Operator
Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Grand City's results call for the first quarter of 2026. You can view this presentation on Grand City's website, either on the home section, or under Financial Reports of the Investor Relations section.
With me today will be Chairman and Director, Christian Windfuhr, CEO Refael Zamir, CFO Idan Hadad, and CCMO Michael Bar-Yosef. For the duration of the call, all participants will be on a listen-only mode.
Following our presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. Please feel free to send us your questions via email, also during the presentation.
The email address is [email protected]. With that, I would like to hand you over to Christian to start with the presentation.
Christian Windfuhr
Thank you very much, and welcome to our Q1 2026 results presentation. We are happy to present our first quarter financial results, which marked another quarter of solid operating growth.
The economic environment and expectations are currently being shaped by ongoing geopolitical developments in the world, resulting in heightened volatility in financial markets. Despite the volatility, we have so far continued to see positive and open transactions and capital markets, on the back of strong operating results.
That being said, we continue to maintain a solid financial position, which provides us with firepower for external growth if attractive opportunities arise, and for downside protection in case markets deteriorate. On the operational side, we continue to see strong and supportive fundamentals in our portfolio locations, benefiting from several long-term drivers, with demand for housing remaining strong and supply remains constrained.
Supported by the strong supply and demand fundamentals, we recorded another quarter of solid rental growth, which reached 3.5% on a like-for-like basis, with vacancy remaining at structurally low levels of 3.6%. We continue to see a positive pathway to continue unlocking rental growth, further supported by the high revisionary potential within our portfolio.
We have also strengthened our financial profile further in 2026, with a new perpetual notes issuance and tender offer concluded after the first quarter, with next call dates only in 2031. Our strong financial position gives us further confidence to navigate potential market volatilities.
As we improved our financial position in recent periods and see ourselves well positioned despite market uncertainties, we will propose for the AGM a dividend payment of 30 cents per share for the year 2025. Looking ahead, we are updating the dividend policy to 50% of FFO 1 per share.
We believe this new updated policy is a good balance between an attractive dividend for our investors and positioning the company well for long-term value creation. We continue to take a prudent approach, which will enable us to maintain a very strong balance sheet with large buffers to any market turbulences that may come.
With this, I'd like to hand over to Refael.
Refael Zamir
Thank you, Christian, and good morning. With that, I would like to move forward to slide number 3.
On slide 3, we present a summary of our key financial results for the first quarter of the year. Operational growth remains strong, recording rental growth of 2% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 1% year-over-year, resulting in €86 million adjusted EBITDA.
FFO 1 is in line with our expectation at €46 million, in comparison to €48 million in Q1 2025. Our strong balance sheet was reflected in our LTV ratio of 32% as of March 2026.
We note that a full portfolio revaluation was conducted as part of the 2025 annual report, and we did not conduct a portfolio revaluation as part of the Q1 2026. Net debt to EBITDA and the interest coverage ratio remain strong at 8.3 factor and 4.8 factor, respectively.
We also maintained a strong liquidity position of €1.6 billion as of March 2026. The strong operational performance and financial position places us well to navigate potential market volatility and provide a solid foundation for which we can continue to grow.
The net profit for the first quarter of 2026 is €42 million, reflecting 17 cents earning per share, in comparison to a net profit of €88 million and 35 cents per share a year ago, mainly due to the revaluation gain previous year. EPRA NTA remained stable at €4.5 billion, or €25.70 per share, impacted mainly by strong operational performance.
Our portfolio performance remains strong, with a low vacancy rate of 3.6% and in-place rent at €9.80 per square meter as of March, slightly higher compared to €9.70 per square meter at the end of 2025. Recording like-for-like rental growth which 3.5%, driven primarily by in-place rent increase.
We will present more details on those KPIs later. Moving to slide 4, where we provide an update on the dividend.
Over the past years, we have taken several measures in order to ensure the successful navigation of different market conditions. Those included a suspension of a payment of dividend, as well as other measures such as execution of selected disposal, focus on cash generation, and opportunistic buyback of debt at discounts.
As a result, we are now in a much stronger position, with a very solid balance sheet that allowed us to resume a distribution of dividend. Accordingly, at the next annual general meeting, we will propose dividend of 30 cents per share, reflecting a 3.2% dividend yield.
Going forward, we adjust the dividend policy to 50% of FFO 1. We view the proposed dividend and adjustment to the payout ratio as a good balance that will allow the company to maintain a strong financial position from which it can drive accretive growth, while providing shareholders with an attractive dividend yield.
With that, I would like to hand over to Michael.
Michael Bar-Yosef
Thank you, Rafi, and good morning also from my side. On slide 5, we present our achievements regarding the perpetual notes transaction conducted after the reporting period.
We issued in April a €600 million new perpetual notes, and in parallel, launched a tender offer on the outstanding €602.7 million perpetual notes with the first call date in June this year. Following the results of the tender, only an immaterial amount of the June 2026 perpetual notes remains outstanding, which is to be called shortly.
Following the call, all perpetual notes of GCP will have equity content under S&P's methodology. Despite the impact of increased market uncertainty on interest rates, the perpetuals were issued at a favorable spread, resulting in an issuance within the range we expected for the guidance.
This transaction completes the exercise initiated in the end of last year, in which we issued a new note and bought back perpetual notes with higher coupons, while also starting partial refinancing of the 2026 notes. Following these transactions, we have refinanced the full perpetuals note stack, with the next call date only in 2031, providing increase clarity and limiting potential negative impacts from the market volatility.
On slide 6, we present some details on the changes in our company shareholder structure following the voluntary exchange offer launched by Aroundtown. As presented in our full-year results, Aroundtown, the largest shareholder of the company, launched a tender offer by which other shareholders could exchange GCP shares and receive Aroundtown shares.
Following the completion of the exchange offer in April, Aroundtown increased its holding in the company to approximately 81.5%. Members of the management and Board of Directors of GCP also participated in the exchange and tendered their shares.
We welcome the support received by Aroundtown, and note that while Aroundtown's holding has increased, GCP is expected to continue to operate with financial independence, as we have done prior to the offer. We also note that Aroundtown has not indicated its intent to make changes to the existing governance structure, and thus the Board of Directors remain unchanged.
With that, I bring back to Refael.
Refael Zamir
Thank you, Michael. Moving to portfolio and operational results and starting with slide 8, where we present key data on the German residential market.
As it is highlighted on the slide, the German house market faces a structural supply-demand imbalance. Both the number of approved permits and completion remain low, while demand for housing remain high, especially in metropolitan areas.
Accordingly, the amount of available apartments stay low, and asking rent continue to show an increased track over the past periods. Those fundamental continue to impact our portfolio positively, reinforcing its resilience and growth potential.
Slide 9 highlights the strong fundamental of the London residential market. The regulatory environment allows rental prices to reflect the underlying market fundamental more quickly.
Looking at houses prices, we see that supply and demand remain healthy, especially in affordable and mid-income regions, which is focus on our portfolio. In London, we also see a downward path in the number of completion and approvals, further supporting asking rent and portfolio value going forward.
All in all, fundamental in London remain strong. Turning to slide 10, where we provide an overview of our portfolio.
As of the end of March, our investment property portfolio totaled €9 billion and approximately 60,000 units, nearly unchanged from December 2025. Berlin remain our largest location, representing 23% of the portfolio, followed by London at 21% of our portfolio, NRW at 19%, and the Dresden, Leipzig, Halle region at 14%.
The remaining exposure is well diversified across other strong metropolitan areas. We did not revaluate our portfolio in Q1 2026, and we will revaluate our portfolio as part of our H1 2026 results.
The portfolio did not change materially during the period. We completed €13 million of disposals, mainly in non-core German locations.
As part of our ongoing capital recycling strategy, we have signed during Q1 2026 €75 million of acquisition in Germany, which was closed after the reporting period. This comes in addition to another €100 million new build turnkey portfolio in London, signed in Q4 2025, and partially completed already in May, and with the second part expected to be completed at the end of Q3 this year.
Those transactions are being completed at attractive yields, driven strong and accretive external growth. Slide 11 highlights the continued strength of the operational performance, supported by favorable market fundamentals.
Our in-house management platform continue to drive operational and financial improvement across digital and automation processes, such as invoice scanning, tenant service, cash and contract management, and more. At the same time, ongoing supply-demand imbalance in Germany major metropolitan area and London continue to support rental growth.
This is reflected in in-place rent, which have grown at a CAGR of 4.6% since end of 2021, reaching €9.80 per square meter as of March 2026. On a like-for-like basis, total net rent growth increased to 3.5% as of March 2026, driven primarily by in-place rent growth of 3.3%.
In-place rent growth can be broken down further into 1.4% indexation and 1.9% re-letting. Vacancy remains structurally low at 3.6%.
In Germany, like-for-like rental growth reached to 3.2%, reflecting the supporting long-term fundamental across our location, and the ongoing ability to progress rents within the regulatory framework, with the strongest performance recorded in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz, and Dresden, Leipzig, Halle, as well as in Wuppertal and Cologne. In London, like-for-like rental growth was just under 5%.
Following an exceptionally strong period, growth has stabilized at healthy point, while vacancy in London remained below 3%, highlighting continued tight market conditions. The portfolio remained well positioned for further upside of 20%, with annualized market rent potential of €520 million, compared with the current annualized net rent of €432 million.
Looking ahead, we expect future like-for-like growth to be driven primarily by re-letting and operational improvement. Now I hand over to Idan to present the financial results.
Idan Hadad
Thanks, Refael. On slide 13, we present our P&L results for Q1 2026.
In Q1 2026, net rental income increased by 2% to €109 million, driven primarily by strong like-for-like rental growth. The increase was partially offset by the impact of net disposals between the periods.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 1% to €86 million, supported by higher rental income, which was partially offset by slightly higher operating expenses. Finance expenses increased by €2 million, mainly as a result of new debt raised in 2025 and the higher costs of bank financing.
We recorded a profit of €42 million in Q1 2026. Earning per share for the period came in at €0.17.
Turning to slide 14, our FFO 1 and 2 results. FFO 1 amounted to €46 million in Q1.
The result was mostly negatively impacted by higher finance expenses, which offset the increase in the adjusted EBITDA and the lower perpetual notes attribution. As a reminder here, after the reporting period, we successfully refinanced our 2026 perpetual notes.
While the transaction we completed in December last year mitigates some of the increase, FFO 1 will be impacted by higher perpetual note attribution going forward, with a partial impact in 2026 and full impact from 2027 onwards. FFO 1 per share was €0.26, compared to €0.27 in Q1 2025.
FFO 2 amounted to €48 million, lower compared to €100 million in Q1 2025, due to the lower disposal volume compared to Q1 2025. On slide 15, we present an update on our maintenance and capex activities.
Our focus remains on enhancing the overall asset quality of the portfolio. Total investment amounted to €6.70 per square meter, compared with €6.40 per square meter in Q1 2025.
Of this amount, €5.10 per square meter relates to repositioning capex, and €1.60 per square meter to maintenance. We invested €8 million in pre-letting modifications.
These investments include the creation of new rental space and other measures that fall outside repositioning capex, and are intended to support additional rental income in upcoming periods. In Q1 2026, we also invested €1 million in modernization projects.
These targeted upgrades are designed to improve the quality and appeal of our properties, helping to support higher rental levels. Examples including adding balconies, installing elevators, and upgrading technical infrastructure to ensure reliable power, water, and heating supply.
Investments aimed at improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions, such as window replacements and heating system upgrades, are allocated based on the specific nature and the scope of each project. AFFO for the period was €27 million, lower compared to €29 million recorded in Q1 2025, due to lower FFO 1 and slightly higher repositioning capex recorded during the quarter.
On slide 16, we present an update on our EPRA NAV metrics. EPRA NRV per share was slightly higher at €29.
EPRA NTA per share was slightly higher at €25.70. EPRA NDV per share increased by 2% to €23.70.
EPRA NAV metrics were mainly impacted by the operational performance recording during the period, while EPRA NDV was additionally impacted by the geopolitical uncertainty, driving volatility in financial markets and resulting in a lower net fair value of debt. On slide 18, we turn to our financial profile.
Our LTV ratio remains low at 32%, broadly stable compared to year-end 2025. The EPRA LTV ratio, which treats perpetual notes as debt, also remains stable at 44%.
While the low leverage provides greater flexibility to capture external growth, we expect to continue unlocking external growth primarily through accretive capital recycling in the coming periods. We remain committed to maintaining a conservative financial profile, which is the core pillar of our business strategy, and we view as a key driver of the company's long-term success.
The ICR stands at 4.8 times. In addition, €6.4 billion, or 71% of the portfolio, remains unencumbered, ensuring strong access to bank financing.
As of March 2026, cash and liquid assets totaled €1.6 billion, and as a result, we do not have refinancing pressure for the upcoming periods. Our cost of debt remains low at 2.1%, with an average debt maturity of 4 years, or 5.8 years when adjusting for the debt already covered by our strong liquidity position.
With this, allow me to hand over to Christian to conclude the presentation.
Christian Windfuhr
Thank you, Idan. Allow me to point out that in the appendix of our presentation, you will find more detail on our strategy, our portfolio distribution, and some more data on the portfolio, German and London housing markets in general, ESG, and more.
On slide 20, I would like to confirm our FFO guidance for 2026 with an updated dividend policy. Our Q1 results were in line with expectations, and the perpetual notes were issued with a coupon which was within our expected guidance range.
From Q2 onward, we will see the impact of the new notes on our FFO 1. As a result, we continue to expect FFO 1 in the range of €175 to €185 million.
While internal and external growth is expected to increase EBITDA more than offsetting the impact from last year's disposals, FFO is expected to be slightly lower in 2026 compared to 2025. This is due to a higher attribution from the perpetual notes resulting from the transaction we just finalized, which has been partially mitigated by the December 2025 transaction, as well as higher finance expenses related to debt raised last year and lower expected interest income.
For 2026, therefore, our guidance is as follows: like-for-like rental growth of around 3.5%, FFO 1 in the range of €175 to €185 million, translating into an FFO 1 per share in the range of 99 cents to €1.05, dividend in the range of 50 to 53 cents following our updated dividend policy, and as always, we aim to maintain our strong balance sheet and will keep our LTV below 45% internal limit. Thank you for your attention, and allow me now to move on to Q&A.
Operator
Thank you. Before we invite your direct telephone questions, we would like to answer questions that we have received by email prior to this call.
For simplicity reasons, the team has taken liberty to group similar questions in order to answer as many questions as possible. Allow me now to read out these questions: What is your view on the geopolitical events and the impact on GCP?
Christian Windfuhr
The geopolitical developments create the ongoing volatility in markets, but overall, we see the potential negative impact currently as manageable. Our portfolio locations benefit from strong fundamentals, and therefore we don't observe a material negative impact on our operations.
We also continue to monitor developments in capital markets and interest rates, which have clearly been impacted, but we note that we are in a solid financial position due to the measures we have taken in recent years, with €1.6 billion in cash and liquid assets, which cover debt maturities in 2026 and 2027, and a low leverage and a large share of unencumbered assets. Moreover, 95% of our debt is hedged, further limiting the negative impact from volatility.
Despite the increased uncertainty since then, our bonds spread remained mostly stable, and we take comfort in the fact that the capital market remains open with strong investor demand. We have also seen transaction volumes continue and not put on mute as we have seen last year, when rates spiked due to Liberation Day and the German fiscal expansion.
Seeing both capital and transaction markets open gives us comfort that the current environment is not creating any significant disruption to access to liquidity or to our business.
Operator
How do you currently assess the impact of the proposed tenant law changes on your operations and rental growth outlook? Do you see any impacts from the renewed expropriation and rent cap discussions in Berlin?
Christian Windfuhr
We continue to view the regulatory environment as broadly supportive of our long-term operating framework, and we do not expect these topics to have a material impact on our business based on what is currently known. On a federal level, we continue to see the focus on increasing supply and reducing the red tape, rather than putting pressure on regulations.
On the new tenant law, the legislation remains in development, and based on the current draft concepts, we continue to expect the impact on us to be immaterial. A potential cap on indexed rents would not be meaningful given the very limited share of indexed leases in our portfolio, and our rental growth assumptions within the Mietspiegel framework are unchanged.
Likewise, proposed adjustments around short-stay furnished units do not meaningfully affect us. Less than 2% of our rental income comes from short-stay and serviced apartments, and roughly half of that business is in London.
We use short-term leases selectively where there is customer demand, and we retain flexibility to shift to long-term contracts if required. Regarding the discussion on expropriation and rent caps in Berlin, we see this mostly driven by the upcoming elections and continue to view both measures with skepticism.
We keep monitoring discussions, which remain very populistic. We continue to view supply as the main solution, and measures aimed at simplifying new constructions or conversions, such as Bau-Turbo, to be more effective.
Operator
How are you positioning the acquisitions and disposals strategy in the current market environment, and what are the priorities for capital recycling across Germany and London?
Refael Zamir
External growth remain focus on disciplined capital recycling and highly selective acquisitions, where we see pure value creation and FFO growth, while preserving balance sheet strength. In Germany, accretive acquisition remain relatively few, and the market is not showing substantial volume of discounted opportunities.
That said, we expect that pipeline to improve in the mid-term gradually as open-ended funds continue portfolio cleanups and as some asset may come to the market via the mortgage banking system. Until then, we remain very selective with FFO growth as the key investment criteria.
The market is showing resilience is encouraging for the business, but provide us with limited external growth opportunities. That said, we are well positions with liquidity, flexibility, and execution capabilities to act quickly and efficiently when good opportunities arise.
In London, the opportunity set is potentially more attractive. In general, financial maturities are shorter in the UK at 3 to 4, 3 to 4-5 years, compared to 10 years plus in Germany, which is starting to create refinancing pressure, particularly among smaller developers.
This situation continue to create entry point in high-quality, well-located asset at compelling risk-adjusted pricing. Our track record and execution capabilities support access to those opportunities, and signed acquisition are expected to begin contributing when the project are completed.
Our current pipeline in London is slightly lower than previous period as we have executed large transaction in the end of 2025, and have seen further stability in the London market. We remain well positioned to capture those opportunities once they arrived, and can act efficiently and swiftly as done successfully in the past.
We have signed in 2025 an acquisition of a turnkey new build portfolio in London for €100 million, which is completed in two stages. The first half has been just recently completed, and the letting of the building has begun, and the second half is expected to be completed at the end of the third quarter this year.
This new build portfolio is expected to be fully let in few months, and we are expected for an annual rental of €7.5 million, contributing partially to operating result as early as 2026, and fully in 2027. We reiterate that we do not set a fixed volume of disposal or acquisition targets.
The strategy remain opportunistic and guided by several main points such as pricing, asset quality, and reinvestment potential.
Operator
How do you assess valuation prospects for the coming reporting periods, and what is the outlook for yields movements, including potential yield compression?
Idan Hadad
We do semi-annual valuations of the full portfolio, and the next valuation is scheduled for H1 2026. Market conditions remain stable.
While we see higher liquidity and an increased volume of transactions in the past 18 months, the market continues to be dominated by smaller deals, with few larger portfolio transactions. In our view, for the coming periods, value development is expected to be primarily driven by organic operating performance.
The base case assumption remains that yields remain broadly stable. However, it is still early to indicate how markets will develop as the Iran conflict continues.
The longer the conflict will be, the likelier it is to see inflation pick up, which could translate into potential pressure on interest rates. While selective yield changes cannot be excluded, we see potential yield expansion as gradual and more than offset by operational growth.
Operator
Have you seen changes in your financing conditions in recent months?
Michael Bar-Yosef
We continue to see strong access to capital markets, with spreads on our bonds remaining broadly stable at a low level. We also continue to observe stable conditions in secured bank financing, benefiting from established relationships with a large amount of banks and a large pool of unencumbered assets.
Looking forward, we have no near-term refinancing needs, with our strong liquidity position being more than sufficient to cover bond maturities for the current and next year. However, we remain open to issuing debt in the context of liability management exercise if the conditions are favorable.
Operator
Could you provide some more detail on your dividend decision? Why did you update your dividend policy?
Refael Zamir
In recent period, GCP improved its financial position, lowering its leverage and maintaining a robust balance sheet. On this stronger backdrop, we will propose in the AGM a dividend payout of 30 cents per share, which we see a good balance between shareholder distribution and cash preservation for growth initiatives.
Looking ahead, we are updating the dividend policy to 50% of FFO 1 per share. We believe this new update policy is good balance between an attractive dividend for our investors and positioning the company well for long-term value creation.
We continue to take a prudent approach, which will enable us to maintain a very strong balance sheet with a large buffer to any market instability that may come.
Operator
Those were the questions that we received prior to this call. We can now start with the open session for your questions.
We would appreciate if you can ask all your questions at once, and we will answer them one by one. Anyone has a question from the phone may press star and 1 at this time.
The first question from the phone comes from the line of Neeraj Kumar, Barclays. Please go ahead.
Neeraj Kumar
Morning, everyone. Two questions on my side.
First one, your LTV is materially below the Board of Directors limit of 45%. Just wanted to check if you see any merit in changing that to lower levels if you plan to run at current leverage, or you see potential of higher leverage in coming years towards the Board of Directors limit?
My second question is on your cash position. Do you expect to run it around current cash balance and refinance upcoming €1 billion of bond maturities through new bond issuance, or shall we expect a bit of change in strategy over there?
Thank you.
Michael Bar-Yosef
Thank you, Neeraj, for your questions. On LTV, yeah, that's correct, our LTV is at 32%, well below the limit set by the Board of Directors of 45%.
It's a upper limit, right? We seek to keep it at that level.
On the other hand, we're also very happy to maintain a prudent and conservative LTV around the level we are now. As to your second question on the cash, yeah, as we mentioned before, the strategy remains the same.
We intend to use the cash that we have now for the upcoming maturities. We might come with a new issuance later on, but that will be as part of a liability management on the back also of repayments of future bonds.
Christian Windfuhr
Thank you very much for your participation in the call, and we look forward to meeting you in future conferences. With this, I wish you from the team here a very successful remainder of the week.
Bye-bye.
Already premium?