CLS Holdings plc (CLI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to this live video presentation of CLS Holdings plc Half Year Results 2021. I am Fredrik Widlund, Chief Executive; and here with me is Andrew Kirkman, our CFO. Today, we will talk about how CLS has delivered during the first 6 months of the year, but also about the future and not least, our new sustainability strategy, which includes our 2030 net zero Carbon pathway. First though, I would like to start with an overview of the period before we go into more details. The first half of the year was naturally shaped by the pandemic. But despite this, we have continued to have strong rent collection with 99% for the first 6 months, which has resulted in operating cash flow being at a similar level to last year. Net rental income was impacted by increased vacancy and lower income from our student and hotel properties. We did take cost actions to offset this fall. But with sterling appreciating against the euro, FX movements meant that our EPRA earnings per share fell to 5.4p per share for the first 6 months. On the vacancy side, we reached 7.7% as of 30th of June. Just over half the increase was due to recent acquisitions in Germany, deliberately bought with vacancy for the asset management opportunity on which we are making good progress. Valuations in the portfolio held up well and were flat for the group in local currency. Germany increasing, France virtually flat and a slight reduction in the U.K. FX played a role here, too, and this meant that our EPRA NTA was down 2.3% to 337.2p per share. The total portfolio is now GBP 2.3 billion, with Germany, a growing part of the portfolio. And on the right-hand side of the slide, you can see the current split between the countries. We have today also published our new sustainability strategy which includes a fully costed plan to achieve our net zero carbon pathway to 2030. Finally, the Board has announced an interim dividend of 2.3p per share, which is the same as the interim dividend for last year. On the next slide, I would like to talk in more detail about the valuations. On a like-for-like basis, the portfolio was up 0.2%, which given the circumstances, is a strong endorsement of the resilience of the portfolio. Overall group valuations were down 2% in reporting currency and overall, including costs from recent acquisitions in local currency there was almost no movement. Starting with the U.K. total valuations were down 0.6% as an effect of slight increase in ERVs and some yield compression being offset by increased vacancy. Like-for-like valuation was down 0.5%. In Germany, total valuations were up 0.7%, driven by small yield compression and flat ERVs. This was partly offset by acquisition cost, but like-for-like valuation was up 1.5%. The French portfolio was virtually flat with total valuations down 0.1% from lower ERVs being offset by a 23 bps yield compression and reduced vacancy. With no acquisitions, like-for-like valuation was also down 0.1%. Now moving on to acquisition and sales on Page 6. In the last 2 years, we have repositioned the portfolio to increase the focus on properties with more potential for long-term growth and a focus on our core markets in larger cities. We have also sold properties which are smaller or have a higher alternative use value, and this theme continued in 2021. In the first half, we closed on 6 acquisitions, 5 in Germany and 1 in the U.K. for a total of GBP 165 million. These new properties are in 2 in [ Berlin, 1 in Hamburg ], Düsseldorf, Essen and 1 in Watford, U.K. There were required an aggregate yield of 3.9%, but with a reversionary yield of 6.1%. They offer plenty of opportunities to drive growth through asset management and property management. We also closed on the sale of 4 smaller properties in the period and a further 2 in July. These properties were either sold for strategic reasons or due to their potential for residential conversions, and overall, so just above latest valuation. We will continue to acquire with a focus on Germany and the U.K., where we see the right opportunities. But we also recognize that the market are less liquid for now, and we will be patient even if that means less acquisitions short term. We do expect to continue to make selected disposals in the second half of the year. I will now hand you over to Andrew, who will take you through the financials and our occupiers in more detail.

Thank you, Fredrik. And good morning to everyone tuning in. This morning, I'm going to run you through our resilient financial results for the first half of 2021 and the value being created by our in-house asset and property management teams through our focus on tenants before Fredrik runs through the upside and outlook for the portfolio. Slide 8 sets out several of the key financial metrics for the business. In the first half of 2021, there was a near 5% strengthening of sterling against the euro, which impacted a number of these metrics and is a key theme of these results. For the first 6 months of 2021 EPRA NTA was down 2.3% to 337.2p with EPRA EPS down 22.9%, driven by currency movements and lower occupancy. More detail is given on the next 2 slides. The first half was a busy period in terms of acquisitions and financing. It was particularly pleasing to be able to maintain our weighted average debt maturity of 4.6 years whilst reducing the cost of debt to 2.22%, a new record low for the group. The 2021 interim dividend is maintained at the same level as 2020. But consistent with last year, we will evaluate the full year dividend alongside the expected improvement in second half performance. Finally, the reduction in EPRA NTA plus the dividend paid in 2021 results in a total accounting return of minus 0.8%. Over the next few slides, I will look at some of these numbers in more detail and the drivers behind them. The waterfall chart on Slide 9 sets out the main components of the movement in EPRA NTA with NTA remaining largely flat over the period before the reduction from the strengthening of sterling. Going through the components of the movements from opening to closing NTA, we have the final 2020 dividend paid in April of GBP 21.2 million or 5.2p per share. EPRA earnings of 5.4p, which is a 1.6p decrease from 2020 and is broken down in more detail on the next slide. The valuation movement on the portfolio was essentially flat, continuing to demonstrate the benefits of diversification in a challenging market. This valuation movement is in 2 parts: firstly, investment property valuations were down GBP 2.8 million or 0.7p with valuation gains in Germany, more than offset by weakness in the U.K. and a flat performance in France. This was offset by the increase in the value of our student accommodation and hotel in Vauxhall of 0.3p per share, reflecting improved sentiment. Next, the reduction of 1.4p in tax/other, essentially reflects the substantive enactment of the increase in the U.K. corporation tax rate from 19% to 25% from 2023. This results in an increase in the expected tax on future U.K. disposals and capital allowances, which are part of the difference between EPRA NAV and EPRA NTA. And lastly, sterling strengthened by 4.9% against the euro in the period, resulting in 6.4p decrease, being the decrease in the value of our properties in Germany and France, partly offset by the natural hedge of the associated euro debt. It is also worth noting that sterling last week hit a post-pandemic high against the euro. Turning to the next slide, we have set out the movement in EPRA earnings per share, which fell by 22.9%. Again, though, this is a broadly flattish performance, heavily skewed by FX movements. The principal movements which are as highlighted in the graph are as follows: 1.0p per share or GBP 4.3 million reduction in net rental income largely related to 2 things: firstly, reduced income from our student and hotel operations due to COVID-related lower occupancy; and secondly, reduced dilapidations income. This rental reduction was mostly offset by 0.9p reduction in expenses due to lower staff costs following a restructuring and lower provisions, including bad debt costs, reflecting our ongoing very strong rent collection. 0.3% increase in net finance expense and tax was largely a result of higher debt and lower cash balances. And finally, the impact of the 4.9% strength in sterling relative to the euro, resulting in this 1.2p decrease. Fredrik highlighted previously, whilst most foreign exchange movements go through other comprehensive income, movements on U.K.-based euro-denominated bank accounts go through the income statement. Slide 11 sets out the movement in CLS' liquid resources during the first half of 2021. Despite considerable acquisition activity, our cash position remained strong with nearly GBP 170 million of cash and GBP 50 million of undrawn resources. Cash went down by GBP 67 million in the first half as a result of this investment in the business, with acquisitions of GBP 163.9 million and GBP 19.7 million of CapEx as part of our refurbishment and limited development program, more of which we referred shortly. This was partly funded by loan drawdowns of GBP 98.8 million and GBP 17.7 million from the sale of properties with cash from operations exactly offset by the payment of dividends, interest, tax and other costs. On Slide 12, we have set out our debt activity so far this year. We continue to maintain strong relationships with over 25 different lenders, which have proved invaluable in securing new financings. In the period, we secured 5 loans in Germany and a new portfolio loan in the U.K. totaling GBP 143.6 million. These were all at fixed rates, given continuing low rates of interest. Also, we are in advanced discussions for the remaining GBP 52.4 million of loans expiring in 2021. The highlight of the financing activity in the period was the execution of a second long-term green loan. The 12-year loan with Scottish Widows at 2.65% is inclusive of 10 basis point sustainability margin incentive. This loan, together with the Aviva loan means that over 20% of our loan book is now green, and we are on target to secure the first year margin incentives for both loans. The activity in the period ensured that we maintained our average debt maturity at 4.6 years with healthy interest cover of 3.2x, all while lowering our portfolio cost of debt to 2.2%. This reduction in interest rates was a result of having a greater proportion of lower-cost euro-denominated loans due to the financing of our recent German acquisitions. Speaking of acquisitions, Slide 13 shows the growth in our property portfolio during the first half of 2021, largely driven by purchase with a portfolio valued at over GBP 2.3 billion now. As shown on the slide, the 2 biggest movements were the GBP 177.2 million increase for our 5 acquisitions in Germany and the 1 in the U.K. and the GBP 45.6 million reduction from the 4.9% strengthening of sterling. As highlighted previously, there was a limited net movement on the revaluation of the property portfolio. As set out at the top of Slide 14, rent collection remains very strong at 99%, which is testament to the multi-let nature of our buildings on our 785 high-quality, diversified tenants across our 3 markets. Approximately 24% of our rents are coming from government agencies and 27% from major corporations. The bottom left of the slide sets out the hit parade of our top 15 tenants with Siemens being a new entrant to the Chart #5 as a result of our acquisition at The Brix in Essen, which serves as a regional headquarters for the industrial powerhouse. My final slide, Slide 15 summarizes our letting activity in the first half and some of the key rental statistics for the group. Whilst the 53 deals in the first half, securing GBP 5.2 million of annual rent was slightly below ERV. Once the lease of Veolia to fill up our building at Inside in Paris excluded, the deals were 1.2% above ERV. Pleasingly, a greater portion of the leases secured were new deals with the split being back to the same proportions as pre-pandemic reflecting that tenants are increasingly willing to commit to new deals rather than extensions. Although as shown in the bottom left, the WAULT has reduced slightly as tenants are seeking and CLS is happy to offer greater flexibility in lease terms. The graph on the bottom right shows that over the last 3.5 years, we've managed to grow rents by over 3% despite the reduction costs in 2021 by strengthening sterling and the increased proportion of German properties, which are comparatively lower rents. Finally, the graph on the top right, shows the considerable upside to be gained through our core strength of active asset management to the portfolio from both capturing the under renting properties through regears and as we reduce the vacancy, which increased mostly from the acquisitions. And with that, I'll hand back to Fredrik to run through the considerable upside potential within the portfolio.

Thank you, Andrew. On the next few slides, I would like to discuss how we work the portfolio, our approach to sustainability and longer-term capital investments. Our core business is owning and operating office properties, which represents 93% of the portfolio. In the last 18 months, most of our tenants have continued to pay the rent as you have seen from our collection statistics, but we have also seen increasing vacancies. In the first half, vacancy increased from 5.1% at year-end 2020 to 7.7% on 30th of June. As highlighted on the right-hand side, this is driven firstly by acquisitions in Germany, 1.4%; and secondly, an underlying increase of 1.2% mainly in the U.K. On the plus side, the activity level has increased with more lettings and viewings in the last quarter, and we expect this to continue in the second half. Over 50% of the vacancy in Germany, representing over EUR 3 million per year is in advanced negotiations. We have also increased our investment in the portfolio and continue to roll out our flexible office brand-based offices, due to the changing requirements from our tenants. Reducing vacancy is a key priority for the teams on the ground, and we're also running various forms of marketing and incentive schemes together with our agent partners. Now moving on to larger projects on Page 18. With close to 100 properties, there will always be opportunities for refurbishments and developments in the portfolio in addition to our ongoing investment program. At 9 Prescot Street, London, we are investing GBP 22 million to completely overhaul 4 floors, providing modern sustainable grade A space, a new reception hub with an integrated Café and full tenant amenities. Works are ongoing and are due to complete at the end of 2022, adding GBP 2.9 million of ERV. In Vauxhall, London, we secured planning last year for 28,500 square feet for a new office building, which we completed the development of the Spring Mews scheme. Work has now started, and we are investing GBP 17 million in a new 10-storey building with completion in early 2023, adding GBP 1.5 million of ERV. At Vor dem Lauch, Stuttgart, we have planning permission for 141,000 square feet office development. Marketing is ongoing, and we will not commit before we secure a significant pre-let. Tendered build cost is GBP 33 million and the expected ERV is GBP 2.5 million per annum. All these developments have been designed to the high sustainability standards focusing on low carbon, efficient plants, and full tenant well-being, including roof gardens, cafe, bike facilities, lockers and opening windows. Moving on to Slide 19. And for once, I would like to talk about the smallest part of our portfolio, our student accommodation and hotel in Vauxhall, together representing about 5% of the rent. We are an office specialist, and this building results from being part of the mixed-use Spring Mews scheme and are operated under management agreements. During lockdown, the impact was directly felt through lower occupancy. And as you can see on the right-hand side, it fell to 46% for the student and 52% for the hotel from close to fully occupied before. This is relatively good compared to industry figures as both have stayed open throughout. But nevertheless, lower occupancy impacted our profitability in the first half of the year. The positive side is that bookings have increased rapidly from Q2, and we expect that the student side will reach at least 85% and the hotel close to 70% for the full year 2021. Both the student and hotel are well placed to increase occupancy as the economy rebounds given very positive customer feedback allocation. On the next slide, I am very proud to be able to talk about new sustainability strategy, including our investment plan. So today, we published our new sustainability strategy, including our net zero carbon pathway to 2030. This is a project on a property-by-property basis, which has resulted in a fully costed plan to ensure that our portfolio will meet long-term sustainability goals. This plan has been verified by the science-based target initiative and will be published on their website. This strategy also addresses how we will ensure that all our U.K. properties will have an EPC rating of B or better with a few exceptions. But the German portfolio will meet the new efficiency in carbon targets recently announced and that we meet the Décret Tertiaire published in France for energy efficiency. An extract with details is included in the appendix and the full plan is available on the CLS website. As Andrew talked about earlier, we have also closed 2 green loans now representing 20% of our debt book, and we are targeting at least 50% of our financings to be green by 2030. Our solar capacity also increased with our largest installation ever at Pacific House in Reading now completed. On the next slide, we have set out our investment plan, including the above commitments. Our ongoing capital expenditure is in the region of GBP 20 million per year. In addition, we also invest in larger refurbishment and developments on an ad hoc basis. CapEx will increase in the coming years. And as you can see, we are committed to spend between GBP 50 million and GBP 60 million in each of 2021 and 2022, with further CapEx projects still to be decided on. We have included the GBP 58 million we estimate is required over the next 9 years to reach our net zero carbon commitment, lesser proportion that will be recoverable from tenants. This will be financed from our existing resources as well as capital recycling. I will now move on to markets and outlook on Page 23. Starting with the U.K., we have recently seen more activity and confidence but also clear feedback that bifurcation in the office market is now a feature in the U.K. when tenants are looking for space. Tenants are requiring modern specifications and location with several options for commuting, and we have the properties to meet this. We're also pleased that the attractiveness of offices seems to be increasingly recognized with several surveys as well as our own experiences backing this. Nevertheless, we expect that the U.K. will continue to be challenging for the remainder of 2021 as there is a lag factor even if there are clear signs of recovery. In Germany, the resilient economy and the strong office fundamentals with low vacancy and supply in the larger cities is supporting stronger demand dynamics. Activity in the German market, both for leasing transactions and acquisitions has been resilient, and we expect the second half of 2021 to be strong. In France, we see a mixed picture with Central Paris and Lyon performing relatively well, while there is more of a challenge in the suburban Paris market due to supply. Smaller spaces continue to hold up better, which is beneficial for our French portfolio. And in the first half of 2021, we saw a decrease in vacancy in our portfolio, and we expect that the current levels of demand to continue. Finally, on my last slide, I would like to give an outlook and talk about some of the opportunities in the portfolio. So leasing activity is improving in all 3 countries, and especially in Germany, where as previously mentioned, 50% of the German vacancy is in advanced negotiations. Since completion in April, the 5 acquisitions also add GBP 6.2 million of contracted rent. Our type of properties, quality and locations are well positioned for post-pandemic working patterns and on what tenants are asking for. This means that we are expecting a stronger operational performance in the second half of the year as vacancies reduced and occupancy in the student and hotel properties improve. Over the medium term, we have also set out in the graph on the right, the opportunities we have of capturing additional ERV. Starting at the left of the graph, we have our contracted rent followed by the ERVs of vacant space and net reversions. Now on the right side, you can see the estimated ERVs from current refurbishments and developments that are in progress and that will be delivered over the next 2 years. As you can see, there's substantial upside in the existing portfolio. Finally, of the recent restructuring and reorganization, we are looking forward to hold a Capital Markets Day in November in London. And that will be a chance to meet the leadership team, including our country heads. With that, I would like to conclude today's presentation. Thank you all for listening, and we will now open for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Chris Spearing of Liberum.

Just a couple of questions from me. Firstly, around physical occupancy. Can you comment, please, on what sort of physical occupancy levels are across the portfolio in the different regions? And then secondly, there's nothing in the statement specifically about reconversion. I'm just wondering what your latest thoughts are on potential reconversion.

Chris. I mean I think both of them is probably for Andrew to have a go at.

Yes, that's fine. Chris, it's pleasing to see that after 18 months of pandemic, you still haven't learnt how use the mute button. But moving on, on occupancy, on the continent in Germany and France, we're probably in the region of 50% to 60%, albeit -- clearly, we are in a peak holiday season, we get these days. The U.K. is probably more around about the 30%, 35% mark in our buildings, albeit I have seen higher statistics for the rest of the country and I think that come September, we are expecting a much more significant increase in occupancy. I think we will see a much greater return to offices, which we are looking forward to. On REITs, you would have seen that the U.K. government has substantially enacted the increase in corporation tax rates from 19% to 25% from 2023. So whilst we still do have a bit of time to think about what that means for us as a business, we are very much evaluating whether becoming a REIT for our U.K. business would be advantageous, and we are expecting to make a decision on that in the second half of the year.

The next question is from Kieran Lee of Berenberg.

Just a 2-part question for me on the cost base. Firstly, we saw a reduction in sort of central costs. How much of that is likely to be permanent? And how much is sort of temporary? And then the second part is that you mentioned the shortening lease terms and the reliance on agent partners to lease up space. Can we expect increasing costs given sort of the increased frequency?

Thank you, Kieran. Why don't I take the second part first and then hand over to Andrew for the financial question on cost. But yes, I think it's fair to say that we probably do expect slightly high cost for letting out the space with various forms of marketing and incentive campaigns for our agent partners. I would say though that in the overall scheme of things, that is a small price to pay. So we're quite happy to do that. If that means that we are driving vacancy down and making sure that we occupy our buildings as much as we possibly can. The second part, Andrew, maybe comment on that.

So Kieran, you've seen in my statement that the admin and other expenses has reduced from GBP 17.1 million last year to GBP 13.5 million this year. I would estimate that about half of that we would like to think can continue going forward. It's probably dropped a little more than going forward just because of some release of bad debt provision in that, but we definitely do now have a lower cost base as a result of a slight restructuring business and the loss of some heads.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Romney Fox of Aberdeen.

Just maybe a question, you've done a lot of strategic changes in recent years, which has all been very positive. It sounds like with the exception of that sort of pending decision on REIT status, but it's sort of largely dropped down. Is that a correct summation? I mean is there anything else out on your sort of -- your list of things you'd really like to do. And that's a very leading question. If not, then you're just sort of back to the sort of hard graph of delivering the results at the property level. And this is my second question, if I may. You -- the business used to articulate a total return ambition in excess of 12% a year. That came down to 6% to 9% for the last couple of years. And I was just wondering is that -- is there anything you'd like -- you'd be willing to say to maybe sort of what's your appetite to sort of maybe not this year, but say in a 2-, 3-year view, do you think you can get back to sort of generating good returns, just to make us maybe just feel a little bit more excited about life.

Thank you, Romney. Let's start with, I think the current situation where all companies are in with the pandemic, et cetera, does require a fair amount of hard work and just working on your core product. So I think in the next couple of years, there will be a lot of effort in converting the portfolio and make sure you have the right product for our tenants. So I think that is definitely a key focus. If you look at the composition of the portfolio now, I would say that it is largely where we want it to be. As you saw, there will always be some properties that might have a higher alternative use value. And I mean we're not wedded to any investments in the portfolio. So if that comes up, we will exit those. And I think there's a little bit more of that perhaps in the U.K. portfolio that we will take advantage of when the time is right. But I would say that portfolio apart from that is pretty much where we wanted to be. I think there will be opportunities to grow through acquisitions. And in terms of the requirements we put on new acquisitions, yes, they are in the sort of above 12% return on equity. So I would expect that together with some of the developments that are coming to fruition in the next few years to maintain at least an upward trend on that one. We don't give a guidance in terms of a number for the future, but I certainly would hope that it would be progressive and moving up instead of down. Finally, I would say that there are longer-term opportunities in the portfolio. We have a number of fairly large assets that will come back to us after 2025. And there's some significant opportunity to work those assets in a similar way that we did with Vauxhall Square a few years ago. But that is more of a very long-term plan.

Fantastic. Sorry, Andrew, was I interrupting?