Veris Residential Q2 2024 Earnings Report $125.49 +8.36 (+7.14%) Closing price 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$125.82 +0.33 (+0.26%) As of 05:04 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast American Financial Group EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.02Consensus EPS $0.13Beat/MissMissed by -$0.11One Year Ago EPS$0.16American Financial Group Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$67.48 millionExpected Revenue$67.73 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$250.00 thousandYoY Revenue GrowthN/AAmerican Financial Group Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2024Date7/24/2024TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateThursday, July 25, 2024Conference Call Time8:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsAmerican Financial Group's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, April 29, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Thursday, May 1, 2025 at 11:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)SEC FilingEarnings HistoryAFG ProfilePowered by American Financial Group Q2 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrJuly 25, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Greetings and welcome to the Valis Residential Inc. 2nd Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:25It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ms. Karen Fielder, General Counsel. Thank you, Ms. Fielder. You may begin. Speaker 100:00:35Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Verus Residential's Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call. I would like to remind everyone that certain information discussed on this call may constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities law. Although we believe the estimates reflected in these statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we cannot give assurance that the anticipated results will be achieved. We refer you to the company's press release and annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC for risk factors that impact the company. Speaker 200:01:07With that, I would like to Speaker 100:01:08hand the call over to Mahbod Nia, Verus Residential's Chief Executive Officer, who is joined by Amanda Lombard, Chief Financial Officer. Mahbod? Speaker 300:01:18Thank you, Taryn, and good morning, everyone. The Q2 marked another period of strong operational and financial results for Verus, reflecting continued progress across a number of initiatives aligned with our 3 pronged value creation plan. This is reflected in our decision to raise guidance once again, which Amanda will discuss in further detail. As of June 30, the portfolio was 95.1% occupied and continues to perform well with 5% blended net rental growth and 5.9% NOI growth in the first half of this year. In an effort to further optimize our balance sheet, we secured a new $500,000,000 credit facility and term loan in April and reduced our overall debt outstanding by $168,000,000 during the quarter, primarily utilizing proceeds from non strategic asset sales. Speaker 300:02:07Looking more closely at our operational performance, same store occupancy was 100 basis points above March 31 at 95.1% as we continue to seek the optimal balance between occupancy and revenue growth. Our Cartier portfolio realized 5% blended net rental growth in the first half of the year, continuing to build on 2 consecutive years of strong growth. Net blended rental growth increased from 4.6% in the first quarter to 5.4% in the second quarter, driven by increases of 6.4% in renewals and 4.2% in new leases. Today, our properties continue to command a significant rent premium of approximately 40% compared to our industry peers with an average revenue per home of over $3,900 an increase of 22% over the last 2 years, reflecting the quality of our highly immunitized comparatively young vintage of approximately 8 years and well located Class A portfolio. Affordability remained healthy with an average rent to income ratio of around 12% in the second quarter. Speaker 300:03:13Our Port Imperial and Jersey City Waterfront properties continue to outperform the broader portfolio benefiting from their proximity to Manhattan as well as limited new supply in these submarkets. We've also seen significant improvement in new lease rental growth rates across our East Boston properties which represents a compelling relative value proposition compared to Downtown Boston and the Seaport. We remain focused on our ongoing pursuit of operational excellence, leveraging innovative solutions, including new technologies, operational enhancements and changes to our organizational structure and processes as we seek to identify additional efficiencies and further enhance our platform. These operational efforts have contributed to a steady increase in our operating margin, which now stands at 66%, up from 57% 3 years ago. Our AI based leasing assistant, Quinn, continues to be highly effective in capturing demand at the top of our leasing funnel, effectively converting these while allowing us to realize payroll efficiencies. Speaker 300:04:17In the 2nd quarter, Quinn converted over 34% of these into tours, more than double the industry average, answering over 60,000 messages and saving over 5,000 staff hours. In addition, we have leveraged our AI capabilities to continue enhancing the residents experience at Verus. Quinn is now available to all residents 20 fourseven and is capable of answering a wide range of inquiries as well as managing maintenance requests. In June, we introduced a new portfolio wide rent payment platform built, which allows residents to earn reward points that can be spent on hotels, flights, restaurants and more with every rent payment. On the capital allocation front, earlier in the quarter, we closed the sale of 107 Morgan Street as well as 2 land sites, 6 Becker and 85 Livingston in suburban New Jersey, releasing approximately $78,000,000 of net proceeds, which was used to repay debt. Speaker 300:05:13With our transformation complete, we continue to look for optimization opportunities through capital reallocation within the company. To that end, our $187,000,000 land bank and interest in unconsolidated multifamily joint ventures remain a considerable source of inefficient equity. The ability to unlock and reallocate some or all of this capital over time has the potential to significantly enhance the company's earnings and leverage profile. One of these land parcels, Harborside 9, recently gained approval for future development from the Jersey City Planning Board as part of our pre development efforts to enhance the valuation of our land bank. I'd like to address decision to withdraw the company's recent public offering of common stock and proposed acquisition of 55 Riverwalk Place. Speaker 300:05:58While this strategic and accretive transaction would have strengthened our position in one of our core markets Port Imperial and further delevered our balance sheet, we decided not to proceed given the unintended signaling that the Board and management team may seek to prioritize external growth at the expense of rather than in parallel with a comprehensive spectrum of strategic and organic value creation opportunities. The primary focus of the management team is the creation of value through the 3 pronged approach we announced at the beginning of the year. In parallel and consistent with past practice, the Board and Strategic Review Committee will continue to evaluate all credible opportunities to maximize value on behalf of shareholders. Before I hand over to Amanda, I'm pleased to show our progress in reducing emissions and earning green certifications. Our Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 66% below our 2019 baseline. Speaker 300:06:54We are one of the few companies to almost all of our operational scope 3 emissions, which have decreased by 22% from 2022. Simultaneously, we increased the share of green certified buildings in our portfolio to 78%. Our new credit facilities include sustainability KPI provisions, which the company successfully met in July and will result in a 5 basis point margin saving on the facility. With that, I'm going to hand it over to Amanda, who will discuss our financial performance and provide an update on guidance. Speaker 200:07:28Thank you, Mahbod. For the Q2 of 2024, net income available to common shareholders was $0.03 per fully diluted share versus a net loss of $0.30 for the same period in the prior year. Core FFO per share was 0 point $8 for the 2nd quarter compared to $0.14 last quarter and $0.16 for the Q2 of 2023. Core FFO this quarter is up $0.04 compared to the Q1, driven primarily by 3 factors, including the receipt of the annual Urby tax credit of $2,600,000 an additional $1,000,000 in interest income from cash on hand and another $1,000,000 from the recognition of a successful real estate tax appeal for Harborside 1, 23, which we sold last year. Excluding non recurring interest income and full office NOI, our core FFO is broadly in line with the Q1. Speaker 200:08:21Same store NOI growth for the 6 months ended June 30, 2024 was 5.9%. For the quarter, same store NOI was off by 1.4% in line with our expectations as we lap the recognition of the successful real estate tax appeals on 2 Jersey City assets. Normalizing NOI for the impact of the appeals, same store NOI growth would have been 3% for the quarter and 8% year to date. On the revenue side, year to date same store revenues are up 6.9%, driven by continued strong rental revenue growth. Excluding the impact of a retail lease termination fee recognized over the first half of twenty twenty four, same store rental income growth would have been approximately 6%. Speaker 200:09:09This quarter, we have begun to take units offline at Liberty Towers as we commence renovations as part of our value add project, which will have a temporary impact on NOI in the coming quarters. This is reflected in our updated guidance, which I will discuss momentarily. Moving to the expense side of the equation. Total property expenses were up 8.8% year to date, in line with our guidance and expectations, as we lap the recognition of the 2023 tax appeal. Normalizing total property expenses exclude the impact of these appeals would have resulted in 5% expense growth. Speaker 200:09:49Controllable expenses are up year to date 4.7% as the 2nd quarter saw a higher volume of lease turns driven by House 25 as it reached the anniversary of its stabilization and the 1st generation leases expired. These costs are offset by the impact of various portfolio optimization initiatives such as the centralization of leasing roles as well as our increased utilization of AI based solutions, which has contributed to flat year over year payroll expenses. Turning to G and A. After adjustments for non cash stock compensation and severance payments, core G and A was $8,700,000 an improvement of 8%, primarily due to lower compensation related costs in the 2nd quarter. Now on to our balance sheet. Speaker 200:10:39As of June 30, nearly all of our debt was fixed and or hedged with a weighted average maturity of 3.1 years and a weighted average effective interest rate of 4.5%. Our net debt to EBITDA for the trailing 12 months is 11.8 times. As noted last quarter, in April, we closed on a new $500,000,000 senior secured delayed draw term loan and revolver with a 3 year tenure and a 1 year extension option. During the quarter, we repaid 2 mortgages for $219,000,000 and drew $55,000,000 on the new term loan. Concurrently, we entered into a 3.5% strike 2 year interest rate cap to hedge the full notional. Speaker 200:11:25We also replaced an expiring cap on our RiverHouse 9 mortgage with another 3.5% strike 2 year rate cap. 2 additional mortgages will mature this year and as each mortgage becomes eligible for repayment, we will draw first from the term loan and then partially on the revolver. As Mahbod mentioned, we are raising our core FFO guidance range by approximately 4% or 0 point 0 $0.02 to $0.52 to $0.56 per share, reflecting the impact of 2 non recurring items, including $0.01 of greater than projected deposit income as a result of higher interest rates and average cash balances in the Q2 as asset sales closed sooner than anticipated and $0.01 of other income as a result of the recognition of successful real estate tax appeals, net of recoveries on the sold Harborsight office properties. We are also revising our same store expense growth guidance range from 5% to 6% to 4.5% to 5.5%, reflecting favorable initial indications for insurance and real estate taxes, which will reset in the second half of the year as well as additional cost savings from continued operational initiatives. Our improved expectations for expenses support an increase in the bottom end of our same store NOI range from 2.5% to 3%. Speaker 200:12:55The top end of guidance remains unchanged at 5% as we are expecting to commence unit renovations on our value add project at Liberty Towers and expect some temporary impact on NOI as we discussed earlier. As we round out another strong quarter, Ferris represents an extremely compelling value proposition. The highest quality and newest Class A multifamily properties located in established markets in the Northeast commanding the highest average rents and growth rate among peers with limited near term supply and high barriers to entry managed by our vertically integrated best in class operating platform. With that, operator, please open the line for questions. Operator00:13:40Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer The first question comes from the line of Josh Tanalyn with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:14:14Hi, this is Steven Song on for Josh. Thanks for the time. And then the first question I have is on the July leasing updates. Do you have a number for the blended new and renewal? Speaker 300:14:28Good morning. Thank you for the question. We do I would say it's a touch above the mid single digit, so around about 6% for July. Speaker 400:14:39So that's blended, right? Speaker 300:14:426% blended. There's been a skew obviously towards renewals over new leases, although that DAP has narrowed since the beginning of the year. But yes, around 6% is where we're expecting to land up this month. Speaker 400:14:55All right. Got it. Thanks. And then my second question is on the same store expense guidance. In the supplemental, you said there is a favorable initial indication of insurance and real estate taxes. Speaker 400:15:13Can you maybe provide more color on that? Like what do you see on the two fronts? Speaker 300:15:20Yes, it's a little bit early, especially on the tax side because there we don't really have clarity until the latter part of Q3. But certainly given what we've seen in terms of tax increases in the tax rate, particularly the year before last, we would expect that hopefully to be not as material as it has been. On the insurance side, I think we built in an assumption into guidance that again reflected where we've seen insurance premiums go over the last couple of years. And certainly looking at some of the peers and what they've been experiencing and some early some initial indications or an initial indication rather I should say for ourselves, the number seems to be surprising to the upside this year. And so we've made a minor adjustment to reflect that. Speaker 300:16:17Okay, got it. Thank you. That's all for me. Thank you for the question. Operator00:16:23Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Steve Sakwa with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:16:31Hi, good morning. This is Sanket filling in for Steve. As you mentioned that the blended lease rates for July, you're passing in touch about mid single digits. And then you've done 7% revenue growth in the first half of the year, and you are now guiding to 4.5% in terms of sensor revenue growth. Can you help us think through what you are thinking in terms of second half of the year, like the expectations around second half of the year for the revenue? Speaker 200:17:08Sure. Thank you for the question. So for this quarter, we posted year to date revenue growth of 6.9%. And in there, there are 2 one time items in the first half of the year. So we had termination fee income, which we recognized throughout the first half. Speaker 200:17:27And then we also had a in the first quarter, House 25, as we noted last quarter, lapsed the period when it was stabilizing. And so those two factors together combined represent about 2 50 basis points of the revenue growth that we're posting right now. And so if you back that out of the 6.9%, you get to about 4.3%, which is right in the middle of our guidance range. Speaker 500:17:54Okay. And then on the expense side, R and M and property taxes, which are like major components of their expenses, they've grown a lot in the first half of the year. How should we think about that in the second half of the year? Speaker 200:18:10So for R and M, that is elevated this quarter. As I just said house stabilized in the Q1 of last year. And so as a result, we had an elevated amount of leases. It was like roughly 25% of the leases that turned in the Q1. And so there is a higher number of leases turning overall for the portfolio and that drove up turn costs, which go through repair and maintenance in the Q2. Speaker 200:18:41So that's what's driving that. I think, as you look into the second half of the year for that line item, you should see a more normalized figure. And then in terms of real estate taxes, as Moba just said, that resets in the second half of the year, in the Q3 for us. And so when we know more, we'll have more to share there. Speaker 500:19:04Okay. Thank you. That's it for me. Thank you. Speaker 300:19:07Thank you. Operator00:19:10Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Eric Wolf with Citi. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:19:17Hey, thanks. Can you talk about what's driving the sequential drop in core FFO between the Q2 and the Q3? It looks like you're expecting around a $7,000,000 drop based on your guidance. So just wanted to confirm that. And then if you could maybe point out the items that are taking you down by $7,000,000 that would be helpful. Speaker 600:19:34Thanks. Speaker 200:19:43Sorry, can you repeat the question again? Speaker 600:19:47Yes. Hopefully you can hear me. But based on your guidance, there's a drop in the Q3 in core FFO from the 2nd quarter. And so I was trying to understand what is causing that drop. It looks at around $7,000,000 based on your guidance. Speaker 200:20:08So in the Q2 Sorry, Speaker 300:20:09go ahead, Amari. Speaker 200:20:10In the Q2 of core FFO, we have $4,000,000 roughly or $0.04 of one time items that occurred. About $2,600,000 of it is related to the Urby tax credit. That's reoccurring. We recognize that every year, but it's all recognized in this quarter. And then the other two items that we're seeing are $1,000,000 related to higher interest expense from having higher cash balances. Speaker 200:20:38And then and we expect to have no excess cash on deposits in the Q3 as we've utilized all of our cash for debt repayment. And then the other factor is real estate tax appeals. We had a successful resolution there for some of the sold harbor side assets and so that was recognized in this quarter as well. Speaker 600:21:02Okay. I guess, why would interest expense go up in the 3rd quarter? I guess, I would think that you held on cash longer, presumably paid off debt later that would make interest expense go down relative to the quarterly run rate. And then I guess just second part of the question is, you're guiding to kind of like $0.11 per quarter. Is that like the right run rate to think about going into next year? Speaker 600:21:29Or is there something that would cause that to sort of go up in the first half of next year? I guess you mentioned $0.04 that you see on a recurring basis each year in the first half that you don't see in the second half? Speaker 200:21:44Okay. So first off, interest income is the driver of the $0.01 variance for this quarter and that's not interest expense. And then in terms of your question on Yes. And then in terms of the remainder of the year, we haven't provided any guidance. So I don't have anything to say on the run rate for next year. Speaker 200:22:31And then, Mohapad, if you want to add anything. Speaker 300:22:33Yes. No, so just to add, I think as Anand said, we had a number of one time items that meant that this quarter looks particularly strong and we reflected the full year guidance to reflect that. But Urvi tax credit, interest income on cash balances that were higher than initially expected because we sold non strategic assets or completed those sales sooner than expected and then rates also that we earn on that cash on deposit remained higher for longer. And then we had these successful tax appeals. And so that's all what really made this quarter particularly strong at the $0.18 But on the revenue side, we reiterate the guidance that we put out there last quarter, and I think that still very much reflects on a full year basis our current expectations of the operational outlook for the business. Speaker 300:23:30Where this has an impact is a slight impact on the expense side, which we've talked about there, just given particular? And then on the core FFO per share basis where you're seeing really just a direct increase of $0.02 reflected to those one time items that I mentioned. Okay. That's helpful. And then I Speaker 600:23:55guess I'm thinking about future acquisitions or opportunities to deleverage through equity funded transactions. I mean, has your thinking changed there at all going forward? Is it off the table? Will you require a larger spread? Just trying to understand if your thoughts have changed, sort of how it's informing your strategy going forward? Speaker 300:24:19Yes. Look, I think certainly and in my remarks earlier, I mentioned that while there are many merits to this particular transaction, it was highly strategic, it was opportunistic, we actually built the asset and used to manage it until recently. It was accretive and would have allowed us to be levered by about a turn. We made the decision not to move forward because while incrementally enhancing the value of of this entity through an improvement in all the metrics that I just mentioned, it was incremental and also seemed to provide this unintended signaling that we may be prioritizing growth at the expense of, but not in parallel necessarily with the wide spectrum of value creation opportunities that the Board evaluates on a real time basis to as opportunities to continue creating and maximizing value for shareholders. So I think that said, it's unlikely that we would pursue transactions that incrementally are accretive to the platform going forward at this time. Speaker 300:25:30Another way of saying, sorry, if we did anything, it's more likely to be, let's say, strategic and more transformational. But that's the rationale to decide. Speaker 600:25:40Thanks, Eric. Thanks. Operator00:25:44Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Tom Catherwood with BTIG. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:25:52Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Mahbod, may start with you and this kind of ties to your response to the former question. But I mentioned approvals at Harborside 9 recently. Are you evaluating the potential for further near term investment at that site? Speaker 700:26:12And are there other assets in your land bank where you're pursuing entitlements to get them shovel Speaker 300:26:18ready? Good morning, Tom. Good question. The announcement of Halsted 9 was really I think, got a bit of media attention because it's a larger and quite a prominent site. I'd say Halverside 8 to 9 are probably the best 2 remaining land sites in Jersey City. Speaker 300:26:36That was the result of the work that the team has been doing for the past, well, forever actually, but certainly since I've been at the heart in the last 3, 4 years across all of our land sites, progressing along that path to get them to a point where they're shovel ready because obviously every stepping stone along that path is enhancing to the value of the land, preserving or enhancing to the value of that land. And so that's all that was, but I wouldn't necessarily read into it as any decision having been made with regard to potential future development of that site or any other sites. We do that work across all of the land sites that we own. It's a balancing act in terms of the cost involved and value created, but it's something that we do on a very much ongoing basis. Speaker 700:27:27Got it. Understood. And then in July, it looks like Hines acquired 2 multifamily assets in Jersey City. Do you have a sense of how those compare to your Waterfront portfolio assets? Speaker 300:27:42Yes. I mean in what sense in terms of quality or Speaker 700:27:48Yes, yes, in terms of quality, in terms of amenities, in terms of occupancy, any of those things as we look as comparable to Verus' portfolio? Speaker 300:27:59Yes. Look, I do think on the whole, we do have new higher quality properties with in certain instances like House 25 and unrivaled amenity offering. And so I think when you put that all together and then location wise as well, when you factor age, I mean, the offering, the quality of service and management that the team tirelessly provides, I would say it's a better product across the portfolio on the whole. Those are slightly older. I understand that there is some of the upside there for Heinz isn't actually on the management side of things to extract more from those assets, but I think they're going to require a little bit more tension in terms of investment and management. Speaker 700:28:58Got it. Got it. Speaker 300:28:59And then last one. And then last one. Speaker 700:29:02Yes. That was exactly those. Thank you for that. And then last one for me, Amanda, and I apologize if you mentioned this and I missed it, but how much of a drag are you expecting at Liberty Towers now that you're taking some units offline for those renovations? And was that drag in the initial 2024 guidance? Speaker 700:29:23Or was that an update with the 2Q results? Speaker 200:29:29Thanks, Tom. So I guess I'll answer the second part first. So that was not included in our initial guidance. And then we're assuming that approximately 30 units are offline. We just started doing that, so there's no impact really in Q2 and 30 units offline on average. Speaker 700:29:53Got it. That's it for me. Thanks everyone. Speaker 300:29:56Thanks, Tom. Operator00:29:59Thank you. Next question comes from the line of David Siegel with Green Street. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:30:07Hi, thank you. I'm curious if you can help quantify the prospective returns that you're underwriting for these unit renovations at Liberty Tower? Speaker 300:30:20Good morning. Yes, absolutely. It's quite an extensive renovation involving bathroom, kitchen, flooring. And the return we're projecting on that is a high teens return. And that's just looking at rents in the vicinity across both our properties and other properties that are more competitive. Speaker 300:30:48That is our oldest building that we own. And it's not necessarily racking those rents up to the same level as in your properties such as, say, House 25, far from that, but it's just closing the gap somewhat. And that's what gets you to your high teens return. Speaker 400:31:09Thank you. And similarly, as you evaluate your land bank and opportunities there, what kind of hurdle rate do you think about for those opportunities? Speaker 300:31:21Well, I think when you're looking at capital allocation opportunities, it's always about the relative return versus the risk that you're taking. And so there's a certain operational financial risk that comes with development. And so when we're contemplating development as a potential capital allocation alternative, the relevant things you would look at are, 1st of all, just development makes sense. You've seen national development has significantly slowed down. And there are reasons for that in elevated construction costs, elevated financing costs that are making it more and more challenging to develop to a yield on cost that reflects a healthy premium over stabilized yields, particularly given those stabilized yields have also widened with interest rates. Speaker 300:32:14And so the first thing is, does it make sense to develop? And then the second thing is, does it make sense for us as a public company? Is that a good use of capital? And the things you would think about there would be you're tying up capital for best part of 4 years even for something that's sort of shovel ready today. And so you're not going to get any credit for that. Speaker 300:32:35It's not going to help your leverage metrics, not going to help your earnings metrics. And so but then ultimately, if successful, it would be accretive to earnings and NAV. And so those are the sorts of discussions that we have with the Board as and when capital frees up and is available to be allocated to higher and better use. And development, I would say, is one option, but there are many options and alternatives available to us for capital. So far, the primary use of capital, as you've seen, and we've sold $2,500,000,000 of non strategic assets over the last 3 or so years, it's been deleveraging, where we've taken leverage down from what was it, 1.18.8 times and that was excluding Rockpoint, which is another $500,000,000 on top of that and really could have been regarded as that, should have been regarded as that. Speaker 300:33:29You would have been at 23x, 24x, we've taken it down to just under 12x now. And so primary use has been so far the repayment of debt and the deleveraging and derisking of the balance sheet. Speaker 400:33:43Great. Thank you. Speaker 300:33:46Thank you. Operator00:33:48Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Mike Lewis with Tuohy Securities. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:33:55Yes, thank you. So, Mohanbod, you gave a very balanced and fair response about this pulling this equity offering. I'm going to kind of ask it more bluntly, right. So you identified an accretive deal, it would have lowered the company's leverage. You know the asset extremely well. Speaker 800:34:15I would argue this is a business where scale matters, right? You look at any small cap apartment rates or G and A as a percentage of revenue. You're at a disadvantage from an efficiency standpoint generating cash flow. And yet, the deal got pulled, you didn't do it. You talked about signaling. Speaker 800:34:33I mean, is the signal here that your hands are tied as far as no acquisitions, no development? Do your investors do you feel that your investors don't want you to try to be a successful ongoing entity? And what does this mean? Do you start does the Board start a more formal strategic review? I just am wondering about the path forward now. Speaker 300:35:00Well, our job, Michael, as a management team is to continue focusing on the creation of value at the entity level. And that really takes us back to the 3 pronged approach to value creation that we laid out at the beginning of the year, capital allocation, portfolio and platform optimization and balance sheet optimization. We've dug into each of those privately, publicly. There are multiple initiatives and prongs there that are real and allow us to keep enhancing the value of what we've got organically. I think probably the lesson taken away and it's from a subset of investors that I said there was an unintended signaling that perhaps the Board and management team may be prioritizing external growth at the expense of not in parallel with evaluating a full spectrum of alternatives, both organic and strategic for the company to continue creating and maximizing value. Speaker 300:36:06So I think that misunderstanding, and it was a difficult decision, probably that was feeling that a transaction like this that albeit took us in the right direction on all the key metrics, it did so incrementally. And so it probably wasn't worth the confusion that it may cause, or the mis signaling that it may result in. And so I think the takeaway is for the Board to decide and strategic committee to decide what's right for the company at any point in time strategically, but I think it's more likely to be something more transformative than an incremental transaction. Speaker 800:36:48Okay. I understand. No other questions for me. Thanks. Speaker 300:36:52Thank you, Michael. Operator00:36:55Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of question and answer session. I would now like to turn the floor over to Mahbod Niyar for closing comments. Speaker 300:37:07Thank you everyone for joining us today. I'd like to particularly thank our team across the board, our employees who worked tirelessly to develop another or generate another quarter of incredible results for our company. And we look forward to updating you again in due course. Thank you. Operator00:37:29Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallAmerican Financial Group Q2 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) American Financial Group Earnings HeadlinesAmerican Financial Group Sells Charleston Harbor ResortApril 2, 2025 | tipranks.comAmerican Financial Group agrees to sell resort, marina property for $100M gainApril 1, 2025 | bizjournals.comTrump’s betrayal exposed Trump’s Final Reset Inside the shocking plot to re-engineer America’s financial system…and why you need to move your money now.April 9, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)American Financial Group to sell Charleston Harbor Resort & MarinaApril 1, 2025 | markets.businessinsider.comAmerican Financial to sell hotel and related assets, marinaMarch 31, 2025 | msn.comAmerican Financial Group, Inc. Announces Agreements to Sell Charleston Harbor Resort & MarinaMarch 31, 2025 | businesswire.comSee More American Financial Group Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like American Financial Group? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on American Financial Group and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About American Financial GroupAmerican Financial Group (NYSE:AFG), an insurance holding company, provides specialty property and casualty insurance products in the United States. The company offers property and transportation insurance products, such as physical damage and liability coverage for buses and trucks, inland and ocean marine, agricultural-related products, and other commercial property and specialty transportation coverages; specialty casualty insurance, including primarily excess and surplus, executive and professional liability, general liability, umbrella and excess liability, and specialty coverage in targeted markets, as well as customized programs for small to mid-sized businesses and workers' compensation insurance; and specialty financial insurance products comprising risk management insurance programs for lending and leasing institutions, fidelity and surety products, and trade credit insurance. It sells its property and casualty insurance products through independent insurance agents and brokers. 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Greetings and welcome to the Valis Residential Inc. 2nd Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:25It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ms. Karen Fielder, General Counsel. Thank you, Ms. Fielder. You may begin. Speaker 100:00:35Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Verus Residential's Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call. I would like to remind everyone that certain information discussed on this call may constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities law. Although we believe the estimates reflected in these statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we cannot give assurance that the anticipated results will be achieved. We refer you to the company's press release and annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC for risk factors that impact the company. Speaker 200:01:07With that, I would like to Speaker 100:01:08hand the call over to Mahbod Nia, Verus Residential's Chief Executive Officer, who is joined by Amanda Lombard, Chief Financial Officer. Mahbod? Speaker 300:01:18Thank you, Taryn, and good morning, everyone. The Q2 marked another period of strong operational and financial results for Verus, reflecting continued progress across a number of initiatives aligned with our 3 pronged value creation plan. This is reflected in our decision to raise guidance once again, which Amanda will discuss in further detail. As of June 30, the portfolio was 95.1% occupied and continues to perform well with 5% blended net rental growth and 5.9% NOI growth in the first half of this year. In an effort to further optimize our balance sheet, we secured a new $500,000,000 credit facility and term loan in April and reduced our overall debt outstanding by $168,000,000 during the quarter, primarily utilizing proceeds from non strategic asset sales. Speaker 300:02:07Looking more closely at our operational performance, same store occupancy was 100 basis points above March 31 at 95.1% as we continue to seek the optimal balance between occupancy and revenue growth. Our Cartier portfolio realized 5% blended net rental growth in the first half of the year, continuing to build on 2 consecutive years of strong growth. Net blended rental growth increased from 4.6% in the first quarter to 5.4% in the second quarter, driven by increases of 6.4% in renewals and 4.2% in new leases. Today, our properties continue to command a significant rent premium of approximately 40% compared to our industry peers with an average revenue per home of over $3,900 an increase of 22% over the last 2 years, reflecting the quality of our highly immunitized comparatively young vintage of approximately 8 years and well located Class A portfolio. Affordability remained healthy with an average rent to income ratio of around 12% in the second quarter. Speaker 300:03:13Our Port Imperial and Jersey City Waterfront properties continue to outperform the broader portfolio benefiting from their proximity to Manhattan as well as limited new supply in these submarkets. We've also seen significant improvement in new lease rental growth rates across our East Boston properties which represents a compelling relative value proposition compared to Downtown Boston and the Seaport. We remain focused on our ongoing pursuit of operational excellence, leveraging innovative solutions, including new technologies, operational enhancements and changes to our organizational structure and processes as we seek to identify additional efficiencies and further enhance our platform. These operational efforts have contributed to a steady increase in our operating margin, which now stands at 66%, up from 57% 3 years ago. Our AI based leasing assistant, Quinn, continues to be highly effective in capturing demand at the top of our leasing funnel, effectively converting these while allowing us to realize payroll efficiencies. Speaker 300:04:17In the 2nd quarter, Quinn converted over 34% of these into tours, more than double the industry average, answering over 60,000 messages and saving over 5,000 staff hours. In addition, we have leveraged our AI capabilities to continue enhancing the residents experience at Verus. Quinn is now available to all residents 20 fourseven and is capable of answering a wide range of inquiries as well as managing maintenance requests. In June, we introduced a new portfolio wide rent payment platform built, which allows residents to earn reward points that can be spent on hotels, flights, restaurants and more with every rent payment. On the capital allocation front, earlier in the quarter, we closed the sale of 107 Morgan Street as well as 2 land sites, 6 Becker and 85 Livingston in suburban New Jersey, releasing approximately $78,000,000 of net proceeds, which was used to repay debt. Speaker 300:05:13With our transformation complete, we continue to look for optimization opportunities through capital reallocation within the company. To that end, our $187,000,000 land bank and interest in unconsolidated multifamily joint ventures remain a considerable source of inefficient equity. The ability to unlock and reallocate some or all of this capital over time has the potential to significantly enhance the company's earnings and leverage profile. One of these land parcels, Harborside 9, recently gained approval for future development from the Jersey City Planning Board as part of our pre development efforts to enhance the valuation of our land bank. I'd like to address decision to withdraw the company's recent public offering of common stock and proposed acquisition of 55 Riverwalk Place. Speaker 300:05:58While this strategic and accretive transaction would have strengthened our position in one of our core markets Port Imperial and further delevered our balance sheet, we decided not to proceed given the unintended signaling that the Board and management team may seek to prioritize external growth at the expense of rather than in parallel with a comprehensive spectrum of strategic and organic value creation opportunities. The primary focus of the management team is the creation of value through the 3 pronged approach we announced at the beginning of the year. In parallel and consistent with past practice, the Board and Strategic Review Committee will continue to evaluate all credible opportunities to maximize value on behalf of shareholders. Before I hand over to Amanda, I'm pleased to show our progress in reducing emissions and earning green certifications. Our Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 66% below our 2019 baseline. Speaker 300:06:54We are one of the few companies to almost all of our operational scope 3 emissions, which have decreased by 22% from 2022. Simultaneously, we increased the share of green certified buildings in our portfolio to 78%. Our new credit facilities include sustainability KPI provisions, which the company successfully met in July and will result in a 5 basis point margin saving on the facility. With that, I'm going to hand it over to Amanda, who will discuss our financial performance and provide an update on guidance. Speaker 200:07:28Thank you, Mahbod. For the Q2 of 2024, net income available to common shareholders was $0.03 per fully diluted share versus a net loss of $0.30 for the same period in the prior year. Core FFO per share was 0 point $8 for the 2nd quarter compared to $0.14 last quarter and $0.16 for the Q2 of 2023. Core FFO this quarter is up $0.04 compared to the Q1, driven primarily by 3 factors, including the receipt of the annual Urby tax credit of $2,600,000 an additional $1,000,000 in interest income from cash on hand and another $1,000,000 from the recognition of a successful real estate tax appeal for Harborside 1, 23, which we sold last year. Excluding non recurring interest income and full office NOI, our core FFO is broadly in line with the Q1. Speaker 200:08:21Same store NOI growth for the 6 months ended June 30, 2024 was 5.9%. For the quarter, same store NOI was off by 1.4% in line with our expectations as we lap the recognition of the successful real estate tax appeals on 2 Jersey City assets. Normalizing NOI for the impact of the appeals, same store NOI growth would have been 3% for the quarter and 8% year to date. On the revenue side, year to date same store revenues are up 6.9%, driven by continued strong rental revenue growth. Excluding the impact of a retail lease termination fee recognized over the first half of twenty twenty four, same store rental income growth would have been approximately 6%. Speaker 200:09:09This quarter, we have begun to take units offline at Liberty Towers as we commence renovations as part of our value add project, which will have a temporary impact on NOI in the coming quarters. This is reflected in our updated guidance, which I will discuss momentarily. Moving to the expense side of the equation. Total property expenses were up 8.8% year to date, in line with our guidance and expectations, as we lap the recognition of the 2023 tax appeal. Normalizing total property expenses exclude the impact of these appeals would have resulted in 5% expense growth. Speaker 200:09:49Controllable expenses are up year to date 4.7% as the 2nd quarter saw a higher volume of lease turns driven by House 25 as it reached the anniversary of its stabilization and the 1st generation leases expired. These costs are offset by the impact of various portfolio optimization initiatives such as the centralization of leasing roles as well as our increased utilization of AI based solutions, which has contributed to flat year over year payroll expenses. Turning to G and A. After adjustments for non cash stock compensation and severance payments, core G and A was $8,700,000 an improvement of 8%, primarily due to lower compensation related costs in the 2nd quarter. Now on to our balance sheet. Speaker 200:10:39As of June 30, nearly all of our debt was fixed and or hedged with a weighted average maturity of 3.1 years and a weighted average effective interest rate of 4.5%. Our net debt to EBITDA for the trailing 12 months is 11.8 times. As noted last quarter, in April, we closed on a new $500,000,000 senior secured delayed draw term loan and revolver with a 3 year tenure and a 1 year extension option. During the quarter, we repaid 2 mortgages for $219,000,000 and drew $55,000,000 on the new term loan. Concurrently, we entered into a 3.5% strike 2 year interest rate cap to hedge the full notional. Speaker 200:11:25We also replaced an expiring cap on our RiverHouse 9 mortgage with another 3.5% strike 2 year rate cap. 2 additional mortgages will mature this year and as each mortgage becomes eligible for repayment, we will draw first from the term loan and then partially on the revolver. As Mahbod mentioned, we are raising our core FFO guidance range by approximately 4% or 0 point 0 $0.02 to $0.52 to $0.56 per share, reflecting the impact of 2 non recurring items, including $0.01 of greater than projected deposit income as a result of higher interest rates and average cash balances in the Q2 as asset sales closed sooner than anticipated and $0.01 of other income as a result of the recognition of successful real estate tax appeals, net of recoveries on the sold Harborsight office properties. We are also revising our same store expense growth guidance range from 5% to 6% to 4.5% to 5.5%, reflecting favorable initial indications for insurance and real estate taxes, which will reset in the second half of the year as well as additional cost savings from continued operational initiatives. Our improved expectations for expenses support an increase in the bottom end of our same store NOI range from 2.5% to 3%. Speaker 200:12:55The top end of guidance remains unchanged at 5% as we are expecting to commence unit renovations on our value add project at Liberty Towers and expect some temporary impact on NOI as we discussed earlier. As we round out another strong quarter, Ferris represents an extremely compelling value proposition. The highest quality and newest Class A multifamily properties located in established markets in the Northeast commanding the highest average rents and growth rate among peers with limited near term supply and high barriers to entry managed by our vertically integrated best in class operating platform. With that, operator, please open the line for questions. Operator00:13:40Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer The first question comes from the line of Josh Tanalyn with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:14:14Hi, this is Steven Song on for Josh. Thanks for the time. And then the first question I have is on the July leasing updates. Do you have a number for the blended new and renewal? Speaker 300:14:28Good morning. Thank you for the question. We do I would say it's a touch above the mid single digit, so around about 6% for July. Speaker 400:14:39So that's blended, right? Speaker 300:14:426% blended. There's been a skew obviously towards renewals over new leases, although that DAP has narrowed since the beginning of the year. But yes, around 6% is where we're expecting to land up this month. Speaker 400:14:55All right. Got it. Thanks. And then my second question is on the same store expense guidance. In the supplemental, you said there is a favorable initial indication of insurance and real estate taxes. Speaker 400:15:13Can you maybe provide more color on that? Like what do you see on the two fronts? Speaker 300:15:20Yes, it's a little bit early, especially on the tax side because there we don't really have clarity until the latter part of Q3. But certainly given what we've seen in terms of tax increases in the tax rate, particularly the year before last, we would expect that hopefully to be not as material as it has been. On the insurance side, I think we built in an assumption into guidance that again reflected where we've seen insurance premiums go over the last couple of years. And certainly looking at some of the peers and what they've been experiencing and some early some initial indications or an initial indication rather I should say for ourselves, the number seems to be surprising to the upside this year. And so we've made a minor adjustment to reflect that. Speaker 300:16:17Okay, got it. Thank you. That's all for me. Thank you for the question. Operator00:16:23Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Steve Sakwa with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:16:31Hi, good morning. This is Sanket filling in for Steve. As you mentioned that the blended lease rates for July, you're passing in touch about mid single digits. And then you've done 7% revenue growth in the first half of the year, and you are now guiding to 4.5% in terms of sensor revenue growth. Can you help us think through what you are thinking in terms of second half of the year, like the expectations around second half of the year for the revenue? Speaker 200:17:08Sure. Thank you for the question. So for this quarter, we posted year to date revenue growth of 6.9%. And in there, there are 2 one time items in the first half of the year. So we had termination fee income, which we recognized throughout the first half. Speaker 200:17:27And then we also had a in the first quarter, House 25, as we noted last quarter, lapsed the period when it was stabilizing. And so those two factors together combined represent about 2 50 basis points of the revenue growth that we're posting right now. And so if you back that out of the 6.9%, you get to about 4.3%, which is right in the middle of our guidance range. Speaker 500:17:54Okay. And then on the expense side, R and M and property taxes, which are like major components of their expenses, they've grown a lot in the first half of the year. How should we think about that in the second half of the year? Speaker 200:18:10So for R and M, that is elevated this quarter. As I just said house stabilized in the Q1 of last year. And so as a result, we had an elevated amount of leases. It was like roughly 25% of the leases that turned in the Q1. And so there is a higher number of leases turning overall for the portfolio and that drove up turn costs, which go through repair and maintenance in the Q2. Speaker 200:18:41So that's what's driving that. I think, as you look into the second half of the year for that line item, you should see a more normalized figure. And then in terms of real estate taxes, as Moba just said, that resets in the second half of the year, in the Q3 for us. And so when we know more, we'll have more to share there. Speaker 500:19:04Okay. Thank you. That's it for me. Thank you. Speaker 300:19:07Thank you. Operator00:19:10Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Eric Wolf with Citi. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:19:17Hey, thanks. Can you talk about what's driving the sequential drop in core FFO between the Q2 and the Q3? It looks like you're expecting around a $7,000,000 drop based on your guidance. So just wanted to confirm that. And then if you could maybe point out the items that are taking you down by $7,000,000 that would be helpful. Speaker 600:19:34Thanks. Speaker 200:19:43Sorry, can you repeat the question again? Speaker 600:19:47Yes. Hopefully you can hear me. But based on your guidance, there's a drop in the Q3 in core FFO from the 2nd quarter. And so I was trying to understand what is causing that drop. It looks at around $7,000,000 based on your guidance. Speaker 200:20:08So in the Q2 Sorry, Speaker 300:20:09go ahead, Amari. Speaker 200:20:10In the Q2 of core FFO, we have $4,000,000 roughly or $0.04 of one time items that occurred. About $2,600,000 of it is related to the Urby tax credit. That's reoccurring. We recognize that every year, but it's all recognized in this quarter. And then the other two items that we're seeing are $1,000,000 related to higher interest expense from having higher cash balances. Speaker 200:20:38And then and we expect to have no excess cash on deposits in the Q3 as we've utilized all of our cash for debt repayment. And then the other factor is real estate tax appeals. We had a successful resolution there for some of the sold harbor side assets and so that was recognized in this quarter as well. Speaker 600:21:02Okay. I guess, why would interest expense go up in the 3rd quarter? I guess, I would think that you held on cash longer, presumably paid off debt later that would make interest expense go down relative to the quarterly run rate. And then I guess just second part of the question is, you're guiding to kind of like $0.11 per quarter. Is that like the right run rate to think about going into next year? Speaker 600:21:29Or is there something that would cause that to sort of go up in the first half of next year? I guess you mentioned $0.04 that you see on a recurring basis each year in the first half that you don't see in the second half? Speaker 200:21:44Okay. So first off, interest income is the driver of the $0.01 variance for this quarter and that's not interest expense. And then in terms of your question on Yes. And then in terms of the remainder of the year, we haven't provided any guidance. So I don't have anything to say on the run rate for next year. Speaker 200:22:31And then, Mohapad, if you want to add anything. Speaker 300:22:33Yes. No, so just to add, I think as Anand said, we had a number of one time items that meant that this quarter looks particularly strong and we reflected the full year guidance to reflect that. But Urvi tax credit, interest income on cash balances that were higher than initially expected because we sold non strategic assets or completed those sales sooner than expected and then rates also that we earn on that cash on deposit remained higher for longer. And then we had these successful tax appeals. And so that's all what really made this quarter particularly strong at the $0.18 But on the revenue side, we reiterate the guidance that we put out there last quarter, and I think that still very much reflects on a full year basis our current expectations of the operational outlook for the business. Speaker 300:23:30Where this has an impact is a slight impact on the expense side, which we've talked about there, just given particular? And then on the core FFO per share basis where you're seeing really just a direct increase of $0.02 reflected to those one time items that I mentioned. Okay. That's helpful. And then I Speaker 600:23:55guess I'm thinking about future acquisitions or opportunities to deleverage through equity funded transactions. I mean, has your thinking changed there at all going forward? Is it off the table? Will you require a larger spread? Just trying to understand if your thoughts have changed, sort of how it's informing your strategy going forward? Speaker 300:24:19Yes. Look, I think certainly and in my remarks earlier, I mentioned that while there are many merits to this particular transaction, it was highly strategic, it was opportunistic, we actually built the asset and used to manage it until recently. It was accretive and would have allowed us to be levered by about a turn. We made the decision not to move forward because while incrementally enhancing the value of of this entity through an improvement in all the metrics that I just mentioned, it was incremental and also seemed to provide this unintended signaling that we may be prioritizing growth at the expense of, but not in parallel necessarily with the wide spectrum of value creation opportunities that the Board evaluates on a real time basis to as opportunities to continue creating and maximizing value for shareholders. So I think that said, it's unlikely that we would pursue transactions that incrementally are accretive to the platform going forward at this time. Speaker 300:25:30Another way of saying, sorry, if we did anything, it's more likely to be, let's say, strategic and more transformational. But that's the rationale to decide. Speaker 600:25:40Thanks, Eric. Thanks. Operator00:25:44Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Tom Catherwood with BTIG. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:25:52Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Mahbod, may start with you and this kind of ties to your response to the former question. But I mentioned approvals at Harborside 9 recently. Are you evaluating the potential for further near term investment at that site? Speaker 700:26:12And are there other assets in your land bank where you're pursuing entitlements to get them shovel Speaker 300:26:18ready? Good morning, Tom. Good question. The announcement of Halsted 9 was really I think, got a bit of media attention because it's a larger and quite a prominent site. I'd say Halverside 8 to 9 are probably the best 2 remaining land sites in Jersey City. Speaker 300:26:36That was the result of the work that the team has been doing for the past, well, forever actually, but certainly since I've been at the heart in the last 3, 4 years across all of our land sites, progressing along that path to get them to a point where they're shovel ready because obviously every stepping stone along that path is enhancing to the value of the land, preserving or enhancing to the value of that land. And so that's all that was, but I wouldn't necessarily read into it as any decision having been made with regard to potential future development of that site or any other sites. We do that work across all of the land sites that we own. It's a balancing act in terms of the cost involved and value created, but it's something that we do on a very much ongoing basis. Speaker 700:27:27Got it. Understood. And then in July, it looks like Hines acquired 2 multifamily assets in Jersey City. Do you have a sense of how those compare to your Waterfront portfolio assets? Speaker 300:27:42Yes. I mean in what sense in terms of quality or Speaker 700:27:48Yes, yes, in terms of quality, in terms of amenities, in terms of occupancy, any of those things as we look as comparable to Verus' portfolio? Speaker 300:27:59Yes. Look, I do think on the whole, we do have new higher quality properties with in certain instances like House 25 and unrivaled amenity offering. And so I think when you put that all together and then location wise as well, when you factor age, I mean, the offering, the quality of service and management that the team tirelessly provides, I would say it's a better product across the portfolio on the whole. Those are slightly older. I understand that there is some of the upside there for Heinz isn't actually on the management side of things to extract more from those assets, but I think they're going to require a little bit more tension in terms of investment and management. Speaker 700:28:58Got it. Got it. Speaker 300:28:59And then last one. And then last one. Speaker 700:29:02Yes. That was exactly those. Thank you for that. And then last one for me, Amanda, and I apologize if you mentioned this and I missed it, but how much of a drag are you expecting at Liberty Towers now that you're taking some units offline for those renovations? And was that drag in the initial 2024 guidance? Speaker 700:29:23Or was that an update with the 2Q results? Speaker 200:29:29Thanks, Tom. So I guess I'll answer the second part first. So that was not included in our initial guidance. And then we're assuming that approximately 30 units are offline. We just started doing that, so there's no impact really in Q2 and 30 units offline on average. Speaker 700:29:53Got it. That's it for me. Thanks everyone. Speaker 300:29:56Thanks, Tom. Operator00:29:59Thank you. Next question comes from the line of David Siegel with Green Street. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:30:07Hi, thank you. I'm curious if you can help quantify the prospective returns that you're underwriting for these unit renovations at Liberty Tower? Speaker 300:30:20Good morning. Yes, absolutely. It's quite an extensive renovation involving bathroom, kitchen, flooring. And the return we're projecting on that is a high teens return. And that's just looking at rents in the vicinity across both our properties and other properties that are more competitive. Speaker 300:30:48That is our oldest building that we own. And it's not necessarily racking those rents up to the same level as in your properties such as, say, House 25, far from that, but it's just closing the gap somewhat. And that's what gets you to your high teens return. Speaker 400:31:09Thank you. And similarly, as you evaluate your land bank and opportunities there, what kind of hurdle rate do you think about for those opportunities? Speaker 300:31:21Well, I think when you're looking at capital allocation opportunities, it's always about the relative return versus the risk that you're taking. And so there's a certain operational financial risk that comes with development. And so when we're contemplating development as a potential capital allocation alternative, the relevant things you would look at are, 1st of all, just development makes sense. You've seen national development has significantly slowed down. And there are reasons for that in elevated construction costs, elevated financing costs that are making it more and more challenging to develop to a yield on cost that reflects a healthy premium over stabilized yields, particularly given those stabilized yields have also widened with interest rates. Speaker 300:32:14And so the first thing is, does it make sense to develop? And then the second thing is, does it make sense for us as a public company? Is that a good use of capital? And the things you would think about there would be you're tying up capital for best part of 4 years even for something that's sort of shovel ready today. And so you're not going to get any credit for that. Speaker 300:32:35It's not going to help your leverage metrics, not going to help your earnings metrics. And so but then ultimately, if successful, it would be accretive to earnings and NAV. And so those are the sorts of discussions that we have with the Board as and when capital frees up and is available to be allocated to higher and better use. And development, I would say, is one option, but there are many options and alternatives available to us for capital. So far, the primary use of capital, as you've seen, and we've sold $2,500,000,000 of non strategic assets over the last 3 or so years, it's been deleveraging, where we've taken leverage down from what was it, 1.18.8 times and that was excluding Rockpoint, which is another $500,000,000 on top of that and really could have been regarded as that, should have been regarded as that. Speaker 300:33:29You would have been at 23x, 24x, we've taken it down to just under 12x now. And so primary use has been so far the repayment of debt and the deleveraging and derisking of the balance sheet. Speaker 400:33:43Great. Thank you. Speaker 300:33:46Thank you. Operator00:33:48Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Mike Lewis with Tuohy Securities. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:33:55Yes, thank you. So, Mohanbod, you gave a very balanced and fair response about this pulling this equity offering. I'm going to kind of ask it more bluntly, right. So you identified an accretive deal, it would have lowered the company's leverage. You know the asset extremely well. Speaker 800:34:15I would argue this is a business where scale matters, right? You look at any small cap apartment rates or G and A as a percentage of revenue. You're at a disadvantage from an efficiency standpoint generating cash flow. And yet, the deal got pulled, you didn't do it. You talked about signaling. Speaker 800:34:33I mean, is the signal here that your hands are tied as far as no acquisitions, no development? Do your investors do you feel that your investors don't want you to try to be a successful ongoing entity? And what does this mean? Do you start does the Board start a more formal strategic review? I just am wondering about the path forward now. Speaker 300:35:00Well, our job, Michael, as a management team is to continue focusing on the creation of value at the entity level. And that really takes us back to the 3 pronged approach to value creation that we laid out at the beginning of the year, capital allocation, portfolio and platform optimization and balance sheet optimization. We've dug into each of those privately, publicly. There are multiple initiatives and prongs there that are real and allow us to keep enhancing the value of what we've got organically. I think probably the lesson taken away and it's from a subset of investors that I said there was an unintended signaling that perhaps the Board and management team may be prioritizing external growth at the expense of not in parallel with evaluating a full spectrum of alternatives, both organic and strategic for the company to continue creating and maximizing value. Speaker 300:36:06So I think that misunderstanding, and it was a difficult decision, probably that was feeling that a transaction like this that albeit took us in the right direction on all the key metrics, it did so incrementally. And so it probably wasn't worth the confusion that it may cause, or the mis signaling that it may result in. And so I think the takeaway is for the Board to decide and strategic committee to decide what's right for the company at any point in time strategically, but I think it's more likely to be something more transformative than an incremental transaction. Speaker 800:36:48Okay. I understand. No other questions for me. Thanks. Speaker 300:36:52Thank you, Michael. Operator00:36:55Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of question and answer session. I would now like to turn the floor over to Mahbod Niyar for closing comments. Speaker 300:37:07Thank you everyone for joining us today. I'd like to particularly thank our team across the board, our employees who worked tirelessly to develop another or generate another quarter of incredible results for our company. And we look forward to updating you again in due course. Thank you. Operator00:37:29Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by