Earnings Labs

FRP Holdings, Inc. (FRPH)

Q1 2018 Earnings Call· Tue, May 8, 2018

$21.61

+0.75%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

The following is a recording for John Milton with Florida Rock Properties Incorporated on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at 1 p.m. Central Time. Excuse me everyone, we have John Baker in conference, Executive Chairman and CEO of FRP Holdings Incorporated. Please be aware that each of your lines are in listen-only mode. And at the conclusion of Mr. Baker presentation, we'll open the floor for questions and at that time instructions will be given as the opportunity follows you would like to ask a question. I'd now like to turn today's conference call over to Mr. John Baker. Sir, you may now begin.

John Baker

Management

Thank you and good afternoon. As mentioned I am John Baker, Chairman and CEO of FRP Holdings Inc. With me today are David deVilliers, our President; John Milton our CFO; and John Klopfenstein our Chief Accounting Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect management's current views with respect to the business and its financial results related to future events and are based on assumptions and expectations that may not be realized and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Future events and actual results, financial or otherwise may differ perhaps materially from the results discussed in such forward-looking statements. Additional information regarding these and other risk factors may be found in the company's other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You all have seen our numbers, sales for the quarter were up 36% from the March 31, 2017 quarter driven primarily by the inclusion of our Dock 79 apartment project into our financials. Earnings of 1,560,000 were up 8% versus last year. Our asset management segment earnings were up 8%, royalties were flat, and Dock 79 showed a loss because of the huge depreciation and amortization on that asset. A more revealing metric is our net operating income which was up 22% over last year. During the quarter we concluded negotiations with an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners to sell them our 41 warehouses located primarily in the Baltimore-Washington market for $358,900,000. Pending shareholder approval at our Annual Meeting on May 14, we expect to close on this transaction the following week. It is our belief that the combination of low but rising interest rates, the current low cap rates that industrial assets are going for and the enactment of the corporate tax reduction made this an opportunistic time for us to sell. Assuming the sale goes through, our charge will be to invest the after-tax proceeds in projects that yield a better return on our investment. We are looking at several opportunities with both save taxes as a 1031 exchange and net acceptable returns, but we are a long way from pulling the trigger on any other. Our goal is to proceed conservatively knowing full well that we're late in the cycle and facing expensive cap rates on the back side as well. Cash is a wonderful asset and we will treat dearly. We will look for opportunities to develop properties or by aggregate assets is our target. If unsuccessful we may buy stock back or we many return the cash to our investors as dividend. Let me now turn the conversation over to David deVilliers. We hopefully will have sold a large percentage of our revenues and assets within a few weeks and I have asked him to focus on what your company will look like after the sale. David?

David deVilliers

Management

Thank you, John, and good day to those on the call this afternoon. As John articulated in his opening remarks, we had a busy and I must say a productive quarter in all of our business segments. Normally at this time I would be reporting on the performance of our asset management business segment but in light of the proposed upcoming sale it would appear to make the metrics for first quarter of 2018 somewhat in consequential. I am happy to provide them during the Q&A if asked. Relative to our Mining and Royalty segment, revenues increased slightly for the quarter just ended over the same period last year by 0.6% or of that $10,000 to $1,772,000. This is mainly due to increases in tonnage sold at several locations offset by unusually harsh winter and logistical issues of the few of our more northern location. Total operating profit in this segment was flat at a $1,541,000 a decrease of about 18,000 over the same period last year. We expect aggregate pricing to improve and volumes to pick up at Fort Myers as our tenant begins to mine more on our property. Finally, as we had mentioned last quarter our tenant Cemex received approval from the appropriate authorities to mine our property at Lake Louisa. The county should issue the mining permit during the third quarter of 2018 and Cemex expect to begin mining operations by the end of 2019. With respect to our land development and construction segment, this segment is main driver behind our growth and as John mentioned in his opening remarks we have a lot of work to do. In any event this segment generates minimal revenues but incurs significant cost to accomplish its objective. Capital expenditures in this segment for the quarter were $925,000 most of…

John Baker

Management

Thanks David it's a great report. Now we turn it over for questions if you all have any.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will be from Bill Chen with Rhizome Partners.

Bill Chen

Analyst

I just want to thought by saying that I really commend you guys for pulling the trigger on something that - I had some various companies that are investing book would not have done which is take the opportunity from Blackstone and sell that what you consider to be a very attractive cap rate. So I really want to sort out by commending you guys for likely a tough decision which is probably similar to what you guys did over 10 years ago with the aggregate business and I think you guys do this and have a lot of credit for that. My question really kind of surrounds on the - we've now got a lot of cash and may be if it possible you could go to all the detail on what we would do with that. I think you guys have mentioned there is some potential pent-up opportunities to the first some of our taxes. And then the shares kind of trade higher today then they have in the past, probably the highest through the highest that have in a long time. And then is there a number you could provide on how much capital we could kind of put back into the ground and just so that I could pass a good sense of where that cash goes. And just - if the answer is - what we like to sit on some dry powder and take advantage of it [indiscernible]?

John Baker

Management

First of all Bill thanks for your nice words, I appreciate it and I think all of us do. The answer to your second question is the question we wake up with every morning. We are looking at some properties but we are a long way from pulling the trigger as I mentioned because we're doing due diligence, we’re trying to make sure that we’re comfortable. We do not want to let this money burn a hole in our pocket and so we will look at these opportunities carefully. It's always a temptation to try to save the taxes. But it will not be a temptation for us if we do not think it is a good sound investment on its own. And so that's what we’ll spend the next - certainly the next 45 days because in order to get 1031 that’s what we have to identify any properties we might do but it will be - we also didn’t have six months. So it will be an evolution, we’re looking at some aggregate properties, we’re looking at potential development properties. I think those are what we do best and that’s where we would like to focus our energy. I appreciate your comment about keeping dry powder. My thought is very similar the way I interpreted yours, now would not be a great time to buy stock in but you don’t know, I mean we will weigh that if we are unable to find things that we're comfortable with, then we’re going to dividend the money out to you. I'm not saying it will be in six months or a year, but it will be when we come to the conclusion that we're not adequately and appropriately will be pulling the property and we’ll make sure you get your money back.

Bill Chen

Analyst

Thank you for that response, I probably trust any sort of capital allocation positions that you guys make will be best for all shareholders. Just a little follow-up and I really do mentioned, I really do mean everything that I said earlier about your position to sell I think that’s well deserved. Just following up on last part of my previous question is, any estimate on how much of the capital could go into the existing development project that we have just so that I could understand how much will be put to work and earn a development style return on that capital?

John Baker

Management

David you want to take a cut at that, the answer would be the equity and debt we put into Phase 2 which is…

David deVilliers

Management

We’re going to put the Bill probably in the neighborhood of about $20 million into Phase 2.

John Baker

Management

Starting into warehouse.

David deVilliers

Management

We've got a new spec building warehouse that we just started that's about 7.5 million. We’re doing some permitting and beginning to permitting for the next one after that. We've got a couple of these land development projects that are going through the entitlement process that will ultimately be sale type programs. So we've got - take a number right off the bat - on the drawing board we’ve got probably close to about $35 million scheduled and as John said we’re looking at some other potential acquisitions but we really don't have any real graph be added to exactly what they are and if there is any really interest.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I am showing no further questions at this time.

John Baker

Management

Well thank you very much for joining us. For those of you who are shareholders we have our Annual Meeting next Monday where we will vote on the sale of the warehouses. I hope you will join us, and if not we will see you or talk to you next quarter. Thank you so much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen this concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect.