Morning and welcome to PROREIT's First Quarter Results Conference Call for Fiscal 2025. 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 star and the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star key followed by number 2. For your convenience, the results release along with the financial statements and the management discussion and analysis for the first quarter of 2025 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 the 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 for other future events or developments. The following forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to management and on estimates and assumptions made based on factors that management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. However, there can be no assurance that such statements and assumptions will prove to be correct. Many factors could cause actual results, levels of activity, performance, achievements, future events, or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. As a result, PROREIT cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
For additional information of the assumptions and risk, please consult the cautionary statements regarding forward-looking statements contained in PROREIT's MD&A dated May 14, 2025, available at www.sedarplus.ca. Forward-looking statements present management's expectation as at May 14, 2025, and expect as will be required by law. PROREIT has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. The discussion today will include non-IFRS financial measures. These non-IFRS measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in insulation from the REIT's IFRS results. For a description of these non-IFRS financial measures, please see the first quarter earnings release for fiscal 2025 and non-IFRS measure section in the MD&A for the first quarter of 2025 for additional information. I will now turn the call over to Mr.
Gordon Lawlor, President and Chief Executive Officer of PROREIT. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone, and welcome. Joining me today is Alison Schafer, our CFO and Corporate Secretary, Zach Aaron, Vice President of Investments and Asset Management, who is also with us and will participate in the Q&A portion of the call. We're pleased to report that 2025 is off to a strong start. We continue to make meaningful progress towards our objective of becoming a pure-play light industrial REIT, focused on high-performing secondary markets in Canada. Before we turn to our first quarter results, I'd like to begin with an important announcement that we made earlier this week. We entered into an agreement to acquire a portfolio of six institutional quality industrial properties in Winnipeg from Parkett Enterprise s. The portfolio totals 678,000 sq ft of gross leasable area and is 99.7% leased, with a weighted average lease term of approximately 4.2 years.
The total purchase price is CAD 96.5 million, or CAD 142 per sq ft, at a capitalization rate in the mid-6% range. We expect the transaction to be accretive to AFFO per unit and to generate synergies through our management platform. The acquisition will be financed through a CAD 63 million non-revolving credit facility and CAD 40 million in PROREIT equity priced at CAD 6.20 per unit to Parkett. This transaction also marks the beginning of a strategic relationship with Parkett to pursue further growth opportunities together. As part of the agreement, we've entered into an investor rights arrangement that allows Parkett to nominate one trustee to our board. Upon closing, Parkett's Chairman, Stephen Scott, will join PROREIT's board of Trustees. This transaction significantly strengthens our presence in Winnipeg, expanding our small and mid-bay portfolio in the region to 22 properties and bringing our total GLA there to 1.3 million sq ft.
Upon closing, our total portfolio will consist of 118 properties, representing approximately 6.7 million sq ft of GLA. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. We're enthusiastic about the opportunities ahead and look forward to working with the Parkett team. Let me now provide a brief overview of our performance in the first quarter. During Q1, we continued to execute on our strategy, delivering consistent organic growth and maintaining a resilient balance sheet. Despite owning eight fewer properties compared to the same period last year, our net operating income remained stable. Same property NOI increased by 5%, driven by the strong performance of our industrial portfolio, which delivered 5.9% year -over -year. We also advanced our capital recycling strategy, allowing us to reallocate capital towards more strategic opportunities in the light industrial sector.
In the quarter, we completed the sale of three non-core properties for a total gross proceeds of CAD 12.4 million. More specifically, in February, we sold a 50% owned property in Halifax for CAD 5.4 million. That proceeds were used to repay the related mortgage and for general business purposes. In March, we completed the sale of two fully owned retail properties. The first, located in Nova Scotia, totaled approximately 52,000 sq ft and was sold for CAD 5.9 million. The second, located in British Columbia, totaled approximately 5,200 sq ft and was sold for CAD 1.1 million. Net proceeds from both sales were used to repay related mortgages and support working capital. From a geographic standpoint, our focus on strong secondary market continues to be a competitive advantage. At quarter end, 52.4% of our base rent was derived from Atlantic provinces.
Halifax, where one of the top industrial landlords by square footage, was leading the market in the country in terms of rental rate growth in Q1, up over 19% year -over -year, according to CBRE's Q1 Canadian industrial market stats. Ottawa and Winnipeg, where we continued to expand, followed closely behind. We're also pleased with the continued momentum in our leasing activity. To date, we've renewed 53.3% of our 2025 GLA at an average spread of 34.1%, and 47.3% of our 2026 GLA at an average spread of 34.4%. These robust spreads underscore the embedded value of our portfolio and the quality of the markets in which we operate. At quarter end, the weighted average in place rent for industrial portfolio was CAD 9.92 per sq ft, an increase of nearly 5% compared to the same period last year. Portfolio occupancy remained stable at 97.7%, including committed space.
In February, Talis Canada Inc. began their 15-year lease for 128,000 sq ft industrial space in Kanata, Ontario, with a rent increase of over 30% compared to the previous tenant. Talis Canada is now among our top ten tenants. Also, in February, we entered into a 39,000 sq ft industrial lease in Woodstock, Ontario, for a one-year term with renewal options starting in May, with a rent increase of almost 90% compared to the previous tenant. For our top ten tenants, the remaining weighted average lease term is approximately six years, supporting long-term income stability. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Alison to walk you through our first quarter financial results.
Thank you, Gordon, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased with our first quarter results and the continued strength of our operating performance. Despite owning eight fewer properties compared to the same period last year, property revenue for the quarter amounted to CAD 25.7 million, slightly higher year over year. This reflects contractual rent increases, higher rent rates on lease renewals and on new leases, offset by the reduced size of our portfolio. Net operating income, or NOI, for Q1 came in at CAD 14.9 million, stable compared to last year due to these same factors. As Gordon mentioned, same property NOI reached CAD 14.1 million in Q1, up 5% year over year. This was largely driven by contractual rent increases, higher rental rates, and higher rates on new leases.
Net cash flows from operating activities were CAD 7.4 million in Q1, compared with CAD 9.7 million in the same quarter last year, mainly due to the timing of cash receipts and the settlement of payables. FFO reached CAD 7.9 million for the quarter, slightly higher year over year, driven by lower debt settlement costs, lower general and administrative expense costs, and higher contractual base rents despite our smaller portfolio. Our basic AFFO payout ratio was 93.8% in Q1, compared to 91.6% last year. This change is mainly due to an increase in stabilized leasing costs and maintenance CapEx, offset by higher NOI once again, despite owning fewer properties. The weighted average capitalization rate for our portfolio remained stable at approximately 6.7% as of March 31, 2025, compared to 6.6% at the same time last year.
During the quarter, we also continued to manage our debt prudently, strengthen our balance sheet, and position ourselves to take advantage of value-creating opportunities. At quarter end, our total debt, including current and non-current portions, totaled CAD 495 million. That's a CAD 1.4 million reduction from last year. As of March 31, 2025, total debt to total assets improved to 49.3% from 50.0% at December 31, 2024. Adjusted debt to gross book value also improved to 49.5% from 50.3% at December 31, 2024. Looking at upcoming maturities, we have CAD 41.9 million in mortgage maturities for 2025. In 2026, we have CAD 142.8 million in maturities, primarily tied to well-performing industrial assets with upside refinancing potential. The weighted average interest rate on these maturing mortgages is 4.8% for 2025 and 3.7% for 2026.
In March, we secured CAD 12 million in incremental financing from an existing lender in connection with an Ontario industrial property. The new loan carries a 4.98% annual rate and matures in September 2026, which is consistent with the original financing terms. Finally, we maintained our distribution of CAD 0.0375 per unit for the first quarter of 2025. With that, I'll now turn the call back to Gordy for closing remarks.
Thank you, Alisy. We're pleased with our first quarter performance, which positions us well for the remainder of the year. The Parkett acquisition will meaningfully expand our presence in one of our core markets and strengthen our ability to pursue future growth. Despite ongoing market volatility and geopolitical uncertainty, we remain confident in our outlook and in the resilience of our platform. On the topic of tariffs, we've engaged several of our tenants, and the consistent feedback is that while there's some uncertainty around the potential impact, most are continuing operations without major disruption. We continue to monitor the situation closely. Looking ahead, we remain focused on scaling our industrial platform, supported by a strong balance sheet and a disciplined approach to capital deployment. Finally, I'd like to thank our team, our board of trustees, and our unit holders for their continued dedication and support.
John, we're now happy to take questions.
Yes, sir. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your question, please press star 2. Once again, star and 1 if you wish to ask a question. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. We now have our first question. This comes from Sam Damiani from TD Cowen. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
Gordon, just good morning. Just on the arranged deal with Parkett, you mentioned it's a strategic opportunity with other options in the future. How should we think about how PROREIT 's going to take advantage of that? What does that mean? Does that mean just taking more of their industrial properties over time? If so, how much of their industrial portfolio would you view as strategic to PROREIT? Are there other ways that you're thinking of working with Parkett?
Thanks, Sam. It is a bit of a one-sided discussion because they are not here. I mean, to us, they had CAD 300 million in industrial properties, much of it in our areas: Winnipeg, Ottawa, Southwest Ontario, and some in Quebec, a couple of assets in Quebec as well. Their piece of it, if you would ask them, is they are going to focus more on value-add opportunities going forward. The stabilized assets looked interesting to us to manage on that basis because we have a full platform to manage our industrial, and they actually did it. The way to think about it is there are potential opportunities, I think, in Parkett assets today and maybe joint opportunities on other deals as we move forward. It is honestly not much deeper than that at this point.
That's helpful. Thank you. Just maybe on the debt maturities, Alison, you gave obviously the maturity and the rate. Looking at next year, how are you thinking about refinancing that debt? What month does most of it roll? I guess how are you thinking about that, obviously a low existing rate?
Sure. So we're talking about 2026?
Yes. 2026, sorry.
Yeah. No, that's good. We have a small chunk coming due at the beginning in the first five months of 2026, and then the balance is July all the way through to November. These are definitely strong-performing industrial assets, and we do not see any issue on getting these renewed or refinanced. There is definitely potential for upfinancing on these. In terms of rates and whatnot, I will turn that to Zach because he is the one who is closest with this.
Sure. Hi, Sam. So yeah, just high level, all the assets essentially coming due next year are our industrial portfolio. We have our small bay in Ottawa, Winnipeg. We have assets in Moncton and some in our Burnside portfolio where we've only continued to see cash flows grow. Probably something we'll start to look at more seriously in the latter half of the year, just given that these do not mature mostly until the second half of 2026. Given that a lot of those rates are going to be coming off of kind of high 2%, low 3%, there is no real rush to go and turn to today's market rent rates, I should say. In terms of those rates today, the feedback from the lender market is constructive in that rates have been coming down. Bond yields have been kind of stable.
If you look at the five-year GOC, around 270-280 these days, it seems. Spreads have seemed to come in as lenders get a little bit more hungry for origination. If all things stay the same today, I would kind of expect things to land in the low 4%-mid 4% range, talking about five-year fixed-rate money and a 65%-70% LTV. Looking ahead, we do not see any trouble in our maturities coming up. Like Alison said, we see a decent amount of upward financing available.
If I just step in, if you break it down, we have basically four chunks with four different banks. CAD 38 million with a bank on one of our larger assets, 500 Palladium. We just upward financed on that just in this quarter for CAD 12 million. CAD 38 million of that is on that asset. As Zach mentioned, Winnipeg and Ottawa small bay, there is about CAD 55 million with one bank there, which we are heavily engaged in on a regular basis. There is another CAD 25 million on our Cisco properties, which we just extended the leases on. Zach is actually looking at some upward financing on those now. We have already talked about what the financing would be available in 2026 for these assets. Basically, four banks that we deal with on a regular basis for the biggest chunk of this.
We do not see really any issues there. No pulling any triggers early because most of it is around 3%, right? It would be interesting to take some off the table, but then you look at it, it is like you are going to lose 150 basis points for that.
That's all very helpful. I guess just a point of clarification. If a lot of it is around 3%, but the average for the year is 3.7%, does the low-cost portion of that 2026 debt maturing, is it more in the latter half of the year?
It's mostly May and July.
Okay. Thank you. I'll turn it back. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Mark Rothschild from Canaccord. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, guys. Gordon, you guys had some really good leasing spreads and what you've been announcing, what you've done already for 2025 and 2026, very strong numbers. When you talk about the accretion from the Parkett transaction, how does that factor into that with the growth that you're getting on future leases? Would this be accretive compared to your current portfolio with the leasing spreads that you are getting?
Yeah. As Zach can expand on, and I think it would be eight to, it's both on an AFFO per unit basis, it's about 1% accretive on a leveraged neutral basis, which is the way that we look at it. It's more accretive on a non-leveraged neutral. We've got basically 8%-10% under market rent in the portfolio, but if you move one asset out, it's 13%-18%. In the first couple of years there, it's accretive. When you look, when you're achieving the larger 7%-10% growth, it's out three years or whatever, and who knows? It's hard to find a portfolio that has the growth that we have in the five-year model here. As we look at it today, it's accretive in the first couple of years for sure.
Okay. Great. Thanks so much. That's it for me.
Thank you. The next question comes from Brad Sturges from Raymond James. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Maybe just to start with the Parkett relationship and how to think about from your perspective and leveraging the internalized platform you have with Compass, do you see or foresee opportunities to enter into more formal agreements to manage some of the assets that they do have in kind of overlapping markets and how that could translate into the higher fee income?
Yeah. I mean, we can look at that. We have not talked about one managing on their behalf or anything, but that is why when we think of it as a potential opportunity, they have some assets there now where they have some third-party management. They are going to look at other transactions that might be helpful, whether it is portfolios that we split up in certain things if there are opportunities there. I mean, just the full gamut of a group that owns 10% of PROREIT, so understands our portfolio and our management platform and what they can bring. Then looking at those opportunities where kind of everybody can win out of the portfolio. That is really it. It will be interesting to see. The next couple of years are going to be very interesting in many, many ways. We have another group that is interested in looking at things with us.
I think that's the positive out of all of this.
Okay. That's helpful. Just, I guess, switching gears, obviously pretty strong same property results. Given the rent spreads you're getting and some of the leasing you've done today on leasing up some of the transitional vacancies, just where do you think you'll trend from the same property NOI growth perspective?
Yeah. I mean, we're at the 5% now. I mean, we'd like to beat that hopefully. Zach has secured much of 2025 already here, and then as we roll into 2026. It will just depend if we have any surprises or anything true toward the end of the year. Effectively, the 5% plus would be a target for us.
In terms of larger non-renewals, is there anything noteworthy at this point?
There is one asset we have in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. It is 176,000 sq ft single tenant. The tenant was a long-term tenant, and they are not renewing. They have extended till July. It will not affect Q2 or Q3, but unless we lease it up before Q4, there will be an effect with that asset on Q4. It is just off the island in Montreal, 176,000 sq ft on the Trans-Canada Highway, nice asset, CAD 4.50 rent. We are looking at opportunities with it now on leasing, demising. We have got an unsolicited offer for it that we are not sure how real it is. That one will affect likely Q4 unless we solve it before then.
Okay. Appreciate it. I'll turn it back.
Thanks.
Thank you. Once again, as a reminder, for those who want to ask a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Zachary Zervos from CIBC. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you and good morning. Just on my first question here, looking at the acquisition pipeline, what are you seeing out there in terms of vendor appetite for units? Is this Parkett kind of acquisition a one-off, or is that something you'd be interested in again moving forward?
I mean, we'd look at them. Clearly, there's tax synergies for the seller here, whether private companies or other entities like Parkett. They're complicated transactions, let's be clear. The price that you pay for the assets versus what you'd like your stock to be on is this push-pull. We think in this deal, both groups made out very well to where we are with our stock price and what they got for the assets. I think kind of everybody won that way. They added significant value to some of these assets when they bought them in 2023. We'll benefit from that go forward. Yeah. I mean, the phone started ringing a little bit on these private deals the day after this announcement.
It's just from my 15 years of this, it's tough to roll through it and get a price that we would be happy with for a stock and not overpay for the assets. I mean, that's it at the end of the day, right?
Okay. That's great, color. Thanks. Switching gears to the leasing front, I saw that you guys had a 39,000 sq ft lease that was new at a sub-90% rate. I also noticed that it was just on a one-year lease term. Was there any particular reason behind the short-term lease term or anything you're just seeing in the market that would kind of show that moving forward?
Zach with some new gray hairs can respond to that one.
Yeah. Sure. Happy to answer. Yeah, it was the tenant who's coming into that space there in the steel industry. They're not directly impacted by the tariff noise going on because they're just a Canadian distributor. This facility was an expansion for them. They have a lot of customers out in Southwest Ontario and then going west. This location served really well for them from a distribution standpoint. The one-year deal was just their logic, which, again, we're kind of seeing more of, especially the new leasing kind of part of the market, where there's just a lot of hesitancy and a lot of hesitancy towards committing towards longer-term deals right now given the environment. They were comfortable to do a one-year deal, and we also included some renewal options in there in their favor to stay longer term.
They were kind of saying, "We don't anticipate having to leave in a year. We just needed the flexibility." Most likely, assuming all this noise reduces, which it kind of seems like it's heading that way perhaps, it sounds like they will ultimately be a longer-term tenant. There is a bit of an advantage here where they're coming in at an attractive rate with no leasing cost on our end. There is risk that they might leave after a year, but also the upside is that they might stay for longer term afterwards, and it did not cost us very much to get them in there. We will see is the answer for now. They seem pretty confident that they'll be a longer-term tenant at the end of the day.
Okay. Thank you so much. I'll turn it back.
Thank you. No further questions that came through. This concludes our conference call for today. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.