Logistic Properties of the Americas (LPA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to LPA's First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Audra, and I will be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] And please note that this call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Now I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Camilo Ulloa, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Welcome to LPA's First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Camilo Ulloa with LPA's Investor Relations team. Joining me on today's call are Esteban Saldarriaga, our Chief Executive Officer; and Paul Smith, Chief Financial Officer. Before we proceed with a review of LPA's financial and operating results, please note that the information presented during this call is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or sell any securities. Forward-looking statements made during this call are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, which are discussed in LPA's filings with the SEC. Our actual results, performance and prospective opportunities may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements after this call. We have prepared supplemental materials that we may reference during the call. We encourage you to visit our website, ir.lpamericas.com, to download these materials. Esteban will begin today's review. Esteban, please go ahead.

Thank you, Camilo, and welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining our earnings call. LPA's growth accelerated in the first quarter with revenue increasing 12.9% to $11.8 million and NOI growing almost 6% to $9.4 million. Leading this growth was Peru as we continued cultivating our existing customers and deepening our relationships with them. These are regional and global companies operating as third-party logistics providers such as Switzerland-based Kuehne+Nagel, that continue expanding in Peru, which is a thriving domestic economy, thanks to strong consumer spending trends and highly favorable e-commerce tailwinds. The country currently enjoys low inflation, minimal government debt and low unemployment, with foreign trade bolstered by high-performing mining commodities like copper and gold. As such, Peru hasn't been identified as a target for U.S. tariffs nor have our other foundational markets, Colombia and Costa Rica. They also have similar healthy economic profiles and trends, and their operations in both countries also contributed to a revenue growth in the first quarter. Returning to Peru at our Lima Sur park, which consists of 6 buildings totaling around 1.3 million square feet, we signed a new lease during the quarter with one of our long-standing global customers, a leading logistics company that also leases space from us in Colombia. This lease brought our entire operating portfolio of 5.6 million square feet to 100% occupancy, marking a major milestone that further strengthens the long-term value of our regional platform. Rental revenues from these recent contracts have not yet been fully reflected in our cash flow statement, but will begin to be over the coming months as customers settle into their space. On the development front, as we announced last month, we will increase our footprint in Lima with the construction of a 215,000 square foot building at Parque Logistico Callao. Reflecting the scarcity of premium logistics facilities in the market, this planned building is already 73% pre-leased even before construction started by repeat customers, one of which is Peru's largest consumer products company and the other, the country's largest pharmacy chain. Consistent with our business model, these are dollar-denominated leases. Keep in mind that once completed, our Callao Park will eventually comprise of 4 premium buildings totaling over 1 million square feet with only one last pad pending lease-up and development launch. It's a prize location, one that's adjacent to Lima's International Airport, serving more than 10 million people in the capital city, roughly 1/3 of the country's population and which also provides seamless connectivity to the maritime port of Callao. This location exemplifies the high barrier nature of our foundational markets where ownership of land is often fragmented, making land acquisitions difficult for development purposes. In this case, we worked with an institutional concessionaire that needed a strategic partner like LPA, a trusted institutional level player with a demonstrated track record and a strong reputation for development and operational excellence. LPA is a clear partner of choice for customers, evidenced by GLA expansions by companies already in a rent roll. And growing with our clients also means serving some of those that are expanding in Mexico. It's a country with a far larger economy, and it's a new avenue of long-term growth for LPA. Put another way, we intend to replicate our success there. Of course, we are mindful of the uncertainty around emerging U.S. tariff policies and their potential impact on Mexico's nearshoring sector, which policies will be ultimately implemented and what their impact might be can be predicted at this time. But we remain constructive on this country in the medium and long term. In the meantime, our approach to investment in Mexico remains disciplined, methodical and highly selective. We will avoid sectors heavily reliant on certain targeted exports, focusing instead on growing demand for logistics space in key submarkets, demand that's driven by resilient domestic consumption, similar to the favorable economic dynamics of our foundational markets. By way of example, 39 new investments were announced during the first quarter according to Mexico's economy ministry. Of the nearly $26 billion in aggregate investment, 43% is commerce related, reflecting a shift toward projects aimed at the domestic market amid the growing uncertainty about the export sector. Our recent example of this is DHL's $120 million expansion at its air hub in Queretaro. As a reminder, we intend to work with Mexican partners who have deep relationships in the country as well as crucial local market knowledge and expertise. Our first investment through LPA's joint venture with Falcon will give us a controlling interest in 2 logistics assets located in Puebla, giving us a strategic foothold in Mexico as well as DHL as an anchor customer. As mentioned on our previous earnings call, we are making steady progress towards completing this transaction. We have successfully established our Mexican legal entities, completed due diligence, the asset is performing in line with expectations, and we anticipate announcing the closing soon. With that, I'll pass the call over to Paul, who will expand a bit on our first quarter results.

Thank you, Esteban, and good morning, everyone. I'll provide a few additional highlights of our first quarter performance, which was largely in line with internal forecast and reflects the strong underlying fundamentals of our regional platform. As explained in our earnings release, in addition to the stabilization of 2 facilities in Peru as well as a building in Costa Rica, rental rate increases contributed to our double-digit revenue growth. Compared to the first quarter of 2024, average rent per square foot increased 1.9% across our property portfolio. As Esteban noted, Peru, which represents 29% of LPA's portfolio GLA drove much of the quarter's revenue increase. Its rental income grew 38.4%. Revenue from Costa Rica, which accounts for 47% of our property portfolio increased 6.1%, while the remaining 24% of our portfolio in Colombia delivered a 2.6% revenue increase. Helping protect future revenue streams are mostly dollar-based rents, inflation indexing as well as remaining lease terms, the weighted average of which is 5 years for our property portfolio. Compared to last year, our lease GLA grew 5.9%, and we finished this quarter with a stabilized occupancy rate of 98% which reflects the highly favorable supply-demand imbalances in our target markets and our strong customer relationships that both support this level of operating efficiency. Our G&A increased 112%, mainly due to higher professional services and D&O insurance expenses that are required of public companies as well as share-based compensation and increased headcount to support LPA's growth. Our financing costs decreased 5.6% versus first quarter 2024 as we secured lower interest rates on LPA's existing debt. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA also improved, decreasing 30 basis points over the same period. Additionally, LPA maintains a healthy maturity profile with no significant amount of debt coming due in the near term. Lastly, given LPA share price, we continue repurchasing our ordinary shares, acquiring another $0.8 million worth during the quarter and bringing total buybacks to $2.1 million as of quarter end. That concludes our first quarter review. Operator, please open the call for any questions.

We'll go first to André Mazini at Citigroup.

So 2 quick questions. The number one from what I heard you guys saying, it seems to me you guys want to shy away from light manufacturing in Mexico, at least at this moment. So would it be all light manufacturing or only the auto sector, which seems more affected by tariffs? And of course, you guys are excited with logistics in general. So this is the first one on Mexico. And the other one, more broadly on all geographies. So are tenants still on a wait-and-see mode regarding tariffs? Or do they think that the tariff situation is stable in the geographies you guys are located and leasing is on a normal basis, if you will, there's no uncertainty that's hampering the animal spirits of tenants.

Thank you, André. Nice to hear you. On your first question, yes, I think we want to prioritize logistics assets in Mexico first, which is our bread and butter. Longer term, we're constructive on light manufacturing. But at the moment, we probably want to be a little bit more selective as we see how the chips fall. We do think there's going to be improved [ point ]. But of course, we want to be, again, as I mentioned, highly selective. We're highly constructive in Mexico. You mentioned the word shy away. I think it's an interesting portray. We're still analyzing transactions for when things are probably more set in place. But in terms of closing their first transactions in Mexico, we want to emphasize logistics, as you point out. On your second question, the foundational markets where we operate in are mostly consumer-driven as opposed to export led. And therefore, tariffs have not been making such a dent or they don't even register, frankly, in Peru, we're seeing an acceleration. We're ahead of our underwriting in our Callao park. We know it is a privileged location, and we're seeing huge amounts of activity. That's one of the leases we signed in Q1 actually. So we're seeing momentum accelerate. We referenced on our earlier remarks that more than 70% of one of the buildings we pre-leased. So we are seeing acceleration. Tariffs are not holding back for them. But again, these are mostly local domestic consumption players for whom tariffs are not really part of the equation.

[Operator Instructions] And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we will be concluding today's audio question-and-answer. We will take the web questions now. And at this time, there are no further webcast questions. I would like to turn the call over to Esteban Saldarriaga for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. We began 2025 with strong momentum, and we're maintaining that trajectory today. Accordingly, we still expect to drive additional NOI growth this year. Our foundational markets are demonstrating resilience as they continue growing, while our strong and diverse base of high-quality customers would serve as a front line in any adverse economic scenario that might arise. Further, we remain thoughtful about risk, continuing to be highly selective about the customers we accept as well as the investments we make to scale our unique regional platform and increase LPA's earnings power. Our confidence lies in the limited supply of Class A EDGE-certified facilities like ours, which are needed in strategic locations of markets that are fragmented and where domestic consumption is robust. As such, we still have a strong pipeline of near- and long-term investment opportunities in our foundational markets and in Mexico. We also have the right team to assess those opportunities and execute. And as an internally managed real estate platform, we'll continue to invest capital in ways that are closely aligned with our fellow shareholders. As always, we welcome the opportunity to engage with LPA shareholders as well as other investors. So please reach out to us if you'd like to arrange a call or meeting. Thank you, everyone and we wish you a great day.

And this concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.