Modiv Industrial, Inc. (MDV) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to Modiv Industrial Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Margaret Boyce, Investor Relations for Modiv Industrial. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Melissa, and thank you all for joining us for Modiv Industrial's second quarter earnings call. We issued our earnings release and our 10-Q before market opened this morning. These documents are available in the Investor Relations section of our website at modiv.com. Our quarterly supplement will be published later this week. I'm here today with Aaron Halfacre, Chief Executive Officer; and Ray Pacini, Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, management will provide prepared remarks, and then we'll open up the call for your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's comments will include forward-looking statements under the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as will, be, intend, believe, expect, anticipate and other comparable words and phrases. Statements that are not historical facts, such as statements about our expected acquisitions or dispositions are also forward-looking statements. Our actual financial condition and results of operations may vary materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Discussion of the factors that could cause our results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are contained in our SEC filings, including our reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Aaron. Aaron, please go ahead.

Thank you, Margaret. Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining our conference call today. Over the last 90 days, we have continued our no-nonsense execution. Let me rattle off a few facts about the work we've done. On August 10, we completed the $42 million sale of our non-core assets at a 7.55% cap rate, and we did this only 90 days after we told you of our plan. In July, we acquired another $29 million of industrial assets at greater than an 8% cap rate, which was on top of the $100 million of assets we've acquired earlier this year. In the past 18 months, we've acquired nearly $300 million of assets, which means nearly 50% of our total AUM was acquired at exceedingly attractive cap rates, while others watch their vintage low cap rate portfolio shrinking value with every Fed rate increase. We did all this without raising dilutive equity. Instead, we chose to issue nearly $38 million of accretive OP units at an average price 80% greater than our current share price, while at the same time, recycling over $100 million of capital from our portfolio repositioning. Through our continuous disciplined efforts, we have now created an industrial portfolio with an impressive 14.7 weighted average lease term with an equally impressive 2.45% average annual rental profile. However, what I'm most proud of is that we accomplished all of this with just a 12-person team despite an unprecedented market environment and when few thought we could. I share these facts not to ring a bell, but to offer a proof statement. We have been saying this since day 1: Our team knows how to execute and is not afraid of the heavy lifting required of us as we crank out results. Modiv has only just begun to scratch the surface of our opportunity. We needed to work hard to reduce these proof statements because rightly so, no one was just going to take our word for it. As the same goes, build it and they will come. So we are focused intensely on execution to make it happen. Modiv has a strong vision of our future. We want and know we need to achieve greater scale. We want and know we need to increase our liquidity. We want to, and we know we can, become the best pure-play net lease industrial manufacturing in our industry. I personally believe that the next 18 months will be even more transformational than the last 18. Next, you'll begin to see our efforts to raise investor awareness of Modiv Industrial and our compelling investment thesis. When Modiv listed last year in arguably the noisiest risk off market environment since 2008, we chose to be patient as we knew that our investment story would evolve. However, now that the majority of our repositioning is behind us, you will see us relentlessly pursue telling our story, highlighting our upside potential and sharing our vision with as many retail and institutional investors as we can. I believe that investors will like what they hear. All right. Enough of me standing on the soapbox, I will now turn the call over to Ray Pacini, our CFO, to review the financial results. Ray?

Thank you, Aaron. I'll begin with an overview of second quarter operating results. Second quarter adjusted funds from operations, or AFFO, was $3.3 million or $0.31 per diluted share compared with $3.6 million or $0.35 per diluted share in the year ago quarter. The decrease in AFFO was primarily due to a $600,000 increase in the adjustment for straight-line rents related to the 10 industrial manufacturing properties acquired during the first half of 2023 and a lease signed with the state of California in January 2023. Revenue for the second quarter increased 16.7% to $11.8 million compared with $10.1 million in the prior year period, reflecting the benefit of the 16 industrial manufacturing acquisitions we completed since June 30, 2022. Net income attributable to common stockholders improved $1.8 million for the second quarter, coming in at $3.1 million or $0.41 per basic and $0.35 per diluted share. This compares to net income attributable to common stockholders of $1.3 million or $0.17 per basic and $0.14 per diluted share in the prior year period. The increase in net income reflects the revenue increase I just described, along with unrealized gains on interest rate swap derivatives. While we experienced a $1.7 million loss on valuation of interest rate swap derivatives in the first quarter this year, we had a $3.7 million unrealized gains on valuation of interest rate swap derivatives in the second quarter, representing an increased gain of [ $3 ] million year-over-year. This unrealized gain on swap valuations, along with cash derivative settlements of $1.4 million, offset interest expense paid to our lenders, resulting in negative interest expense of $180,000 for the quarter. We've captured the somewhat unusual phenomenon of negative interest expense for the quarter with a new caption in our statement of operations, which we've termed interest expense, net of derivative settlements and unrealized gains on interest rate swaps. As I explained during our first quarter call, the first swap did not qualify for hedge accounting treatment because it has a built-in one-time cancellation option available on December 31, 2024. We structured this cancellation option when we entered into the swap in May 2022 because it reduced the swap rate by approximately 50 basis points. As a result, depending on fluctuations in the foreign SOFR curve between now and December 2024, we may continue to experience volatility in net interest expense through gains or losses on the valuation of our swaps. We will continue to benefit from our interest rate hedges with our $250 million term loan outstanding today at a weighted average interest rate of 4.53% based on our leverage ratio of 47% as of June 30, 2023. We also had interest income of $217,000, which reflects interest earned on cash proceeds from April 2023 draws on our term loan prior to utilizing such cash to acquire industrial manufacturing properties in May 2023. Now turning to our portfolio. We've continued to focus on acquiring industrial manufacturing properties. Year-to-date through August 14, we acquired $129.8 million across 12 industrial manufacturing properties at an attractive blended initial cap rate of 7.8% and a weighted average cap rate of 10.3%. During the second quarter, we acquired $89 million of industrial manufacturing properties. And in July, we acquired an additional $29 million of industrial manufacturing properties. On July 3, we acquired an industrial manufacturing property located in Piqua, Ohio, leased to Vistech Manufacturing Solutions for $13.5 million. Vistech has a 20-year operating history and is the leading provider of niche automotive parts in the noise, vibration and harness category. On July 11, we acquired another industrial manufacturing property located in Andrews, South Carolina, leased to SixAxis for $15.5 million. SixAxis has over a 20-year operating history and is a designer and manufacturer of highly engineered patented and modular solutions in the workplace safety market. On August 10, we sold our non-core portfolio of 13 legacy retail and office assets to Generation Income Properties for $42 million at an exit cap rate of 7.55%. Transaction consideration included $30 million in cash and $12 million of GIPR preferred stock, which will pay monthly dividends at an annual rate of 9.5%. With the sale of these 13 legacy retail and office assets and our additional $29 million of industrial acquisitions, we have achieved our goal of having a super majority of industrial manufacturing exposure. As Aaron mentioned, for the remainder of the year, we are focused on the disposition of our non-industrial assets. Following the sale of non-industrial assets to GIPR, our industrial portfolio exposure includes 40 of our 45 properties, representing 76% of pro forma NOI as of June 30, 2023, with a WALT of 14.7 years and a weighted average annual rental increases of 2.45%. Our 3 tactical non-core properties now represent 20% of the portfolio with a 14.9 year WALT and 2.3% annual rent bumps. And the 2 remaining other non-core legacy office properties represent only 4% of the portfolio. Annualized base rent for our 45 properties totaled $41 million on a pro forma basis as of June 30, 2023, reflecting the recent acquisitions and dispositions. We are currently marketing our Nashville, Tennessee office property leased to Cummins and plan to begin marketing our San Diego office property current leased to Solar Turbines later this year. We categorize tactical non-core assets as those assets that offer compelling value add for opportunistic investment characteristics when measured over a near-term or interim holding period. These 3 assets include our KIA auto dealership property located in a prime location in Los Angeles County acquired in January 2022, which was structured as an UPREIT transaction, resulting in a favorable equity issuance of $32.8 million of Class CLP units at a cost basis of $25 per share. Our 12-year lease to the state of California's Office of Emergency Services executed in January 2023 to one of our existing assets in Sacramento, California that includes an attractive purchase option by the tenant, which we believe has a favorable probability of being executed upon in the next 24 months. And our third tactical non-core asset is a property leased to Costco located in Issaquah, Washington, which offers compelling redevelopment opportunities when Costco's lease expires in July 2025, given its higher density infill locations and the fact that the land is zoned for additional uses to include flex R&D and multi-family. Following the GIR transaction, Modiv Industrial's 45 property portfolio has an attractive weighted average lease term of 14.3 years, and approximately 34% of our tenants or their parent companies have an investment-grade credit rating from a recognized credit rating agency of BBB- or better. Now turning to our balance sheet and liquidity. As of June 2023, total cash and cash equivalents were $9.9 million, and we had $294 million of debt outstanding, consisting of $44 million of mortgages and $250 million of outstanding borrowings on our $400 million credit facility. Based on interest rate swap agreements we entered into during 2022, 100% of our indebtedness ended June 30, 2023, held a fixed interest rate with a weighted average interest rate of 4.52% based on our leverage ratio of 47% at quarter end. We borrowed $21 million on our revolver during July 2023 to fund the industrial acquisitions I discussed earlier, and we will repay the revolver with proceeds from the recent sale of the 13 non-industrial assets this month. As previously announced, our Board of Directors declared a cash dividend for common shares of approximately $0.95 for the month of July, August and September 2023, representing an annualized dividend rate of $1.15 per share of common stock. This represents a yield of over 9% based on the recent share price of our common stock. I'll now turn the call back over to Aaron.

Thanks, Ray. Having shared my two cents earlier in the call and not wanting to bore you with more prepared remarks, I know you're going to have questions about the GIPR transaction of non-core assets and what lies ahead. I figured it will be best to answer your questions directly. So to that end, let's begin the Q&A. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Bryan Maher with B. Riley Securities.

[indiscernible] non-core, non-taxable, whatever you want to call them. Nashville is in the market now and San Diego sometime in the second half of this year. Is that correct?

Yes. The reason San Diego wasn't up already is it actually one of our -- we have 2 properties in the same subdivision. And so they had one common parcel, even though they're not located near each other. So we're in the process of splitting the parcels so that we can comfortably peel off Solar Turbine. So we anticipate taking that out either late third or early fourth to the market.

Okay. And then the 3 tactical ones, the KIA, the Costco and the California lease, those are just going to hold for some period of time. Is that correct?

Correct, unless something opportunistic comes about. I think the first 2 that would move would be OES and Costco. I think KIA, you should expect it to be in the portfolio for a bit, the way we structured the OP unit transaction. It's also a 25-year lease term initially. So it's -- we like where is that. But I think the -- there's a chance that Costco and OES will self-liquidate favorably over the next, call it, 24 months.

And then can you give us any idea what you're thinking about in the way of cap rates for Nashville and San Diego?

No. We call for offers is this week for the broker who's running Nashville. So we don't know what to expect. We are -- I will say that, that one is being positioned as an industrial flex conversion. So it's a super tight market. Through our analysis, we think the highest and best use is in industrial flex conversion. We don't want to do it ourselves. We think we just -- we've already taken the impairment charge in the first quarter, and we're just looking to create -- get that off the balance sheet and create some liquidity. I don't know the cap rate on that one. That said on the San Diego, we've actually, in the past, received a couple of unsolicited bids that would be gains to our NAV, which clearly we're trading well below our NAV. So that's a favorable submarket for sure. But we haven't started the BOE process on that one yet.

Okay. Just last for me on the expenses. They seem to be pretty well under control, but I did notice on Page 16 of the Q, kind of the commentary there around, I guess it was some property tax and maybe reallocating how that's done. Is there anything funky that we should be aware of as we model out expenses? Or is that better to discuss offline?

Ray, you're going to take that?

Yes. I mean there's nothing funky. I mean we can talk about it further offline, but I think you can expect the expenses to be fairly in line with where we are today. As I said, we manage them pretty tightly.

No, when you're renting, you're also moving your office space yourself. That's indicative of what we would expect for expenses. So good for you guys.

Our next question comes from the line of Rob Stevenson with Janney Montgomery Scott.

Is there a lockup on the generation preferred shares? And is that a long-term hold and what's your plan there?

So the preferred -- it has a feature that allows them to redeem in shares or cash. And the mechanism is that until March 15, we've actually created a collar range that would be determined the share price that they could -- if they were to issue those shares, they could give us the shares. So, I'd say how we look at the preferred is -- and underwriting some probability that they may issue equity and give us shares. In the event that they do give us shares and what we -- net of anything we haven't sold in advance because we're allowed to sell the preferred off if we want to, we would then look to distribute any common shares out to our shareholders as a distribution. So that's not to have any consolidation risk of their operations. So we don't have any formal restriction on trading. If we find a private party that's interested in some preferred, we'll talk to them in best interest. And then net of any sales that we haven't done in advance, assuming that we get common from them, which I think is their objective, then we would look to distribute that out to our shareholders.

And you said that the timing is March?

They have -- so the timing is -- to them, they have to have notified us that they wish to redeem with shares prior to March 15. They are certain in the article supplementary of their document that details the mechanics. But basically, there's a mechanism in which they can determine how many shares they would issue us, and it's collar bound until March 15. After March 15, we're open to accepting cash or shares. But after that date, it's a de novo negotiation of how many shares.

Okay. And in the interim, Ray, that will just appear as whatever $285,000 a quarter in interest income? Or is that going to be somewhere else?

Yes, it will be in other income.

Okay. And then the EMC lease included a 9-month purchase option. Are they likely to buy? Is that why it's a shorter-term option, or is that mature sort of design there?

This is the tenant that we had the held for sale. This property was locked up under contract. It's an owner user. They obtained SBA financing to close it, but they actually asked to wait. They thought they would better have favorable financing rates that they went on a little bit. They want -- they're willing to sign a 10-year lease, but they wanted to be able to purchase it sometime at the same price that they had negotiated. And we said, that's fine, we'll do that, but we'll give you a finite window to do that. And so we signed a 10-year lease. And if they decided they like the financing and what we understand is they probably will execute that sooner than the 9 months, but if they don't, we have an occupied tenant. So we didn't want to keep it tied up on the market. If they wanted to waste more time, we figured we'd collect rent. And so that kind of has to be sort of a win-win for both of them. They could better time their debt exposure, and we get a lease.

Okay. And then given that you could wind up having proceeds from there, you've got the proceeds from the big sale, how deep is the pipeline today? And what's your sort of time frame in expectations in terms of redeploying that capital into industrial assets?

So I think how we think about near term, so we have $250 million on the term loan, we're paying off the revolver with the proceeds that we got from, the next asset that the mortgage debt will pay off is the OES that's coming due in March of next year. I think we're going to make a partial payment here real soon. And so proceeds from Cummins, proceeds from Solar, proceeds from EMC, any proceeds from the sale of the preferred of GIPR will pay off that mortgage debt because that's coming due. And that just increases the equity profile. And then after that, we would look to do acquisitions. In terms of pipeline, we are really, really -- we spent a lot of time sourcing and identifying out there. So pipeline is not my issue. It's clearly it's equity is my issue, right? I mean if you looked at it right now, I think we've traded 2,800 shares. So I mean it's something like $30,000 worth of shares are traded and we have like almost 8 million shares outstanding. Our investors, which are legacy, they just don't sell, right? So we don't have much liquidity, which is -- and we've been disciplined about issuing. I could buy $700 million of properties tomorrow at attractive cap rates. So we're constantly looking. I don't think pipeline is an issue. We've gotten very selective now that we kind of repositioned as much as we can in the near term, we're not looking to chase anything down. If we find something that's super compelling, we'll act on it. We're not afraid to. We clearly have the revolver. And I think my focus now which is [indiscernible], it's been lots of traveling, lots of structuring, lots of doing things like this and [ cleaning it up ]. I think now you'll see me calling upon the shops that covers yours included, to do NDRs, we'll start going out and talking to investors. If you think about that 2,800 shares traded at $30,000, if I'm starting to talk, I mean, like hitting the road, really talking to IRAs and FAs and institutions, it's not hard to create some volume. And I think that's our next focus, and I think that's our next focus for really the balance of the year. We'll always be looking for something that achieves scale. And I want to try to find something that's scalable that when you guys tune in for every quarter, you have to pay attention because I'm not going to leave you prior to the quarter. Yes, do something that's transformational. That's my hope. But my main focus in the near term is to start to get more attention to the name because I think we have a really compelling story. I think we've executed really well. And it's that proverb, if a tree falls in the forest, does anyone to hear it? Clearly, not today, but they will.

Okay. That's helpful. And then last one for me. What's the current timing expectation for the Kalera bankruptcy resolution? And do I have it correct if the lease is rejected, you get the asset back and the mechanics lien comes to you, but if the buyer affirms, it's their lease obligation?

So you're correct in the mechanic that if they reject the lease, we're stuck holding the bag. We've known this for a while. We're well on that. We are still in discussions with Kalera. I couldn't -- probably await the likelihood of rejection. Our property is a little bit unique than some of the other ones. I mean they've already rejected some assets if you follow the proceeds. They have -- they've extended it, I think, until October, but they -- as the bankruptcy -- as I understand the bankruptcy procedures go, they have the right to continue to punt on the assumption of their sales because they work through all this with all of their landlords. So we've underwritten it and we've looked at it. We're pretty eyes wide open about what we may need to do. We've already also looked at alternatives in the event that they -- if it doesn't work out with them. Interesting enough, earlier this year in Minnesota passed marijuana. We are one of the only industrial properties in the urban center that has its own aquifer. It's designed for vertical growing. So we've had some interest from that already, some other vertical growers. So we've been looking at the market. I think even if we have cannabis be grown up here, if we have to pay the liens, we'll work to try to reduce the face side of those liens, but we think the property and the opportunity for a lease is still in excess of that lien value and our purchase price.

Okay. And I guess one question that comes up from that is if it winds up being the highest and best use for this is something like cannabis, is that something that you hold? Or given the legality and the REIT structure, that's something that you sell either to the user to somebody else to own from that --

Great Question. I think it depends on the -- so we have food production, this is -- I wouldn't call it food, but it's similar design. We have -- so we already have food production as a category and are things that we're not opposed to owning. Do I want to be -- I don't want to infringe on New Lake or the other fine cannabis reach out there. If I want to take it off, right? I don't know. I think it depends on the tenant, it depends on the lease, it depends on what we have. I would say that would be sort of a byproduct of what's happened to Kalera and would not be seeking cannabis facilities on a go-forward basis at all. But if it happens to be one, we'll see, but maybe it becomes a tactical non-core, I don't know, we'll see.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Barry Oxford with Colliers.

Aaron, when you talk about transformational, what might that look like? Would it come in the form of a decently sized joint venture partner? If you could wrap some color behind those comments.

Sure. If I was going to write a letter to Santa Claus, I think it would it be the ideal world is I take on a larger portfolio of industrial manufacturing or predominantly industrial manufacturing assets. And I do that in conjunction with a strategic, meaning that maybe they come in with some of the cap stack and it gives them some optionality. Could it be structured as a JV? Sure. Could it be structured as a direct investment? Sure. I think it's really about figuring out a solution that creates a win-win for all the parties. I think that's the ideal for me. And I will be candid. There are portfolios out there that fit that criteria. It doesn't mean we're going to do one. It doesn't mean we're even talking about it. But I know where they're at. And I know that -- I've done a lot of homework and I like them. So a lot of it comes down to, as Rob asked, were we're going to buy. Buying is really going to be [indiscernible] function of equity. At some point in the future, we'll need to raise more equity. I've waited this long because I don't want to be dilutive, and I think I've done a good job of being patient. So we are patient in that regard. And now telling the story, if I can double my trading volume, that's probably going to increase the share price materially on an average basis, and that makes all this other stuff more feasible.

Got it. No, that makes sense. When you think about using OP units going forward, are there other buyers out there that would conceivably do it at a higher price without you offering a higher price?

So the 2 we've done are $25 and $18, so both accretive. I would say that how I look at OP units, I take them very seriously because they become a partner. I mean, they are making an equity investment. And we're pretty straight down the road in terms of structuring. We don't know -- if someone wants a lot of crazy bells and whistles, then go somewhere else. I'm not going to give it to you. We treat that as being Pari-passu with the Class C common. But that said, there's a little slightly different set because we don't have that many Class C OP unitholders now. So look, if it happens, I'm always open to it. But it's never my first tool. I mean, all things being equal, I'd rather have a float in that equity, right? So, class c OP and it don't create any float. So it's a great way to acquire, but it doesn't solve my liquidity issue.

Right. No, I got it. That makes sense. And then I guess just one question for Ray. On the straight lining, is that a good run rate right now and come looking at the 2Q number? Or should we be thinking about straight line differently?

It really depends on what we do going forward in terms of acquisitions. We're signing 20-year leases plus and that increases the amount of straight-line rent. So if things didn't change, if we didn't acquire anything, that would probably be a reasonable run rate. But assuming we buy more property, that number will increase. But the flip side of it is revenue is going up. So in terms of -- in terms of AFFO, they kind of wash it out. Revenue has gone up and then you're deducting a straight-line rent.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Halfacre for any final comments.

I wish to thank everyone for joining the call. I want to thank David Sobelman and the GIPR team. It was -- what we did there was a unique transaction. It was -- you could have easily just sold it off for cash. I think our goal was to do something that helped the community. Being a tiny REIT and working with another tiny REIT, that's what we are and we're small. And most people aren't paying attention. To create a structure that was a win-win, I think, is unique in our space, and we did it ourselves, which shows that we have the skills. So they've now more than doubled their asset size in terms of property counts and they've now achieved $100 million of gross assets. They bought what they -- what we sold fits their profile perfectly. And so, there were good quality assets that we didn't want because [ we had guided ] we were going to move on. So we've given it to them. And so we're pleased that we were able to do that. It wasn't the easiest transaction to do, but we got it done. And I think we show that we can do those types of transactions on an even bigger scale. And our team has the capability to do that in-house, which means we save tons of money when it comes to those types of expenses. So I'm excited about what that shows that we did and what we can do. I hope most people pay attention to us because optionality is in the name. We trade well below our GAAP book value. Any acquisition that we do can add materially to the top line because of our size. We're really interesting from both a growth and value perspective for those who invest in small cap REITs. Liquidity is the issue. If there are investors out there who, big investors, who have blocks who want to have interest, let us know, let our banks know, but this is the next phase. And I'm excited to see what it brings. And I look forward to talking to you at the next quarter call. Bye.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.