Slate Grocery REIT Reports First Quarter 2023 Results

Slate Grocery REIT (TSX: SGR.U) (TSX: SGR.UN) (the "REIT"), an owner and operator of U.S. grocery-anchored real estate, today announced its financial results and highlights for the three month period ended March 31, 2023.

"Against a backdrop of persistent inflation and rising rates, our grocery-anchored real estate continues to demonstrate its durability and ability to perform,” said Blair Welch, Chief Executive Officer of Slate Grocery REIT. “Demand for our high-quality, well-located spaces has driven strong leasing momentum in the first quarter, boosting occupancy and revenue growth within our portfolio. Looking ahead, we believe our below market rents will enable us to further grow organically and our strong liquidity position will allow us to grow through strategic, high-quality acquisitions that will be accretive to our unitholders.”

For the CEO's letter to unitholders for the quarter, please follow the link here.

Highlights

• Completed 589,804 square feet of total leasing in the quarter at attractive spreads that drove occupancy and revenue growth
  • New deals were completed at 17.1% above comparable average in-place rent and renewals at 8.4% above expiring rent
  • New leasing drove a 50-basis point occupancy gain from the 2022 year-end to 93.7% occupancy at the close of the quarter
  • Adjusting for completed redevelopments, same-property Net Operating Income ("NOI") increased by $0.9 million or 3.0% year-over-year
  • Despite a rising interest rate environment, Adjusted Funds From Operations ("AFFO") increased by $0.1 million to $13.4 million from the comparative period
• Enhanced the REIT’s financial flexibility and balance sheet to create liquidity for continued, accretive growth
  • In February 2023, the REIT closed a $56.0 million mortgage loan with a 2033 maturity, using net proceeds from the loan to paydown the REIT's nearest term debt maturity in 2023; post refinancing, the REIT has no debt maturities remaining in 2023
  • The REIT repurchased 0.2 million class U units at a weighted average price of $9.80 in the first quarter, which represents a 30.5% discount to the REIT’s net asset value and provides the REIT with additional liquidity
• The REIT continues to underwrite compelling, well-located grocery real estate anchored by strong-performing grocers at below-market rents
  • The REIT’s partnership with Slate North American Essential Fund L.P. provides the potential for a consistent source of private equity capital in addition to the REIT’s public funding strategies, which allows the REIT to be flexible in today’s environment

Summary of Q1 2023 Results

Conference Call and Webcast

Senior management will host a live conference call at 9:00 am ET on May 4, 2023 to discuss the results and ongoing business initiatives of the REIT.

The conference call can be accessed dialing (416) 764-8658 or 1 (888) 886-7786. Additionally, the conference call will be available via simultaneous audio found at https://viavid.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1606593&tp_key=ca3a479699. A replay will be accessible until May 18, 2023 via the REIT’s website or by dialing (416) 764-8692 or (877) 674-7070 (access code 651301#) approximately two hours after the live event.

About Slate Grocery REIT (TSX: SGR.U / SGR.UN)

Slate Grocery REIT is an owner and operator of U.S. grocery-anchored real estate. The REIT owns and operates approximately $2.4 billion of critical real estate infrastructure across major U.S. metro markets that communities rely upon for their everyday needs. The REIT’s resilient grocery-anchored portfolio and strong credit tenants provide unitholders with durable cash flows and the potential for capital appreciation over the longer term. Visit slategroceryreit.com to learn more about the REIT.

About Slate Asset Management

Slate Asset Management is a global alternative investment platform targeting real assets. We focus on fundamentals with the objective of creating long-term value for our investors and partners. Slate’s platform has a range of real estate and infrastructure investment strategies, including opportunistic, value add, core plus and debt investments. We are supported by exceptional people and flexible capital, which enable us to originate and execute on a wide range of compelling investment opportunities. Visit slateam.com to learn more.

Supplemental Information

All interested parties can access Slate Grocery’s Supplemental Information online at slategroceryreit.com in the Investors section. These materials are also available on SEDAR or upon request to the REIT at info@slateam.com or (416) 644-4264.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information herein constitutes “forward-looking information” as defined under Canadian securities laws which reflect management’s expectations regarding objectives, plans, goals, strategies, future growth, results of operations, performance, business prospects and opportunities of the REIT. The words “plans”, “expects”, “does not expect”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “does not anticipate”, “projects”, “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or statements to the effect that certain actions, events or results “may”, “will”, “could”, “would”, “might”, “occur”, “be achieved”, or “continue” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Management believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, however, management can give no assurance that actual results, performance or achievements will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management as of the date hereof, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, the REIT cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these statements, as forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, and should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not the times at or by which such performance or results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ, possibly materially, from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Additional information about risks and uncertainties is contained in the filings of the REIT with securities regulators.

Non-IFRS Measures

This news release and accompanying financial statements are based on International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”), as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”).

We disclose a number of financial measures in this news release that are not measures used under IFRS, including NOI, same-property NOI, FFO, FFO payout ratio, AFFO, AFFO payout ratio, adjusted EBITDA and the interest coverage ratio, in addition to certain measures on a per unit basis.

• NOI is defined as rental revenue less operating expenses, prior to straight-line rent, IFRIC 21, Levies ("IFRIC 21") property tax adjustments and adjustments for equity investment. Same-property NOI includes those properties owned by the REIT for each of the current period and the relevant comparative period excluding those properties under development.
• FFO is defined as net income adjusted for certain items including transaction costs, change in fair value of properties, change in fair value of financial instruments, deferred income taxes, unit expense (income), adjustments for equity investment and IFRIC 21 property tax adjustments.
• AFFO is defined as FFO adjusted for straight-line rental revenue and sustaining capital, leasing costs and tenant improvements.
• FFO payout ratio and AFFO payout ratio are defined as distributions declared divided by FFO and AFFO, respectively.
• FFO per WA unit and AFFO per WA unit are defined as FFO and AFFO divided by the weighted average class U equivalent units outstanding, respectively.
• Adjusted EBITDA is defined as NOI less general and administrative expenses.
• Interest coverage ratio is defined as adjusted EBITDA divided by cash interest paid.
• Net asset value is defined as the aggregate of the carrying value of the REIT's equity, deferred income taxes and exchangeable units of subsidiaries.
• Proportionate interest represents financial information adjusted to reflect the REIT's equity accounted joint ventures and financial real estate assets and its share of net income (losses) from equity accounted joint ventures and financial real estate assets on a proportionately consolidated basis at the REIT's ownership percentage of the related investment.

We utilize these measures for a variety of reasons, including measuring performance, managing the business, capital allocation and the assessment of risk. Descriptions of why these non-IFRS measures are useful to investors and how management uses each measure are included in Management’s Discussion and Analysis. We believe that providing these performance measures on a supplemental basis to our IFRS results is helpful to investors in assessing the overall performance of our businesses in a manner similar to management. These financial measures should not be considered as a substitute for similar financial measures calculated in accordance with IFRS. We caution readers that these non-IFRS financial measures may differ from the calculations disclosed by other businesses, and as a result, may not be comparable to similar measures presented by others.

SGR-FR

Calculation and Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures

The table below summarizes a calculation of non-IFRS measures based on IFRS financial information.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503006084/en/