Earnings Labs

Rexford Industrial Realty, Inc. (REXR)

Q4 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 26, 2015

$35.80

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Rexford Industrial Realty Incorporated Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Steve Swett of ICR. Thank you. Mr. Swett, you may begin.

Steve Swett

Analyst

Good afternoon. We would like to thank you for joining us for Rexford Industrial’s fourth quarter and full year 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 expectations. 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 released 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 Now I will turn the call over to Michael.

Michael Frankel

Analyst

Thank you and welcome to Rexford Industrial’s fourth quarter and full year 2014 earnings conference call. I will begin with a brief summary of our operating and financial results for the quarter and year; Howard will then provide an overview of our markets and recent investment activity; and Adeel will then follow with more details on our fourth quarter and full year financial results, our balance sheet and provides the metrics which help to frame our outlook for 2015. 2014 was an exceptional year of operating results for Rexford. We made 23 acquisitions comprising 36 industrial properties containing more than 3.7 million square feet across our prime infill markets for an aggregate cost of $397 million. To-date we have grown our portfolio by 82% since our IPO just a year and a half ago. Our team grew consolidated NOI by 67% when comparing the fourth quarter of 2014 at the same period in 2013 enabling us to capture margin expansion as we increased efficiency across our platform. Most importantly, the year's investment activity highly accretive with about two-thirds of acquisition required to off market or lightly marketed transactions enabling enhanced yields. Further half of the transactions represent value add opportunities to increase cash yield and value overtime. Rexford’s internal growth was equally strong. During the year our team consummated 435 new and renewal leases covering 2.4 million square feet. The fourth quarter of 2014 represented our fifth consecutive quarter of positive double digit re-leasing spread and we achieved a 400 basis point increase in our stabilized same property portfolio occupancy reaching 93.7% by year end. From a capital market perspective 2014 represented a terrific start as our first full calendar year public company. We maintained a flexible nimble capital structure highlighted by our follow-on operating last August where there is…

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

Thank you Michael and thank you everyone for joining us today. As on past calls I'll 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 CBRA. From everything we see on the ground we are now clearly in the landlords market throughout all of our Southern California infill markets. We are experiencing strong performance executed by forward leasing demand, fallen vacancy rates, rising rental rates and an uptick in positive net absorption year-over-year. With vacancy rates tight it is not uncommon to see multiple tenants competing for the same space which should support the same growth in rental rates. In Los Angeles County, leasing activities has been strong through 2014 with an increase of 21% positive net absorption over 2013 with small sized buildings generating double the activity of larger buildings business during the fourth quarter. Vacancy finished the year 1.9% down 20 basis points since last quarter and down 50 basis points in the first quarter of the year, with continued upward pressure on rental rates, with asking lease rates increasing 3.2% over the prior quarter and 6.7% since the start of the year we expect rents to further increase by 6.7% over the next 12 months. The settlement of first [indiscernible] productivity will normal over the coming months which will remove the uncertainty in the regional economy. With that said, it's important to note that we had not seen any material slowdown in recent months. We believe that our portfolio which largely supports local commerce is less driven by the flow of trade in to and out of the region. Through 2014 Orange County generated over 1 million square feet of positive absorption. Vacancy rates remained…

Adeel Khan

Analyst

Thank you, Howard. In my comment today I will review our operating results and then I will come to our balance sheet and recent financial transactions and finally I’ll provide some metrics on our outlook for 2015. Starting with our operating results the three months ending December 31, 2014 Rexford Industrial reported company share of recurring FFO of $9 million or $0.21 per fully diluted share. Recurring FFO excludes the impact of approximately 627,000 of non-recurring acquisition expenses and $205,000 of legal fees. Including these costs company share of FFO was $8.2 million for the quarter or $0.19 per fully diluted share. In the four months ending December 31, 2014 Rexford Industrial reported company’s share of recurring FFO of $28 million or $0.89 per fully diluted share. Recurring FFO includes the impact of approximately $2 million of non-recurring acquisition expenses and $585,000 of legal expenses. Including these costs company’s share of FFO was $25.6 million for the 12 months ending December 31, 2014 or $0.81 per fully diluted share. As a reminder 2014 was our first full year as a public company and per share earnings and FFO comparisons for any period prior to August 2013 include results of our [indiscernible] and may not be comparable to the current quarter’s results. On a same property basis we generated an 8.8% increase in fourth quarter rental revenue, and operating expenses increased 1.1% quarter-to-quarter. Same property portfolio NOI was $8.9 million for the fourth quarter as compared to $8 million for the same quarter in 2013, representing an increase of 10.7%. On a cash basis our same property portfolio NOI was up 9.7% year-over-year. Adjusted for some one-time items affecting [ph] same property revenue and NOI in the quarter same property revenue growth would have been 5.6% and same property NOI growth…

Michael Frankel

Analyst

Thank you Adeel and we thank everyone for joining us today. We are obviously very pleased with our results in 2014. We look forward to continuing to execute on our strategy going forward and some of you may have noticed today's announcement from Fitch assigning Rexford an investment grade rating. This is further evidence of the strength of our platform and balance sheet and is another step in ensuring that we have the most advantageous capital options available as we pursue our growth initiatives in 2015 and beyond. And with that we'll be happy to take your questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question is from Michael Mueller of JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Mueller

Analyst

Hi thanks. Couple of things. First of all Adeel can you walk through the G&A increase a little bit more, looks like it's got 20% year-over-year and then also, I mean how are you thinking about the ramp beyond 2015?

Adeel Khan

Analyst

Hi Mike it's Adeel. So good question, so first of all Mike I will point you to the Q4 G&A. So if you take that G&A as a -- that essentially gets you to a pretty close to our guidance for next year. Furthermore what I can point out that this year in June 30th we've agreed under that, as you recall on the jobs active we've worked to acquire the [indiscernible] stations and acquire that. So we're going to breach that because of the market cap. So that's going to actually support some costs related to the former professional fees and audit fees and things of that nature. And we have preliminary assumed that was going to happen little later but our growth that we've been talking by clearly advanced those kind of. Furthermore there was some active rents [ph] that took place in Q4 of '14 which are going to amortize themselves into the numbers in '15 and there is also assumption of additional cost along that line, they can especially come in '15. As to the last part of your question I think that '15 is a pivotal year for the Sarbanes, reason that I pointed out. I think from going forward we will not see this was a piece that established a base case for us which will continue on, because this cost will not be -- will not be incremental increases in those costs in the future. So I think this will establish good case by point for us going forward in '16 and beyond.

Michael Mueller

Analyst

Okay and then when you….

Michael Frankel

Analyst

I would say Mike by the way one of the thing that we think by that in terms of G&A, it's Michael by the way, and we benefit from the fact that we don't have to open up offices in a lot of different geographies and so we see it. I think what Adeel was saying is we see a point in our business in the medium term where we're going to start accelerating our operating leverage here given the regional focus in southern California.

Michael Mueller

Analyst

Okay got it. And then I think it was Adeel you mentioned some of the one-time items that benefited same store NOI in the quarter. And what exactly were those items?

Adeel Khan

Analyst

Sure so we have in those numbers $176,000 at leasing payments that we've received in one of the properties and that's naturally a one-time item. And then we also benefited from a reversal of a doubtful account reserve that we had in the books about $190,000. So again that's on the positive side that they help that one tenant did well and we were able to reverse that. So those are the two non-recurring charges that we alluded to in our call and also footnoted in the supplemental.

Michael Mueller

Analyst

Okay that's fair enough. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Brandon Maiorana with Wells Fargo.

Brandon Maiorana

Analyst

Hi thanks. So Adeel, I so I think you mentioned the start of the year occupancy numbers. Did you say 92.8; I think the two numbers in for the same store. So is that an adjusted tool for the -- I think the year end tool was 92.1. So I just want to clarify the difference between kind of how we should think about the year-end occupancy target of 93 to 94 versus where we're starting the year.

Adeel Khan

Analyst

Brandon great question and the math behind that it's as you know the same store pool is changing every quarter. So that is an adjusted number for same store pool that we're going to present in Q1, '15. So our same store pool is going to change from $5.2 million as reported in the supplemental to 6.1 approximately. And that 92.8% represents that 6.1 pool that we're going to present in Q1. And the guidance that we issued of 93% to 94% related to that exact $6.1 million tool. Furthermore the guidance that we issued on the NOI growth also reflects the same pool that we referred. So that was the disconnect, that 92.8 number is not published because we're not we have report the Q1 '15.

Brandon Maiorana

Analyst

Okay and that is and that number is -- that's an overall same-store pool right not the stabilized same store pool?

Adeel Khan

Analyst

It's stabilized.

Brandon Maiorana

Analyst

Okay, the stabilized number. And so how should we -- so there is some occupancy growth but it's relatively modest at least from the beginning of the year, maybe somewhere between 20 basis points to 120 or so. The overall number is significantly higher than that and you've got rents on the portfolio and rent spreads have been positive on a cash basis although they haven't been -- they haven’t move too high off of kind of the low-single digits over the past couple of quarters. So what are the components that are going to drive same store in the 5% to 10% range because that's a pretty big number relative to a modest occupancy increase.

Adeel Khan

Analyst

Well I think naturally the two main components are, I mean just seen for about five quarters so really think they have been positive. So we expect that to continue I think over the last quarter but again an amazing quarter from a re-leasing spread or a GAAP perspective and on a cash perspective. So it naturally has that assumption. I think we have always stated the fact that our model typically assumes a more conservative approach as far as what the increases are going to be. We have 3% baked into our current in place leases and then we typically try to go on a conservative basis from a market leasing assumption perspective. And naturally the other point that are contributing to that growth is just the occupancy uptake that we have. So there are the two main areas that I can allude to that onto those metrics.

Michael Frankel

Analyst

And Brandon the other thing that is a little hard to pinpoint that is equally strong is the fact that a lot of our value add initiatives at the property level are playing out they are paying off. And it's not necessarily the big CapEx items when you put a property out of service and you are doing a full positioning which we fully report on but it's a lot of smaller spaces where we going in and doing what we do on a current basis overtime which is freshing up space making it more marketable making it more functional and enabling us to release it at more favorable rents.

Brandon Maiorana

Analyst

Yeah and so either Michael or Howard, you guys mentioned that if you look at the roll over the next two years both in '15 and '16, I think it's about 45% cumulative. Rents have been growing pretty nicely in Southern California. What should we expect in terms of where you think rents spreads are either for us mark-to-market maybe for the whole portfolio or just maybe over the couple of years where we think you guys can move rents as the tenants expire.

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

Hi-- it's Howard. I think if you look at the overall market we had strong rent growth in nearly all the markets our portfolios have positioned in. And we mentioned in the past where we saw active rents were versus peak market levels and we also commented to replacements in our portfolio are below the asking rents. So we still feel that there is 10% to 15% more growth certainly within our portfolio before we get to what the higher peak markets rents were. So I think these are the result of us pushing rents and just feeling positive today at some of the trends that are happening since beginning of the year where we've have 100% positive rent growth in every one of the new leases and renewal transactions we have done. So we really seeing the benefits of the strong market playing on well in our portfolio and we put that in a combination with along the value add efforts that we have. And we're really firing on all cylinders at this point.

Brandon Maiorana

Analyst

Okay. So I mean it's sounds like the rent spreads that you guys have put out over the past few quarters in the low to mid-double digits on a GAAP basis and kind of low to mid-single digits on a cash basis, that's probably a fair outlook for as we think about 2015.

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

Absolutely. Yeah it's not obviously knowing how even the first quarter finishes out but I think kind of your rate that this quarter looks pretty solid in terms of both the GAAP and rent spread.

Brandon Maiorana

Analyst

Okay, oh yeah go ahead sorry.

Michael Frankel

Analyst

I would say keeping net rents that remember that because we are still operating from a relatively small base of property a given lease of the certain size and have a pretty material impact on a leasing spreads during any given period of quarter. But I think what captures our general expectation is the guidance that Adeel provided in terms of our projected NOI growth.

Brandon Maiorana

Analyst

Sure. And then last one just in terms of, Ventura County occupancy was down there. Was there something specific that was happening in there that contracted due to drop about 500 basis points or is that there might have just been a known that I forgot about?

Adeel Khan

Analyst

Well first of all the portfolio size in that market is not large. So they had a 28,000 foot vacancy that occurred that weighed on portfolio occupancy as well as the sale of two of the JV properties we have which was 733,000 square feet which would have weighed in a little bit in terms of our overall portfolio occupancy as well.

Brandon Maiorana

Analyst

Sure okay. All right thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Talyor [indiscernible] from Jefferies.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yes, good evening everyone or good afternoon over there in LA. In regards to the guidance, again, I think you give us more sort of the key drivers but I mean I know you didn't provide an actual per share number. Is that because you are still generally trying to figure out capital structure in '15 given some of the news around FICCs and possibly you doing something in the debt market.

Adeel Khan

Analyst

Hi this is Adeel. Dale. So you're right that's just a maturation process of our organization. I think each quarter you've noticed that we're taking an additional steps to provide more guidance and I think that you're absolutely right about that. Our capital structure is closely to a point that [indiscernible] revenue in the FICC. So I think hopefully once we go further way into the year we can show up some of that guidance. So your point is absolutely correct, I think that's kind of the reason but we wanted to give you at least the key areas of building blocks to be able to come through some term as to what that number might look like. But as we move forward we can say we will certainly be looking forward to providing additional guidance on that side.

Michael Frankel

Analyst

And we're growing from relatively small base the type of the acquisitions following that we are seeing. It accentuates the challenge associated there and then to your point with the capital structure but in the deal space we are working towards refining that guidance as we move forward.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

That makes sense. What are you hearing at this point either from S&P and Moody's about the whole ratings process on their end?

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

We reached to Moody's already I think we imagine it appealed out to that side as well, I think Fitch will be great opportunity for us to pursue. Naturally there’s a cost impact to it and I think Michael and I both realize pointed out the fact our size of the company. So we want to make sure that we properly matched the cross aspects of getting a rating with our current size and where we are in our lifecycle. So we had preliminary conversations with one of the rating agencies and I think we'll continue to evaluate. I think we have some more inputs as to we can do with the Fitch rating and we will certainly push on our cylinders to achieve what we need to achieve by expanding our capital stock and adding a little bit fire [ph] to our capital stack little bit yes. I think Moody will be listening at that as we reach out to them.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great. I appreciate that, just one more and then I'll hop back into queue. Again the guidance of 250 or more again I am kind of looking for some color or more is it giving almost $400 million in 2014?

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

Hi, it’s Howard. It's a little early in the year to really tell anything other than we are expecting 350 million or more. You can certainly make some projections based on what’s lined up already in the first quarter we closed $31 million, we’ve got another $59 million that’s under contract or NOI, acquisition are lumpy and it’s hard to project much further than where we are at today. As you might have recall last year we upgraded our guidance really in the midpoint of the year. So again at this and every time during the cycle what is left and what we buy and we typically turn down many more opportunities than we do buy.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. Congrats on the quarter and the very strong outlook.

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] You have a question from Taylor [indiscernible] from Jefferies.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Not again, just two quick ones again from me, the new leases that were signed during the quarter cash rents being down 70 basis point. Just kind of curious what drove that?

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

It was really just one transaction in San Diego. There was a 15,000 lease in in the space that has been inactive [ph] for a while and actually had a [indiscernible] that had a 20% decline in the cash rent spread.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

So if you excluded that…

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

If you had excluded that your cash spread would have increased by 3.3% and then your GAAP that would have 13.3% kind of on a normal basis as to what you've seen in the past quarters.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Got it. That's exactly what I was looking for. And then the last thing again just to confirm, earlier on I am not sure there was Howard you mentioned this but I just wanted to confirm that there was some concern about seeing additional new supply in 2016 in your key markets. Did I hear that right?

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

In fact we've seen a decline in supply.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

That's what I thought.

Howard Schwimmer

Analyst

[indiscernible] in the Mid Counties market, it would seem that end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter the vacancy declined by 60% in the market, close to 1.7 [ph], any time there is more and more pressure that we're seeing out there that prevents the increase as we are having tenants…

Michael Frankel

Analyst

And Taylor this is Michael one additional color, it's not just about available space, it's actually about available properties because since 2001 alone you have seen well over 30 million square feet of products taken out of our market. That's the beauty of these infill markets where products if anything’s been taken out of the market that gets converted out of usage you get a substantial increase in demand you have supplies scarce and diminishing.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Sounds good to me. Thanks again.

Michael Frankel

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

That completes today's question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back to management for closing comments.

A - Michael Frankel

Analyst

Thanks everybody for joining us today.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.