BTB Real Estate Investment Trust (BTBUN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. My name is Joelle, and I will be your conference call facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the BTB Real Estate Investment Trust 2026 Second Quarter Conference Call, for which management will discuss the quarter ended June 30th. [Operator Instructions] Management has made a presentation available on BTB's website at www.btbreit.com/investors/presentations/quarterly-meeting-presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before turning the meeting over to management, please be advised that some of the statements that may be made during this call may be forward-looking in nature. Such statements involve known and unknown assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, which gives rise to the possibility that predictions, forecasts, projections, and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved. Several important factors could cause BTB Real Estate Investment Trust's actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results are described in BTB Real Estate Investment Trust's management discussion and analysis and in its annual information form, which were filed on SEDAR+ and on BTB's website at www.btbreit.com/investors/reports. I would like to remind everyone that this conference is being recorded. Thank you. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Michel Léonard, President and Chief Executive Officer, accompanied today by Mr. Marc-André Lefebvre, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Charles Doré-Bédard, Vice President of Finance, and Ms. Stéphanie Leonard, Principal Director of Leasing. Mr. Léonard, you may begin the conference.

Thank you, Joelle. Good morning, everybody. We're with pleasure reporting our Q2 numbers, and we are continuing on our investment activity as purchasing industrial assets and selling office properties. You have witnessed that activity throughout the first 2 quarters. We are still actively involved in densifying some of our properties in Montreal and Ottawa, having made representations to both cities as far as a redevelopment for each property is concerned. We did on May 14, 2026, establish an ATM program following the filing of a prospectus supplement that was filed back on December 19, 2025. And the ATM program was approved by the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 14, 2026. And to date, it hasn't been used. On our ESG front, we're pleased to report that on June 10th, we did publish our third ESG report. And in 2025, we strengthened our environmental data collection. We expanded sustainability certifications across our portfolio with 13 new BOMA BEST certifications. And we are continuing to foster an engaging and inclusive workplace for our employees and the community. As far as acquisition is concerned, for our property located at 7 and 9 Montclair Boulevard in Gatineau, we owned only 50% of that property, obviously, through a sort of a joint interest with another real estate developer. And we decided to terminate this agreement by purchasing the 50% interest that we didn't own from that co-owner for $7 million. And this acquisition is expected to contribute approximately $500,000 on an annualized basis for NOI. Subsequent event to the quarter, we did dispose of our property located in Trois-Rivières, and that closed on August 4th of this year for total proceeds of $20 million, obviously excluding transaction fees and adjustments. And I'd like to note that this property was leased, the occupancy rate was 80%. So for the 6-month period, the trust concluded $38.5 million of acquisitions, and it's anticipated that these acquisitions will contribute on an annualized basis $3 million to the NOI. So if we look at the distribution of our portfolio, back in '21, we used to be at 23% industrial, now we're jumping to 38% industrial. Our suburban office ownership was at 47%, we're down to 41%, and necessity-based retail used to be at 30%, and we're at 21%. And as far as our geographical diversification, except for the sale of the property that represented 3% of the total ownership on the segment, basically there has been no change. And the key metrics on page 6, for those that are following me with the presentation. So as far as the fair value of investment properties, we see a slight increase of 1.7%. Our occupancy rate went slightly up, 10 basis points to 91.3%. And the total renewals concluded in Q2 2026, or 3 and new leases, for 378,000 square feet. So we have witnessed positive leasing spreads. Our payout ratio has come down on an AFFO basis, and we have strong leasing activity. And with this, I'll turn the presentation to Stéphanie.

Good morning, everyone. So if you're following us on our online presentation, we're currently at page 8 of said presentation. During the quarter, we leased a total of roughly 79,000 square feet to new tenants, in addition to renewing leases of existing tenants for roughly 299,000 square feet, representing a total leasing activity of roughly 378,000 square feet for the quarter. Our most noteworthy transaction on a square foot basis was concluded with ProGym in Saint-Bruno in our necessity-based retail segment located in Montreal, representing 19,000 square feet. It's important to note that this transaction was directly in line with our leasing strategy for our necessity-based retail property, which is to increase the notoriety of tenants by replacing previous tenants who either paid under-market rent or percentage rents with tenants that are more prestigious or have better financial capabilities. Our second most noteworthy transaction was also concluded with Noibu Technologies in our suburban office segment located in Ottawa, representing 14,444 square feet. The essence of this transaction, similar to ProGym, that we had an opportunity to terminate the lease as an occupying tenant whose lease was coming to maturity in 2027, and we knew that they would not renew their lease. So we're capitalizing on market momentum in order to replace them with Noibu for a longer term and higher rent. It's important to note that both ProGym and Noibu's cases, both transactions affected our renewal rate as we needed to force tenant departures in order to account for these transactions. Therefore, there's no direct positive absorption to our occupancy rate as a result of these transactions. Out of the other transactions completed throughout the quarter, I wanted to note 2 following tenants with who we signed expansions with during the quarter. Notably, we signed a 3,380 square foot expansion with SFL Wealth Management, bringing their total footprint with us to 37,000 square feet in Quebec City, and again in our suburban office segment. In addition to an expansion of 2,422 square feet with MNP, again in our suburban office segment in Laval, brings our total footprint with us to 16,000 square feet. In terms of our lease renewals for the quarter, we had quite a busy quarter with just over 299,000 square feet of lease negotiations with our current tenants. As I mentioned, some of our new transactions impacted our lease renewal rate, but excluding these tenant replacements, our renewal rate for the quarter would have been 76%. Out of our noteworthy transactions, we renewed leases with [ Diffuse Inc. ] in our suburban office segment located in Montreal for a 10-year term for roughly 50,000 square feet, in addition to a 5-year renewal with BMO Nesbitt Burns in our suburban office segment in Ottawa for roughly 20,000 square feet. In addition, as we always look to renew leases in anticipation of their maturity, we renewed a total of 157,000 square feet of leases whose maturity dates fell in 2027 and subsequent years after. In terms of noteworthy transactions, we're looking at BBA Group in Saint-Hilaire, that's in our Montreal portfolio in our suburban office segment, for 69,000 square feet for a 10-year term. With [ Royal Drugs ] in Ottawa, also known as the Ottawa Medical Group, in our industrial segment for 46,000 square feet, also for a 10-year term. And with SFL Wealth Management, as I mentioned, that they did take an expansion, but we also renewed their lease for roughly 33,000 square feet in our suburban office segment in Quebec City, also for a 10-year term. In terms of rental spreads for the quarter, we achieved a 4.6% average increase in our lease renewal rate across all segments, so consistent with our strategy to always find an increase when possible. So we increased our industrial segment by 10.5%, our necessity-based retail segment by 7%, and our suburban office segment by 2.9%. In terms of our active large vacancies, I wanted to provide an update for a property located at 3695 des Laurentides in our Montreal portfolio, more specifically in Laval. As a reminder, this property spans 132,000 square feet and represents a 2.2% impact on our occupancy rate. I've mentioned in past quarters that we were negotiating with an international client for different size requirements of theirs, and I'm not necessarily proud to say that we're still negotiating with them as I do understand that there have been prolonged negotiations and it is taking time. The client, however, has retoured the property last week for a different requirement, and we're still in their plans at this time. It's just dealing with an international company takes more time and takes a little bit more, not necessarily effort, but takes more effort to get it to the finish line. However, we also have drummed up leasing interest with 3 other parties for various size requirements, including a full building requirement. Based on our discussions and certain terms that have been provided to our prospects, we'd be expecting revenue in 2027. Over the past summer months, we've noticed increased momentum in the market, mainly in terms of our industrial availability, which is a positive sign. Office requirements have remained very active as we do have a healthy pipeline. And retail, as per usual, continues to be our most stable operating segment, showing a 98.9% occupancy rate for which demand is constant. And on this note, I'll turn over the call to Marc-André.

Thank you, Stéphanie. Good morning, everyone. For the second quarter, rental revenues stood at $31.9 million. That's an increase of 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. The increase is caused by a non-cash straight-line lease adjustment, which negatively affected the rental revenue by $1.8 million in the second quarter of last year. Dispositions completed throughout 2025 and 2026 were partially offset by acquisitions concluded this year, and the net increase is $0.2 million. New leases concluded, higher lease renewal rental rates, and increases in rental spreads for in-place leases contributed to an increase of $0.2 million, which was partially offset by a decrease of $0.8 million resulting from planned tenant departures that are not yet replaced. Also, from free rent granted to new tenants and the rent reduction granted to Lion Electric. NOI increased by 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year, and the increase was driven by the previously mentioned straight-line lease adjustment. Cash same-property NOI remained stable for the quarter compared to the same period last year. For the 6-month period, cash same-property NOI decreased by 4.8%. The year-to-date decrease is driven by both industrial and office segments. First, the office segment was impacted by a partial lease cancellation payment received, and that payment is $1 million, and it positively affected NOI during the first quarter of 2025. A decrease in NOI due to free rent granted to new tenants in the first quarter of 2026, when leases were concluded in the fourth quarter of 2025, and planned departure that has not been replaced. Second, the decrease in the industrial segment is due to the planned departure of a tenant not yet fully replaced and the rent reduction of $0.4 million granted to Lion Electric. FFO adjusted per unit was $0.097 for the quarter. That's an increase of $0.014 or almost 17% compared to the same quarter last year. This increase was mainly driven by the previously mentioned increase in NOI. AFFO per unit was $0.08 for the quarter, an increase of $0.03 or 3% compared to the same quarter last year. The increase is explained by an increase in cash NOI of $0.3 million. We maintain our distribution to unitholders at 7.5 cents per unit for the second quarter, and that represents 30 cents per unit on an annualized basis. The AFFO adjusted payout ratio was 76.5% for the quarter, and that's an improvement of 2.7% from the same quarter last year. The value of our investment properties portfolio remained virtually unchanged at $1.2 billion compared to the prior quarter. We did not make any portfolio-wide changes to our cap rate this quarter, and the weighted average cap rate for the entire portfolio stood at 6.7%, the same as the previous quarter. We concluded the quarter with a total debt ratio of 58.1%. The weighted average term and average interest rate on our mortgage portfolio were 2.2 years and 4.4% respectively. Finally, at the end of the quarter, we have $0.6 million in cash and $14.8 million was available under our credit facilities, and that's a total equity of $15.4 million. So this completes our presentation. We will now open the call to questions. Operator, can we please have the first question on the line?

[Operator Instructions] We'll now pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from Mark Rothschild with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open.

Hey, just starting with, you know, obviously it's not a major deal with the office partner that you bought out. Talk a little bit about what went into the thought of buying out the stake and with a long-term plan, is this the property that you're going to be looking to sell at some point soon?

The dynamic of selling, of purchasing this property is basically a consequence of the poor management of our partner. And we felt that it was time for us to separate as a result of the poor management. So 2 years ago, driven by the same kind of impetus, we put the property on the market, and most of the people that were looking at purchasing the property were looking at it on a development basis. And obviously, on a pure development basis, it's worth a lot more than the total consideration that would call it $14 million. So our partner at that time was looking at it with a lot of stars in his eyes, basically thinking that this was a property that was worth $20 million, $22 million, but never basically made an offer to us to exit, and that's what we wanted. We wanted to exit from this property. But the frustrations just mounted, and as a result, we decided that it was time for us to step in and purchase the 50% interest. The property is going to be eventually on the market. So it's not a property that we're going to hold. And it's just we're waiting for the right moment in order to put it back on the market. We did attract some purchasers, and our goal is to reach back to these eventual purchasers. But for us, it was a question of managing. It was a question of responding properly to our tenancy. And they had the management interest, and I'll give you a few examples. When it was time to finance the property, we had to take the responsibility of financing or refinancing the property, negotiating with the lender because they seemed to be unable to do so. When it was time to negotiate the lease with Giant Tiger, that we basically identified when we go to ICSC and so on, and we identified Giant Tiger as a potential tenant, we had to carry all the negotiations. And at the end of the day, we had to pay them a fee for the negotiations that we did carry. So the frustrations were there, and we had to find a way out. Obviously, for us, the best way out would have been to have been purchased, but unfortunately, I don't think that the partner that we had had the money in order to purchase us. So that's the scenario. For us, it's a relief and it's tough, basically going back to the market eventually.

Okay, great. And maybe just 1 more. A lot of leasing information that was given pretty quickly. But looking at the leasing spreads, you know, retail, they've generally been pretty good. Are these numbers that we should look at as good expectations for what can be achieved over the next year or so, or were there any specific items that maybe pushed these numbers higher?

No, I think the numbers are a good indication. I think if you look at the past and you look at our trend, I think the numbers are strong and are a good indication.

Okay, great. Thanks. I'll turn it back.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Matt Kornack with National Bank of Canada. Your line is now open.

Maybe just to follow up on Mark's questioning with regards to the leasing spreads, but on the occupancy front. Give us a sense as to, obviously retail's full. Industrial seems like it took a little bit of a step back in the quarter, but how should we think about the trajectory in terms of your leasing prospects on vacant space versus any known kind of non-renewals in the next 12 months, call it?

Well, let's start with non-renewals. We haven't received any notices from our tenancy that they're not renewing leases for next year. That's a positive aspect. We're now in August. Usually, notices come, let's say, 6 months prior to the end of the term of the lease, and we haven't received notices on that front. As far as our leasing aspect and the occupancy rate, we're very hopeful that, first of all, as Stéphanie mentioned earlier, that the des Laurentides property is going to be partially or totally leased on a committed basis by the end of the year. That's 2.2%. So, and we were, I wouldn't say far advanced in negotiations, but I would say we are in negotiations and have to commit to something by the end of either the end of September or the end of October. So on a committed basis, we're hopeful that it's going to pan out. One of these tenants, the one that is looking at the whole building is a tenant that would need a fit-up period of almost a year. So it would mean that the property would be committed and let's say, and I'm just on an assumption basis, let's say that they would have occupancy on January 1st. The retrofit that they have to build in the property would take roughly 9 to 12 months. So as a result of it, as far as cash flow is concerned, it would not hit our cash flow next year, but as far as the streamlining of rent, then it would be recognized. But again, we're hopeful, we're talking about a minimum of 2% as far as the occupancy is concerned. The other one that Stéphanie mentioned in our presentation is a 24,000 square foot property located in Alberta. So that property, the reason that we lost our tenant is not because they didn't enjoy it, it was basically because the building was too small for them and they needed to double their size. There are 2 prospects that are looking at the property right now. Both of them to lease up the whole building. So we're hopeful on that front again. But that's 24,000 square feet. I don't think that that's going to move the needle. What will move the needle is more than 132,000 square feet of availability in Laval. Thank you.