Earnings Labs

FRP Holdings, Inc. (FRPH)

Q4 2019 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 5, 2020

$21.61

+0.75%

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Transcript

John Baker

Management

Good morning, and thank you for joining our investors conference call. I'm John Baker, Executive Chairman and CEO of FRP Holdings. And with me on the line are David deVilliers Jr., our President. And with me, in person, are John Baker III, our CFO; John Klopfenstein, our Chief Accounting Officer; and John Milton, our Corporate Counsel. As a reminder, investors are cautioned that any statements made on this call, which relate to the future are, by their nature, subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause the actual results and events to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements. Risk factors discussed in our SEC filings could also cause such differences and should be considered by the investors. Our net income for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $2,453,000 or $0.25 per share versus $706,000 or $0.07 per share in the same period last year. For the year, our earnings were $16,177,000 or $1.63 per share versus $124,472,000 or $12.32 per share in 2018. Both years included building sales, though, obviously, the warehouse sale to Blackstone in 2018 was much more significant. Some of the highlights of this past year were the purchase of 169,000 shares of our common stock at $48.51 per share, an expenditure of approximately $8.2 million; the beginning of construction of our Bryant Street mixed-use development in Washington, D.C.; the investment in the Half Street mixed-use joint venture with our longtime partner, MRP, this gives us yet another project in Anacostia Riverfront district in D.C.; the investment in the joint venture in Greenville, South Carolina to build 2 apartment projects in an opportunity zone; the record year in our Royalty Lands segment and our continued strong cash position, which stands at $164 million at year-end down from $188 million a year ago. This small decline is despite $84 million in investments in new buildings and joint ventures during the year and the $8.2 million share repurchase discussed above. Key reasons for the strong cash position were the sale of a warehouse and office building during the year, a $26 million tax refund as a result of our opportunity fund investments. And of course, the interest and gains in our bond portfolio. Let me now turn it over to our President, David deVilliers to get into more detail about the year.

David deVilliers

Management

Thank you, John, and good day to those on the call this morning. Let me now add a bit of detail to the highlights provided by John in his opening remarks. As to our Asset Management business segment, with the disposition of our heritage properties at 1502 Quarry Drive and 7030 Dorsey Road earlier this, totaling $20.6 million. The company has nearly completed the liquidation of assets that made up the Asset Management business segment, just prior to the warehouse sale in May of 2018, leaving just the company's 33,000 square foot multi-tenanted home office building in Sparks, Maryland and the vacant lot in Jacksonville, Florida that at one time, house Florida Rock Industries' home office, but now remains under lease to Vulcan. In the first quarter of this year, we undertook a value adjust of an outdated industrial complex called the Cranberry Run Business park in Aberdeen, Maryland. We have substantially completed an extensive $2 million rehabilitation of the park and are now experiencing robust leasing inquiries. Cranberry Run totaling 268,000 square feet was transferred from the Development segment, and as of the end of the year, the project was 26.1% occupied. Also transferred from the Development segment was a recently completed 94,350 square foot speculative warehouse building at 1801 62nd Street in Baltimore City, Maryland. During this quarter, we completed lease-up to 100% and tenants have now occupied the building. Total revenues for this business segment were down for the quarter, 22.8% to $457,000, with an operating loss of $213,000. This presents a negative variance of some $474,000 over the same period last year. Through the several mitigating factors, including a higher allocation of corporate expense, the addition of the aforementioned Cranberry Run Business Park, the addition of the newly completed speculative warehouse at 62nd Street, and the…

John Baker

Management

Thank you, David. We would now be glad to entertain any questions that any of our investors may have.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will be from Steve Farrell with Oppenheimer. Stephen Farrell;Oppenheimer + Close, LLC;Associate: Just a question about the 2 new qualified opportunity zones. And I see that they're both multifamily, is that just sort of where you see value right now? Or a overall trend of where do you think the business will go?

John Baker

Management

I think it is absolutely both of those, Steve. We think that apartment buildings present one of the best opportunities to grow value through development. And we particularly like the ones in Greenville because it is a really growing market. There's a lot of job growth and the demographics seem to just play out perfectly for it. The opportunity zone aspect really is a sad benefit, but we like the business model of the apartments and that is the reason for our investment. We'll continue to develop warehouses where we can find either ones that we can improve like the Cranberry Ridge one or whether it's new ones that we buy the land and develop or use existing properties that we have. We have a few lots left -- left over from our own Management segment that we will eventually develop. But I would say the apartments and the industrial will be the predominant investment.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] All right. I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time.

John Baker

Management

Well, thank you. We appreciate everybody's calling in this morning and your interest in FRP. We look forward to talking to you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

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