William McMorrow
Analyst · JMP Securities. Please go ahead
Daven thanks. Good morning everybody and thanks for joining us today. We are pleased to report a record third quarter results for Kennedy-Wilson highlighted by our growth in property NOI, a continued strength in same property operating performance and continued progress on our property stabilization initiatives, which allowed us yesterday to announce an 11% increase in our dividend to $0.84 share on an annual basis. We also continue to make great progress on our third-party fee-bearing capital raising initiatives and the execution of our asset sale program. Starting with our record financial results for the. GAAP EPS was $0.09 per share, up from a loss of $0.08 a year ago, adjusted EBITDA was $142 million compared to $76 million during Q3, 2017. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was driven by a $41 million increase in our share of property NOI, which has significantly increased since the acquisition of KWE, which we completed in the fourth quarter of last year. We also had a $32 million increase in our share of net gains and promotes compared to the third quarter of 2017. We have now produced $535 million of EBITDA year-to-date in 2018 more than double the $255 million we produced for the first nine months of 2017. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $74 million compared to the $35 million in Q3 of 2017. For the year-to-date, adjusted net income totals $308 million compared to $125 million last year. I would like to review the highlights of our property operating results for the quarter before discussing our key global growth initiatives for the Company. Our total, our portfolio today has an estimated annual NOI of $416 million with 46% coming from the Western U.S. and 54% from Europe. We had another solid quarter of property operations with same property revenue and NOI growth of 4% each across our global same property portfolio consisting of more than 18,500 multifamily units, 12.5 million square feet of commercial properties and four hotels. In particular, our market rate portfolio saw same property revenues and NOI growth of 5% each and continues to benefit from being located across growing markets and from our asset management teams execution of our value-add strategy. Within our U.S. multifamily portfolio, our Mountain State assets which include our investments in Salt Lake City in Boise Idaho had another standout quarter with revenue and NOI growth of almost 9%. Both of these cities continue to benefit from strong underlying economic fundamentals. In 2017, Idaho had the fastest growing population in the country, with Utah ranking third. With low unemployment, relative affordability and a lack of housing options for the rapidly growing populations, the outlook for both states remains strong. Rents at our Mountain States properties are 40% below the rents in our California portfolio, so the affordability in the region positions us well for future growth. Our global commercial portfolio also had a good quarter with 3% revenue growth and 2% NOI growth on a same property basis. In total our stabilized commercial portfolio sits at 95% leased. In the U.S., our results were largely driven by strong asset management and leasing activity in our Southern California commercial portfolio resulting in a 3% increase in occupancy coupled with the burn off of free rent from Q3 of last year. In Europe our growth was also driven by significant asset management activity in the quarter including 47 lease transactions across one million square feet resulting in an increase of 7% over previously in-place rents. Now I would like to focus the remainder of the call on three key strategic global initiatives that we have discussed on prior calls and which continue to be a huge emphasis for us at Kennedy-Wilson. Number one, growing our NOI both organically and through completion of our development initiatives; number two, substantially growing our investment management business. And number three, continuing to implement our capital recycling and asset sale program. So starting with number one, growing our property NOI is a key initiative for us and we can accomplish this in a number of ways. First, we look at continue growing the NOI of our existing portfolio organically through our value-add asset management program and leasing initiatives. In the U.S., we continue completing strategic CapEx projects which are aimed at growing our in place NOI. Few examples for the quarter include the completion of our brand new leasing center at Equinox in Seattle and a new clubhouse, fitness center and tenant lounge at Edgewater, Boise, Idaho. We also renovated 324 multifamily units during the quarter bringing our year-to-date total to 745 units. We expect to renovate approximately 1300 units next year at an average cost of $10,000 per renovated unit, which typically adds 20% to 30% return on investment. In all across the U.S. multifamily portfolio, we currently plan to spend $25 million on unit interior renovations and common area upgrades in 2019. Similarly, in Europe we have many ongoing asset management initiatives that look to grow our NOI. At Leavesden Park in the UK which was 75% vacant as of the quarter end, I'm pleased to announce that we have just signed our largest UK leasing transaction today. A 200,000 square foot lease to global online fashion retailer ASOs for 15 year term certain, which led $7 million to our estimated annual NOI in 2019. This is the largest leasing transaction in the Southeast sub markets since 2016 and it reflects the strong demand we are seeing across our UK office portfolio. At the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, we completed the room renovations and are currently upgrading the lobby as we look to further drive ADR growth. Our CapEx initiatives at the Shelbourne, which includes [$27] (Ph) million spent to-date with another $14 million remaining continues to be well received with this asset. With NOI doubling from $9 million to $18 million since we acquired the property in 2014. Also are in place UK and Irish office for ads remain 14% below market on average, which presents an opportunity to capture further NOI growth in upcoming rent reviews and as leases expire. The second important way for us to add NOI is through completing our lease up and development initiatives globally across $3 billion of gross assets at completion, which our shares is $1.6 billion. Our pipeline includes over 3300 market rate and affordable multifamily units, 2.5 million square feet of commercial property and 150 hotel rooms at the Kona Village Resort. Based on current market conditions, we expect that these assets in total will add a $100 million to our estimated annual NOI by the end of 2023, $26 of which we expect to add by the end of next year alone. In the U.S., we continue to developing units through our Vintage Housing joint venture, where the demand for affordable and senior housing remains very strong. The portfolio today consists of 6600 units with another 2000 units under development and our goal is set to get this joint venture up to 10,000 units in the short-term with minimal equity from KW. As a side note, we own approximately 62% of that joint venture. I would now like to hand the call over to Mary Ricks to discuss our European development initiatives. How our European development initiatives play such an important part in our growing property NOI. And I would also like on this call to congratulate Mary on her very well deserved promotion in August of President of Kennedy-Wilson. Mary and I have been partners here at Kennedy-Wilson for over 25 years and she has played an incredibly important role in the success of our Company. So with that, I would like to turn the call over to Mary.