Good morning. Welcome to the Automotive Properties REIT 2023 fourth quarter financial results conference call and webcast. My name is Joelle, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following management's remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Please be aware that certain information discussed today may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking information reflects the REIT's current views with respect to future events. Any such information is subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. For more information on risks, uncertainties, and assumptions relating to forward-looking information, please refer to the REIT's latest MD&A and Annual Information Form, which are available on SEDAR. Management may also refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures.
Although the REIT believes the measures provide useful supplemental information about financial performance, they are not recognized measures and do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. Again, please refer to the REIT's latest MD&A for additional information regarding non-IFRS financial measures. This call is being recorded on Friday, March eighth, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Milton Lamb. Please go ahead, Mr. Lamb.
Thank you, Joelle. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me on the call today is Andrew Kalra, our Chief Financial Officer. We had another successful year in 2023 as we generated growth in all of our key financial metrics, further expanded our property portfolio with accretive acquisitions in major markets, and carefully managed our debt. Compared to 2022, property rental revenue in 2023 increased by 11.6%, cash NOI increased by 11.4%, same property cash NOI increased by 2.4%, and AFFO per unit on a diluted basis increased to CAD 0.918 from CAD 0.898. The growth was primarily attributable to properties we acquired in early 2023 and contractual rent increases.
In 2023, we deployed a total of CAD 106.5 million in acquiring seven properties. In January, we completed the acquisitions of six full-service automotive dealership properties in Quebec for approximately CAD 98.5 million. In June, we acquired an additional dealership property in Greater Montreal, alongside storage vaults on a joint venture, with each side funding 50% of the purchase price of CAD 16.1 million. All seven properties acquired in 2023 have leases with CPI-related adjustments. Our portfolio continues to perform well, even in the current environment of elevated interest rates. This reflects our triple net lease structure, which includes a combination of fixed and CPI-linked annual rent increases and positions us for continued organic growth in NOI going forward.
Leases with CPI-related adjustments represented approximately 26% of our base rent for 2023, and for 2024, an additional 10% of existing leases will be subject to capped CPI-related adjustments. We've also continued to carefully manage our debt during this period of elevated interest rates. In November of 2023, we entered into a floating-to-fixed interest rate swap where CAD 24.5 million for a term of five years at an interest rate of 5.69%. This further reduced our interest rate risk with 95% of our debt fixed through interest rate swaps and mortgages at year-end, with a debt to GBV of 45%. In addition, we have currently approximately CAD 63.2 million of undrawn capacity under our revolving credit facilities and a five unencumbered properties with an aggregate value of approximately CAD 70.6 million.
I'd now like to turn it over to Andrew Kalra to review our fourth quarter results and financial position in more detail. Andrew?
Thanks, Milton, and good morning, everyone. Our property rental revenue for the fourth quarter totaled CAD 23.3 million, an 11.4% increase from Q4 a year ago, reflecting growth from properties acquired subsequent to Q4 last year and contractual rent increases. Total cash NOI, same-property cash NOI for the quarter totaled CAD 19.3 million and CAD 17.3 million, respectively, representing increases of 11.9% and 2.4% compared to Q4 a year ago. Growth in cash NOI was primarily attributable to acquisitions and contractual rent increases. Growth in same-property cash NOI primarily reflects contractual rent increases across our portfolio. Interest expense and other financing charges for the quarter were CAD 6.3 million, representing an increase of approximately CAD 1.5 million from Q4 last year.
The increase was primarily due to additional debt incurred to acquire properties subsequent to Q4 last year, together with an increase in weighted average interest rate. Our G&A expenses in the quarter were approximately CAD 1.5 million, a reduction from CAD 1.9 million in Q4 last year, primarily reflecting decrease in short-term performance awards. Net loss of CAD 15.2 million in the quarter, compared to a net income of CAD 13.6 million in Q4 a year ago. The negative variance is primarily due to changes in non-cash items, such as fair value adjustments for interest rate swaps, investment properties, Class B units, and unit-based compensation, partially offset by higher NOI.
The impact in the traded value of REIT units resulted in a decrease in fair value adjustments for Class B units and unit-based compensation of CAD 3.6 million in the quarter, compared to an increase of CAD 2.8 million in Q4 a year ago. FFO and AFFO for the quarter increased by 8.4% and 8.5% and 8.4%, respectively, compared to Q4 last year, reflecting the impact of properties acquired subsequent to December 31 last year and contractual rent increases. FFO per unit diluted was CAD 0.238 in the quarter, up from CAD 0.221 in Q4 a year ago, and AFFO per unit diluted was CAD 0.23, up from CAD 0.213 in Q4 last year.
The REIT paid total distributions of CAD 9.86 million, or 20.1 cents per unit in the quarter, representing an AFFO payout ratio of 87.4%. The AFFO payout ratio in Q4 last year was 94.4%. The capitalization rate applicable to the REIT's entire portfolio was 6.59% at year-end, a nominal increase from 6.56% at the end of Q3, 2023, and 6.42% at the end of 2022 year-end. The fair value loss in investment properties in the quarter was CAD 0.8 million, reflecting market conditions. That compares to a fair value gain of CAD 1.8 million in Q4 last year.
The weighted average terminal capitalization rate at December 31, 2023, was 7.1%, up 22 basis points from 6.88% a year ago. We had CAD 534 million of outstanding debt at year-end, with an effective weighted average interest rate of 4.25%. We continue to have minimal exposure to floating or short-term interest rates, with 95% of our debt fixed through interest rate swaps and mortgages. We have a well-balanced level of annual maturities with a weighted average interest rate swap term and mortgage terms remaining of 4.8 years, and a weighted average term to maturity of our debt of 2.9 years.
That's great. Thanks, Andrew.
Well, thank you. I'll turn the call back to you, then.
The Canadian automotive sector continues to be supported by strong fundamentals. According to Statistics Canada, total automotive industry sales were a record CAD 211 billion in 2023, an increase of 12.3% from the prior year. That amounts to approximately 27% of Canada's overall retail sales of products and merchandise. DesRosiers Automotive Consultants reported that Canadian new light vehicle sales increased by 11.8% in 2023 compared to 2022, reflecting continued consumer demand and increased supply of new vehicles. Looking ahead, given our strong portfolio of essential retail properties located in prime urban markets, high quality tenants, the triple net lease structure, and embedded fixed or CPI-adjusted rental growth, we are well positioned to generate stable distributions per unitholders while continuing to pursue strategic property acquisitions to drive further AFFO growth on a per unit basis. That concludes our remarks today. We'd now like to open the line for questions. Joelle, please go ahead.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touch tone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Your first question comes from Frank Liu with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday.
Good morning, Frank.
Morning.
Just want to touch on the positive G&A variances quarter from, I guess, the decreasing short-term performance awards. Is this related to the performance target you guys sort of mentioned in last Q4 call? Because my understanding is that you guys did very well this year with more acquisitions than prior year. Just want to get some color on this.
Yeah, some of the acquisitions in 2023 were put in place in late 2022 and were reflected in the 2022 performance, even though they closed a few days later in 2023. So that probably marks a bit of, a bit of a difference. So our, you know, performance incentives last year were lower, just on a muted REIT year overall within the industry and certainly within APR.
Thanks. Got it. Just with respect to the transaction market, historically, we see more activities towards the end of the year into the new year. Have you guys been talking to prospective sellers, and do you think deals could potentially pick up throughout 2024 as dealers' profitability margin, like, normalize?
Yeah, I mean, your last point is a key point. End of last year, we were involved in a number of discussions, which we continue to be involved with overall. But what we saw was that buy-sell was constricting and then expanded with more inventory, with more supply, with more inventory financing. There was just a difference in the denominator, in the view of the buyer versus the seller, when we were talking about M&A in the dealership world. So we expect that to, as you said, normalize, and once that does normalize, yeah, we do expect that over the next six to 24 months, that you will see some notable M&A activity.
Got it. That totally makes sense. Lastly, switching gears to the balance sheet. I mean, the 5.7% on the CAD 24.5 million swap you did in November, just curious, like, is this a good indication of the interest rate when you're dealing with the CAD 42 million swap running off later this year?
Yeah, we've actually. That's been at the lower end. The mid-year was even higher. Our strategy is to move short-term debt into long-term as we see fit. And with short-term being considerably higher, we followed that strategy. And even now, five-year money in the swap market is anywhere between 5.5-5.7. So even on a short-term basis, that decision is good.
But to your question, the back half of your question, we certainly believe, as most economists, bank analysts, et cetera, do, that we will see interest rates pull back mid-year or at least before the end of the year. And most of that swap debt that you're talking about, those swaps come due, either mostly at the end of the year. So we do expect that it'll be lower than that 5.7%. But again, we don't control the Bank of Canada.
Yes, and the strategy has always been about laddering our maturities. So we take advantage, and then work with that.
Finally, we don't have significant expirations on the swap profile this year, but the ones that are there are later in the year. We do expect that there should be some pullback in interest rates by then.
Got it. I hope we'll see some positive comments from Bank of Canada later this year, or, I mean, in the middle of this year. Thank you very much.
Agreed.
That's all of my questions.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Have a good weekend, guys.
Your next question comes from Jonathan Kelcher with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning.
Good day.
Just going back to Frank's question on acquisitions.
Yeah.
It doesn't just based on your answer, it doesn't sound like you've got a lot near term in the pipeline, and you're saying six to 24 months, but historically, there's been nothing really in the summer. Like, have discussions among the dealers picked up, and how would your conversations be going, and could we see something this summer?
Tough question to answer. Certainly discussions continue to be good. It really depends when that buy-sell gap occurs on the other side, being the dealers amongst dealers, because that does drive a lot of our acquisitions. So it's really tough to pin that. Certainly, 2021 and 2022 were incredible years for dealers. So 2023, is that a normalized number, or do dealers want to see where... I should say, buyers of dealers want to see where numbers are falling out in 2024, and then going from there? Either way, we believe that there's a healthy appetite, and we also believe that our largest competition has always been banks. Banks right now are certainly interest rates are a bit higher. LTVs are a bit lower.
We've always been conservative on our LTVs, so that allows us a good place at the table.
Okay. On M&A activity, like, how soon or how late in the process are you typically brought in?
Both. We tend to get a cryptic call to say, "You know, we're looking at a deal in this market for about this size. What would your appetite be?" And then they go quiet, and then they call us up with a hurry-up-and-go.
Okay. Have those cryptic calls picked up?
Those cryptic calls tend to be pretty consistent over the last 18 months. So that, that's good news. It's just the second call and the hurry-up-and-go that we're waiting for.
Okay. That is helpful. I'll turn it back. Thanks.
Thanks.
Your next question comes from Lorne Kalmar with Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. I think before, Milton, you'd mentioned that, you know, when dealers are looking to finance and, you know, with rates where they are.
Yeah.
And you guys come with your cap rates, and the delta is not that big. If we do start to see short-term rates come off, do you think that'll impact the ability to transact at all?
No. I mean, they we still often compare to their short-term money, because a lot of them will use their credit facilities from, you know, their, well, their credit facilities, which are often on 30, 60, 90 days, as far as where they price them. I think there will be a bit of a normalization, and I'm also not expecting interest rates to plummet. Certainly the fact that they've stopped growing is a good thing. We do expect that they'll step back, but we're not expecting them to step back to 21, 22 numbers.
I guess, I guess we can wish, but, yeah, it looks unlikely. And then, you know, we're, we're obviously seeing a lot of the EV momentum. I think Rivian, is, is one that's been catching the headlines lately. Is, is there any opportunities there for, for you folks in terms of, you know, new, emerging auto companies?
Short answer is yes. I mean, we did it with Tesla, but if you looked at when we did it with Tesla, we looked at kind of when they got to that, it's not a bright line, but to the line where you felt very comfortable that, you know, if you're buying a building, that they're gonna be there ten years later. We still think there's going to be new entrants. Some of those will do extremely well. We wanna be with those, and we think some new entrants, you know, will maybe get involved in M&A or otherwise. There's still going to be new brands. The model that they're talking about coming into North America is more a dealer-focused model as opposed to direct to consumer. But in either direct to consumer or the dealer model, they're gonna need physical facilities. We all know, municipalities don't like giving out that zoning, so you know, more demand, less supply. We like being in that equation.
Makes sense. And then just lastly, you know, one of the other topics that has been batted around a few times is looking at, you know, outside of auto dealers. Has there been any more thought towards that?
We still like automotive. It doesn't have to be pure auto dealers. I mean, Tesla's not an auto dealer. So you know, there's other brackets within that we would be open to. We still like metropolitan markets, but we still like a lot of the fundamentals of automotive. That doesn't have to be just pure auto dealership.
Sorry, I meant more in terms of, like, maybe heavy machinery. I think that was something that was maybe mentioned, like those types of dealers.
Yeah, I mean-
Is there any appetite for something like that?
Truck, heavy machinery, certainly in the right locations. I mean, if it's agriculture in the middle of, you know, the middle of the Wheat Belt, but not in an Edmonton, Edmonton or Winnipeg or something, that, that's gonna be tough for us to get our head around. But certainly there's some heavy equipment in Vaughan we would love to own.
And would you expect to get sort of a similar type of yield you'd be getting on the auto dealerships?
I think so. Yeah.
Yeah? Okay. Thank you very much. I will turn it back.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Jimmy Shan with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks. On acquisitions, so what would be your cap rate expectation today?
I mean, that's trophy Vancouver versus, you know, an Edmonton or Calgary, you're gonna get or a Winnipeg, you're gonna get different answers. But the range is probably, you know, we're comfortable in the range that we're showing our average at, but you're probably talking about 6.5-7.5. 7.5 would be exceptional. 6.5 would be tight.
Yeah. You know, land values seem to have come down a bit. You know, when you're looking at deals today, like the ones where there's density value potentially or maybe excess land value-
Yeah
-where that's a decent component of the deal, like, are you finding vendors not really ascribing quite as much value to it, than in the past, just given where land values have gone? And just kinda wonder how that dynamic has changed, if at all.
Yeah, I mean, it's a bit of a moment in time. We, you know, we don't tend to underwrite the land based on high density numbers. It's more on, you know, automotive and your rent coverage. Certainly we'd look at it from the other lens if it's certain locations. But we've, you know, that's a mid to longer term viewpoint, and certainly the market we're in right now is different than it was 12 months ago. But again, I don't expect it to be in the same place in 24 months. So the underwriting is still there, but we've never looked at it, that it's, you know, what are we, we're, it's tough for us to compete if it's a high density piece of land, valued on high density.
It's tough for dealers to afford the rent, and most of the time, developers will try to buy that. We tend to buy stuff that is more based on automotive valuation, and hopefully sometime in the next, you know, whether they're five, 10, 15, 20 years into the lease, we'll get an opportunity to work with them to kind of pull some value out.
Makes sense. Okay, thanks.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press Star followed by the one. Your next question comes from Sairam Srinivas with Cormark Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Operator. Hey, guys. Good morning.
Hi, Jeff, how are you doing?
Pretty good, man. Just looking at... I mean, going back to Jimmy's question on, you know, land valuation and opportunity there, but switching it to the current portfolio, I know we had this-
Yeah
discussion in Montreal, but
Yeah
Maybe just looking at especially the high-density regions and really valuable dealerships, across key hubs. Has there been any discussion or any kind of thought in terms of whether it is time to kind of pull the plug on, you know, look at alternative uses? Or secondly, you know, do the leases currently on those properties allow you to actually do anything like that?
Well, I mean, we have, I guess, one asset that has one more lease expiration, which is coming up, a couple of years from now. The other ones, I mean, they're, they're longer term with renewals, so you'd have to have the dealer, on side. Remember, this is their businesses. The reason why we have retained 100% occupancy is it's really tough to relocate, and even if you change one brand, you probably want to backfill the space with another brand if you're a dealer, because they are tough to get. So the flip side to that is, you know, we, we don't have demolition clauses that we can go in and say: We want to kick you out and build something new. We like working with our dealers.
We more view it as the industry continues to change; this is an organic business. There may be opportunities, and we expect at some point there will be, where the dealer says, "Hey, you know, we, we'd like to do something new with a facility. Can we release these lands? You know, leave something on the table for us, take something off the table for you," and go relocate them. But I think that would be working with them as opposed to, you know, a demolition clause or something, and being able to just kick them out to get higher and better use.
That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. I'll call it back.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Sumayya Syed with CIBC. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning.
Morning, Sumayya.
Just on, I guess, the same property outlook for this year and what to expect, would it be coming maybe a little bit under the 2.4% you did last year because CPI is lower or higher, because you have an additional 10% leases kick in with CPI-linked adjustments?
It's probably a bit of both. You know, the reason why we put CPI in is so if inflation goes up, we win by it. But the reason why, or the corollary, when inflation goes up, is interest rates go up. So we certainly expect on the other side of the equation, if inflation continues to dissipate, that we're gonna see savings on interest. So it, you know, it helps us and hurts us at the same time, as far as inflation and interest rate increases or inflation and interest rate decreases, but that's exactly why we put them in place. So yeah, if inflation is down from 2022, we're gonna see a slight drop in our per property NOI growth, and we're gonna see a slight drop in interest rates.
Fair enough. And then a bit of a detailed question, but I believe in the Dixie Auto Mall a couple months ago, and, you know, Grenadier was launched by Dilawri. And just as a reminder, in terms of how that works, it was a re-owned site. Is it under construction? Like, was it already rent paying, or is this incremental rent that kicks in?
The reason why we've kept 100% payment is in the case of, as an example, Dixie Auto Mall, that is a Dilawri lease on the entire auto park. And so even when the space was under construction or when the previous tenant moved out or subtenant moved out, Dilawri was paying 100% rent on 100% of the property. And so that continued with any movement within the Auto Mall. So, no incremental now that Grenadier is in and VinFast as well. But at the same time, there was no drag while we were waiting for them during construction.
Okay. And do you have sort of line of sight in terms of, like, what do Grenadier's expansion plans in general look like for in Canada?
I mean, that would be with specific dealers, and I'm sure it depends on, you know, their overall growth. I can tell you, in looking at their truck at the auto show, that it was a pretty impressive vehicle.
Okay, thank you. I will turn it back.
Thank you.
There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.
That's great. Thank you, everyone. Enjoy your March break.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating, and I ask that you please disconnect your lines.