Melcor Real Estate Investment Trust

TSX:MR.UN

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Melcor REIT Second Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Naomi Stefura, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

[Naomi Stefura, executive]

Thank you, Ashila. Good morning, and welcome to our conference call and webcast for the second quarter of 2024. With me on today's call is Randy Ferguson, Senior Vice President of our Properties division.

I will begin today's call with some mandatory statements, and then I'll walk you through a few financial highlights. Afterwards, I'll turn the call over to Randy, to walk through our operational highlights. Our goal is to keep our remarks to a brief high-level review of the quarter and then open up the call for your questions. If you have not reviewed the materials related to this call, including the management's discussion and analysis and the financial statements, they are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at melcorreit.ca and on sedarplus.ca.

Certain statements made during this call may be forward-looking. For a complete discussion of items that may cause actual results to differ, please refer to the Business Environment and Risks section of our annual MD&A. Second, we report our financial results in Canadian dollars and in accordance with IFRS. We supplement our financial reporting with nonstandard measures, including FFO, AFFO, ACFO and NOI. We believe these measures are important in evaluating our performance but caution listeners that they may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. These nonstandard measures are defined and reconciled in our media release and in the MD&A.

I will now walk everyone through some of the financial highlights of our results for Q2 2024. Our portfolio continues to face challenges and results of the quarter reflect the impact of these. Both Rental revenue and NOI declined slightly compared to Q2 2023 and year-to-date. Our same-asset NOI calculations, which normalize out assets sold or classified as held for sale, was down 1% in the quarter and has remained stable year-to-date.

On May 10, 2024, we closed on the sale of Richter Street, a 29,000 square foot office building located in Kelowna, BC for net proceeds of $7.5 million. $5 million from these proceeds was invested in GICs, set aside to repay mortgage debt pledged on another asset, with the remaining $2.5 million in cash being used to pay down the credit facility.

At the end of Q2 2024, we have classified 4 properties as assets held for sale under IFRS accounting standards, including 3 retail properties located in Saskatchewan and one retail property located in Grande Prairie, Alberta. The sale of these assets is consistent with our strategy to focus on our core geographically located assets.

In the quarter, our FFO was down 12% to $5.46 million or $0.19 per unit and ACFO was down 15% at $3.55 million or $0.12 per unit in the quarter. FFO and ACFO were both negatively impacted by higher G&A costs, which were up as a result of higher professional fees paid in both the quarter and year-to-date related to the strategic review process underway, as well as higher appraisal costs on our investment property portfolio. Both FFO and ACFO were also impacted by higher cash finance costs correlated with higher interest rates.

On May 27, 2024, we formalized the renewal of our $50 million revolving credit facility. The facility matures on the earlier of June 1, 2026 or October 31, 2024, if the convertible debentures have not been extended or redeemed or if the REIT has not secured funds to satisfy the convertible depentures by its maturity date. The upcoming maturity of the convertible debenture remains a focus of the Board and the independent committee.

The plan for repayment of the debenture forms part of the work being done in the strategic review process. We do not have anything to communicate on the repayment at this time. We continue to proactively engage our lenders on upcoming renewals. In 2024, we had 6 mortgages in total up for renewal. As at June 30, we have completed renewals on 3 of those 6 mortgages. And subsequent to the quarter, one additional mortgage was renewed, which required a $1.6 million paydown. We have 2 remaining mortgages to be refinanced, which are both retail sites and we are proactively working with lenders on these renewals.

In February 2024, the REIT suspended its monthly distribution and commenced a strategic review process overseen by an independent committee made up of independent Board of Trustee members. This process continues, and I have nothing further to report at this time.

I will now turn the call over to Randy, to speak to our portfolio's operations and performance.

[Randy Ferguson, executive]

Thank you, Naomi. Well, Melcor REIT's second quarter 2024 operations has yielded a mixed bag of results. Our office leasing thus far for 2024 is lagging behind budget and this has negatively impacted our occupancy, which decreased from 88% at the start of the year, to about 87% at the end of the second quarter.

We're also seeing a reduction in office lease rents when renewing existing tenants. Despite the lingering economic challenge brought on by the office asset class, our portfolio continues to show resilience. We do have some wins to report. We've retained 89% or over 271,000 square feet of expiring leases and signed 50,000 square feet in new leases in the first half of the year. We've received commitments on an additional 17,000 square feet of future renewals.

Our proactive approach to lease renewals continues to produce these positive results. Our challenges continue to center around inflationary pressure, which are impacting operating costs, lease costs and capital expenditure costs. We remain true to our strategic decision to focus on our core Alberta assets, in addition to the assets classified as held for sale under accounting standards, we have also listed our office properties in Regina Saskatchewan for sale, as well as an industrial building in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Net proceeds from the sale of those assets will be used to reduce debt. As we move through the rest of 2024, we remain focused on tenant retention, adding additional value through our leasing programs and ongoing stewardship through our property management services.

Now we'd like to open the phone lines and take your questions. Asia, would you please open the lines?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Tom Callaghan with RBC Capital Markets.

[Tom Callaghan, analyst]

Maybe just one from me on the assets held for sale . I think the chunkier piece of that is the Grande Prairie asset. So can you just give an update there in terms of where things sit kind of interest levels to date?

[Randy Ferguson, executive]

Yes. Interest level on that property because it's very much institutional grade, has been very strong. We actually are in a negotiation, although the property is not under contract. We are in negotiation with a qualified buyer as we speak. And are optimistic that, that will result in us getting into a due diligence and getting a closer as that potential buyer gets a closer look at that property. But it's -- there's been strong interest throughout.

[Tom Callaghan, analyst]

Got it. Helpful. And maybe just one follow-up. I'm not sure if you have that at your finger tips, but at least directionally, just trying to get a sense for how much debt is on that property. And if there were to be a disposition, what kind of net proceeds that could potentially generate?

[Naomi Stefura, executive]

Yes, absolutely. So the debt on the property is approximately $30 million. So it could generate upwards of $20 million in cash on sale.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Since there are no more questions, this concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Randy Ferguson for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

[Randy Ferguson, executive]

Thanks very much for your question. And in closing, I'd like to thank our leasing operations and property management teams for their hard work. Also would love to thank and show our gratitude to our finance, admin, communications and IT teams for all of their support and helping us with our success. We thank you all for taking the time and reviewing our results, and we know your time is valuable. We appreciate your participation. Thanks very much, and have a wonderful day.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.