Good morning, and welcome to PROREIT's third quarter results conference call for fiscal 2023. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. Management will make a short presentation, which will be followed by a question- and- answer period, open exclusively to financial analysts. To ask a question, simply press the star key, then the one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw a question, please press star, then the two.
For your convenience, the results release, along with the third quarter financial statements and management's discussion and analysis, are available at proreit.com in the investor section and on SEDAR+. Before we start, I have been asked by PROREIT to read the following message regarding forward-looking statements and non-IFRS measures.
PROREIT's remarks today may contain forward-looking statements about its current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, level of activity, performance, goals or achievements, or other future events or developments. Forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to management and on estimates and assumptions based on the factors that management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances.
However, there can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Many factors could cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, achievements, future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. As a result, PROREIT cannot guarantee any forward-looking statements will materialize, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
For additional information on the assumptions and risks, please consult the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements contained in PROREIT's MD&A, dated November 8, 2023, available at www.sedarplus.ca. Forward-looking statements represents management's expectation as of November 8, 2023, and except as may be required by law. PROREIT has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
The discussion today will include non-IFRS financial measures. This non-IFRS measure should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or in isolation from the REIT's IFRS results. For the description of this non-IFRS financial measures, please see the third quarter earnings release and MD&A.
A reconciliation of non-IFRS to IFRS results, as applicable, may also be found in the earnings release and MD&A for the third quarter. Please refer to the non-IFRS measure sections in the MD&A for the third quarter for additional information. I will now turn over the call to Mr. Gordon Lawlor, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Lester, and good morning, everyone, and welcome. With me today is Alison Schafer, our CFO and Corporate Secretary, and Zach Aaron, our Director of Investments and Asset Management. I will start the call with an overview of our third quarter results before turning the call over to Alison for a deeper dive into the financials.
As you know, the real estate market continues to face a challenging economic environment. Against this backdrop, I'm pleased to report that we were able to maintain our operating momentum in the third quarter, which reflects the fundamental strength of our portfolio and our platform. That being said, I'd like to note that our operating performance cannot be directly compared to year-over-year.
At September 30, 2023, we owned 126 properties, compared to 132 properties at the same time last year, both with 50% ownership interest in 42 of the properties. Our portfolio continues to be resilient and to generate organic growth. Same Property NOI income increased 1.7% in the third quarter when excluding the impact of a temporary vacancy in a 102,000 sq ft industrial facility, which we mentioned on our last call.
This Quebec property is fully leased as of October 1st, 2023, on a 10-year lease, with those terms and average spread at 55% over the previous tenant rents. We will see the full benefits of this attractive renewal reflected in our fourth quarter results, more specifically, positively impacting AFFO, payout ratio, net operating income, and Same Property NOI.
We continue to benefit from a high occupancy rate and high renewal rates with favorable spreads across all asset classes. More specifically, we have successfully renewed 88% of GLA maturing in 2023 at 43.9% average spread. For GLA maturing in 2024, approximately 18% has been renewed at approximately 30% average spread.
We are well- positioned to capitalize on future growth in markets where we have a strong presence. Halifax, for example, where we have a leading position in the industrial market, is experiencing rapid population growth and is poised to receive major investment as a result of that surge. We look forward to incremental cash flows from our organic growth and GLA renewals. Let me now briefly go over some recent portfolio transactions.
In the third quarter, we sold two non-core office properties totaling 60,000 sq ft, for gross proceeds of CAD 9.1 million. Proceeds were used to repay approximately CAD 5.7 million of related mortgages, and the balance was used for general business purposes. Also, during the quarter, we sold a 3,000 sq ft non-strategic retail property for gross proceeds of CAD 2.2 million.
Proceeds of the sale were used to repay approximately CAD 1.5 million of related mortgage balance, with the rest used for general business purposes. This brings to the total to four successfully non-core properties sold for total proceeds of CAD 13.4 million year- to- date. Subsequent to quarter end, we entered into a binding agreement to sell two additional non-core properties in our retail segment for gross proceeds of CAD 10.9 million.
First agreement signed was for a 45,000 sq ft property with gross proceeds of CAD 8.7 million, where the purchaser will assume a CAD 4.4 million mortgage. The second was with respect to a 4,500 sq ft property for gross proceeds of just under CAD 2.2 million. These sales are expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. I'll now turn the call over to Alison for a more detailed look at our third quarter results.
Thank you, Gordie, and good morning, everyone. At the end of Q3, 2023, we owned approximately 6.4 million sq ft of GLA and managed approximately 10.8 million sq ft of GLA. Total assets amounted to CAD 1.05 billion at September 30, 2023, up 1% year-over-year. Our property's revenue for the third quarter was relatively flat at CAD 24.1 million compared to the same period last year.
Net operating income was CAD 14.1 million, down 5.1% from CAD 14.8 million in Q3, 2022, largely because of the impact of the decrease in properties owned that Gordie discussed. General and administrative expenses for Q3 this year was CAD 1.2 million, down slightly from Q3, 2022.
Net cash flows provided from operating activities was CAD 11.0 million, which is relatively flat compared to the third quarter of 2022. AFFO totaled CAD 7.0 million for the quarter, compared to CAD 7.9 million last year. The decrease is mainly due to the temporary vacancy at our Montreal property, a decrease in properties owned and ownership percentages, as well as an increase in interest expenses.
Our AFFO payout ratio was 96.9%, an improvement from 97.3% in Q2 2023. From a balance sheet perspective, our liquidity position is strong, with CAD 46.0 million available from our credit facility, plus CAD 11.4 million in cash at September 30th, 2023. We also paid down CAD 14.4 million of debt and credit facility during the third quarter.
Our adjusted debt to Gross Book Value was back at 50.0% as September 30th, 2023, compared to 50.9% at June 30th, 2023. With approximately CAD 25.0 million of maturing mortgages remaining for 2023, and approximately CAD 27 million for 2024, we continue to benefit from the well-staggered debt profile, with limited material maturities until 2026, and only 2.7% of our total debt is at a variable rate.
As for the weighted average interest rate on mortgage debt, it was 3.76% as September 30, 2023, compared to 3.69% at the same date in 2022. Finally, our weighted average cap rate is 6.1%. Gordie, back to you for closing remarks.
Thanks, Alison. I'd like to conclude by first thanking the entire team for all the good work done in the third quarter. Through this market turbulence, we remain focused on executing on our long-term strategy while managing our risks to reinforce our solid foundation. As we continue to operate in a volatile environment, we will manage our business strategically and our balance sheet prudently.
Our portfolio benefits from solid fundamentals, and we remain committed to strengthening it while increasing concentration in the industrial sector. On the capital allocation front, our strategy also remains on course, with regular distribution payments to our unit holders and the reduction of debt to gross book value. Above all, we remain steadfast in commitment to sustainably deliver long-term value for the benefit of all of our stakeholders. This concludes our formal remarks. Lester, we would be pleased to take questions from analysts at this time.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is now our question- and- answer session. To ask a question, please press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please press star two. Your first question comes from Brad Sturges from Raymond James. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning.
Good morning.
Gordie, I just wanted to clarify some of your leasing comments on the call at the start of the call there. It sounded like for your 2024 maturities, you've already addressed 18% at 30% rent spreads. Is that what I heard, correct?
Yes. Yeah, that's correct.
Okay. H ow are you thinking about your 2024 maturities as we sit today? You know, do you have any guidance or general expectations of where you think you could land in terms of average spread on renewal for next year?
I'll introduce Zach Aaron to the group to comment on that a little bit. He's heavily into this on a daily basis.
Sure. Hi, Brad. So we have about 75-80% of our expired GLA in 2024 as industrial expiring, and so far from what we've seen across about 25 deals, we're about at a 45% spread on those industrial renewals.
T hat's kind of in line with what we saw in 2023, and that's a combination over our Burnside portfolio in Halifax, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Southwest Ontario. S o we see more of the same coming due for 2024 across our industrial renewals, kind of the expectation to be in that 30%-40% renewal spread range, throughout the year, similar to 2023.
Okay, that's helpful. A ny expectations around a non-renewal or any transitional vacancy at this point with respect to your 2024 maturities or expires?
In 2024, at this moment, from what we know on hand, there's nothing major. There's a few retail and office with some larger spaces that are later in the year, but we don't have knowledge of where those will end up one way or another. But on the industrial front, there's nothing major as well in terms of any large spaces coming through that we know are vacating just yet, at least.
Okay. T hen just for the remainder of this year, I think just a little bit of space left, like 75,000. Just what are your prospects for what's left to do this year?
Yeah. So in terms of what's remaining this year on our 2023 list, there's really kind of one or two spaces of larger size that are kind of outstanding, that leave that 11% that's remaining. Kind of where we're seeing in terms of discussions we're having, I think we'll probably end up closer to 93%-94% in terms of a final 2023 number in terms of our renewal spread, b ut that's kind of what we're seeing in terms of these last kind of two months of the year.
Okay, thanks. I'll turn it back.
Your next question comes from Sam Damiani from TD Cowen. Your line is now open.
Good morning, and thank you. Just wanted to start off on the, I guess, investment market. What are you seeing in your core markets for industrial investment activity, cap rates? Have they changed, obviously, specifically on the Halifax market as well?
Yeah. Hey, Sam. So it's Gordie. So from the Halifax market, you know, we haven't seen anything significant going on there. As of late, no major sales of interest. There's some building of 200,000 sq ft in Bayers Lake on the Halifax side. Some high bay, you know, high bay, energy efficient type stock that's coming, that's 200,000-300,000.
That's in some of the occupancy numbers now. So you see, I think you might, Halifax might have gone from 93% vacancy to 4% in this quarter, but it's basically showing that new development space. That's really not in competition to any of our space at this time.
Then the other thing that's out there in discussion is this Burnside Industrial Park. Finally, after years, they're opening up a section at the top of the Burnside Industrial Park there, and there'll be bidding and whatnot for some space there.
The acreages, as we understand it, are quite small and would—I think the group or the city would be more attuned to owner-user type pieces, but there is room for a couple of 100,000 or 200,000 sq ft buildings there.
So we'll be looking at that with our partner, you know, once it gets live in the next six months, probably. But it's been pretty much status quo there a nd I said the new build is really started on the Bayers Lake side with some, you know, best-in-class type, 30-foot clear buildings going up over there.
Thank you. That's helpful. J ust on that 84,000 sq ft, that's characterized as redevelopment. What's the status on backfilling that, those vacancies?
Well, one of the buildings we have under contract for sale, so we'll see if that comes to fruition in Q4 a nd the other one, we actually have an offer on that from a developer as well. Time will tell, but we may see both of those being sold before the end of the year.
Okay. J ust finally, I may have missed some of the discussion with Brad's questions. Did you provide a sort of a target year-end occupancy on an in-place basis, given the big change in-
No. No, we didn't. I mean, I think what you see in this quarter is, which is unusual for us, is 90,000 of industrial vacancy. That'll be reduced though, to 60,000 come Q4. So we had a 60,000 sq ft space in Winnipeg, that was leased until the end of June. It was a long-term tenant in there, so we spent a bit of time and cleaned it up, and then we've successfully leased it effective October 1st, to the neighboring tenant, which is good and bad. The good is they're coming into the 60,000, but they're leaving the 30.
So, basically in big blocks of space, there will be 30 left in that building in Winnipeg, and we have another 30,000 on a Côte-de-Liesse property on the island in Montreal that that's been available just since June as well. There's CAD 6.25 rents in that building, and the market is in the CAD 15-CAD 16 range. So we expect to have something done with that property quite, quite soon, but we'll see.
That's great. Thank you, and I'll turn it back.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Gaurav Mathur from Laurentian Bank. Your line is now open.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone.
Morning.
Morning.
Just as I'm looking at your debt ladder and the about CAD 40 million of mortgage maturities for 2024 and the roughly CAD 28 million for 2023, could you provide some color on, you know, what lenders are saying in terms of refinancings and, you know, where the spreads currently lie?
So the last real fixed-rate deal was the 5.07% we did on a seven-year money earlier in the year. I think our spread on that was CAD 205, 20-
I think it was actually closer to 190.
190? Well, it's all said and done. So 190 on those for seven years. The CAD 25 million coming due this year, we're just in talks with a big bank lender just to renew that for a year, just because some of those assets, there's a couple of office assets in that mix. So, you know, as we've indicated, you know, we'd look to sell those assets in the next year or so.
So we're just looking at that from a standpoint of putting, you know, one year debt on it or a floating rate option, you know. So we don't have any issue with that CAD 25 million, you know, as far as getting it refinanced. It's just what we're doing with the assets.
The next CAD 27 million, that's basically March and April. We're already chatting with lenders on those. But I mean, what we're seeing is spreads on good industrial between 190 and 210. That's what we're hearing in the market. So we don't think we'll have any problems with those. You'd like to lock the rates in a little lower than they are now, so h opefully, we'll see what goes on in the next number of months.
Okay, great. D id I hear-- Sorry, go ahead, please.
No, I didn't say anything.
Did I hear you correctly, the CAD 27 million for next year, that's due in March and April?
Yeah, that was there. I think most of it's due in April.
Yes.
Yeah.
Oh.
Yeah.
Okay, great. T hen just switching gears here on capital recycling. We know that, you know, you have the disposition program, but is there anything on the acquisitions front that's, you know, looking very attractive at the moment and may make sense as you look at 2024?
I mean, Zach's in touch with the brokers all the time, and, you know, there's just a large disconnect between vendor industrial values and what purchasers are available to pay right now based on, you know, anybody that's a leveraged buyer, right?
I mean, so w hen you're sitting there looking at, you know, 6%-6.5% debt or 5.8%, if you've got--if you've got the best in class on maybe yesterday's numbers, you know, it's a challenge, right? So that's, that's I think what we're seeing in the market right now. It's quite stalled. I mean, Zach, you haven't seen any significant trades in the last little bit?
No, I would say there's been a fairly significant amount of deals that have come to market post Labor Day on the industrial front. I think that's just a bit strategic from brokers with just more people paying attention, b ut with rates continuing to kind of shoot up and down, I think it's just tough for buyers, especially institutional buyers, to have any sort of real confidence of where values are right now.
T hen combine that with a tough financing environment, I think a lot of people are still in a very much penned down situation. So we just simply haven't seen much of the product that even came to market in, call it, early September trade. Some of it may be under contract that we're just not aware of yet, but it's definitely a slow grind out there right now, kind of from what we're seeing across the country.
Okay, fantastic. Just one follow-up question. Is there a specific vendor type that you're seeing emerging as far as some of these assets that are coming to market?
Yeah, all private vendors. Family money, smaller firms, that's really what we're seeing. You know, the single-tenant assets that we have, or small multi-tenant, it's just smaller private groups a nd you know, you have to work harder on those deals, and so it takes a lot longer. I mean, that's really what we're seeing. But we're getting. We're happy with the pricing we're getting, you know.
So for some of these smaller assets, they've been 7.5 caps, which we're fine with for those type of assets, with some low growth and some leasing risk going forward. T hen, you know, the CAD 9 million asset that we alluded to, I think that's at a 7.25 cap, so that's. We're happy with that pricing as well.
So w e're not fire selling any of these assets at all. It's just, some of them are coming to us as unsolicited offers and things like that. So it's a grind, but, you know, we're being successful at it, so we're pleased.
Fantastic. Thank you for the color, Gordie. I'll turn it back to the operator.
Thanks a lot.
Your next question comes from David Chrystal from Echelon. The line is now open.
Thanks. Good morning, guys. Just on the, you provided a bit of color on the Winnipeg, I guess, kind of tenant shift within the portfolio. I suppose the re-leasing is a good story, but the Winnipeg departure, and you alluded to a smaller Montreal tenant departure on that kind of 90,000 of vacant space. Can you provide any commentary on the reason for vacating the space?
The Winnipeg asset, it was a long-term tenant that needed more space that we couldn't accommodate. So, that's what that was. I mean, those rents were CAD 5-CAD 6.
Yeah. I'm not sure what that sound was. The previous rent in the 60,000 sq ft was CAD 5.50, and the new tenant who starts paying rent or started paying rent October 1 is now paying CAD 7.50 on a 10-year deal. That includes 3% annual steps. So we're extremely happy with that, and now we're just working on backfilling their smaller 28,000 sq ft space next door. That's in good shape.
T hen in Montreal, the previous tenant in there had gone bankrupt. So they vacated the space in early 2023. They were paying about CAD 6.25 on a net basis. We had a temporary tenant come in for three months to basically just continue paying the same gross rent a nd so now the space has been vacant since
End of June.
End of June. S o that's, yeah, 30,000 sq ft industrial space. There's a bit more office in that space, about, you know, 30% office is the layout. The rest is 24-foot clear industrial warehouse, good shipping access, right along close to the U.S., near the airport. So we've had a bunch of tours and a lot of groups looking at it, a few offers already that just haven't got there, but we're fairly confident we'll get a deal done sooner than later in that 15 ± range.
The tenant, there was a distribution facility for a retailer. So that's one thing, you know, that we're noticing when you have some of these smaller retailers, you know, that have run out of room with COVID and whatnot. You know, so we got that space back, which we were happy to get back, because like I said, the CAD 6 rent could be CAD 15 or CAD 16, but you get transitional downtime with these deals to create more value, right? So, we've been lucky on any of those departures to be significantly under market rent and prove to be good stories longer term.
Sorry, just to clarify, the tenant that went bankrupt was the logistics for the retailer, or was that the temporary tenant that backfilled that space?
No, so it was a, what is it? Electric shaving company or something.
It's a company called Centre du Rasoir.
Yeah. So shaving materials and that, like, they'd be in the, in the malls and that type of thing. So this was a distribution and returns facility for them. Then we just rented to the liquidator for three months, while they were liquidating, their inventory there a nd the liquidator wanted to actually stay on, but, we told them no, because we wanted to get a better rent in the space.
Okay. So really, like, no material change in leasing dynamics. I t's actually a mix of kind of good news stories and tenant expansion, and inability to accommodate larger tenant requirements. So I suppose you're not seeing any broader challenges across your portfolio from any tenants?
No, honestly, we haven't a nd, you know, if we look back in our 10-year history and, that, you know, we've been lucky with, with minimal bankruptcies or, or having real estate that was, was attractive to re-lease. S o, you know, we don't see anything systemic yet, as, you know, as far as recessional or anything like that. We just see, we just see everybody being a little slower.
So if somebody wants to expand, you know, but then they're thinking about it again. So that works both ways. Somebody wants to expand and thinks that your space is, is too small for them, you know, they're rethinking and saying, "Well, maybe I'll stay for another couple of years" So you've just got this, you know, internal discussion among every tenant about their business, which may or may not affect our business. That's really the way I'd communicate it right now.
Okay, thanks. T hen, Alison, maybe, if we were just to back out the CAD 90,000 of transitional vacancy, what would Same Property NOI growth have been for the quarter?
Oh, the-
Because we backed out the Montreal vacancy.
Yeah.
If we back out the 90,000 sq ft.
I think we would have been in, you know, like 5% or 6% with that. We honestly didn't look at it for that point. We thought we did enough with the backing out the one-time other one.
The Montreal piece, yeah.
I thought the analysts wouldn't like it, as every time we had a vacancy, we adjusted it, adjusted the same store. So, but, you know, it would have been north of 4% or 5%, I think, on the industrial.
Yeah. High level of speaking, yes.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, fair. T hen, I mean, as far as you can give kind of soft guidance for 2024, and based on your commentary on leasing velocity, it sounds like it's much the same as 2023. Would it be fair to read kind of mid-single digit NOI growth for the year ahead?
Yeah. So we just finished our 2024 budget and then did a five-year cash flow. So I mean, you know, it's a cash flow, and it's based on what your occupancy is. But, you know, we were really pleased with the outcome of that. You know, so we're seeing between, over the five-year period, 5%-8% NOI growth, like, an average CAGR of, like, 6%-6.5%. So that's, that's where we think our numbers are going over with these incremental rents.
Okay, great, great color. Appreciate it. I'll turn it back. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
There are no further questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Thanks very much.