NewRiver REIT plc (NRR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to our half year results presentation. As usual, I'm going to take you through the key highlights, what we're seeing in the occupational and investment markets and how that is influencing our portfolio performance. We'll will then take you through the key financial highlights, following which I will then update you on the strategic initiatives that we identified at our recent capital markets event and finish with our outlook. Our results demonstrate strong recovery and considerable strategic progress that we have made this year. Our balance sheet today is in far stronger position given the GBP 252 million of disposals, the key one being the sale of our pub business. This has allowed us to repay GBP 335 million of debt, which means that our LTV has materially reduced to less than 40% within guidance, and we have no debt maturity until 2028. Reflecting our strong recovery, underlying funds from operation are up an impressive 70%, and at GBP 15.5 million, exceeds the UFFO delivered for the whole of last year. As a result of the increase in our profits, we have declared an interim dividend of GBP 4.1p per share, which represents a significant increase on the GBP 3p paid last year. Our operational metrics demonstrate continued resilience in our portfolio. Rent collection is steadily moving towards pre-pandemic levels. Long-term leasing deals are ahead of ERV and we've maintained a high occupancy of almost 96%. Reassuringly, our portfolio valuation is stabilizing within our core portfolios of retail parks, core shopping centers and regeneration, overall, delivering capital growth. We have made positive progress against our revised strategy. We are reducing our exposure to Work Out assets through disposals and repositioning, and we're on course to have exited this segment by FY '23. We have now completed the sale of our regeneration project in Penge, which demonstrates the inherent value in our regeneration portfolio. Although the planning system has been significantly disrupted by COVID, this situation is now improving as evidenced by the 670,000 square feet of formal planning consents secured at 2 of our regeneration projects. Our strong recovery from the impact of COVID is supported by an improving consumer, retailer and capital markets. Turning to the consumer and occupational markets, we are encouraged by the rebound in retail spending, which in the non-food sector is up 23% since March, and 4% ahead of pre-pandemic levels. Online share of spend has also reduced from pandemic highs as people return to physical stores following the April reopening. The number of CVAs and administrations have significantly reduced after a challenging couple of years for retail. Within our own portfolio, we have had no material CVAs this year. The retail leasing market has also improved, with net store openings up almost 5% compared to the previous 5 years, with the main expansion coming from convenience retailers. And all of this has fed into improving retailer performance. For example, our own occupiers, B&M and Marks & Spencers have recently posted strong results. And next, increased use of physical stores to process online deliveries and returns demonstrates the vital importance of physical stores in minimizing the rising costs associated with online fulfillment. The improving market backdrop as we emerge from the pandemic has supported our strong operational performance. Rent collection has continued to improve, and at an average of 90%, is moving closer to pre-pandemic levels. Retailers are also continuing to make payments under deferral agreements, which means we are still collecting rent in respect of last year. Our leasing performance has been strong with 384,000 square feet of new lettings and renewals with long-term deals 11.6% ahead of values ERV. This leasing activity together with a high retention rate at expiry or break means that our high occupancy has been maintained at 96%. Our portfolio positioning and occupier profile has clearly been a great benefit during the pandemic period. Our portfolio is focused on convenience and essential retail. And for many years, we have deliberately avoided mid-market fashion, department stores and casual dining, those sectors that have been particularly impacted by the pandemic. Liquidity is increasing across the real estate -- retail real estate market, especially for retail parks. 2021 is expected to record the second highest deal volume for retail parks in the past 10 years. The average transaction size is around GBP 22 million, which is in line with our own retail park average of GBP 17.5 million, highlighting the liquid nature of our assets. Shopping center liquidity has also started to improve, with volumes 3x higher than the same period in 2020. The average deal size in the market for shopping centers is GBP 16.4 million, again, comparable to our own average size of GBP 18 million, and this is supportive of our ongoing disposal of our Work Out assets. Reflecting the increase in liquidity and, thus, price discovery, the charts here show that the valuation metrics as measured by MSCI are improving across the shopping center and retail park sectors. Retail parks have shown the earliest and most pronounced improvement, with 3 consecutive quarters of yield compression and now stable income. Shopping centers are further behind in their recovery. However, MSCI yields are stabilizing, and the income declines are reducing each quarter. In terms of buyers, private equity and overseas capital have dominated the shopping center sector so far in 2021. However, local authorities, once very active purchases, have also started to return to the market. Many of these sales are opportunistic in nature given the high yields on offer or are based on repurposing opportunities where local house prices support this. For retail parks, the main buyers have been institutional funds, REITs and private equity. DIY, food and discount subsectors remain the most popular, and assets are trading ahead of asking prices in most instances. You can see the chart on the right of this slide that COVID has had a material impact on our valuations, but you can also see how our valuations are moving to a stabilized position. This period's performance is the strongest in over 2 years, and gives us confidence that valuations are now stabilizing after a prolonged period of market uncertainty and volatility. Retail parks, regeneration and core shopping centers, which represent 83% of total assets actually delivered a combined capital growth of 0.4%. The valuation decline that we did experience was concentrated in our workout portfolio, which now represents only 15% of total assets. Now, this valuation decline reflects the increased transactional activity for similar shopping centers since the end of COVID restrictions. With established price discovery in the market, we are now confident that our Work Out assets are appropriately valued. And with improving liquidity, we're on track to exit these assets by the end of FY '23. Our core shopping center portfolio was essentially flat for the period, which was really reassuring. And our regeneration shopping centers saw a modest decline, partly reflecting an increase in construction cost inflation. Our retail park portfolio delivered accelerated capital growth of 4%, which follows just under 1% capital growth in the second half of last year, driven by yield compression and stable income. I'd now like to hand over to Will, who will take you through the details of the financials.

Thanks, Allan. Good morning, everybody. I'm Will Hobman, CFO of NewRiver, and it's my pleasure to be taking you through our first half results this morning. And it's been an incredibly busy period for the company, during which we've taken decisive actions in order to put NewRiver in the best possible position for future growth. Starting with our LTV, which we've reset through completed disposal activity. Most importantly, the disposal of the Hawthorn pub business, which means our LTV has reduced from 51% in March to 39% at the end of September, which is back in line with our guidance of less than 40%. If we pro forma this, the completed disposals so far in the second half, it reduces further to 38%. And now that we're within guidance, as we complete more of the GBP 51 million of disposals we currently have exchanged or under offer, we'll move into a position where we have surplus capital to invest. Our balance sheet remains fully unsecured with improved maturity and substantial liquidity. Over the last 18 months, we've seen the benefit of having an unsecured debt structure and having available liquidity to draw. And during the first half, we've worked hard to protect this status and strike the appropriate balance between ensuring we can maximize the UFFO we deliver to our shareholders and maintaining sufficient liquidity to protect the company in the short term and ultimately to grow the company in the future. To achieve this, we've repaid GBP 335 million of bank facilities. We extended the maturity of our RCF to August 2024. And the RCF is fully undrawn, so we have access to GBP 162 million of cash and liquidity. We've seen UFFO growth in the first half, which means we've delivered profits ahead of the whole of FY '21. And because of our new dividend policy, our dividend has grown too. Part of the growth in H1 is due to the receipt of income disruption insurance monies relating to the prior period. But pleasingly, we've seen an improvement in underlying retail performance in the first half, which is very encouraging. And looking forward, will be supported by the finance cost savings we've unlocked and the admin cost efficiencies we've identified in the first half. But I'd like to start today by looking at the balance sheet, which has been significantly strengthened during the first half. Firstly, by the Hawthorn disposal, which is the main reason why our portfolio valuation has reduced to GBP 702 million. And then by the subsequent debt reduction, which means we're now carrying a level of cash much closer to pre-pandemic levels and significantly lower borrowings. The slide also shows the movements in EPRA NTA per share and LTV. We shall explain in more detail over the next 2 slides. Starting with NTA per share, which is reduced from 151p to 131p during the half. And you can see the 2 reasons for decrease very clearly on this slide. The first is a reduction of 11p per share due to the Hawthorn disposal. This is primarily because we sold a pub business, including the costs of operating the platform, which are not included in the property valuations. With that said, we were delighted with the pricing achieved, which represents an earnings multiple of 11.5x, and was at the upper end of our expectations. The second reason for the reduction is the valuation movement on the Work Out assets. with the shopping centers we don't believe have a long-term future in the portfolio. And as Allan has already outlined, we've targeted exiting these assets by the end of FY '23. You can see in the middle of the slide, we show a pro forma start and end point factoring in these 2 items, which shows a broadly stable NTA position, with valuations on the remaining 83% of the retail portfolio showing a modest valuation increase in the half. Next, LTV, which has decreased from 50.6% in March to 39.4% at the end of the first half, which crucially is back within our guidance of less than 40%. As I've already highlighted, the disposal of Hawthorn had a material impact on our LTV, reducing it to 39.3% on a pro forma basis. Other first half activities have held LTV at this level, and our continued progress on retail disposals' post-period end has further reduced LTV to 38% on a pro forma basis. Which leads me on to our approach to capital allocation. As I've already mentioned, we remain committed to keeping our LTV below 40%. But with valuation stabilizing and as we complete the GBP 51 million of assets we have exchanged or under offer, we expect to have surplus capital to invest in the near future. When allocating this surplus capital, we have a number of options. We can invest into our existing portfolio into regeneration or accretive asset management opportunities, for example. We can invest in the direct real estate market. So for us, that's buying resilient retail assets, either on balance sheet or in capital partnerships. Or, we can invest that surplus capital into buying back our own shares, and we currently have the authority to purchase up to 10% of our issued share capital. When deciding how to invest our surplus capital, we're very focused on maximizing the returns we can generate for our shareholders, weighing up the relative impact of each option on our LTV and our key per share metrics. Next, on to our debt structure and maturity and specifically, the impact of the actions we've completed so far this year. First, we've reduced drawn borrowings by GBP 335 million, including the repayment of GBP 170 million of drawn RCF during the first half and the cancellation of our GBP 165 million term loan at the end of the first half. In doing this, we've reduced our annual finance cost by GBP 7 million. We saw a small amount of the benefit of this in the first half, but the vast majority will come through in H2 and beyond. We've improved our already significant covenant headroom position. So at the time, we are starting to see stability in our portfolio valuations, the LTV covenant on our drawn debt can absorb a further valuation decline of 38%. We've ensured compliance with all of our financial policies, more on those in a moment. And we now only have one drawn debt instrument on our balance sheet, which is our corporate bond. Second, immediately following the period end, we resized and agreed a plus 1 extension on our RCF, so that we now have GBP 125 million fully undrawn RCF maturing in August 2024. This means we have GBP 162 million of cash and available liquidity, and this position will improve as we complete further asset disposals. And we have a GBP 50 million accordion too, increasing this liquidity, if required, and subject to lender consent. It means we've improved our weighted average debt maturity, which is now 5.2 years. And because the RCF is fully undrawn, our closest maturity on drawn debt is in 2028. Most importantly of all, the NewRiver balance sheet remains fully unsecured, giving us maximum flexibility. Lastly, before looking at UFFO. I'd like to quickly update you on our financial policies. And specifically, where the metrics we've reported today are versus those policies and versus the position in March. To remind you, during the year ended March 21, we experienced significant retail valuation and pub income decline, which led to us being outside of policy on the first 3 measures. LTV, balance sheet gearing and net debt to EBITDA. You can see that the HY '22 column reflects the impact of the actions we've completed over the last 6 months, and it shows that we are now comfortably in compliance with all policies, which is a position we've worked hard to achieve and which we are committed to maintaining going forward. Now turning to UFFO. The table on the right-hand side of the slide shows the UFFO statement with the usual income and cost headings. But this time, consistent with the statutory disclosure, which shows Hawthorn as a discontinued operation, we've shown the net contribution from Hawthorn as a single line item highlighted in the green box on the slide. All of the other line items in the statement relates to the continuing retail business, and the disclosure is consistent across the current and the prior periods. You can see that overall, we've generated GBP 15.5 million of profits during the first half, which exceeds not only the GBP 9.3 million reported in the first half of last year, but also the GBP 11.5 million reported for the whole of FY '21. The retail business has made a positive contribution to this increase despite the sale of GBP 67 million of retail assets in FY '21, with net property income, admin costs and net finance costs all trending positively. But the overall increase in UFFO versus the prior period is due mainly to the increase in the contribution from Hawthorn, which I'll speak more about in a moment. Lastly, in line with our policy to pay out 80% of UFFO's dividends, we have declared an ordinary dividend of 4.1p per share, compared to no dividend in the prior period and a total dividend of 3p per share in the prior year. Next, looking in a bit more detail at our retail net property income, which has increased from GBP 23.6 million in the prior period to GBP 25.2 million. You may remember at the full year results, that we identified GBP 15.2 million of income disruption as COVID impact, the majority of which was caused by increased rent and service charge provisions and a decline in car park and commercialization income. In the first half, we renamed this as NRI recovery. You can see we've made a good start recovering GBP 3.3 million of COVID impact in the first half. Within this, like-for-like income saw a modest decline of GBP 0.7 million, due mainly to the full year impact of FY '21 CVAs and admins, the majority of which fell into the second half of the prior year, leaving the first half of the prior year largely unaffected. Similarly, the majority of lease modifications, for example, rent-free periods offered as a result of the impact of COVID, were documented in the second half of the prior year. Which means that there has been a GBP 0.8 million decline in the first half, again, reflecting the full year impact of these arrangements. Importantly, retail rents and service charge provisions saw a net improvement of GBP 4 million period-on-period, reflecting the conservative approach we took last year in providing against retail rents and service charge amounts that we deemed unlikely to be recovered as a result of COVID, which we've not had to repeat this time due to the resilience of our rent collection. And car park and commercialization income has increased too by GBP 0.8 million, still 50% below pre-COVID levels, but encouragingly and importantly, we've seen a positive trend from Q1 to Q2. Moving to asset management fee income, which has increased by GBP 0.5 million, reflecting the continued growth of our capital partnership with Bravo with 2 further asset management mandates signed in the last 12 months, on Sprucefield Retail Park and the mall in Sheffield. And finally, net disposals, which reduced income by GBP 2.2 million, due principally to GBP 67 million of retail property disposals completed during FY '21. Now, I'd like to walk you through the contribution from Hawthorn, which increased from GBP 0.4 million in the prior period to GBP 7.8 million. You can see from this slide that aside from the trading performance, which I'll come on to in a moment, the key reason for the increase in Hawthorn contribution is the receipt of an income disruption insurance settlement of GBP 3.3 million, which relates to the income disruption caused by the closure of the entire pub estate during the first national lockdown last year, i.e., during the prior period, for which we received during the current year. Adjusting for this timing means that the start point in the bridge should be increased by GBP 3.3 million, and the endpoint should be reduced by the same amount. This realignment leaves us with underlying trading performance, which improved half-on-half as COVID restrictions lifted. And the majority of the portfolio was able to trade from April, which means the income increased by GBP 2.7 million compared to the prior period, less GBP 1.9 million of performance recorded last year beyond NewRiver's period of ownership this year. And now the dividend. Under our new sustainable dividend policy announced at our full year results in June, we will pay out 80% of UFFO as dividends to shareholders, thereby linking dividends directly to earnings and ensuring the dividend will be fully covered. This new policy will ensure that our dividend reflects the underlying trading conditions and will enable NewRiver to make the appropriate capital and operational decisions in the best interest of the long-term future of the business. We paid the first dividend under this new policy relating to FY '21 in September. And going forward, we will pay dividends twice per annum, announced within our half and full year results and based on the UFFO reported for the most recently completed 6-month period. And where required, we will top up the dividend at the full year to ensure compliance with the REIT rules, meaning the blended payout may be a little higher than the 80% headline. In line with this policy, we've today declared an ordinary dividend of 4.1p per share for the first half compared to no dividend in the prior period and a total dividend of 3p per share in the prior year. So if you look at the fully covered dividend we will pay during this financial year, that's the 3p we paid in September and the 4.1p we've declared today, which we will pay in January, that's a yield of over 9% on our current share price. And lastly from me, I'd like to walk you through the key areas we expect to contribute to UFFO growth looking forward. You can see on the left-hand side of the slide that we start with the GBP 15.5 million of H1 UFFO. This is adjusted to remove the contribution from Hawthorn given this will not repeat in the future. This gives us a start point for retail of GBP 7.7 million, which we then annualize including an adjustment to remove the impact of retail disposals in the first half and so far in the second half, which gives us GBP 13.9 million as an annualized start position. We then add in the savings we've unlocked or identified in the first half, highlighted as #1 on the slide. That's GBP 7 million of finance cost savings we've unlocked and the target we've set ourselves to reduce admin costs by 15% on an annualized basis by the end of FY '23. Next, COVID impact. As covered in the retail net property income slide, our full year results for FY '21 explained that we experienced GBP 15.2 million of income decline as a result of COVID impact. Items such as increased rent and service charge provisions and a significant reduction in car park and commercialization income in FY '21, of which we've recovered GBP 3.3 million in the first half, which therefore annualizes to GBP 6.6 million, leaving a further GBP 8.6 million to recover in the future. Now, it would be unrealistic to assume we will recover all of this income straight away, but we've made a good start in the first half, and we expect to recover more as we look ahead. Finally, number three, our future drivers of growth, which are our disposal and redeployment strategies, selling non-core and Work Out assets, and reinvesting into retail parks and core shopping centers through accretive asset management opportunities on existing assets or through new acquisitions. Into the regeneration of assets, be it small scale retail park extensions or larger-scale regeneration of shopping centers, supported through the continued growth of our capital partnerships. Thank you all for listening this morning. And I'd now like to hand you back to Allan.

Thank you, Will, and I now want to turn to the progress that we have made with our revised retail strategy. As we outlined in our Capital Markets event in September, our revised strategy aims to deliver a consistent 10% total accounting return based on sustainable cash flows supplemented by capital growth and then supported by a strong and flexible balance sheet. We will achieve this by selectively reshaping our portfolio to ensure enhanced resilience, focusing largely on retail parks and core shopping centers. That said, our immediate priority is to exit our Work Out portfolio, which currently reflects just 15% of our total assets. This part of our portfolio comprises assets which we believe will not provide long-term resilience and where we believe we can achieve higher returns through either repositioning or disposal and redeployment of that capital. We're making good progress with our Work Out strategy with 4 disposals to date and repositioning underway in 4 other assets. We will also aim to deliver capital growth through regeneration, and our recent sale of Penge had a substantial premium to book value demonstrates the potential returns available. Redeployment, which will drive increasing resilience is another key priority, and we're currently assessing a number of opportunities for our BRAVO joint venture. Our regeneration strategy is focused on replacing surplus retail with much-needed residential, thereby delivering capital growth. Our approach is to work through the master planning phase in a capital-light way, and once planning is achieved, we then have a range of options for project delivery. Our options are either to sell the asset and realize the value growth at that point, or alternatively, to transfer the asset into a joint venture with a suitable delivery partner. The joint venture approach enables us to fix our equity capital requirements. As mentioned, we have demonstrated the potential returns available from regeneration through our recent disposal of Penge, which completed as planned in October. We sold this asset to a leading residential developer for GBP 12.4 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 3.1%, a 35% premium to book value and thereby delivering an unlevered IRR of 11%. We now have formal planning consent in Cowley and in Burgess Hill, and we plan to complete the sale of Cowley before the end of the financial year. Our Bexleyheath, we are holding pre-application discussions with the council on our latest designs, which demonstrate the potential for over 600 residential units. And at Grays we are in discussions with our potential joint venture partner on a residential-led regeneration project whilst we're preparing to submit a formal planning application next year. Our ESG strategy is critical to maintaining a resilient portfolio and business. Following on from our 3-step net 0 carbon target we announced in June, we have now drafted our net 0 pathway and plan to submit that to the SBTi in January. We have also undertaken net 0 asset plans across our estate to assess the future costs associated with reaching net 0. All of our assets now have environmental and social plans, which identify and assess the various initiatives related to energy reduction, which will help us to reach our ESG targets. Our ongoing efforts are reflected in a 13% increase in our GRESB score and the goal we achieved in the EPRA sustainability awards. We continue to enhance our ESG engagement with occupiers and customers, and we look forward to demonstrating further progress in the second half of this year. The rebound in consumer spending that we have seen has been very encouraging and is positive for our occupiers in our portfolio. Our high retention rate and the strong levels of occupational demand for our space supports our view that we will be able to maintain our operational resilience into the second half. Retailers recognize that physical stores are critical for their multichannel strategies, offering a cost-effective way of managing last-mile delivery, especially through Click and Collect. And we have seen an increasing number of retailers within our portfolio using their stores for online fulfillment. And we've also seen Amazon's recent decision to extend their physical store network has further evidence that physical retail is vital to mitigate the escalating cost of deliveries and returns. The improving liquidity across the investment market gives us confidence that valuations are now stabilizing. And if momentum in liquidity is maintained into next year, that increases the prospects of capital growth. With a significantly strengthened balance sheet, we are better positioned to capitalize on the opportunities to deliver earnings and NAV growth. And at our recent Capital Markets event, we set out a clear and focused strategy to deliver a 10% total accounting return. And the strong recovery we have seen in the first half together with the excellent progress that we have already made in implementing our strategy gives us genuine confidence in achieving our objectives. Thank you, and we will now move to Q&A.

Well, thank you, everyone, and welcome back. We're now going to move to questions and answers. Will is going to read out the questions that we have received over the webcast. Will, do you want to go through the first question?

Yes. Thank you, Allan. First question is coming from Sander Bunck at Barclays, which says, can you give any further color on your medium-term earnings outlook now Hawthorn has been disposed and collection rates are improving? Well, hopefully, Sander, you saw Slide 20 in the presentation, which really aims to establish the building blocks for UFFO going forward. And we start on the left-hand side of the slide with the GBP 15.5 million of UFFO we reported, then stripping out the contribution from Hawthorn and annualizing the contribution from the retail business, which gets us to GBP 13.9 million. And then we sort of rebuild from there, starting with the finance cost savings that we've unlocked in the first half through the debt reduction and restructuring exercise we've completed and then adding in the savings we've identified from within our admin costs 15%, which equates to GBP 1.8 million. And then as you make reference to in your question, we can see that we've got the GBP 8.6 million of COVID impact, and that's effectively the GBP 15.2 million of COVID impact we talked about at the full year, adjusted for the annualized impact of the income that we've managed to get back in the first half. So really, it's a question of how much of that we're able to gather in the future. And we feel confident that we have -- we can improve our position on that, given where our rent collection is at the moment has been resilient throughout the pandemic, and it continues to be resilient now. And then beyond that, you move into the future drivers of growth. And these are the strategies that Allan outlined at the Capital Markets event and that we've talked about again this morning. So hopefully, that provides the color you're after, Sander?

Thanks, Will.

Okay. Next question from Tom at Liberum. He says a question on the valuation movement of your Work Out shopping centers, please. A 19% fall in value and a yield of 15% is steeper than we've been used to hearing about in recent weeks. What characteristics do these shopping centers have that means the valuer is describing a 15% equivalent yield?

Okay. Well, listen, thanks, Tom, and good morning. Yes, just in relation to our Work Out assets, the reason that we are exiting out of our Work Out assets is because we don't believe that these assets will deliver the long-term resilience that we want from our portfolio, particularly in relation to our objective to deliver a consistent 10% plus accounting return for our shareholders. We have seen some material decline in our Work Out portfolio in the 6 months, and that decline was really as a result of greater price discovery in the market reflective of the increased liquidity and greater transaction activity. If you think about last year, Tom, it was very challenging for valuers as liquidity effectively dried up in the shopping center market, which is why the valuers qualified their valuations last year with the material uncertainty clauses. Since the reopening of nonessential retail in April, the values have more comparable evidence for similar shopping centers to our Work Out centers to provide more certainty on that valuations. And as I said in the presentation, we believe our Work Out valuations are now appropriately valued. I would also add that our Work Out portfolio now accounts for only 15% of total assets. And therefore, its influence on our portfolio valuation performance as a whole is reducing as we exit out of those assets or we reposition those assets. And in that regard, we are making excellent progress.

Okay. Another question from Tom. You mentioned you expect to accumulate GBP 50 million surplus capital. If you could reinvest that today, where would you allocate it?

Thanks, Tom. Well, we have a very clear and focused redeployment strategy based on extensive research and data. Today, we're not in a position to deploy surplus capital, but we expect to be so in the next quarter. And we will deploy that surplus capital in accordance with our capital allocation policy, where we have options from investing in our existing portfolio, investing in the direct real estate market and, of course, our share buyback. In our view, it's important to maintain our options, and we'll be in a better position to assess which option will deliver the best adjusted returns. And of course, what's right for our shareholders when we get to that position of having surplus capital.

Okay. Question from Andrew Gill at Jefferies. Says, could you add color in how you determine whether to sell or retain developments? Is this returns-led? Or are there other factors?

Yes. Thanks, Andrew. Well, there are a number of factors that we take account when making decisions around whether we sell or retain a development. Particularly in our regeneration portfolio, where we see we've really got 2 options. One is to sell when we secured planning or proven the regeneration prospects, and we can then take the value growth at that point. The other route for us is to transfer our regeneration project into a joint venture with a suitable delivery partner, a partner that has greater experience in engaging in large residential-led projects, and that's the options that we look at. And as you have seen in the announcement, we have sold Penge to a London residential developer. We've got a great price on that, a 35% premium to book value. So we're able to crystallize that value growth that we have generated on that sale. Whereas in Grays, we are planning a different route, which is to transfer that asset into a joint venture. We're in early discussions with a joint venture partner, and that will allow us to fix our equity capital requirements, but also to participate in the future development profits.

Okay. And then a second question from Andrew. With liquidity returning to your shopping center markets, will you be seeking further asset management mandates in the near term?

Very selectively. I mean, our focus really is to focus on our balance sheet assets but also our capital partnership with BRAVO, which has been very successful, and we've been able to grow that joint venture over the last 2 years. And of course, in our partnership with BRAVO, we see the benefit of being able to secure asset management fees, project management fees, development management fees, and of course, a financial promote. And I think that's really where we see the growth rather than mandates where we don't have an equity investment.

Okay. A question from Simon Caulfield. Despite this morning's bounce, the share price still trades materially below net asset value. What impact will this have on the way you manage the business operationally and financially going forward?

Well, sadly, Simon, we don't control our share price. But what we do control is what we can deliver in terms of our operational and financial performance. And we fully expect that our strong recovery that we have outlined this morning, and our investors can now have a lot more confidence in our underlying net asset value will lead to a material closing of the discount.

Okay. A question from Mike Prew at Jefferies. Where is the investor demand for the Work Out assets coming from? And having successfully cut gearing to sub-40%, is there a lower base level of gearing you are working to please?

Well, should I take the question around investor demand for Work Out assets. And then Will, do you want to comment on the gearing?

Sure. Yes.

Okay. Mike. Well, there is increased liquidity coming through in the shopping center market. As I mentioned in the presentation, volumes are 3x higher than they were last year. And the pool of buyers is private property companies, it's overseas capital. And the approach is quite opportunistic, countercyclical, taking advantage of what investors perceive to be attractive yields. But there's also invested demand for genuine repurposing opportunities. And as we look ahead to next year, we do believe that liquidity momentum that we've seen over the last sort of 6 months will be maintained into next year.

Okay. And then on -- is there a lower base level of gearing. I mean, our guidance on LTV is to be below 40%. That's unchanged. We were very pleased this morning to report our position at 39% at the period end. And actually, given the disposals we've completed so far in H2, and that pro forma position improves further to 38%. We said that we've got GBP 51 million of disposals exchanged and under offer at the moment. And as we complete those disposals, we'll move into a position where we have surplus capital. So -- and we expect that to be sometime early in the new year. So our base level of gearing, i.e., our guidance is the same as it's always been. We're very pleased to be below 40%, and that's where we plan on staying in the future. But actually, that guidance is unchanged. Yes. A question from Clive Black at Shore. In terms of new leases, is there any emerging pattern in terms of types of operator? Say, for example, food and beverage, discounted grocery, et cetera?

Clive. Yes, we're not seeing any sort of new emerging patterns coming through. We've seen active demand for our space. As you know, our portfolio is positioned, focused on local convenience and essential retail, so we're ideally positioned for the demand from occupiers. It is interesting to note that net store openings this year are up 5% compared to the previous 5 years, but the main sector that is really driving that demand is coming from convenience retailing. And we've seen active demand from many of our existing retailers within the portfolio, whether it's committed to renewing space or actually taking new space.

Okay. A question from Matt Saperia of Peel Hunt. Regarding the leasing activity in the period, what is the split between long term and other? Is the balance beginning to move towards long-term deals? And how do you define a long-term deal in that regard?

Matt. Yes, in terms of the leasing deals that we did during the period, which in total secured around $2.5 million of rent, 73% of that was long-term transactions. And we were able to achieve that at 11% premium to values ERVs. And also, we were able to transact those long-term deals at an average -- weighted average lease expiry profile of 6.7 years.

Okay. Another question from Clive Black at Shore. It says the mall in Sheffield is quite a signature development proposition. How distinctive is this opportunity? Or do you see further similar nature opportunities?

Yes. Clive, we -- as you know, we acquired the 28-acre mall estate in the heart of Sheffield City Centre on the 1st of April. We were absolutely delighted to been able to acquire that asset. There is significant redevelopment potential within that state, and we are advancing our master plans. We've got a great relationship with the Sheffield City Council, who themselves have invested significant capital to regenerate that City Centre. And we look forward to continuing with our progress, absolutely delighted with the way this acquisition is proceeding in terms of our business plans. We're comfortably ahead of our original underwriting assumptions when we acquired this asset back in April.

Okay. A question from Oliver Mihaljevic at Seven Pillars. Can you please provide an estimate of annual net interest costs on a cash basis going forward, assuming the new RCF is in place but not drawn? Based on the GBP 7 million of interest cost savings, the implied GBP 16 million of interest charges still appears too high. What other items are there in there beyond the interest on the bond and on the JV debt? Thanks for your question, Oliver. I mean, really, if we start with the sort of GBP 24 million of costs that we saw in FY '21. Taking out the GBP 7 million that you've referred to in your question, then we get down to GBP 17 million. Actually, within that GBP 17 million number, there's around GBP 4 million of costs that are either non-cash or are effectively costs on head leases that go through our interest costs in line with IFRS 16. So to answer your question, you're absolutely right. The GBP 17 million that you're left with is not the cash interest cost. The cash interest cost is around GBP 13 million, which is effectively the interest on the bond, the JV debt, and as you rightly say, the RCF commitment costs. Next question from Andrew Saunders at Shore. What is driving the leasing increase in -- what is driving the increase in retail park valuations? Is it a strong investment market? And then the second question is, how is Click and Collect benefiting your retail park tenants? And to what extent are retail parks now seen by them as an important part of last mile distribution?

Andrew, thanks for your question. Well, it's really pleasing to see retail park valuations bounce back. We've now had 3 consecutive quarters of capital growth. Clearly, the surge in liquidity in this sector is incredibly helpful in that regard. I think the capital markets have perhaps woken up to the realization that retail parks have proved to be very resilient, and that was clearly demonstrated during the pandemic. But the real estate markets are also now aware that retail parks are very compatible with Click & Collect and online fulfillment, something which we've been aware of for quite a number of years, which is why we started investing into retail parks 5 years ago. And yes, Click & Collect is essential now for many retailers as part of their multichannel strategy. What was been quite evident over the last sort of 6 or 7 months is the escalating costs in terms of online home deliveries and returns, and many retailers are now really incentivizing their customers to use the physical stores as part of their online fulfillment by way of Click and Collect. And retail parks have a couple of major advantages. First of all, the unit sizes are generally larger, so it is possible for the retailers to be able to engage in Click and Collect within larger store formats. Secondly, all the car parking is free, all of the car parking is at surface level. So from a customer experience perspective, coming to the retail park to either collect an order that they ordered online, that free car parking, that ease of access from the car park to that store is very good in retail parks, and we expect Click & Collect to significantly grow and become an important part of retailers' multichannel strategy. And it is interesting that Marks & Spencers really view their physical stores as what they call micro-fulfillment centers. Great. Well, listen, I think that's all the questions, Will. I just like to thank everybody for their attendance today. I hope we've answered all of your questions. Perhaps if I just sort of finish. When I sort of reflect back on where we were a year ago, I'm extremely pleased at the progress we have made. We have transformed the balance sheet. We have seen valuations stabilize. The market backdrop has improved. We've reduced our operating expenses, and we've returned to the dividend list. And as we said at our Capital Markets event, we have many reasons to be optimistic as we move forward. So once again, thank you, everybody, for your attendance. And it's good bye for me, and it's goodbye from Will. Goodbye.

Goodbye.