Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's my pleasure to welcome you at the GTC call. We are presenting today's 2023 results. The conference call is being recorded and the recording will be published on our website. Let me turn the call over to.
This meeting is being recorded.
Zoltán Fekete, the CEO of the company, to start the presentation.
Thank you, Małgorzata. Welcome everyone. I'm pleased to meet you and have the opportunity to speak about the senior results of GTC. Before I get to the numbers, I would like to talk about another announcement that we made about expanding our management team. I'm very pleased to introduce Barbara Sikora, who's joining us as CFO at GTC. I will ask Barbara in a while to say a few words about herself, introduce herself. Ariel Ferstman is moving into a more dedicated role into transactions, M&A, and exploring opportunities, growth opportunities in the market. Just to give you some background why we are making these changes.
You, you probably noticed for the last two years, we've been more active when it comes to transactions, when it comes to exploring new opportunities, diversifying our business. We also entered the Eurobond market, and we raised capital. A lot of things that was led by Ariel. Since we continue to be active in the marketplace, explore the opportunities, we also felt that we need to strengthen the team. This is why Barbara joining us, and Ariel will continue to focus on M&A/transactions, capital markets. Barbara's role will be as CFO to be in charge of accounting, auditing, financial reporting, controlling, and everything that the job involves.
I would like to ask Barbara to briefly introduce herself.
Thank you, Zoltan. Hello, everybody. A great honor to present myself. In a nutshell, 20 years in financial positions starting from audit, financial management, controlling, asset management to CFO and CEO positions. More than 18 years in construction and real estate, starting from such companies as Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, through General Electric, Budimex, IBRI Group, through Atrium, to add on Atrium. The biggest one, I would say Griffin Real Estate, the longest, the most exciting one. In terms of interesting projects completed that I was in charge of, I would say, in charge of with the team, a big team, was to set up, run, and finance residential for rent platform with Griffin Real Estate.
Few others to mention, I would say, acquisitions, sales, tax projects, and a lot of financing. I believe there is nothing I haven't really touched in the finance. Well, I think that's the most important part.
Thank you, Barbara. Thank you.
Thank you.
In the future, obviously we'll have the chance to talk to Barbara directly. She's joining us from May 1st. I just wanted to start the call with this news. Turning to the results. I would like to ask Małgorzata to start the presentation. Thank you. 2022 has been another active year for us. As we discussed before and as you also saw in some transactions. We are in the process of a partly a strategy shift, expanding the strategy of GTC, moving into new areas, diversifying into areas like digital, technology-related investments. We are also exploring possibilities in the field of alternative energy. In a way it's also a real estate business with very good returns.
We are also exploring possibilities in the field of PRS. We are also looking at possibilities to invest in Europe. Geographical diversification is also on the cards. Actually this whole strategy started when the Serbian portfolio, office portfolio was sold. This deal only closed in January last year, so the result of that is only shown, started to kick in in 2022. This just to remind everyone, this transaction, which was a EUR 267 million sale of the partly aging office portfolio in Serbia, in Belgrade, allowed us to, in a way, receiving that moderate rating, to issue, to make a very successful new bond issue in 2021.
We benefit from that. If you look at the financing cost, 2.2%, which is a great thing to have these days, and it's really the result of the hard work that was done. At the same time, it shifts the focus in our portfolio to investment-grade countries, safer markets. It improves the risk profile of the group. Of course, this diversification means also more transactions and the changes in the management, also a reflection of the requirements on personal side. If you look at the results, our annual revenues reached EUR 157 million. Gross margin reached EUR 119 million. It's somewhat less than the year before.
It is partly related to the strategic shift as I mentioned before. We were selling assets in higher revenue-generating countries and more focused to a safer market. I have to also mention it doesn't mean that we will leave Serbia and Belgrade. The outlook in that market is still positive. We are doing developments and rebuilding portfolio in Belgrade as well. If we have to compare the changes as I mentioned, the in terms of revenue, the Serbian portfolio representing EUR 19.4 million. It's a significant move downward. We also managed to replace new acquisitions. We...
The acquisitions bring EUR 7.1 million on the plus, positive side. We also had a Pillar office building which came online, opened in March last year. That added EUR 2.7 million with respect to last year's revenues. We are on the other side, due to lower level of occupancy, our revenue from EUR 8.1 million. On the other hand, retail and growth in the retail sector, contributing to that EUR 6.8 million. We also last year put through inflation in the range of 4.5%-5%. That's only EUR 4.7 million in terms of revenues. FFO is EUR 68 million for 2022.
Our NAV stands at EUR 1.273 billion as at December 31st. Our LTV remained a conservative 44.5%. Occupancy across the board stands at 88% or close to 88% at the end of the year. We continued to have a strong cash position. At the end of last year, it was EUR 150 million and since then, we closed the sale of an office building in Belgrade, Hungary, which also generated EUR 47 million in net cash. With all that, we are above EUR 150 million in the current cash position. If we turn the page on the next slide, just would like to give you some highlights on the office side of the business.
84% of our office portfolio is green certified. Our occupancy on the office side stands at 84%. We had some success on the leasing front. We leased 110,000 sq m in 2022. We commenced construction of Matrix C office building in Zagreb, and we have 92% pre-lease at the moment, so basically the building is full. We also commenced the development of Center Point 3 in Budapest. That's a 36,000 sq m GLA building. Last year, we completed altogether 54,000 sq m of office developments, which will bring EUR 10.8 million annual revenue. This includes Pillar, which we completed in Budapest in March last year. This is the ExxonMobil headquarters building.
One of the largest offices by the way for ExxonMobil outside the U.S., which has an annual revenue of EUR 6.1 million. We also completed in November, GTC X in Belgrade. That is 17,700 square meters building fully leased, EUR 8.6 million annual rent. We also completed the development in Sofia Tower. That's an office building, which will generate EUR 1.1 million. The Istvan Utca is still ongoing. We are around 70% occupancy. On the next page, I would just like to highlight the transactions I mentioned. We are more active on the transaction front.
As I always say, it is important to demonstrate that every time to the market, that every time when we sell an asset at book value or above, we can demonstrate to investors, analysts, valuers, that our shares are undervalued. The discount to NAV is not justified. I think it's also important, as I mentioned, that we are looking to grow in new areas, in a way diversify away from the region, from Central Europe, but it doesn't mean that we do not consider ourselves as a major player in our core business in Central Europe. I mentioned the sale of Serbian office portfolio. We sold a smaller office building, City Gate in Bucharest. That was an aging property that generated net proceeds of EUR 10 million last year.
We also sold Matrix A and B in Zagreb. It's a major transaction on the Croatian market. We, as I mentioned, we sold and closed the transaction in January for office, for forest office building in Zagreb itself. On the next page, I just would like to give you some highlights of how the retail side of our business is developing. It's been a very positive year on the retail front. Our occupancy is 10.96%. The positive trend continued throughout the year. We are above pre-COVID levels, of course, on the retail side. Inflation we've realized the impact of inflation as well. We managed to lease 35,000 square meters on the retail front. Probably need to do more, but we are almost fully occupied.
Thank you very much. If you have questions, I can answer that or Alois, if not at this stage, I will continue.
Okay. Thank you very much, Zoltán. Going into the office, the portfolio. How the portfolio is. It's, we have today EUR 2.4 billion in assets. The finances, you know, you see on the screen with over 90% income producing assets, 65% of the office sector, a well-diversified portfolio. We believe in a more stronger diversification as pointed out by Zoltán at the beginning of his talk. With less than 2% of spending really core in development under our balance sheet. Very conservative. We're very cautious on which development we launch. 93% in new countries, thanks to the reposition of the portfolio mentioned by Zoltán also, beginning of last year with the disposal of Serbia and the transition into more investment grade countries.
Exposure, very healthy growth, you know, around 3.7 years. I think this gives you a snapshot at the end of 2022 regarding our portfolio. Going into the development projects. As I mentioned, we have a couple of developments under construction, less than 2% of our portfolio. Although should be on the next slide, yes. Mainly we have Matrix C, which we launched last year, already 92% leased. Just to mention a little bit of the completions. Pillar completed in March. Almost 100% leased. Also completed GTC X in November. Today, we are happy to say it's 100% leased.
Also Sofia Tower 2, which was completed by the end of last year, which we are about 70% and also under negotiations, the remaining 30%. On the development, what we have today is Matrix C which is gonna be completed in the next few months. Rose Hill, we are progressing with the redevelopment of this beautiful campus on the Buda side. Also the reposition of Center Point 1 and 2 as a redevelopment of the former ExxonMobil headquarters. Basically this we are basically coming far around the common areas. There's a lot of heavy work going by the team to basically reposition this older asset we have in our portfolio, but make it up to the standards of today with the competitive rents as well.
We still, you know, we're working on pre-leasing already. I think we have repositioned already 10% of the second area by Exxon already is pre-let, and we're working on future leases. We launched last year Center Point 3, which is a continuation of the campus of Center Point 1 and 2, an additional building, 36,000 square meters. We are working on the pit formation. I mean, we are completing the pit formation and underwater works, and the team, the leasing team is working very hard to pre-let this building and also in parallel, working on the financing as well. Just to say that combined with all these completions of all these assets, this will contribute in addition EUR 14.1 expected rental income. This is pre-inflation.
This is where estimations on, on estimations that we've done 12 months ago, by the way. Moving into the next slide. I think we've also mentioned a little bit about, you know, the beginning about our big shift and some changes on the rental revenues. We end up the year-end by the EUR 25 million profit. Just to zoom in on a couple items. Gross margin from operations, we're down 6.5%. Mainly as a result of the sale of the office portfolio. EUR 20 million loss of rent, but that was quickly recovered with the acquisitions in Hungary. EUR 8 million, which we acquired in 2021. End of 2021, and then also some in 2022. Just to mention a few, Váci G reens, the Univerzum as well. But one AP rate.
Also the completion of Pillar, which contributed EUR 3 million during the course of this year. As we continue the next projection in the next 12 months, this asset will contribute around EUR 6.5 million to the operations. We have a great performance of our retail assets during the course of 2022. I think we've made a big recovery on the retail part, with new trends, people coming back to the shopping. We did a downturn on online shopping more, and online shopping as well. Just to mention a few figures. You know, the whole contribution was EUR 9.5 million from the retail side, with the Polish malls contributing EUR 6.3 million, up to 32% on a like-to-like basis on the year comparison.
Just to give you a flavor, Avenue Mall, Zagreb also up 12% with no lockdowns in 2021 comparison to 2022 as well. We managed to start bringing Ada Mall into the great part with 30% up, EUR 1.6 million increase on a like-to-like basis in the Belgrade Shopping Mall. Inflation also played positively into the figures, while our final contracts remain fixed in the medium term. This contributes positively, EUR 14.7 million with average index applied between 4.5%-5.5%. This was applied all over across the portfolio with no issues in collection.
We are already applying, you know, we are applying the new index, which is expected also, you know, in 2023, we are looking at double digits in the portfolio as well. Just to mention a little bit about the valuations. We posted a EUR 29 million loss on the revaluation from investment properties. Just to zoom in, because the number is a little bit distortion from this perspective. We booked losses over EUR 50 million in the last 12 months as a result of expansion on the yields. EUR 27 million on our Polish portfolio, EUR 13 million on Hungarian portfolio, and EUR 11 million on the remaining part of the portfolio.
This was offset with the completion of our development Pillar GTC X, which contributed positively with development profit of EUR 18.5 million, and also the successful disposal of Matrix, the Office Matrix campus in Zagreb, and Forest Offices Budapest in which contribute positively EUR 4 million into this line. Finance costs, we now see the fruits of the all heavy work on the financing side in the course of 2021. If we deduct the net one-off, which was around EUR 7 million related to the restructuring of the bonds for future financing, we have a decrease on a like-to-like. It's not a given today, a decrease of 7% on the funding cost, on interest funding cost.
That will also allow us to keep these funding costs on this very low level in comparison to market trends. Just going into the next slide. On the balance sheet, as mentioned by Zoltán also at the beginning, we are repositioned the company in a different path from what it used to be with different diversification with the entrance of this our position in Ireland. You see on the line as non-core financial assets, EUR 130 million. That's acquisition of EUR 150 million in the Silver Campus. A great acquisition with a big added value to the company and the local team.
The dedicated management team is working to basically achieve a few milestones regarding the permits and working on the potential lease agreements as well. We end up with a very strong cash position, under EUR 15 million at the end of 2022, which additionally, after the sale of Forest, will increase to EUR 150 million. Plus we still have our RCF, EUR 94 million funding loan. Just to mention on assets held for sale, that line which is mainly Forest, which was completed back after balance sheet early January, we still have a few land plots which are under sale in Poland. Moving into the next slide. The debt metrics, healthy maturity, 4.4 years with no major refinancings in the next, you know, 12-18 months.
We are getting ready to repay our bonds in the Polish market, EUR 31 million. Our next payment is coming in the next few weeks, and we're getting ready to repay. We don't see the need yet, you know, to touch capital markets given the circumstances today. Healthy net LTV 44.5%. Healthy, you know, average funding cost 2.21%. Just to mention, 95% of our total debt today is either rate hedge, fixed, or with any eventuality increases on the increasing interest rate. It's also visible on the balance sheet side, which indeed has to be up on the balance sheet today, which is all our higher risk positions over EUR 25 million assets in our company.
We could say the hedging policy we've been establishing in the last few years is paying off today. Just to mark up a little bit on the side of the bonds covenants, healthy coverage ratio of 3.5 times, secure leverage from 1%, income cover is 54%, increase from 45 last year. I think to mention regarding our cash flow position, indeed we are operating cash flow is coming down. We discussed the reasons from a P&L perspective and also cash flow perspective as well.
I think the main contributors to the strong cash position that we presented by the end of 2022, the major transaction activity we have done since the beginning of last year until today, with over EUR 320 million in sales. A net proceed over I would say close to EUR 200 million, plus the issuance of shares that we completed at the beginning of January, EUR 120 million, offset it by the acquisition of Ireland. It was a very strong cash position and ready to find new growth opportunities. With this, conclude our presentation. I want to thank the whole management team. It's been a pleasure being the CFO of GTC.
I wish Barbara good luck and I will be looking at you from my new position in the company. Looking forward to talk to every one of you. I think we have very exciting things ahead of us. I'm a little bit mixed reviews, you know. Look, we're open to ask for any Q&A.
Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the formal presentation. Whoever wants to ask questions, please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Hey guys, Jacob here. If no questions, I would ask a couple if I may. Thanks for the presentation, Barbara. Welcome both on board. Maybe starting with the LTV, could you outline some more specific steps how would you be looking to bring down the leverage in the next continues?
Well, we presented 44.5%. That's after disposal of Forest Offices. I mean, the thing of the need to bring the LTV down, it's the best thing we have been doing so far, is to presenting two things on, at the same time. Either proving the market that we are doing transactions at book value or above book value, through the disposal is reducing the LTV, number 1. Also, you know, we are also in the end also looking for new investment opportunities with added value, which will also contribute to the rapid increase to our asset value as well. Not only through development as we have done, but also through the, you know, added value acquisitions like Ireland, for instance.
We also, you know, screen the market for new investment opportunities will also contribute very positively to an increase on our assets. I don't know if Zoltán wants to add something from his side.
No, I think, disposals, we are always open to the opportunities. Honestly, we never actively pursue disposals. We always, we have this approach that potentially our assets are for sale. They are. What we focus on is the performance of the assets, and there's always a buyer for those. I think over the last two years, we demonstrated that we've been doing that successfully. Just to give you the exact figures, over the last two years, we actually managed to sell EUR 376 million gross asset value, which generated EUR 234 million net cash. We have some discussions even today in progress. Of course, it's not an easy period. It's not like five years ago.
We are still active, and we see all the possibilities to sell assets. Of course, we always have to find the best way to do that. If you look at the balance sheet, EUR 160 million plus EUR 94 million unused revolving credit facility gives us a good comfort. I don't think it answers the question.
No, it's helpful. Thank you. I mean, would you say that there is a chance that on a net basis, GTC could be a buyer of assets or certainly disposals will outweigh acquisitions in the next, say, 12 months?
I don't think it makes sense to sell more than what we invest. I wouldn't say disposals will outweigh. It's, as you know, for example, the investment in Ireland is currently EUR 160 million that we made. It is, it's currently the revenue generation is quite small. It's a development project. Obviously, in a way, if we look at the next, like, a 2-year horizon, that should give the results. It's a development. It takes when we made the decision to invest last summer, we knew that looking at a 2-year kind of development period, which in this sense, just to give you some more color on the situation, the development on that front, it takes much longer.
Within two years, we would expect to realize some significant uplift on that. The profile of that investment is very different now. If opportunity comes, and value can be realized, of course, we are always willing to sell to realize gains. I always say that paper profit is money you're not interested in. Of course, this is not the period to talk about that. We like to realize gains through disposals. At the same time, of course, we have seen that widely. As I also mentioned, we do not restrict ourselves only to Central Europe, where we are looking at developed markets as well.
Thanks. On the solar farm initiative and on the Polish residential rent market, could you also give us an update on the status of these projects?
Yes, we've seen impactful opportunities, good yield generation potential in solar and Hungary. There have been in the past, lots of projects commissioned and they are becoming operational. We are not looking at development. We are looking at possibilities to invest in already revenue generation opportunities. In terms of size of investment, right now, we're usually just looking at a few million EUR, just to give you an indication. Of course, I think the synergies between green energy generation and real estate portfolio, these synergies are quite obvious. Through that we would have a natural kind of hedge in terms of energy prices, because we would be generating our green energy.
Of course, it's more complicated than that, but that's really the scenery, the idea behind it, and others are exploring these possibilities as well, as you know. In terms of ERV, Ariel, would you like to say something about that?
Yeah. Sure, sure. We're working on that front very actively. We are looking for potential partnerships also to operate with. We have a beautiful site in Warsaw, which everyone is fully aware, which is called Wilanów. We are working to test and see whether, you know, that site could be applicable for the, you know, for PRS. Working very closely with the authorities as well and reposition the, you know, the plot in a way that it would be our, let's say, our growth engine in this sector. You know, it's a long way to that. We are still working on permitting and planning, but it's a good start.
At the same time, we are seeing on the market for opportunities and see how we can cooperate with different players in the market. We're looking at the Polish market and three main markets, Warsaw, Wrocław and Kraków. We see the potential, we see the demand and the growth and this, as we said, it's part of GTC strategy. You know, we don't want, we were very active last year in the summer then, you know, market changes. We are looking for good opportunities, really good opportunities to bring the added value. Hopefully we have good news in the near future. Jacob?
On the front Wilanów, if I could just may give you some more color. Specifically what we are working on is environmental study. It takes more than one year, one and a half years. Discussions with the authorities about the direction of development. Architectural concept is an important part because we would like to be able to present to the city what we are planning to do. As part of the whole concept, we are assuming using the With the element of that project.
Thanks very much. That's helpful. Could I also ask you on leasing and special office leasing, how did the leases which you closed during last year and which you are closing so far this year, how do they compare to ERVs? What is sort of the like for like momentum in new leases, those which are being rolled over versus what has been in place prior. Also if you could talk about the outlook for office occupancy and how likely do you think that we could see some progress on that this year?
Sure. Just in general, of course, everybody knows and talks about, you know, because of the business is not so easy these days, as talents look for currencies even to give back space. Basically. I can say two years ago, or even three years ago, retail was an issue that had to be resolved, and we managed to do that. These days it's office that we really have to focus on. We have some challenges in the portfolio. Right now, I can say, City Gate in Bucharest has occupancy in the range of 70%. We managed to bottom out. It was actually well below 70, about a year ago. Went down to 60. We are filling the building.
We had also challenges in like UDT and Łódź, for example. We are working on that. Luckily, the portfolio is big enough, and I'm sure we will resolve those situations. I'll let Janusz about ERV and new leases and extensions.
Yes. Like the chief operating officer of GTC. I can confirm that sort of even for last year and that still continue, we are able to sign new leases at ERV or above ERV level in most of the locations. Actually it's not the rent which is a challenge for us, in certain cases, it's rather the location of our assets. Otherwise, when it comes to renewal of the leases, I would say that 95% of the renewals are happening at passing rent. Even though there was no question about it, but probably it's also interesting to hear for all the investors that, you know, we are already almost in May. Of course, indexation 2022 happened in case of all office and retail leases.
The average indexation rate for the leases for all the countries was between 10-11%. So far we didn't hear any issues. Everybody still keeps paying rent. That represents success. It seems that our tenants and our partners accepted this new era. They were able to accommodate the indexation. Also, they understand that because of concession costs and our financing costs increase, you know, when it comes to renewals and new leases, there is no discount available on the market. In terms of leasing prospect for this year, what I can just elaborate and I can confirm what Zoltán mentioned. I think in general, our portfolio is pretty healthy with that said.
We have a few challenges, mainly in the secondary cities of Poland, Łódź, and in inaudible, and in Bucharest. The City Gate project, which is currently 70% leased, but because of its location, the challenging, we try to look also for alternative use of all of those buildings. We try to do our best. If you want, you know what is the forecast for this year? I think that we will do everything to include the overall occupancy of our buildings, of our portfolio.
Because certain areas of certain elements of our portfolio are in cities where, you know, we cannot necessarily change the environment, you know, I would say that we still achieve 95%. We do all of our best to keep, you know, the current occupancy or even further increase. Now we have the proper team in place in all the countries.
Just one other thing I'd just like to add. I'm sure you noticed, there were some management changes within GTC last year, like country heads and some people were promoted. Basically the shift is about, we want to basically build on people who can be proactive, and really be active and strong in a situation. We really have to be able to be in the spotlight in front of potential talents. This is not easy these days, the results luckily don't show as that much. We are progressing. We also strengthened the leasing team in Poland.
We also make changes within other areas in Hungary as well. Of course, these challenges were expected even a year ago, and this is why we acted. I'm absolutely certain that we will get through this period. Overall, as Janusz also mentioned, the quality and the overall occupancy is strong, and we are keeping our lead. The rent levels don't really change. If you look at the overall market, in general, vacancy numbers do not change to the negative. In fact, some, in some places even dropped. That's the overall environment as well. Happy to mention.
Thanks very much. Thanks Janusz for the edit comments. It's very helpful. Well, from my side, and sorry for talking before. On dividend, can you give us sort of some insight on how you are thinking about distribution in this environment and what factors would maybe consider at this stage or affect decision?
Sure. Obviously we had some write ups, as you've seen the results. Which had to be taken into consideration. I can't at this point give any indication about recommendation for dividends or what we will share with it. It also depends on some transactions which are in the pipeline. I think we'll have to wait until end of May to give you some more color on that.
That's clear. Thank you very much everyone.
Ladies and gentlemen, are there any more questions for the management of GTC? There are no more questions, thank you very much for your participation. Thank you to the management for the presentation. In case you have any additional questions, I will remain at your disposal. Just give me a call or send me an email, and I will try to help you to understand the results. Thank you very much. Goodbye.
Thank you. Have a good day. Bye.
Goodbye.