Welcome to Castellum's webcast and presentation of the half year report. Joacim Sjöberg, COO- CEO, and Jens Andersson, CFO, will present the results. There will be a Q&A session in the end of this webcast. If you'd like to ask a question by phone, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad and ask your question. It's also possible to ask questions in the chat function on the website. Please keep the questions few and brief so that everyone has a chance to ask. Let's start. Please go ahead, Joacim.
Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for being here on this beautiful summer morning. We are here to share our half year report, and I'm joined today by, as always, Jens Andersson, our CFO. But if we start with the first slide, we see an overall stable result. I'm very proud of the organization. Our strengthening of the balance sheet during last year with the rights issue and divestments of properties and amortization of debt is, of course, the main driver behind the income being up only 1.3%, where the income from property management is up 16.3. But we will look into these figures in more detail later in the presentation.
Our net leasing for the period is positive, not much, and we see that as a huge sign of strength. We have continued to sell non-strategic properties. The proceeds from these will be used for new investments. We will come back also to this, but I want to highlight that this should be seen as streamlining of the portfolio rather than continued strengthening of the balance sheets. Castellum is one of the largest listed real estate companies in the Nordics. We're fully integrated with local hands-on presence where our assets are located. The portfolio is located in attractive regions across the Nordics, and we're exposed to the robust market in Norway via our associated company, Entra. You can see the location of our properties on this map.
As of the 30th of June, it sums to SEK 156 billion, including our share in Entra. And of these 156, over 75% is located in the Nordic metropolitan areas, meaning urban areas with at least 1 million people, and the remaining is in growing regional cities in Sweden. We have a contract value, currently of approximately SEK 9.6 billion. The operational focus is to retain existing tenants and lease vacant spaces. That's the most important thing, and that's our top, top, top priority. We have more active dialogues on new business than in a long time, but these things take time, and they always remain uncertain until the ink is on the paper. We continue to have focus on reducing costs where possible.
That means that we have implemented a procurement organization, we have business processes under review, and we are streamlining our central administration. We also have eyes open for new investments. So far, we've been investing in existing portfolio because that's been outperforming new acquisitions. We will keep divesting from our portfolio, but that's for the purpose of trimming it. We have a very attractive project portfolio of more than SEK 40 billion. That's in new logistics and in refurbishments of existing buildings. Turning to the most important thing, our tenants, they represent the cross-section of Nordic business and authorities, and the exposure to individual tenants is very low. Our 10 largest tenants represent some 14% of our total contract value, with no tenant generating more than 2.4%.
The strong tenant base, with many of our largest tenants being publicly funded, is also a strength. 25% of our total contract value stems from public sector tenants, and the largest one being the Swedish Police Authority. As at end of June, the remaining average length of our contract was 3.7 years. Jens will cover this, these figures in more detail, but from a helicopter point of view, total income increases, divestments affect income negatively. We have reduced property costs, we have, admin costs also being reduced, and we have a lower debt volume, thus lower interest costs. Summing this up, we report income from property management up 16.3% from last year, and Jens will walk you through this on the following slide. So over to you, Jens.
Thank you, Joacim, and good morning, everyone. Total income increased by SEK 64 million. One isolated explanation of the increase is the expected insurance compensation in Finland relating to a significant water leak. Excluding this one-off, the income is in line with previous year. Divestments has reduced income by SEK 188 million, while completed projects contributed positively with SEK 44 million. Direct property costs decreased SEK 105 million, equivalent to 8%, mainly driven by lower electricity costs compared to the same period last year. Lease and property administration, together with central administration, decreased by SEK 73 million, of which SEK 63 million is explained by one-off effects recorded in the second quarter last year. Remaining part of the cost saving of SEK 10 million is explained by reduction of full-time employees and a strategic decision to discontinue Castellum's innovation company.
The loan volume is significantly lower due to divestments and the concluded rights issue last year. As a result, our interest expense are also lower compared with last year. Looking at development of operating income and excluding the insurance compensation in Finland, the like-for-like portfolio income increased by SEK 112 million, equivalent to 2.6%. The change in the like-for-like portfolio is mainly driven by indexation, amounting to SEK 202 million or 5.3%, though partially offset by higher vacancies of SEK 184 million. For the like-for-like portfolio, the direct property cost decreased by SEK 54 million, equivalent to -4.7%, of which electricity costs decreased by SEK 113 million due to unusually high electricity costs in the first quarter of last year. In extent, no further positive effect to be expected.
Excluding one-off effect of electricity costs, like-for-like increased by 7%, equivalent to SEK 59 million. This is primarily explained by more frequent snow removal and extra heating due to a colder and snowier winter compared to previous year. Looking at renegotiations. Renegotiations corresponding to an annual rent of SEK 229 million were concluded during the period, with an average positive change in rent of 1%, compared with -1% the first quarter. Additionally, contracts with an annual rent of SEK 702 million were extended with no changes in terms, equivalent to 60% of all contracts coming up for negotiation during the period, which we see as a positive sign indicating that most of our tenants are comfortable continuing paying the rent also after two years of strong CPI indexation. Net leasing positive, +SEK 6 million, as Joacim mentioned earlier.
Bankruptcy is significantly lower compared to the same period last year. Tenant quality is also deemed very stable, and outstanding receivables are low and decreasing compared to the same period last year. Looking at rental income and net leasing. When we look at net leasing over longer period, it continues to be volatile on a quarterly basis. Income, on the other hand, is much more stable and increasing over time, however, affected negatively over the last few years by divestments. What is also clear is that we have been holding back on new projects since 2022, hence, net leasing mainly derives from existing properties rather than new projects, which has been a strong driver of net leasing in the past. Joacim will tell you more about our expectations to start more projects going forward later in the presentation. Looking at property values.
During the period, Castellum has written down property values with approximately SEK 1.6 billion, equivalent to -1.1%. Since the peak 2022, downward close to SEK 23 billion, the value change during the period is mainly driven by negative cash flow as a result of more cautious view on vacancies and future rent levels, perhaps too cautious, but remains to be seen. Valuation yields is in line with year-end, however, almost 46 bps upward shift since the same period last year, currently at 5.62% and seems to have stabilized. Approximately 14% of the property value has been externally valued during the second quarter by Cushman & Wakefield, confirming internal values and our valuation process. Property sales communicated during the period of approximately SEK 1.5 billion further confirm our book values.
Jumping to financial highlights, loan to value still on a historically low level of 37.5%, in line with year-end 2023, despite the continued slight downward pressure on property values during the year. ICR currently at 3.3. Expiring interest rate derivatives Q2 will increase financial costs, resulting in a downward pressure on the ICR. Rate cuts, however, is expected to have a mitigating effect, keeping ICR on a comfortable level around 3. Average interest currently at 3%, unchanged during the year. Please note that average interest refers to a point in time at the end of the quarter, not an average interest cost for the second quarter.
The increase in financial net quarter-on-quarter is partially explained by one-off effects relating to financing of loans, SEK 40 million, and expiring interest rate swaps at the end of the first quarter, +SEK 50 million per quarter. Rating is stable, and we feel that we have reasonable headroom to move this, requirements. Looking at debt maturity structure, we have issued SEK 0.5 billion of SEK bonds during the quarter, three and a half billion during the period. Our domestic bond curve has tightened by 80 bps since the beginning of the year. Indications for a SEK benchmark is around 155 bps on five years and 175 bps, on a similar Euro bond. Euro market is still wider, as you understand, however, now open for good Nordic real estate names.
Correct timing for reentering the Euro bond market is continuously being evaluated. We also see continued good interest from Nordic banks and have refinanced term loans and revolving credit facilities with a total loan volume close to SEK 14 billion during the quarter. Terms in line with previous agreements and with spread significantly lower than the peak in 2023. Almost SEK 28 billion also in cash and unutilized credit facilities available at the end of the quarter. We will gradually reduce the revolving credit facility volume if access to the Euro bond market remains open. The market for commercial papers is also back on favorable, favorable terms for us, which is good. All in all, a very good financial position for Castellum. Over to you, Joacim.
Thank you, Jens. I'd like to draw attention to our largest ongoing projects, and that list, of course, is significantly shorter now than it was a couple of years ago, but we still have seven larger ongoing projects. That is projects that individually has a larger volume than SEK 55 million. These are a mix of three, our three main categories, that's office, public sector, and logistics. It's also a mix of metropolitan areas and regional cities. Average occupancy rate in these projects is 91% and a rental value of SEK 156 million, with an average lease duration of approximately six years. All of these will be completed in 2025. Just a few words on the two projects on the picture. Tullen 8 in Örebro is a public sector property, a building now being completely refurbished and renovated.
It's fully rented. Gladan 6 in Stockholm is the only of our ongoing projects of some size that is not 100% rented. The reason for that is that it's a multi-tenant project with rather small floor space, where client demand always comes closer to completion. We feel that we have a very strong local market for such a product. The overall product pipeline, as mentioned, is an investment volume of some SEK 40 billion. This is a new slide that we have introduced in order for us to be able to explain how investment and transactions affect our balance sheet going forward. We've invested some SEK 1.1 billion, of which SEK 1 billion is in projects, including new constructions as well as extensions and reconstructions.
The SEK 1 billion in project investments are split in approximately half on larger projects and half on CapEx and TIs. We will continue to sell non-strategic properties, but as mentioned, that is not for the purpose of strengthening the balance sheet, which we think is in good shape, but rather to optimize our portfolio and to streamline our property management and free resources for further investments. The assets sold over the period of SEK 1.6 billion include the portfolio of 10 properties sold for SEK 934 million, including some solitary properties and/or retail that are not a priority for us. There was also a car dealership that we sold to the tenant for SEK 347 million, which we were very happy for.
These proceeds, as mentioned, will be used for new investments. We frequently get the question when we are done selling. The answer is that we will most likely never be done selling or trimming in our portfolio. Assets, markets, and allocation will vary over time, and we will constantly monitor where we will create long-term shareholder value. However, we do aim at increase the portfolio value, and we project that we will be net investors going forward. Some figures on our sustainability. We work towards clear sustainability targets in the short and the long term to contribute to a sustainable development. We are actively engaged in reducing our climate impact through enhanced energy efficiency.
And that has materialized in a reduced energy consumption of some 2.9% over the period, over the rolling twelve months. We continue to have a focus on sustainability certified buildings, and now 64% of the property value has been sustainability certified. And the investment in solar power currently generates 19% of our total energy consumption. And finally, on a more anecdotal basis, we have been identified as one of the world's most sustainable companies in 2024 by TIME Magazine and Statista. The list includes some 21 companies, and we were ranked second of all Swedish companies and sixth place in the world of all property companies included on the list. So that's something that we're quite proud of, to be honest. Some final key takeaways.
We focus on our core business, letting properties, reducing cost, and being more efficient, thus improving our net operating income. The most important thing is to retain tenants and to fill vacancies. Local management teams have a very good local market knowledge, and we have a close dialogue with most of our tenants. We see, as mentioned, more active dialogues on new business than in a long time, but still, these processes take time. The rental market is pretty stable in our regional cities, but we are still more cautious in the capitals, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Copenhagen, albeit more optimistic than we were in the last quarter. We have increased our focus on new investments, both on projects and on acquisitions. That concludes our presentation for today. If there's any questions, please go ahead.
Yes, thank you, Joacim. If you'd like to ask a question by phone, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad and ask your question. It's also possible to ask questions in the chat function on the website. Please keep the questions few and brief so that everyone has a chance to ask questions. The first question today comes from Lars Norrby, SEB. Please go ahead, Lars.
Well, thank you, and good morning. Joacim, in your CEO statement, you're talking about growing optimism. Does that only refer to financing and transactions, or does it include property management and demand, rental demand?
Yes, in fact, good morning, Lars. I think it relates to. I wouldn't say all aspects of our business, but quite a few, certainly on the financing side, where markets and banks are treating us way more favorable than they did a year or year and a half ago. But also in terms of our dialogues with tenants. We have, as mentioned, more and larger dialogues ongoing now than we have had in quite a few quarters. We're still cautious, but we have a higher level of activity than in a long time.
Thank you for that. And the second question is regarding value changes. You still had some negative value changes in the quarter, even though quite small. But what's your picture here? Are we now at the bottom, or is there still a bit more, maybe, to go?
Hi there, Lars. Jens here. I mean, a bit tricky to answer, but the gut feeling absolutely tells me that we have bottomed out. And I think we've seen that over a couple of quarters that the value decrease has slowed down. And it feels very reasonable when we see underlying interest rates all starting to come down and is expected to come down further. So yes, it should be rather stable, but of course, we cannot give you any guarantees here.
... Fully understand that. Thank you. Those were my questions. I'll leave the floor to somebody else.
Thank you, Lars. Next one is Albin Sandberg, Kepler. Go ahead.
Yes, hi. Two questions for me. Second quarter of positive net letting still occupancy trending down a bit, where is that weakness coming from?
I think that it. We don't see that as a definite sign of weakness. This is something that we have predicted. We've been quite vocal about this in earlier reports, so we have seen this coming. We have a very active dialogue with tenants, but there is a higher turnover in the contract stock. So we have, we lease more, but we also get more notices on cancellation. I think that it's fair to say that most companies at post-COVID are reviewing their future demand in terms of what they actually need. With a lower interest rate and some macro figures pointing in a better direction, we do believe that the local companies will start to think about expansion rather than reducing.
But this remains to be seen, of course. But we do not see the current market development necessarily as a sign of weakness. We have actively decided not to invest as much as we have done historically, and that, of course, affects the quality of our products and our ability to meet client demand.
Yeah. And your comment about being a net investor going forward, do you foresee that most coming from startup of new projects, investments in the existing portfolio rather than M&A?
We have started to scout for new investments, but so far the figures have been quite clear that investing in our existing portfolio, reducing vacancies, and starting new projects as the fully let logistics project that we're building in Västerås at the moment, it has by far outperformed buying existing properties from someone else. But we have been more active in reviewing opportunities, and our transaction team is constantly monitoring opportunities. But so far, the balance has been towards developing our existing portfolio.
Okay, thanks. And my final question, I think, Jens, did you mention some negative one-offs in the net finance cost? And if so, could you just repeat that, so I got the amounts right.
Ah, yes.
Or did you not say anything?
Yes, yes, I actually, I actually did. The increase in financial net quarter-over-quarter is partially explained by one-off effects relating to refinancing of loans, and that was SEK 14 million, and expiring interest rate swaps at the end of the first quarter, plus SEK 15 million per quarter.
Okay, so is that a total of 29?
That's twenty-nine.
Q2.
There are some other explanations, smaller items, that I cannot give you right now.
Okay. But SEK 29 million is a negative in the net finance cost of Q2,
Among other financial-
Yeah
... costs relating to repurchase of bonds, et cetera, et cetera.
Mm, mm, mm. Okay. Thank you. That's all for me.
Okay, thank you, Albin. Next one is Paul May, Barclays. Please go ahead.
Are you there, Paul?
Can you hear me?
Yeah, now we can. Now we can.
Good, good, good. Good stuff. Just following on from Albin's on the like-for-like rent growth. I think you mentioned in Q1, if I recall correctly, that there were some leases being renegotiated at lower than the previous passing rent, so negative re-leasing. Is that still the case in Q2? Does that explain some of the slowing quarter-on-quarter? And then the second question is, I think you mentioned around attractive acquisition opportunities. I appreciate still more attractive in your existing portfolio for investment. But just wondered, are those acquisition opportunities that are attractive coming in at a higher yield than your valuation yield, and hence the reason that's why they're attractive? I'm just interested in that. Thanks.
The first question, I mean, just very briefly, the renegotiated leases were combined up 1%, and the remaining leases have been prolonged at the existing, i.e., indexed terms. So yes, we have seen a reverse development compared to last quarter, when we actually saw a negative trend. Now, that's been reversed into a positive trend. Second question on the opportunities that we are reviewing. I mean, we do not solely rely on Excel when we look at investment opportunities.
But of course, when the yield on cost is so much higher than the prices that we are being offered for existing, the yield on cost in our own project is so much better than, the yields, on existing assets that we're reviewing, then the balance, as mentioned, has been completely in the favor of our investment opportunities, internally. But there are also other issues. We'd like to grow in some areas. We've been quite vocal about the fact that we'd like to grow in Helsinki and Copenhagen. We are actively reviewing that, albeit it is a lower yield than we can get from our existing projects. But we cannot put all eggs in one basket, so we need to grow on a selective basis, throughout our markets. Is that an answer, Paul, or is it just gibberish?
Not gibberish. It's just following up on that, just relative to acquisition opportunities versus your existing standing assets. So if you, as you mentioned, in Helsinki, if you were to compare the acquisition yields available versus your valuation yields, are you seeing a positive spread on acquisitions-
N-
-versus your valuations?
No, no, it's opposite. So we're being offered fine assets, high quality assets, but at significantly lower yields than we have in our valuation portfolio.
Cool. Perfect. Thank you.
Okay, any other question, Paul?
I mean, if there's time, I'm trying to be brief.
Yeah.
Just following on from that, the transaction volumes are still relatively muted if you look versus history in, I think, all the markets except certain one office in Norway, and you're obviously selling a big portfolio there. What gives you the confidence that that's supportive enough, given the very, very limited volume of transactions for the valuations? Because you seem to be relatively confident that your valuations are right, but investment volumes still remain very, very, very subdued. So just wanted to check what your-
Yeah.
thoughts there is. Thanks.
Yeah. Compared to the last couple of years, definitely, I agree. However, we are very active in the market, and our transactions represent a significant portion of the market. That means that we are in constant dialogue with buyers and with advisors, and we actually quite confident that there is a shift, and we have enough data points together with advisors and others to establish that we are, as Jens mentioned, probably bottoming out. Although the volume, as you mentioned, is significantly lower than it has been the last few years. But the offers that we get and the things we're looking at support the gut feeling that we are bottoming out.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Paul. Next one is Jonathan Kownator from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two, please. One, just going back to occupancy trends, obviously, it's been going down a bit, but you're describing strong regional markets, perhaps less strong in the capitals. How do you think occupancy is going to trend in the next quarters? What are you seeing in your discussions with tenants currently is number one. And number two, just coming back on the ICR and one of the comments that you made, Jens, that it's gonna come down to 3 times as opposed to 3.3 times. Think you talked about expiry of derivatives, but if you can give a bit more color around this and the impact that you expect on interest costs, it would be helpful. Thank you.
If I just start briefly on the negotiations and discussions with new tenants. Quite a few of them are larger ones, and they may materialize or they may not. It's actually impossible to try to assess if it's going to be up or flat or slightly down in the next quarter. But the trend, as we see it, is definitely broken, the downward trend. And we do have, as mentioned, quite a few discussions that are active in a way that we haven't seen in quite a while. But it would be foolish of me to try to predict what's going to happen in the next few quarters. But we hope-
Okay, and you're not seeing any. Or are you seeing a slowdown also of departures, or are you seeing a stable or acceleration there?
... No, we say stability in terms of sort of the turnover, but what we see is more activity on the discussion and the offering side.
Okay.
So, it's not yet materialized. Over to Jens on the ICR.
Yes, sorry for being a bit unclear. Of course, we have a few swap contracts that will come to an end and have come to an end during this period that will have a negative effect on the ICR. However, the overall development of the underlying interest rates mitigates most or even all of the effects. So I think that I'm rather comfortable steering it towards an unchanged ICR rather than shift downwards.
Okay. So, so 3.3 rather than 3 times, which is what you were saying during previously?
Yes. I mean, I want to be a bit cautious, but when you're putting me to the test, I think it's more likely to be closer to 3.3 than 3.0, but still, both are good numbers.
Okay. All right. Thanks for clarifying.
Okay. We have one question now from John Vuong, Kempen. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Sorry, I joined a bit later, so my apologies if it has already been asked. But in your report, you mentioned that you are looking at both the investments and acquisitions, looking at H2. Do you expect to be a net investor or a net seller? And perhaps on the disposal side, do you have any active discussions ongoing, given that the disposals you made in Q2 were already announced before and in Q1 already?
We do, as I mentioned, maybe you didn't join us then, John, but we aim at being net investors, i.e., investing or acquiring more than we divest, as thus growing our balance sheet. When will that happen? Well, I cannot promise because these are discussions that are ongoing, and we also have, of course, a market to monitor. So when client demand or acquisition opportunities materialize, we will allocate funds to meet that. At the same time, we are in constant dialogue with a total property value of SEK 156 billion. There are always disposal discussions going on. Whether they materialize tomorrow or in August or in December, I don't know.
But and therefore, I cannot promise us to be neither net investors or negative in this calendar year. But our aim is definitely to stop reducing our active side of the balance sheet and to start to grow again.
Okay. That's clear. And then in terms of asset allocation, how do you see the portfolio change in terms of perhaps geography as well as the asset class that you are targeting?
Yeah, no, we're quite happy with both the asset classes, where office, public sector, and logistics, and light industry is our focus areas. We do have some solitary assets, say, here and there, and there's some areas where we are represented that we feel we might trim a little. But geography-wise, we're quite happy.
But there are, of course, quite a few assets that either are fully developed by us and where we can hand over those to someone else, and where the value creation going forward is limited for us, or where the assets, as they are, do not meet our sustainability standards or are management heavy in terms of us allocating money and human resources without getting really what we want back in return. So it's more of a trimming than getting rid of huge chunks here and there.
Okay. Thank you, John, for that question. We have one last question in the chat from Vanessa Guy, also. I will read the question to you. "I thank you for your presentation. A significant proportion of your sales are in Stockholm. Could you please give some color on these assets?
Well, these assets are one, a portfolio that we assembled together with a buyer, private equity fund, where it's purely a coincidence that so much of it was in Stockholm. We do not foresee us reducing our presence in the capital region, rather the opposite, but that was purely a coincidence. A couple of solitary, rather big ones, one in Tyresö, that was an outlier in our portfolio, and then a car dealership, where the car dealer wanted us to invest heavily, and we didn't feel that we got the return on that investment that we wanted. So it's a pure coincidence that so much of this reduced volume actually was in Stockholm. It may vary over time.
Okay. That was the last question for today. Thank you all for listening.
Thank you.
Thank you.
See you all at the latest on October 25 for the next presentation.
Yes, thank you.