Welcome to the Cibus Q2 2025 Report Presentation . For the first part of the presentation, participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions- and- answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing piound key five on their telephone keypad. If you are listening to the presentation via webcast, you can ask written questions using the form below. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO Christian Fredrixon and CFO Pia-Lena Olofsson. Please go ahead.
Good morning all. Welcome to Cibus second quarter results presentation. We're speaking to you today from our office in Stockholm. Christian Fredrixon, CEO, speaking now.
Pia-Lena Olofsson, CFO.
It's in the middle of summer here in Stockholm, and we apologize. There's a strict no-drilling policy in the building, but apparently it's not on for all office buildings or empty, so apologies for any drilling in the background noise here from somewhere in the building. Right, let's jump into things. Cibus, converting food into yield, and that's our slogan. It still is, and it tells exactly what we do. It's still a fantastic slogan because it says what we do, i.e., owning grocery and daily goods real estate in Europe. Converting food into yield. Looking at our portfolio and what we do these days is we're still the only listed pure daily goods real estate vehicle in the Nordics. We've been listed since 2018. We are now a pan-European platform after our acquisition in the Benelux earlier this year.
We aim to create stable cash flows, increase earnings capacity per share, and we have a market cap of about EUR 1.3 billion in a very liquid share, which Pia-Lena will tell you a bit about later. Also important for many is that we pay the monthly dividends to our shareholders, and it's a five-year anniversary in October this year. Looking at the map on the right, you will see also that this is the first quarter where the Forum Estates, Benelux acquisition is in our books for the whole quarter. This is what the NOI looks like per country for a full quarter. You'll see Finland is our largest market with about 50% of NOI, and then Belgium and Denmark fighting it out for second place, about 15% of our NOI, and then Sweden is our fourth largest market, and then the Netherlands, Norway, and Luxembourg.
You will see the dots there for acquisitions we have carried out or announced. I'll be getting back to that a bit later to sort out the acquisitions we've done and when we announced them, etc. Looking at our properties at the end of the quarter 2025, 637 properties, so a very well-diversified portfolio in seven countries, about EUR 2.4 billion of property value, NOI of EUR 156.3 million, and 1.3 million square meters. As you'll see on the pie chart to the right, you'll recognize many of these household names, and that tells strategically to have a well-diversified tenant mix of the largest and most dominant grocery chains in each country. Digging further into our portfolio and our business, our aim is to create stable cash flows. How do we do that? We try and create stability in every part of our business. How do we do that?
We own 81% of rental income from non-cyclical daily goods tenants. 95% of our property is rented by daily goods tenants. A well-diversified portfolio is mentioned in the number of assets, and we continue to grow our cash flows. If we won't be carrying or are not carrying out any acquisitions, then also through indexation growth because 99% of our leases are CPI linked and almost all are fixed rent leases, i.e., not much turnover rent at all in our whole portfolio. Our average WAULT is 5.9 years and has been around that number since we were created in 2000, since listing in 2018, of about five years. Our average asset size is 2,100 square meters, and that's a very well-diversified portfolio as well. As seen here, our largest property is about 1.3% of our NOI.
When creating these stable cash flows, it's very important also, of course, to have costs under control. One way of doing that is that we have 90% of our leases as net or triple net leases, i.e., sheltering us from any property cost increases. That's also a win-win for our tenants. Many of our tenants, of course, are grocers, and for a grocery business, the stores and the accessibility of the stores and the store's network of function is very, very important. It's operational infrastructure, so it's a win-win for many of our tenants. They can take care of their stores themselves through our net and triple net leases. Creating stable cash flow is also known being having a large part of our interest rate hedged is important as well. 97% of our debt is interest rate hedged. Looking into the financial summary of Q2, just handing over to Pia-Lena.
Yeah, thank you. Rental income increased 35% to EUR 41.3 million. Net operating income grew 28% to EUR 39.1 million. The growth in NOI was lower than rental income due to that we have received an insurance compensation which increased service income in the second quarter of 2024. Profit for property management amounted to EUR 19.5 million, excluding non-recurring items and currency effects, it amounted to EUR 20 million. I will get back later in the presentation with more details. Earnings after tax amounted to EUR 13.7 million or EUR 0.17 per share. Unrealized changes or properties were positive or flat in all countries and amounted to +EUR 2.7 million. Derivatives were in the second quarter, however, negative with -EUR 6.7 million. EPRA NAV was EUR12.8 per share, up EUR 1 since the second quarter last year.
Thank you. Jumping into a couple of the key takeaways for this quarter, it's been a stable value-generating quarter. Picking up a couple of the operational metrics that have improved, the NOI margin improved 1.1 percentage points to almost 95% quarter- on- quarter. Also, our profit from property management grew almost by 70% year- on- year, and 9% quarter- on- quarter, excluding non-reoccurring items. Metrics per share are very, very important for us and fundamental in what we do. We're happy to show that our earnings capacity per share has continued to grow now for the eighth consecutive quarter to EUR 1.05 per share, which is a 9% increase year on year. That's accounting for the old number of shares prior to the equity raise we carried out now in June, just because we haven't used or deployed that capital yet.
Therefore, we feel it's fair to use the old number of shares. What's been a big driver in this quarter in the increased earnings capacity has been lower financing costs. We've announced a couple of points about that earlier through press releases, but just summarizing, we have refinanced about EUR 276 million of bank financing with more than 50 basis points lower margins. That's led to the net financial cost going forward being decreased by EUR 1.4 million per annum in our earnings capacity. A couple of other metrics there, our average credit margin is now 1.8% of that bond and bank debt. That's the all-time low. That's the lowest we've ever had. Also, our average interest cost has dropped to 4.0%. That was 4.5% one year ago. Things are moving in the right direction for us there.
When it comes to the financing maturities, we've seen that our motto we've been working on is extending our debt maturity. That's now 2.5 years , and a year ago, it was only 1.7 years. We've increased our hedge duration to 2.9 years, important for creating those stable cash flows. We also have 36% of our hedges capped, which we think is an interesting and great instrument for us to have, as it protects us on the upside if interest rates rise, being a cap, but also on the downside if interest rates fall, we get a healthy value increase or cash flow increase from that as well. The interest rate environment right now is really choppy, of course, as you know. The things and the outlooks change day by day or week by week, depending on what's happening in geopolitics and also in European inflation.
Happy to have a large part of our hedge in caps. Moving up from the financing side of things, looking more at operations, we've had a very nice leasing activity in our quarter. I'm going to get back to that a bit later and dive into that and tell you a bit more about what we actually do on active asset management. We usually don't talk about it that much, but this quarter we've decided to tell you a bit more about that. There's also a couple of case studies, or one case study I will tell you about later. Looking up and down, what we've done is we've extended the WAULTl to 5.9 years. We've increased the occupancy rate, and we've also leased out more than 10,000 square meters of previously vacant space so far in 2024.
We're very happy to see that number and the team working very hard to let that space. It's worth mentioning there, also to jump back to, is that this is predominantly not grocery space. This is the 19% of our rental income, which is not grocery, but rather non-grocery retail. That's where we need to do the bulk of our work. That's where tenants move and we need to work with the vacancies. Importantly, number six on the slide also, in June, we carried out a proactive share issue for growth. We raised SEK 100 million, nothing else, about EUR 9.91 million. Why did we raise that capital? We saw that we have a very strong pipeline which we've built up over the year. We're happy to try and capitalize on that.
We've already announced a couple of transactions, and we're looking for more and building up the pipeline and executing on the previous pipeline in our seven home markets. As mentioned, we've announced this since our Q1 report. We've announced that we've acquired 18 properties in eight transactions in five countries, with a total value of EUR 107 million. Very happy with the team performance here and that we can execute our pipeline in so many countries and at speed after we raised the capital in mid-Q. Importantly also is, of course, capital regeneration. What we've been doing this quarter as well is we've been trimming the portfolio. We've been selling non-strategic assets, and we've, in this total this year, divested eight assets in three countries for about EUR 25 million. That's great for two reasons.
One, we recycle capital and get invested more converting food into yield assets, but also, of course, recycling our own capital. Earnings capacity, I mentioned already, so continued steady growth here with the eighth consecutive quarter now jumping to EUR 1.5 per share. As mentioned, this came this quarter mostly from lower bank and bond margins or lower bank margins and refinancing. Looking at our property values, a big jump, of course, earlier this year with the Forum Estates and the Danish acquisitions. We will see further jumps going forward when the acquisitions that we've announced already come into our books. What I thought we'd do, as we've been quite busy on the acquisition side, and we've been press releasing these at certain different times, I thought we'd sort out what transactions we've done and when they actually hit our accounts.
Looking from left to right, in our Q1 report, we had the acquisition of Jumbo. That's in the figures for the Q1 report. That was announced on the 17th of April. That was as Jumbo in Belgium. Jumbo has about 20% market share in the Netherlands and is starting to expand in Belgium. They have about a 1% market share there. A nice long lease with Jumbo in Belgium. We announced in June, on the 5th of June, two acquisitions. We announced the Albert Heijn in Ede in the Netherlands, seen on the picture there, and also a redeveloped Netto in Denmark in Horsens, with a long lease, a 10-year lease. This used to be a Rema 1000, but now it's a Netto and they redeveloped it, and the property owner redeveloped it for Netto, and then they sold it to us.
A great new acquisition for us and a great new store there. I kind of proved also the point that when a certain tenant moves, often another grocer comes in. This is an example of that. On April 17th, we announced also an acquisition of a grocery store, Sale and Leaseback , in Finland. We can now happily tell you that it was Lidl, who was the tenant there and who carried out the Sale and Leaseback . This is something that was done earlier this year, but will be first in our Q3 report. What has happened there? It's a Sale and Leaseback . It used to be under construction, but it's soon to open. The picture there you see, that's a picture taken yesterday by our local team who's there looking at the asset. A new shiny asset in the East Salmia in Finland on a long lease.
We get to our July announcements, which were two. Firstly, on the 8th of July, we announced the Tokmanni transaction, which was a sale and leaseback of five stores in Finland. 10-year leases, 10-year WAULTTs, newly signed together with Tokmanni. The reason why there are so many sale and leasebacks now, in my perception, is that there's been a period when markets have been quite still. Local developers haven't been quite active. Many of the brokers who have real estate arms have developed stores themselves, the ones that want to increase their store networks. This was an example of this. Happy to have carried out this sale and leaseback with our second largest tenant, Tokmanni. We also announced in July not a sale and leaseback, but an under construction of a Prisma Hypermarket. That's the S Group flagship store hypermarket, performing very well across Finland.
Not many of these assets are owned by third-party real estate owners. Most of them are owned by S Group themselves, much like ICA does in Sweden, owning very many of the ICA Maxi by themselves. Very happy to put our hands on this newly built or asset under construction. That's a forward funding deal where we get an interest during the period. The construction is with the sellers, and the sellers are Enra, the private equity development company. Great ESG characteristics, of course, on these assets announced in July, 8th of July, and being newly built assets. Moving to the three acquisitions announced here on the right in the Q3 report, we will see Willys x2 in Enköping and Ludvika. The Willys in Enköping is a location I know very well.
When I was at ICA, we moved the store from this location to a more upscale location through an ex-car dealership, just because this location was too small for the ICA format. For Willys Hemma, this is a great location. It's bang in the center of Enköping. Long list, semi-long list. There are some other tenants in there as well. It used to be a residential development project, but as that market has become quite tough, it's now more of a long-term grocery retail location, which works very, very well for us. Happy to have got our hands on that as well. Speaking of car dealerships, the next announced transaction here at Willys in Ludvika, that is an ex-car dealership in a new transformed light industrial to retail area. You see this Biltema in the background there. An ex-car dealership which has been turned into a Willys store.
Long lease, good location. Willys is, of course, doing extremely well across Sweden, one of the fastest growing grocery brand formats in Sweden. The last transaction on this slide is also something that will come into our Q3 figures, also announced on 16th of July, which is a Proxy Delhaize in Meerhout in Belgium. Meerhout is east of Antwerp. It's a nine -year WAULT. There are, of course, the Belgian break options in there, but it's a central location. Store is performing well. Netto are holding the lease, the international player. The last transaction we've announced so far in 2024 is this Danish transaction. Seven stores across Denmark, six of them are on Zealand and one in Jutland. 9,000 square meters, 9,100 square meters, long WAULTs, sunny, nice day, and the pictures were taken as well.
Since our last quarterly report, we have acquired or announced 18 assets, an acquisition of 18 assets in five countries in eight transactions. We're very happy with our good execution and deal sourcing capabilities in all of our countries, and our ability to execute since the capital raise on the 11th of June. As mentioned, we're also trimming the portfolio and reusing our own capital. Just running through this quickly for you as well. Started the year, and this hit our Q2 report. We divested three DIY stores in Belgium, let to Gamma, the DIY player. That was at book value. In Helsinki, announced on the 17th of April, we sold one ex-grocery store. That was an ex-Kesko, which we sold to another grocery chain, which is now turning that into its own grocery store. We also did a reverse sale and lease back.
I think this proves a couple of things. One is that if a tenant leaves, then there's most often another grocer who wants to come in. Sometimes if they have their own real estate arms, we can sell it at an attractive price. This was significantly above book value for these transactions. What's a reverse sale and lease back? What we want to do is create long-term relationships with our tenants. Operational infrastructures and stores are very, very important for them. Therefore, what we like to do is to engage with them in helping them develop their store networks. In this case, S Group came to us and wanted to buy a store in order to redevelop it, perhaps add some building rights, add some residential on top. The only ones who really can unlock that value are those who actually can close the store and redevelop the whole thing.
Happy as long as the price is right, we're happy to do these sales, these reverse sale and lease backs, just both making money and creating a good relationship with our tenants. Also announced so far in 2025, we sold an ex-grocery store in Eslöv to the municipality for urban development that's been turned into, or being knocked down to be turned into, an elderly care home, I understand. Happy to help municipalities develop. In Belgium, we've sold a C&A fashion store, which is, of course, non-strategic for us. In Belgium, we have sold a SPAR store also as a reverse and taken the lease back to SPAR, helping them with their planning. I hope that sorted out a bit of the many transactions we've done this year so far.
I mentioned earlier, let's dig into a bit more about letting activity and what we are doing a bit behind the scenes. This quarter, I'll tell you a bit now about what we're doing. We have a stable underlying business, as you know, a stable occupancy rate, which is around 94%- 95% and has been historically. What I thought we'd dig into is to show you a bit about how we work behind the scenes. We negotiate, of course, and renew a lot of leases. That's the stickiness in the grocery assets that we own. So far in 2025, we've renewed about 70 leases and over 90,000 square meters across several countries. Those include those larger packages, which I mentioned, where we maybe have 30 or 40 leases at once with one of our larger tenants.
That's a good negotiation for both, for bargaining power from both sides in those kinds of negotiations. Those reneWAULTs and packages and the things we've done are approximately five years' extension. That's not five years from zero when we started. The average WAULT is, of course, longer than five years. In total, for these transactions or these reneWAULTs, about five years' extension. This quarter included a five-year extension for our largest assets in Finland. That now has a more than nine-year WAULT. That's also an example of how we actually proactively extend our leases long before they actually come to maturity. In the middle of the slide here, when we talk about new lettings, I thought I'd characterize these for you in how the four main types of lettings that there are in the grocery sector.
One is when a grocery player leaves a location for whatever reason that may be. They want a bigger store and that site doesn't work for that. That could be one reason. In some cases, just because the branding of that particular grocery or that price perception doesn't really work in that market is one example. What we do is we let it to another grocer. I'm going to show you on the next page a couple of examples of what we do here. The second type of new letting we do is grocery to non-grocery. That's when actually a grocery location doesn't work anymore for anyone or that it's a great grocery location, but perhaps beyond the chains who are active because it is a market where there are not many players around.
We can let it to a non-grocery because in most locations, they are attractive retail locations for other retail tenants, or perhaps for urban developers, or for other types of tenants. The third type is, of course, when non-grocery is let to grocery. An example of this is not something we've done in this quarter, but for example, the car dealership in Ludvika, which I told you about, that used to be a non-grocery, and that's a non-grocery. There's also a trend in Sweden with a couple of paddle courts. Way too many paddle courts in Sweden. They're now being turned into grocery locations instead. That's another example. The fourth type is where the bulk of our work is done, when a non-grocery tenant moves out and we fill it up with another grocery tenant or a non-grocery tenant.
These are the types of natural changes to a retail location that happen. A lot of work is done there. That's also one of the reasons why we like to buy and own as much grocery and daily goods as we can, just because the stickiness is lower and the stability of the cash flows is much better. Summarizing what we've done in 2025, 33 leases in four countries with new letters. Very happy with the WAULTls we received. Very happy with the attractiveness also on yield on the rental levels. Also to point out here, this quarter we've let more than 10,500 square meters of previous vacancy. That's great work from the teams working on this vacancy throughout 2025. That's about 0.8% of our total lettable area. Good work everyone.
As mentioned, a couple of examples of letting activity: grocer to grocer, two of those leases in the quarter, for example, to Tokmanni in Finland and to a local grocery chain in the Netherlands. When it comes to grocer to non-grocer, we have let three of those areas, in this case to three different discounters like Husqvarna, Action, and Vibo, and of course, the Benelux brand names. Non-grocer to grocer, we haven't done any of that activity this quarter, but we've been more active on the non-grocer to non-grocer type. Here are a couple of examples of those brand names which we've been active with in filling up for vacant space. We've also carried out two store extensions, one for K Group, Kesko, and one for Tokmanni. I'll tell you about one of those later.
In terms of trying to tell you a bit more about what we've been up to this quarter, we let 10,500 square meters of new or previously vacant space. The last slide for me on the operations here is a case study of what we've done at the K Market in Kuopio in Finland. We want to work close to our tenants and help them to develop their store networks. This is an example of what we've done this year and decided on this year. Kesko wanted to extend the store for store network reasons. The asset was built in 1972, so it could need a facelift anyway. In this case, we decided together with Kesko that we would build a whole new store. Together with Kesko, we're opening a new store. We'll double the lettable area to 800 square meters.
We signed a new lease with them, so the WAULTl is extended from one year to 13 years. We invest about EUR 2 million. We also acquire part in neighboring retail premises to facilitate the project. We have an attractive yield on cost, an attractive IRR, and it's a turnkey contract with an experienced contractor in order to avoid or mitigate any construction risks here. This contractor has been building for Kesko for years. We get a very nice uplift in EPC ratings as well. Here is the Kesko announcement for what we've done. I think the takeaway from this section and from the case study is, yes, we're busy with transactions, but also every quarter we are adding value to our portfolio through these kind of active asset management measures. Over to you, Pia-Lena.
Thank you. Let's talk a little bit about significant events. On the 10th of April, we had our AGM, and it was resolved that there would be an unchanged dividend of EUR 0.90 per share paid in 12 installments. The board also received a mandate to issue up to 20% new shares, of which 7.6% of the 20% have been used in the directed share issue that was done on the 11th of June. Stefan Gattberg was elected new Chairman of the Board and Stina Lindh Hök as new board member. All other board members were re-elected. There were also two incentive programs adopted. We have also employed a Head of Sustainability and Investment Manager. We have carried out, as Christian has said, a lot of acquisitions, which he has gone through.
As we disclosed on the 11th of June, we did a directed share issue, raising more than SEK 1 billion at a subscription price of SEK 172.6, which represents a premium to EBITDA NAV of about 25%. After the period, we have done more acquisitions, as also Christian said. Looking into more details, we have non-recurring expenses of EUR 0.5 million in the quarter based on the resolution by the AGM to establish a warrant program both for the Nordics and Belgium and to subsidize the option premium. Net financials include a cost of EUR 0.5 million in the quarter for the reversal of arrangement fees. This cost is not classified as non-recurring. A large part of our interest-bearing debt has been refinanced, and corresponding future reversals are not deemed to be relevant in the near future. Profits from property management, excluding non-recurring items and exchange effects, amounted to EUR 20 million.
Unrealized changes in value of properties amounted to EUR 2.7 million. As I said before, all countries had increasing or flat values for the second quarter. Looking at the earnings capacity, rental income this quarter is slightly lower than in Q1 2025 due to the investments that have been made. Property expense is also lower, especially in Belgium. We also see effects of lower costs due to our energy-efficient investments that we made. We have higher administration costs due to newer, larger offices in both Stockholm and in Helsinki, since we have a larger organization. Net financial is significantly lower due to that we have received lower margins in our large refinancing of bank loans. Profit from property management, excluding non-cash items, plus the expense for the hybrid bond, amounted to EUR 1.05 per share, which is an increase of 9% since the 1st of July, 2024.
Net operating income in a like-for-like portfolio earnings capacity shows how the portfolio owned by Cibus on the 1st of July 2024, has developed up until the 1st of July 2025. The negative effect of the changes in occupancy amounted to -€1.8 million or -1.6%. Of this, only about 25% relates to daily goods properties. Half of this relates to one property in Denmark where we have ongoing negotiations with another daily goods tenant. Another part of the daily goods vacancy relates to the property K Market in Kuopio that Christian mentioned just a while ago here, where the current lease is terminated to develop a new larger store on the same site for the same tenant. The effect of change of occupancy for a sold property relates to the property in Helsinki, Finland, which we sold to another grocery, which we have previously communicated.
The effect of index amounted to EUR 1.6 million or +1.4%. Finland, in particular, experienced low inflation during the period, and of course, that affects the CPI increase. The effect of acquired properties increased net operating income by 37.1%. In total, net operating income in earnings capacity increased by 36.3% to EUR 156.3 million. Cibus segments are countries, and as Christian said earlier, Finland is still the largest with 50% of net operating income and 48% of property value. Denmark is the next largest with 15% of net operating income and 17% of the property value. Close by is Belgium, which has 15% of net operating income and 16% of property value. Looking at the balance sheet at the end of the second quarter, property value was EUR 2.4 billion. Secured debt was EUR 1.2 billion, giving a loan-to-value on secured debt of 50.6%, which was unchanged from the last quarter.
We have unsecured bonds of EUR 243 million, and the funds from the share issue in June are in other net assets, giving a net loan-to-value of 55%. The net loan-to-value is expected to increase again when the funds have been deployed. If we deduct the funds from the share issue, the net LTV was 58.7%, which also would be unchanged since Q1. Net asset value, the EPRA NAV, was EUR 1.54 billion or EUR 12.8 per share, which is an increase from EUR 12.6 per share in Q1. The weighted average unexpired lease term in the vault is shown in the graph above, with both without Belgian termination rights, which was 5.9 years, and with the Belgian termination rights, which is now at 4.4 years. In Belgium, the tenants of retail properties have a statutory right to terminate the leases every third year.
To minimize the risk that the tenant would leave, it's usually offset by that the tenants invest significantly in the premises. Looking at the graph below, you see that the vault continues to be stable. During the first half year of 2025, we have prolonged nearly 70 leases with major tenants. Regarding funding, the average interest rate is now 4%, down from 4.5% one year ago. Bank financing is still the largest part of Cibus funding, with 81% of total funding. This quarter, we've been able to lower the bank margin to 1.5%. We have refinanced loans of EUR 276 million during the second quarter, lowering the margin on those loans with more than 0.5 percentage points. We have, after the period, refinanced additional EUR 24 million of bank loans at a 0.1 percentage point lower margin.
When we acquired Forum Estates, not all of the subordinated loans were converted to Cibus shares. During the quarter, we have called on the rest of the outstanding subordinated loans, which amount to EUR 12.2 million. They will be repaid in mid-September with the funds that we received from the share issue in June. For Cibus, stable cash flows are very important. Cibus continues to have a high degree of hedging, with 97% hedging on our loans. We have, during the quarter, prolonged the average fixed interest maturity to 2.9 years. We continue also after the end of the quarter to do additional forward starting hedging. Based on the earnings capacity and taking all the interest rate hedges in consideration, an increase of the market interest rate with one percentage point would affect profit with minus EUR 1.8 million annually.
A decrease of one percentage point of the market interest rate would affect profit with plus EUR 4.4 million annually. The reason an interest rate reduction has a greater impact is due to our interest rate caps, which is 36% of our total hedging. Looking at key metrics, net LTV was 55% end of Q2. The share issue in June had a temporary lower in the net LTV and is expected to increase again when the raised funds have been deployed. If deducting the funds from the share issue, the net LTV would be at 58.7%. The interest coverage ratio continues to be stable at 2.3 times and is well above the covenant of 1.5 times. The net debt to EBITDA is at 11.1 times. The share issue has lowered the debt temporarily.
In the graph to the right, we have deducted the raised funds from the forward-looking net debt to EBITDA. Without the reduction, the net debt to EBITDA forward-looking would be at 9.4 times at the end of the second quarter. Cibus generates stable cash flows so we can pay out dividends to our shareholders on a monthly basis. The dividend yield on the closing price of SEK 187 was 5.4%. Total return, share price performance, and dividend have been 9% for the first half year of 2025. The average annual total return since Cibus was listed in 2018 to the end of Q2 2025, including reinvesting dividends, was 15.6%.
If I may add a point there, that's funny, that's exactly on the digit, the same number that Christian Fredrixon mentioned.
Exactly.
The total return, albeit over 20 years, of course. Happy to see that return now.
Yeah, Cibus is a liquid share. Cibus share was traded at 1.6 times its market cap, which is 60% more than the average for other real estate companies on Nasdaq Stockholm with a market cap above SEK 10 billion. Cibus continues to have strong support from our shareholders, many who have been shareholders for several years. The total number of shareholders continues to grow, and we now have 57,000 shareholders. Over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Pia-Lena. I thought that I will discuss this quite quickly so we can leave some time for some Q&A, of course, as well. Not to jump over the ESG slide because it's unimportant, but just to save a bit of time. On the contrary, it's very important. One thing we'd just like to say here is, of course, ESG is very important for both us and our tenants. On the right, there is a picture of a newly opened playground in one of our assets. Creating these social infrastructure meeting points for everyone and accessible meeting points. Moving forward, what are we going to focus on going forward? Of course, continue to grow earnings capacity per share and all parts of the business.
We now have a pan-European platform, the Cibus Real Estate platform, which is a great platform for further growth, and we are looking for further growth. It's worth mentioning here as well, of course, we are now considered a pan-European player, and that's evident in a lot of the dialogues we have in mainland Europe that we are seen as a multi-country player in a very niched focus. People pick up the phones to us, which is great to see. Continue to point number three here, continue to focus on balance sheet optimization, refinancing, and hedging, of course. As mentioned, carry out these cash earnings per share created transactions, execute on the opportunities in our existing markets, continue to grow our pipeline, but also, as mentioned in press releases as well, actively evaluating opportunities in new markets in mainland Europe.
Very happy with the team, of course, competent experienced employees, together taking pan-European action, and very happy about the ongoing integration with our colleagues at former Forum Estates. We are committed every day to deliver shareholder value by converting food into yield. Just moving to a commercial break maybe here to give some advertisements for our new webpage, which was released this morning. It's a fresh enough new webpage. I think the most interesting point maybe is the clickable map you will find. There's a picture of it here down to your right. If you go onto our webpage, you can find a clickable map of all of our 637 assets where you can click and get a picture and some information. Great if you're out traveling with your family across the Nordics or Benelux this summer and want to call by any of our assets, including Shoi.
Okay, that's another commercial break slide. Let's move on to the Q&A.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Oscar Lindquist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Hi, sorry, I hope you can hear me. Yes, on acquisitions, I know you can't comment directly on a sort of net initial yield, but could you give an aggregated number for the acquisitions that you have announced during the quarter?
We don't communicate any yield, and the reason for that is that we like to be in our space and let's try and carry out as many transactions as we can before the segment gets too hot, so to speak. What we do see is transaction activity increasing. We've seen a number of Swedish players now come in, both Balder and Prisma Properties, do transactions within our space in Finland, for example. We're not communicating anything about yields more than that the transactions themselves are accretive from day one.
Okay, could you comment sort of what your, I mean, recent transaction seems to be a bit Nordic tilted. Is that where you see the best potential going forward as well?
No, not really. I think that's just an effect of those that we have. We've been longer in the Nordics, of course. We have strong local relationships. We see interesting opportunities in the Benelux as well with the Forum Estates platform and the employees who've been active there for 25 years, or 15 years, 15 years in the Benelux routine. We see acquisition opportunities, interesting ones in all of our seven home markets.
Perfect. On the Prisma acquisition, just to understand the structure, you pay the full upfront price and then you receive some sort of interest or what's the structure here?
Yeah, no point. As and when the construction is carried out, funds are drawn from us. We finance the ongoing project as and when it's being built and completed. We fund it equity first, then see debt coming in a bit later. Already now on announcement, about 60% of the construction was done. It was a large, quite a large amount of the actual value was paid out day one, now running at an interesting interest range for us.
Yeah, perfect. You have streamlined the Benelux portfolio recently. Do you think there is more to come here, or are you happy with how it's looking now?
No, I think there's more to come. Just looking at what our portfolio in total has, we have 19% of our gross rental income is from non-retail tenants. There are certain non-strategic assets still around here and there. We're actively looking to see what we can do on those. If the price is right, then happy to sell those and regenerate that capital.
Perfect. If we move over to financing, do you see further downside potential near term from interest maturities?
I mean, we have refinanced most of our debt right now, so we don't have that much in the short term to refinance. We do see, of course, interesting opportunities when we finance our acquisitions. The banks are very supportive and very interested in financing our type of asset class. We also see that the bond market is very strong and also interested in financing Cibus going forward. Coming financing of acquisitions looks interesting and positive.
Have you seen any trend on bank margins in recent months?
Yes, as we said in the report and also in the presentation, I mean, we have refinanced EUR 276 million at 0.5% lower margin. Also, after the period, we have refinanced EUR 24 million at 0.1% lower margin. We see that the margins have come down.
Yeah, perfect. Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Svante Krokfors from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, Christian and Pia-Lena. Thank you for the presentation. Nice to hear about your letting activity. That's much appreciated to hear details about that. First, I was cut off for a short while, but the EUR 1.8 million that is in the net operating income in a comparable portfolio, the minus due to occupancy, how fast do you expect that to be turned around? I missed some points there in your presentation.
Yeah, we haven't guided on when that will be lowered, but as we said, especially the grocery part of that is under negotiations or have been solved and will be let out. Of course, it's a little leeway until that contract is in place. It's in place, but before it starts. Of course, we're working actively at the vacancies, but sometimes it takes a longer time before the new tenant is able to be active in the new premises, and then it takes time before it comes into the earnings capacity.
Yeah, I guess just to clarify, the earnings capacity, of course, is a snapshot on the 1st of July. Even if we've signed the lease, if it's not active on 1st of July, it's not in the earnings capacity. The bulk of everything that was signed, the things I mentioned there, was signed prior to the 1st of July, but then was not active, moving in a bit later into the actual premises.
Thank you. On the S Group or Prisma acquisition that you made in Finland, two questions about that. Is this, are you open now for more hypermarket transactions? The second question is, how come S Group didn't buy that property? Because they don't know what to do with all the money that they have, and I guess they prefer to own most of their premises themselves.
Yeah, on the hypermarket question, yes, we're happy to own hypermarkets if the local market is a hypermarket market, so to speak, where customers prefer hypermarkets. Finland and Sweden are two markets where hypermarkets are appreciated. In Finland, of course, the K-City markets, which we own a few, and then, of course, the Prismas. In Sweden, ICA Maxi, Stora Kåpa, are the big grocery names. In Norway and Denmark, for example, not hypermarket markets. That's something we need to consider if looking at something at those markets. The same goes for the Benelux and the Netherlands, not really a hypermarket market. What we try and do in our portfolio is to find the right retail format for its specific location. It's more than an actual strategy to own certain types of formats.
On the second question, I think that we managed to get ahead of them, maybe because they, I don't know if they were not ready. What we've heard rumors of is that they would like to buy this. We'll see if they pick up the phone to us at some point.
Thank you. That's interesting to hear. Perhaps last question on, you said that competition started to increase not only in Sweden, but also in Finland for assets, but nothing is shown in the yields yet.
No, exactly. Exactly. Our average yield is still 6.5%. Value increases that we saw, we're very happy to see across all of our markets since mid-2022. It has been more on the letting activity side of things rather than yield compression. Looking forward, of course, I think we're back into that part of the cycle now where Swedish companies are looking for higher yields to go across the Baltics to Finland. I think the historical evidence is that usually happens when yields become a bit too tight in Sweden for the yield spread between Sweden and Finland is attractive. I think that's what we see happen. Going forward with more competition, in theory, that should lead to lower yield.
What's your view of what the yield spread between Finland and Sweden is currently, and how it compares to the history?
Yeah, I'd say that looking back, prime yield in Sweden for grocery, I mean, then we're talking about a low inflation rate environment, somewhere just below 5%, around 5%. Even with sensible interest rates before 2015, prime yields were about 5.25%. I'd say they're slightly higher in Finland, and especially higher also historically, just because it's a more illiquid market. There's always a liquidity risk for investors who come in and out of markets, private equity players, etc., who want to buy and sell assets. For us, as a long-term buy and hold player of these assets, we're not too concerned about that at all. If we see accretive transactions at attractive yields, we're happy to do them without having to think about timing of their sale.
Okay, thank you. That is all from me.
Yes, we can continue. We were asked by a moderator. We're a bit over time, but happy to continue.
The next question comes from Vencel from Kempen. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Christian and Pia-Lena. I have to say that the map is a great addition. A quick follow-up on acquisitions. I know we can't reveal yields, but in very broad terms, would you say the acquisition yields are in line with your portfolio or maybe slightly lower, slightly higher? The second one on H2 activity, would you expect more portfolios to be put on the market and especially big portfolios? Thank you.
If we start with the activity side of things, I think it's fair to say that supermarket assets are becoming even more or becoming an asset class in its own right. What usually happens in, I mean, any market, if it's or whatever it may be, is that when potential sellers see that their transaction is happening and that it's a liquid asset class, that usually brings out more sellers. The brokers sniff that out as well and are looking for mandates. Let's hope the transaction activity picks up even further. When it comes to yields, we can say that when we're looking at yield, it's all about accretion.
Also, not buying assets or not buying poor quality assets, even if the yield is very attractive, and not buying too low yielding assets either, because we like that kind of cash flow focus and cash flow accretion model that we had. That said, it's important, the increase in the yield spread, and that's the yield spread kind of including the monthly dividend yield that we have as a monthly dividend paying company. That's our focus and an attractive yield spread and an attractive cash-out cash more than the actual yields themselves.
All right, all clear. Thank you and have a nice summer.
Thank you. Likewise.
The next question comes from Stéphanie Dossman from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hello, Christian. Hello, Pia-Lena. Just a follow-up question on acquisitions on the previous question. Regarding the activity on the transaction market, which is more significant currently, do you expect or could you give us some color about your budget in terms of acquisitions for H1? Would it be higher than in H2, sorry, higher compared to H1 if we exclude Forum Estates, of course? Could you please give us some colors on that? Maybe would it be more on an asset-per-asset basis or portfolios? Which kind of country are you targeting right now? Second question on the cost of debt evolution. Would you be able to give us perhaps a target or where do you see your average cost of debt landing by, let's say, 2027? What is the strategy going forward on the hybrid bonds? Would you keep them? What is the rationale there? Thank you.
Okay, great. Hello Stéphanie. Thank you for your question. Should I start, Pia-Lena, on the acquisition side of things? We don't have a target to, we don't have a growth number or a target which we want to reach when it comes to growth or acquisitions. We have a very well-diversified portfolio. We have great bargaining power towards our tenants, well-diversified. We grow when we see attractive opportunities. When we grow, I mean, there's three main sources of the equity and capital. It's the own resources we have and internal capital. It's, of course, any regenerated capital we may have from selling non-strategic assets. Then it's the capital raisings, like the one we did now in June, or the one we did in September last year. In September, we raised about the same number, slightly lower number, about EUR 80 million, which was then deployed by mid-December.
When it comes to what you're forecasting, I mean, it's fair to say that we raised EUR 91 million in June to act on a pipeline and identified a concrete pipeline to act on it in a reasonable amount of time. Of that EUR 90 million, we've now bought assets for about EUR 100 million or just over EUR 100 million. With leverage of EUR 90 million, say it was 50%, then we can, of course, buy assets for EUR 180 million just from capital we've already raised now. We've.
that many transactions yet. Of course, going forward, we'll see what acquisitions opportunities are out there. To answer your question, what types of assets I think are strengths is that we look in seven markets. We look at both single assets, we look at smaller portfolios, and we look at larger portfolios. Being now a large pan-European player with almost EUR 2.5 billion, we can look at larger portfolios than maybe some others can do, which is an interesting opportunity, of course. The same thing as always, deal dynamics are the foremost importance rather than size. Happy that we're looking across several countries, several regions, and also be able to look at many different lot sizes.
I think sale and leasebacks will continue to be important as the grocers who have tied up capital in building assets and owning assets, perhaps they need to lighten up their balance sheets a bit to do the investments more on the grocery side of their business rather than the real estate side of business. I wouldn't be surprised if there's more sale and leasebacks coming out in our markets as well going forward. And then...
Yeah, I mean, we don't have a target for our cost of debt. Of course, we want it to be as low as possible. Of course, we are negotiating with the banks. We also have good indication of the bond market. As you know, there's an uncertainty in the world and things happen. That's why we prepare by prolonging the interest rate maturity and working proactively with hedging and everything. We see that there's a lot of interest from banks and the bond market for our type of asset class to finance that. When it comes to the hybrid bond, the first call is in September 2026. We haven't decided yet what will happen at that point. Christian and I prefer to keep things simple and we'll see how we'll act on that when we come closer to that date. Usually, we prefer to have a more simple capital structure.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There are no more phone questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions or closing comments.
There are no written questions.
Thank you for listening. It was a longish call this time, but I'm happy that you listened in and I'm happy we took the time to discuss a bit more about our active asset management in this quarter to give you a bit more flavor of what we're up to there. That said, please have a look at our new web page and the map. From Pia-Lena and myself, we're looking forward to the rest of 2025 here and what we can get up to post-summer. That said, happy summer to everyone when time comes for your holidays. Bye.