IMMQF (IMMQF) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call operator. Welcome to IGD's conference call presenting Q1 2026 results. [Operator Instructions] Let me now turn the conference over to Mr. Roberto Zoia, CEO and General Manager of IGD. Mr. Zoia, please go ahead.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. Welcome to all of you. Good afternoon. And let's start straight away so that I can leave more room for your questions. By way of introduction, let me say that this quarterly report confirms the pathway we started in April 2024 when I was appointed together with a new Board. And you will see in my presentation that the pathway we started is still giving tangible results and constant and consistent over time. Let's move to Page 2 in the presentation. I wanted to remind you of disposals and Romania. This is a topic we've been discussing a lot, but we've had disposals in the first quarter of 2026. Three of it are one on March 2nd and two on April the 21st. The negotiations launched us to the sale of eight assets for a total consideration, EUR 32.5 million. There are still seven assets to dispose of. Let me remind you that among the seven, there's Ploiesti Grand Center Omnia, and alone it's got EUR 40 million, and the other six are about EUR 35 million-EUR 36 million. So the goal for 2026 is the disposal of the six small assets so that in 2027 we can focus on the bigger assets, on the more global ones, so to say. There we have launched a restyling, external restyling to get it ready for sale or disposal. I reconfirm our target for 2026 disposals for additional EUR 30 million in line what we had disclosed in our business plan as far as Romania was concerned. If we move to Page 3 in our presentation, you will see KPIs are all growing. Net rental income on a like for like basis is up 2.4%. EBITDA, core business EBITDA is flat, mainly due to the fact that we have better spread our costs over the different quarters. In the past, they were spread across the six months, and now we've spread it across quarters, we are fully in line with Q1 2025. FFO, funds from operations, is growing sizably, up 14.7%, landing at EUR 11.7 million. A group net profit of EUR 5.7 million versus a net profit of EUR 1.6 million recorded in Q1 2025. Of course, we thought a lot about the guidance we provided, and in February, we thought about it, and in our press release we gave when we presented full year results, 2025 full year results, we thought we discussed of at least EUR 45 million. We are talking about FFO. Over the last few weeks, we felt some volatility. There was some concern felt by the market, especially due to the situation in the Middle East. We want to be conservative in the way we disclose our guidance. As you can see from Page 3, figures, somehow results are reassuring and make us confident that we can improve our results. If we move to Page 4 now, let me remind you that yesterday, we paid out a dividend of EUR 0.15 per share, up 50% versus 2024. And therefore, we are back to having a growing dividend distribution. And I'm very, very pleased to show you Slide 5 in the presentation because I was really concerned looking at the good results we had in January and February and March, despite the -- I was concerned about seeing a decline in our figures because of the situation in the Middle East. Instead, we had an excellent operating performance. Tenant sales are up 4.7%, and that's really outstanding if we talk about quarterly results, and footfalls are up 5.1%. And if we compare them to the national benchmark for CNCC is practically twice as much. The national shopping center average is up 2.5%, and IGD footfalls are up 5.1%. Another very important piece of data is our hypermarkets and supermarkets, the ones we own, are up 2.4%. And there again, there was concern because of the current situation and uncertainty that would impact March. As a matter of fact, instead, we performed well despite all the tensions. On Page 6, I am back to showing you the idea I mentioned before. As you can see, it's a long pathway. It's like taking a hike in the mountain, to walk in the mountain. It's slow but constantly growing. So in 2024, there were a lot of basis points of growth, but the growth here is slower, but the occupancy rate is still growing. It's a reassuring growth profile. Of course, there's a lot of work from the leasing perspective because we want to both grow occupancy and at the same time, pick the right occupiers or tenants for our shopping centers. And we really made a start on our WALB that had been standing still for many quarters. Today, now we have 2.11 years WALB for Italian malls, because as I said many times, in addition to renegotiating new contracts with longer break options, we have the past, the legacy that is hovering because there were expiring contracts, so that is also being tackled. And last but not least, let me say, our upside for Italy is 1.3% on renewals or new contracts. That turnover for the period accounts for 2.5% of freehold malls' total rents. In the past, it was 10.8. And this quarter reconfirmed quantities and also quality of our upside in Italy. We invested a lot, and now moving to Page 7 in the presentation, by the way. We invested a lot on anchor tenants. You know that larger food chains are very much supported by lots of funds who access their capital. And there's a pressure to really achieve growth. Many Eastern European brands, PEPCO is one, but there are many at [ DM ], for instance, IKEA, they want to come up with a big store, so they focus -- well, they don't have their own big stores. They focus on shopping malls to provide customer service or pickup for online purchases. We also work a lot on entertainment. I'm sure I've mentioned that before or I've discussed it with some of you. Entertainment in shopping malls, it's not just cinemas, movie theaters, but if you want. So new ideas are more than welcome. This is the Ferrara one. And we've had excellent results in the Livorno shopping mall. And it -- of course, it's taking up space on the one hand. And they also extend the time for visitors in shopping centers. That is also somehow helped by restaurants and then Entertainment, however, is very, very interesting. Let's move to Page 8 in our presentation. And I'm saying retail is back, and I'm saying that again. In 2025, retail was the first asset class volume-wise, I mean, investment volume-wise, and this is reconfirmed also in Q1 2026. In Q1 2026, we see that EUR 0.7 billion cut across the board. So there's outlets, factory outlets, high street, retail parks, you name it. So it has different levels of performance, but the Italian real estate performance and transaction market did really well. And retail is back in the focus of many investors. Now let's move to Page 9. Here again, the main financial indicators are improving. LTV went down 20 basis points. We land at 43.3% loan-to-value. And weighted average interest rate, we'd already mentioned that after the February deal, February transaction, is 4.8%. When I was first appointed, if you remember, it was 6.1%. Now we are at 4.8%. So I think we really did a good job. ICR is also increasing, going from 2x-2.3x. So we are starting to be in line with the main ratios. So let's look at the main figures on Page 10. We're talking about net rental income from freehold. What I like to underline, and we've talked about it extensively with all colleagues, as you can see on the slide, net rental income from freehold on a like-for-like basis is growing both in Italy and Romania. It is somehow offsetting the change in scope of consolidation. We lost EUR 0.3 million in the first quarter due to the change in consolidation scope because of the disposals in Romania. That was more than offset, with twice as much, with the like-for-like change in growth both in Italy and Romania. That takes us to a net rental income from freehold landing at EUR 25.2 million with a 2.4% growth on a like-for-like basis. EBITDA wise, here again, we have a delta in the scope of consolidation and a number of costs were spread differently across quarters. It's constant, but it's like a growth somehow because we've disposed of assets and despite those disposals, we managed to retain core business EBITDA in line with expectations and then the good news we also shared in the last quarters is the financial part. And here we are on Page 12. And here you see that the financial position in a quarter is already benefiting EUR 1.6 million thanks to debt reduction and the reduction in the weighted average interest rate. Most of the results achieved, most of the performance generated in this quarter is generated by finance. The core business like-for-like situation is offsetting the revenues that we are missing out on because of the disposals. And therefore, our financial position is still perfectly balanced. So, FFO, despite the change in consolidation scope and on Page 14. Sorry, 13, the change in consolidation scope is -0.2, but the different -- a number of items play a role so that we land at EUR 11.7 million in the first quarter. It's a delta of EUR 1.5 million and still up 14.7%. Hence, the group net profit, look at Page 14 now. Well, the final assessment made in end of June and end of December, so CapEx investments, we have two restylings on the way, Imola and [ Cesena ]. They're all expensed. And all these items account for -EUR 0.07, which is much lower than the benefit we get from the financial management versus Q1 2025. And the group net profit is EUR 5.7 million versus EUR 1.6 million in Q1 2025. We are on Page 15 now, our net financial position. Most important piece of information here, remember that our target is to get 4% -- 40% LTV. We are still on our pathway to reduce it from 43.5% down to 43.3%. The weighted average interest rate also went down. ICR went up, and the net debt on EBITDA is flat. It's still the same. For all of you, let me remind you of our group's maturity profile going forward. I'm looking at Page 16 right now, and we are in a very comfortable position. The first maturities are in 2030, and indeed, we are always very careful. We're very focused on whatever is happening around us to grasp any opportunities that may come up, both to reduce interest rates, cost of debt, and also to revise our maturity profile. But right now, we are definitely confident and because maturities are further ahead in time, and the average maturity is 5.3 years. On Page 17, we see the balance we've managed to strike between market and banking system. I'm talking about debt breakdown, of course. The issuance is in early November 2025. It was all banking debt almost, and with mortgages and with the issuance of EUR 300 million, we've rebalanced. Today, market is 38% roughly, and more than anything, we've freed up EUR 680 million worth of assets, unencumbered assets, and therefore secured unsecured ratio is 40/60. 40 unsecured, 60 secured. So we are in a financial position that is reliable, reassuring for both maturities and debt breakdown between market and banking system and the right balance between encumbered or unencumbered assets. All of these transactions, we are on Page 18 now. Today being ESG compliant and having buildings, real estate and policies that are sustainable over time is indeed a plus. And the banking system today acknowledges or recognizes this, and they see this as a window that can only be open, provided some requirements are met, and we do meet those requirements. We had a nice, small transaction, but a very appealing one indeed, because an innovative transaction. On May 16, EUR 10 million with Intesa Sanpaolo. It's a green credit line facility, and we are now among the first groups to have the sustainability report certifications and green financing framework that prove that we, of course, want to be ESG compliant. We have a number of, in our agenda, there are a number of dates. We have both corporate and investor relations agendas. We recently went to London, and a lot of interest was shown towards our company. Also, thanks to the growth we have achieved starting from 2024 and the possibility to further grow going forward. We've tried to reconfirm all of these trends for 2026 as well, because we've talked about this outside of Italy, and we've seen that there's a lot of interest outside of Italy too, because IGD is considered to be an attractive player, an attractive company. All that, and also, our corporate agenda. On August 4, we'll have the 6 monthly results, and on November 12, we'll have the results for the first 9 months of 2026. Having said that, you have all the annexes that you can read on your own, but I think it's much more interesting to take your questions now. Thank you very much.

This is the Chorus Call operator. We are now starting the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] First question comes from the line of Simonetta Chiriotti with Mediobanca.

[Interpreted] I have a couple of questions. The first is about the cost of debt. You did a lot of work. You've met the main maturities. You worked on maturity profile and costs, but could you elaborate on whether or not we've come to the ideal situation concerning those items? And then the negative items as impairment and fair value adjustments in your P&L. In this quarter, you don't have the official assessment and valuation, but could you at least give us some guidance in that respect?

[Interpreted] Let me start on the first question. We did a lot of work indeed, and this morning, still while we were talking to the Board of Directors, we want to see opportunities. Today, the situation is somehow different from that of the past. Spreads are a bit more appealing, quote-unquote, whilst base rates, Euribor, just to be clear, are growing. We were around 2.1%, 2.2%, now it's 2.8%, 2.9%. And generally speaking, our concern is that it's going to grow further. So far, we have only fixed rates until August. The installments for -- well, for the bank loans because the bond is fixed rate, 4.45%. The installment will be worked out in August for the second part. But first of all, between now and 2031, we still have a bank loan, so-called [ Helmet II ], which was granted by a pool of 10 banks. If you remember, which is expensive, 3.2%, that's the spread. There we can work on maybe having another bank loan or bank financing and we can have an early repayment of that and then reduce the cost of debt. And the second one, it could be a possible issuance, and there too, right now, the figure that we could aim for is not very different from our current cost of debt. I would like to wait and see for a few more weeks to see if things are calming down because there are quite a few issuances, even recent ones were made also in the real estate industry. But today, May 7, is probably not the best time to think of an issuance. But the answer I'd like to give you is that we are not standing still until from here to 2030. We have two opportunities to further reduce the cost of debt with either with new issuances or with a new bank loan, bank facility. And also as to maturity profile, I wouldn't mind engaging in transactions EUR 100 million, EUR 150 million worth, and reduce even the maturities in the year. The first one, EUR 300 million in less than EUR 800 million or which is our NFP. If we were to reduce EUR 100 million-EUR 150 million instead of EUR 200 million, that'd be better. It was just to tell you that we are being very careful. We're very focused on what we do. We're both talking to banks and to the market, capital markets, of course. As to our income statement or, well, P&L, we have two items, and one is a structural item that's about to come to an end, and it's IFRS 16, which is only affecting a master lease on Centro Nova, Bologna, because Fonti del Corallo has come to an end. So going forward, it would be February 2027, that's the end of it. And then the item that would affect the P&L will no longer be in existence in February 2027. In the first quarter, we had a lot of CapEx, both in Italy and in Romania, on both the assets to be disposed of and the bigger assets I mentioned before, the big asset I mentioned at the beginning. And the rule we're giving ourselves is that until we have an expert report, until we have an assessment, we try and impair. If we -- I'm talking about the external restarting of Imola, where we have a new façade, we changed the logo and everything. So I expect that market conditions being the same, there should be a write-up, and that would enable me on June 30, at the end of June, to somehow offset a technical impairment, a technical write-down. So the rule we have is whatever is CapEx, and we get invoices, we expense those, and then we compare them initial value plus CapEx and we give them for the expert report for the assessment. We are looking at the bottom line, of course. It's an improvement going from EUR 1.6 million to EUR 5.7 million. And that's why we have these impairment write-downs.

[Interpreted] Next question comes from the line of Steven Boumans, ABN AMRO.

Maybe question on the operating metrics. Footfalls up, good metrics there. But given the rise in energy price, I can imagine that since the Iran conflict, footfall, for example, have come down. Could you provide some comments on footfall or consumer behavior in general, let's say from the past month? That's my first question.

[Interpreted] [Foreign Language]

He thought you were asking the same question at the same time. He didn't know you were waiting for the -- yes, he'll give you the answer to the first question first. Right.

Okay.

[Interpreted] When it comes to the impact given by the war, we haven't seen them so far because the war in the Middle East then started on February the 27. I said before that I was very concerned at the time for March. Instead, March went just as well as January and February. The first figures in April are also comforting somehow. So we are not yet experiencing that impact. I would like to say that we moved very soon, very early for the cost of energy, for instance. We told our tenants that we've already blocked prices, 70% of prices for 2026 and 2027. We have them. So even tomorrow, the energy price were to explode, in our shopping malls, 70% of the energy is covered. It is at a fixed blocked price. And I can also say that for all tenants, it was a good news piece of information that we gave them. They thanked us for getting that condition because we managed to get that 70% blocked. What we will keep monitoring should the conflict and the war go on for many more months, is mainly connected to consumption, trust, confidence. But right now, I have no evidence of people buying less or having witnessing less footfalls.

Okay, it's very clear. Then a different question, second one. Do you see optionality to improve your current fund structures in '26? Sor for example, selling or buying part of the food fund or the juice funds. And when could you do that, if you see any possibilities here?

[Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Sorry, could you repeat? Was it earned fund structure?

Yes. You have the food and the juice funds as from the restructuring before, but is there some optionality to improve those structures? I can imagine with the better cost of debt, maybe you might buy back some parts of those funds. Yes. Can you improve those funds for the food and juice fund?

[Interpreted] Well, let's answer in two parts. We have 40% of the joint venture fund, and we have 40% of the food fund. The juice fund is mature because it's a fund that was set up in 2021. We are working with our partner, ICG, thinking of a dismissal of the fund's portfolio. And then after that, a possible buyback of stakes. But of course, the main part for us, the headway for us would be total disposal. And then the food fund set up in 2024, it had a black period of two years that expired in April 2026, so a month ago. What we are going to do is start and look at asset disposal. So for the time being, there's no optionality for buyback. In both cases, we have a right of first refusal or offering, and should there be a financial opportunity to buy back, we would have a right to do that. But more than once, we've said that we want to get to 40% of LTV. Now we are at 43.3%, we don't think it's the case to think of buying hypermarkets back. So for the time being, absolutely not. And on the juice fund, we have a sale -- an ongoing sales procedure or disposal procedure to dispose of the portfolio to third parties.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Federico Pezzetti with Intermonte. Intermonte SIM.

[Interpreted] I have a couple of questions. Asset rotation. Could you give us an update? Are there any novelties on the disposals of other assets, for instance, Livorno and other minor areas, if I remember correctly? About EUR 30 million, I think the total worth was. So I would like an update on that. And then out of curiosity, more than anything else, 18 months have elapsed since you presented your business plan. The results you have achieved so far are excellent. Have you started thinking about a possible update of your business plan, maybe at the end of this year or when? Or maybe you don't know yet, but are you thinking about it?

[Interpreted] As to asset rotation, definitely yes. We put it in the presentation as well. We disposed of all the flats in the portfolio. There's still one missing, probably. I think it's Livorno we're talking about. There were two recent proposals. I don't want to give any discount because it's the last flat. It's beautiful. It's top floor. It's on the water, above the water. I could go and live there when I no longer am the CEO of IGD. It's a penthouse, very beautiful. And the Livorno areas are very appealing. We've started some conversations somehow. We had a first permit for hotels. And as you probably read, hotels in Italy now even in secondary cities of secondary importance are being very successful. So in 2026, our main effort will be focused on the three main areas, the largest area, which is the hotel, the area devoted to hotels. Let me tell you that since the beginning of this year, we started works, construction works for the tourist port. And it's a JV with a specialized company in ports and marinas. It's a Malta-based company and a 30% stake that still is owned by Azimut-Benetti, which is the largest mega yacht builder at global level. So, they are working, that really attracted a lot of interest from the path of hotels. So right now on disposal in Romania, we discussed it today, and we are really working hard on the three main areas in Livorno as well. And then as to the other part of the question about the business plan, we are halfway through the plan, so we are at a very good moment in time for the targets we've given ourselves between now and 2027. We have to think about it indeed, and this morning during the Board meeting, we said that close to the six monthly report, August, we think we could give you some visibility, but I would like to have it from my Board first and from the shareholder to see whether we can revise something, maybe revise our business plan targets, maybe extend the plan a little bit. So I do confirm that we are working on it. We are thinking about what you just mentioned. I don't have an answer today, even this morning during the board meeting, we were asked, when we get to the 6-monthly report, the interim report, provided there are no specific events taking place in the market because of the war or something similar. But the market is expecting probably an update of our business plan. We travel around, we are an appealing corporate for many investors. We've seen that. But one of the questions that we are being asked is, "Okay, very well, you did outstandingly. You did a lot. And now what is the growth you expect to achieve going forward?" We still have a growth. You've seen it, you've witnessed it, and it's a constant growth. We still have two levers there. One is the cost of debt, as Simonetta Chiriotti asked before. We could further work on the cost of debt so we could improve FFO, our FFO, and we still have 1.8 points of occupancy that we can achieve from here to 2027, and therefore, that would mean improving our operating performance. We are also working a lot on our business unit for third parties. We've just signed an agreement, a contract with Kryalos, who is one of the most dynamic SGRs. They have 14 billion of assets under management. And we were picked for both the sales and real estate management of the Poseidon shopping mall in Carini, and it's quite a meaningful contract for us, not just financially, but also proving everyone that we can be in the market and therefore acquire new services to be rendered. The IGD SIIQ today is with a standalone growth on the one hand, a feasible growth, a viable growth, which is indeed appealing, but also time has come towards year-end or first month of 2027, time has come for us to launch either a new plan or make adjustments to the plan we disclosed beforehand. I think this is important for all those who are focusing on IGD. If we can see a pathway, a fast pathway to a 40% LTV, that would mean also having and showing a dividend policy that provides visibility on future dividends. But as I said before, we, our dividends were increased 50% versus 2024, this is the trend we want to retain. We want to pay out dividends with utmost attention paid to LTV. But we have all the right foundations to do that. Disposals and the Romanian portfolio at low debt. It's all cash we get in, the cash we can use to reduce our debt exposure or that we can reinvest in our core portfolio. So we have a lot of growth levers that we could use. Of course, we have to somehow interact with the market, providing a longer business plan. And it's not official, but this is our take, and this is something I proposed to the board today as well, to start thinking about this, re-revising our business plan targets towards year-end.

[Operator Instructions] [Interpreted] Mr. Zoia, for the time being, there are no more questions in the queue. Very well. Thank you very much and talk to you soon. Thank you all for joining us today. Have a good day. Thank you. This is the Chorus Call operator. The conference call has come to an end. You may disconnect your phones. Thank you very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]