Charter Hall Retail REIT (MQV.SG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Charter Hall Retail REIT 2025 Full Year Results Briefing. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded today, Monday, 18th August 2025. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Mr. Ben Ellis, Retail REIT's CEO. Thank you. Sir, please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to the Charter Hall Retail REIT Full Year Results for FY 2025. My name is Ben Ellis, and 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'd 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. Turning to Slide 4 and our highlights for the half. FY '25 has been a progressive and successful year for CQR. Our property portfolio value grew to $4.8 billion as of 30 June, following the successful takeover of the HPI portfolio, adding 57 high-quality and capital-efficient net lease convenience retail assets to CQR. Our portfolio occupancy remains high at 98.9%. And importantly, our same-property NPI growth is strong at 2.6%, driven by a unique blend of high-quality net lease convenience retail assets delivering NPI growth of 3.1% and our convenience shopping center assets delivering NPI growth of 2.4%. Our properties continue to perform strongly with a portfolio MAT growth of 2.6%. Over the period, we delivered record leasing spreads of 5.5% and importantly, maintained a high specialty retention rate of 85%. Our portfolio recorded net valuation growth of $151 million, resulting in NTA increasing 2.9% to $4.64 per security. It is clear from increasing investment activity and investor demand for high-quality convenience retail assets, like those in the CQR portfolio, we will see valuations continue to grow due to the strong and resilient income growth from the sector and accelerating cap rate compression. For FY '25, we delivered operating earnings per security of $0.254 and distribution per security of $0.247, both in line with guidance. Following the divestment of further noncore shopping center assets and the successful launch of the Charter Hall Convenience Retail Fund, or CCRF, CQR's pro forma balance sheet gearing is now 27.1% and pro forma look-through gearing is now 35%, providing capacity to grow our portfolio. The continued curation of our portfolio towards best-in-class, dominant convenience retail assets, including our exposure to capital-efficient net lease convenience retail assets, coupled with our robust operating performance results in a strong outlook for FY '26, with forecast operating earnings growth of 3.5%. Turning now to Slide 5 and the REIT strategy. CQR's strategy remains focused on delivering the highest property income growth and earnings growth from the convenience retail sector. We achieved this by investing in dominant convenience retail property in strategic locations focused on nondiscretionary goods and services that are resilient throughout the economic cycle. Our tenant covenant quality is market-leading. We have a diversity of rent review structures and an increasing exposure to capital-efficient triple and double net leases, which maximize effective rental growth and in turn, earnings growth. Our net lease convenience retail portfolio grew considerably during the year, and we're firm in our opinion that net lease retail property without the drag of any capital expenditure or leasing incentives will continue to deliver the strongest net effective rental growth across the sector. This highlights the strength of our strategy to invest in a diversified and well-curated convenience retail portfolio to maximize earnings growth for CQR unitholders. Turning now to Slide 6. Charter Hall is Australia's largest owner of convenience retail assets with over $16 billion of assets under management across more than 900 properties. This portfolio is managed by Charter Hall's in-house convenience retail team, the largest in Australia with over 150 people located across the country. Our teams across property management, leasing, asset management, retail finance and investment management are solely focused on convenience retail and are dedicated to maximizing income growth, asset productivity and valuation growth for CQR's investors. Pleasingly, our tenant customers agree, once again, rating Charter Hall as the #1 manager of retail property amongst our peers for the fourth consecutive year. Turning now to Slide 7. Annually, we participate in the Monash University CentreSAT survey. As previously mentioned, our tenant customers continue to rate Charter Hall as the #1 manager of retail property and have done so for the past 4 years. This can only be achieved through a fully integrated in-house management platform, working with our tenant customers to ensure our retail property assets remain dominant in their catchments, deliver the best offering, experience and amenity for the communities in which they operate. Our focus on tenant customers is key to our ongoing success as their growth and increasing profitability drives income growth and ultimately, earnings growth for CQR unitholders. I would like to thank the Charter Hall team for their ongoing effort and management of CQR's assets. Turning now to Slide 8. As previously outlined during the year, CQR successfully finalized the privatization of the ASX-listed HPI, alongside our wholesale investment partner, Hostplus. This $1.3 billion portfolio acquisition materially enhances the long-term income growth potential of CQR with HPI forecast to deliver rental growth of 3.6% per annum. Back in 2015, CQR's portfolio consisted of only convenience shopping center assets with total value of $2.2 billion. Today, CQR's portfolio is a truly diversified convenience portfolio of over $4.8 billion with close to 40% of the portfolio invested in net lease convenience retail property. This has been achieved through our ongoing commitment to portfolio curation and most importantly, through our management by Charter Hall and the market-leading ability to unlock accretive off-market portfolio transaction opportunities with major leading tenants, including Bp, Ampol and Endeavour Group as well as facilitating the privatization of HPI. This has transformed CQR's portfolio and provides investors with an increasing diversity of major anchor tenants and review mechanisms that will underpin CQR's income growth through all economic cycles. This blend of convenience retail assets is unique to CQR within the retail sector. Turning to Slide 9. The privatization of HPI alongside our wholesale investment partner, Host Plus was completed over the year and has been a major success. CQR's initial equity investment of $367.5 million in HPI is now worth $385.5 million. This is a 4.9% or $18 million gain for CQR unitholders. Importantly, the portfolio is materially accretive to CQR's future rental growth profile with the HPI portfolio forecast to deliver 3.6% annual rent growth. With the addition of CQR's investment in HPI, CQR's portfolio exposure to capital-efficient net lease convenience retail assets is now 39% and further diversifies the fund's exposure to market-leading major tenants. Turning to Slide 10. In addition to HPI, the team continues to focus both on acquisitions and divestments as part of our ongoing portfolio curation strategy aimed at delivering stronger, longer-term NOI and earnings growth. Over FY '25, we acquired 4 net lease convenience assets leased to Endeavour Group, ABC, Z Energy and Ampol. The combined value of these assets was $58.1 million, reflecting an average yield of 6%. Additionally, we expanded the RP1 shopping center portfolio with the acquisition of Glebe Hill Village in Hobart and Corio Village in Geelong. During the period, we divested Lake Macquarie Square and 2 noncore freestanding supermarkets in Cootamundra and Tumut in line with or above book values. We maintain our focus on maximizing the productivity of our assets and have significant land available for expansion and new pad site developments. Over the past 4 years, 9 pad site developments within the portfolio have been completed and generated an IRR of over 20%, and we continue to pursue this highly accretive investment activity. Turning to Slide 11. As this chart shows, strong and consistent income growth is the hallmark of the CQR portfolio. Despite capitalization rates being materially consistent with where they were 5 years ago, CQR's portfolio valuation has grown by over 22%. This is due to underlying rental growth, a characteristic not available in less mature or lower quality portfolios. With increasing investor demand for the sector and the likelihood of cap rate compression accelerating, we expect valuations to grow strongly over the next few years. I'll now hand to Joanne to talk through the financial results for the period before moving on to the operational performance in some more detail.

Thanks, Ben, and good morning. Our operating earnings can be found on Slide 13. CQR achieved same-property NPI growth of 2.6%, driven by like-for-like shopping center NPI growth of 2.4% and like-for-like net lease retail growth of 3.1%. Finance costs have increased during the period, reflecting CQR's weighted average cost of debt increasing from 4.4% to 4.9%. We delivered operating earnings of $0.254 per unit for the year. This is in line with guidance to the market. Distribution was $0.247 per unit, which is in line with DPU for FY '24. Turning now to Slide 14 and the balance sheet. Investment property has increased over FY '25 to $4.8 billion, largely driven by the HPI acquisition. Our tenants continue to be in a positive position to pay their rent with tenant arrears of less than 0.3% at 30 June 2025. NTA per unit increased by 2.9% to $4.64, driven by favorable valuation uplift. Our key valuation metrics are shown on Slide 15. 99% of the portfolio was externally revalued over FY '25. Shopping center cap rates have compressed to 6.06% at June '25. Shopping center net valuation growth was $81 million or 2.9%, driven by strong rental growth. Net lease cap rates are 5.24% at June '25, which reflects the HPI portfolio for the first time. Net lease retail valuation increased by GBP 70 million or 3.9%, reflecting CPI-linked rental growth and a gain from the HPI investment. Given the demand for convenience retail assets, we believe CQR's portfolio will continue to benefit from valuation uplift going forward. Slide 16 highlights our capital management. CQR enjoys diversified funding sources with a weighted average debt maturity of 2.8 years. Post acquisition, we refinanced the entire HPI debt platform, including the prepayment of HPI USPP noteholders with margin reductions. We are currently focused on refinancing the GBP 277 million of debt maturing over FY '26 and are confident of achieving favorable pricing and 10-year outcomes. Post the CCF transaction and the net capital return of $294 million that occurred in July, pro forma balance sheet gearing is 27.1% and look-through gearing is 35%. I'll now hand back to Ben to provide an operational update.

Thanks, Joanne. Turning to Slide 18 and the portfolio summary. Our convenience shopping center occupancy has remained high and stable at 98.9% with a portfolio WALE of 7 years. Our commitment to earnings-enhancing portfolio curation has continued with 61% of the portfolio invested in convenience retail shopping centers and 39% in net lease retail, which provides CQR investors with strong CapEx-efficient net effective rental growth. Turning now to Slide 19 and our strong term covenants. Our portfolio is leased to sector-leading tenant customers with excellent covenant strength. Our major tenant customer profile remains diverse and provides a range of rental review structures that will deliver growth through all economic cycles. Importantly, our increasing exposure to net lease convenience retail will ensure we deliver stronger net effective rental growth than other traditional retail portfolios. Over 60% of CQR's rental income is secured through market-leading major tenant customers, including bp, Woolworths, Coles, QVC and AVC, Wesfarmers, Endeavour Group, Ampol and ALDI. Turning to Slide 20 and our net lease portfolio. Our convenience net lease retail assets at financial year-end represented 39% of CQR's total portfolio by value. These assets are all triple or double net leased, meaning they are free of any material capital expenditure and provide a true AFFO yield for CQR investors. These convenience net lease retail assets continue to complement CQR's existing convenience-based shopping center portfolio and deliver valuable diversification benefits, enhanced tenant covenant quality and security of income. No other REIT in Australia retains this compelling mix of true, net lease long WALE convenience retail assets alongside high-quality convenience retail shopping centers. Moving to Slide 21 and our supermarket anchors. Our supermarket mix remains well balanced between Coles and Woolworths, and we continue to partner with ALDI. Strong trading supermarkets remain the foundation of CQR's convenience-based shopping center portfolio. During the period, supermarkets delivered MAT growth of 2.5%, up from 2.4% at June 2024. Supermarkets in turnover within 10% of reaching their sales threshold remains market-leading at 85%. Maintaining and increasing this percentage will ensure CQR generates greater rent growth on a long-term basis moving forward, once again supporting our strategy of delivering the highest property income and earnings growth from the convenience retail sector. Slide 22 outlines our specialty tenants. Over the period, our specialty tenant sales productivity reached an all-time portfolio record high of $11,356 per square meter, and our tenant's occupancy costs remained stable at 11.4%, providing room for future rental growth. We firmly believe that as Australia's population continues to grow and the supply of new retail property remains challenged, the productivity of our assets will continue to accelerate. For the period, we completed 272 specialty leasing transactions, consisting of 89 new leases and 183 renewals, achieving a positive leasing spread of 5.5%. This is a portfolio record for CQR. Leasing spreads on renewals were strong at 4.9%. And on new deals, we achieved an impressive 7.6% increase. Pleasingly, our specialty shop retention rate also remained high at 85%, which in turn continues to reduce downtime and leasing incentives across our portfolio. This is an important statistic as we pay virtually no incentives when renewing our specialty tenants and in turn, a high retention rate means we're able to generate stronger net effective rental growth. FY '25 has delivered outstanding operating results across our portfolio of convenience retail shopping centers and once again demonstrates not only the attractive and resilient nature of our portfolio, but the benefit of the Charter Hall team managing the CQR portfolio. Slide 23 looks at our ESG highlights for the period. CQR and Charter Hall recognize the important role our assets play in supporting the communities in which we operate. We are pleased to announce that from 1 July this year, CQR will operate as net zero for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, predominantly through our existing on-site solar generation and our off-site renewable energy supply through our PPA with Engie. We have 16.5 megawatts of solar installed on our rooftops and 11.3 megawatt hours of battery capacity in place with 2 further battery installations scheduled for FY '26. We have increased waste diversion by 8% across our shopping center portfolio and achieved a ranking of 2nd in Australia and New Zealand for listed retail entities in the 2024 GRESB report. Annually, we deliver a number of national and local community initiatives within our convenience-based shopping centers and are deeply committed to our partnerships and responsibility to create shared social value in our communities and across our supply chains. Slide 25 looks at our post-balance date investment in CCRF. As announced recently, CQR has leveraged Charter Hall Group's recently launched Convenience Retail Fund, or CCRF, to facilitate the completion of our funding strategy for HBI. As part of this, CQR transferred its 49.9% interest in existing wholesale partnerships, RP1 and RP2 into CCRF, along with 4 100% owned CQR assets. This has enabled CQR to retain a $385 million investment in CCRF as the fund's largest investor at 22% of total equity committed and CQR has realized a net return of capital of $294 million. Post this, CQR's balance sheet gearing has reduced to 27.1% and look through gearing has reduced to 35%, well within our targeted gearing range, providing capacity for CQR to deploy into accretive opportunities. CQR's foundation investment holding in CCRF aligns with a long and successful history of partnering with wholesale investors in the convenience retail sector, which commenced in 2011 with the creation of the RP1 portfolio. Importantly, as CQR contributed seed assets to the creation of CCRF, it has negotiated unique flexibility in its ownership stake through expansion and contraction rights that aren't available to any other investors. CCRF has raised $1.75 billion of equity from a range of domestic super funds, global pension funds and its initial portfolio of $1.35 billion. The size of this raising highlights the conviction of sophisticated wholesale investors in the convenience retail sector, the quality of the Charter Hall retail Management platform and their desire to invest alongside CQR. CCRF will be focused on growing a portfolio of high-quality metropolitan shopping center assets and select metropolitan net lease convenience assets with a targeted gearing of up to 30%. The growth of CCRF will continue to diversify CQR's exposure and earnings to these categories as it deploys its available capacity, and this will be complementary to CQR's broader and more diversified convenience retail portfolio. Finally, turn to Slide 26 for outlook and guidance. Based upon information currently available and barring any unforeseen events, CQR expects FY '26 operating earnings to be approximately $0.263 per unit, a 3.5% uplift from FY '25 OEPS. Distributions per unit are expected to be $0.254, a 2.8% uplift on the FY '25 DPS. We're also pleased to announce that moving forward, CQR will be moving to pay quarterly distributions. In closing, I'd like to add the following remarks. In the next 10 years, Australia's population is forecast to grow by 3.5 million to 4 million people. Our portfolio is focused on convenience-based retail assets that dominate their catchments and in locations that will greatly benefit from the strong population growth. With construction costs remaining elevated, many assets are currently valued below the replacement costs, which will strain supply of convenience retail space into the future. This will also enhance performance of CQR's existing portfolio. Finally, with demand for convenience retail property from both domestic and international capital as strong as it has ever been and an improving cost of debt, we have high conviction that capitalization rates for convenience retail assets will continue to compress. All of this points to the fact that the convenience retail sector is in an excellent position to grow from both an income and capital value perspective. That ends the formal presentation. And with that, I now invite questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question is going to come from the line of Richard Jones with JPMorgan.

Just wondering if you can talk about the payout ratio going forward. Obviously, there's a bit of a reset in FY '25, given the cost of debt pressures. Just how you're thinking about that going forward?

Yes. Thank you, Rich. We've obviously had a good look at our portfolio. And as you'd appreciate, we've got an increasing exposure to the net lease convenience retail sector, which is absolutely free of CapEx and given sort of true AFFO yield growth or income growth over that period. So the blend is now more sort of tilted towards our actual portfolio blend. And if you look at where we've got to in guidance this year, it sort of reflects about 92% for shopping centers and obviously 100% for net lease convenience.

Okay. Okay. And that 92% covers maintenance and leasing CapEx?

Correct. Yes, yes, absolutely.

And then your portfolio supermarket sales has held up pretty well, I think, given there has been some price deflation. Just interested in your thoughts on how you expect supermarket sales to trend in '26 and any impact that might have on your turnover contribution and I guess, overall NOI growth for the shopping center portfolio.

Yes. I think you're right that obviously, we've come up from an environment where we've had higher inflation, again, to more moderate levels. One thing I would say is that our portfolio through curation is in good health. We've consistently looked at our portfolio. The assets we do own are more productive than the ones we've sold. And I think if you are active in that, you are progressive in that and you are very focused on ensuring that the assets we do own will actually contribute to the income growth of our portfolio, then I expect to see a pretty consistent set of results going forward with our portfolio.

Our next question is going to come from the line of Cody Shield with UBS.

Just a quick one on the HPI debt refinance. Are you able to provide any read on metrics achieved there?

Yes. So the HPI platform was refinanced in June. And with the benefit, I suppose, of our treasury team and its relationships across its $30 billion debt platform, we were able to refinance that across 4 Australian banks and get savings of about 50 basis points.

Okay. Great. And just turning to specialty leasing spreads. That's another pretty great outcome there. Could you just let me know what's driving that one?

Yes. Look, obviously, specialty leasing spreads is always compositional, and we've had some great results. I think don't underestimate just the sheer scale of the Charter Hall platform, our tenant relationships. And obviously, we're continually improving our focus on driving outcomes. So for us, it's a reflection of the quality of our portfolio, our ongoing curation, but also the real active focus and driving of the property management leasing teams to really to drive positive outcomes. So it's a fantastic effort from them, and that's the reason why we think it's so important to maintain and grow Australia's largest convenience retail platform and team.

Our next question is going to come from the line of David Pobucky with Macquarie Group.

Just the first one on FY '26 guidance, please. If you can talk to kind of the assumptions within that, what you're expecting for WACD? If you can talk to the contribution expectations from HPI or any color you can really give there?

Yes. Look, we obviously don't give full compositional breakdown, but you're pretty right, David. So it reflects the full year impact of the HPI portfolio. It reflects the strong operating metrics of our portfolio. You've seen the leasing spreads we delivered have been an all-time record for CQR. Our portfolio is in good health. And yes, we have got some debt, as noted in the presentation, that has maturities during FY '26 that will be refinanced. And with our WACD sitting at 4.9%, we actually see the refinancing of those pieces of our portfolio being accretive to earnings. And obviously, that's going to be a contributing factor towards ongoing earnings growth for CQR. So it's a combination of those things together that deliver the 3.5%.

And just on HPI, you saw a valuation uplift there over the period. Can you talk to your expectation around a potential further valuation uplift? Do you expect that to occur following the refinancing that you've done across the debt platform?

Yes. Look, I don't think the financing impacts valuations. Look, just generally, we are seeing unbelievable investor demand for convenience retail. We're seeing a lot of demand to partner with Charter Hall as the market leader in the sector. And I think the quality of our properties, the asset value growth is going to be achieved through income growth is going to be driven, but also cap rates are definitely going to compress. We are through the trough. We're on the way towards stronger cap rate compression when coupled with our strong income growth, I expect to see valuation growth across our entire platform over the next couple of years.

And just one last one on CCRF, a strong result there by the Charter Hall platform. If you could just talk to your thinking around CQR's $385 billion investment, please?

Yes. Look, obviously, it's pretty clear that CCRF will have a competitive cost of capital to get access to quality shopping center assets in the current market that CQR's cost of capital isn't allowed to do so. We've been able to partner with very, very high-quality, both domestic and international wholesale equity partners as part of that CCRF platform. And ultimately, for us, it's going to give us greater exposure to a greater array of high-quality metropolitan shopping center assets and when coupled with our expansion and contraction rights provide a lot of flexibility for CQR in respect of its percentage of ownership and the way that it wants to participate in those transactions or otherwise. So we see it as a massive benefit for CQR going forward, particularly given the strong cost of capital that CCRF will enjoy over the coming period.

Our next question is going to come from the line of Howard Penny with Citi.

Just thinking about with the CCRFCCR transaction, what do you see your potential capacity to invest on the balance sheet at this stage? I know that may change over time with perhaps cap rates compressing. But as we stand, what kind of capacity do you view at the moment?

We've got quite a bit of capacity, obviously, with balance sheet at 27% and look through a 35%. And one of the beautiful things, Howard, about having a platform like CCRF or ability to invest into net lease convenience, we've got the ability to look at what's most accretive for CQR unitholders, what's most accretive to earnings, and we'll continue to focus on that. And our strategy is very clear to drive the highest property income and earnings growth from the convenience retail sector. We've been incredibly active in curation. We don't sit on assets that don't deliver growth. And the ability for us to actually participate in the growth of CCRF or leverage the Charter Hall's market-leading off-market transaction capability to find some other accretive opportunities also may present themselves, but we've got a lot of flexibility, and we're very happy where we sit from a gearing perspective and an exposure perspective at this point in time.

And then just thinking about the different categories that you've invested in retail and convenience retail and [indiscernible] . Where do you see the most attractive opportunities at the moment looking forward? And how do you think about that?

I think, Howard, first of all, we see it all as convenience retail. So whether that's the convenience shopping centers or net lease retail, it's just convenience retail and having a diversified platform with nearly 700 properties gives us fantastic coverage across the country. And from an investment perspective, we're quite comfortable to look at any sector of retail that will deliver the level of earnings growth that we want to see for CQR and CQR's unitholders. So from that perspective, we'll just see what opportunities arise and actively participate in it. So I think we're very fortunate in that regard to have a very large universe of things to invest in and obviously focus back on our core strategy of delivering income and earnings growth for CQR unitholders.

And I'm showing no further questions. And I would like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Ben Ellis for closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining us today. We're looking forward to delivering on another successful year for CQR in FY '26, and I'll see you all soon. Thank you.