Bill McMorrow
Analyst · JMP Securities
Thanks, Daven. Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us today. We're pleased to report a solid quarter of results highlighted by continued strength in our same property results, the successful disposition of non-core assets with proceeds being reinvested into CapEx at existing properties, or higher growth property opportunities and the continued growth of our separate account business through our new joint venture at Capital Dock. This morning, I'll review our financial and property operating results for the quarter and then update you on the progress we made on our key strategic initiatives before opening it up for questions. So, starting with our results. For the quarter, GAAP EPS was $0.36 per share compared with $0.77 per share in Q2 of 2018. Adjusted EBITDA was $187 million in the quarter compared to $271 million in Q2 of 2018. Adjusted net income totaled $105 million compared to $171 million in Q2 of 2018. Our results are always impacted by the level of gains in any given quarter and we had $68 million in fewer gains in Q2 2019 compared to Q2 of last year. However, both on a GAAP EPS and adjusted EBITDA basis this past quarter, it was one of the strongest quarters of financial results we've had in the last decade. Our global same property portfolio continues to perform very well with same property revenue up 4% and NOI up 6%. We continue to see strong growth in our Western U.S. multifamily portfolio where our strategy involves buying assets in growing markets where we can unlock value through the completion of our value-add initiatives and through institutional asset management. As we've seen in for many quarters, this strategy is resulting in leading same-store results against many other publicly-traded real estate companies. And once again, in Q2, we saw this trend continue with same property revenue up 5% and NOI up 8%. Leading the charge this quarter was our Mountain State portfolio, which now totals 22 market rate and affordable assets located primarily in Salt Lake City and Boise, Idaho. Same-store revenue was up 7% and NOI was up 9% in the quarter. This is on top of the 8% NOI growth we saw in both 2018 and 2017. These markets continue to benefit from population growth and job growth with an affordable cost of living compared to high tax states like California, along with offering an outdoor recreational lifestyle that is highly desired by today's young professionals. The Greater Salt Lake area continues to grow at a robust pace across the board. In June, the unemployment rate fell to 2.8%, the lowest in 12 years. Jobs are growing at the third fastest pace in the country; housing demands continue to be fueled by rapidly growing population coupled with the approximately 39,000 college graduates produced each year in the state. There is also a 3.6 million square feet of office under construction that is expected to be delivered over the next two years, 43% of which is pre-leased. With our Mountain State apartments having average rents of less than $1,200, we feel confident that the positive economic activity in this region will continue to drive strong growth in our portfolio. I'm also pleased with the favorable trends in the Pacific Northwest, where we saw NOI growth by over 7% in the quarter. This region continues to see significant job growth with approximately 7 million square feet of office under construction between Seattle and Bellevue, the majority of which is pre-leased. Amazon alone currently house over 11,000 full-time job openings in Seattle. We maintain a positive outlook for this region, which is our largest multifamily market. Finally, in Ireland, our growing multifamily portfolio continues to perform well, the same property NOI up 5%. The multifamily sector remains fundamentally undersupplied, while we continue to see expansion similar to Seattle that is driven by the large technology companies. We currently have approximately 1,100 units under development and when you also add the 550,000 commercial square feet under development, Ireland is on track to become our largest European market by NOI. In a moment, Mary will provide you with an update on that market. Turning to our commercial portfolio of which office assets represent the largest components, we had a good quarter with revenue growth of 5% and NOI growth of 6% on a same property basis, driven by occupancy increasing by 2.5% in our Southern California portfolio as well as continued strength in our Irish office portfolio. Finally, on the last call, we discussed the lobby renovations that were being finished at The Shelbourne Hotel on April. I'm pleased to say that we saw a meaningful pickup of The Shelbourne Hotel and across our other two hotels in Europe. In total, our quarterly hotel NOI grew by $7 million compared to Q1 of 2019. In total, our real estate portfolio ended the quarter with an estimated annual NOI of $410 million with 48% coming from the Western U.S. and 52% from Europe, primarily in Ireland and the U.K. 80% of our NOI comes from wholly-owned assets. Our multifamily and office portfolio accounts for 76% of our portfolio and ended the quarter with occupancy of 94%. Now, I'd like to review our three key strategic global initiatives that we believe will deliver growth over the long-term. Number 1, growing our NOI at the property level; number 2, growing our investment management in the business; and number 3, executing our capital recycling and asset sale program, where we are producing outsized returns on our investments and recycling capital into other strategic opportunities. So starting with number 1, in the U.S., we continue to focus on completing strategic value-add CapEx projects, which are aimed at growing our NOI organically. For example, at Santa Fe a 492-unit apartment community in Salt Lake in the quarter, we completed a new leasing center, fitness center and enhanced other tenant outdoor amenities, as well as completing interior renovations. Our strategy here resulted in revenue growing by 9% and NOI growing by 14% compared to Q2 of last year. At Alpine Meadows, a 222-unit apartment community also in Salt Lake City, we recently renovated the leasing center and many of the other amenities at the property, as well as implementing green initiatives which are aimed to reduce water usage by 20%. So far, we are seeing NOI grow ahead of business plan since acquiring the property in Q4 of 2018. In total, our U.S. multifamily team completed another 230 multifamily unit renovations in the quarter, bringing our total year-to-date to approximately 400. Our goal is to renovate another 1,000 units to 1,500 units over the next 12 to 18 months. On an average, we are earning a 22% to 25% return on costs. We will also add to our recurring NOI through completing our lease up initiatives and/or development projects, which at quarter end include 4,300 market rate and affordable multifamily units, 2.9 million square feet of commercial property and the Kona Village resort. During the quarter, we stabilized Leavesden Park in the U.K. and two vintage assets here in the U.S., adding $8 million to our estimated annual NOI. Based on current market conditions, we expect these assets once complete and stabilize to add approximately $105 million of annualized NOI by the end of 2023, with roughly 37% being delivered in the next 24 to 30 months. In the U.S., we have over 2,000 units under development through our Vintage Housing joint venture, which is engaged in the management and development of senior and affordable housing. We expect to complete and stabilize almost 600 units later this year another 1,500 by the end of 2021. These projects will bring KW an expected $17 million of cash from the sale of tax credits and $6 million in estimated annual NOI. We remain on track to grow this joint venture to 10,000 units over the next few years with minimal cash required from KW. Lastly, 40% of our current development pipeline is in Dublin, Ireland. This market continues to be significantly undersupplied and we are able to leverage our scale and depth of relationships to on average achieved development yields that are roughly 200 basis points higher than market yields. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mary Ricks. Mary?