NewLake Capital Partners Q1 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 12, 2022

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon. I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to New Lake Capital Partners First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Walter Pinto, Managing Director of KCSA Strategic Communications.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and welcome everyone to the New Lake Capital Partners Q1 2022 earnings conference call. I'm joined today by Gordon Dugan, Chairman of the Board David Weinstein, Chief Executive Officer Anthony Coniglio, President and Chief Investment Officer Fred Starker, Chief Financial Officer and Jared Annenberg, Director of Acquisitions. Before we begin, I'm going to remind everyone that statements made during today's conference call may be deemed forward looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor of Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and actual results may differ materially due to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors. For a detailed discussion of some of the ongoing risks and uncertainties in the company's business, I refer you to the press release issued this afternoon and filed with the SEC on Form 8 ks as well as the company's 10 Q and other reports filed periodically with the SEC.

Speaker 1

The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The company's guidance is based on current plans and assumptions filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. This outlook reflects management's view of current and future market conditions, including assumptions such as the pace of future acquisitions and dispositions, rental rates, occupancy levels, leasing activity, uncollectible rents, operating and general administrative expenses, weighted average diluted shares outstanding and interest rates. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Gordon DeGan.

Speaker 1

Gordon, please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Walter, and thanks again to everyone for joining the call. We couldn't be more pleased with the progress we made Thus far in 2022, our portfolio continues to perform very well and we declared a Q1 dividend of $0.33 a share, An increase of 6.5% over our Q4 2021 dividend. Very importantly, we secured a $30,000,000 revolving credit facility with the opportunity to increase that facility to $100,000,000 And one thing I would Just keep in mind, both our earnings level and our dividend level, as we invest the money that we've committed, our earnings and cash flow should Trend up along as we invest that money, which will create more earnings and cash flow. And so we have a built in pipeline of increased earnings and cash flow as long as tenants continue to pay and we continue to fund those deals. So, we're very excited about the prospects for the business as we go through 2022.

Speaker 2

The cannabis industry is not immune to volatility, quite the opposite. And there's clearly negative sentiment in the market driven by a number of things, but continued Delays in federal legislation is certainly one. Our thesis has always been that legislation will take some time And we will invest our capital with the operators that have the ability to weather the storm and be the long term winners in the sector. We continue to believe that it's when not if, but when isn't short term for federal legalization. Our belief in the growth however, our belief in the growth of the cannabis industry remains steadfast and our pipeline remains robust with high quality tenants in real estate.

Speaker 2

Operators will continue to require access to capital and very significant amounts of capital to fuel the projected growth of the cannabis industry for many years to come. And lastly, I'd like to reiterate what I said last quarter, which is that we are focused on quality, not quantity, and I believe our portfolio is a testament to that. The long term success of our company will be built upon the discipline we When making investment decisions for our shareholders, we want to create long term partnerships with the highest quality cannabis operators throughout the United States. And our strategy is and will continue to be the long term return on investment for our shareholders. I'd now like to turn it over to David Weinstein, New Lake's CEO.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Gordon. And thanks again everyone for joining the call today. As Gordon mentioned, we are focused on quality operators as we continue to grow the portfolio. And in keeping with that discipline, on April 1, we acquired a 40,000 square foot cultivation facility in Missouri for $7,300,000 and entered into a long term triple net lease with an affiliate of C3 Industries. We're also committed to fund an incremental $26,700,000 $5,200,000 of which is to complete the construction of the existing facility, dollars 16,500,000 is to purchase an adjacent parcel of land and construct a 65,000 square foot cultivation facility and $5,000,000 is an interest only 4 year loan that can be drawn over the next year.

Speaker 3

As Gordon noted, our pipeline remains robust. We still expect to commit the remainder of our IPO capital in short order. We expect this next phase of our growth to be financed with debt capital. Earlier this week, we announced that we entered into a 5 year revolving credit facility with a $30,000,000 initial commitment. The facility contemplates an expansion to $100,000,000 as additional lenders are added.

Speaker 3

The facility has a fixed interest rate of 5.65 percent for the 1st 3 years and a floating rate thereafter. The revolving nature of this facility will help us to efficiently manage our capital usage. And while there can be no guarantee we will be successful, We continue to explore alternative debt capital sources. Lastly, we are acutely aware of the trading challenges relating to cannabis related stocks. We are continuing to pursue a potential uplisting onto a major exchange, but as of today do not have any update to share.

Speaker 3

This initiative remains a top priority for us. I'd now like to turn the call over to Anthony to discuss our investment portfolio in more detail.

Speaker 4

Thanks, David, and thanks everyone for joining the call today. Let's turn to a discussion of our portfolio. We continue to have no defaults or rent deferrals in our portfolio since the inception of the company, which we are very proud of. This is a tremendous achievement driven by our disciplined underwriting approach. The macroeconomic environment and maturation of the cannabis industry is having an impact on several key metric trends, all of which are creating opportunity for New Lake.

Speaker 4

As we've seen in most states, markets are maturing, which is then in turn normalizing pricing and it's slowing the previously high growth trends of the industry, resulting in margin compression for many operators. Operator with discipline and financial flexibility will respond to the environment and find the right balance of margin, market share and growth. We're in regular contact with our tenants and we're vigilantly watching their performance both at the property level as well as at the parent level. Historically, we've seen similar periods and those periods have created pockets of dislocation leading to long term opportunity for us to by high quality partners that fit ideally within our portfolio and this period is no different. With that, let me turn to some specifics on our portfolio.

Speaker 4

Our largest tenant, Curaleaf, recently announced Q1 earnings where the company generated Q1 revenue over $300,000,000 up 20% year over year and adjusted EBITDA of $73,000,000 The company announced $273,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet and financial performance should benefit from Curaleaf being one of only 7 licensees in New Jersey to open for recreational sales. Our 2nd largest tenant, Cresco, We'll announce Q1 results next week. The company's 2021 revenue was $822,000,000 and they had adjusted EBITDA of $194,000,000 for the year. At December 31, they had $224,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet. Cresco continues to be the leader in the Illinois market where we own their cultivation facility.

Speaker 4

The company recently announced the acquisition of another tenant ColumbiaCare and I'll speak more about that in a moment. Our number 3 tenant, Revolutionary Clinics is private. So as usual, we can't share specific financial information here. We own their cultivation facility in Massachusetts, a state which has seen compression in wholesale pricing as incremental cultivation capacity has come online in the state. Our tenant though is vertically integrated in the state with 3 well situated dispensaries in the Boston Metro area, providing the company with the ability to absorb pricing volatility through its retail channel.

Speaker 4

The company expects to open 2 additional retail locations by the end of 2022, further boosting revenues and diversifying away from wholesale. Our 4th largest tenant is Trulieve. The company reported Q1 earnings this morning. Q1 revenue was $318,000,000 up more than 60% from last year and up 4% from the previous quarter. Trulieve generated $45,000,000 in cash flow from operations during the and reported a cash balance of $267,000,000 at March 31.

Speaker 4

They continue to deliver industry leading margins and have one of the largest dispensary footprints in the industry. Rounding out our top 5 tenants is Columbia Care. They report Q1 earnings next week. For fiscal year 2021, the company generated record revenue of $460,000,000 and recorded adjusted EBITDA of $58,000,000 The company had $82,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet at the end of 2021, We expect 2022 results to benefit from ColumbiaCare also being one of the 7 operators approved to launch recreational cannabis sales in New Jersey. As I mentioned previously, Cresco announced the acquisition of ColumbiaCare earlier this year.

Speaker 4

After the acquisition, Cresco would become our largest tenant concentration. The combined company would have approximately $1,400,000,000 of revenue with over 130 retail stores across an 18 state footprint. They would be a market share leader in Illinois and Massachusetts where most of our properties with them are located. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close later this year. Regarding our pipeline, we continue to see opportunities for build to suit transactions as well as fully operational facilities.

Speaker 4

Our relationships and the fact that New Lake has been a steady force through the previous cycles of the cannabis industry dislocations has been serving us and our investors well. We continue to anticipate the full commitment of our equity capital in short order and I'm excited to have the credit facility open so we can continue to fund the next exciting phase of our growth. With that, I'll hand it over to our CFO, Fred Starker, to walk us through our financial results in more detail. Fred, over to you.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Anthony. Rental income for the 3 months ended March 31, 2022 increased by approximately $4,800,000 to approximately $9,200,000 compared to approximately $4,400,000 for the 3 months ended March 31, 2021. The increase in rental income was primarily attributable to the 19 properties we acquired in March 2021 in connection with the merger generated an increase of approximately $2,700,000 in rental revenue during the 3 months ended March on 31, 2022. The 4 properties we acquired after the Q1 of 2021 generated approximately $2,000,000 of rental revenue during the 3 months ended March 31, 2022. Rental income from the pre merger portfolio properties generated an increase of approximately $100,000 of rental income during the 3 months ended March 31, 2022.

Speaker 5

In addition, interest income from the mortgage loan we During the Q4 of 2021 generated $900,000 of revenue during the Q1 of 2022. Net income attributable to common shareholders for the 3 months ended March 31, 2022, increased to $5,000,000 as compared to a net income attributable to common shareholders of $1,500,000 for the same period in 2021. Our general administrative expense for the 3 months ended March 31, 2022 increased by approximately 900,000 to approximately $1,800,000 compared to approximately $900,000 for the 3 months ended March 31, 2021. The increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to increased payroll, D and O insurance, Investor Relations, recruiting, potential restructuring and other expenses related to becoming a public company. As David previously mentioned, Our recently announced credit facility is a 5 year revolver for $30,000,000 initial commitment.

Speaker 5

The credit facility contemplates an Expansion to $100,000,000 as additional lenders

Speaker 6

are added.

Speaker 5

The credit facility has a fixed interest rate 5.65 percent for the 1st 3 years and a floating rate thereafter. For the Q1 of 2022, FFO and AFFO attributable to common shareholders is approximately $7,700,000 8,100,000 respectively as compared to $2,500,000 $3,400,000 respectively for the Q1 of 2021. Looking ahead, the company expects full year revenue to be the approximate range of $42,000,000 to $44,000,000 and SG and A expenses exclusive of potential restructuring costs that would be in connection with a possible uplisting to be approximately $7,000,000 to $7,200,000 On March 15, 2022, the company declared a 1st quarter 2022 cash dividend of $0.33 per share of common stock, equivalent to an annualized dividend of 1.32 The dividend was for the period beginning on January 1, 2022 through the end of the Q1, March 31, 2022, and was paid on April 14, 2022 to stockholders of record at to close the business on March 31, 2022. FFO and AFFO are supplemental non GAAP financial measures Used in the real estate industry to measure and compare the operating performance of real estate companies. A complete reconciliation containing adjustments from GAAP net income attributable to common shareholders to FFO and AFFO and definitions of terms are included at the end of our press release.

Speaker 5

Please refer to that press release for more information. With that, I will turn it back over to Gordon for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Fred, and thanks everyone for joining us today. As you heard from the call, we are very pleased with how the company is doing Today, we're very excited about the prospects going forward. As the volatility has hit the markets, we think our investment opportunities Have gotten even more interesting than they were and they were already pretty interesting. And so we look forward to executing on our business plan this year And thank you for your support.

Speaker 1

Operator, please open up the call for questions.

Operator

Thank If you're joining us today using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our And our first question will come from John Massocca with Ladenburg Thalmann.

Speaker 2

Good afternoon.

Speaker 3

Hey, Jonathan. Hey, Jonathan.

Speaker 6

So maybe starting off with the newest piece of news. What is the outlook on your end in terms of timing for utilizing and drawing down Part or all of the new credit facility and I guess what is the outlook maybe for expanding it per the terms of the accordion?

Speaker 3

Hey, John, it's David. So we are currently working with the lead bank to add Other participants into that facility, and we don't expect to draw on the facility until we actually need the capital.

Speaker 6

Okay. And then, appreciate the color on some of the top tenants, but maybe as you look at Some of the smaller tenants in the portfolio and underwriting new transactions, how are you thinking about access Of those tenants to alternative sources of capital, what does that environment look like today? And is it changing the type of deals you're looking at?

Speaker 4

Yes. It's Anthony. Hi, John. We've always looked, if you remember how we underwrite our transactions, We're going to write 4 things and one of them is the tenant. We always talk about how when we look at the tenants, we look at their ability to manage a high growth business in a highly regulated industry.

Speaker 4

And we also look at their ability to raise capital. One thing we know from being in the business For the past 3 plus years, as we understand the cannabis industry has cycles. And so we're always looking when we underwrite transactions At the management's ability to raise capital, not just in good markets, but their ability to run a business that can raise capital when they need it as well. And so It's not just a new focus for us in this environment, it's always been a focus for us. In terms of changing The deal changing how we look at deals, we've always expected margin compression in the markets.

Speaker 4

And so whenever we underwrite our transactions, We underwrite those with the expectation that our tenant will have margin compression. So this is not surprising to us. And in fact, in markets such as Massachusetts, or even in Pennsylvania, we almost Can predict the margin compression 12 to 18 months ahead of time because we see all of those transaction decks as they're making the rounds to get funded. And so we know when that additional capacity is likely to come on. So it's a long winded Answer to come back to, it's been a core part of our underwriting from when we started the business and we absolutely Expect that the larger and the smaller tenants will be able to run their businesses in a lower margin environment.

Speaker 4

And in fact, if you just one final point, if you look at the most recent transaction we announced with C3 Industries, they've been running Businesses in unlimited license states that have seen significant margin compression over the last couple of years and they've been doing that in a very profitable way. And so Those are the types of tenants we'd like to partner with in our transactions.

Speaker 6

Okay. And understanding It's a purely hypothetical question because there haven't been any historical tenant credit issues. But if you were to see some type of historic tenant credit issue Or even a theoretical default. I mean, how do you think that type of situation plays out within the portfolio? What are Your targets, if there are any for recoveries on kind of in place rent, etcetera.

Speaker 4

Yes. So again, it starts at the underwriting and so we're very confident in The tenants we have and I also want to emphasize part of our underwriting we disclosed in our deck is the EBITDAR coverage ratio at our property. So when we think about lower margins, we think about the cash flows that our properties present to us, and excuse me, the cash flow that our properties generate for the tenant and that drives their ability to pay rent. We are in regular dialogue with our tenants. We get quarterly financials.

Speaker 4

We're on top of any sort of evolving, risk issues. To the extent we ever did get to a default, I'd remind you, we do also have parent guarantees in our transactions And where we have multiple properties with tenants, we do cross default and cross collateralized security deposits. So if somebody in that scenario were To default on the rent, we could pull security deposits from other dispensaries. And that's beneficial because many of these locations, as I said earlier, have very high EBITDAR coverage ratios And their locations our tenants would want to keep open. But if we did need to put a tenant out, we think by focusing on limited license states, these Properties are unlikely to go dark by having tenants in limited license states.

Speaker 4

Those licenses have real intrinsic value. And I think we've In other instances where operators have experienced difficulty, they're likely to monetize those licenses through an M and A transaction And we'd have a better credit quality counterparty in that scenario step in and continue paying rent to continue to operate the facility.

Speaker 2

And John, we've seen it's a good question and one that we've grappled with, like what does a workout look like in the cannabis world? There are parallels to just the general net lease world, where we own mission critical facilities with good EBITDA coverage. We should be okay, But it's also cannabis, so interruptions in cash flow could happen. So we've been watching how other people are doing their workouts as best as we can figure them out. And we'll just have to see.

Speaker 2

I think that The mission critical nature of these buildings and the fact that there's still more need for capacity in this industry We'll ultimately allow the workouts to happen and happen to the satisfaction of the landlords. Like it's kind of done in other net lease industries except where there's overcapacity of space. And so we'll see how it all works. Like With cannabis, somebody could call up and say, I'm just not paying you. How do you like that?

Speaker 2

And then we're going to have to deal with that kind of situation. But we haven't had to. But it's a weird cannabis is a different animal. And so we watch how others work things out. And my sense is that by and large things are getting worked out okay.

Speaker 2

The other REITs, I think everyone else has had To get into workout mode. We haven't yet, but we'll they work them out, I think. I don't know how much transparency they give, but Things are getting worked out. Look, they need to keep the lights on, they're going to pay the rent, whether they pause for a workout, That's not a tip like that happens.

Speaker 6

Okay, fair. And then, apologies if I missed this in the prepared remarks. In the press release, earnings release, you gave kind of an expected revenue number for 2022. What's contemplated in that range? Is that just The in place portfolio and announced acquisitions or does that include some kind of hypothetical future investment activity?

Speaker 4

That includes future investment activity. It's funding the commitments we have today and new investments.

Speaker 2

And one thing John, just to add to that, it's been consistent. Everything seems to take longer in the cannabis world. So funding the funding our deals takes longer. The M and A transactions at the MSO level take forever. Everything just Tends to take longer.

Speaker 2

So from our perspective, getting the money out the door has been slower, not so much from an origination standpoint, but like if You look at how much we expected to fund in our construction, we funded less than we expected to. And that's been kind of a consistent mantra in the cannabis world. Maybe it's just everybody has rosy projections and they're always Trying to catch up to them, I don't know.

Speaker 6

Understood. That's it for me. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Thanks, John.

Operator

Thank on your touch

Speaker 5

tone telephone.

Operator

At this time, there are no further questions.

Speaker 2

Super. Thanks everyone for joining us. And as always, you can reach out to David, Anthony, Myself, anybody on the team, Fred, Jarrett, and we look forward to speaking soon. Thanks again.

Operator

Thank you. And this concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

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Key Takeaways

  • New Lake declared a Q1 dividend of $0.33 per share, representing a 6.5% increase over Q4 2021 and an annualized yield of 1.32%.
  • The company secured a $30 million revolving credit facility (expandable to $100 million) with a 5.65% fixed rate for three years to efficiently fund future acquisitions and developments.
  • In April, New Lake acquired a 40,000 sq ft cultivation facility in Missouri for $7.3 million and committed an additional $26.7 million to expand capacity and support tenant growth.
  • The portfolio remains fully performing with no rent defaults or deferrals, and top tenants like Curaleaf, Cresco, Trulieve and Columbia Care continue to deliver strong revenue and EBITDA growth, benefiting from new recreational approvals in New Jersey.
  • Q1 rental income rose ~109% year-over-year to $9.2 million, net income to common shareholders reached $5 million (vs. $1.5 million in Q1 2021), and FFO/AFFO more than tripled to $7.7 million/$8.1 million, while full-year revenue guidance is $42–44 million.
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Earnings Conference Call
NewLake Capital Partners Q1 2022
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