Q4 2022 BRT Apartments Corp Earnings Call
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Speaker 2: the BRT Apartments Corp. fourth quarter 2022 earnings call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
Speaker 2: To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Trip Sullivan of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us today for BRT Apartments fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. On the call today are Jeffrey Gould, President and Chief Executive Officer, George Zweier, Chief Financial Officer, and Ryan Baltimore, Chief Operating Officer, as well as David Kalish, Senior Vice President.
Speaker 3: I would like to remind everyone that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on Managements, Current Expectations, Assumptions, and Beliefs.
Speaker 3: Listeners should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements and are encouraged to review the company's SEC filings, including its Form 10-K and Form 10-Q , for a more complete discussion of risk and other factors that could affect these forward-looking statements.
Speaker 3: except as required by law, BRT does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.
Speaker 3: This call also includes a discussion of non-GAAP measures, including FFO, AFFO, NOI, combined portfolio NOI, and information regarding our pro-rata share of revenues, expenses, NOI, debts, and liabilities of BRT's unconsolidated subsidiaries.
Speaker 3: All the non-GAAP information discussed today has certain limitations and should be used with caution and in conjunction with the GAAP data presented in our Supplemental Earnings Release and in our reports filed with the SEC.
Speaker 3: Please see these reports and filings for the definitions of each non-CAT measure.
Speaker 3: As a reminder, the company's supplemental information and earnings release have been posted on the VAS relations section of BRT's website at www.brtapartments.com. I'd now like to turn the call over to President and CEO Jeffrey Gould. Please go ahead, Jeff.
Speaker 4: Thank you and welcome to the call. I'll have a few comments on our overall performance, the state of the company and some insight on the market environment. Then I'll turn it over to George for some additional color around our results. I'll ask Ryan to come out on at the end to discuss our 2023
Speaker 4: I'm very pleased with what we've accomplished at PRT this year. We made significant progress on strategic goals such as growing the wholly owned portfolio, improving the balance sheet with most of our mortgage debt at fixed interest rates, driving NOI growth and creating value.
Speaker 4: The scale and importance of the transactions we completed in 2022 can't be emphasized enough. I'd like to thank our entire team for their contributions to our success.
Speaker 4: We remain in front of a number of long-term secular trends at BRT with our portfolio positioned in markets that are experiencing population and job growth.
Speaker 4: Some concerns have been expressed this quarter within our industry about the impact of inflation on the cost of living, new supply in several markets, and the timing and ultimate scale of a recession among others.
Speaker 4: These are real challenges for us and for the industry.
Speaker 4: But I've said this before and it's worth repeating, BRT's management has been through many economic cycles and is ready to take advantage of appropriate opportunities.
Speaker 4: Patience has been a virtue the last several quarters. Any transactions we contemplate must still meet our stringent underwriting standards so you can expect we will remain deliberate in our growth plans.
Speaker 4: The same applies to any potential asset recycling we might pursue.
Speaker 4: Until recently, price discovery has been the best term to describe what has been transpiring the past several months.
Speaker 4: We are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. The recent agreement by one of our joint ventures to sell Chatham Court in Dallas is a great example. When completed in the second quarter, that disposition should generate an IRR of 22% over a seven-year hold for us and net proceeds of approximately $19 million.
Speaker 4: that we can redeploy later this year.
Speaker 4: In March, we entered into agreement to acquire a 238 unit multifamily property built in 2019 in Richmond, Virginia for a purchase price of $62.5 million. The purchase price includes the assumption of approximately $32 million of mortgage debt with an attractive rate of 3.34%.
Speaker 4: and a maturity of 2061.
Speaker 4: We expect the transaction will be completed in the fourth quarter as we must seek lender approval of the mortgage debt assumption
Speaker 4: In terms of capital allocation, our largest transaction in 2022 were related to the partner buyouts at 11 properties for approximately $106 million and the sale of our interest in four unconsolidated properties for net gains totaling approximately $65 million.
Speaker 4: We realized IRR is between 19% and 41% on these properties.
Speaker 4: While the increase in our wholly owned portfolio provides more scale, it also allows us to fully control these properties and execute on our business plan for this portfolio such as, if appropriate, opportunistic value and investments.
Speaker 4: During 2022, we also allocated capital to providing a dividend increase of 8.7% to our stockholders to $0.25 per share and instituted a dividend reinvestment plan, allowing purchase of shares at a 3% discount.
Speaker 4: As you've seen from our 2023 guidance, that increase still leaves our dividend to be well covered with a payout ratio as a percentage of AFFO in the range of 62 to 67%.
Speaker 4: We were very prudent and disciplined during the year with the execution of our ATM. We raised $9.9 million in total during 2022. Given where the stock traded most of the quarter and with no transactions, we did not utilize the ATM in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 4: Turning to the performance of our multifamily portfolio in the quarter, average occupancy for the portfolio was 94.7% for the fourth quarter, which is down from 96.4% in the 2021 quarter primarily due to the lack of movement among our tenants in the 2021 quarter.
Speaker 4: Average monthly rents for the combined portfolio in the fourth quarter of 2022 were up 9.2% compared to the 2021 quarter.
Speaker 4: For leases signed in the fourth quarter of 2022, we saw estimated spreads on new leases at 9.5%, renewal spreads of 9%, and overall spreads of 9%. Through January and February this year, we have seen estimated spreads on new leases of 3.4%.
Speaker 4: renewal spreads of 8%, and overall spreads of 6%. Also, I would like to note that we believe we have minimal stress and affordability as our rent-to-income ratio for all new leases signed in the fourth quarter is 24%, which compares favorably with our peers.
Speaker 4: To conclude, the best way I can frame the outlook for 2023 is to say that our activities in 2022 and to date in 2023 have materially improved our ability to create long-term value for our stockholders.
Speaker 4: We have more of our portfolio under our direct control than ever before. Almost all of our mortgage debt is at fixed rate with no debt maturities until 2025. Our patience and diligence have allowed us to be very selective on new opportunities.
Speaker 4: and we have an easier and more compelling value creation message to share with potential new investors.
Speaker 4: George, please take it from here. Thank you, Jeff.
Speaker 5: Our results for the fourth quarter on a year-over-year basis continue to be driven by the positive impact from the partner buyouts and improved operating margins across the portfolio, offset by some expenses we incurred in the fourth quarter related to extreme winter conditions in the Southeast. The net loss attributable to common stockholders of 22 cents per diluted share.
Speaker 5: offset by improved portfolio results.
Speaker 5: FFO was 40 cents per diluted share compared to 35 cents per diluted share a year ago, primarily due to an increase in net insurance gains and recoveries and a decline in the early extinguishment of debt.
Speaker 5: Offset by increases in real estate operating expenses, the result of costs incurred related to the extreme weather conditions and increased interest expense and a floating rate corporate debt.
Speaker 5: AFFO was 37 cents per diluted share compared to 41 cents per diluted share a year ago, primarily due to the same factors impacting FFO, excluding the net insurance gains and recoveries and the decline in the early extinguishment of debt.
Speaker 5: The expenses incurred due to extreme weather conditions that caused some damage to our properties were approximately $549,000, or 3 cents per share, and the increased borrowing costs represented approximately $367,000, or 2 cents per share.
Speaker 5: Our combined portfolio NOI was up.7% for the fourth quarter.
Speaker 5: That's a new measure for us. I want to take a moment to explain the rationale for providing this metric as we believe it provides additional transparency.
Speaker 5: With the substantial change in the composition of our consolidated and unconsolidated properties,
Speaker 5: from 2021 to 2022 as we've completed partner buyouts and sold several joint venture properties in this period.
Speaker 5: True comparisons for the portfolio were difficult. What we've done in the supplemental is to break down the calculation while still providing the combined and same store NOI figures that we have historically reported.
Speaker 5: As Ryan will discuss in a moment, combined portfolio NOI is the metric to which we will be guiding going forward.
Speaker 5: The big moving parts in the combined portfolio NOI increase of 0.7% for the fourth quarter over the same quarter a year ago, where revenue grew 8.5%
Speaker 5: primarily due to increased rental rates across the portfolio. Expenses increased by 19.7%, primarily due to higher repairs and maintenance and real estate taxes. The expenses related to the extreme weather conditions I previously mentioned negatively impacted combined portfolio NOI.
Speaker 5: by 3.5% on a year-over-year basis.
Speaker 5: Turning to the balance sheet, available liquidity at year end was $61.3 million.
Speaker 5: which is comprised of cash and availability under our credit facility. At year end, our consolidated and unconsolidated mortgage debt had a weighted average interest rate of 3.99% and a weighted average remaining term to maturity of 7.2 years.
Speaker 5: During the fourth quarter, we paid off a $14.9 million loan maturing on our Sylvana Oaks property with borrowings from our credit facility.
Speaker 5: Subsequent to quarter end, we paid off all of our borrowings on the credit facility and significantly reduced our Barrow-Lauray debt exposure with a new $21.2 million mortgage on the Sylvana Oaks property. This was a very attractive financing with a 10-year term and a fixed rate of 4.45%.
Speaker 5: which is 300 basis points lower than the debt we paid off on the credit facility.
Speaker 5: I would also add that this new loan is interest only throughout its term. As of March 1st, our available liquidity was $75.3 million with full availability on our line.
Speaker 5: Debt to enterprise value as of December 31st was 62%. That's up slightly from the 61% a year ago.
Speaker 5: As Jeff noted earlier, with improved liquidity, lower variable rate debt exposure, and no debt maturities until 2025, the balance sheet is in a much better position than it was.
Speaker 5: Now I'll turn the call over to Ryan to discuss our guidance for 2023.
Speaker 5: Good morning. I'll be relying on the guidance tables and assumptions that we provided in both our earnings release and supplemental last night. As this is our initial outlook for the year, I want to preface my comments today with a reminder that these forecasts and assumptions are based on available data and trends as of today, March 15th.
Speaker 5: For FFO, we're projecting a range of $1.08 to $1.19 per diluted share for 2023. We have outlined a number of assumptions to accompany these ranges, so let me walk through the big ones briefly. For ease of discussion, I'll generally refer to the midpoint of the ranges.
Speaker 5: First, I'd like to point out that except for the Chatham Court property disposition, these ranges do not include any additional acquisitions, dispositions, or capital markets activity.
Speaker 5: The proceeds from this disposition are expected to total 19 million when it closes in the second quarter. Although we have an acquisition under contract for a potential closing in the fourth quarter that Jeff mentioned earlier, we have not assumed a redeployment of these proceeds in our guidance. This disposition decreases FFO per share by approximately five cents.
Speaker 5: and AFFO per share by approximately 4 cents to 5 cents for the full year.
We have also assumed very little increase in the share count as well with 19.23 million weighted average shares outstanding for the year. Second, we are assuming very little utilization of the credit facility with our only other meaningful variable rate debt comprised of the junior subordinated notes at 200 basis points over LIBOR. meant to be cube-meter big enough to PRESIDENT 1,1500 square foot by 0. initiative and sl
Our interest rates, we have assumed, are based on the forward yield curve.
Otherwise, our debt as outlined in the supplemental is fairly straightforward to model.
Third, with the combined portfolio accounting for 28 properties and 7,707 units, the assumptions for this pool represent all of the multifamily properties. I'll break down those assumptions a bit further. The property revenue growth of 5.7% at the midpoint assumes a moderation of recent growth across the portfolio and some conservatism based on the current uncertain economic environment.
Controllable operating expense growth of 5.6% at the midpoint is in line with what we have seen the past few quarters.
The real estate tax and insurance expense growth is where we're forecasting the biggest increase in impact on NOI growth with real estate taxes assumed to be up 9.8% at the midpoint and insurance up 50.4% at the midpoint. I want to focus on the insurance in particular.
We disclosed in our earnings release that we implemented a Master Insurance program effective in Q4. This program replaced policies at 17 properties that were scheduled to expire at various periods throughout 2023.
In many cases, by greatly accelerating the renewals, we believe we will experience a much higher increase on a year-over-year basis.
While insurance rates have been a hot topic through the earnings cycle, this acceleration is distorting the real rate of increase that we would have normally experienced had each policy expired and renewed during the year.
We believe this was the right decision to make for the long term to be able to benefit from a greater number of properties within the coverage pool, which should ultimately result in a smoothing out of rate increases over time.
These inputs bring us to a combined property NOI increase of 3.1% at the midpoint.
To add a little more perspective, if we assumed a 25% increase in insurance expenses, which would be consistent with what many of our peers reported, instead of the 50.4% we're anticipating, our combined property NOI would be in the range of 2.6% to 6%, or 120 basis points higher at the midpoint.
at the properties to maintain their existing operations.
We do not include replacements in this figure, which is different than other REITs. We have historically included and continue to include replacements in operating expense.
During 2022, BRT's share of replacement costs, which flowed through real estate operating expenses on our P&L, was $2.5 million. Our expense growth assumptions in Combined Portfolio NOI include approximately $300 per unit of replacements.
Our value-add expenditures are related to the units we continue to rehabilitate throughout our portfolio. During 2022, we rehabbed over 400 units with an investment of $2.9 million and achieved an estimated annualized ROI of approximately 47%. This program has been a source of incremental value creation for us in the past and we anticipate will continue to be one going forward.
Operator, will you please open the call to questions?
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your touch tone phone.
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Our first question comes from Gaurav Mehta with EF Hutton. Please go ahead.
I was hoping if you could provide some color on pricing and then maybe some color on the acquisition that you have on the contract including your plans to fund the remaining amount outside of the $32 million of mortgage debt that you guys are planning to assume.
Sure, good morning Gaurav. Generally speaking the market is tough. It's difficult to buy. There's a lot of pent up demand over the last couple of years. We've had a lot of interest. If you talk about just for a minute the sale of one of our properties, we had incredible interest in the property.
that we're getting day one we have great financing there with the HUD financing that we described. I would say typically just to give you some idea that the the sale of the property that we've talked about and that we're moving forward with is probably in the high fours and that's like a 1986
just to give you some ideas. Overall I would say from the peak of where cap rates were in the 3.5 to 4% range, we're probably more in the 4.5 to 5% range as a general rule I would say. We're getting a little bit more clarity as newer transactions are happening. But I would say from the high, the cap rates maybe were up 50 to 100 basis points tops.
There's a lot of demand out there. As far as funding goes, basically our plans on the acquisition is to use the cash that we get from the Chatham sale as well as short term using our line availability, which we will likely replace in some fashion through potential ATM.
financial further sales, etc. So, we're very focused on our line and the cost of our line, so we want to keep that to a minimum if pulled at all. And we're very conscious of that, so we'll address it accordingly.
Okay, maybe on the proceeds, the $19 million of proceeds from this position, do you guys plan to carry that on your cash balance till you acquire the property?
Yes, like we said earlier, we have no outstanding line that we need to pay down. We are going to hold it for cash. We recognize that that's going to take the few months in between the sale and the new buy is going to not be ideal for us, but at the same time was an appropriate time to sell the Chatham property. This needs a solar panel.
and it's a short-term effect, so we're very comfortable with it and yes, we will be holding the cash.
Okay, I also wanted to ask you on the value add, you talked about 47% ROI in 2022, is that a kind of return you guys expect to get in 23 as well?
So, this is Ryan. I think that that return will come down. That's partially due to softening of the market in general, as we mentioned with our guidance where we are anticipating some moderation of rent growth that we've seen as well as some conservatism that we've built in with
Okay, thank you. That's all I had.
Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question comes from Aaron Hecht with JMP Securities. Please go ahead.
Hey guys, good morning.
rental rate growth obviously been pretty strong here but occupancy looks like it was down across both the consolidated and unconsolidated portfolio has that kind of been planned.
obviously been pretty strong here but occupancy looks like it was down across both the consolidated and unconsolidated portfolio. Has that kind of been planned to drive the rate growth?
Do you expect that occupancy to kind of level off now? Kind of give us some thoughts on how we should think about the occupancy side of the business going into 23 and what's implied in guidance.
Yeah, I'll start and then I'll pass that one to Ryan a little bit too. So occupancy, interesting, comparing year to year, recognized during COVID and the throws of COVID, people just weren't moving. There was obviously a fright around and just lack of movement of, you know, renewal activity was greater.
So the occupancy, the main trend and main reason year to year, the occupancy is down is primarily because of COVID days versus more comfort with what's gone on around the environment. Obviously there's seasonality, but that's quoted to quote the same, but we expect occupancy to jump up during the spring and summer months as they...
where we believe we can maximize the revenue. So this wasn't surprising to us by any means. I think that, as Jeff mentioned, we had an abnormally high occupancy during these winter months last year. So this was more in line with what we had seen in the past.
Does the strategy change at all given the economic conditions? Do you prioritize occupancy a little bit more than rate growth given the difficulties out there? Yes, I would say we like to focus on around that 95% give or take number. So when we see occupancy dropping a little bit we would do something.
to keep close to that 95% occupancy if possible. Yeah, and also just to add on that real quickly in terms of kind of what we mentioned with the guidance, you know, part of that's built into that conservatism that we included. You know, we definitely didn't anticipate pushing rents nearly as aggressively as it had happened in 2022, so I think that's all kind of built into our guidance assumption.
Okay and then you know on the guidance the expense growth obviously higher than we've seen from some groups across the space.
And understandably, you know, you did some work on the insurance side, which is a big increase.
And then I think 9.8% growth on the property tax side was.
percent growth on the property tax side was the disclosure.
How much of that property tax increase or how much variability do you see in there given I would think you have assumptions that are baked in? Was there any recoveries in 22 that impact 23?
And then maybe you could talk on the insurance side about the decision to do a master agreement because that was a pretty big increase. Yes, so Aaron let me start a little more generally. As far as guidance goes, it's our first time giving guidance.
We wanted to be conservative. We want to be careful in this market. You know we've we've we've addressed this and said to ourselves that we think these are Appropriate figures to use and we're not surprised to hear you say that it's higher than some of our peers But this is where we were comfortable at you know giving guidance as far as specifics Ryan can answer some of the questions regarding
We budget based on the municipality where we anticipate, you know, millage rates being based on, you know, what we know at the time. That being said, obviously some markets are a little more aggressive than others and some markets reassess every three years, five years. That's all built into our assumptions and our guidance.
We hope to do better if we can, but we do it based on what we know at the time. From a variability standpoint, there's obviously potential for that to be varied, but based on what we know today, that's where we were comfortable. On the insurance side, obviously this large increase, as I mentioned on the call, a lot of the increases due to the timing of accelerating these...
opportunity for us to bring this in-house and get a lot of our properties, 17 of the properties to be specific, you know, all wholly owned under our own control. So, you know, as we mentioned in the short term, yes, this year is obviously a very large increase, but we hope as we grow with this portfolio and grow with this insurance program to smooth that out over time. Makes sense. Thanks for the insight, guys.
Thanks, Aaron. Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jeff Gould for any closing remarks. I just want to say thank you all for your time and continued interest in BRT. We're always available for any follow-up calls you may have, so please feel free to give us a run.