American Strategic Investment Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 11, 2023

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

And welcome to the American Strategic Investment Company's Second Quarter Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Parker, Senior Vice President. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank

Speaker 2

you for joining us for our Q2 2023 earnings call. This event is being webcast in the Investor Relations section of our website. Joining me today on the call to discuss the quarter's results are Michael Weil, American Strategic Investment Company's Chief Executive Officer and Chris Masterson, the Chief Financial Officer. The following information contains forward looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward looking statements.

Speaker 2

We refer all of you to our SEC filings, including the Form 10 ks filed for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed on March 16, 2023, and all subsequent SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risk factors that could cause these differences. Any forward looking statements provided during this conference call are only made as of the date of this call. As stated in our SEC filings, the The company disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise these forward looking statements, except as required by law. Also during today's call, we will discuss non GAAP financial measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating the company's financial performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Speaker 2

A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is available in our earnings release, which is posted on our website atwww.americanstrategicinvestment.com. Please also refer to our earnings release for more detailed information about what we consider to be implied investment grade tenants, a term we will use throughout today's call. I will now turn the call over to Michael Weil, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Mike.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Curtis. Good morning and thank you all for joining us today. The second quarter was We are extremely productive as our ongoing focus on leasing activity throughout our portfolio continued to produce positive results. We signed 4 new leases during the Q2 that totaled over 26,000 square feet that will generate $1,500,000 of straight line rent. As a result, we grew in place occupancy to 85.1% from 84% at the end of the prior quarter, a 110 basis point increase in just 3 months.

Speaker 1

Our portfolio weighted average remaining lease term was 6.8 years As over 40% of our leases extend beyond the year 2,030, which we believe increases the stability of the real estate we own. Our top 10 tenants, 79% are what we consider to be investment grade, showing the quality of our tenant roster. These tenants had a remaining lease term of 9.1 years, providing further stability in our portfolio. We executed 2 leases during the Q2 that I'd like to highlight because we believe they illustrate the strength of our leasing platform. The first is a lease expansion with an existing tenant at 9 Times Square.

Speaker 1

The expansion doubled this tenant's You can see in the building to over 17,500 feet. Accordingly, we doubled the annual straight line rent from this tenant by $500,000 to $1,000,000 There are 6 years of lease term on the expansion, which matches the expiration date of the original lease. 2nd, at 8713 5th Avenue in Brooklyn, we executed a 10 year lease renewal with 1 of the largest healthcare systems in the Northeast. From a financial standpoint, this transaction maintained the current annual straight line rent and required no leasing commission. We'll maintain our proactive leasing approach as our portfolio management expertise and strong tenant relationships have led to increased occupancy for 2 quarters in a row and our highest occupancy rate since the Q4 of 2020.

Speaker 1

Our asset management approach contributes to the long term strength of our $834,000,000 1,200,000 Square Foot Portfolio of New York City Real Estate. Our portfolio consists of 8 office and retail condominiums, All located in New York City, primarily in Manhattan. We've built a pure play New York City portfolio featuring a number of large Investment grade tenants, including Weill Cornell Medical, CVF and government agencies. Across our portfolio, 37% of our tenant base operates in resilient industries, including government agencies and financial firms. Touching on the quarterly results, the efforts of our asset and property management teams resulted in adjusted EBITDA more than doubling and cash NOI growth of 7.7% compared to the prior year.

Speaker 1

The increases were achieved through a reduction in G and A and expenses coupled with our ongoing leasing success. Compared to the Q1, adjusted EBITDA grew by almost 47% and core FFO increased by $0.54 per share. On the balance sheet, our debt was 100% fixed rate, including debt that is swapped to fixed rate with an attractive weighted average effective interest rate of 4.4% and a weighted average maturity of 3.7 years. Our financing is very attractive in the current lending environment And we're pleased that we have no maturities this year and limited maturities through 2025, insulating us from the refinancing risk that other New York City building owners have been experiencing. Our net leverage was a modest 41%.

Speaker 1

We're committed to strengthening our existing portfolio of real estate assets as we explore additional income generating investments. In recent years, we've taken advantage of opportunities to invest in the long term future of our portfolio and we believe that expanding the scope of our assets It is the next step forward for the company. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris Masterson to go over the Q2 results. Chris?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Mike. 2nd quarter 2023 revenue was $15,800,000 compared to $16,200,000 in the Q2 of 2022 and up incrementally from $15,500,000 in the Q1 of 2023 as newly commenced leases began to pay rent. The company's 2nd quarter GAAP net loss attributable to shareholders was $10,900,000 compared to a net loss of $13,000,000 in the Q2 of For the 2nd quarter, we expect to be in the range of $2,000,000 or 2 19 percent to $3,000,000 compared to $900,000 in 2022. Cash net operating income increased by $600,000 or 7.7 percent to $7,500,000 from $6,900,000 in the Q2 of 2022. Our FFO attributable to common stockholders was a negative $4,000,000 Core FFO improved to negative $1,700,000 or negative $0.74 per share.

Speaker 3

As always, a reconciliation of GAAP net income to non GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and quarterly supplemental and on our website. At quarter end, we had a relatively conservative balance sheet based on our net leverage of 41%, A weighted average interest rate of 4.4 percent and almost 4 years of weighted average debt maturity. We have limited debt maturities through 2025 and none this year. As we have previously discussed, all of our debt is fixed rate or swapped to fixed rate after we locked in interest rates while they're broadly at historic lows. I'll turn the call back to Mike for some closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Chris. We executed on our leasing pipeline last quarter, driving occupancy up 1.1% to 85.1% and adding $1,500,000 in annualized straight line rent. Our new leasing and lower operating expenses resulted in quarter over quarter growth in adjusted EBITDA and cash NOI. We believe the long term lease extensions and expansions we signed this quarter signal our tenants' commitments to the properties we own in New York City, and we remain focused on maximizing the value of these properties through our continued proactive asset management strategy. In May, we announced that upon the completion of a proposed merger between Global Net Lease and the Necessity Retail REIT, Chris and I would resign our positions as CFO and CEO of ASIC.

Speaker 1

As such, this may be the last We'd like to thank you for your insights, support and ownership of ASIC over the years, And we take great comfort leaving the company in the hands of Michael Anderson and Joe Marnikovic, who we've recommended to the Board for the positions of CEO and CFO, respectively. Michael and Joe have both been longtime employees of our advisor, AR Global. Michael started with us in 2013 and has risen to become AR Global's General Counsel. Joe joined us in 2017 and currently serves as AR Global's CFO. I believe I speak for Michael, Joe and the Board when I say that we're excited about the opportunities ahead of us.

Speaker 1

Thank you for joining us today. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. Just one moment for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Bryan Maher of B. Riley Securities. Your line is

Speaker 4

open. Thank you and good morning. And I guess we're going to miss these calls with you, Michael, on NYC.

Speaker 1

Well, Brian, it's been a pleasure and we always appreciate your participation. So thank you.

Speaker 4

Okay. Moving on to a couple of questions I have this morning. Given the stress that's going on with WeWork, Is there anything there that can in your view kind of help or hurt NYC? I know that you have a modest Yes, shared working platform, but any thoughts on whether or not people might abandon WeWork and maybe take up some of your space Where you had vacancy at 11:40 or at 9 Times Square?

Speaker 3

Yes. I think that

Speaker 1

That is a possibility that not only are we thinking about, but I think all New York landlords are thinking about. WeWork is a bit of a phenomenon in my eyes and always has been. WeWork build themselves as something new and different and they tried to convince everybody that they were some kind of Technology company when really they were a traditional real estate short term leasing platform like we've seen Regis operate for decades. So the name WeWork, I think, means more than what their business really ever was. And we will continue to see short term need for space And these types of platforms, whether it's what we operate in our building at 1140 Avenues of the America or throughout New York and the rest of the country will continue to have demand and provide space for people.

Speaker 4

Okay. And then as it relates to what there are some changes in New York City office dynamics with Return to office mandates, etcetera. Are you seeing anything as a result of that as it relates to office cap rates or transaction activity?

Speaker 1

No, not yet. I think that we are going through the tunnel right now, Not us as a company, but New York as a market. I think a number of landlords are facing Debt maturities and we're starting to hear the rumblings of either forced sales or Defaults with lenders, and it reminds me back to 2,009, I think the bank's position in a number of cases, especially for assets that are performing fairly well We'll go back to the kind of the delay the outcome. I don't think the banks are going to be very aggressive in foreclosing on properties. Now Related back to ASIC and as Chris mentioned in his comments, our greatest benefit is We have about 4 years of average remaining debt maturity and we have fixed rate debt.

Speaker 1

So we're well positioned. You saw this quarter that we were really able to start putting some new tenants in, expanding and Extending some existing tenants, Chris Chow and the asset management team are active in the market. And frankly, We all know summertime in New York is probably the toughest period of the year outside of the Christmas and New Year holidays to really drive leasing. So we were really happy to increase occupancy over a full point in the quarter And looking forward to continuing that in the next two quarters.

Speaker 4

Maybe following on from that a little bit, Where are you thinking that ASIC is going to see opportunities? I know you expanded The picture is to what you would acquire and where you would acquire it. But as you look at the landscape now, is that more parking? Is it more hospitality? Is the next thing the company owns outside of New York, can you give us any color there?

Speaker 3

I can't give you a

Speaker 1

lot of color right now because we haven't announced anything and nor have we made any decisions. But we continue to look at some interesting opportunities In the operating business side and as we continue to grow occupancy and increase NOI, We'll continue to position the company to be able to make those types of investment decisions. They very well may be outside of New York City as I think that will diversify the portfolio. We have the strong foundation of the properties that we own and the performance continues to pick up and improve. So stay tuned.

Speaker 1

I think that's something that Michael and Joe are going to be able to really drive. That is one of Joe's core background experiences in the operating business side And Michael, as you know, has been with the company for over 10 years and has been very involved in More than just the general counsel seat, so their experience is going to be a smooth transition from Chris and me, and they will continue to evaluate those opportunities.

Speaker 4

Okay, thanks. And just last for me and I don't know

Speaker 1

if Ori or Chris Chao are on

Speaker 4

the line, But with your leasing pipeline that you're seeing out there, can you give us any color as to where you think occupancy might gravitate towards over the next 2 to 4

Speaker 1

quarters? Well, I'm going to jump in. I know you asked Chris Chao and he is on the line. But as you know, we haven't given guidance. So I don't want to put Chris in the position of saying something that maybe we shouldn't say on a call like this.

Speaker 1

But I think that you've seen over the last couple of quarters a pretty steady uptick in occupancy. And it's going to be a slow but steady Climb back to where we were pre COVID and the buildings, the 3 main buildings in the portfolio, 123 William Street continues to operate at a very high occupancy level. Our continued focus from an asset management standpoint is 1140 Avenues of America and 9 Times Square, where we have Put a lot of our focus and Chris is driving the brokerage teams at those buildings. We are seeing some tours. Activity is picking up.

Speaker 1

I think September will be An important month for driving that activity. And we certainly believe that this is a portfolio that Over time, we'll be above 90% occupancy.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks. That's all for me and good luck with the new merged RTL and GNL. Thank you, Brian.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to the management team for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

All right. Well, again, Chris and I wanted to thank everybody as we said in our comments. We are very excited For the transition to Michael and Joe, we've got a great team embedded in the ASIC platform and we'll continue to drive through and back to our pre COVID levels as well as bringing Some pretty exciting opportunities to the company and shareholders. So thank you all again for your time. And Michael and Joe, We wish you the best of luck and we're excited to see what the direction that you take the company in.

Speaker 1

Thank you everybody.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

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Key Takeaways

  • Leasing momentum: signed 4 new leases in Q2 totaling over 26,000 sq ft and $1.5 million of straight-line rent, lifting occupancy from 84% to 85.1% and securing a 6.8-year weighted average lease term.
  • Key lease deals: a 2× expansion at 9 Times Square added $500 K in rent for 6 years, and a 10-year renewal with a major healthcare system in Brooklyn was completed at unchanged rent and no commission.
  • Financial improvement: adjusted EBITDA more than doubled year-over-year, cash NOI rose 7.7%, and core FFO grew by $0.54/share sequentially, despite a GAAP net loss of $10.9 million.
  • Strong balance sheet: 100% fixed-rate debt (including swaps) at a 4.4% effective rate, 3.7-year average maturity, no 2023 maturities, limited 2025 debt, and net leverage at 41%, insulating from refinancing risk.
  • Leadership transition: CEO Michael Weil and CFO Chris Masterson will resign upon the proposed merger, with Michael Anderson and Joe Marnikovic recommended as successors to ensure continuity and drive future growth.
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Earnings Conference Call
American Strategic Investment Q2 2023
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