Operator
Hello and welcome to Gecina Business at September 30th, 2026. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode.
During the questions-and-answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialling pound key five on their telephone keypad. Today we have Beñat Ortega, CEO, and Nicolas Dutreuil, Deputy CEO in charge of finance, as our presenters.
I will now hand you over to your host, Beñat Ortega, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Beñat Ortega
Good morning, everyone. We are pleased to update you on our activity over the first nine months of 2026.
We have all seen how market conditions have evolved this year and we have worked hard to deal positively with the situation on three fronts: our future revenues, our cost of capital, and energy. I would like to use my time to highlight where Gecina fits within this evolving environment.
On the revenues side, we have achieved a record Q3 leasing activity in our office portfolio with 92,000 square meters of renewal and lettings, representing now 140,000 square meters since the beginning of the year. It's one of the strongest performances in a decade.
It also shows that our portfolio is not following market averages, which we meant to do. We have talked a lot about polarization recently and it's only getting stronger.
It plays on two levels: when tenant decide to relocate, on the best transportation hubs and on the highest-quality buildings. This is the lens through which I would read our figures.
I would like to draw four points from it. First, the quality of the mix of our leasing achievements: more than half of the volume comes from new tenants choosing our platform because they better fit their needs, and the rest from existing tenants that agree to stay longer in our buildings.
We work both on attracting new customers and on securing our tenant base. Second, visibility: these leases secure around €91 million of annual rent with an average maturity of six years.
Third, La Défense: as you saw on Monday, we signed two long-term leases on building B and ADAMAS, ensuring full occupancy for both buildings. The best assets attract the best tenants in a selective market.
This is the dynamic we want to build on for Shape, the former T1 tower occupied by ENGIE, in the near future. Fourth, we have a further 40,000 square meters in advanced discussions, including assets from our development pipeline where the next phase of growth will come from.
Our YouFirst portfolio has even been more successful. We signed 1,050 leases over the period driven by the new offerings You are now familiar with furnished serviced apartments with 1,250 units deployed and shared apartments.
Let me turn now to our revenues. Like-for-like growth of 1.7% comes from both offices and residential, and it is well above indexation.
Occupancy is high and sustained at 94% with a record 97.4% in Central Paris and Neuilly. Over the years, we have deliberately refocused the portfolio on central areas where reversion is strongly positive at 11% on renewals and relettings.
In other areas where market rents are not following indexation, we have accelerated resetting rents to market levels in '26 and '27 in exchange of long-term commitments and better occupancy, like we have just done in La Défense. On indexation, the slow down continued as expected before the recent pick-up in inflation starts to feed through to the rents at the end of 2027 or in early 2028.
Regarding our cost of capital, our cost to operate, before the summer, we secured €1.5 billion of funding. First, €700 million of bonds at pre-summer market conditions: a €500 million benchmark in May, and €200 million of taps of existing bonds.
Second, half a billion euro of new or extended undrawn credit facilities. Together, this refinanced nearly all our 2027 maturities and strengthened our liquidity.
Third, more than €330 million disposals at an average net dilutive impact of 2.9%. We have done this while commenting on our eye-catching, accretive developments, which we are delivering on time and on budget.
In a higher-rent environment, this anticipation and discipline prepares growth from 2028 onwards. Last message for this call is a word on sustainability.
Gecina has ranked first in its peer group in GRESB. These results reflect the same intensity in execution that we are applying everywhere else in the business on three fronts.
First, energy consumption, where we pay close attention to details: building by building, we work on operation, equipment settings, and the daily performance of our assets to produce lasting savings. Second, the energy mix: we are steadily shifting towards cleaner sources of energy across the portfolio and less carbonized.
Third, transformation: where it makes sense, we don't just optimize the building, we transform it so that it meets tomorrow's standards in terms of performance and carbon. At a time where energy bills become critical, occupying a Gecina building means lower energy consumption and more future-proof buildings for our tenants.
For our investors, it means lower obsolescence risk and section of asset value. To conclude this short introduction, our 2026 guidance is confirmed with a recurring net income group share between €6.7 and €6.75 per share.
Thank you, and we are happy to take your questions. If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad.
If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six.
Operator
The next question comes from Florent Laroche-Joubert from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Florent Laroche-Joubert
Hello, Beñat. Thank you for this introduction.
I will have two questions and I can ask them one by one. My first question is to come back to your leasing activity.
It has been as strong as we have been able to see it on your press release. When we look at your occupancy rate for your offices, it's well oriented on the last six months basis, but not yet on a year-to-year basis.
What can we expect, maybe, for the period to come with regard to your occupancy rate in offices?
Beñat Ortega
I think I gave a range between a 93% and 95% average occupancy for our office portfolio, which is a good target for the company. It might fluctuate from the departures and arrival.
Obviously, what we have worked a lot during this quarter, and obviously since many months is, in fact, also to secure occupancy in advance. Part of the leasing activity there, like you saw in La Défense, was anticipating the departure of ENGIE from the B tower in '27, mid-'27, and to re-lease that in '28 to new tenants.
We have extended leases, renewed some stuff. It's the way to cope with this average occupancy is also always to anticipate, engage with our clients, and at the same time, catch the tenants which are looking for better space, but also retain our clients.
Florent Laroche-Joubert
Okay. That's clear.
Thank you. My second question, would be more on your investment activity.
I don't know if you can say a word on that, and maybe link to this question, so, how do you anticipate the exercise by appraisers to value your assets at the end of the year, given that we have been able to see some increase of the interest rates?
Beñat Ortega
I think the rise in interest rates has rather fanned the investment market, let's say, which was not super active anyway. We see a pretty quiet investment market, since the beginning of September.
We have to see how it plays out. I think what comes with the rise in interest rate is also more inflation that is not yet in our cash flow, obviously, as because it takes time before the index applicable to leases capture that inflation, and then the full-year impact.
I think what comes with interest rate rise is also inflation. We have to see how all that plays out.
That will be for the next months.
Florent Laroche-Joubert
Complex. Yeah.
Have you already had some discussions with your appraisers on this, huh?
Beñat Ortega
Not yet.
Florent Laroche-Joubert
Okay. Thank you very much.
Beñat Ortega
Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from Valérie Jacob from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Valérie Jacob
Hi. Good morning.
I've got a couple of questions. My first question is on your lettings.
If you could share, what is the impact of all the renewals and relettings you've done since the beginning of the year? What would be the impact on the rent roll overall for next year?
Also, if there is any asset that was added to the pipeline where we would begin to lose rents that we should know about. That's my first question.
Beñat Ortega
Like I said, I think what we try to cover is obviously keeping the occupancy high. Part of those have been to retain tenants.
We might have some departures. Some of them were already known typically in Colombes, where we lose Oracle in Colombes that has moved to Parisian assets early this year.
I think, yeah, we will have some departures. Obviously, ENGIE will depart, at least we will lose the rents of ENGIE mid-June next year.
We lose also rents on that one, and we capture the rents from the new tenants more in '28 than in '27. It will be a year like we said during the different calls earlier, a year of transition before we can kick our revenues up through the development pipeline and the average occupancy of the portfolio.
Valérie Jacob
Okay. Just one follow-up on ENGIE because I saw the termination fee was amortized over '26, and you said you will receive rent in '27 as well.
Is it correct or?
Beñat Ortega
Yeah. It's a series of different indemnities that we have amortized through the P&L.
Let's say that the deal with ENGIE is the fact that we can take back the premises on the tower earlier, from April '26. Let's say, in accounting and the cash collection is equivalent to the situation prior to the deal with ENGIE.
We have collected, basically, in '26 the amounts that they were supposed to pay us for '26, and we will collect in '27 the amount that they were supposed to pay us in '27. It's through indemnities and not rent, but it's the same P&L and cash impact like if the lease would have continued until the end.
Valérie Jacob
That's clear. My second question is so you've done a lot of lettings, but can you give us an update on lettings on your development pipeline?
What can we expect? How your talks are progressing and what are your expectations?
Thank you. I think the
Beñat Ortega
obviously, the general market is not super active these days in Paris. I think the country is in a wait-and-see mode before elections.
What I would say is that you have seen in our results, we have leased almost 75,000 square meters of new space to new clients. That's in line with our annual average of the last year, while the market has gone down.
We have probably doubled our market share in terms of lettings, against what was happening in the previous years. We are working hard.
I think our products, especially on the pipeline, are relevant. We have good discussions.
Similar to what I said late July, but obviously between late July and early October, there is September in France. August is rather quiet.
We are progressing well. Like we said, we have some discussions quite well advanced.
Hopefully, we will have good news, but it takes time. We are working hard on this and hope to satisfy all our investors as soon as possible.
Valérie Jacob
Thank you very much. Very clear.
Thank you.
Beñat Ortega
You're welcome, Valérie.
Operator
The next question comes from Thomas Rothaeusler from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Thomas Rothaeusler
Hi. Good morning.
I've got two questions. The first one is on the higher interest rate in boy and general.
Just wondering if you could elaborate a bit more on the potential impacts on your business, like on financing costs, property values, disposal, maybe also on your CapEx plan. The second question actually is on pre-lets.
Maybe you could provide some more color on the pre-letting progress and where you stand with regards to leasing negotiations.
Beñat Ortega
On the pre-let, Thomas, I just referred to where we stand to Valérie. I think, yeah, we have advanced discussions.
They are progressing correctly. We have good visits, good interest for the project.
Regarding the interest rates evolution, I think that you listed a bit all the potential outcomes of an interest rate increase into REIT. Obviously, it impacts our future financing costs.
I think one should not take the immediate interest rates to calibrate what's the future of funding costs. We try to anticipate those situations.
Typically, when we issued a bond in May, in fact, we were refinancing a year and a half almost the bond expiring in '27. We saw a good tension on our bonds late July early August, so that we have even tapped some of our bonds for €200 million in preparation for the 2028 expiry so that not to take the full impact of the current interest rate increase.
I think, obviously, markets look day to day, but our business is a long-term business, and each time, we try to anticipate those elements. On that, some are not in our control, typically, you were referring to appraisals, that's independent appraisers.
What we have in our control, we try to anticipate, and that's typically what we have done on our funding activity early this year. The last element on CapEx, I think, we have like we referred to in our press release, we have a pipeline which is ongoing.
We are close to the end of those projects. We have roughly €400 million to finance short-term.
We have started this year by selling assets, and we will probably continue. It doesn't mean TV, but we will probably continue to do so.
That's a bit the view we have on that. Obviously, new CapEx for the future, we will be very careful, based on the current circumstances.
Thomas Rothaeusler
Thank you.
Beñat Ortega
You're welcome.
Operator
The next question comes from Stéphanie Dossmann from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Stéphanie Dossmann
Hello, Beñat. I have a question regarding your reversionary potential.
You give pretty different figures than previous period. I would like to understand how they compare to previous period.
I appreciate the geographical mix and let's say product mix matter, but I would like to gauge the evolution of rental reversion on a like-for-like basis. Could you please provide us with one or two figures which could be comparable to previous period?
Beñat Ortega
Two elements. You are referring to the uplift that we generate through our leasing activity.
Maybe two or three comments or color behind it. The first one is when we look at Paris, for example, we have achieved around €1,000 per square meter rent in average for our CBD portfolio.
It's rather in line with what was there. We are keeping quite high pace and high rents activity in the CBD.
That's first element. Second, I think the La Défense deal was a success signing 30,000 square meters of new clients in such a market was I think exceptional.
Obviously, market trends in La Défense had not followed inflation. I remind that the ENGIE lease was 12 years.
It was 12 years of inflation, we had to mark down the rent. I think it was a play, like I said, quite rational and anticipated by the market to get duration, occupancy, and get the rent we can get on those premises.
That plays rather flatish reversion, but with what you said, which is a geographical mix which was different from previous quarters or years.
Stéphanie Dossmann
Yeah. On the 11% rental uplift you have achieved in what you call central locations, how does it compare to central location rental regard [who?]
rental uplift in previous period? Is it increasing, decreasing, how do you feel the market in terms of rental uplift on the same kind of product and locations?
Beñat Ortega
Against the first half and last year, I think we are in the same range of rents. It depends on the maturity at which lease expires.
I would say, it's rather similar. For the best spots, we are still significantly increasing the rents.
I was reviewing the list of leases we have achieved this year and we can achieve for some deals, small on serviced offices, 100%, 120%, 140% rental uplifts for some locations. It's really depending on the mix of assets, mix of situation.
We are still delivering excellent results even on the CBD. In the average, I would say similar in terms of uplift to previous quarters.
In terms of rents, it's a bit similar, but very variable from a lease to another.
Stéphanie Dossmann
Okay. Understood.
My second questions is correlated to that. Regarding the demand and the structure of leases, you said that the average duration signed on leases was six years if I'm correct.
Can you explain what are the terms, lease structure? What does the six years mean?
Is it the firm lease period or because usually we sign like nine 10 nine, 10 years lease duration and with a maybe six years firm period? Can you elaborate on that, please?
Sure,
Beñat Ortega
for the large, I would say, head office, large-scale leases, we are more on the range of nine years. You saw that at La Défense deal was more close to 12 years.
We are always, when we talk about duration, in terms of firm duration. In France anyway, you can't sign leases below nine years, most of the leases are between nine to 12 years in terms of lease duration, but we communicate on firm.
Long-term leases for the large deals. Obviously, we have, for small surfaces inside the city, found better deals to go for more flexible needs, more serviced offices, where the average duration is more in the range of three years.
The mix of that is where you stand at six years firm.
Stéphanie Dossmann
Okay. Very clear.
Thank you so much.
Beñat Ortega
You're welcome.
Operator
The next question comes from Alexandre Xerri from Invest Securities. Please go ahead.
Alexandre Xerri
Hi, team. Thank you for taking my questions.
Just one on my side about the dividend guidance that you confirm during the half-year results. When the OAT was under five 4% that you target to increase the dividend gradually until 2030, but nowadays with OAT around 5%, can you confirm this guidance?
Beñat Ortega
I didn't really get it. What we have done this quarter is to confirm the guidance for 2026 in the range that we gave earlier this year.
Obviously, like I said on previous questions, we will a bit monitor what is the outcome of the interest rate and so on. Far, we are in line with the plan.
I think, leasing, like some of your colleagues asked, leasing on the pipeline is sounds positive, and that would be the way for us to overcome the rise in interest rates and generate sufficient revenue growth to sustain the dividend. Far, nothing specifically different from what we said in the previous quarters.
Alexandre Xerri
Especially on the dividend, you do not expect if the OAT stays at 5% to distribute less in order to.
Beñat Ortega
We have talked a
Alexandre Xerri
lot about that.
Beñat Ortega
We have talked a lot about our hedging portfolio. We have durations.
The taps we have done and the new bonds and so on, we still have bonds expiring in 2035, 2036. Obviously, the rise in interest rates will be progressive.
That doesn't mean it's a good news, huh? We try to cope with the situation.
One of the ways to cope with the situation is to work on our hedging portfolio and manage the situation. That's the environment in which we are.
Again, the pipeline should generate €80 to €90 million of rents, which is significant, and that's why over the next years, I'm not saying until eternity, but at least we have visibility over the next years on our funding costs thanks to that long-term hedging profile, and hopefully visibility also on the rents on the pipeline.
Nicolas Dutreuil
I don't know if you remember, but we disclose the mark to market of our fixed bond portfolio during our H1 results publication, which is something that you can look at for the [NBE?] calculation, the certainty, and it was €450 million.
It means that, as Beñat said, thanks to this bond mark-to-market portfolio, it gives an idea of the savings we will do in the future in terms of cost of financing compared to today's market conditions. We have not made the calculation for today, but because of the interest rate increase, it should be much higher than the €450 million.
Alexandre Xerri
Okay. Fine.
Thanks.
Operator
The next question comes from Neeraj Kumar from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Neeraj Kumar
Morning, everyone. I was looking at your recent S&P report, and looks like you are super close to the downgrade threshold when it comes to debt-to-debt plus equity.
You are at 39.9% as of H1 compared to the downgrade threshold of 40%. I wanted to check how well prepared you are to take down any valuations on the back of higher interest rates?
Debt to derating might be under pressure here, or you are open for other measures, such as reducing equity remuneration or accelerating disposals to preserve the rating if the values were to drop? Yeah.
Beñat Ortega
Thank you for your question. We have multiple layers of capacity to manage LTV at a company like us.
Good news, we have already experienced that situation in '22 and '23. Yes, we are close to the threshold.
That's why, on previous conversation we had with all of you, we talked a lot about Chabada, and that says, we need to be careful. The situation is volatile.
That plays out now. We will manage the situation.
I think there is a value creation embedded in our development pipeline. That should support.
We can work on inflation, obviously, and capture inflation through our rents. Obviously, interest rates will have an impact on valuation.
We will see how all that plays out. It's quite early to be fair.
It's complex, but we have already managed that situation two or three years ago, the rate increase was even higher. We will try to manage the situation.
Neeraj Kumar
Thanks for that. I think the bandwidth back then was much higher because you had much more headroom given you are closer to the downgrade threshold now.
Just wanted to check what kind of actions you're willing to take. No, thanks for that.
Helpful.
Beñat Ortega
You're welcome.
Operator
The next question comes from Michael Finn from Green Street. Please go ahead.
Michael Finn
Hi, thank you very much. I just want to touch on your discussion earlier about the cost of capital, which if I misheard, I think it was mainly focused on the cost of debt.
Which often overlooks the share price. I was just curious if you could shed a bit more light on how you consider the change in your share price over the year, and what that actually means to your business, and how are you tailoring what you're doing to the change in your share price effectively?
Beñat Ortega
I think there are many ways which are in our control, some a bit less, typically market sentiment. That's why we first focused on our cost of debt, which is a good layer of our cost of capital, anticipating the market moves, issuing bonds, securing debt financing, banking debt financing at similar costs in the past.
Then it's how to sustain the share price, which is rather depressed these days. That comes to all what we have been discussing, which is what is the future of our funding costs?
What is the future of our income? How can we reassure the market on the fact that our offices are way more appealing than the average of the portfolio.
I think there are many stuff that we need to work. That's why I said we work hard, in fact, to generate what can be reassuring for the market.
Michael Finn
Okay. Yeah.
Then I think in the past, and you've
Beñat Ortega
In terms of cash allocation, obviously, feeding our CapEx through disposals as we did, I think yeah, we try to play on all levers in fact to generate the growth our investors are expecting.
Michael Finn
Yeah. On the triangle that you've discussed in the past, I think you mentioned the balance sheet disposals and then the use of focus, what's your view on those two things?
Beñat Ortega
I didn't really catch your question. Assets we don't own?
Sorry. No.
Michael Finn
In the past, you've referred to a triangle of different options. The three options that you've always discussed have been the balance sheet, disposals, and then there's the use of the cash you get from selling assets.
I'm just curious if you could update me on how you currently see that, because in the past you've been adamant on how you saw those things, and obviously, lots has changed over the course of the year. I'm just curious if you could update me on how you currently see those things today, how you see those three different factors in your current business plan for the rest of the year and over the next year.
Beñat Ortega
I think the pipeline, we have three projects inside the city of Paris, one in Neuilly, we will have T1 tower, we have still CapEx to fund. Those projects are launched.
At the same time, the investment market is not super-efficient to be fair. We see more traction on the residential side than on the office side.
That's what you have seen in the figures since the beginning of the year. That could be probably the case until the end of the year.
I think we try to follow our path, which is obviously not easy to get, but I think we have the right teams and the right engagement with investors, and quite a diverse investor base to continue that path.
Michael Finn
Okay. Yeah.
It is obviously clear that the cost of debt is something that's obviously key, but I think as a business it probably would be better if you focus more on what's happened to your share price, not really what's going on with the cost of debt. Perhaps I might be totally wrong, that's my view.
That would be our view, but I think, in general, cost of debt is obviously key, rating is key of course, but I think if you focus more on your share price and the yield of what you trade, make calls based on that. That would be a better framing of those things, rather than just talking about the cost of debt.
Beñat Ortega
Yep. Thank you for that, Michael.
Operator
The next question comes from Ebrahim Homani from CIC. Please go ahead.
Ebrahim Homani
Hello, Beñat. Hello, Nicolas.
Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, if I may.
The first one is about the CapEx on Shape. Is the project cost secured by the contract you sign with Bouygues or is there any risk of higher cost?
My second question is on your ability to outperform the market index. Do you consider that you will continue to outperform this index during the next quarter even in inflationary environment?
Beñat Ortega
On the cost of Shape, we are finalizing studies. We took back the tower in April, dismantling a bit some facilities, making the full audit.
We are not fully secured on the cost, but we have great visibility. I have a meeting in two weeks on that.
The first findings from my team is that we will be aligned with our budget, ideally a bit lower. I would say it's a method also for my teams who are listening.
I think we will be very careful on the fact that we want to have that tower prime, because that's the best way to release faster. At the same time, not spend a fortune in it if it's not needed.
Far the audits are progressing well and we should finalize the discussion and fix the price of the contract probably in the next weeks.
Nicolas Dutreuil
Outperforming the market, I think that's what we try to do. We are an atypical player in the market, because we are in effect with integrated platforms.
We have both leasing teams, internal asset managers, internal works managers, internal energy experts. I think that's a bit the way.
We have less than 2% of the Paris region market, and we sign 7% or 7.5% of the market. We have a significantly higher market share than what we own, and for those reasons: one, the location of our assets; second, the quality of the building we do; and also, the intensity the teams can put all together to achieve this.
Just to give you a bit the magnitude of the energy we can put, in for the La Défense deals, we communicated on two leases. Behind those two leases, I think there are more than 10 agreements to make it happen: with the municipality to reassure the tenants on the quality of the common space around the tower; with some existing tenants to move them from a building to another; we achieve to cancel the lease of ENGIE for T1 tower, but that was not done for B, we had to engage also with ENGIE to do that; we have also agreements to make works.
It's a lot of work, and obviously having integrated teams plays a role. The two companies, you might have understood who it was.
It's people that have huge cybersecurity, security, privacy, complex works, because it's quite complex industries. Obviously, having a landlord like us with the internal teams capable to answer their questions and reassure them is a key driver for the decision-making process on the tenant side.
Hopefully we'll continue. At least we are very engaged for that.
Ebrahim Homani
Thank you very much, you guys.
Operator
As a reminder, if
Nicolas Dutreuil
you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. You're welcome.
Operator
There are no more questions at this time, I hand the conference back to Beñat Ortega for any closing comments.
Beñat Ortega
Thank you all for listening, for your questions. As you can see, we are very active in this complex environment, and hope to see you soon in the future.
Bye-bye.
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