Deutsche Konsum Real Estate AG (DKG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Q3 2025/2026 financial results conference call. I am Shari, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Daniel Lohken. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. My name is Daniel Lohken and I took over as CEO of Deutsche Konsum on 1st of July this year. Joining me today in Potsdam is our CIO, Lars Wittan, who will guide you through our results in a few moments. However, before we get to the numbers, please allow me to briefly introduce myself. While this is my first earnings call as Deutsche Konsum's CEO, the company is, in fact, familiar to me from my time as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. So when I stepped into this role, I already had a solid understanding of our business, our portfolio, our financing structure, and the restructuring process. Let me briefly touch on my professional background. I'm qualified as a lawyer in both Germany and New Zealand. And over the past 20 years, I have worked across real estate, finance, law, and capital markets. Before joining Deutsche Konsum, I served on the management board of Hahn Group and Corestate Capital Group. Going back a little further, I held senior positions at Vonovia and IKB Deutsche Industriebank following my time at Clifford Chance, where I advised on infrastructure and real estate finance transactions. Throughout my career, I have worked in situations that require financial discipline, access to capital, and close engagement with shareholders, investors, lenders, and other stakeholders. Obviously, all this is directly relevant to where Deutsche Konsum stands today. Looking ahead, our priorities are clear. We are focused on executing our restructuring plan, strengthening our balance sheet, improving our financing profile, and actively managing our portfolio. At the same time, we are committed to transparent communication, predictable execution, and delivering on the commitments we made. We know that trust is not rebuilt in a single quarter. It is earned through consistent execution quarter after quarter. That is what you should expect from us. With that, let me hand over to Lars, who will take you through our results.

Thank you, Daniel. And I would also like to extend a warm welcome to all participants in today's earnings call covering the first 9 months of the fiscal year. Let's start on Page 4. In year-on-year comparison, rental income has declined by EUR 4.7 million, primarily due to asset sales. Net operating income has declined only slightly by EUR 0.6 million. As in previous quarters, interest expense declined significantly, falling by approximately EUR 8 million to EUR 10.7 million. Funds from operations amounted to EUR 14.5 million, representing an increase of EUR 4.6 million compared with the prior year period. FFO per share is EUR 0.18, reflecting a 24% decrease due to the higher number of shares outstanding following the capital increase. On the disposal side, the transfer of the 8 properties sold has been completed in May as announced during our previous earnings call. Overall, market conditions for property transactions remain challenging. Investor sentiment is still cautious, while the supply of assets available for sale remains elevated. At the same time, financing conditions have become more restrictive for prospective buyers, further dampening transaction activity. Nevertheless, we remain confident that we will complete the disposals required to stay on track with our restructuring plan. As many of you will recall, as of January 1, 2026, DKR had an unsecured overdue interest receivable from Obotritia Capital amounting to EUR 16 million. During our last earnings call, we informed you that we had entered into a binding term sheet with Obotritia regarding the restructuring of debt receivable. This transaction has now been successfully completed. In July 2026, Obotritia has issued secured interest-bearing bonds with a nominal value corresponding to the receivable, which were subscribed by DKR. As a result, Deutsche Konsum has replaced an unsecured receivable with a secured bond instrument, therefore, improving its creditor position. As expected, our key financial metrics changed following the debt-to-equity swap. Our LTV ratio improved to 41%, while our interest coverage ratio increased accordingly. At the same time, EPRA NTA per share declined to EUR 3.64, reflecting the increase in the number of outstanding shares. On Page 5, there are no major updates regarding the implementation of our restructuring plan. During the last quarter, we successfully completed the capital increase. As already discussed, the execution of the planned property disposals remains the key priority. Please turn to Slide 8. Our portfolio currently comprises 140 properties with a total lettable area of approximately 884,000 square meters. Based on the updated property valuations, the portfolio multiple stands at 11.8x, while the average property value amounts to EUR 807 per square meter. Regarding the vacancy rate, we already explained during our previous earnings call that it was affected by Hammer insolvency as well as the departure of a tenant occupying a large retail unit. Please turn to Slide 10. The tenant mix remains broadly unchanged compared with our previous reporting, and there are no material developments to highlight in the reporting period. One point worth mentioning is that 86% of our leases are CPI-linked, providing a high degree of protection against inflation and supporting the resilience of our rental income. Finally, please turn to Slide 12. This slide provides an overview of our current financing structure and debt maturity profile. As you can see, the majority of our financial liabilities mature in 2027, reflecting the agreements reached with our lenders as part of the restructuring process. The significant reduction of financial liabilities and changes of other debt-related KPIs are primarily attributable to the debt-to-equity swap, under which approximately EUR 120 million of debt was converted into equity. That concludes our presentation. Thank you very much for your attention. Operator, we are now open to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] There are no questions at the moment. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no questions. I will now turn the conference back over to you for closing remarks.