Jeff Finnin
Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question
Thanks, Steve, and hello everyone. I’ll begin my remarks today by reviewing our Q4 financial results. Second, I will update you on our development CapEx and our balance sheet and liquidity capacity and third, I will introduce our guidance for the year. Q4 financial results were strong with total operating revenues of $90.9 million, a 5.3% increase on a sequential quarter basis and a 25.4% increase over the prior year quarter. Q4 operating revenue consisted of $74.7 million in rental and power revenue from data center space, up 5.7% on a sequential quarter basis and 26.4% year-over-year. $12 million from interconnection revenue, an increase of 5.5% on a sequential quarter basis and 26.1% year-over-year and $2.2 million from tenant reimbursement and other revenues. Office and light industrial revenue was $1.9 million. Q4 FFO was $0.80 per diluted share in unit, an increase of 8.1% on a sequential quarter basis and a 31.1% increase year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA of $47.7 million increased 9.2% on a sequential quarter basis and 31.5% over the same quarter last year. Related, for the full-year 2015, our revenue flow through to adjusted EBITDA and FFO was 66% and 54% respectively adjusted for unusual items in 2014. Sales and marketing expenses in the fourth quarter totaled $4.1 million or 4.5% of total operating revenues. For the full-year, sales and marketing expenses correlated to 4.8% of total operating revenues, 50 basis points below the 2014 level and slightly below the low-end of our guidance range. General and administrative expenses were $9.7 million dollars in Q4 correlating to 10.7% of total operating revenues. For the full-year, G&A expenses correlated to 10.3% of total operating revenues in-line with our guidance. Regarding our same store metrics, Q4 same store turn-key data center occupancy increased 770 basis points to 87.9% from 80.2% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Additionally, same store MRR per cabinet equivalent increased 3.2% year-over-year and 1.2% sequentially to $1,459. In Q4, two rooms of 18,000 square feet each at NY2 moved into the stabilized operating pool as both rooms exceeded 85% occupancy. As we have discussed previously, we define stabilization as the earlier to occur between 85% occupancy in 24 months after an asset is placed into service. Lastly, we commenced 54,000 net rentable square feet of new and expansion leases at an annualized GAAP rent of $172 per square foot which represents $9.3 million of annualized GAAP rent. We ended the fourth quarter and full-year 2015 with our stabilized data center occupancy increasing 510 basis points to 92.5% compared to 87.4% at the end of 2014. 390 of the 510-basis point increase was driven by lease commencements over the trialing year. The remaining 120 of the 510-basis point increase reflects Q4 ‘15 adjustments to factors we use to convert cage usable square feet to net rentable square feet based primarily upon three elements, namely, estimated cage usable square feet, critical power consumption and the associated cooling relative to the data center’s capacity. From this evaluation, we adjust our conversion factors and the resulting occupancy based on the limiting resource of space, power or cooling. Turning now to backlog, projected annualized GAAP rent from signed but not yet commenced leases was $15.9 million as of December 31, 2015 or $27.2 million on a cash basis. We expect nearly 60% or $9.1 million of the GAAP backlog to commence in the first half of 2016, which includes rent associated with the powered shell built to suit at SV6. Another 21% is expected to commence in the back half of 2016, which includes a portion of the rent associated with the SV7 pre-lease. Turning to our development activity in the fourth quarter, we had a total of 370,000 square feet of capacity under construction consisting of both turnkey data center and power shell space. In addition, we have deferred capital projects under construction which relate to operating data-center square feet previously constructed and placed into service that following development completion requires incremental capital when a customer’s density or space requirements exceed our initial development. We estimate a total investment of $211 million is required to complete these projects of which $86.2 million had been incurred at the end of Q4. These amounts are comprised of the following projects. In Santa Clara, we had 80,000 square feet of turnkey data center capacity plus 150,000 square feet of power shell under construction at SV7. As of December 31, 2015, we had incurred $23.8 million of the estimated $110 million required to complete this project and expect to complete construction of Phase 1 near mid-year of 2016. Also on Santa Clara, we had 136,580 square feet of build-to-suit powered shell at SV6. As of the end of Q4, we had incurred $18.1 million of the estimated $30 million required to complete the development and we expect to complete it late in Q1 or early in Q2 of 2016. In Northern Virginia, we had 96,000 square feet of data center space under construction in Phase 3 and Phase 4 at VA2, and had incurred $22 million of the estimated $32.5 million required to complete these projects. We expect to complete construction of both Phase 3 and Phase 4 during the first quarter of 2016. In Boston, we had 14,000 square feet of turnkey data center capacity under construction at BO1. At the end of Q4, we had incurred $9.4 million of the estimated $11 million required to complete this project and expect to complete construction in Q1. Finally, in Los Angeles, we commenced construction of 43,000 square feet at LA2 and had incurred $7.6 million of the estimated $18 million required to complete this process. Construction at LA2 is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016. Moving on to other CapEx matter. This quarter, we had added disclosures in our earnings supplemental regarding potential deferred capital projects and expenses. While we have historically disclosed the expenditures related to these projects and our guidance regarding capital expenditures and data center expansion, the timing at which we make some portion of these investments can be uncertain. And in some cases, ultimately we may not invest a portion of the total cost that we initially disclosed as being associated with a given expansion project. Regarding these projects, at times, we do not complete the full build-out of new data center infrastructure to deliver all power and cooling capacity in accordance with our full design. And rather defer investment of a component of planned capital until customer utilization warrants such investment. Once a project is substantially complete, we define as deferred expansion capital, the difference between the amount, of capital then invested and the amount of capital we estimate would be required to fully build out this space in accordance with full build-out depending upon our assessment of future customer requirements and our plans to add capacity to our data centers. Again, the timing by which we might invest in deferred expansion capital and in fact whether we ultimately invested at all is subject to uncertainty based upon customer utilization. At the end of the fourth quarter, we had deferred expansion capital projects under construction in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and the Bay area, which should all be completed during the first quarter of 2016. We estimate the total cost of these projects to be $9.5 million as reflected on Page 20 of the Q4 earnings supplemental. On Page 21, we have provided an estimated range of longer term deferred expansion capital. We currently estimate this amount to be $30 million to $40 million, if, when and to the extent we determine that we will commence construction on any project representing any portion of deferred expansion capital, we will update our disclosures and add it to our current projects under construction reflecting the project as a deferred expansion capital project. As a reminder, when we complete development projects, we realize a reduction in our run rate of the capitalization of interest, real-estate taxes and insurance resulting in a corresponding increase in operating expense. As shown on Page 23 of the supplemental, the percentage of interest capitalized in Q4 was 29% and for the full-year it was 34%, in line with our estimate. For 2016, we expect the percentage of interest capitalized to be between 15% and 25%, weighted towards the first half of the year based on our current outlook and the development pipeline. We forecasted this reduction in capitalized interest what correlate to an increase of interest expense of $1.5 million or $0.03 per share of reduction in FFO in 2016. Turning to our balance sheet, as of December 31, 2015, our ratio of net principle debt to Q4 annualized adjusted EBITDA was two times, including preferred stock ratio was 2.6 times, below our stated target ratio of approximately four times. This correlates to incremental debt capacity of $264 million at December 31, 2015 based upon Q4 annualized adjusted EBITDA. Subsequent to the end of the fourth quarter, we entered into a new five-year $100 million term loan by exercising a portion of the accordion under our $500 million senior unsecured credit facility. We used the term loan proceeds to pay down a portion of the balance on the existing revolving credit facility as well as for general corporate purposes. The execution of this incremental $100 million term loan further extends and staggers our debt maturity profile and increases our liquidity to support our business objectives and fund growth. To that point, following the execution of the term loan, we have approximately $300 million of available liquidity which is more than sufficient to fund our current development plans. As it relates to our dividend, during the fourth quarter, we announced an increase in our dividend to $0.53 per share on a quarterly basis or $2.12 per share on an annual basis, a 26% increase over the prior year. This dividend rate equals 62% of the mid-point of our FFO per share guidance, in-line with our historical FFO payout ratio which has been in the range of 59% to 63%. Historically and again in 2015, the composition of our dividend has been 100% ordinary income, due to the Carlisle conversions in April and October 2015, and the associated increase of tax expense from the conversions, some portion of our 2016 dividend maybe a return of capital. As always, we remain focused on maintaining our dividend payout levels to comply with our REIT requirements, balance with our opportunity to retain cash to invest in future growth. And now, in closing, I’d like to address guidance for 2016. I would remind you that our guidance is based on our current view of supply and demand dynamics in our markets as well as the health of the broader economy. We do not factor in changes on our portfolio resulting from acquisitions, dispositions or capital markets activity other than what we’ve discussed today. As detailed on page 25 of our Q4 earnings supplemental, our guidance for 2016 is as follows. FFO per share in OP unit is estimated to be $3.37 to $3.47. This implies 20% year-over-year FFO growth based on the mid-point of the range and the $2.86 per share we reported in 2015. Total operating revenue is estimated to be $380 million to $396 million. Based on the mid-point of guidance, this implies 16% year-over-year revenue growth. As it relates to interconnection revenue growth, we expect that 2016 growth rate to be between 15% and 17% which is more closely aligned with overall volume growth. General and administrative expenses are estimated to be $35 million to $37 million or approximately 9.3% of total operating revenue. This correlates to a 5% increase in G&A expenses over 2015 reflecting our efforts to scale our business and operate it more efficiently. Adjusted EBITDA is estimated to be $196 million to $202 million. This correlates to 17% year-over-year growth based on the mid-point of the range and an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 51%. Last quarter, we noted our expectation for moderation in the rate of expansion of our adjusted EBITDA margin primarily due to product mix. Our guidance suggest that relatively flat margin compared to full-year 2015 reflecting the volume of larger leases signed over the trialing 12-month period as well as the increase in metered power associated with these deployments. The significant drivers of this guidance are as follows. Estimated annual churn rate of 6% to 8% for 2016, keep in mind that we expect an elevated level of churn in the second quarter of 2016, due to another portion of rent associated with the original full-building customer at SV3 expiring. The amount is equal to $1.9 million in annualized rent or an incremental 90 basis points of churn. Cash rent growth on our data center renewals is estimated to be 3% to 5% for the full year. Total capital expenditures are expected to be $210 million to $240 million. The components are comprised of data center expansion cost, estimated to be $185 million to $200 million, this includes the expansion capital related to the final phases of VA2, the build-out of both SV6 and SV7 as well as incremental turnkey data center capacity across the portfolio as needed. Non-recurring investments are estimated to be $15 million to $20 million, and include amounts related to our IT initiatives, facilities upgrades and other capital expenditures. Recurring capital expenditures and tenant improvements are each estimated to be $5 million to $10 million. Now, we’d like to open the call to questions. Operator?