Bob Barton
Analyst · Mizuho
Good morning. And thank you, Ernest and Adam. Last night were reported second quarter 2021 FFO per share of $0.51 and second quarter 2021 net income attributable to common stockholders per share of $0.15. From my perspective, I believe we are seeing the beginning of the recovery story for AAT that we have been talking about for the last six months with embedded growth into 2022 and beyond. As we have previously shared with you on our bridge in our investor presentations, which you can find on our website. Let me share with you several data points that support my belief. First, as Ernest previously mentioned, the board has approved an increase in the dividend to its pre-COVID amount of $0.30 per share based on the continued improvement in our collections as expected. But the overwriting factor was the strong results we're seeing at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Waikiki, beginning in mid-June and increasing into July with the strong pent-up demand. Q2 paid occupancy was 67% and the month of June by itself reached approximately 83%. The average daily rate was $274 for Q2 and approximately $316 for the month of June. RevPAR or revenue per available room was $184 for Q2 and approximately $262 million for the month of June. It is definitely heading in the right direction. Effective July 8, all travelers into Hawaii who are vaccinated in the U.S. can skip quarantine without getting a pre-travel COVID test by uploading proof of their vaccination to the state of Hawaii safe travel website. The Oahu is still under Tier 5 of its reopening plan until Hawaii’s total population is 70% fully vaccinated, which should occur in the next month or two. Bars and restaurants in Oahu can be at 100% capacity as long as all customers show their vaccination card or a negative COVID test on entry. The Japanese wholesale market had accounted for approximately 35% to 40% of our customer base pre-COVID. Japan is currently just 9% fully vaccinated, though with its current pace of over 1 million vaccines a day, Japan is expected to be completing vaccinations by this November and to start issuing vaccine passports in the next 30 days, in anticipation of opening up international travel. In the meantime, there is a pent-up demand from U.S. West and Canada that is expected to keep the hotel occupied and on track with this recovery. Secondly, looking at our consolidated statement of operations for the three months ended June 30, our total revenue increased approximately $7.8 million over Q1, which is approximately a 9.3% increase, approximately 37% of that was the outperformance of the Embassy Suites Hotel as California and Hawaii began to open up travel. Additionally, our operating income increased approximately $6.3 million over Q1 2021, which is approximately an increase of 31%. Third, same-store cash NOI overall was strong at 23% year-over-year, with office consistently strong before during and post-COVID and retail showing strong signs of recovery. Multi-family was down primarily as a result of Pacific Ridge Apartments at 71% leased at the end of Q2, due to the recurring seasonality of students leaving in May, including the expiration of the USD master lease and new students leasing over the summer before school starts in late August. Generally, approximately 60% of our 533 units at Pacific Ridge are leased by students with the USD campus right across the street. As of this week, we are approximately 90% leased at Pacific Ridge with approximately 150 students moving in over the next several weeks in August. Hassalo on Eighth in the Lloyd District of Oregon is a 657 multifamily campus. At the end of Q1, occupancy was approximately 84% due to the lingering impact of COVID and political challenges in the prior months. As of Q2, we have increased the occupancy to approximately 95%, but in doing so, we had to adjust the rent and increase concessions. Pacific Ridge and Hassalo on Eighth are the two factors that impacted our multifamily same-store this quarter. As Adam mentioned, asking rates have been trending favorably on our multifamily properties recently, which we expect to provide meaningful growth going forward. Note that our same-store cash NOI does not include our mixed use sector, which will return with Q3 and Q4 2021, after completing the renovation of the Embassy Suites Hotel during COVID. And fourth, as previously disclosed, we acquired Eastgate Office Park on July 7, comprised of approximately 280,000 square foot multi-tenant office campus in the premier I-90 corridor submarket of Bellevue, Washington. One of the top performing markets in the nation, east side market is anchored by leading tech, life science, biotech and telecommunication companies. The four building Eastgate Park is currently greater than 95% lease to a diversified tenant base with in-place contractual lease rates that we believe are 10% to 15% below prevailing market rates for the submarket. Additionally, Eastgate Park recently obtained municipal approval for rezoning, increasing the floor area ratio from 0.5 to 1.0, which will allow for additional development opportunities. The purchase price of approximately $125 million was paid with cash on the balance sheet. The going in cap rate was approximately 6% with an unlevered IRR north of 7%. We believe this transaction will be accretive to FFO by approximately $0.05 for the remainder of 2021 and $0.10 for the entire year of 2022. These four items are the data points that are pointing to the beginning of AAT’s recovery story, starting to unfold. One last point of interest is that on Page 16 of the supplemental total cash net operating income, which is a non-GAAP supplemental earnings measure, which the company considers meaningful in measuring its operating performance is shown for the three months, ended June 30, at approximately $58.7 million. If you use this run rate going forward, it would be approximately $234 million, which would exceed 2019 pre-COVID cash NOI of approximately $212 million. A reconciliation of total cash NOI to net income is included in the glossary of terms in the supplemental. Moving on, at the end of the second quarter, we had liquidity of approximately $718 million comprised of $368 million in cash and cash equivalents and $350 million of availability on our line of credit. Our leverage, which we measure in terms of net debt to EBITDA was 6.0 times. Our focus is to maintain our net debt to EBITDA at 5.5 or below. Our interest coverage and fixed charge coverage ratio end of the quarter at 3.7 times. As far as guidance goes, we are in the middle of budget season now for 2022. We hope to beginning begin issuing formal guidance again for 2022 on our Q3 2021 earnings. I'll now turn the call over to Steve Center, our Vice President of Office Properties for a brief update on our office segment. Steve?