Logistea AB (publ) (LOGIA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

The Logistea Q1 report for 2025. For the first part of the conference call, [Operator Instructions]. Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Niklas Zuckerman; and CFO, Philip Lofgren. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of Logistea's First quarter of 2025. Presenting as usual is myself, Niklas Zuckerman and Philip Lofgren. We'll be happy to answer any questions you might have after the presentation. We have continued to grow the company, and we'll present the most recent acquisitions shortly. The portfolio is valued at SEK 13.5 billion, and if adding the most recent transaction, we were up at SEK 14.2 billion. We continue to show low rents per square meter at SEK 669, and the occupancy rate is up to 97.1% from 96.9% the previous quarter. The reported NRV per share is SEK 15.4, and we continue to have a very low LTV at 48.3%. Highlights for the first quarter include income, NOI and income from property management that is up, as you can see, between 123% and up to 229% compared to the first quarter of 2024. We're happy to present that the percentage increase of income from property management is higher, both than the NOI and the income. And maybe more importantly, we're very happy to present the 54% increase from income from property management per share. We continue to own a portfolio with stable income. Our leases runs in average for another 9.3 years. The net initial yield is flat at 6.8%, and we have a very healthy balance sheet with low LTVs. We have so far added the properties to the right, as you can see, at a total value of more than SEK 1 billion. The properties are fully leased with a WAULT of 9 years, and the combined acquisition yield is 8.5%. And this should be compared to our average cost of debt, which is 4.8% and new financing in Sweden at approximately 4%. We continue to see interesting investments in all of the Nordic market, and we have a very good pipeline. And a few words on the individual properties. The Nyköping properties we presented at our last earnings call. The property in Stavanger comprise a bit more than 31,000 square meters and it's fully leased to Home Brands on a 15-year triple net lease. The Malmö property is leased to Golvpoolen and Skåne Stadsmission on leases that runs a bit more than 5 years. And looking at what impact this has on the run rate. So adding these three investments, we can see that we were adding 12% on the income from property management per share. And as said earlier, we continue to see good investment opportunities adding value to the company. And when looking at the run rate, you can see that we are up 10% between the last quarter of last year and this quarter. And this includes then a negative effect from FX that we'll explain in more detail on the coming slides. Looking at the portfolio and the tenant mix, the main changes compared to last quarter is that we have added Nyköping municipality, and that the BEWI share has decreased 2 percentage points since year-end down to 29%. Otherwise, you can see high net initial yields throughout and long leases and very long leases when looking at the portfolios outside of the Nordics. Percentage of triple net and index leases remain very high, and occupancy, as we mentioned, is slightly up between the last quarter of last year and this quarter. We report a minor negative letting for the quarter of SEK 1 million and the WAULT is still long at 9.3 years. As for the market, we continue to see decent transaction volumes in Sweden and Denmark, whereas Norway and Finland has been slow the first months of this year. One should though remember that the transaction market for logistics industrial compared to other asset classes stands out as quite robust still. And with that, I'll leave the word to Philip to go through the financials.

Thank you. Starting off, our revenues for the first quarter increased to SEK 248 million. The revenues in the like-for-like portfolio are close to 1% down, affected by a lower economic occupancy rate in that portfolio. Worth to mention is that the like-for-like portfolio is equal to 39% of our total income. The estimates from our five equity analysts following us was SEK 255 million for the quarter. The main reasons that the revenue was lower, was SEK 4 million less rent supplements, which affected both the revenues and the property expenses, but also a SEK 3 million negative effect from FX rates. The operating margin increased to around 88% and the adjusted operating margin where we exclude the rent supplements from the revenues came in at 94%, an increase from 90% a year ago. And the net operating income increased by 177% relating to the increased property portfolio. We saw a 2% drop in the like-for-like portfolio, which is also related to the lower occupancy rate in the like-for-like portfolio. The estimates for the net operating income were SEK 216 million, the same as the actuals, though we had negative effects from the FX. And looking at the property from property management, which increased to SEK 115 million compared to the estimated SEK 111 million. The higher actual is linked to a lower net financial income since we are focused a lot on the loan portfolio for the past quarters to decrease the average interest rate. Profit from property management per share increased by 32% on the last 12-month basis and the increase for the quarter compared to the first quarter of 2024 was 54%. Looking at the financial key figures at the end of the first quarter, we have a solid and stable loan-to-value ratio of 48% and secured loan-to-value ratio of 42%. We've increased the interest hedging ratio during the quarter from 67% to 74%, where we saw good opportunities before the 5-year swap rate took off. The interest cover ratio came in at 2.2x for the last 12 months. Looking at the interest capacity on the balance sheet day, the estimated interest cover ratio is about 2.4x. The EPRA NRV increased from SEK 15.3 to SEK 15.4 for the quarter affected by FX changes. If we exclude the SEK 126 million FX loss in the OCI, we would have NRV per share of SEK 15.7. The main part of the SEK 1.3 billion bank debt maturing within 12 months will, in short, be prolonged with slightly better terms and at the same time, a longer maturity of around 4 years. As I will present on the next page, we have continued to decrease our weighted average bank margin, which will probably continue for some time going forward. As I have indicated before, we've continued to be active in our loan portfolio. We have very good dialogues with our existing banks, and during the quarter, we've raised bank financing for acquisitions, and we've also refinanced bank loans of around SEK 170 million with a 90 bps drops in margin. We have also managed to tap on our existing green bond loan of SEK 250 million on the same terms, which is 275 bps plus stable. The 20 bps decrease from -- of our weighted average interest rate are related to lower margins in the existing debt portfolio, and new loans with lower margins and lower reference rates. Last but not least, looking at our financial targets and risk limitations. We are presenting solid numbers in line or better than expected. We've been active in both the transaction market, but also in the capital market, which have affected the profits from property management per share positive. The NRV per share was slightly affected by FX rates, but was up from the previous quarter. We are expecting to have a loan-to-value ratio of around 50% going forward without risking negative effects on the interest cover ratio. And that was all for me.

Good. And to summarize, and as Philip mentioned, we're reporting stable and improved numbers throughout. The transactions we have undertaken are improving the income from property management per share. And we continue to see good investment opportunities in the Nordic real estate market. At this slide, you can see that -- to the top, you can see that, first of all, that the portfolio has in terms of value has increased, and maybe more importantly, you can see that the yield gap is improving quarter-over-quarter. So we're now reporting a net initial yield of 6.8% and the cost of financing of 4.8%. And with that, we open up for any questions.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Jan Ihrfelt from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Okay. I have three questions. First one is really the bridge between rental income in the fourth quarter and the first quarter. And in the fourth quarter, you reported clean rental income ex supplements SEK 231 million, and this quarter, SEK 230 million, actually a decrease of SEK 1 million. At the same time, I'm seeing positive effects from indexation, Nyköping, Alingsås. So how did that come up to the reported level you had in the first quarter? I know there's a SEK 3 million or something in that range, negative currency effect, but it looks a little bit low your rental income.

That's correct. So SEK 230 million in income, excluding the rent supplements and that's due to both the FX loss and also a slightly lower occupancy rate in the like-for-like portfolio, where we had bankruptcy in the third quarter of 2024.

Okay. And second question, Alingsås, how much did that contribute in the quarter?

Around SEK 4 million in income per quarter for the project.

Yes. And if we look at the -- your investments in your management portfolio, it was SEK 46 million this quarter. Is it -- are you on a run rate now that we could expect for the rest of the year?

Yes, one could say, in the existing portfolio, then obviously, we're looking to do 1 or 2 projects a year and Alingsås, as you mentioned, is one of those and Intersport is another one and then the numbers would be larger. But for the investments in the existing portfolio, then that's probably a good number for the future as well.

So the remaining investment of the Intersport property is SEK 173 million by the end of the quarter. And that's expected to be finalized in December 2025 this year.

Okay. And my last question regards to your bank margins. You have come down quite a lot. And are you expecting further decrease the bank margins? Or have you reached a level now that you think you will be also applicable to the future?

We -- as we have shown during the autumn, we have managed to take down the bank margins quite a lot throughout. But as Philip mentioned, we are still in discussions with some of the banks in order to get margins down even further. We don't have a sort of estimate in terms of percentage points or million SEK but it's an ongoing process. And we have done a lot, but we've said that we will continue -- or we believe that there are more to be done on the margins and on the total cost of debt overall.

The next question comes from Fredrik Skjerven from ABG Sundal Collier.

My first question is on the bankruptcies. You do write in the report that it was relet most of it at least during the quarter. Is there some kind of timing effect here, meaning the bankruptcy came early in the quarter and the letting was in the end of the quarter? That's my first question. And then secondly, on the same theme of bankruptcies. I believe in previous conference calls and similar presentations, you have sort of commented that you think bankruptcies going forward will be slightly lower because you don't have sort of the same level of struggling tenants as you might have had a year ago. Do we have an update here? Or do you have any sort of struggling tenants? And what should we expect of bankruptcies going forward?

To start with the bankruptcy that we have had, it could be a month or two in terms of time lag, but not more than that. And if I remember correctly, on that premises alone, we're losing SEK 0.6 million or SEK 0.4 million in rent, so the new rent is SEK 0.4 million lower than the old one, and they've started to pay rent already the new tenant. As for bankruptcies, overall, we continue or what we've said in the previous call, that's the feeling that we still have that the number of bankruptcies is lower and the number of tenants being late with rents, et cetera, is lower and improving over time. So that feeling is the same now compared to 3 months ago.

And just adding on this. So this tenant that went into bankruptcy, it wasn't a big surprise for us. It was one of those list -- tenants that we had on our, so to say shortlist survey.

Great. And then second question or maybe third, if you count the first one as two. On future acquisitions, you do have announced quite a bit in -- so far this year. I do realize that you have quite a large cash position as of quarter end. I'm fully aware that some of the sort of completions were in early April. But how should we think about sort of the acquisition tempo going forward?

No, but you're correct in the sense that we still have, call it, firepower to do more. But with that said, obviously, we should only do good deals, and we have a good pipeline of what we believe are really good deals. But there is no sort of -- no set targets before the summer, for instance, for the full year, but still firepower and one should expect us to do more, call it, within the medium to short term.

The next question comes from Emil Ekholm from Pareto Securities.

A few questions from me. First one circling back to the last one from Fredrik. You had SEK 586 million in cash at quarter end. How much of that has been used so far in April as you closed transactions?

Let us give you an exact numbers. So -- yes, but that's before Malmö and Stavanger. So to give you a broad number, calculate with sort of 55% LTV for the properties in Stavanger and Malmö, meaning SEK 240 million plus SEK 75 million, so to say, used already.

Okay. That's fair. Perfect. And also, you mentioned a short list for tenants on bankruptcies. How large is that shortlist? And you give any indication of -- how many risky tenants you have in terms of, let's say, rental value?

No, but it's short, and maybe I shouldn't use the word very short, but it's becoming short to the extent that we're talking very small tenants, if anything, on that list. It doesn't mean that something new could pop up. But when looking at the current situation, the list is short and especially when talking rental income. So it's improving and it's short. And as Philip said, the bankruptcy that we saw during the first quarter, that was probably the last large -- it's not a large tenant, but it's a substantial amount of money when we're talking SEK 2 million, SEK 3 million.

Sounds good. And lastly, you had some negative impact from FX this quarter. What's your view on either divesting non-Nordic assets and concentrating the portfolio to the Nordics? Or maybe what's your possibility on raising debt in euro in order to mitigate some of the FX risk?

Maybe starting with the latter question. So we have secured bank financing in Belgium, which is good. We have not secured in Poland, Germany and the Netherlands, and there are ongoing discussions. We have come a bit further in one of those markets. So what we've said in the past, if we can secure good bank financing and obviously, that will give us more firepower when it comes to doing new transaction. And also, as you mentioned, it would give us better security when it comes to FX. Then we could probably hold on to those properties for now. But we have also said that if we cannot get proper or good bank financing, then the question is, if that's -- is the FX risk too large for us. And with that said, one could look at optimizing the portfolio. But for now, we are in fairly good discussions. And as I said, in one of the countries we have come pretty far, I would say.

Makes sense. Can you give any indication on margin levels on those types of debt comparing to Swedish bank debt?

Not really. We're in, as I said, in discussions with the banks. And no, we won't. But overall, I could say that looking at the European assets, margins are probably slightly higher compared to the Nordics, but we're not talking any massive changes at all, slightly higher, but yes.

Next question comes from Fredrik Skjerven from ABG Sundal Collier.

Yes. Apologies for jumping in twice here. But on the earnings capacity, I mean you have one which is per quarter end or 1st of April and one as of today. Are there different FX assumptions in these two rows, and which FX assumptions have you used?

No. So the earnings capacity for today's date is just a copy of the earnings capacity from the balance sheet date plus the, so to say, profit from property management for the Stavanger and Malmö deals transactions that we've completed now in April. So no estimations regarding FX changes.

Great. So do both of them use today's FX or do both of them use the FX from 1st of April?

So we've taken down the Stavanger property with today's FX, so to say.

Right. And for the total portfolio, I guess, not for the acquisitions specifically, but the total standing portfolio that you already own, is that the FX from quarter end or from today?

Quarter end, yes.

[Operator Instructions] No more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.

Good. Nobody, there seem to be no written questions. So I think we say thanks to everyone that has listened in, and thanks for the questions. And if there are any following-up questions, obviously, let Philip or myself know, and we'll do our best to answer those as well. So thank you, and have a good day.

Thank you.

The host has ended this call. Goodbye.