Lindex Group Oyj (LINDEX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to our sale and leaseback webinar regarding our flagship in Helsinki. As we came out this morning, we have agreed today the sale and leaseback of our department store property in Helsinki City Center. The domestic buyer of the property is Keva. Keva is a public sector pension provider and Finland's largest employment pension institution, with a total of 1.3 million private customers. Stockmann will continue its department store operations in the entire building under a long leaseback agreement to be made with the new owner. Leases with Stockmann's tenants will continue with the current concepts. The value of the entire transaction is EUR 400 million. Approximately EUR 391 million will be paid in connection with the transaction. The remaining part will be taken into account in the rent during the next few years. The net yield is approximately 4.2% and the sale is subject to customary closing conditions, and Stockmann expects the sale to be completed by the end of April 2022 at the latest. Stockmann will use the proceeds from the sale of the property to full pay -- repay both secured restructuring debt of EUR 342.6 million and the undisputed unsecured restructuring debts of EUR 21.8 million that are currently subject to the corporate restructuring payment program. We also have unsecured restructuring debt that remains conditional, maximum amount or disputed in respect of which the amount subject to the payment program will be confirmed later. This is a flagship and #1 living room in the City Center of Helsinki. The building was completed in 1930 and has, after that, been enlarged to its current status. The department store was designed by the architect Sigurd Frosterus and the best brand selection in town by Stockmann and partners. We are offering -- our offering includes broad range of shops, pop-ups, cafes, restaurants, beauty and health services. And the leasable area is over 51,000 square meters. And last year, we had approximately 5.2 million visitors in the building. And now I would like to hand over to Keva's CEO, Jaakko Kiander. Jaakko, Floor is yours.

Thank you, Jari, and good morning to everybody. A couple of words about Keva who is buying this property. As Jari said, Keva is the Finnish pension institute, which takes care of the pensions of the public sector employees. And as such, we are the biggest actuary in the Finnish pension scheme. Some key figures. We cover the pensions from the local government, central government and the Church of Finland. We have total insured employees of about 700,000 and lots of retired members, too. Our total portfolio was in the end of last year about EUR 67 billion. And as such, we are the biggest pension investor in Finland. Our portfolio is highly diversified around the world. And we have most of our assets in the equity and the private equity and adjustment stock markets related investments, but we also have some share in real estate. And this purchase of Stockmann's house is the one part of the -- our strategy to develop our property portfolio. The role of investments is highly important in our pension system, and that's why we are seeking kind of long-term investments, which will give us a sufficient return in the future because we have very, very long-term liabilities. Buying Stockmann's department store, which, I think, very well in our strategy because we are looking for a very long-term rental here, and we are very long-term investors. And we think also that the location of Stockmann is the best possible in Finland. And I think we have a sufficiently good deal with Stockmann now, which also guarantees a sufficient return to our investment. Thank you.

Now we are ready for the Q&A. And both Jaakko and myself are ready for your questions. So please.

Yes. The first question coming to Stockmann from Johanna Saha. How much will lease liabilities increased due to the sale and leaseback actions? And the second one, how much will depreciations increase after the sale of all 3 properties?

I will have to come back to those because the IFRS 16 accountabilities, we will come back to this.

And then we will wait for some more questions probably to come.

Okay. If no more questions, we thank you for this. And as you have the stock exchange release, you have both Jaakko and my number, so we can come back to you. Thank you. Thank you for participating.