Good afternoon. My name is Sylvie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Artis Real Estate Investment Trust 2021 annual results conference call. Note that all lines are placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press Star then number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press Star then number two. Thank you. I would like to turn the conference over to Heather Nikkel, Vice President, Investor Relations and Sustainability. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Artis' Q4 and year-end 2021 results conference call. With me today is Artis' President and CEO, Samir Manji, CFO Jaclyn Koenig, COO Kim Riley, and Executive Vice President, U.S. Region, Philip Martens. Our Q4 and year-end 2021 results were disseminated yesterday and are available on SEDAR and on our website. A replay of the call will be available until Monday, April 4, 2022. The telephone numbers and passcodes for the replay were provided in yesterday's press release, and an archived recording of this call will also be made available on our website. Before we get Started, please be reminded that today's call may include forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied today.
We have identified such factors in our public filings with the securities regulators and suggest that you refer to those filings. As we discuss our performance, please keep in mind that all figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. With that, I will turn the call over to Samir.
Thank you, Heather. Good morning to those of you in the West, and good afternoon to those that are in the East. Welcome, and thank you for joining us for our 2021 annual results conference call. As we've done in previous calls, I'll keep my comments today brief before handing it back to the operator to moderate the question-and-answer session. I appreciate that most attendees will have already reviewed our Q4 results, so we will not repeat most of the qualitative and financial information you are already familiar with. Instead, I will focus the majority of my remarks on the progress we've made in the implementation of the business transformation plan we announced on March 10 last year. Let me Start by saying what a year it has been, both for Artis and for the industry as a whole.
When I reflect on the last 12 months since we announced our new vision and strategy, time seems to have flown by. Yet, when I look at what we've accomplished in that time, I'm reminded of the hard work that the board and every member of the team at Artis has put in each and every day to help move our vision and strategy forward. One of the first steps, and what I refer to as the linchpin to implementing our strategy, was to unlock value through the monetization of certain assets in our portfolio. This important step provided us with the resources and financial flexibility to execute on other elements of the strategy. In 2021, we sold 41 assets for an aggregate sale price of CAD 858.6 million.
These dispositions include the sale of our GTA industrial portfolio, which represented a milestone transaction for Artis. In Q4, we sold all of our remaining Calgary office properties. These transactions contributed to improving our debt metrics while also enabling us to focus on a key aspect of our strategy, specifically our capital allocation plans. In Q3, we announced our participation in the investor group to acquire Cominar REIT. My apologies. In Q4, we announced our participation in the investor group to acquire Cominar REIT for CAD 11.75 per unit, a price we believe is significantly below the intrinsic value of the underlying assets we were acquiring.
Along with the CAD 112 million we invested in common equity units as part of the transaction, we also invested CAD 100 million in junior preferred units that carry a distribution rate of 18% per annum, an attractive return for our unit holders. Since the announcement in October, we've been working with our consortium partners towards the closing that happened earlier this week. During this time, our conviction in the intrinsic value of Cominar's Real Estate portfolio and the corresponding value creation we will achieve for our unit holders has only strengthened and solidified further. During 2021, we also began accumulating a position in Dream Office, which culminated in the announcement earlier this year that we, together with our joint actors, now have a 10% ownership position in Dream Office.
We look forward to providing updates on both these important capital allocation initiatives in the quarters to come. In addition to these investments, we've continued to reinvest in what to date has been the best investment we can make for our owner, our owners. By October 2021, we had purchased the maximum number of common units allowable under the NCIB until such time as it was renewed on December 17, 2021, following which we continued with our buyback program. During the year, we acquired over 11 million units for a weighted average price of CAD 11.29, a price well below our year-end net asset value per unit of CAD 17.37.
We continue to see our NCIB as a powerful tool for enhancing value for our unit holders, and we will not hesitate to continue to use it any time our units trade at a significant discount to net asset value. The last area of our capital allocation strategy that I wanted to touch on is our development projects. During the year, we made significant progress at 300 Main, our 40-story commercial and residential development project in the heart of downtown Winnipeg. Later this month, Earls Kitchen + Bar will be opening their new location on the ground floor at 300 Main. We look forward to welcoming them to the property. We also have several industrial development projects underway in the U.S., including Blaine 35 in the Twin Cities area, the fifth and final phase of Park 890 in Houston, and Park Lucero East in Phoenix.
These projects are generating strong pre-leasing interest, and we look forward to providing updates on leasing progress at these properties over the next several months. In general, we continue to benefit from significant value creation on development projects as building costs continue to be well below our estimated fair market values upon completion. Switching gears from capital allocation initiatives to another important component of our go-forward vision for Artis, and that is our commitment to creating an ESG-minded culture. This commitment is of paramount importance to our board and to our management team. Behind the scenes, an incredible amount of work has gone into ESG at Artis over the last year.
From reviewing all board and committee mandates, charters and policies, to overhauling our executive compensation framework to align with best practices in performance-based compensation, to the creation of an internal ESG committee that brings together a team of employees across all of our offices that have diverse perspectives and most importantly, a real commitment to ESG. These are only a few examples of the exciting work we've been doing, and we're looking forward to publishing our annual ESG report in the coming months to share updates on the progress we've made over the last year. Here we are, almost at the one-year anniversary of last year's business transformation plan announcement, and we can say with confidence that execution of our plan is well underway. Artis is not the company today that it was a year ago.
Our debt metrics have improved, our net asset value per unit has increased significantly, and we've taken considerable strides towards transforming Artis into a value investing asset management and investment platform. There is still lots of work to do. I'd like to thank our trustees and the strong and dedicated team we have at Artis on both sides of the border for their hard work over the last 12 months. It has been an exciting year, and we continue to have strong conviction in our strategy and optimism for the opportunities that lie ahead in 2022. With that, I'll turn it back over to the operator to moderate the question and answer session.
Your first question will be from Jenny Ma at BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks, good morning slash afternoon.
Hi, Jenny.
Wondering with regards to Artis' equity ownership in the Cominar entity, will there be a formal distribution associated with this equity ownership? Also how do you expect the P&L from that piece to be accounted for within Artis' income statement?
Thanks, Jenny. I'll cover the first part of the question and pass it over to Jackie for the second part. As it relates to distributions, we will, in the coming quarters, be providing more information and updates as we make progress in the execution of our plan and strategy with our consortium partners on Cominar. We're gonna try to do that in a thoughtful way while also respecting the responsibilities and fiduciary duties we have to our partners in that consortium from a information management standpoint and disclosure standpoint. Suffice it to say that one can do the back of the envelope math on what the structure looks like with the Cominar investment. The near term focus is gonna be on debt reduction versus equity repatriation and/or distributions to equity holders.
Again, more to come on that in the months and quarters to come. We are not anticipating any equity distributions over the course of the certainly next two or three quarters. I'll pass it over to Jackie.
Hi, Jenny. This investment's gonna be an equity accounted investment, so it'll show up as a singular line on the balance sheet as well as on our income statement. Then disclosure on our proportionate share of the investment will be in our note five, our equity account investments.
Okay. Okay, great. Thank you. When we think about the strategy overall, and the business transformation plan, maybe the question is for Samir. Is there any division or component or geography of the portfolio that you would consider to be core to Artis REIT, i.e., not something you would really look to sell ever if you can help it? Or is, you know, everything on the table when you consider how to structure the portfolio over the longer term?
Thanks, Jenny. Again, we will comment further on the plan and strategy, in time to come. Suffice it to say, our primary motivation here alongside our consortium partners was what I expressed earlier, and that is our ability to have transacted at a value and price well below what we believe the intrinsic value of the roughly 83 assets that we have retained are worth in the private market. We look forward to the value creation that this is gonna provide to Artis' owners alongside our consortium partners.
Oh, okay. Maybe I wasn't clear. I meant Artis' current portfolio, putting aside the Cominar REIT.
Oh, thank you very much. Thank you very much for clarifying. From Artis' perspective, specifically, I would say that, you know, we continue as we have been working through the implementation of our plan to evaluate where we believe the best growth opportunities lie in our direct ownership component of our asset base. I would say that when I think about North America, there are several markets that continue to have very strong growth factors in play or growth forces that bring us confidence. You know, the idea that some markets and some assets will remain core is an interesting one. What I would say is, generally speaking, you know, we look at a market like Greater Phoenix.
We look at markets, and more specifically asset classes within those markets, such as Western Canada and our retail assets, our industrial assets, in those markets as core.
Mm-hmm.
Having said that, you know, we are gonna be entrepreneurial and as stewards of the capital of our owners, if something preemptive, unsolicited comes our way, at a minimum, you know, we have to consider it and we will share that and present that to the board's investment committee for their knowledge and ultimately their deliberation and consideration.
Okay, great. Maybe one last question on the operations side. I'm looking at the mark-to-market on the in-place rent versus market. For the industrial portfolio, it seems to be fairly flat. I'm just wondering why that is the case, given how strong the industrial market is. I know you've got your various geographies and some assets are on the smaller side, but maybe a bit of color on why there isn't much of a differential and what you might be expecting over the near term.
Thanks, Jenny. I can take that one. The industrial rent, I would agree with you. They are growing in every market. In looking at the detail, it looks like there's a few leases that are coming up that have amortization that's built into the rates. Those rates that we put in, into the table are conservative, and obviously, we're gonna work with our leasing teams to do the best that we can. In the last few leases that have come up, we've been able to achieve rates that are higher than the rates that are in place. We have every confidence that we're gonna be able to do better than what's in that table. Again, those numbers are just conservative.
Can you give us a bit more color on how much better the recent leases have been coming in at?
I don't know if we have a percentage in mind, but, you know, a few percent. This year, our WARR was 4%. You know, hopefully we can be able to achieve something similar going forward.
Mm-hmm.
Industrial rates are increasing in every market. Literally, you know, day by day, we see them getting higher.
Mm-hmm.
You do a deal at one rate and, you know, a month later you think you could've done a better deal. I think it's probably a little bit difficult to say exactly what percentage we could get. Given the growth in the industrial market and the strength of the industrial market, I think it's easy to say that, you know, we will be able to do better and do as best as we can.
Okay. I look forward to seeing that then. Thank you. I'll turn it back.
Thanks, Jenny.
Next question will be from Jonathan Kelcher at TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Just going back to the Cominar investment, the 18% prefs, how long do you expect those to be outstanding?
Hey, Jonathan. Thanks for the question. We have structured the 18% so that we have a 1.18 MOIC. At a minimum, even if that pref gets extinguished in less than a year, we will achieve the full 18%. We will provide a bit more color and disclosure on that as we move forward. It is not required to be repaid earlier than a year and in fact has a three-year term attached to it.
Okay. That's cash, 18%?
No. We have incorporated a PIK provision. There is the option for the consortium to accrue and compound.
Okay. That's the more likely scenario?
In the short term, yes. Again, the overall structure requires for a preference to certain participants in the capital stack from a debt perspective to have priority in debt reduction, which we are very comfortable with in light of, as I commented earlier, the intrinsic value of the underlying assets.
Okay. I guess in a year CAD 213 million or CAD 14 million into the Cominar investment, would I be right in thinking that Sandpiper will get paid just over CAD 1 million annually on the Cominar investment? Or how should we think about that?
No, this is no longer a public security investment, so Artis will not be paying Sandpiper any fees from the investment that Artis has made.
Okay. Then lastly, you announced the stake in Dream. How many names would be in your public securities portfolio right now?
Jonathan, we're not gonna comment on that at this point. What we will continue to do as we navigate forward is to disclose either on a need-to-know basis or when we believe it is of strategic value and benefit. I appreciate that's not your question, but that will include the number of public securities that we have on our balance sheet. One can do the back of the napkin math insofar as what we have disclosed to date and the fact that the dollar value of those investments relative to what we announced on the 10% crossing on Dream Office represents.
Okay. Oh, just lastly, back to the 18%. That, that'll be in FFO, correct? That's income in FFO?
That's correct.
Okay, thanks. I'll turn it back.
Thanks, Jonathan.
Your next question will be from Nick Rock at Discord Reit. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. It's nice to see the leasing spreads going up about 100% over last year. So well done on that. One of the indicators, the SPNOI, just curious if you can provide a little color on the plan to get that back into a positive territory. Second question is do you have a sensitivity laid out for SPNOI spreads, you know, above or below zero about how much that hits the NAV?
I can address the first question. In reviewing the SPNOI over the last year, the main drivers of SPNOI are kind of the same as they were last quarter. Most of those properties have been re-leased. In the coming quarters, that should be improving. There are a couple pockets in our Minneapolis industrial portfolio that we are working on right now, and so we hope to have some positive news on those going forward. Overall, in the year looking ahead, there should be significant improvements to SPNOI. Then could you repeat the second question? I'm not sure that we understand.
Hi. Sorry about that. Yeah, I was wondering if you're willing to provide any sensitivities as far as SPNOI relating to net asset value, knowing that, you know, when you're, you know, percent below zero versus a percent above zero sort of adds or removes net asset value to the company. Just curious if you have any color on that. I think you did sort of answer the question that you expect a significant improvement over the year. Are you saying that it appears that they'll be Starting to have positive NOI or SPNOI by the end of this year?
Now that we have that clarity, thank you for that, Nick. This does not generally impact our net asset value per unit calculation. Generally from a valuation standpoint, the approach that one uses is to use normalized NOI, market cap rates, and then market cap rates in establishing fair value on our assets. The short to medium term fluctuation in NOI will not have a bearing on net asset value per unit.
Okay. Thank you very much for your answer. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Next question will be from Matt Kornack at National Bank Financial.
Hi, guys.
Hi, Matt.
Just a quick follow-up on the Cominar questions that you had earlier. Is there a potential or can you kind of speak to your ability or control to potentially purchase some of the assets and bring them on balance sheet? Or is this purely kind of a realize the discount to NAV story in that vehicle?
Thanks for the question, Matt. The opportunity to acquire assets within that portfolio is available to Artis as it is to each member of the consortium. We anticipate our focus in regards to this investment is gonna lie more towards the latter scenario that you touched on in seeing value creation without having to put any assets onto our balance sheet. It doesn't mean we won't. Again, that's open for consideration as we move forward, but that's not gonna be the driving factor in the execution of our investment strategy here.
Okay, fair enough. There are some gems, obviously, in what you've got there. Are you in the process of selling any of those kind of core assets at this point, or is that process? I mean, I guess you just closed, but what should we think timing-wise on that process?
This is gonna be a multi-year strategy. What I would say, and this I think is a reflection of what we commented on earlier insofar as the intrinsic value of what we have acquired together with our consortium partners, but for the benefit of our owners of Artis for our pro rata share, is that we, leading up to and even in the short period after closing earlier this week, have had a significant inbound interest unsolicited with buyers who have interest in, I would say, a wide range of individual assets, not just the trophies. There are some, as you put it, real gems in the portfolio. There's quite a mix of assets.
Again, this was part of our thesis both on the Artis Sandpiper front, but also as a consortium as a whole, that there were in this portfolio not only some jewels, but really assets across the spectrum that in the current market environment have significant liquidity and value, and we look forward to seeing that play out as we move forward.
Okay, fair enough. Had a soft spot for that one, as you can imagine, but I'm sure you guys will do well on some of those assets. On the Calgary office portfolio that was sold, can you just give us a sense. I know that there was a large vacancy, so I'm not sure if there would be a big NOI impact subsequent. Could you give us some sense as to what the NOI in Q4 attributable to that portfolio would have been?
Yeah, I can comment. We can get that number for you. We don't have it right now, but I would say there was a significant amount of vacancy in the portfolio overall. I think it'll be a fairly small impact. Obviously, there will be an impact, but they definitely were not sold on a cap rate basis. It was more on a price per square foot basis.
Yeah. No, fair enough. Yeah, if it's possible, just so we don't miss on the modeling side and trying to attribute the cap rate because, yeah, it seems like it was more per square foot number. And then lastly for me, from a modeling standpoint, just on 360 Main in terms of the remaining capital outlay on that as well as kind of timing. I know multifamily in particular can be a little bit lumpy in terms of when it comes on and lease up and the impact there. Can you give us a sense as to how that's progressing, how we should think of lease up and the NOI contribution there?
Yeah. We have occupancy, as Samir mentioned, Earl's will be opening in the next few weeks, which is very exciting. There will be some NOI contribution towards the end of the year. They have a few months of free rent. We're looking at occupancy for the first 20 floors kinda towards the latter part of the year. NOI coming on late Q3, early Q4. We're already pre-leasing and have a lot of good activity and interest there. We're excited about that, excited to see some NOI coming on and the project getting closer to completion.
I guess as we look at 2023, is that a fully stabilized year or should we kind of think of it as being stabilized in the H2 of 2023?
Yeah, definitely the H2 of 2023. The first 20 floors will be 2022, still just coming online and lease-up progressing. In 2023, the H2 will come on, so the top 20 floors. They will still be in that leasing stage probably throughout most of 2023. Kinda towards the end of 2023, hopefully stabilizing in 2024.
Okay, perfect. Thanks. Appreciate the color, guys.
Thank you.
Your next question will be from Jimmy Shan at RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Hey, guys.
Hey, Jimmy.
Just wanted to get a better understanding of the capital structure of the new entity of Cominar. Presumably you'll be disclosing that next quarter, but kind of round numbers, you know, what does the capital stack look like?
More interest in Cominar than there is in Artis on this call. Thank you for the question, Jimmy. We have not disclosed the overall cap structure. One again can do some back of the envelope math on what our equity ownership interest and the corresponding ratio that those dollars represent would reflect, insofar as the total equity that has been invested in the privatization. From there, one can glean that behind that equity is a significant amount of leverage. It's a level of leverage that the consortium is very comfortable with relative to the intrinsic value of the underlying real estate. It does have multiple components insofar as the debt side of it, including mortgages, line of credit.
We still have some work to do and some determination to be confirmed around what the debenture holders wish to do that have the option in the next 30 days to be able to redeem or to maintain their ownership in most of the series involved within the historic Cominar structure. We're very comfortable with what this all translates into. We are gonna focus, as I mentioned earlier, over certainly 2022 in reducing significantly the leverage within that overall capital structure. That should get us to a far more reasonable overall leverage ratio as it relates to fair value or intrinsic value of the assets.
Okay. The pref equity beyond the CAD 100 million that Artis owns, what's the size of the total pref equity bucket? Is it just CAD 100 million?
Again, that's part and parcel of the overall capital structure. I actually view both the junior and the senior pref as leverage. Consider the CAD 100 million and whatever the senior tranche or piece of the structure is, consider that as again, part of leverage, and we anticipate that alongside the other debt elements, that collectively will continue to reduce in an accelerated manner over the course of 2022.
Okay. Sorry, just on the pref equity again, it's a PIK coupon, 3-year term, but it can be called earlier than a year, so that's why you can't guarantee the 1.18. Is that how I think about it? Basically from an FFO impact, you got 1 year's worth of income.
That's right.
Is that right? Yeah.
Okay.
Okay. Presumably, you guys are running kind of who's leading the charge in making sort of asset allocation decisions and leasing decisions at Cominar? I presume it would be you guys.
We, alongside our partners, have established a formal governance structure that includes a nine-member board. Artis has two board seats within that group of nine. Sandpiper has two board seats. We feel very comfortable in the representation we have within that decision-making body.
Okay. Just last for me, on the office portfolio in, you know, like the Twin Cities, Madison, maybe can you just talk generally what's happening in those markets as far as leasing, and maybe on the investment side, kind of what activity are you seeing in those markets?
I can take that question. Starting with Madison, Wisconsin, we've been quite pleased with the amount of activity that we are experiencing. We are actually accomplishing leases, larger leases. We've closed one that is just 42,000 feet, and we continue to get strong interest from good credit tenants. Pleasantly surprised how it has withstood this past couple of years. We're hoping that we'll be soon over 90% occupancy. We're quite pleased with Madison, Wisconsin. Minneapolis office, you have to in a sense bifurcate it between suburban and CBD as no surprise. We've been also very encouraged with our progress on leasing, particularly at Stinson, and we can release that more in the next quarter.
We've had some wonderful success re-leasing Stinson. For downtown, it remains a struggle, I think, for all landlords. Yet we believe we've placed particularly Kennedy and Pacific Plaza in a position to respond quickly. We've got an excellent amenity package that we've been working on, and so it's teed up. For suburban, again, we've had decent activity, particularly at 601 Carlson. We're finding that the office market in Minneapolis suburbs is strengthening.
Okay. Thank you. Maybe just if you're seeing any activity on the sale side of things.
Jimmy, are you talking just sort of general market conditions?
Yeah, sort of on the investment side. Yeah.
Yeah.
I just kind of wondering like how liquid is the market today given what's going on?
There have not been a lot of transactions, and we are watching, paying more attention. One example would be the Cross and CPP, the Fifth Street Towers, and we're watching to see what PIMCO and seller are going to do with that asset. We're watching, but there have not been a lot of transactions. People have been watching very closely how, particularly with the George Floyd scenario that's happened in the last couple of years, and see how it plays out for downtown. We are looking. We are watching.
I would just add, Jimmy, where we have seen liquidity, you know, to Phil's earlier point, is in the non-CBD or suburban markets. There, even for Artis, have been unsolicited LOIs that have been received for non-CBD assets.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thanks, Jimmy.
Your next question will be from Sumayya Syed at CIBC. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Hi, everybody. Just to Start off with the NCIB activity. The stocks had a good run. I think it's close to its three- or four-year high, and it's still at a discount. I'm wondering at what minimum discount, if it's 20%, 15%, 10%, you would see your units as a compelling investment compared to other opportunities you may be exploring.
Yeah. We review this every quarter with the investment committee and the board and establish ranges that we are comfortable with for our auto buyback within the NCIB. We are not drawing a line at this point on what that number is. Again, we want that flexibility. The board wants that flexibility. What we would say today, when Artis is trading at a 25% discount to our net asset value, roughly, we certainly believe it represents a compelling opportunity for unitholders to have the NCIB active.
Okay. You touched on this a little bit, but just wondering in terms of your view on what you could execute this year on asset sales and what asset class or market you're seeing or would be seeing the best prospects for?
From a planning perspective, we are focused on monetizing certain office assets of ours, particularly in the U.S., in light of the large number of Canadian dispositions we did in 2021. Having said that, you know, as we commented on earlier, you know, the opportunity on behalf of unitholders to consider other possibilities as things continue to evolve in the overall marketplace, including unsolicited interest that we might receive, we're gonna be very open-minded and do what the board ultimately believes is in the best interest of the owners.
Okay, thanks. Just lastly on the investment in Dream Office, is it fair to characterize that as a strategic but passive investment?
I would say that it is certainly a strategic investment for Artis. I don't think Artis will ever do something that I would describe as purely passive. We've had good engagement with the representatives from Dream Office, including Michael Cooper. We like what they're doing. We like the opportunities this represents, again, from an intrinsic value perspective. I don't think we will ever be truly passive in any investment we make with our unitholders' capital.
Okay, thanks for the call. I'll turn it back.
Thank you, Sumayya.
Your next question will be from Mike Markidis at Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Just following on Sumayya's question on dispositions. Perhaps just a volume ballpark, even if it's a wide goalpost, what we should be thinking about in terms of total dispositions this year?
I think that, rather than giving you goalposts, I'll certainly give you a floor. We anticipate a minimum of CAD 500 million this year of dispositions. Again, I can't, none of us can predict the future, including, as we touched on already, any unsolicited interest. If we get interest at values that we believe are compelling and would be worthwhile for the board and its investment committee to consider, you know, that's a decision that will ultimately rest in the hands of those individuals in obviously collaboration with management and recommendations we would make to the investment committee and the board. CAD 500 million would be certainly a floor that one could anticipate.
Okay, great. Thanks. I think you mentioned earlier in the call, correct me if I got it wrong, but the Phoenix area and Western Canada retail, industrial are sort of being identified as the core growth in terms of direct asset ownership for Artis. Should we take that to mean that the dispositions would likely be outside of those markets?
Generally speaking, I think that would be a fair assumption.
Okay. Thank you for that. I'd hate to be the only person that didn't ask a Cominar question, so I'll go with that. I guess first off, presumably there's a term in terms of a time term to this private vehicle. Are you able to share with us what the finite life would be for the vehicle?
No. You know, the consortium led by Canderel has made it very clear that the investor group together is very excited about this investment. Particularly, you know, some of the unique inherent development possibilities within certain assets. Anyone, of course, familiar with development knows that's not a short-term exercise. You know, the structure and some specifics around that, again, you know, we wanna be thoughtful and respectful of our partners in what we're sharing.
Suffice it to say that you know I think there's gonna be certain assets that would have a shorter term strategy associated with them and others that will have a longer term plan ahead of us.
Okay. Is it possible that through the life of this vehicle that Artis, aside from potentially, 'cause it sounds like you're not gonna buy any of the assets or you're not thinking about it anyway, it's too hard or with much vigor. Is it possible that you'd have to make an additional capital contribution to execute in this strategy? Would you say that you've extended all the capital to this vehicle that you're willing to at this juncture?
We think the probability of having to make an additional capital investment is very low.
Okay. Thank you. Last one for me on that topic. The 18% profit's pretty easy, but perhaps you guys could help us out with just what the FFO yield on your common equity piece would be, just at least for a run rate basis to model initially, that would be helpful.
Yeah, we don't have that visibility at this point. Again, there's a lot of moving parts with respect to this investment. As you know, we just closed and are now gonna have the opportunity through the governance structure I touched on earlier, where we also have an investment committee, we have an audit committee, standalone within that structure to really get under the hood and to be able to now navigate forward as the owners of Cominar. To the extent that we do have greater visibility on that level of detail moving forward, we will certainly attempt to share that on future quarterly calls. For now, you know, as was conveyed earlier, this is gonna be a one-line item on our financials under equity investments.
We will leave it at that.
Okay. Back to Artis then. Just as we think of that CAD 500 million floor for dispositions, how should we be thinking about the allocation of that capital going forward? Is debt reduction still a priority? You know, buybacks clearly at the current level are on the table. Maybe additional comments there would be helpful.
Yeah. Those would certainly be the two natural areas from a capital allocation standpoint one could anticipate. Certainly the debt reduction side, where we remain committed to maintaining sub 45% leverage, and we may even see that go sub 40% depending on timing issues and capital flow issues of that capital flow related to timing. Then on the NCIB, again, you know, it's gonna be largely a product of where our units trade and the discount that we touched on earlier that would make keeping the NCIB active when we continue to trade at a significant discount in place. Then likely looking certainly from an exploratory standpoint at additional investment opportunities, whether it is in industrial development, whether there could be potential opportunistic acquisitions and then of course the public security side.
Okay. When you guys look at the sub-45 leverage, is that a look-through on a proportionately consolidated basis or is it just based on the assets that are on the balance sheet?
No, that's on assets on the balance sheet. Having said that, you know, longer term, we're not looking to take on higher leverage even off balance sheet. In the short term, when I think about the Cominar investment, you know, there would be elevated leverage there, but I've already touched on the fact and commitment that the consortium has made to seeing that materially reduce in 2022. We're already, in the first few days of our acquisition, well underway, again, based on unsolicited LOIs and interest that we have had inbound.
Okay, great. Thanks very much for the call.
Thank you.
As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, please press Star one if you have any questions. Next will be Mario Saric at Scotiabank.
Hi. Thank you for taking the questions.
Mm-hmm.
Just a couple on the disclosure side. One on Cominar. Then, you mentioned that it was going to be, or it is going to be equity accounted from an investment standpoint. Is it fair to say that you decided that you won't be providing any proportionate disclosure in the coming quarters, or is that still a possibility?
We tested our MD&A in Q4, and this was to address information provided in the National Instrument 52-112. We've moved our MD&A now to report on our consolidated IFRS numbers. That being said, we've included a new section which is our equity accounted investments where we're providing additional information on those assets separately. We are no longer providing a proportionate share of balance sheet income statement, but all the relevant information can be found in that new section.
Right. I'm wondering whether, I guess, Cominar itself will follow those same kind of applicable guidelines or whether given the size of the investment, whether we could expect maybe a bit more disclosure or a bit less.
We'll get that in the coming quarter as we close on the deal. In our consolidated financial statements, we are still required, and we will be reporting our proportionate share of the balance sheet and income statement, so you'll have our financial statement information in there as well.
Okay. Just maybe another question on disclosure or maybe perhaps better said on the intrinsic value of the company. Samir, you mentioned kind of the 25% trading discount to your IFRS NAV, which is based off of a stabilized NOI as opposed to, let's say, in-place NOI. We can probably do the math, but do you have a sense in terms of what the gap is between kind of the Q4 point-in-time NOI run rate and then the stabilized NOI that you're using in your IFRS NAV today?
No, we don't have that information, but certainly we can try and see if that's something we can provide, offline.
Okay. Yeah, that'd be helpful. Switching gears to the capital recycling environment. More of a broader question, so not specific to a specific asset class or geography. Samir, but how would you characterize the credit markets or the lending environment today, given the geopolitical risk that we're seeing in Europe relative to where it was kind of three to four months ago? Like how conducive are the credit markets to you executing on kind of the minimum CAD 500 million in dispositions that you're targeting for this year?
Our sense is that generally speaking, the credit markets are open, are liquid, and will support the efforts underway. You know, if we look at what's happening just generally outside of certainly Artis' world, it appears that, you know, while of course our thoughts and our prayers are with the people of Ukraine as they are with people living in other parts of the world where this instability and conflict has been in place for some time. You know, the world will continue to function and economies will continue to operate. Similarly, we think credit will be available in the near to medium term as it has been historically.
It may come depending on specific circumstances and borrowers at different costs or spreads, but again, we don't anticipate from a direct impact standpoint that that's gonna have a material impact on Artis.
When we look at the various asset classes that you're involved with or looking to become involved with, which asset classes stand out to you in terms of having the biggest disconnect or public-private market valuation divide today?
We've certainly seen a narrowing of that delta across multiple asset classes. If we look at what's happening, particularly, with cap rates associated with retail and office, which had during the pandemic been most dramatically impacted relative to what we saw with industrial and multifamily. Industrial has come off a little bit, as you know, certainly in a public markets context. From a private market standpoint, you know, industrial continues to be very robust. We continue to see cap rates breaking new records in many markets, including some of the markets that Artis operates in.
Again, from a private market standpoint, the same could likely be said about multifamily, despite the fact that when we look at the public space, certain multifamily names have come off a little bit from their 52-week highs. Then again, on the other end, you know, you see certainly with retail and office, we've seen a reasonable bounce back and we anticipate that's gonna continue as the North American markets alongside other global markets continue to reopen. We certainly hope and look forward to that reopening continuing at a reasonable and sustainable pace.
Okay. Thank you for the commentary.
Thank you. At this time, we have no further questions. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Manji.
I'll pass it over to Heather. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, operator. Thank you all for joining us today. We wish you and your families health and happiness and a wonderful weekend ahead.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.