rent. For 2020, that is our guess also that there will be no turnover rent. That's why we already in Q1 adjusted the figures. Yeah.

Tobias Kaj
Analyst, ABG

In Q1, the NOI margin improved almost or around 190 basis points year-over-year. Are they only one-off improvement or what is driving?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

No. I don't know. Maybe it was a better winter or some mix effects. We haven't seen anything other.

Tobias Kaj
Analyst, ABG

One final question from me, if I may. Regarding the income from property management from JVs fell quite significantly in Q1, both compared to Q4 and also compared to Q1 last year. The contribution from JVs in the earnings capacity had a quite small adjustment. What's the reason for the big drop in Q1?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Yeah, that is related to Collector and one-off effects, so that's why we don't see a big change going forward. It's more of an effect in this quarter than a long-term effect. That's why.

Tobias Kaj
Analyst, ABG

Okay. Thank you very much for the call.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To remind that we need to go in and take a name for your questions. If you could please open your phone line locally just so we can introduce you with your name when it's your turn to ask a question. You will be pulled out of the call. I will then take your name and connect you again. The next question comes from Jan Ihrfelt at Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Jan Ihrfelt
Analyst, Cheuvreux

Hey, good morning. I actually have one question here that's regarding your property uplifts. If you could split that into different segments. Were you making any write-downs in part of your portfolio and uplifts in others, or is it more neutral on the total?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

It's not dramatic in any industry, really. It's more like we did a 10-year cash flow analysis on all the segments. Of course, you have an effect in the short run on some segments. When you look at it over a 10-year model, it's not going to have that effect, which we are expecting it to bounce back next year.

Jan Ihrfelt
Analyst, Cheuvreux

Hotels and retail, no major write-downs there?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Yeah, we had some negative effects on retail and hotel properties. We have some uplifts on the residential side, which is working against us.

Jan Ihrfelt
Analyst, Cheuvreux

On the retail and hotels, could you give us a figure in percentage-wise of how much this has been written down? Just to get a feeling for your values here.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

No, I don't know exactly what it is. It's not a huge number.

Jan Ihrfelt
Analyst, Cheuvreux

Okay. Thanks. That was my only question.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Okay.

Operator

I'm sorry, we were taking a question for a person to answer the question. Do you realize that you're finished with your answer? The next person coming through is Erik Granström from Carnegie. Please go ahead, the line is now open.

Erik Granström
Analyst, Carnegie

Thank you very much. Good morning. I just had one question basically, and that's regarding the transactions market. I realize that you have probably been busy with a lot of other things now, but could you say something about what you're seeing in the transactions market? Have there been any opportunities come up lately, or are you looking into any opportunities at all at this point?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

I actually got some suggestions that we wouldn't have got if it wasn't this corona situation. Otherwise, we think the transaction market is very calm right now because as you said, the one like us, we have day-to-day handling tenants and the situations. Sellers are not that stressed as we see it because low interest rates. It's just gone a couple of months in this situation. We think the stress can come up in those projects and development that is harder to financing and cash flow weak companies and situations. I think it will be interesting to see what will happen. It's so far very calm in it, but some things that is offered that wouldn't have been otherwise, we're looking at.

Erik Granström
Analyst, Carnegie

Okay. My final question is regarding the rating institutes. What are your discussions with them focusing on at this point? Do you feel that there is a risk of a rating downgrade at any point this year?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

We are rated from S&P. They released their update on us yesterday, actually. It's still on the same rating. It's stable. They think that we have a very stable income. It's very diversified, which is in line. Also, the financial metrics make sense. There's no indication for that we should have a changed rating going forward.

Marcus Hansson
Head of Finance, Balder

I have a feeling they follow liquidity markets. They're most curious about liquidity.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Yeah. It's the most important part.

Marcus Hansson
Head of Finance, Balder

Yeah. On liquidity, we are very strong, of course.

Erik Granström
Analyst, Carnegie

Okay. Thank you. Those were my questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad, and please remember to open your phone locally and state your name. Next question comes from Philip Hallberg from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Line is now open.

Philip Hallberg
Analyst, Danske Bank

Yes. Good morning. I think that actually most of my questions have already been asked. Maybe just a follow-up from Erik's question here that you mentioned in the report that you have received a number of proposals on deals that you wouldn't have had if the situation would have not been as it is right now. You have done roughly 15 acquisitions in Q1, if I read it correctly, and it's primarily in Finland. Is any one of these acquisitions within the scope for what you mentioned in the report? Also, I think you already answered regarding if you see it coming along more deals in 2020. Is any one of these 15 deals within the scope of proposals that you have received from the corona situation?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Yes. The proposal wouldn't have happened if corona wouldn't have happened.

Philip Hallberg
Analyst, Danske Bank

Yeah. These are deals-

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

There are some situations where companies or seller gets more stressed than others. In some cases I have that on the table, but I really haven't decided what to do yet.

Philip Hallberg
Analyst, Danske Bank

The question is maybe Q1 is not really corona related.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

No, Q1 is not corona related at all. No.

Philip Hallberg
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. Are these proposals in the more stressed areas right now, for instance, in hotel and retail perhaps? Is it in all segments?

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Perhaps.

Philip Hallberg
Analyst, Danske Bank

Yeah. That's fair enough. Okay. Just a question regarding, you mentioned that you did a bond deal in April.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Yeah.

Philip Hallberg
Analyst, Danske Bank

I've not seen the terms for that, but could you just elaborate a bit of how your spread development has increased? What were the terms that you were able to get in April, and what was the terms that you were able to get pre-corona, so to speak? The delta in spread between before and after, so to speak.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

It was not Balder who was the issuer, it was SATO, which is a subsidiary.

Philip Hallberg
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

which actually made the transaction. I would guess that the margin was close to 100% higher than it was actually pre-corona.

Philip Hallberg
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. Yeah. Thank you very much. Those were my questions.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Thanks.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. At the moment, there is nobody in the queue. Please do press star one. I will then take your name and institution into the call. Thank you. There is no questions coming through, so I will hand the call back to you again. Thank you.

Erik Selin
CEO, Balder

Okay. We thank everybody for listening to us and sharing our views and having good questions. We wish you a nice day. Bye-bye.

Marcus Hansson
Head of Finance, Balder

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Operator

Thank you for joining today's conference. To end the call, you may now replace your handset. Thank you.