Piedmont Office Realty Trust Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
July 20, 2023

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. 2nd Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen only mode, and we will open the floor for your questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Eddie Gilbert. Sir, the floor is yours.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for Piedmont's Q2 2023 earnings conference call. On Tuesday morning, we filed our 10 Q and an hour ago, we filed an 8 ks that includes our earnings And our unaudited supplemental information for the 2nd quarter that's available for your review on our website atpiedmontreit.com under the Investor Relations section. During this call, you'll hear from senior officers of Piedmont. Their prepared remarks followed by answers Your questions will contain forward looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Speaker 1

These forward looking statements matters which are subject to risks and uncertainties and therefore actual results may differ from those we anticipate and discuss today. The risks and uncertainties of these forward looking statements are discussed in our press release as well as our SEC filings. We encourage everyone to review the more detailed discussion related to risks associated with forward looking statements in our SEC filings. Examples of forward looking statements include those related to Piedmont's future revenues and operating income, dividends and financial guidance, future leasing and investment activity and the impacts of this activity on the company's financial and operational results. You should not place any undue reliance on any of these forward looking statements, and these statements are based upon the information and estimates we have reviewed as of the date the statements are made.

Speaker 1

Also on today's call, representatives of the company may refer to certain non GAAP financial measures such as FFO, core FFO, AFFO and same store NOI. The definitions and reconciliations of these non GAAP measures are contained in the earnings release and in the supplemental financial information, which were filed earlier this afternoon. At this time, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Brent Smith, will provide an update on our recent refinancing activity and Q2 operating results.

Speaker 2

Brent? Thanks, Eddie, and good afternoon, everyone. As we appreciate all of you for commenting us for the short notice of this moved up earnings call, given the refinancing activity that we announced Tuesday, We felt it was important to go ahead and get our full quarterly information into the market so that all of our investors had the benefit of the most recent financial and operational information available. First, I'd like to walk you through our rationale for our recent refinancing activities that we've undertaken and give a brief overview of the quarterly results. Following me as usual, you'll hear from George Wells, our Chief Operating Officer Chris Colmey, our EVP of Investments and Bobby Bowers, our Chief Financial Officer.

Speaker 2

We also have the usual full component of our management team available to answer any questions that you may have. With that, I'll jump right in on the refinancing activity. As we announced Tuesday afternoon, we have closed a $400,000,000 in aggregate Principal amount of 9.25 percent 5 year unsecured notes. Concurrent with the issuance of the new bonds, We also made a tender offer at par for any and all of our outstanding $400,000,000 unsecured senior notes that are scheduled to mature during the Q1 of 2024. Although we have no way of knowing exactly how many of our current holders will tender their bonds And given the current interest rate environment, we are projecting that a majority of the 24 holders will participate in the tender, which will close next week.

Speaker 2

While the coupon rate on the new debt is certainly a high watermark for Piedmont, it is unfortunately reflective of where the market currently is for commercial office properties. Over the last several months, we've gone through an extensive process of exploring and analyzing our various capital raising alternatives, including a number of potential asset sales, the possibility of placing a mortgage on 1 or more of our properties, either with a balance sheet lender or utilizing the CMBS market issuing in the unsecured market, either through a bank term loan, private placement or public bond offering and corporate level structured financings, including convertible debt and preferred equity, among others. At the end of the day, asset sales have been extremely difficult to complete given the lack of asset level financing, And we concluded that whatever modest discount there might be had on a CMBS execution did not justify encumbering more than a half dozen of the assets in our portfolio at low loan to value ratios. Finally, the unsecured bond market offered the greatest financing capacity compared to other unsecured alternatives and maintaining a large unencumbered asset pool is an important consideration for the rating agencies. In addition, a key component of our leasing and capital recycling strategy has been to maintain a flexible balance sheet with ample liquidity, primarily as an unsecured borrower.

Speaker 2

This has helped the company in many ways, including expediting capital and repositioning programs, allowing greater flexibility to move tenancy throughout the portfolio and avoiding debt prepayment penalties with property dispositions among others. More recently, the lack of mortgage debt in our portfolio has been instrumental in driving leasing volumes. Therefore, After considering the continued messaging from the Fed regarding additional interest rate hikes during the latter half of the year and the overall lack of financing opportunities Currently available to the office sector generally, we ultimately concluded that accessing the public bond market, while the opportunity was available and addressing our largest near term maturity now was the most prudent course of action for Piedmont. The expectation that rates will come back down over the next several years influenced our decision to go with a shorter 5 year tenure for the new notes. Turning to our operating results.

Speaker 2

The Q2 of 2023 demonstrated Piedmont's continued success despite the challenges facing the broader office sector. Our leasing formula is working and we continue to be optimistic about the value proposition for our customers and the opportunity to continue our leasing momentum, Particularly in today's capital constrained market, the flight to quality buildings and owner operators is favoring Piedmont. Quarter after quarter, we continue to demonstrate that well designed, monetized work environments operated by well capitalized service minded landlords is garnering outsized demand from small and medium sized businesses as well as larger non tech corporate tenants. The flight to quality occurring in the market is playing the Piedmont strategy, providing premier workspaces at meaningfully lower rental rates versus new construction. In brief, we sustained the leasing momentum from the Q1 with Piedmont's prospective tenant pipeline remaining robust and meaningful tenant lease volumes achieved.

Speaker 2

In total, we executed almost 585,000 square feet of leasing and generated an over 14% roll up in cash rents. Furthermore, we continue to make significant progress towards the renewal of our largest tenant, U. S. Bank, for the extension of its lease on a substantial majority of its Downtown Minneapolis headquarters location. Given we remain in negotiation and documentation stage on the lease, We're limited with the details we can share, but it's a long term lease under similar terms and metrics we've discussed on prior earnings calls.

Speaker 2

U. S. Bank's renewal decisions for its IT and data center operations at Meridian Crossings will follow the conclusion of the downtown agreement, So there are no incremental information regarding that location to share today. At this time, I will hand the call over to George, Thanks, Brent, and good afternoon, everyone. Persistent demand for Piedmont's high quality assets led to another quarter of solid operational results.

Speaker 2

Office users recognize that Piedmont's Attractive workplace proposition can be a key driver for encouraging or supporting mandates for more in house attendance. CBRE Spring 2023 U. S. Occupier Sentiment Survey sites, on-site food and beverage cafe, after ease of commuting and parking, it's having the most impact for attracting employees back into the office. At Piedmont, we provide a wide range Of local to national food and beverage options across our portfolio from custom delivery orders, traditional cafes, Full service restaurants with bar service to white table cloth high end establishment.

Speaker 2

In a moment, I'll highlight 3 F and B transactions that were completed this quarter and are enhancing our competitive position in the marketplace. Overall, this quarter, we had another strong leasing performance with 49 lease transactions completed for approximately 500 and 85,000 square feet of total overall volume. Of this amount, 237,000 square feet Or 41% of the total were related to new tenant lease activity, well over our pre COVID quarterly average of about 175,000 square feet and our leasing pipeline activity is very strong. Continuing with operational metrics, Our lease economics were very favorable with 14.3% 19.6% roll up or increase in rents for the quarter on a cash and accrual basis, respectively. And our weighted average lease term achieved on new lease activity for the quarter was just under 10 years.

Speaker 2

Our lease percentage at the end of the quarter was 86.2%, slightly up when compared to the previous quarter end. Approximately 90% of new tenant activity occurred in our Sunbelt portfolio where almost 70% of our vacancies reside. Retention rates remain consistent at approximately 70%, no doubt a reflection on both our customer centric service approach and high quality commute worthy portfolio. Lastly, leasing capital commitments on our year to date leasing were 6 point and $0.29 per square foot per year of lease term and in line with Q4 of last year's averages. Now I'd like to highlight A few key accomplishments and announcements was occurred in some of our operating markets this quarter.

Speaker 2

Atlanta, our largest market at almost 5,000,000 square feet that generated 28% of our company's ALR captured the most activity this quarter with 16 deals accounting for 300,000 square feet, of which 60% were new leases. Also, the Galleria, an investment company relocated its headquarters From a nearby Class B facility, making this our 8th full floor larger new deal since 2020, 6 of which are headquarter location. Our Midtown lead Gold 999 Peachtree also experienced good activity with 3 new deals. 1 being a high end F and B operator that's well known in Atlanta, Lazy Betty. This operator has received multiple local Culinary Awards were its carefully crafted tasting menus and unique dining experience.

Speaker 2

We anticipate them opening in the 4th quarter. In Northern Virginia, we're excited to welcome Peniela Brett as our 2nd F and B operator at our LEED Silver 4,250 North Fairfax We're also pleased that Chang renewed its high performing restaurant at our lead silver Arlington Gateway for another 5 years with no concessions. Along with our 3,100 Clarendon Tower, all three of our Nova assets are 4 star rated by CoStar and have been designated a walker's paradise due to a plethora of nearby food and beverage options and the locations near metro train stations. CoStar is the industry leader in commercial real estate information, analytics and news and has designated 96% of our RALR Of our 17,000,000 square foot portfolio is either 4 or 5 stars, its highest quality rating. Our Nova portfolio is well positioned to capture Sierra leasing activity going forward.

Speaker 2

Let's drop into Minneapolis next on to our largest near term expiring customer, U. S. Bank. Extension negotiations with the bank at our downtown lead goal, U. S.

Speaker 2

Bank Center are And we're optimistic on retaining them for substantially all of its 490,000 square foot of space there. Though admittedly, we still have more work to do. As an aside, this world class tower continues to separate itself from its competitors with a soon to open elite restaurant that will be offering fresh refined seafood in a luxurious environment. This tower also recently won Bulma's International Outstanding Building of the Year award. We will be addressing U.

Speaker 2

S. Bank's suburban lease location at our Meridian Crossing complex after we complete the larger downtown lease negotiation. We don't have any additional color on this suburban lease at And we would reiterate a more conservative extension at this point, say 50%. That said, suburban Minneapolis has been and Year to date, we've completed nearly 70,000 square feet of transactional activity here with good deal flow in our pipeline. Coming back to our overall portfolio, we remain positive about our Future near term leasing trends and operational performance.

Speaker 2

Tour activity continues at the same healthy pace that we've seen for several quarters. Proposal activity is more than the trailing 12 months coming in around 2,500,000 square feet. With only 3% of the rent roll expiring over the next two quarters, We expect positive net space absorption for the rest of the year, resulting in an anticipated year end lease percentage to end between 87% and 88% that was provided in our initial guidance. I'll now turn it over to Chris Colmey to review our 2nd quarter investment activity. Chris?

Speaker 3

Thank you, George. As you might expect, given the ongoing challenges in the market, I have very little new information to report since the last call. We announced last quarter that our 2 assets in Houston had gone under contract and were through diligence, The terms did contain a financing contingency. The potential buyer is working diligently to secure its capital structure, As for the balance of our activity, we are in preliminary discussions on select non core assets, But it's far too early to speculate given the market backdrop. We will continue to work creatively with interested parties on potential dispositions.

Speaker 3

Any and all sale proceeds will be earmarked towards the reduction of debt. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bobby to review our financial results and to update you on

Speaker 4

Thank you, Chris. While we'll be discussing some of this period's financial highlights today, I encourage you to please review the entire earnings release, the 10 Q and the accompanying financial Information which were filed over the last few days for more complete details. Core FFO per diluted share The Q2 of 2023 was $0.45 versus $0.50 per diluted share for the Q2 of 20 22, reflecting approximately $0.08 per share dilution from increased interest expense comparatively. But this increase was partially offset by operational growth during the Q2 of this year, resulting from successful leasing efforts, Rising rental rates and asset recycling over the past year. AFFO generated during the Q2 of 2023 And general and administrative expenses were in line with budget with no unusual variances.

Speaker 4

As George and Brent noticed, Leasing has been strong throughout the year with over 1,100,000 square feet of executed leases completed during the 1st 6 months of the Year to date, cash rent roll ups for these newly completed leases are up 10% over expiring rates And accrual rents are up over 14%. Same store NOI, however, is relatively flat thus far for the year compared to the previous year. But this is a timing issue with 60% more leases yet to commence For an abatement at the end of this quarter, that's a total of 1,300,000 square feet versus less than 800,000 square feet that we began the previous year with. With several leases set to commence or begin paying rent, We still project cash NOI growth to be positive between 1% and 3% for the year. Turning to the balance sheet.

Speaker 4

During the Q2, we repaid $350,000,000 in maturing unsecured notes, Utilizing our cash and investments on hand and our available $600,000,000 revolver. Now having addressed our $400,000,000 bond maturity subsequent to quarter end, we have no other debt with final maturity until 2025. As Brent noted, a key component of our leasing formula is that our balance and liquidity remain strong, a differentiating factor as prospective tenants scrutinize the capital structure of a potential future office building and landlord. This differentiation among office product is driving increased market share for the highest quality placemaking assets and well capitalized landlords. We've already discussed our new 5 year bond issuance And we've stated that any disposition proceeds will be used to strengthen our balance sheet by paying down our line or our bank term debt.

Speaker 4

At this time, I'd like to update our guidance for 2023. With the $400,000,000 new debt issuance completed today And in place, the approximate 5% increase in interest rate will result in interest expense Increasing approximately $20,000,000 annually. This increased interest expense will negatively impact 2023 earnings, dollars 0.08 per diluted share over the remainder of the year. Therefore, our guidance has lowered and narrowed to $1.74 to $1.80 per diluted share for 2023. This guidance includes approximately $570,000,000 to $580,000,000 of total revenues, $100,000,000 to $104,000,000 of total interest expense for the year and G and A expenses of $28,000,000 to $29,000,000 This guidance does not include any gains or losses from the potential sale of real estate assets that Chris mentioned.

Speaker 4

We will update our guidance should a capital transaction occur. As I conclude, I will note that Our Board of Directors will be meeting next week for a regularly scheduled quarterly Board meeting. Management will be presenting this updated forecast information for their consideration as part of the Board's review of Piedmont's dividend. The company's dividend for the last several years has been based upon our forecasted taxable income That includes our property operating income, interest expense and gains and losses from the sale of real estate assets, With gains anticipated from the possible dispositions that Chris discussed, we are not in a position at this time to Speculate on what action the Board may take immediately regarding our dividend policy. However, as has been our long term policy, We'd expect the dividend to be adjusted to taxable income forecast.

Speaker 4

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Brent for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, George, Chris And Bobby, in summary, for the remainder of the year, we anticipate modest space absorption and operational growth. We will continue to be a net seller of assets as we deleverage the balance sheet and enhance our liquidity resources. But we've As we previously outlined, increased interest expense will continue to weigh on earnings and FFO in the near term. Finally, I want to thank the outstanding employees at Piedmont who provide excellent service to our customers each and every day. Their dedication, resilience and hard work continues to drive our leasing success despite the challenging market.

Speaker 2

With that, I will now ask the operator to provide our listeners with instructions on how they can submit their questions. We will attempt to answer all your questions now We will make appropriate later public disclosure if necessary. Operator?

Speaker 5

Certainly.

Operator

Your first question is coming from Nick Thielman from Baird. Your line is live.

Speaker 6

Hey, good afternoon or good evening, guys. Maybe just a little bit on the decision Do the debt offering here instead of waiting maybe a little bit. Is this more of a matter of, the debt markets were open, so we're just going Rip the Band Aid off here or like maybe walk through it sounds like there's still potential for some dispositions. So just kind of Wondering around the timing of this transaction?

Speaker 5

Sure, Nick. Great question. This is Brent. And call. And a very reasonable question, we continue to canvas a number of different alternatives as we outlined in the earnings call, Including asset dispositions, but as we noted, it's been very difficult in this environment even though we found a reasonable price From an equity standpoint, the debt has just been difficult to achieve.

Speaker 5

We've continued to evaluate secured debt within our own portfolio, having Hired a broker to help us canvas both the insurance kind of bank lending market, if you will, as well as the CMBS market. And of course, we looked at various forms of unsecured, talking to our own bank lending groups, which we did utilize in early part of this year for a sizable term loan And a number of different structured alternatives as well, getting looking at creative situations around convertible preferred or other Superstructures, if you will, from a capital perspective. But when it boils down to it, there are a couple of things that kind of weighed in our mind. 1st and foremost, there is a large wall of Commercial debt coming due the remainder of this year and next year and thinking about that overall And available funds, there's a lot of basically need and not a lot of supply. So wanting to try to address the 2024 maturities Earlier rather than later was our mindset.

Speaker 5

As we continue to kind of evaluate, it's been a very challenging market certainly at the unsecured side, But more broadly, just a lot of concerns around recession and the rates. And we had a window here where the general economic malaise had kind of lifted a little bit. I think people were Somewhat hopeful of a soft landing, if you will, and some continued data points around reduced inflation overall created a Positive economic window, we felt producing our positive economic results early and getting ahead of some of that negative headwind or sorry, negative headlines That may be forthcoming over the next month or week even. It was just a mindset of trying to go ahead and take some risk off the table, If you will, we had a lot of inbound inquiries through, call it, last 3 months. We've been talking to Investors regularly since our last earnings call and I think a lot of them have done the homework that unfortunately we haven't seen necessarily in the equity markets To really discern the portfolio and they kind of heated our comments of following leasing and Denoting success within the portfolio in that manner.

Speaker 5

So we've continued to demonstrate to the fixed income market, the stability of the portfolio, the leasing success, The continued rental rate roll up, the mindful use of capital and I think they recognized that they we decided it was a good opportunity to go into the market. It was well received several times oversubscribed in the offering, but of course the rate was somewhat driven by just the general difficulties in our sector. So I would say it's not a representative of what we think the credit worthiness of the portfolio is, that is where unfortunately the market Resided and we were pleased to be able to have the demand to accomplish a $400,000,000 offering in Tinder and take out Those 2024s that are mature now is less than 9 months. So in short, we saw a window to derisk maturities and we took it.

Speaker 6

Very helpful. And then maybe just going back to what you're saying about non encumbering the portfolio, what was like the rate differential between The secured and unsecured options?

Speaker 5

Yes, I think even within a secured standpoint and I noted On the call, the LTVs were very low. So we were encumbering a number of assets, frankly, more than we would have anticipated to. And the pricing was better than the unsecured market, but I wouldn't say materially better, particularly if you think about some of the assets We might have put that on where our most, I guess, long term in terms of its wallet and probably candidates for harvesting in terms value because they've been maximized and mature under our ownership, which would have created prepayment penalties in addition to the interest expense incurred. So really we felt like the Delta between secured and unsecured was within 100 basis points and we frankly feel like keeping the portfolio unsecured As we've talked about is a key component of our leasing strategy today and overall our capital recycling strategy once we're able to continue with that engine of growth and things normalize in the market. So given that lack of material discrepancy in pricing and the benefits of remaining unsecured, We decided to take the window within the market here in the past few days.

Speaker 6

Great. And then maybe last one. It sounds like discussions for U. S. Bank are moving along here.

Speaker 6

You guys have Traditionally or like in the past have said somewhere between 50% to 100% on the downtown renewal. Sounds like we're trending more to the upper end of that range. Is that kind of reading in your comments?

Speaker 5

That's fair to say, yes.

Speaker 7

Yes. Okay.

Speaker 6

Thanks, guys.

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question is coming from Dylan Brzezinski from Green Street. Your line is live.

Speaker 7

Good evening, guys. Thanks for taking the question here. I guess just touching on dispositions and transaction markets, could you comment on sort of the environment today versus maybe 3 to 6 months ago, I think it's improving with regards to liquidity coming back to the private capital markets or are things still tough?

Speaker 5

I would say maybe improvement on the very, very small margin, but I still think we're going to be in a I'm here here where there's going to be a lot of headline risk, a lot of defaults and keys being thrown back. Hopefully there's someone there to catch them, but frankly right now the lenders aren't really interested in taking the assets either. So I think you're going to have a time period here, I'll call it 12 to 18 months where we're going to continue to deal with some of these issues. And without any debt, There is no equity. So transaction volumes continue to be elusive.

Speaker 5

And as a result, a sense of pricing and Price discovery in the market and frankly clarity around underwriting and what an exit cap rate should be is very difficult And that continues to weigh on overall transaction volumes. As we've talked about, those buyers that we've been approached by the market are generally Non institutional, there are local private equity, local family office who understand the nuances of the market and see opportunities Either not have a competitive bidding pool and or get a great price. So I think we continue to be very patient in that marketplace, Recognizing that we do have some good assets that should garner fair value once things open back up, Houston is under contract. We are being patient with the buyer to find financing, but we'll continue to look at other alternatives as distributions as well and Still guide and accomplish somewhere between $100,000,000 to $200,000,000 of dispositions in the next 6 to 12 months.

Speaker 7

Just sort of along those lines, any desire or willingness to offer seller financing in certain instances?

Speaker 5

Very relevant point, Dylan, and I think that's really what's gotten most of the transaction volumes that we're aware of, most of them, not all of them over the goal line. So we have considered in the past, certainly done in the past. At this point right now with Houston buyer, we've not capitulated. We've had some discussions, but I don't think That we're meeting immediately the leverage special they would like to. But overall, I think that's something we will continue to consider in some situations.

Speaker 5

But in the instance of Houston, I think our preference would be to exit the market if possible.

Speaker 7

And then just one last one if I can. Assuming U. S. Bank gets settled out here at the high end of sort of the range you guys guided to, is that a potential future disposition candidate? Or I guess just broadly speaking, how are you guys thinking about your Minneapolis presence over the longer term time horizon?

Speaker 5

Yes, Dylan, very relevant question. I think we're certainly very close with the U. S. Bank And in discussion, so I don't want to get too much detail or ahead of ourselves. But I think we view the long the downtown asset is a critical component of U.

Speaker 5

S. Bank's operations. We would have a meaningful reposition of their space if we were to do a long term lease like we're talking about here. That's going to take several years to complete. And I think we're very committed overall to our position in Minneapolis, recognizing there may be an opportunity or some buildings to reduce exposure.

Speaker 5

But near term, I think we're focused on accomplishing those leases and then we'll worry about opportunities overall in the marketplace.

Speaker 7

Great. Appreciate the comments, Brian. Have a good one.

Speaker 5

Thanks for joining us this evening, Dylan.

Operator

Thank you. That concludes our Q and A session. I will now hand the conference back to Brent Smith for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Well, again, I want to appreciate everyone who's taking the time to get on the call this evening. We certainly have It's pleased the operational performance of the portfolio and look forward to continuing to share that in the quarters to come. I'd like to remind investors as well, we'll be attending the Bank of Conference on September 12 13 in New York City. If you'd like to schedule a meeting with management, please reach out to Eddie Gilbert or Bobby Bowers. And again, thank you everyone for joining.

Speaker 5

Have a good evening.

Operator

Thank you, everyone. This concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

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Piedmont Office Realty Trust Q2 2023
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