Emirates REIT (CEIC) PLC (REIT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon, and welcome to the 2023 Midyear Results Call. I hope you had a good summer so far. I will start by giving you a brief overview of the year-to-date highlights as well as a market update, then I will hand over to our Head of Portfolio Management, Alain Debare, who will dive into the details of the portfolio and the latest asset management updates. Then our CFO, Moeen Sheikh, will go through the financial statements. We will then conclude by a Q&A session. So the key highlights first. You will note that all indicators are going up. First, the occupancy, which went up by 3.5 percentage points to 85.4% compared to H1 last year. The net asset value went up to $418.9 million, which is an 18.8% increase against last year's first half. That brings the total investment properties to $838.1 million. The total property income also increased by 9.1% to $36 million, which net is $29.8 million, a 10.4% increase versus last year's H1. The operating profit for this half year is $21.2 million, which is 16.5% up. Now let me say a few words about the economy and the real estate market. The UAE in 2022 enjoyed an impressive GDP growth of 7.9%, which is partly due to the success of the Expo and a booming tourism right at the back of the pandemic. It was only predictable that GDP would come back to slightly lower levels in 2023, and in Q1 this year, the UAE economy grew by 3.3%. Economic activity in the GCC region is expected to drop to 2.9% in 2023. The slowdown reflects persistent inflationary pressures, tighter credit conditions, and the OPEC announcement to cut oil production further. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global UAE Purchasing Managers Index rose to 56.9 in June from 55.5 in May. This indicator is designed to give an accurate overview of the operating conditions in the non-oil sector economy, and one of the largest non-oil sector economy is the real estate markets. The office market has not seen any new project completed in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi during the first quarter. 130,000 square meters are expected to be delivered during the second half of the year. The low supply of new space and the high demand for quality space have pushed up the rental levels by 18% year-on-year in the CBD of Dubai, commanding rents of up to AED 2,300 per square meter. That ceiling has been significantly passed since then, by the way. As for the retail market, 6,000 square meters of retail space were added during the first quarter of 2023. Another 83,000 square meters is expected to be delivered during the rest of the year mainly as extensions of the super regional malls. Community centers and secondary malls, on the other hand, recorded a drop in activity, and therefore, rental levels across the retail sector went down by 2% in Q2 compared to the same period last year. And let me now hand over to Alain for more details on operational highlights. Thank you.

Thank you, Thierry, and good afternoon. I will be taking you through the operational highlights. In general, the first half of 2023 was a period of sustained positive performance for Emirates REIT which benefited from the positive sentiment in the market. Occupancy across the portfolio increased by 3.5 percentage points to 85.4% as of 30th of June 2023, and the rental rates increased by 7.7% across the commercial portfolio, benefiting from the market upward rental trends. Notably, the REIT benefited from a good increase in rental rates at Index Tower, and in general, a strong demand in the market along with the lack of quality stock driving the opportunity to maximize the rental yields for the remaining space and renewals. The other markets in Dubai have also seen a good recovery and sustained demand, albeit at stable rates. Rental rates across the education portfolio are stable. On a like-for-like basis, the WALE decreased by 14.1% to 6.7 years. During the first half of 2023, the leasing activity remained strong as we secured 58 new leases for 7,362 square meters. We had 32 exits for 6,582 square meters, 6 of which remains within the portfolio. And we continue to have a strong level of renewals, with 105 leases renewed for 14,136 square meters. That takes the total number of clients to 395 tenants, up by 51% from the previous year. Property-wise, and starting with Index Tower, occupancy at Index Tower, the REIT's largest property, is at 78.4%. It is a small decline in occupancy of 1.4 percentage points year-on-year driven by the exit of a large client occupying half a floor, which is largely compensated by a strong increase in rental rates of 14.6% year-on-year. The micro offices and the larger fully-fitted and furnished offices are now fully leased at premium rates, while the remaining availability is for shell and core space. There is a strong demand in DIFC. We have limited stock for Grade A offices, and we are working hard to continue to improve the rental rates for renewals and new clients. At Index Mall, we have a good momentum and a vibrant community feel with a solid level of inquiries, a good tenant mix with well-known brands such as Costa, Pret A Manger, Bateel, Smart Salem and Platform Studios. Moving on to Media City. We have seen a good recovery and there is a good momentum in joining Dubai Media City and Knowledge Village, with the larger corporate coming back to the office and smaller SMEs and creative companies coming back in the market. At Office Park, occupancy at Office Park is at 86.4%, which is a nice growth of 6.6 percentage points year-on-year, mostly driven by 2 clients expanding within the building. There is a good level of inquiries for offices of 300 to 500 square meters in the area, and the property remains an attractive option in the freezone. However, we are seeing some mergers and some of the larger corporates recalibrating their real estate needs, along with new stock being built in the nearby Innovation Hub. But overall, the level of demand and interest in Dubai Media City and Knowledge Village remains strong and encouraging. Moving on to the Lofts.There has been a good market recovery for the small and medium-sized companies since quarter 4 last year, and the Lofts has benefited with a good conversion of inquiries. We have a really unique and attractive offering with 131 offices from 60 to 250 square meters catering for SMEs and creative companies. Occupancy at the Lofts 1, 2 and 3 is now at 51.6%, a good increase of 13.3 percentage points year-on-year. Notably, we have secured [ 30 ] new clients during the first half and the Loft Offices 1 and 2 are now occupied at 76.5% with an increase in rates of 5.8%. The Loft Office 3 remains vacant, and we're assessing refurbishment options, whilst maintenance works are ongoing at the Loft 1 and 2 to improve the condition and lease the remaining vacant units. Still in Dubai Media City, the occupancy at Building 24 is at 50.3%, an increase of 8.3 percentage points year-on-year. Despite some improvement, occupancy at Building 24 remains impacted by new stock and refurbished properties within the freezone. The location is superb, and there is a good market sentiment with a good demand in the area. We have secured a good F&B brand as an anchor tenant for the ground floor retail, with a lease commencing quarter 3 2023, and we have been preparing for soft refurbishment, which is planned to commence during the second half, to improve the property condition and consequently optimize performance. In Dubai Investments Park at European Business Center, occupancy has improved by 7 percentage points year-on-year to 75.8%. European Business Center is one of the best options in Dubai Investments Park, and the property is very visible and is well located adjacent to the metro station. We have completed during the first half of the entrance and the landscape works, which have improved significantly the access and the appearance to the building. Since the beginning of the year, we have seen a good market recovery in the area and also have a positive momentum with a new property manager, resulting in 22 new leases signed during the first half of 2023. The offices are now occupied at 85% and occupancy in retail is 51% with a good level of inquiries and ongoing discussion for larger areas of anchor tenants. In JBR, occupancy at Trident Grand Mall increased by 7.5 percentage points to 79%. We are seeing a good trend in JBR, and we have secured 2 new leases on the ground floor during the first half 2023. Finally, Indigo 7, our property which enjoys an excellent location at Sheikh Zayed Road, remains fully occupied at 100%. On the education portfolio at GEMS World Academy, GEMS continued some property improvements, maintaining amazing facilities at their flagship school. At Lycee Francais Jean Mermoz, we have completed Phase 3, which is the addition of the sports facilities. The campus is now fully completed at a capacity of 1,456 students, and there is a strong enrollment of new students from September 2023 with a wait list in most age groups. Durham School, which opened in September 2022, is enjoying a positive level of enrollment for the new school year. Finally, this slide shows us the year-on-year occupancy at each property and across the portfolio. This concludes the operational review. And now, Moeen will take us through the financial highlights.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is a pleasure for me to present before you the financial highlights for the half year period ended June 30, 2023. I'm pleased to inform you that the REIT performed well during the first 6 months of the year from the operational point of view. Both occupancies and rental rates recorded improvement, as a result of which, the total property income was up by 9% year-on-year and amounted to $36 million for the first half 2023. On a like-for-like comparison, disregarding the effect of income from Jebel Ali School and loss on divestment of investment property from the comparative period, the year-on-year growth in total property income comes to around 15%. In line with this growth, the property operating expenses also recorded a slight increase and grew by 3% on a year-on-year basis, and the fund expenses were also slightly up by 2%. Consequently, the operating profit amounted to $21 million for the 6-month period ended 30th June 2023, which is 17% higher than the same period last year. This reflected an overall improvement in operating performance of the REIT. As a result of rising benchmark rates and a higher cost Sukuk, the finance cost increased to $25 million in H1 2023, pushing the FFO in negative territory. This was, however, countered by the unrealized gain on revaluation of investment properties, which amounted to $50 million for the period under review. Supported the profitability, and consequently, the net profit for the 6-month period ended June 30, 2023 amounted to $46 million. Moving on to the next slide, we would see that led by continued improved valuations, the fair value of investment property grew by 10% on a year-on-year basis and amounted to $838 million as of June 30, 2023. Islamic Financing reduced by $33 million or 7% on a year-on-year basis, which was mainly due to refinancing and partial repayment of Sukuk and the drawdown of new bilateral facilities that were concluded during the period under review. Supported by lower Islamic Financing and improved valuations, the FTV ratio improved by 6 percentage points and closed at 46% as of 30th June 2023. This is down from 52%, which was recorded a year earlier. Net asset value continued to rise and grew by 19% on a year-on-year basis in first half 2023. This translated into a NAV per share of $1.31 as compared to $1.10 per share in the same period last year. If we move on to the next slide, we would see the quarter-on-quarter P&L comparison. Driven by consistent improvement in occupancy and rental rates, the total property income for second quarter grew by 9% and amounted to $90 million as compared to $70 million posted in first quarter 2023. Net property income for the second quarter registered a growth of 10% and amounted to [ $60 million ] as compared to $40 million that was reported in the first quarter 2023. In line with rising occupancy levels, property operating expenses also recorded a slight increase and grew by 3% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, which is a result of focus on increasing operating efficiency. Consequently, the quarterly operating profit, despite rising fund expenses, amounted to $11 million in Q2, which is up 11% from Q1 levels. This exhibited the overall improvement in the operating performance of the REIT. Finance costs registered a quarter-on-quarter decline of 5%, which is a result of repayment of high-cost Sukuk by floating rate bilateral financing during the period under review. This helped in reducing the pressure on quarterly FFO, which recorded a 65% improvement on a quarter-on-quarter basis, however, remained in the negative territory due to rising benchmark rates and amounted to less than $1 million in Q2 2023. Unrealized gain on revaluation of investment properties amounted to $40 million in Q2 2023, which is substantially higher than the gain of $10 million recorded in Q1 2023. This reflects the underlying strength of the property portfolio held by the REIT. Led by this revaluation gain, the net profit for the second quarter 2023 amounted to $39 million, up circa 4x as compared to the net profit of $8 million posted in the previous quarter by the REIT. The next slide shows the quarter-on-quarter trend of net property income since the past 8 quarters with and without the impact of Jebel Ali School that was sold last year. Here, we would see that the net property income continued to record consistent growth, which is reflective of the strong operating performance of the REIT. Going forward, in addition to increasing the occupancy levels, revenue flows and operational efficiency, the REIT manager is closely focusing on finance cost management as one of the key areas which, given the rising benchmark rate scenario, continue to be a challenge. With this, I wish to thank you all for your time and request Thierry to continue with the presentation.

This marks the end of the presentation. Thank you, Alain, and thank you, Moeen. The floor is now open for Q&A. [Operator Instructions] I would like to mention a small typo that we noticed in the report that was published this morning. On Page 45, please read $230 million, 2-3-0, instead of $250 million. It is just -- which doesn't impact the P&L or the balance sheet.

The floor is now open for questions. I see your first question, which is why is the stock still below $0.20 and the NAV is $1.33? When will you start paying dividends? I will just mention a discrepancy that we've always been facing between the performance of the portfolio and the volume on the stock exchange, which is really the major issue. Liquidity is also an issue that pretty much every REIT in the country and the region have been facing, and that's why we are not yet in a position to distribute cash dividends.

Yes, we have a question on the proceeds received from Jebel Ali, that they have the receipt in full and some light on the other receivables? So the first part is, yes, we have received the Taaleem full proceeds in the current year. And on the other receivables, they are just normal receivables from the tenants and other business operations, and a part of the receivables is obviously the ROU balance.

Yes. Sorry, we are a little bit overloaded with questions. There's a question regarding the additional bank refinancing. We are in a difficult environment in terms of interest rate, if we are all aware, and there's constantly some discussions ongoing with banks for potential refinancing. And I would just stop at saying that the discussions are relatively positive. There's also a question regarding ramping up the occupancy in the buildings. I believe that the occupancy in the buildings is wrapping up pretty nicely. We have noticed an increase in occupancy across the portfolio and there are some buildings, I will just take as an example, the Building 24 in Media City where refurbishment is about to start, which will actually trigger much more leases, we believe, in the second half of the year. So we believe the situation and the level of demand that we're getting across the portfolio is extremely good right now. There are several questions regarding divestments and the exposure to the existing Sukuk. Obviously, we are in a heated environment as to where the market is right now, and we are obviously looking at potential divestment, if it makes the right sense. But yes, we are in the right divestment climate today in the market, and we're obviously looking very closely at that as a part of our strategy. I would add that our policy is obviously to only announce details about divestments when they are completely completed. So there's another question regarding the typo in the report. So on Page 45, you will currently read in the report, the amount $250 million. You should read instead $230 million, so 2-3-0 instead of 2-5-0. It doesn't have any material impact on nor the P&L or the balance sheet. It is purely a small type. A new version of that report will be published later today. There's a question regarding the retail part of Index and -- Index Mall. We're experiencing right now a very solid level of demand for the Index Mall, and if you have the chance to walk around the space, you will see that the footfall is really good. There's a good level of buzz and people walking around and using the different restaurants and facilities. We have leased to some very good names recently, and we are now at, I believe, 46% occupancy?

Yes, 46. [indiscernible] Yes, 83.9% on the offices and 46% on the retail side.

So this retail -- the Index Mall retail is a small part of the total GLA for Index. In a lot of different assets that we manage we have a small retail part, which is part of a bigger, wider office complex. That's why they are reported as office and not specifically retail. There's a question regarding the LTV. We're using FTV in our reports because we are using Islamic financing. The LTV, we are currently somewhere around 45%. Our goal is to hit 30% LTV. This is really the objective that we have here, and we're working towards that number, which would have a very positive impact on the performance. There's a question regarding inflow of new companies to Dubai. And the answer is yes, we noticed an inflow of new companies entering the Dubai market. We noticed a very, very strong demand for DIFC in general and the level of supply of vacant space is very low, which gives me some very good hope for the future and the occupancy of index. But to answer again to that question, yes, there is a good level of inflow of new companies in Dubai. The message from [ Samir ], who left a message and we apologize for not getting back to you. We see your note here, and we will reach back to you very quickly after the call. There's a question regarding the rate increase across the portfolio. The rate increase across the portfolio is an increase of 6.9%. So we don't see any more questions coming. Obviously, if there are questions that were not answered or any new questions you might have, please do not hesitate to send an e-mail at ir.reit.ae -- [email protected]. Apologies. So again, apologies. There have been a lot of question at the beginning. If we haven't answered those questions, apologies. And again, you can reach out to us, and we will give you a clear answer. This completes the call for today. I would like to thank you very much for taking the time to be on the call today, and have a great rest of the summer. Thank you very much.