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

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I'm pleased to welcome you today to the presentation of Emirates REIT 2025 Half Year Results. I would like to start by sharing with you the current strategy of the REIT. The REIT has always had a clear and long-term strategy when it comes to the assets and the way they are being managed. I will take as an example, Index Tower and the outstanding vision a few years ago of securing this asset, which was empty and not yet connected to the DIFC spine. Today, Index Tower is collecting the fruits of that vision. Index Tower occupancy is excellent, and it commands some of the highest office rents in the entire region. And all buildings in the portfolio have been acquired with the same long-term spirit, and they're equally performing very well this year. As a REIT, we are constantly in the market looking for similar opportunities, which will offer long-term benefits to you, shareholders. For now, though, the priority remains collecting the benefits from those great assets and in the strong market that we are currently experiencing. We have announced at the last AGM, our endeavor to pay 2 dividends per year, and the current results makes us feel confident that we will be able to do so. Let's look at the key highlights. Both our total and net property income are up by 24% year-on-year on a like-to-like basis. Our FFO is already positive this early in the year and up by 4.9%. Our occupancy went up 4.6 percentage points to 95%. Our NAV is up 57%, while our investment properties are up 12%. As we usually like to do, let me please give you a quick market overview. 2025 GDP growth is projected at 5.1%, which is a big bounce back compared to 2024. Non-oil growth should be up by 4.7%. Inflation is slightly up at 2.5% versus 2.1% last year. The PMI indicates a very healthy non-oil sector growth. As for the real estate markets, the office market continues to be very strong with a very limited amount of new delivery. Vacancy rate moved from 7% in 2024 to 6% in 2025, and rental rates were up 23% year-on-year. The retail market grew a lot as well. In general, the retail market experiences rising rents and occupancy increase across the board. Our index mall is performing very well. I invite you all to experience the mall by yourself. As for the education market, it shows rapid expansion and enrollment rose by 20% this first half of the year. International students make up 35% of enrollment, which is 29% up year-on-year, while Emirati enrollment is up by 22%. Let me now go through the operational highlights. I will just take a few interesting points on this first slide. We have 378 tenants with a weighted average lease term of 6.2 years. And you remember Building 24, which was a building with 52% occupancy last year, but it was acquired with the knowledge of its great potential. The occupancy at '24 is now 96%. It increased by 44% between 2024 and 2025. Loft 3 was at 2% occupancy, and it is now 37% leased. More on performance. You can see the occupancy growth per building on the left-hand side chart. Our growth income is $4 million higher than in 2023 after having disposed of 2 assets, among which our second largest asset. And our operating costs are down by 9.3%, as you can note on the right-hand side chart. I will now ask Tim to give you the financial highlights for the first half of the year. Thank you.

Thank you, Thierry. As highlighted earlier, our REIT continued to execute its strategic initiatives, including the successful refinancing of Assukuk completed at the end of 2024. This refinancing has significantly lowered our overall financing costs, which positively impacted our financial results for the first half of 2025. Our total property income reached $39 million, representing a 24% like-for-like growth versus first half 2024. This growth excludes the impact of 2 properties previously in our portfolio, which were sold in 2024, underscoring a solid underlying performance driven by higher occupancy rates and improved rental yields. Our net finance costs have been reduced by 57%, now totaling $12 million following the Sukuk refinancing and prepayment of bank financing towards the end of 2024. The gross asset value has also grown to a historic $1.2 billion, with net asset value reaching $886 million or $2.78 per share, up 57% year-on-year, driven by active portfolio management and favorable market conditions. Our finance-to-value ratio improved by 20 basis points to 20% as of first half 2025, reflecting a solid capital structure. Turning to the income and earnings for the first half of 2025, both net property income and operating profit demonstrated impressive growth. Net property income rose to $34 million, reflecting a 24% like-for-like increase, excluding the effect of 2 properties divested in 2024. Operating profit reached $19 million. Funds from operations surged 4.9x year-on-year to $7 million, primarily due to lower financing costs following refinancing actions, including the Sukuk and bank prepayments towards the end of 2024. Net unrealized gains on property revaluations improved 2.7x from $65 million to $177 million, reflecting valuation updates from leading independent valuers applying international standards. The strategic efforts of the REIT manager, combined with the strong momentum in the UAE real estate market contributed to a 2.9 multiple growth of profit for the period, reaching $185 million compared to $63 million in first half 2024. Looking at further details, net property income grew 24% on a like-for-like basis, driven by effective asset management, occupancy reaching 95% and rental rate increases of 24% year-on-year amid a robust economic environment. Funds from operations for first half 2025 reached $7 million, representing a 4.9 multiple growth, notwithstanding that first half 2024 included 2 divested properties during that year. The underlying performance remains strong. Net finance costs reduced significantly by 57% to $12 million, down from $27 million in first half 2024, reflecting REIT's execution of its strategy. With the full year 2024 refinancing at a lower coupon rate and prepayment of bank facility, financing costs have reduced significantly from 63% in the full year 2024 to 29% in the first half 2025, improving the net finance cost ratio for the current period. The balance sheet remains strong despite the divestments with the fair value of our investment properties increasing by 12% to reach $1.1 billion, reflecting continued valuation growth. Liquidity levels stayed robust, benefiting from improved operational performance and strategic refinancing. Our net asset value reached a record $886 million, up 57% year-on-year, translating to a net asset value per share of $2.78 compared to $1.76 per share in first half 2024. Our finance to asset value ratio improved substantially, decreasing by 20 percentage points to 20%, down from 40% in first half 2024, driven by valuation gains, asset sales and refinancing. We remain confident in our strategic direction, leveraging market momentum and our disciplined asset management to deliver sustained value for our shareholders.

Okay. Thank you very much, Tim. We have received a couple of questions. The first question is coming from [indiscernible] Kapadia. It says there's a performance fee on the NAV of 3%, which is above the high watermark. I would like to know if the cost of debt has been fully incorporated in the costs shown with H1 or not? If it has, then that is a good sign because it means that the cost will not hit results again in the full year calculation, which means that then FFO only for H2 will be around $14 million, which means that company could pay out a dividend of $14 million plus $7 million, which is $21 million, which would be around $0.06 a share. Please share your view. Thank you for this question. This is correct. This is absolutely correct. And I would like to reiterate that we have mentioned at the AGM in June that our intention would be business and performance allowing to pay a second cash dividend later in the year. So obviously, I cannot make comment right now as to how much that dividend would amount to, but that's still the intention. So the answer to your question is yes. There's another question, which is given the huge discount to NAV shouldn't the REIT aggressively start a share buyback policy to narrow that gap and increase per share metrics. We have taken an approval or we have passed a result at the AGM to be able to organize this buyback program. Our first priority, as always stated, is to pay a second dividend later in the year. Once we've done that, we will look at the buyback program as a possibility because, obviously, we are very much aware that the share price is the second priority. We need to continue do the right things and to have those dividends paid that have generally a very positive impact on the share price. So we will continue to look into this possibility. So there is a question, the WALE on Index Tower is 2.8. Why is this low when we are signing 5-year leases? The WALE would be 5-year leases if we sign all the leases at the same time and at day #1. Obviously, we have leases that have just been signed leases that are more advanced in the 5 years. So a 2.8 WALE is pretty market, I would say. I would also like to add that we have some floors where we are intentionally having shorter leases in order to achieve higher rents, and that obviously has an impact on the WALE as well. I will also add that the WALE is half of the 5-year lease term. So it's actually completely appropriate. There's a follow-up question on the previous question regarding the 2.8 WALE. I want to say that mathematically, it cannot be more than 2.8 market that has a standard 5-year lease contract. And a lot of other buildings are actually signing less than 5 years. We managed to sign 5-year contracts at Index, but that's the maximum generally that you get in the Dubai market. So the answer is, it should not go up, it should stay at around that level.

We have a question on the comment on the remaining Sukuk balance and whether we aim to refinance that prior to year-end 2025. Obviously, we will be looking very closely at the conditions of the market. And when we decide it is the right time, we will definitely envisage and examine a refinancing of this.

There's a question, what drove the 71% increase in fund expenses in H1 2025 versus H1 2024? There hasn't been any performance fee since before COVID. But now the NAV has increased significantly, which triggered that performance fee, and that's the answer to that question. I would also add that it's a one-off, very important. Are you planning to buy anything in the next 3 years? I mean we are -- we want to grow the size of the REIT. We always been clear about that. This REIT must grow. But it must grow with the same strategy, spirit, as I explained at the beginning of this discussion, which is a long-term and a careful selection of the right assets that can generate value over long term for our shareholders. So we are doing that on a daily basis, actually, not over the next 3 years. But obviously, we will only pull the trigger when we find the right opportunities. And as I explained earlier in the speech, priority right now is dividends. Second priority is to continue to do -- to generate good results, to have a positive impact on the share price. But yes, we are looking constantly at the market. There's a question you guys mentioned earlier of no plans to buy new assets. Buyback are more lucrative and important than new acquisitions. We're also a real estate business. So over long term, we do want to grow the size of this REIT. But I want to make it very clear that, as I just mentioned, priority #1 right now is dividends based on the good performance of the REIT and priority #2 will be to look into a buyback. So I think we are on the same page regarding that question. But over longer term, we always -- it's our duty to keep our eyes open on the market to see if there are great opportunities out there. So we're doing that. But it's more with a long-term approach. There's a question, are you allowed to buy properties from the auction? I have seen a couple of properties sold at great prices. It would be great to do so. But because of our governance, when you buy from auction, you have to react very, very quickly. And because of our governance and compliance, it's very difficult for us to react that quickly. But this is something that we would like to look at because, obviously, you can give great opportunities. But usually, at those auctions, you have to react so quickly and private buyers have an edge. But we will still mention this to the Board to the next board meeting as a possibility. So thank you very much for that question. There's a question, will the Sukuk be called back by end of the year? I will clarify this, but we mentioned that earlier that we can -- we have the opportunity to do so. But obviously, we need to do that for the right reason, right? And the interest rates are still quite high right now for traditional banking facilities. So we have to do that at the right time. So I cannot answer as to what the timing is going to be for doing any sort of such exercise. So what's the plan to lease out the balance space at Index Tower is another question. The building is almost full. We have wait list of companies that would like to rent space. And if something becomes vacant, they want to be on the top of that wait list. We have still a little bit of space from a retail perspective that we're working on right now. But we're trying to -- right now, I would say that our focus is renewal of some of the older contracts in Index that will generate additional revenue growth going forward. Yes. And we want to have as many of those longer-term leases to capture the WALE that we had that question about earlier and try to make sure that it stays very solid. There's a question regarding, are there any ongoing rent disputes? I think it's known that there is an ongoing dispute and discussion with the French school, Lycee Francais. This is something that is being resolved. Other than that, and other than whatever normal disputes you have with the size of the REIT and the number of leases that I mentioned earlier, nothing in particular. I think we had quite many questions today, which is great. I think we covered most of them. So unless there is more last minute question, I think I will thank you for being here today, and we will continue our hard work to maximize the value for you, shareholders. Thank you very, very much for being here today.