Bill Crooker
Analyst · Evercore. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Ben. And good morning, everyone. Demand for industrial real estate continues to increase, driven by the acceleration of supply chain issues initiated by the COVID pandemic. Backlogs of ships at ports and other transportation bottlenecks, shipping cost increases, inventory mismatches, and labor constraints are driving demand for warehouse space as companies attempt to adjust their supply chain networks. Consumer adoption of e-commerce is permanent and reflecting our healthy portfolio operating results. core FFO was $0.53 for the quarter, an increase of 15.2% as compared to the third quarter of 2020. Included in core FFO of this quarter was the impact of a settlement agreement related to a former tenant. The settlement included a $1.7 million cash payment to STAG, which accounted for one penny of core FFO per share this quarter. Cash available for distribution totaled $219.6 million year-to-date through the third quarter, an increase of 22.1% as compared to the first 9 months of 2020. Net debt to run rate adjusted EBITDA was 4.8 times at quarter-end. We acquired 24 buildings for $427.2 million during the third quarter with stabilized cash and straight-line cap rates of 5.35% and 5.7% respectively. Our acquisition activity this quarter included further additions to our portfolio's growth in the central valley of California and our entry into the Salt Lake City sub market. Year-to-date as of today, we have acquired $757.5 million of acquisitions with a healthy closing schedule of transactions under contract, and subject to letter of intent, as we head towards year-end. There continues to be increasing competition for larger single asset transactions and portfolios. Large capital sources simply don't have the ability to efficiently acquire at a granular individual asset level. Our platform was built to identify underwriting individual assets, allowing us to deploy our relative value investment strategy nationwide, while avoiding the auction - like pricing of larger transactions. This is reflected in our pipeline of $3.7 billion dollars today. Disposition for the quarter totaled $39.4 million. As highlighted by Ben, subsequent to quarter-end, we sold our Taunton, Massachusetts facility for $78 million, realizing a 3.1% cash cap rate on the sale. During the quarter, we commenced 22 leases totaling 3.7 million square feet which generated cash and straight-line leasing spreads of 8% and 14.7% respectively. Retention was 55.7% for the quarter and 76.2% year-to-date. The broad-based demand for our assets is robust and has resulted in numerous instances of available space being backfilled immediately with minimal to no downtime. When adjusted for immediate back fills retention was 77.7% for the third quarter and 89.8% for the year. Cash same-store NOI grew 2.9% for the quarter and 3.4% year-to-date. This metric continues to be a high watermark for STAG, driven by strong rental escalators, cash leasing spreads, and lower average downtime per vacancy. Moving to capital market activity, we raised gross proceeds of $127.5 million through our ATM program at a weighted average share price of $39.59 in the third quarter. In addition to the equity raised for the ATM program, on September 29th, we fully settled all outstanding forward equity contracts and received a $182.2 million in proceeds. On September 28th, we funded our previously announced private placement notes. The 10-year and 12-year notes totaled $325 million and bear a weighted average interest rate of 2.82%. On October 26th, we refinanced our $750 million unsecured revolving credit facility. The revolver matures in October 2025, with two 6-month extension options. The facility bears an interest rate of liable plus the spread of a 77.5 basis points, based on the Company's current leverage level and debt rating, a reduction in pricing of 12.5 basis points. In addition, the Company refinanced $150 million unsecured term loan, which was previously set to mature in March 2022. The term loan now matures March 2027 and is fully swapped with an all-in interest rate of 2.15%. Finally, the Company improved pricing on $675 million of term loan debt. Specifically term loans E, F, and G. The term loans now bear a current interest rate of LIBOR plus a spread of 85 basis points, a reduction in pricing of 50 basis points with no change to maturities. Our guidance is included on page 21 of our supplemental reporting package. Changes to our guidance are as follows, With approximately $758 million acquired plus assets on our closing schedule, our acquisition volume expectation for the year has been increased to a range of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion, an increase to the low end of the range of a $100 million. In conjunction with the update to acquisition volume, we revised our stabilized cash cap rate guidance to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%, a decrease of the high-end of the range by 25 basis points. As a result of the Totten, Massachusetts disposition, our disposition volume expectations for the year has been increased to a range of a $150 million to $200 million, an increase to the low end of the range of $50 million. The expected level of G&A for the year has been adjusted to a range of $45 to $46 million, a decrease of the high-end by $1 million. Note that this range excludes nonrecurring cash expenses related to the adoption of the retirement plan during 2021 and severance charges incurred in Q3 of 2021. Finally, we have updated our guidance related to core FFO per diluted share to a range of $2.04 to $2.06. This is an increase equal to $0.02 at the midpoint, representing 8.5% accretion over the prior year. I will now turn it back over to Ben.