Plaza Retail REIT (PLZUN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to the Plaza Retail REIT Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would like to advise everyone that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Kim Strange, Plaza's General Counsel and Secretary. Please go ahead, Ms. Strange.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our Q2 2026 Results Conference Call. Before we begin, we are obliged to advise you that in talking about our financial and operating performance, and in responding to questions today, we may make forward-looking statements, including statements concerning Plaza's objectives and strategies to achieve them as well as statements with respect to our plans, estimates and intentions or covering anticipated future events, results, circumstances or performance that are not historical facts. These statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the conclusions in these forward-looking statements. Additional information on the risks that could impact our actual results and the expectations, assumptions that we applied in making these forward-looking statements can be found in Plaza's most recent annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2025, and management's discussion and analysis for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, which are available on our website at www.plaza.ca and on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. We will also refer to non-GAAP financial measures widely used in the Canadian real estate industry, including FFO, AFFO, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, NOI and same-asset NOI. Plaza believes these financial measures provide useful information to both management and investors in measuring the financial performance and financial condition of the trust. These financial measures do not have any standardized definitions prescribed by IFRS and may not be comparable to similar titled measures reported by other real estate investment trusts or entities. They should be considered as supplemental in nature and not as a substitute for related financial information prepared in accordance with IFRS. For definitions of these financial measures and where to find reconciliations thereof, please refer to Part VII of our MD&A for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, under the heading Explanation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures. I will now turn the call over to Jason Parravano, Plaza's President and CEO. Jason?

Thank you, Kim, and good morning, everyone. As many of you will have seen, we issued a press release earlier this morning announcing that the special committee of our Board of Trustees has determined to conduct a formal review of strategic alternatives with the assistance of its financial adviser, TD Securities and its legal adviser, Blake, Cassels & Graydon. Please be advised that we will not be commenting on that announcement, the strategic review process or any matters related thereto during today's call. Our remarks and responses to questions will be focused on Plaza's second quarter of 2026 operating and financial results. The momentum that we built through 2025 and into the first quarter has continued through the second quarter, and we delivered solid growth across the business in the first half of 2026. Even against the backdrop of cautious consumers, uneven economic signals and still elevated construction costs, our portfolio continues to perform as we would expect. That speaks to the durability of essential needs retail and the consistency of our execution. At a high level, our strategy remains unchanged, and that is intentional. We continue to focus on optimization and intensification within the [ existing ] portfolio, supported by a fully internalized operating platform that allows us to move quickly and allocate capital efficiently. Because our assets are concentrated in essential needs, value and convenience retail, we continue to benefit from stable demand and predictable traffic patterns. That foundation is evident in our second quarter results. What is important is not simply the growth itself, but the quality of that growth. It's being driven by rent escalations and renewals, improved cost recoveries and the contributions from acquisitions, intensifications, development and properties transferred to income-producing status. In other words, we're seeing the results of the work that has been underway across the platform for several quarters. Occupancy remained strong. Committed occupancy was 97.6% at the end of June. Those levels continue to reflect healthy tenant demand and the limited availability of well-located space across our markets. That demand, together with the contractual rent growth and continued leasing activity, gives us a solid base for sustainable NOI growth. On a year-to-date basis, the same themes are evident. Through the first 6 months of 2026, NOI increased 3.4% to $38.7 million and same-asset NOI increased 2.3% to $38.5 million. FFO increased 7.8% to $22.6 million, while AFFO increased 7.3% to $16.9 million. Excluding certain timing differences such as bonus accruals and severance, our FFO per unit would have increased by 8.3% and AFFO by 8%. Our year-to-date FFO and AFFO payout ratios improved 69.2% and 92.2%, respectively. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the structural changes made to the business over the past year are producing sustainable results and predictable growth. We also benefited from the incremental contribution of projects and properties that have moved into the income-producing portfolio. The improvement was supported by higher NOI from the same asset portfolio and from acquisitions, intensifications, developments and properties transferred to that income-producing status as well as lower administrative costs in the quarter. These gains more than offset the impact of properties sold before the related capital was redeployed. And on the capital side, our intensification, development and consolidation initiatives continue to create incremental value from within the portfolio. Acquisitions and projects transferred to IPP during 2025 and 2026 represent approximately $3.3 million of annual stabilized NOI with additional development and redevelopment activity expected to contribute as projects advance and tenants open. There's a natural timing element to this work. We invest capital upfront and the full income contribution becomes visible as space is completed, leased and stabilized. We are also continuing to take a deliberate approach to capital allocation. We have selectively sold mature noncore properties and recently redeployed the capital generated from those dispositions. At the same time, we continue to add square footage through development, intensification and other strategic initiatives. Our progress is not measured simply by the number of properties we own, but by the quality and scale of the real estate, the cash flow it generates and the value created on a per unit basis. Stepping back, the consistency of these results comes down to the structure of the portfolio. At June 30, we had interests in 189 properties totaling approximately 8.8 million square feet across Canada as well as additional lands held for development. The portfolio consists largely of open-air centers and stand-alone small box retail properties, predominantly occupied by national tenants serving the essential needs, value and convenience segments. Looking ahead, our priorities for the balance of 2026 remain clear. We'll continue executing on the optimization and intensification opportunities already in motion. We'll continue to capture contractual and market rent growth and continue allocating capital in a disciplined way toward the highest return opportunities in our pipeline. We do not need to take incremental risk to drive growth. The opportunity set within the existing portfolio remains significant. Our operating fundamentals are resilient, and we are well positioned to continue delivering stable, predictable performance and long-term value for unitholders. We are one of the few businesses out there who have sold properties, paid down debt, have not relied on sources of new equity, all while increasing our per unit FFO, our NOI and reducing our payout ratios. With that, I'll turn it over to Jim to take you through the financials in more detail.

Thank you, Jason. Good morning, everyone. I will expand on a few of Jason's points and highlight certain results. As Jason mentioned, our same asset NOI growth year-to-date was 2.3% with increased revenue from lease renewals contributing. Lease renewal spreads were approximately 12% overall in the first year of the renewal, 13% using the average rent over the renewal term. Our new leasing spread, which shows the value of our optimization program was nearly 51%. These increases will continue to contribute to revenue growth going forward. On the balance sheet, as a result of focused efforts, our debt ratios continue to improve. Debt-to-assets is down 210 bps versus Q2 last year, now at 48.8%, excluding land leases. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 8.7x, 70 bps lower than Q2 last year, given EBITDA growth and debt reduction this year. We continue to simplify our debt stack while managing interest expense. Last quarter, we replaced $12 million of convertible debentures with a coupon of 5.95% with mortgages at a weighted average rate just under 5%. Subsequent to quarter end, we repaid $2.7 million of mortgage bonds with a 5.5% interest rate. These efforts are working. In a higher interest rate environment, our interest expense for Q2 year-to-date was slightly lower than last year. We maintain a balanced mortgage maturity ladder with $32 million of fixed rate mortgages rolling over the remainder of the year at a weighted average rate of 3.8% and overall loan-to-value under 40%. We continue to see strong interest in our mortgage offerings with current all-in rates in the mid-4s to low to mid-5% range. Finally, for the fair value of our investment properties, we took a $5 million write-up during the quarter on new appraisals and minor cap rate compression. Our weighted average cap rate is now 6.78%. Those are the key points for the quarter. We will now open the lines for any questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Mark Rothschild with Canaccord.

Jason, maybe just looking at fundamentals, which clearly are strong and leasing spreads are really good. Can you just talk a little bit more about how this is in maybe the primary markets you are as opposed to the secondary market? Your portfolio is in some ways a little more diversified than some of the other retail REITs. And how is that manifesting in different markets?

I would say, the secondary markets, the barriers to entry are very high. And as a result, there's just not new space being built. And many of these markets are extremely captive as well. We're doing extremely well in our secondary markets. And I would say the bulk of the portfolio is in those secondary markets. With respect to the primary markets, that would be a small part of our business and mostly isolated to single-tenant Shoppers Drug properties.

Okay. Great. And then maybe just on some of the joint ventures that you have. I know you've been working on it, you have spoken in the past about buying out partners. To what extent are you having more success in working with them on that? Is that something that we could see more? And can you talk a little bit about when you have these discussions, how the IFRS cap rate compares to how you can actually get them done? Is that something that a price that normally is where things are set at?

Yes, either IFRS cap rates or appraised values. And technically speaking, those numbers should be the same. But obviously, sometimes there's maybe a little bit more explanation with respect to IFRS numbers as we fall within a range of cap rates as opposed to hiring an appraiser and then taking a specific cap rate. So the conversations are normally good. The value is not often really debated in the -- has not often been debated in the past. So we've been pretty successful last year and the beginning of this year with respect to that. And yes, you can expect more of that in the future. We've seen a deliberate drop in our debt, and that is in order to take advantage of these opportunities while maintaining the leverage ratios we're targeting. And you'll also see at the end of Q2, our liquidity is probably the best liquidity position we've been in, in the last 5 years.