Granite Real Estate Investment Trust (GRTUN) Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you. Is there any discussion on this matter? I will now call for a vote on the motion. All in favor, signify it by raising your hand. [Voting]

Opposed, if any? I declare the motion carried. I will now move to the next item of special business, which is certain amendments to the articles of Granite REIT Inc. that require approval by special resolution. May I have a motion that the special resolution of Pages 28 and 29 of the management information circular be passed to approve certain amendments to the articles of the Granite REIT Inc?

I so move.

May I have the motion seconded?

I second the motion.

Thank you. Since more than 5% of the stapled units represented by proxies, who are required to vote against this resolution, the resolution will be voted on by ballot. Ballots were distributed to you by the scrutineers at registration. If you are a registered holder of stapled units or have a proxy holder, who needs and does not have a ballot, please raise your hand and the scrutineers will provide one. Mike and Warner. Only registered holders of stapled units and proxy holders are permitted to vote. Please use the form of the ballot distributed by the scrutineers by marking an X in the appropriate space. The ballot should be clearly signed. And if you are a registered holder of the stapled units, please print your name on the ballot. If you're a proxy holder, please print your name on and the name of each registered holder of the stapled units you represent on the ballot. When you have completed the ballot, please indicate to the scrutineers, who will collect it. So I'll just give these folks a couple of secs. [Voting]

So the scrutineers will just reflect the outcome of both the ballots and other things that are in place, and we'll come back to you shortly with outcome and then we can proceed. So just bear with us for another 60 seconds or so. So the ballot results are now ready. The ballot results show 14,697,668 votes cast for the motion and 35,966,663 votes cast against the motion. So the motion has not been carried. And Kevan will speak to that a little bit in his prepared remarks subsequent to my completion of this. I will now move on to the final item of the special business, which is approving the nonemployee director share unit plan of Granite REIT as amended. This requires an ordinary resolution by at least a majority of the votes cast at these meetings. May I have a motion that the ordinary resolution at Page 30 of the management information circular be passed to approve the nonemployee directors share unit plan of Granite REIT as amended?

I so move.

May I have the motion seconded?

I second the motion.

Is there any discussion on this matter? I will now call for a vote on the motion. All in favor, signify by raising your hand. [Voting]

I declare the motion carried. Is there any other formal business that may be properly brought before these meetings? There being no further business, that concludes the formal business of the meetings, and I will now ask for a motion to end the formal part of these meetings.

I so move.

I'm sorry, I'm supposed to say, that's right. May I have the motion seconded?

I second the motion.

I will now call on a vote on the motion. All in favor, signify by raising your hand. [Voting]

Opposed, if any? And I declare the motion carried. We will now have a presentation from Kevan Gorrie, Granite's President and Chief Executive Officer. Thank you.

Good morning. Welcome, everyone. As Kelly mentioned, I'm going to take you through a short presentation of our results from 2021 and talk a little bit about our view of 2022. But I did want to start on the resolution proposing an amendment to the articles of Granite Inc. GP. And I think that there -- can you hear me okay? I think that based on some feedback and questions we received over the past few days, I think there was a misunderstanding of the intent of the proposed amendments. It was not the intention to issue additional units or to dilute existing shareholders. Although I will point out, we already have the authority to issue stock without a specific shareholder approval. The intent was to give the Board the authority to effect a stock split if it felt it was in the best interest of unitholders. And a little bit of background about why that is being considered in the first place. When you look at Granite, we are owned predominantly by institutional shareholders. I think last time we checked, it was over 80%. I think that's one of the highest among REITs in Canada. And that in itself is not a negative. When you have that level of institutional ownership or smart money per se, I think that, that is a very strong validation of management, of the Board, governance, alignment with unitholders, just the way that we conduct business. So it in itself is not negative. But it also could be a sign that there -- that the price of the stock may be an impediment for certain retail investors. And so the point of the amendment or consideration for a stock split would be to potentially encourage more retail investors to participate in the stock, thereby creating more liquidity and thereby potentially increasing the unit price. So that was the point of the resolution, and it would have also given the Board more flexibility around the execution of a stock split in terms of timing and the mechanics of it. So that was the point of it. But all said, we certainly respect the outcome of the vote and the will of the unitholders. And what that means is if the Board feels that a stock split is in the best interest of unitholders, taking into account all the factors, we would require a specific shareholder approval at a special meeting, which is very costly and frankly something we are looking to avoid, or seek approval in conjunction at an Annual General Meeting in the future. So I'll get that out of the way. So welcome to the presentation. So I'll start with, what do you own at Granite? And I think that you own a business and an organization that is very focused on long-term total return for unitholders, a business that's focused on institutional quality real estate and logistics, a business that cares about its balance sheet, that cares about governance and alignment with unitholders. And in terms of our portfolio, the middle column, just a couple of things I'll point out there. 122 income-producing properties now. That's an increase of 15 over 2020. But I think more importantly, we more than tripled our development pipeline. So we added 5 new development properties. But in terms of the level of investment, we more than tripled it. So we've made a concerted effort to leverage our platform and move more into development, which we believe will develop will -- sorry, develop, will deliver higher total returns and NAV growth for our unitholders. So I think that's an important pivot for our organization. The other thing I would point out in this column is we finished 2020 with $5.8 billion in assets. And we finished 2021 at $8.1 billion. That is a 40% increase. And part of that is roughly $1 billion in new investments in 2021. But also, it's a signal of significant NAV growth within our portfolio in 2021. Part of that was cap rate compression in the sector, to be sure, but a lot of that was also due to strong NOI growth in our portfolio and strong growth in market rents across our markets. For financial performance, I'll get into more detail on the total return, the 40% is not too bad, I would offer. Secondly, one of our credit rating agencies, DBRS, upgraded our credit rating from BBB mid to BBB high. I think we're one of only a few Canadian REITs that can say that, a BBB high credit rating. And then finally, in November, we announced our 10th consecutive annual distribution increase. And again, that puts us in a very small handful of REITs in Canada that can say that they've raised their distribution 10 consecutive years. So you're in good company when you own Granite. So here's a recap of 2021. As I mentioned, just over $1 billion in new investments in the year. A real pivot into development, where we invested more than $500 million in new developments and expansions across our markets, not only in Canada, but in multiple markets of our markets in the U.S. and in Germany. So across our entire portfolio. Always a priority is NAV and cash flow growth. So starting with cash flow, FFO and AFFO growth per unit of 10% and 8%, respectively. Not shown here, but very important for driving cash flow growth, the same-property NOI, 3.6% on an annual basis. And if you look at the average over the 4 quarters, which I think is more relevant for our business, 4% growth, which again really drove a lot of the FFO and AFFO growth. And as you can see, 26% NAV growth in our portfolio. Just exceptional NAV growth for the year. And we were able to drive cash flow, but preserve our conservative capital ratios, which is a priority of ours. So we finished 2020 with a net leverage ratio of 25%. We finished 2021 slightly above that at 26%. Our debt to EBITDA did rise to 7x, but still very respectable I think in the Canadian context, one of the lowest in Canada. And it is a direct result of the investments we made in development because, of course, as you know, development projects, you're financing them upfront, but you're not seeing the EBITDA until future years. And on a payout ratio basis, despite our 10th annual increase in November, we finished the year at an 80% payout ratio on AFFO. So again, quite conservative, and it means that the distribution is very well covered -- remains very well covered. On ESG, we had a very active, productive year with our -- with respect to our ESG program in 2021. We issued our inaugural annual corporate responsibility report, which laid out a number of principles, policies and objectives for our organization over the next few years. I would say it was very well received. We report into a few key benchmark systems for sustainability, one of them being GRESB, which is the leading global sustainability benchmark for real estate companies, where our score improved by 76% over the prior year. And I think very much worth mentioning is we were ranked #1 in our peer group in terms of ESG disclosure. And when I talk about our peer group, I'm not talking about just the other Canadian industrial REITs, I'm talking about some of the world's largest industrial -- global industrial owners of industrial real estate, including Prologis, Duke, First Industrial, Torino, et cetera. So that's quite an accomplishment for the team in 2021. And I think it speaks to the importance that we put on transparency as well, transparency and disclosure. Safe return to work. I'm not sure we did all return to work in 2021, maybe for a bit. But I'm not sure we all fully returned. I think that was an early 2022 event. But we did introduce hybrid office work model, which provides more flexibility to our employees, which I think was worthwhile and well received. And we grew. We grew as a company by 5 people in 2021. We grew by 12 people, I think, in 2020. And so I'm proud of the fact that we've been able to grow, we've been able to improve our capabilities during a challenging environment over the past 2 years, and we continue to grow today. So I should have said at the beginning, this presentation will be posted to our website after the meeting so you can review in detail the presentation at your convenience. A couple of things I would point out here, we talk a lot about investment as we should. We talk a lot about capital deployment. But just to mention, we did divest of a few noncore assets in 2021. Our lone asset in the U.K., our lone asset in Poland and one of our assets in Austria. And I think this morning, I got news we just closed on our sale of our lone asset in the Czech Republic. So when I think about it, when I joined in 2018, we were in 9 countries. We were in 7 countries. We wanted to be in 3, we're in 7. Now we're in 3 countries in Europe and we've really started to refine our focus on our target markets, in Europe and North America. So now we're in Austria, Germany and The Netherlands, and we're in Canada and the U.S. So that refinement, that focus, I think, is important for us. To -- kind of in the middle of the slide, it wasn't listed as a specific priority or objective because it wasn't a priority. But just to point out, we finished 2020 with single-tenant exposure to Magna, 35%. We finished 2021 at 27%. So as we continue to divest of select noncore assets and continue to grow our footprint in logistics and e-commerce in our target markets, that number -- that concentration is continuing to fall. And then finally, on the green bonds. We issued a $500 million green bond in June of 2020, I think the largest in Canada at the time. We followed up with a second $500 million green bond late in 2021. And we've now deployed 58% of that $1 billion of net proceeds from those green bonds on eligible green projects. And I will provide more detail on those projects in coming slides. But just to say, we've made a lot of progress on use of funds on those green projects, $580 million, if I'm doing the math right so far. Teresa is nodding. Sticking with ESG. Again, we had a very productive year in 2021. Not that we're done, but it was a very productive year, I just wanted to recognize that. On the East side, and it's probably easier to quantify our progress on the East side, and I'll start with LED lighting and for the nerds in the room, and I know there are a couple of engineers out there, it's not just me. LED stands for a light-emitting diode. It's a semiconductor form of lighting, which uses 10% of a typical fluorescent bulb. Anyway, I was looking back at 2019, both with respect to LED lighting and with buildings that we own that are equipped with white or low absorption roofing. We finished 2019 at 8.7 million square feet of buildings that are equipped with it and 8.5 million square feet, respectively. And now we're at 34 million feet and 32.5 million feet. So a lot of progress made. Now part of that in middle E is through acquisition of [ mono ] logistics, assets that are equipped with those equipments and those characteristics. But I think it's worth pointing out, that's what we target. We put a lot of value on those types of characteristics. And then the remainder of that growth is through energy retrofits that we've done, energy retrofit work and through our own development. So that now represents roughly 60% of our portfolio and will continue to climb. Green Buildings, in 2019, I think we had 3 in our portfolio. Now it's 13. By the time I talk to you next year, that might be close to 20. So again, a lot of progress there. And then finally, on the E, this is the first time we've talked about our rooftop solar potential. And just to say, 8.5 megawatts, it's kind of a nebulous number, but that would power about 20,000 homes. That's a big number. For a portfolio of our size, that is significant. And that continues to grow primarily through our new developments in The Netherlands and new assets that we add to our portfolio there. But that rooftop generation, that potential, is significant and I think it's something we should be proud of, and you should be proud of as owners. On the social side, you can see the statistics there, which continue to move in a good direction. But I just want to point out at the top, our financial commitment. I would say this, I think, we're rather conservative and rather modest on our financial and time commitment to our community and charity endeavors. And listen, modesty's never overrated, and I think it's a pretty short supply. But I was just thinking about that the other day, each May, our company participates in a walking challenge. So all our employees is kind of in internal competition for charity. And I was looking at statistics from last May, on May 31. Collectively, our employees walked -- took 20 million steps and we walked 12,000 kilometers, okay? So if I'm doing my engineering math, that would take between 2,000, 2,500 hours. So the first thing you ask yourself is, well, maybe you're walking anyways. Well, I'll tell you, if I've been tracking how many steps I've taken since that competition ended, and it's pretty embarrassing. So if you attribute even 50% of those miles and steps and time to the fact that we were doing it for charity, that's still over 1,000 hours. So all to say, I like the fact I think we, as a company, tend to under promise and over deliver, but I think we can be a little bit more realistic and a little bit more outgoing, I think, with our commitment to charities and community events. I'll finish on the G side, and it is another area, I think, that gets overlooked quite a bit. But as an investor, I respect, one said to me, without the G, you don't have strong performance on E&S. So it all starts with G. So a couple of things I would point out. In terms of Board composition, female representation is now 40% of our Board with the addition of Emily Pang. Welcome, Emily. And at the bottom, as you may know, the Globe and Mail every year publishes a report ranking the top 220 companies in Canada in terms of governance. And last year, we were the top-ranked REIT in Canada for 2021. I think our score was 95 out of 100. And I think we were ranked 18th overall. So 18th out of the top 220 companies in Canada. And I point it out because I don't think enough attention gets paid to this part of business. And I think we should be very proud of the fact that we've been recognized as one of the top companies in Canada in terms of governance. So as I mentioned, these -- when you think about the use of funds from our green bonds, this is a big part of those use of funds. And so we made a commitment as a company that every development we are truly involved with or control will satisfy the requirements of our green bond framework, which we developed in April of 2020 with third-party qualified consultant, that every development we have will meet those requirements. So they will all receive green certification. And it isn't cheap. The cost of achieving the various green certification is probably 5% to 10% above what it would normally cost to build a building that we're looking for. And as you can see in Germany, it's DGNB, which is the Green Building Council of Germany; in North America, it's Green Globes or LEED. And as you can see, we're active on that front not only in the U.S., but in the GTA, in our market in the GTA and in Germany. So it applies -- that standard applies across our entire portfolio. So now to total return. As I mentioned, last year was a strong year, 40% total return versus 35%, I think, roughly for the TSX REIT index. So outperformance of the REIT index somewhat. In 2020, it was 23%. We delivered a 23% total return for unitholders in 2020 versus the REIT index at minus 13%. So we had much stronger relative performance or outperformance versus the REIT index in 2020, but we had stronger total overall absolute performance in 2021. This, to me, is the much more important slide is what I saw before. As I mentioned, we are very focused on long-term growth. We are very focused on long-term total returns for unitholders. So what happens within 1 year I don't think is that relevant. What I'm very happy about when I look at that slide is our relative outperformance over 5 years and over 3 years is much stronger than it is over 1 year. And it's my hope and it is my goal to stand up here every year and point to that same outperformance over the longer term. So these are the objectives and priorities we laid out in early 2022 for the year. And as you can see, we've made pretty decent progress against all of those priorities so far, at least through the first quarter. But the fact is that the market has changed. We are in a far different market today than we were at the beginning of the year. And so what does that mean for us? Well, it means that we -- our immediate focus is on NAV, cash flow and balance sheet. That's what it means. And so specifically for 2022, our immediate focus is executing on our development projects, on budget and as much on time as we can, supply chain disruptions are making that difficult, but that's key. Leasing up our development projects, hopefully, ahead of pro forma. It means leasing up our upcoming expiries, hopefully ahead of budget, and driving NOI growth that way. And it means successfully executing on the sale of noncore assets and repatriating that capital and further helping our balance sheet. So market conditions can change, and I am optimistic that market conditions for Granite, in our sector, will improve in the second half of this year, but I wanted you to know our immediate focus is on those priorities. And that's what we're going to focus on until market conditions change. So on behalf of the Board of Trustees and our leadership team and our entire team at Granite, I wanted to thank you again for being here today, both in person and virtually. I look forward to doing this again in person next year. And on that, I'll open up the floor for any questions.

I'm Paul Green from Burlington. Just some thoughts, just one person speaking. During the COVID, of course, everybody is at home and looking on a computer screen to buy things and Amazon says free delivery. I have difficulty with that idea with today's gas prices that delivery is really free. I think as the COVID winds down, we're going back to the shopping centers. I think I already see that. The food court is a social thing. I refuse to buy a pair of shoes without trying them on. I would like to talk to the salesman in the department store and work the knobs and not just look at a little picture on a screen and sit and wait for it to come. I'm also read somewhere that the floor space that you need for home delivery in an industrial setting is 3x as much as what you need in the back room of the department store. So it strikes me that I think that industrial, there could be some kind of a correction in the demand for industrial space as people go back to shopping live. That's...

Is there a question in there, somewhere?

Well, what do you think that -- about what I just said?

Well, there's a few things to unpack there. In terms of consumer demand, of course, it could have -- changes in consumer demand, of course, could have an impact on our business. But I think one of the biggest things we're seeing in our sector is a transition from just-in-time to just-in-case sort of storage. So all of the tenants that we deal with and all the prospective tenants that we're dealing with, what their immediate concern right now is supply chain disruptions, interrupting their business in a very meaningful way. Meaning they now have to carry 5% to 10% more storage than they probably did before COVID. So that is having a positive impact on our business, the need for more storage. And for example, I think you mentioned Amazon. Amazon made an announcement recently that they had too much space. But that wasn't a surprise to us or unexpected given the sort of absorption that they went through in 2020. They absorbed 100 million square feet themselves in the U.S. themselves as a single tenant. So it's not a surprise to see them and a few others having excess space at the time. But the fact is that the amount of activity we're seeing in the market from tenants that need additional space is meaningful. So even if there is a change in behavior and a reduction in consumer demand for space, we're already in a very, very healthy market. We could afford for the demand or the growing demand right now or incremental demand to drop by 20%, 30%, and we would still have a very healthy balance between occupier demand and supply in our space. So I am feeling good about the sector. I'm not trying to downplay the concerns. We're just in a very strong position right now. And I think we have to conduct our business looking out and thinking about what happened, what could happen to be negative, and that's why I made the comments I did about how we're how we're looking at business over the next 3 months or 4 months versus the way we were looking at it at the beginning of the year or 2021.

Okay. I've got another question, but I'll let somebody else go if they want. Okay. There was an article in the paper and it's a while back. And it says that the small retailer in downtown Toronto simply can't afford the rent increases that is being passed and he's closing his store. Now I'm sure that's not everybody, but is that -- as a small retailer does that, close the door, is that business going to online? Or is it going to other bigger stores or shopping centers? Where is that momentum redirected?

I can't speak for major retail centers or that sector. What I can tell you is that e-commerce has had an impact on a number of businesses as they move online. And again, maybe more to your earlier question, companies moving to online delivery is a way of life. You had mentioned not buying shoes online, neither would I. But that's not today's consumer, they are very comfortable shopping online. That is certainly having an impact on all retail businesses, including the small ones, but I can't speak to what impact that's having in large box stores.

Well, I would think that there's certainly a lot of older people that really aren't online and they're carrying on the way they always did.

And they can. And they can. And they have that option. And we still have the option to go to the malls. And I think to just one final point maybe for the whole audience. Certainly, we're seeing a return to the mall. We're seeing a resurgence, look at the travel industry right now. And I don't think that, that was unexpected either. I think everyone's clamoring to get out and return to normal and see. But I think when things settle down, I think the trajectory of e-commerce is going to continue, maybe not as fast as it did in '19, '20, but it's going to continue to increase. Any other questions?

There are no questions on the webinar.

Okay. All right. That's all I had. Again, thanks, everyone, for showing up.