Earnings Labs

Rexford Industrial Realty, Inc. (REXR)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Mon, Nov 3, 2014

$35.80

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Rexford Industrial Realty Third Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Steve Swett. Thank you. You may now begin.

Steve Swett - ICR

Management

Good afternoon. We would like to thank you for joining us for Rexford Industrial’s third quarter 2014 earnings conference call. In addition to the press release distributed today, we have posted a quarterly supplemental package with additional details on our results in the Investor Relations section on our website at www.rexfordindustrial.com. On today’s call, management’s remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are usually identified by the use of words such as anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, intends, may, plans, projects, seeks, should, will and variations of such words or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those discussed today. Examples of forward-looking statements include those related to revenue, operating income or financial guidance. As a reminder, forward-looking statements represent management’s current estimates. Rexford Industrial assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. We encourage listeners to review the more detailed discussions related to these forward-looking statements contained in the company’s filings with the SEC. In addition, certain of the financial information presented on this call represents non-GAAP financial measures. The company’s earnings release and supplemental information package which were distributed this afternoon and are available on the company’s website present reconciliations to the appropriate GAAP measure and an explanation of why the company believes such non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors. This afternoon’s conference call is hosted by Rexford Industrial’s Co-Chief Executive Officers, Michael Frankel and Howard Schwimmer together with Chief Financial Officer Adeel Khan. They will make some prepared remarks and then we will open the call for your questions. Now, I will turn the call over to Michael.

Michael Frankel - Co-Chief Executive Officer

Management

Thank you and welcome to Rexford Industrial’s third quarter 2014 earnings conference call. I will begin with a brief summary of our operating and financial results for the quarter; Howard will then provide an overview of our markets and recent investment activity; and Adeel will then follow with more details on our third quarter financial results and balance sheet. During the third quarter of 2014, Rexford continued to make strong progress on all of our strategic growth initiatives. Our team captured a fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit re-leasing spreads. We acquired another 5 properties for $75 million and completed our first follow-on equity offering raising net proceeds of $222 million. We achieved recurring FFO of $0.23 per share despite a substantially increased shared count and recognizing that our results only include a portion of the incremental revenue associated with our acquisitions and positive re-leasing spreads accomplished during the quarter. Our quarterly results reflect our strategy to deliver accretive and value-add returns focused on the strongest, largest and most sought-after industrial market in the nation. To put the quality of our market into perspective, not only as Southern California’s industrial market estimated to be larger by aggregate value than the next 4 or 5 largest markets combined, but average rental rates throughout Southern California are a full 50% higher than average rental rates for the next 10 largest markets. But what makes Rexford truly unique is our focus and deep penetration on infill Southern California representing 80% or 1.6 billion square feet of the total 2 billion square foot industrial space in Southern California. These infill markets demonstrate an ongoing supply demand imbalance characterized by both the lack of new supply, substantial barriers limiting the introduction of competing products, and increasing long-term tenant demand, which include a growing regional population and…

Howard Schwimmer - Co-Chief Executive Officer

Management

Thank you, Michael and thank you everyone for joining us today. As on past calls I will update you on our markets and review our recent transactions which continue to be substantial. Let me start by providing some perspective on our markets primarily utilizing market data provided by CBRE. Fundamentals in our Southern California infill investor markets exhibited further improvement during the third quarter of 2014, building off a slower start for the year the typically slow summer months for the most robust thus far. In Los Angeles county leasing activity has further improved with positive net absorption of 3.1 million square feet versus 1.6 million square feet last quarter, 60% of gross absorption occurred in the 10,000 square foot to 100,000 square foot market which is Rexford’s primary focus. Vacancies dropped further this quarter ending at 2.1% and placing continued upward pressure on rental rates with asking lease rates increasing 1.6% over the prior quarter. Further CBRE expects rents to grow by 6.6% over the next 12 months. The recovery in Orange County continues to outpace that of Southern California as a whole with one of the lowest unemployment rates in California of 5.5%. The Orange County vacancy rate dropped further to 2.4% which is the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2007. The North Orange County submarket where Rexford has large holdings ended with 1.8% vacancy rates, but is becoming challenging for tenants to find space in the market with very little industrial product available and continued market tightening. The average re-lease rate has increased 1.5% over the prior quarter and CBRE expects rent to increase 8.7% for the third quarter of 2015. In San Diego County vacancy declined further to end at 6.7% closing in on the pre-recession low of 5.4% in 2006. The average asking lease…

Adeel Khan - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thank you, Howard. In my comments today, I will review our operating results, then I will summarize our balance sheet and recent financing transaction, and finally I will provide some updated comments on our outlook for 2014. Starting with our operating results. For the three months ending September 30, 2014, Rexford Industrial reported its company share recurring FFO of $7.7 million or $0.23 per fully diluted share. Recurring FFO excluded the impact of approximately $426,000 of non-recurring acquisition expenses and $380,000 of legal fees. Including these costs, FFO was $7 million for the quarter or $0.21 per fully diluted share. For the nine months ending September 30, 2014, Rexford Industrial reported its company share recurring FFO of $19.1 million or $0.68 per fully diluted share. Recurring FFO excluded the impact of approximately $1.4 million of non-recurring acquisition expenses and $380,000 of legal fees. Including these costs, FFO was $17.5 million for the nine months ending September 30, 2014 or $0.62 per fully diluted share. As a reminder, this was our fourth quarter as a public company and per share earnings in FFO comparison to any period prior to August 2013 includes results of our predecessor entities and may not be comparable to the current quarter’s results. On a same property basis, we generated a 3.6% increase in third quarter rental revenue as compared to the prior year period. Same property portfolio NOI was $7.9 million for the third quarter as compared to $7.6 million for the same quarter in 2013, representing an increase of 3.5%. On a cash basis, our same property portfolio NOI was up 3.8% year-over-year. On a year-to-date basis, our same property revenue was up 3.9% and our same property NOI was up 3.1%. Cash NOI was up 2.7% during the first nine months of the year…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question is coming from the line of Mr. Jon Petersen with MLV & Company. Your line is now open. You may proceed with your question. Jon Petersen - MLV & Company: Great. Thank you. I guess high level in terms of the LA market. Can you comment a little bit on how you have seen cap rates trend in recent quarters. Are we still seeing them move down, are we seeing them flat now?

Michael Frankel

Analyst

Sure. Hi, Jon, it’s Howard. It’s actually been interesting, we haven’t seen a dramatic movement in the properties that we’re typically buying, when you think about 60% of our cap rates or rather 60% of our acquisition are off market or likely marketed properties where we’ve seen the most movement there, we’re on the larger transactions particularly in the Inland Empire where it’s not uncommon to see cap rates in the mid to low 4s. But in terms of the general market I think the range we’re seeing is low 4s to upper 5s. Jon Petersen - MLV & Company: Okay. And then on the 70,000 square feet that you took of repositioning, I apologize if I missed it. But did you guys say what yield you expect to get on your incremental cost?

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

We did not mention that. But I’ll give you an example of one of the properties we had 35,000 foot tenants who was in the project in the Simi Valley since our acquisition and we’ve always planned to demise the space into five units. This tenant was paying, so I think it was about $0.53 a square foot, whereas the balance of the project we’re achieving $0.85 rents. So, you’re looking at about 60% increase in the rent over that 35,000 feet. And I don’t have the cost on top of my head but from what I remember looking at it was fairly accretive so we’ll run up that dramatically. Jon Petersen - MLV & Company: Okay. It makes sense. And then, I don’t know I guess another high level question in terms of your occupancy. So, if you look at market vacancy in LA County, 2% to 3%, it seems like it’s where we’re at, you portfolio seems like it has a little bit to close the gap. If you think about the portfolio you’re building and over the long-term where do you see the occupancy stabilizing for vacancy, do you get close to that 2% to 3% or is there something about your portfolio that would make it higher than that?

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

I don’t think we’d ever project to get to 98% occupancy by virtue of having 70% multi-tenant spaces you typically do have rolls in that. I think really stabilized for especially LA Orange County for us, it’s probably a 95% zone. Jon Petersen - MLV & Company: Okay, it makes sense. Good quarter. Thanks for the question.

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time there are no further questions. I would like to turn the floor back over to our management team for any closing remarks.

Michael Frankel - Co-Chief Executive Officer

Management

We just want to thank you operator and thank everybody for joining us today. We appreciate your interest in Rexford Industrial and we look forward to speaking with you again in 2015 when we report our fourth quarter and full-year 2014 results. Thanks everybody for tuning in.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you very much for you participation and have a wonderful afternoon.