Charter Hall Retail REIT (CQR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Charter Hall Retail REIT 2024 Half Year Results Briefing. [Operator Instructions] There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded today, Friday, the 16th February 2024. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Mr. Ben Ellis, Retail CEO. Thank you, sir. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to the Charter Hall Retail REIT first half results for FY '24. My name is Ben Ellis. I'm the Retail CEO for Charter Hall and an Executive Director of CQR. Joining me this morning is Joanne Donovan, Head of Retail Finance at Charter Hall. I would like to commence today's presentation with an acknowledgment of country. Charter Hall acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work and gather. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and recognize their continued care and contribution to country. Now turning to Slide 4 and our highlights for the period. CQR continues to deliver a resilient and growing income stream for our investors. The first half of FY '24 saw us deliver operating earnings per security of $0.135, in line with our full year guidance. Underlying same-property NPI growth was 3.7%, up from 2.9% at the same time last year. This growth is being driven by a unique blend of inflation-linked rental growth from our convenience net lease retail assets and turnover rent from our strong performing supermarkets within our convenience shopping center retail portfolio, complemented by fixed rental increases from our specialty tenants. Underpinned by our ongoing focus on the resilient nature of nondiscretionary retail, MAT growth remained strong at 4.1% as our shopping centers continue to trade well and remain the dominant convenience retail assets within their trade area. For the period, we completed 172 leasing transactions, achieving positive leasing spreads of 1.2%.Additionally, occupancy increased to a portfolio record high of 98.7%, up from 98.6% at June. During the period, we also took advantage of a significant off-market unsolicited interest in our assets and sold 4 noncore shopping centers in line with book values. These transactions have resulted in reduced pro forma balance sheet gearing to 24.2%, and CQR now has over $500 million of balance sheet capacity. These divestments reflect the attractive nature of CQR's assets and a strong private investor sentiment towards the sector. The sale prices achieved and the ongoing resilient income growth demonstrated by the portfolio support CQR's NTA. As I will discuss in more detail later in the presentation, this balance sheet capacity has provided CQR with the opportunity to invest alongside one of our existing wholesale capital partners in Mercer to acquire Eastgate Shopping Center in Bondi Junction, New South Wales, an outstanding addition to the CQR portfolio. Looking forward, we will continue to curate the CQR portfolio to deliver ongoing and resilient income growth for our investors and we are well positioned to take advantage of attractive acquisition opportunities that may arise. Turning to Slide 5 and the REIT strategy. CQR strategy remains focused on being the leading owner of convenience retail property. We achieved this by enhancing the portfolio quality through curation of the assets we own, active asset management to drive strong rental growth, utilization of low site coverage allowing for expansion and redeveloped potential of our convenience shopping center retail portfolio and prudent capital management. The income growth created for CQR from convenience net lease retail acquisitions in recent years has generated capital growth whilst also adding a large and growing component of CPI-linked rental growth to the portfolio, complementing the indirect inflation-linked rental growth for our major supermarket leases and the fixed specialty rental escalations from our convenience shopping center retail portfolio. This strategy continues to deliver a high-quality, resilient and growing income stream for our investors. Slide 6 outlines how we executed against that strategy and details the increased income growth it has delivered. CQR continues to actively curate our convenience shopping center retail portfolio to grow our major tenant customer composition. Today, the REIT's portfolio and major rental growth profile consists of a high-quality, predominantly metropolitan convenience shopping center portfolio, complemented by our convenience net lease retail portfolio benefiting from CPI-linked rental reviews. CQR's continued diversification of major tenant customers significantly enhances tenant covenant quality and income resilience for the REIT. CQR's 8 major tenant customers now include Woolworths, Coles Group, Wesfarmers, ALDI, Ampol, BP, Gull and the Endeavour Group, delivering 57% of total portfolio income. Importantly, these 8 major tenants also delivered 3.3% income growth and over 36% of this income now comes from triple net leases that deliver true and consistent inflation-linked rental growth with no CapEx drag. The REIT's exposure to a more diversified pool of major convenience retailers and superior long-term income growth characteristics set CQR apart from its peers. Charter Hall's market-leading capability to access off-market opportunities and the ability to partner with other Charter Hall funds to diversify our exposure to leading major tenants is a clear competitive advantage for CQR. As we look to the future, the REIT's portfolio is structured to continue to deliver stronger underlying inflation-linked rental growth and the reduced drag of capital expenditure due to increasing exposure to triple net leases. Slide 7 details how we've delivered against our strategy through active asset management. Following unsolicited off-market offers during the period, we divested 4 noncore retail assets in line with book values. These assets were centers that were either regionally located, competition impacted or where we felt we had maximized the total return potential of the properties. The proceeds from these sales will initially be used to repay debt, but importantly, provides the REIT with significant balance sheet optionality. During the period, we have also secured 2 excellent portfolio-enhancing assets for CQR. In addition to the previously mentioned acquisition of Eastgate Bondi Junction, we have also acquired the Rye Hotel on the Mornington Peninsula alongside our wholesale capital partner, Hostplus. The Rye Hotel is leased to the market-leading Endeavour Group was secured off-market by the Charter Hall transaction team and is subject to a new 15-year triple net lease benefiting from uncapped CPI reviews. Importantly, both assets have stronger forecast rental growth and higher perspective [indiscernible] than the assets divested and therefore, provide a sustainable and growing income stream for our investors. These transactions are a clear demonstration of our focus on active asset management to enhance portfolio quality. Eastgate Bondi Junction continues our focus on the curation of our convenience shopping center retail portfolio to higher growth, predominantly East Coast metropolitan-based shopping centers. The Rye Hotel in Mornington Peninsula increases our exposure to convenience net lease retail that benefits from no CapEx drag, long leases and uncapped CPI rental increases. The convenience net less retail assets are leased on a net effective rent basis, providing CQR unitholders with true AFFO yield. Post asset sales and acquisitions, pro forma balance sheet gearing is a low 24.2% and look-through gearing is 31%. CQR now has $518 million of investment capacity available to pursue any future opportunities that may arise. Slide 8 looks at Eastgate Bondi Junction in some more detail. Today, CQR announced it has acquired a 20% interest in Eastgate Shopping Center Bondi Junction, New South Wales. This acquisition was achieved through the RP6 joint venture with one of our existing wholesale capital partners in Mercer. Eastgate is one of only 3 sub-regional shopping centers in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. The center is anchored by a full-line Coles, Kmart and ALDI and complemented with too many majors in Dan Murphy's and the Reject Shop, along with 27 specialty retail tenancies spread over 15,046 square meters of lettable area. The center also provides for 907 parking spaces. Eastgate Shopping Center is located 5 kilometers southeast of the Sydney CBD, opposite Westfield Bondi Junction and within 150 meters of Bondi Junction train and bus station. The center services are particularly dense trade area of over 400,000 residents with average income 57% higher than the Sydney average. This acquisition demonstrates CQR's continued commitment to asset recycling into high-quality metropolitan convenience retail shopping centers with strong investment returns and our wholesale equity partner's ongoing commitment to invest alongside CQR in acquiring premium investment-grade assets. Eastgate Shopping Center was secured by the Charter Hall transaction team and again demonstrates the value of Charter Hall's management of CQR. Slide 9 looks at our ESG highlights for the period. CQR continues to deliver on a sustainability commitment of Net Zero carbon emissions by 2025. Our power purchase agreement with Engie commenced earlier this year. We've installed 20.2 megawatts of solar and now have 11.3 megawatt hours of installed battery capacity, an increase of 2.3 megawatt hours since FY '23. Our NABERS Energy portfolio rating has improved to 5 Stars, and we've maintained our Water portfolio rating of 4.2 Stars. Pleasingly, our performance has also been recognized with CQR achieving a ranking of first in Australia and New Zealand for listed retail entities in the 2023 GRESB report. CQR also recognized the important role our centers play in supporting the communities in which we operate. Annually, we continue to deliver a number of national and local initiatives within our convenience-based shopping centers and we are deeply committed to our partnerships and responsibility to deliver shared social value in our communities and across our supply chain. I'll now hand over to Joanne to talk through the financial results for the period before moving on to the operational performance in more detail.

Thank you, Ben, and good morning. Our operating earnings and distributions can be found on Slide 11. Total net property income grew by 3.6% to $121.5 million for the period. This increase has been driven by same-property NPI growth of 3.7%, with the like-for-like convenience shopping center NPI growth of 3.3% and like-for-like convenience net lease retail growth of 5.7%. Finance costs have increased, reflecting the significant rise in interest rates. CQR's weighted average cost of debt increased from 3.1% in December '22 to 4.3% in December '23. The decrease in other expenses reflects valuation movements. We delivered operating earnings of $78.6 million or $0.1352 per unit, which reflects continued NPI growth, offset by rising interest rates. Distribution is $0.123 per unit for the period, which is in line with our guidance to the market. Turning now to Slide 12 on the balance sheet. The net property valuation movement has been the main driver of the movement in NTA, which has decreased by 4.0% from $0.473 per unit to $0.454 per unit. Our tenants continue to be in a positive position to pay their rent with debt collection at over 99.4% at 31 December 2023. Our key valuation metrics are shown on Slide 13. 96% of the portfolio, excluding assets held-for-sale, were revalued externally as at 31 December, with a valuation decrease of $45 million or negative 1.1%. The strong income growth the portfolio delivered acted to offset the impact of capital movements. The total portfolio valuation movement of negative 1.1% is split between positive 2.7% income growth and negative 3.8% capital movement. The shopping center portfolio value declined by $77 million or 2.4%. This includes capital investment of $43 million in the 6-month period. The convenience net lease retail portfolio increased in value by 3.0% or $32 million, driven by CPI-linked rental growth. Both segments experienced cap rate expansion or 26 basis points expansion in the shopping center portfolio to 6.07% and 10 basis points in the net lease portfolio to 4.93%. This results in a total portfolio cap rate of 5.77% as at 31 December. We believe the income growth, the portfolio has continued to deliver together with our own transaction sales evidence at book value will support valuations going forward. Slide 14 shows key highlights of our capital management. CQR enjoys diversified funding sources with no debt maturing until March 2026. During the 6-month period, we extended $325 million of existing capacity into FY '29. This results in a weighted average debt maturity of 3.6 years. Additionally, we increased our debt facilities by $160 million. This puts CQR in a strong capital position with available investment capacity of $518 million, which has been calculated to include the impact of contracted divestments and acquisitions in the second half of FY '24. Pro forma balance sheet gearing is 24.2% and look-through gearing is in the lower end of the 30% to 40% range at 31.0%. We are comfortably within our gearing and [indiscernible] covenants. And during the period, Moody's reaffirmed our Baa1 issuer rating with a stable outlook. CQR took out an additional $600 million of hedging in the period with a forward start date of June 25 to increase its hedge profile in FY '26 and FY '27. Further details on the REIT's hedging profile can be found in Annexure 3. I'll now hand back to Ben to provide operational updates.

Thank you, Joanne. Turning now to Slide 16 and the portfolio summary. During the half year, our convenience retail shopping center portfolio occupancy increased to an all-time high of 98.7%. As noted earlier in the presentation, CQR's portfolio MAT growth remained strong at 4.1%. This growth demonstrates the resilience of the nondiscretionary nature of the portfolio and the strength of the rent strategy, including our ongoing commitment to enhancing the portfolio quality through curation of assets that we own. The portfolio WALE remained relatively stable at 7.1 years following continued strong leasing renewal activity. Importantly, the portfolio now has 61% of total income growth directly or indirectly linked to inflation with 26% of income growth linked to CPI and a further 35% of total income growth indirectly linked to inflation through turnover rent mechanisms. Moving now to Slide 17, outlining our tenant customer composition in some more detail. As mentioned earlier in today's presentation, CQR's total portfolio income from major tenant customers is now 57% and major tenant rental growth in calendar year 2023 was 3.3%, up from an average of 1.2% prior to the curation of our portfolio. Across the major supermarket providers, we remain well balanced between Coles and Woolworths and continue to partner with ALDI. Importantly, when we look at our exposure to any one specialty retailer, it remains limited, with Specsavers, our largest specialty tenant at 1% of total portfolio income. We retain a clear bias towards everyday needs and convenience-based retail, food and services. Turning now to Slide 18 and our convenience net lease retail portfolio. The convenience net lease retail assets now represent 26% of CQR's portfolio by value and 21% of total portfolio income. These are all triple net leased, meaning they are free from any CapEx expenditure and provide a true AFFO yield for CQR investors. Their rent review mechanisms are CPI-linked, delivering meaningful income growth for the portfolio with a convenience net lease retail major tenants, delivering 5% like-for-like growth in calendar year 2023. These convenient net lease retail assets continue to complement CQR's existing convenience-based shopping center portfolio and provide valuable diversification benefits, enhanced tenant covenant quality and security of income with a strong major tenant income growth profile. As previously stated, this major tenant growth income profile is unique to CQR and not available in other less mature or lower-quality retail portfolios. Turning now to Slide 19 and discussing our supermarkets in some more detail. Strong trading supermarkets remain the foundation of CQR's convenience-based shopping center portfolio. During the period, supermarkets delivered MAT growth of 4.6%. And importantly, supermarkets paying turnover rent delivered an even stronger MAT growth of 4.9%. The number of supermarkets in turnover was at a record high 70%, up from 67% in June 2023 and 62% in December 2023. Supermarkets within 10% of their turnover threshold has fallen slowly due to supermarkets moving into paying turnover rent. In an ongoing and elevated inflationary environment, CQR's high percentage of stores paying turnover rent within 10% of turnover around thresholds provides valuable rental growth exposure to inflation and is unique to CQR. Once again, this is not as really available in less mature or lower quality portfolios. Turning now to Slide 20 and our specialty tenants. CQR specialty portfolio continues to deliver strong trading metrics as a direct result of the quality of our convenience retail shopping centers and their dominant positions within their catchments. Over the period, sales productivity reached a portfolio of record of $10,710 per square meter. Our occupancy costs reduced to 11.3%, providing room for future rental growth. For the period, we completed 172 leasing transactions made up of 70 new leases with a positive leasing spread of 0.1% and 102 renewals, achieving positive leasing spreads of 1.6%. This translates to positive leasing spreads of 1.2% across the specialty tenant portfolio. Pleasingly, our retention rate remains high at 83% as tenant customers continue to see the attractive nature of our centers. The portfolio of strong sales productivity, sustainable occupancy costs, continued positive leasing spreads and high tenant retention demonstrates the quality of the portfolio and the defensive nature of CQR's rental income. I would also like to recognize that these results are a direct reflection of the quality of the Charter Hall management team, and I want to thank them for their ongoing efforts and expertise. Finally, turning to Slide 22 for outlook and guidance. CQR strategy remains consistent and is focused on convenience retail property that provides income growth and resilience. Our expectation is that positive leasing spreads, high occupancy levels and MAT growth will continue. We also expect to benefit from direct and indirect inflation in rental growth and our increasing exposure to CapEx-free triple net leases. We will remain diligent in enhancing the portfolio quality through curation and active asset management, complemented by an increased focus on convenience net lease retail. Barring any unforeseen events, CQR reconfirms expected FY '24 operating earnings of approximately $0.274 per unit. The distribution payout ratio range is expected to be 90% to 95% of operating earnings. That ends the formal presentation. And with that, I now invite questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Tua Thuvarakan with Macquarie.

My first question was just on capital recycling. So over the half, you've executed on nearly $300 million of capital recycling. Could you potentially talk through your thoughts on portfolio composition or key strategic intentions when you're both divesting and acquiring assets? Are there particular types of assets or qualities that you're looking for? Any color would be appreciated.

Yes, no problem. Look, we've been on a long journey for a number of years in recycling through our portfolio. And look, very clearly for us, the focus is on recycling out of other noncore, lower quality or regional property assets that have limited growth potential into higher-quality portfolio enhancing assets that have longer-term growth potential. And look, in terms of composition, as you've seen in the period, we've invested both in convenience shopping center retail asset at Eastgate as well as a convenience net lease property in Rye, both of which have better and superior [indiscernible] long-term growth forecast and assets divested side where we'll look for portfolio-enhancing opportunities going forward.

My second question was more broadly on retail conditions. It seems that our specialty sales and leasing metrics have softened marginally over the half. However, you're still forecasting releasing spreads to remain positive. Can you provide some insight into what gives you confidence on this? And any further color on discussions or conditions across your specialty retailers?

Yes, sure. Look, so if you look at the breakdown of our specialty sales, we have a very limited amount that actually relates to the discretionary items such as fashion, jewelry, et cetera, and a lot of it goes back to retail, food and services. Whilst our positive leasing spreads were at the lower end of our 5-year averages over the period, they still remain positive and it's a very compositional and volatile series. So, at any given point in time, they will dance around a bit, but we just see the strength, underlying strength of our portfolio showing the occupancy cost has reduced slightly and at a very sustainable 11.3%. So, we're confident that the nondiscretionary nature of our assets and the quality of our leasing team and our relationships with tenants will continue that trend of positive leasing spreads.

And maybe just finally, you reiterated your FY '24 guidance. Can you potentially speak to some of the key drivers, including expectations for like-for-like NPI growth over the remaining half and maybe your BBSW assumption as well?

Yes. So as you mentioned, we reaffirmed guidance and a very similar story for the second half. Continued NPI growth, offset by higher cost of debt. Our cost of debt calculation at 31 December is 4.3%, and that's off our average hedging of 70%, BBSY assumptions of 4.4% and then our bank margin of 1.7% on top of that.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Sholto Maconochie with Jefferies.

Just a couple of questions. You've done a lot of recycling, sort of following from the last line of questioning. The equity accounted line or the sort of the non-direct assets seem to be growing and you're buying a lot more minority stakes without control. Does that sort of concern you? Or you're more focused on the operating performance, which is doing quite well [indiscernible] acquisitions and divestments?

Operating performance and growth is a key focus of ours. The fact that we're investing alongside existing wholesale capital partners in existing joint venture arrangements is a function of availability of capital and the asset type of investing at any given point in time. So to be frank, I mean, we'll always look to performance as a key driver.

And then just on, going forward, you got a lot of liquidity. Are you looking at buying any assets in the second half this year? Or is this really opportunistic when things come up?

It will definitely be opportunistic, Sholto. We're always looking at portfolio-enhancing opportunities and other initiatives that will come at us. So, we'll see what happens in the second half.

And then finally the guidance, did you still assume for the BBSW at 4.4% for second half as well?

Yes.

Our next question comes from the line of Grant McCasker with UBS.

Ben, just on the acquisitions, the Eastgate asset looks like a good deal, but $25 million, 20%. Was there an opportunity to acquire more? And can you give us a little bit more detail on that, please?

Sure. Look, at the time that this asset was available, we were still working through our divestment program. And in terms of having certainty of capital to invest into that asset, that point in time without materially gearing up was something we considered. Equally, we've got very strong wholesale capital partners and interest in CQR and our asset class, given our relationship and management by Charter Hall. So, it was an ideal opportunity to partner with Mercer in expansion of the RP6 portfolio at that point in time, but we're very happy with that acquisition.

And then just on the occupancy, I think you're at basically all-time highs. Is that full? Or is there opportunities to actually or plans in place to actually address some of the vacancies?

Yes. Look, we're always working through it. You're always going to get a bit of churn in specialty leasing as you see across everyone's portfolios, Grant. But one of the important things is, obviously, we've got a big in-house team here at Charter Hall for convenience retail, the biggest in the country and very focused on really driving our performance. But equally, it's important to remember that we've been on this long journey of curating assets away from lower growth assets or competition impacted assets. So, as we continue to improve our portfolio with high-quality acquisitions and investment in our existing assets, we do think there's opportunity for us to continue to improve or at least maintain those very strong metrics.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Alexander Prineas with Morningstar.

Thanks for the presentation. It's very good to see the significant exposure to the CPI uplift, the difference between 2018 and now. Just wondering with MAT growth for the tenants around about 4%, which is basically inflation, that's sort of implying not a lot of volume growth for the tenants, it's more sort of price-driven MAT growth. So, I'm just interested to know whether the supermarkets are still keen to do inflation-linked leases or have they pulled back from doing those on where to the extent where you're signing newer leases with them?

Look, I think, first of all, the MAT growth at 4%, yes, in line with inflation, you point out, but our prior period at 9%. So, you're obviously comping off a pretty big increase previously and goes to show the strength of the nondiscretionary market. In terms of supermarket leases, they're very well worn and been there for a long time, their turnover rent based in rental increases. It's a market standard. We continue to do it. The big focus for us, however, and something that sets us apart is the fact that we have a very strong proportion of our leases with net lease structures. Therefore, we don't have [indiscernible] leakage that other less mature portfolios do.

So all the -- any new leases that you have signed have been -- have had inflation clauses in them?

They've got the turnover linked, certain market leases, but all of our net convenience retail leases are absolutely CPI indexed and they're triple net. There's no CapEx drag. They're effectively leased and is true AFFO yield for CQR investors.

Our next question comes from the line of Murray Connellan with Moelis.

I was wondering whether you could provide us just with a quick update on the portfolio-enhancing CapEx that you're doing at the moment? What sort of run rates? And I guess, what yields are you seeing on what you're spending at the moment and how has that changed in the last year, please?

Yes. No, problems, Murray. Look, we've talked about it quite a bit that obviously, our portfolio CapEx and development spend is predominantly focused on unlocking the low site coverage of our assets and the high underlying land value to add pad site type developments. They include things like Dan Murphy's and KFC and the like, and those are the sort of assets that really add a little bit of alpha to our shopping center portfolio and provide growth. In terms of return profile, given the fact that we already own the land, it will depend on which type of deal we're doing, but we're targeting double-digit yield on cost type sort of returns. And to be frank and if it doesn't meet those sort of hurdles and there's no other compelling reason to do it, we just won't do it. So that's really what we're focused on. And equally, for us, one of the real big positives of our portfolio is the fact that our assets are in really good shape. We do invest in our properties to drive income growth and MAT growth. And we'll continue to do that. But once again, it's value-enhancing and income enhancing.

Would you be able to quantify the run rate?

Look, it really depends on what comes at us. We've always sort of said that 3 to 5 pad sites is achievable per year. And that could be as simple as providing services to a point or it could be building a whole premise. So, if it's $10 million to $15 million is something that could be achieved, but we'll assess that on a year-by-year basis.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Richard Jones with JPMorgan.

Good set of numbers. Just had a few questions. There's a couple of comments you made about acquisition capacity through the call. Just wondering if you have a preferred look through gearing level.

Look, we've always said that our look through gearing target is 30% to 40%. Naturally, given the fact that we've had a higher interest rate environment, the fact we've been able to sell assets at book values and sort of lower our gearing has given us some available capacity, but equally not accretive to earnings this year because of those high current debt costs. So, we will -- we're happy where it sits. We'll look at opportunities that they come up. But we're no immediate need to do anything at this point in time. But once again, given the fact that we're part of the Charter Hall Group and the market-leading transaction team and the fact that, that is so much off-market, we'll see things that others won't. And if those opportunities are valuable for CQR in the farm, then of course, we'll look at them.

And just in terms of the service station valuations, can you just clarify, did the first half WALE capture the full annual escalation?

Yes. So, most of our valuation, most of our valuations, almost some service station assets have their rent review in Q2 of the financial year or Q4 of the calendar year. So, they do capture that CPI indexation that came through in December.

And can you just talk about specialty spreads? Where you -- I know you called that you think that will be still positive, but specialty occupancy cost and relatively steady. Do you think around that [ 11% ] mark is about the right number for your portfolio?

Yes, absolutely. And it's been that way for a long time, Richard. And I think the pleasing thing for us is that our sales are growing and that did tick down a little bit. But from our perspective, we can continue to grow especially rental income in line with their sales growth and maintain occupancy and retention rates. They're all positives for the portfolio. And ultimately, having sustainable occupancy cost is not just about growing rents, it's also about them being sustainable in the event there are any shocks in the environment. So, we're very happy where we sit and we think that our numbers reflect the fact that we've got a continued long and sustainable income line coming out of specialty tenants.

And just a final sort of bigger picture one Ben. Just in terms of where we are in the cycle for retail sales. Can you just talk about how you think the trajectory of supermarkets and specialties within your portfolio might trend over the next 6 to 12 months?

Yes. Look, we're expect them to continue to grow. I mean history tells you through all economic conditions and shocks that nondiscretionary retail is a very consistent sort of category. And people have got to access medical services and they've got to do their day to days they go around. So, the other thing important to note is that despite the fact we have got a different economic environment, the population growth in this country is really a point of the fact that retail sales, particularly nondiscretionary, will continue to benefit from the strong population growth. So, we think we sit in a good spot. We're very selective of which assets we own and that will be another key factor in driving sales growth for us as an owner of retail.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm showing no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the call back over to Ben for closing remarks.

Thank you very much, everyone, listening in today. Look forward to catching up you all in one-on-ones and other various meetings and wish you all the best for the rest of the results season. Thank you.