Half-year results for the six months ended 31 March 2023

Delivering continued income growth, cost efficiencies and increasing dividend cover

Chairman's commentary

Robert Orr, Chairman of Tritax EuroBox plc, commented:

“We outlined in December our priorities of improving operational performance by delivering income growth, lowering costs and increasing dividend cover. As these results demonstrate, we are making excellent progress against these priorities. Our asset management and development activities are delivering and this, together with the ongoing benefit of inflation-linked leases and additional reductions in our cost ratio, means we expect to improve our performance further in the second half of the financial year and beyond.

“As we anticipated, the value of our assets declined significantly during the period in response to the more uncertain macroeconomic environment and rapid increase in interest rates. However, we remain confident that the quality of our portfolio, strength of our customer base and our ability to maintain a robust balance sheet, will allow the company to navigate these more challenging market conditions. We will continue to review our portfolio to ensure we are capitalising on its potential, through the active management of our assets and selective strategic asset disposals. The occupational market continues to be characterised by attractive demand and supply dynamics, reinforcing our belief in the long-term structural drivers and compelling market opportunities in the logistics sector.”

Half-year 2023 overview

Rising rental income and cost efficiencies supporting earnings growth and dividend cover

• Rental income up 18.1% to €32.6m, reflecting full period of prior year acquisitions, asset management and development activity, and like-for-like⁵ rental growth of 5.8%.
• Adjusted EPRA cost ratio⁶ of 25.6% (H1 2022: 30.9%), benefiting from higher income and lower management fee. On track to meet target range of 20-25%.
• Adjusted EPS of 2.70 cents, up 48.4%, comprising 1.32 cents in the first quarter and 1.38 cents in the second quarter.
• Dividend per share of 2.50 cents was 108% covered by Adjusted EPS for the half year, meaning the dividend has now been covered for three consecutive quarters.

Resilient investment portfolio let to strong customers on long-term, inflation-linked leases

• Portfolio value of €1,596.7m (30 September 2022: €1,765.6m), with like-for-like reduction of 14.7%, primarily due to significant outward yield shift across the sector, partly offset by ERV growth and asset management activity.
• Against a good operational performance, the decline in valuation resulted in a negative Total Return of 22.1% (30 September 2022: 6.0%) and NTA declined to €1.05 (30 September 2022: €1.38).
• Portfolio NIY of 4.5% (30 September 2022: 3.8%) and equivalent yield of 4.8% (30 September 2022: 3.9%).
• Portfolio reversion of 15.3% or €12.0m, reflecting a like-for-like H1 increase in portfolio ERV of 3.4%.
• 97% of leases subject to rental increases, with 82.5% of those leases linked to inflation.
• Increase in EPRA vacancy rate to 5.4% (30 September 2022: 0.3%). This reflected the completion of two buildings in the period in Dormagen and Rosersberg, both of which were speculative forward fundings, benefitting from rental guarantees ranging from 12 to 18 months after practical completion.
• Post period end, a new letting at the speculative forward funding in Dormagen has reduced the EPRA vacancy rate to 2.0%

Asset management, indexation and development adding €4.3m to annualised rental income

• Completed the development of one pre-let funding of 112,018 sqm in Roosendaal and two speculative forward fundings in Dormagen and Rosersberg totalling 49,615 sqm.
• Completed Barcelona extension in November 2022, adding €2.3m to annual contracted rent.
• In Strykow, agreed an 8,841 sqm extension for Arvato and re-gears on all their existing lease to new 11-year terms.
• Post period-end, a new 10-year lease has been agreed with a leading global logistics operator on the recently completed 36,434 sqm building in Dormagen. A rent of €2.97m per annum has been agreed; this is c.18% above rental guarantee – representing an additional €0.5m of annualised rental income.
• Full carbon and climate analysis undertaken of the portfolio with resulting updated and upgraded ESG targets.
• Ongoing integration of ESG objectives into operational business leading to progress with solar projects on the two largest assets in Germany in collaboration with customers. Our solar programme is a key component of our decarbonisation activities.

Robust balance sheet with low cost of debt

• 100% of debt with fixed rates or caps, with a maximum average cost of debt of 1.46% for FY23.
• 4 years weighted maturity, with earliest refinancing in Q4 2025.
• €171m of undrawn debt facilities as at period end.
• Covenant headroom with LTV of 44.9% and interest cover of 4.4x, versus covenants of 65% and 1.5x.

Notes

1 See note 7 to the condensed interim financial statements for reconciliation.

2 Valuation under IFRS (excluding rental guarantees).

3 As per KPI definition.

4 Including rental guarantee and licence fee.

5 Including extension on existing buildings.

6 Weighted average unexpired lease to break is 7.9 years and weighted average unexpired lease to term is 9.6 years.             

7 Including licence fee income and rental guarantees.

8 Like-for-like ERV growth for six months, for H1 23 and H1 22.

Presentation for analysts and investors

A Company presentation for analysts and investors will take place via a live webcast at 09.00am (GMT) today. To view the live webcast, please register via this link:

Tritax EuroBox plc – Half-year results 2023

Analysts and investors will also be able to listen to the event via a moderated conference call using the following details:

Phone number: +44 (0) 33 0551 0200

Participant access: quote ‘Tritax’

The presentation will also be accessible on-demand later in the day from the Company website:

tritaxeurobox.co.uk/investors/results-and-presentations/.

Further information

Tritax EuroBox plc

+44 (0) 20 8051 5070
Phil Redding – CEO
Mehdi Bourassi – CFO
Charles Chalkly / Ian Brown – Investor Relations

Kekst CNC (Media enquiries)

Neil Maitland / Tom Climie
07971 578 507 / 07760 160 248
tritax@kekstcnc.com

Notes:

Further information on the Company is available at: tritaxeurobox.co.uk

The Company's LEI is: 213800HK59N7H979QU33.