Covivio (COV) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Well, I'm happy together with Vladimir to present you our Q1 revenues. So what we can say, basically, we delivered the first quarter quite solid performances overall, all of our asset classes. You will see that 5% growth is basically the figures to keep in mind and starting directly with Offices. So on Page 4 of the presentation. The trend that we saw during the year 2024 continues. First of all, with a slight increase in the occupancy rate. You can see on the left part that we are at 95.7% occupancy rate. But also on the like-for-like rent, with plus 5%, thanks to indexation and thanks also to the strong letting activity of last year, which brings 2 points in this like-for-like. In terms of letting activity for the Q1, what are the few, let's say, takeaways that we can highlight. We signed 16,000 square meters of lease agreements and renewal, specifically on CB21 Tower, we signed a new lease of 1,500 square meters, which will start in July right after the departure of Suez. We also launched the works on our asset of Delcasse –in the CBD of Paris to welcome an investment bank starting in January 2026. It's a 5,000 square meter building, in which we will benefit from a 22% increase of the rent. And we also had the, as expected, the departure of Orange in our building of Voltaire in the 11 District of Paris. It's a 10,000 square meters asset that will be transformed into hotels. Maybe you remember, we talked about this one during our full year results communication. So that's for Office. Then German Residential and moving to Page 5. Growth here, as you can see in the chart, is increasing. We are at 4.8% growth in Q1 2025 versus 4.3% in the full year 2024. This is thanks to better indexation in Berlin and in North Rhine-Westphalia following the update of the Mietspiegel. And this is also thanks to plus 24% uplift that we recorded on the relettings we've made during this first quarter. In German Residential, based on the first outcomes of the new German coalition plan for residential that you probably followed over the past few weeks, we see that this above 4% growth is sustained. The new coalition is also positive for Germany as it brings more political stability and public spending. Then Hotel. Page 6. I would say that after 2 years of catch-up of this hotel activity in the market, the first quarter shows some normalization of the activity, but at decent level. And you can see that the RevPAR of the market is growing by 2.4%. This is at the end of February, but March is pretty much in the same trend. In this context, our portfolio performed better with a plus 4.7% like-for-like revenue growth with, I would say, 3 takeaways to keep in mind linked to this performance of this quarter. Three takeaways that basically straight our business model. The first one is a strong base of fixed revenues. It's more than 50% of the portfolio, and those rents benefit from indexation. You can see the performance, plus 3.5% like-for-like growth in the rents. The second [Audio Gap] geographical diversification of our portfolio, which enabled us to have strong variable revenues increasing by 9% in Q1, thanks to the strong performance of the South part of Europe, while Germany has lagging behind during this quarter. And the third one is the asset management potential. You probably remember that we bought at the end of last year the close of hotels that we already own to AccorInvest as it was made in November '24. Obviously, the performance of this portfolio is excluded from the like-for-like basis. But as you can see on the bottom right part of the slide, we benefited from a very good performance in this portfolio with a 13% increase in the EBITDA of those assets. This, of course, comes before the upside that we expect from the CapEx program that we intend to launch on those hotels. That's for the revenues and coming to consolidated figures that you can see Page 7. That means EUR 242 million of revenues on a consolidated basis, EUR 100 [Technical Difficulty].

Excuse me, this is the operator speaking. Mr. Arkwright, we are not receiving any audio from your end. This is the operator speaking. Mr. Arkwright, you may proceed with your conference call.

Okay. I don't know where we stopped. So I will come back to the Slide 7 on the revenues with -- I think what we can learn from that is a 5.4% growth at current scope, thanks to the reinforcement in hotels that we made last year. Most of you are well aware of that. And on a like-for-like basis, interestingly, also plus 4.9% growth like-for-like overall with a good performance of all of our activities. So then one word about asset rotation and moving to Page 8. You know that Q1, it's a quarter which is traditionally quite calm for us. And we signed nevertheless, during this quarter, EUR 80 million of disposal agreements, mostly of noncore offices. In parallel, we invested roughly the same amount of CapEx, but of course, with better -- in better quality products. You can see the pictures, prime office development in the CBD of Paris, modernization CapEx in German residential and as well in Hotel. Before going now to your question and moving to Page 10, few takeaways, I would say, of this Q1 activity. For me, this is a good illustration of, I would say, our business model, a diversified portfolio, which has been largely streamlined over the past years in favor of central location and quality products, and you see the performance of those assets, secured cash flows, thanks to the diversified revenues that we have and thanks to the fact that 90% of those revenues are fixed. That's, I would say, thanks to this business model that make us in this current environment, which is, of course, more uncertain, but that makes us confident for this year, and that's why we confirmed our guidance for the recurring results of the year at EUR 495 million. That was it for the presentation. Thank you for listening, and I'm now happy to answer to your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Florent Laroche-Joubert from ODDO BHF.

I would have maybe some questions. Maybe the first question would be on Hotels. So what -- have you any specific visibility on the reservation for hotels for this summer in this very specific context of uncertainty? That would be my first question. My second question on the disposals that you have signed, would it be possible to know the contribution of these assets in Q1 revenue? And maybe also on disposals, have you any further visibility on further disposals? And maybe my last question would be so after all the events on the geopolitical standpoint. So have you noticed any change in your interactions with your different counterparts on leasing side as well as on the investment side?

Florent, for your different questions. So I will start with the Hotel and what we currently see, I would say, on the books in our Hotel. Basically, on the books data so far are quite good. I must say, if we take overall, we are slightly above what we had on the books at the same period of the time last year, something like plus 2% versus the same figures last year. We see that the trend continue to be quite strong in Paris, for example, you probably remember that last year, Paris was lagging behind because of the preparation of the Olympic Games. Good also level of activity so far in the South part of Europe, especially Spain and Italy. So no change, I would say, so far on our Hotel activity. Then moving to your question on the disposals. I didn't get the first part of the question on the disposal signed in Q1.

Yes. What would be the contribution of the assets sold for which you have signed an agreement to sell. What would be the contribution of these assets to your Q1 revenues?

Okay. Well, we signed it mostly at the end of Q1. So contribution was full during the Q1 revenues for those assets. Then you had...

On the quantitative standpoint, so I don't know if it's possible to have any color on quantitative standpoint, but if not...

We will come back to you on precise level of the rents of those assets. Just keep in mind that this -- so this is mostly noncore offices in peripheral location, especially in Italy and a little bit of privatization in German Residential. Your other question on the discussion we currently have on the disposals, and that makes also the link to your third question. I mean, we have quite a decent level of discussion ongoing on the disposal plan. We have roughly EUR 250 million of advanced discussions on the disposals agreements, mostly in Office. So, so far, and leading to your third question, we do not see big changes in the discussions that we have with our different counterparts. I think interestingly, for example, CB21 in La Defense, we have a lot of visits. Over the past 2 months, we had more than 30 visits for those spaces. And I think it's a good example of the level of interest that we have.

The next question comes from Veronique Meertens from Kempen.

Maybe one question on the Hotel business and more strategy-wise. Obviously, we're looking now more at uncertain times also economically in Europe. Does it change your view towards your strategy where you actually want to expand in hotels and maybe also in the future, increase your exposure to variable revenues? Or is that not on the table yet?

Thank you, Veronique. Well, we like this hotel activity. Of course, it's more volatile, but it's also higher yield. It has proven a strong resiliency over the past few years in '01, in '08 in 2020, of course. And the structural trend of this activity are strong demand for the years to come in terms of tourism activity. Also something which is quite specific as of today is that the new offer of the hotel is very low -- lower than what we have seen in the past. So it's also a strong support. This being said, of course, there is more uncertainty. So we fully acknowledge that. And that's why, first of all, we are quite happy to have normalized our balance sheet structure over the past 2 years. And we are looking, let's say, with no rush and with more cautious on potential acquisition, which will depend, of course, on the evolution of the environment of the target to keep the strong leverage metrics and on opportunities. So no rush, I would say, on this front. We mostly look and to answer to your question on the variable revenues, we look mostly on actually leases. If you remember, we bought one asset in the south of Spain in Canary Islands in December. It was fully leased at 6.75% yield. That's the kind of example that we are looking at. On the variable revenues, finally, keep in mind that a big part of the variable revenues are, in fact, value-added hotels. I mentioned during the call, our portfolio that we -- for which we bought the OpCo from AccorInvest. Those assets, we will put CapEx program on those assets that will come to the market, fully new, fully renovated and which is also a way to protect ourselves from the cycle.

Okay. That's very useful and clear. Maybe one follow-up. Are you currently seeing any interesting opportunities in the market in the hotel segment? Or is that the market a bit more muted at the moment?

Well, we monitor the market, of course, as I said, on the leasing part, but with no rush. So there is different things. But I don't expect, I would say, a lot of many acquisitions in H1 to be clear. We are more, let's say, quite cautious, as you said, due to the environment.

[Operator Instructions] the next question comes from Stephanie Dossmann from Jefferies.

Just maybe a follow-up on the hotel activity. I think you looked at the [indiscernible] portfolio. And why did you stop negotiation on this portfolio? That's my first question. And I saw that there was a portfolio for sale in the Spanish Islands. And I know that you've done recently an acquisition in Canaries. So I think it was Hyatt portfolio for sale. So would you be interested in buying such assets?

Stephanie, thank you for your question. [indiscernible] portfolio for what I remember is luxury hotels in the City Center of Paris. You probably also remember that we increased our exposure to Paris with this deal very near close to AccorInvest. So let's say, we focus on our deal with AccorInvest and on the CapEx program to do on those Paris hotels. We see a lot of potential there, as I said before during the call. Canary Island, we just did one acquisition in December. So we are happy with this acquisition, and we don't intend in the very short term to do more acquisitions specifically in this location because we just did one.

Okay. And a second question, please, on the impact, of course, of tariffs, I presume it's very too early to say the impact going forward because of the on-off and so on. So very difficult to have a view on that and sustainable scenario, I would say. But what do you see in terms of the behavior of your tenants or of investors on the investment market? Is there a kind of wait-and-see attitude for Q2? I suspect it's a bit blurred at the moment.

Well, I mean, as I said to Florent, I don't see so far big changes we continue to have discussion on the disposal side in the Office. We continue to see investors which look at the German Residential activity positively and are willing to invest there. You probably remember that we set out a new JV last year in Berlin. So far, discussion are ongoing. On the letting side, of course, looking at the Q1 figures of the market, it's quite slow in terms of activity. But the challenge we have are in some markets where we see more interest from tenants, especially in La Defense. As I said, a lot of visits in CB21 is a good example. So, so far, no big change. Then on the investment side, we see liquidity coming and interest from investors coming to the market, especially U.S. investors, a couple of discussions with some U.S. investors that look at Europe quite positively. Maybe it is versus U.S., I don't know, but they are looking currently at Europe as an interesting place to invest in.

And maybe a last one on CB21. How much of the space would be dedicated to leasing like you have done on the 1,500 square meters in Q1? I mean, at the same -- in the same state as the one you just leased, how much of the tower, I mean, the total space would it be with no CapEx and so on?

Well, during the full year results, what we told to you is that we'll give you more details on this in the half year results. So in July, we are currently fine-tuning the CapEx program. Why July? Because it also depends on the current discussions that we have with potential tenants. And so the level of CapEx, the spaces where we will put CapEx also depend on those discussions. In terms of visit, we have visit for 700 square meters. We also have visit for 30,000 square meters. So it's quite large. There is different possibilities. We'll give you more details in July.

[Operator Instructions] it seems that there are no further questions. Back over to you for any closing remarks.

Okay. Well, thank you very much, and we are available with, of course, to answer to any follow-up questions you may have. Have a good evening. Thank you.