SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trst Q2 2026 Earnings Report

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trst EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -C$0.83
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trst Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $225.96 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trst Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/6/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, August 7, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

SmartCentres is one of Canada's largest fully integrated REITs, with a best-in-class and growing mixed-use portfolio featuring 200 strategically located properties in communities across the country. SmartCentres has approximately $12.3 billion in assets consisting of income producing value-oriented retail, purpose-built rental, first-class office and self-storage properties. SmartCentres owns 35.5 million square feet of leasable space with 97.6% in place and committed occupancy, on 3,500 acres of owned land across Canada.

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trst Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Portfolio performance remained strong: Same-property NOI increased 2.6% year over year, or 4.4% excluding anchor tenants, while occupancy rose to 98.1%. Tenant collections remained above 99%.
• Positive Sentiment: SmartCentres has leased four of six former Toys “R” Us locations at higher rents, with management expecting stronger tenant covenants, increased traffic and potential ripple-through benefits for surrounding retailers. The remaining two locations have strong tenant interest and are likely to begin contributing rent in 2027.
• Positive Sentiment: Toronto Premium Outlets expansion is scheduled to begin construction in Q4 2026, is approximately 50% pre-leased, and is expected to generate rents in the triple digits with a yield above 8%.
• Neutral Sentiment: Adjusted FFO declined modestly to CAD 0.54 per unit from CAD 0.55, primarily due to higher interest and general and administrative expenses, while the distribution was maintained at an annualized CAD 1.85 per unit. Adjusted debt to EBITDA was unchanged at 9.8 times, with approximately CAD 715 million of liquidity, or CAD 965 million including accordion capacity.
• Negative Sentiment: The REIT recorded a CAD 196.2 million fair-value loss on investment properties, largely reflecting deferred high-rise development activity across several parcels. Management said residential-density land values appear to have bottomed, but the transaction market remains tentative and dependent on broader economic conditions.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the SmartCentres REIT Q2 2026 Conference Call. I would like to introduce Mr. Peter Slan. Please go ahead.

[Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres]

Thank you operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to SmartCentres' second quarter 2026 results call. I'm Peter Slan, Chief Financial Officer, and as in prior quarters, I'm joined on today's call by Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chair and CEO, and by Rudy Gobin, our Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer. We'll begin today's call with some comments from Mitch. Rudy will then provide some operational highlights. I will review our financial results. We will be pleased to take your questions. Just before I turn the call over to Mitch, I would like to refer you specifically to the cautionary language about forward-looking information which can be found at the front of our MD&A. This also applies to comments that any of the speakers make today.

[Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres]

Mitch, over to you.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Thank you, Peter. Good morning. Welcome everyone. I will be brief so we can get to your questions. Q2 was very solid in all categories. Here are a few examples. The SmartCentres portfolio delivered on same property NOI growth at 2.6% for the quarter or 4.4% ex anchors. Occupancy grew to 98.1% for in place and committed deals. Rental lists were up 12%, excluding anchors on lease extensions. Leases have been executed at higher rents in four of the six ex-Toys locations, three of which we completed by the quarter end, one shortly thereafter. 86% of 2026 maturing leases were executed by the end of Q2. Our 200,000 sq ft flagship Canadian Tire store in Leaside/Rosedale is on track in year completion with turnover expected in the next few months.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

All in all, the portfolio continues to show its strengths. This includes commitments by many of our major retailers to expand their store count in our existing portfolio, as well as in our retail expansion program. In that regard, we will continue to stay on strategy, expanding our retail portfolio around our major retailers' growth needs like Walmart, Loblaws and Costco. This expansion program continues to move forward step by step, with specific projects and details to be made available in the months ahead. Stay tuned. At the corporate level, we continue to carefully manage our balance sheet debt and related metrics. We've also taken steps to insulate ourselves from potential interest rate increases, with 88% of our debt being at fixed rates.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

With that, I will pass the call over to Rudy for some more operational highlights. Rudy?

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Thanks, Mitch. Good morning, everyone. Q2 gained further ground from the likes of grocers, TJX banners, pharmacy, dollar stores, banks, and more, leading to the signing of nearly 0.25 million sq ft of leases in the quarter. Occupancy returned to above 98%, with four of the six ex-Toys boxes locations being leased. As Mitch mentioned, operationally, the portfolio is strong, absorbing some of the best retailers in the country, replacing low rent-paying Toys locations, and if you recall, typically visited 2x to 3x a year by customers, compared with weekly visits for food and pharmacy and dollar stores, which will not only provide a much stronger covenant but will also drive higher rents for the vacated units.

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

The higher customer traffic will also drive higher sales for all other tenants within the centers, which then drives higher future rents on renewals and further same property NOI growth. The ripple effect is immediate and impacts the entire property for years to come. This resiliency is also reflected in the 86% of the 2026 lease maturities already completed by Q2, with a rental list of 6.6% all in or 12% ex anchors. Turning to cash flow, cash collection remains strong at 99% in the quarter. Lastly, our Toronto and Montreal premium outlets remain at 99%, actually closer to 100%, leased and continue to excel in driving traffic with improving tenant sales and percentage rent.

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Toronto Premium Outlets remains ranked in the top three in sales in this country. The planned expansion for near 100,000 sq ft is now scheduled to start construction in Q4, with average rents in the triple digits. Overall, we see continuation of all of this momentum into the second half of the year.

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Thank you, and I'll now turn it over to Peter. Peter?

[Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres]

Thanks, Rudy. As you've seen in our release, the FFO this quarter was unchanged from the comparable period last year at CAD 0.58 per unit. FFO with adjustments, which excludes the town home profits, transactional gains and losses, and the total return swap was CAD 0.54 per unit, compared to CAD 0.55 for the same period in 2025. The modest year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by higher interest expense and general and administrative expenses related to the new long-term incentive plan, partially offset by growth in net rental income. We again maintained our distributions during the quarter at an annualized rate of CAD 1.85 per unit. The payout ratio to AFFO remains stable at 90.5% for the rolling 12 months and to June 30, 2026. Adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDA was 9.8x, unchanged from the previous quarter.

[Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres]

The weighted average term to maturity of our debt, including debt on equity accounted investments, was 2.9 years. From a liquidity perspective, we remain very comfortable with our current liquidity position. We recently extended our corporate revolver for an additional two years to 2031. As of June 30, 2026, we have approximately CAD 715 million of liquidity, which includes both cash on hand and undrawn credit facilities, but excludes any accordion features. Including the accordion, we have CAD 965 million. During the quarter, we also recorded a fair value loss on our investment properties portfolio of CAD 196.2 million. This adjustment was mainly attributable to the deferral of development activities for certain properties under development, offset by some modest discount rate changes in our income-producing portfolio. With the recent strength in our unit price, we unwound the remaining total return swap during the quarter and repaid the associated TRS debt.

[Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres]

As a result, Q2 will be the last quarter that we report a TRS adjustment to our FFO other than for comparable periods. We realized a modest gain on the unwind transaction, and looking back over the four years since we initiated the swap, it generated a meaningful positive return for the REIT. As in previous quarters, we have updated our MD&A disclosure focusing on those development projects that are currently under construction. As you will see on page 17, there were nine projects under construction at the end of Q2, an increase of one from last quarter. The Vaughan Northwest Townhomes were completed and removed from the list, and two additional projects were added. One is a self-storage project in Edmonton, and the other is a 65-unit rental apartment project in the ArtWalk block in the Vaughan Metropolitan Center.

[Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres]

With that, we would be pleased to take your questions. Operator[crosstalk].

[Operator]

If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please dial star one on your phone's keypad. The first question is from Lorne Kalmar of Desjardins Capital Markets. Please go ahead, Lorne.

[Lorne Kalmar, Director of Institutional Equity Research at Desjardins Capital Markets]

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Just wondering, you mentioned starting some new developments. Obviously, looks like there's going to be a kickoff here on the resale side in a more meaningful way. How high are you comfortable taking developments as a percentage of asset value? Hello?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Yeah. Sorry. You stumped us with that question. No, we're at 12%, the development that we're referring to is low rise, single story with at-grade parking for the most part. It's not difficult to manage because the rents commence on these developments within under one year from commencement of construction. We're comfortable with where things are. It might fluctuate up and down just because some quarters and some years we might be developing a little bit more. As I said, within one year, the rents kick in, so it's not like density where we'll be in debt for years and years before we see any income.

[Lorne Kalmar, Director of Institutional Equity Research at Desjardins Capital Markets]

Fair enough. Just confirming, you said you guys are at 12% of developments of 12% of asset value right now?

[Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres]

Yep, that's right. 12%, 12.5% or so.

[Lorne Kalmar, Director of Institutional Equity Research at Desjardins Capital Markets]

Okay, perfect. Thank you. This one's a little bit ticky-tacky, just noticed tenant receivables have climbed up quite modestly quarter-over-quarter, now you're kind of at levels you were at in December of 2020. ECL provision is still below, just wondering if you could give us an idea of what's behind that, if there's anything really to read into there.

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Hi, it's Rudy. No, that's just seasonal with taxes, normal expenses we are incurring on the property. ECL, as you mentioned, was not unusual for the quarter. Nothing unusual in that category. The extent that, not the ECL, the receivables in the first quarter offset by the ECL, we have not adjusted that yet. You're seeing both grow. At some point when we remove it, the receivables will disappear, and the ECL will disappear.

[Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres]

Lorne, it's Peter. I would just add that collections remain very, very high, there's nothing from an aging perspective on those receivables to be worried about.

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

In fact, in the last, I don't know, three, four, five quarters, we were at 99%. We were over 99% in Q2 from a collections from our tenants perspective.

[Lorne Kalmar, Director of Institutional Equity Research at Desjardins Capital Markets]

Okay. It should slowly start to trend down then.

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Yeah. Yes.

[Lorne Kalmar, Director of Institutional Equity Research at Desjardins Capital Markets]

Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. I'll turn it back.

[Operator]

The next question is from Mario Saric from Scotia Capital. Please go ahead, Mario.

[Mario Saric, Analyst at Scotia Capital]

Hi, good morning. Just on the capital allocation side with the wind up of the TRS swap, does that change how you think about allocating capital? Units are still trading at about a 20% discount, give or take, to your IFRS fair value. Yeah, just curious in terms of how it changes anything, if at all.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

From the point of view of buying back units, we don't have any plans. That investor assurance.

[Mario Saric, Analyst at Scotia Capital]

Yeah. Okay.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

I mean, I use this public. I buy units fairly often, we end up suggesting it's not a good price, but at the moment, we just don't have any plans to buy back stock units.

[Mario Saric, Analyst at Scotia Capital]

Yeah. Okay. Then just, conversely, with respect to the balance sheet and asset sales, can you give us an update in terms of your conviction level and getting something done on the disposition side in 2026 and whether that CAD 200 million to CAD 300 million disposition pipeline over the next two to three years is still intact?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Very much so. I mean, things, I'd say, they move all over the place from one week to the next more and, well, I think are slowly leaving on that crest. I mean, not so much that the economy's pumping or anything. It's just that I think people are just feeling a little bit more. They have more visibility on the next period, for good, all told, and that some people are back in the market. Some sectors are starting to get in the mood. We are talking to various. Nothing at the moment worthy of announcing, but we are very much committed to that level of dispositions.

[Mario Saric, Analyst at Scotia Capital]

Okay. Then just switching over to operations, you've done a really good job of re-tenanting or releasing for the six Toys "R" Us. I think it was an expected 25% higher net rent, as well. Can you just maybe give us a sense of the cadence of getting the remaining two leased up?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

We have interest in both. Very interesting, strong interest in one of them. Real upgrade and, yeah, improved rents and the other one is interesting. We're pretty optimistic about that. Any other?

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Yeah, no, I would just say, the uses that we're looking at will be, again, as I mentioned for the first four, better covenants, higher traffic generation, higher traffic for all the other tenants in the shopping center as well. I think it will be very much a big step up from the traffic that the Toys generated on-site.

[Mario Saric, Analyst at Scotia Capital]

Got it. Is the expected rent commencement on the four that have been leased, is it still potentially in Q4 2026 or is that more of a 2027 event? Do you think that the other two could be rent producing in 2027 as well?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

The two that are under negotiation will probably be very likely be 2027 rent commencements. The other four?

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Some are in Q4 and maybe one, if you recall, that may push into the early year, depending on renovations in the space. That's assumed.

[Mario Saric, Analyst at Scotia Capital]

Okay. That's it for me. Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question is from Sam Damiani from TD Securities. Please go ahead, Sam.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Securities]

Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Good morning still, everyone. Just on the fair value loss taken on the land, was that a reflection of any ongoing discussions on dispositions of any parcels? Is that just a choice you guys made, independent of any?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

No, it wasn't based on a negotiation. That was just based on appropriate, our feeling at this point that a variety of reasons that those were not reflecting accurately with value at this time. No, those were not based on a negotiation.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Securities]

Okay. The fair value loss was, I'm sure it was reflective of a number of parcels, but was the bulk of it concentrated in just maybe two parcels? Or like how concentrated was that total provision in Q2?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Yeah. You know from probably in the past, where we had focused our attention for potential high-rise. It's sort of across a half a dozen properties, or more, whereby we aren't imminently going to do the high-rise development there. We think it's not, yeah, we just don't think it's imminent, thought it was prudent to make the adjustment. It's not one or two properties.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Securities]

Okay. Thank you. Are you seeing any green shoots in the transaction market for residential density land in Toronto?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Can you say that one more time? Sorry.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Securities]

Yeah. Sorry, I was just asking what's the transaction market for residential land. Are you seeing any signs of it potentially improving in the near term?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Really, at the moment, I'd say we're at the sort of moment of truth. Sometimes it'll be clearer in the next little bit. There have been transactions, whereas a year ago there were no transactions. There are transactions. The question is, I guess, does it gain momentum? That sort of, I guess, depends on some of the macroeconomic issues and how people feel. There's still a lot of people out there in the business, both privately and institutionally, that have the capacity to buy and to think medium, long term. Some of them are buying, not many, but at least there's some. We're sort of waiting and watching to see if it picks up.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Yeah, it'll be interesting. The next six months will probably tell the tale or certainly clarify. It feels like there'll be some transactions. If you ask me intuitively, I think there's going to start to be some transactions in the next year.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Securities]

That'll be great. Thank you. Last one from me is just, Mitch, your comments at the annual meeting about getting up to a sort of a cadence of three shopping center deliveries or being under construction annually, how would you see the build up to that pace by 2027?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

I think that's still the case. Things are moving along with respect to the new retail sites and developments around various anchors in new markets across the country. I think that that would be a fair number to use as a placeholder for now. Maybe arguably on the conservative side. Getting started, there's always lots of obstacles to getting started. I think in terms of what we're planning, if things go smoothly, I think that's fairly safe. It's not conservative.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Securities]

That'd be great. Thank you. I'll throw it back.

[Operator]

The next question is from Pammi Bir from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate and REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Thanks. Good morning. I just wanted to come back to the TPO expansion. What can you maybe share in terms of where leasing is at this stage? I'm just curious, are you seeing any demand from tenants that are not necessarily outlet type tenants, just given that there has really not been much new supply out there?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

First of all, Simon does the leasing. By the way, they are really good at outlet centers. They really make us look good. This is obviously a bit about [audio distortion] Montreal Outlets. The leasing is going very well, it's a different type of leasing program than normal. I really want to do some more additional color.

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Sure. As I mentioned just a few minutes ago, the rents are in the triple digits. You know the tenants that are in the center and the sort of value of the center. What we found was some tenants that are in the center, the very strong tenants are asking to get bigger and move into the expansion area. Some other tenants are also looking to fill other spaces. Net-net, we're about 50% leased and plan to be over that by the time we hit construction commencement in Q4 of this year. Things are going well. You remember there's a parking deck that we're building with over 1,200 spots in that parking deck. It'll displace some of the surface parking.

[Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres]

Net-net, it's going to be, I think, 600 or 700 new parking spots with the new GLA that's coming on stream.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

I wanted to add, though, that they don't try to pre-lease at all. That's what I mean by it's different. They do want to stage the leasing. The interest is very strong. No comps. Supply and we're expanding. The big rents there, the tenants do huge volumes and are very successful there. Although the rents are pretty high relative to other rents in retail. It's its own beast. This is its own thing. Everyone's pretty happy with TPO.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate and REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Any change to that? I think you previously cited a target yield of north of 8%. Any upside to that based on what you've done to date or what they've done to date?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Yeah, we're above 8%. We are always trying to be conservative with such things. Yeah, we're pretty comfortable with above 8% for now.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate and REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay. Just last one for me. Coming back to the development write-downs. I think we've seen these charges now for a couple of years in a row. What maybe just gives you the comfort that the valuations that you're using now are more reasonable or that they've bottomed out?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

That's a good question. First of all, I guess part of the write-down goes towards the value. Some of it may be partly attributable to what we think we might be able to develop in terms of the amount of density. In terms of value for density, I'd say, again, I don't want to jinx the market, but I would say that it does feel like it's bottomed out. I'd say it's a little bit better than it was a year ago. I guess by definition, it's bottomed out and it's starting to improve. Yeah, in terms of what one might pay for density, I'd say it's definitely bottomed out at this point.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate and REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay. I will turn it back. Thanks very much, Mitch.

[Operator]

If anyone would like to queue up to ask a question, please dial star one on your phone's keypad. The next question is from Dean Wilkinson from CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead, Dean.

[Dean Wilkinson, Executive Director at CIBC World Markets]

Thanks. Morning, everybody. Mitch, just going back to the TRS and your comments around that. First, I think we all thank you for unwinding that. Should we read into that your preference for, say, the next dollar or dollar spent would be advancing the current development pipeline, then debt, then buying back units? If in fact that is the correct order, what would cause you to maybe change your view on sort of where you're going to put the next incremental dollars?

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

That's more of a discussion, I think a longer discussion. We see the development as being accretive. This is not speculative development, where we're going into each one of the new developments with an anchor tenant. With a pre-leased substantial portion of the square footage. There's a year of construction for this type of thing, and we're in debt for that year, but then we're collecting rent for the next 20, 30 years. It's accretive. We see that as being a very good use of our balance sheet. Having said that, of course, simultaneously, we keep an eye on our debt levels, and if we were to make any major transactions of a disposition variety or whatever, that would go towards lowering debt.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

In de facto, some of it might go back into the development program, all the while keeping an eye on our various metrics. When we lower debt, it just gives us room to do whatever that we think is in the best interest of the unitholders, always subject to debt interest. Kind of very intricately weaved together those things. Development is a great opportunity for us because that is something within our expertise and relationships and intel. It's accretive. We want to make the most of that. That's really the ultimate driver of significant material growth. It's not raising rents and praying for lower interest rates and whatever else we can do on the margins. This is a robust kind of growth that we're talking about. That is, of course, a priority. Yes.

[Dean Wilkinson, Executive Director at CIBC World Markets]

Yeah. Okay, nice. You've been consistent on that for decades, so I didn't expect that to change. Thanks, guys. I'll hand it back.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are no further questions in the queue.

[Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres]

Okay. Well, thank you for participating in our Q2 call. Please feel free to reach out to any of us if you have any further questions. Have a great rest of your day and weekend. Thanks.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the SmartCentres REIT Q2 2026 conference call. Thank you for your participation, and have a nice day.

Participants

Analysts

• Peter Slan, CFO at SmartCentres
• Mitch Goldhar, Executive Chairman and CEO at SmartCentres
• Rudy Gobin, Chief Portfolio and Asset Management Officer at SmartCentres
• Lorne Kalmar, Director of Institutional Equity Research at Desjardins Capital Markets
• Mario Saric, Analyst at Scotia Capital
• Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Securities
• Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate and REITs at RBC Capital Markets
• Dean Wilkinson, Executive Director at CIBC World Markets