Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Colonial SFL first quarter 2026 results presentation. The management of the company will run you through the presentation that will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
You can ask a question by phone by pressing star five on your telephone keypad. I would now like to introduce Mr.
Pere Viñolas, CEO of Colonial SFL. Please, sir, go ahead.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you. Good afternoon to everyone.
A pleasure to be again today here to share with you the results for the first quarter 2026. The team as usual with me: Carmina Ganyet, Chief Corporate Officer, and Carlos Krohmer, Chief Corporate Development Officer.
I am on page 4 of the presentation as introductory remarks. I believe that what we are sharing with you today is an outstanding set of results for this first quarter.
I would like, of course, to emphasize that this is a quarter where a number of events at the macro-political, macroeconomic and geopolitical level have happened that it creates a little bit of headwinds on the dynamics of the economy as a whole, also in the real estate industry. We have to say that the performance of our company during this quarter has remained totally resilient and with a very good performance.
If I had to summarize in a number you will see, Colonial, it is still about two things. One is pricing power.
Basically, what you will see, it's like-for-like rents, rental growth ahead of inflation, healthy numbers again. The second main characteristic is relative performance.
It's not that we are just following the general trend of what's going on in the real estate market. I think it's quite clear in the last few years that a polarization effect has come into place, and there are winners and losers, and companies that take advantage of this more and others less, and this clear relative performance, I think that it's very obvious in the case of Colonial SFL again.
Basically, what I'm summarizing in these introductory remarks is you will see through the presentation, first of all, strong leasing activity, superior rental growth, 3% rental growth in a quarter, a release spread of 7% driven by Paris portfolio, 18%, and the occupancy having a positive momentum reaching almost 200 basis points more than a year ago. The top-line revenue growth is growing 7%, as you will see, above peers.
The like-for-like growth, it's 4%, again, pricing power and leading the sector. The like-for-like net rental income, 4.5%, 260 basis points above indexation.
This is a performance of the P&L. Besides this, the basic outcome of this quarter in terms of balance sheet is a disposal program that is ahead of the plan and overall strengthening of the capital structure.
You will see that we have executed 70% of our disposal program year-to-date. The EPRA LTV is reduced by 180 basis points.
The rating has been reaffirmed by S&P. The bonds have been successfully placed.
This is with the support of the strategic pillars of Colonial, which is a clear positioning in prime CBD operations, which drive this cash flow growth, this pricing power. Second, the Alpha-X projects that are adding extra layers of growth, not so much now, but more and more in the near future, particularly next year.
Then the portfolio management and capital allocation decisions that are the third layer of return for shareholders. Page 5 is about the specific numbers.
We are finishing the first quarter with sustained cash flow growth: gross rental income, €104 million, 7% year-on-year; recurring EBITDA, €83 million, 5% year-on-year; the EPRA EPS, 8.7 cents, that means in line the full-year guidance that we previously announced. This is supported by an excellent operational outperformance: rental growth 3% in one quarter, that is compared to December 2025; release spread, 7%; occupancy, 93%, that is almost 200 basis points more than a year ago.
Finally, capital structure: strong credit rating reconfirmed, particularly S&P, which reconfirmed just recently the BBB+ rating; loan-to-value at 36.7%, 35.2% on EPRA LTV measure; financial costs still below 2%. These are the headlines I wanted to share with you.
Now, as usual, we go first through an analysis and description of the portfolio management, afterwards about the financial performance of the company. Please, Carlos, step in when you want.
Thank you.
Carlos Krohmer
Thanks very much, Pere. On page number 7, this first quarter has shown very, very strong leasing activity.
We've signed 37,000 square meters in this quarter that are equivalent to €17 million of annual rents that we've signed in the contracts. This is a year-on-year increase of 28% compared with the first quarter of the previous year.
What is really important to highlight is that this take-up, these contracts signed, have a very significant push from AI and tech tenants. We have really benefited in total demand in 36% of AI and tech activity, tenants that want to be really in the best places.
It's really an upside driver for our activity, 13,000 square meters signed out of this source of tenants. If we look then per business segments in terms of cities, Paris again, that's a very strong market in the prime asset class, we have signed €7.5 million; in Madrid and Barcelona, €5 million of rents secured.
Paris, €7.5 million on 7,500 square meters, so as you see, an average rent of all of the things that we signed at levels of €1,000 that are the levels of our prime assets. If we then go to the next page, we see at what pricing levels we have signed.
We see, no, the pricing power that our prime assets capture. Release spread: so when we renegotiate contracts with the tenants that are already in our portfolio, we had a very, very strong quarter.
We achieved an 18% release spread in Paris. Paris by far the strongest city in our portfolio in terms of the release spread.
What is also very important to emphasize is that in Madrid and Barcelona, that a year ago the release spread was flat because these markets have had higher inflation during the COVID times and the rents were more mark-to-market, we are now getting positive release spread, 2% in Madrid and 6% in Barcelona. When we then look to the second KPI, that is rental growth, when we look at all of the contracts signed, not just renewals, also the new space signed, what we're seeing is that we have signed an increase of 3.3% versus the market rent of all of these contracts and assets as of December 2025.
Just in three months, 3%, it's quite remarkable number because you have to think about it in annualized terms at the end. Just in three months we're already capturing rental growth, especially with the people that are already in our portfolio because they have no other place to go, and so we have signed very high rents with them.
If we then go to the next page, we see on the project pipeline on the recently released projects that we are progressing quite satisfactorily. On the left-hand side, we have the biggest project we have ever done, that is the Madnum urban mixed-use campus in Madrid.
As of today, we have let already 85% of the total premise, that is close to 60,000 square meters. Once fully stabilized, this will generate €21 million of annual rents.
We have 85% secured, but we are in quite advanced conversations on additional 7,000 square meters that will push this up to 97%, almost full occupancy. The 85% correspond to €17 million of annualized rents.
Q1 just has €3 million, there's a lot to come in the future. Then Haussmann is an asset that will deliver €13 million of rents.
As of today, we have 39% let, that corresponds roughly to €5 million, and we are having conversations on the remaining part for half of it in a more advanced stage. Finally, on page 10, what you see is the progress on the occupancy.
We see here the last three quarters, since Q3 2025 where we were at 91%, we are already, with all of the contracts that we secured today, at 93.3%. This is 200 basis points in two quarters, roughly 100 basis points per quarter.
Our product attracts, our product still is having strong letting momentum. An additional important element to remind: if we exclude Haussmann and Madnum, look in a way to a more like-for-like portfolio, the rest of the portfolio remains at 95% of occupancy, super high occupancy, that is a healthy occupancy ratio to have really in that activity.
You can see it basically on the maps on the right-hand side that almost all of the assets are at levels between 90% and 100%. Our portfolio is really a portfolio that always has high occupancy.
Pere Viñolas
Just to summarize, you can see: number one, great rental growth, almost 30% more than a year ago and supported by the technology sector, as a consequence of big upside in a strong letting momentum; higher occupancy, 200 basis points more than a year ago; as a consequence of higher occupancy and strong letting volume, higher rents, 3% rental growth in just a quarter with a lot of pricing power and well above inflation. Let's have a look now at financial performance.
Carmina, please.
Carmina Ganyet
Thank you, Pere. Let me now walk you through our financial performance in the first quarter, starting with the gross rental income.
We reached €104 million, which represents 7% growth year-on-year. This growth comes from two complementary drivers.
The first is our core portfolio, which delivers 4% like-for-like increase, well above the peer's average, as you will see shortly. The second driver is the contribution from delivered projects, which adds an additional 3% on top.
Notably, disposals had a neutral impact in the P&L. This is, in the first quarter, a cleaner and high-quality revenue growth.
In the next page, digging deeper into the like-for-like growth, I want to highlight something that probably very outperforms. We are not just capturing indexation, we are significantly exceeding it.
On the 4% like-for-like gross rental income growth, probably half of it, 1.9%, it's from indexation, and the other half comes from rental growth premium and as well occupancy gains. In absolute terms, our gross rental income like-for-like runs 260 basis points above indexation.
When we look at net rental income as well, this spread widens even farther, 244 basis points. This is a direct reflection of the structural supply in our CBD markets, but moreover, thanks to our quality of our assets and as well of our tenant base, as you've seen previously in our contracts.
Turning to the bottom line, recurring profit came into €55 million, in line with last year. However, I want to flag comparably point for a proper reading of this figure.
The first quarter 2025 figure included approximately €2 million, which is one-off income related to early termination contracts clauses. Excluding this one-off effect, the underlying recurring profit growth is close to 4% year-on-year, which is in the right comparable growth rate and fully consistent with our operational momentum.
At EPS, we deliver then 8.7 cents per share, and we are on track with our full-year guidance 2026. EPRA earnings on a two years' view are up 16%, reflecting the compounding effect of our growth strategy.
We will cover the financial cost evolution in details in the next slide. In the balance sheet, I am in page 14.
This brings on the balance sheet, where I think particularly as Pere mentioned, this is a very strong story this first quarter. We executed €350 million disposals year-to-date, representing 70% of our total disposal program in just six months.
These transactions were completed at or above appraisal values, with a premium especially on the residential assets. As we disclose in Paris, [Lamballe?]
deal was closed at a very attractive prices. The results: our loan-to-value declined by 144 bps to 36.7%, and our EPRA loan-to-value decreases as well 182 basis points to 45% 45.2%.
On the cost of debt, despite of having been very active in the bond market, repositioning the maturity of the bonds during 2025 and 2026, our spot cost of debt stands at a very interesting levels, 1.92%, essentially flat of the last three quarters. This is the results, as you know from the previous conversations, from our disciplined pre-hedge strategy, which allows us to lock in a very competitive rates ahead of any issuance.
Even as we have been extended our maturity profile of our debt and strengthen our balance sheet, we did so without sacrificing our cost efficiency. This is very, I would say, outstanding in this market.
On that note, we successfully placed €500 million green bonds in this first quarter, 3.4 times oversubscribed, swapping short-term maturities in five years funding and further reinforcing our debt structure. Just last month, S&P reaffirmed our BBB+ rating with a stable outlook, a strong external endorsement of our financial discipline.
Finally, liquidity stands very strong, €2.6 billion, giving us the full flexibility to continue executing in our strategy.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you, Carmina. Final remarks on on my side.
I think that the the set of results that we are sharing with you today are in line, no, with previous quarters, are are quite strong. I think that it's basically linked to the three pillars underpinning earnings visibility and and value creation, no?
I think that the basics of Colonial is about prime CBD operations. This is what is giving us pricing power and differentiation happening in Paris, Madrid, and Barcelona and creating a strong reversion, no?
That's what has created a 4.5% like-for-like net rental income number for this quarter, the highest among peers, 260 basis points a spread over indexation. If you want to see it with different numbers, 18% release spread in Paris, 5% ERV growth in renewals, 195 basis occupancy increase in since quarter third quarter 2025.
These are the very basics of what's going on in Colonial SFL. On top of that, I would like to emphasize the current and most of all future contribution coming from Alpha-X.
Alpha-X is a number of projects that as of now are contributing €4 million rents in the first quarter of this year, but most of all with a potential of contribution for the EPS growth in future semesters and particularly next year that will contribute in a very fundamental manner to the EPS growth. All of these projects are going very well, as expected, in terms of timing and delivery, so that will be a major source of value creation on top of pillar one, which are prime CBD operations.
The third pillar of value creation is about portfolio management and capital allocation. I think we've been consistent in the divestment plan that has been delivered.
It's there has been a very good progress on the €500 million plan that we announced November last year. 70% of this plan is completed.
Let's not forget, no, that €1 billion have been sold in the last three years, and I I I think I would not be wrong if I talk about €2 billion, no, in five, six-year timing. Obviously, every every time that we go through a disposal, meeting, if you want to call it, NTA level, if you want to call it, yields or cost of capital well below implicit values in the stock price, call it whatever you want, but with a very good premiums in all disposals.
This is being delivered. Finally, in this quarter we have also also completed the buyback program that we announced just a few weeks ago in very attractive terms and with an interesting accretive impact in the KPIs of of this year, no?
My last remark is the one you see in page 18, no? I I think that you will probably agree that the times we are living, it's super hard to emphasize the individual performance of a company when everything seems to be so much related, no, to macro trends and mega simplistic views on a certain sectors, no, or geographies or countries, no?
I said at the beginning of this presentation that in the end what Colonial SFL is delivering is about pricing power, but it's also about relative performance, about differentiation. I think that we've disclosed a very good number of like-for-like gross rental income.
This is a very good number in absolute terms, 4%, 7% including delivered project projects, but also it's very important to be in mind that if you put it in the context of relative performance with other peers, we are clearly showing outstanding outstanding numbers. This has been the the presentation in page 19, the major remarks, which is mainly operational outperformance, growth visibility, market-leading rental growth, pricing power continuing to reinforce the cash flow visibility, growing occupancy, which of course is the result of a sustained demand, which this particular color of demand being supported by technology and AI-related tenants, Paris portfolio outperforming peers through resilient operations and leasing performance, the pipeline on in line with our expectations, future rental growth and long-term portfolio value creation ahead of us, active capital rotation supporting deleveraging and crystallization of portfolio value, and finally, 2026 guidance on track supported by strong operational fundamentals.
This was the presentation for today. Finally, just a reminder of our Capital Markets Day expected for June 4th in Madrid, in Madnum; our Annual General Shareholders Meeting expected for June 17.
That's just a couple of reminders. Thank you.
This has been the presentation of results for this first quarter, and now we are available for any question you may have. Thank you.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. If you wish to ask a question, please press star five on your telephone keypad.
Thank you. We kindly ask you to limit yourself to two questions per person.
Thank you. Now, the first question comes from Valerie Jacob from Bernstein.
Please go ahead with your question.
Valerie Jacob
Hi. Good evening.
Thank you for taking my question. I've got two questions.
The first one is on capital allocation. You've done, as you said, already 70% of your disposal program.
I was wondering, last time during the full-year presentation, you were talking about looking at acquisition, and also now you've done your share buyback. I was wondering if you could sort of give us an update on the way you're thinking about capital allocation.
For example, could you do more disposals, or are you still looking at potentially acquisition, or could you do more share buyback now that you've done your buyback? If you could just share some thoughts on how you're thinking about that, that would be useful.
My second question is on your occupancy. If I look at the pro forma occupancy at year-end, it was 93%, and now pro forma it's 93.3%.
I was wondering if you think this is a good pace and if we can sort of think that your occupancy is going to grow by 30 bps every quarter, or maybe if you're thinking differently about it, and what can we expect in terms of what do you expect in terms of letting space? Thank you.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you, Valerie. I will go on the first question, and then I will ask maybe Carlos to step in on the second one.
Look, our view, first of all, on capital allocation, we are pretty satisfied with what's going on and speed and quality of the divestments that we have gone through. Looking forward, I would say a couple of things.
We will look at both investment and divestment alternative. I think that by definition, no, our mission is about creating value, no, through an active value creation through capital recycling, acquiring and selling, both things may happen.
I would say that the marginal trend for the rest of the year will be increase net selling position, and we may enhance what you've seen so far with additional net disposals, no? That would be on the first comment.
On the occupancy, Carlos, would you like to step in?
Carlos Krohmer
On the occupancy, basically what you've seen that in two quarters we have improved 200 basis points, roughly 100 basis points per quarter. It's obviously difficult to say what's going to be the next quarter, but we are positive.
We are having a lot of conversations on the top product that we have in the market, we are positive. Also to remind you, in like-for-like terms we are remaining at 95% of occupancy, but we are positive.
We had a good momentum. We have a good rhythm.
We think it can continue, we should be quite soon at a very high occupancy level again. 93% is already high, but we're going to be high again.
As we flagged, we are having good conversations on Madnum, on Haussmann, we are positive. Yeah.
Valerie Jacob
Thank you.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you, Valerie.
Operator
Now, next question comes from Fernando Abril from Alantra. Please go ahead.
Fernando Abril
Yes, hello. Sorry.
Thank you for taking my questions. I have a couple follow-up on the disposals, on the enhancement of the disposal program under analysis that you mentioned in the presentation.
It's a follow-up, which is basically if you end up selling another let's say €500 million worth of assets, how should we think about the capital allocation? One-third to deleverage, one-third to shareholder returns, one-third to reinvestment, or any color you can give us on this would be very helpful.
Second, on the release spread in Paris, the plus 18%, which is very high, was based on 8,000 meters. I'm looking at it right now.
Was this a single asset? Should we expect also these huge release spreads on the upcoming renewals?
Also linked to this, how should we think of incentives right now along with these release spreads? Is it coming with higher level of incentives or similar to past quarters?
Those two questions. Thank you very much.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you, Fernando. Then I will go through the first one and ask Carlos to step in on the second one.
Look, on the follow-up of the disposal program, first of all, as a general comment, we're working on a number of things, and probably we will be more specific at the Capital Markets Day opportunity, where we'll probably be able to provide more color in this. As of now, I would say that we don't have specific hurdles for the allocation of the proceeds of the disposals.
On the first 500, there was a sort of number one, share buyback that we have already completed; number two, some opportunistic investments; and number three, deleveraging. On the additional disposal program that we may do, there's no specific goals for this, but I would say that the overall aim is to further deleverage the capital structure of the company.
I think that more detail color may come at the time of Capital Markets Day. On the second part on the release spread of a dramatic 18%--
Carlos Krohmer
Maybe first market data that many market participants have not really taken into considerations that in the CBD market in Paris, this quarter the incentives for the super prime assets have decreased to a level in the broad market, I'm not talking about Colonial, for the prime assets from 15% to 17% a year ago. In the prime asset class, that is the segment where we are operating, the incentives have gone down.
As you can see, also the demand is strong. In our portfolio, that's really the super prime parts of the prime, we are signing at the moment between 12% and 14%.
This is extremely low, below the market data of today in Paris. We're signing at very good terms.
We are confident our assets are strong. Paris is a market with long-term contracts.
This allows you to have always a little bit more release spread than in markets with shorter-term contracts. There's no reason to think that the coming quarters should be very much different to what we see today.
We are positive on it. Sorry, on
Carmina Ganyet
the release spread, Fernando, it's not one single contract you ask for. It's across all the contracts that we have signed this quarter.
Fernando Abril
Okay. Thank you very much for the answers.
Carlos Krohmer
Thank you.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you, Fernando.
Operator
Next question comes from Céline Soubrier from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Céline Soo-Huynh
Hi, Pere. I've got two questions on Barcelona, please.
I'm struggling to understand the 11% like-for-like rental growth. Can you explain how you achieved this number, because it's quite high, and I don't think occupancy has moved much as well.
Then follow-up to that, do you see some improvement in the Barcelona market? Do you think we'll get some kind of inflection point soon?
Thank you.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you, Céline. Carlos will take care of this one, the 11% like-for-like growth and the general view on the Barcelona market.
Carlos Krohmer
On the Barcelona market, it's a combination of occupancy and also pricing, especially, and I think we highlighted this in the year-end presentation, the pricing performance has been extremely strong in the Barcelona market. The market is really picking up at a very strong pace in rental prices.
We are signing now, for instance, at Dao building, we are signing levels of €33 to €34, where a year ago the prime rents were more at €27. We have now an extreme acceleration, and then also some impact of improvement in occupancy.
This is basically the main effect. As we are starting on a little bit lower figures, we are having there an extremely strong effect this quarter of 11%.
6% is volume-driven, and the other 5% is price-driven.
Pere Viñolas
Your views on Barcelona, Carlos?
Carlos Krohmer
On Barcelona, we are seeing accelerating momentum, accelerating activity in super prime product, and also recovery and starting of significant absorption in 22@ that should also help, and one of the main drivers is AI and tech demand. Barcelona is one of a good destination for this type of thing.
Pere Viñolas
Precisely in other words, Céline, in Barcelona when I see the performance of the let's say prime CBD location, I do not see any difference regarding Madrid or Paris in terms of outstanding performance, because the drivers in terms of limited supply versus strong demand are exactly the same. Then what it's unique to Barcelona, it's that on the 22@, I think that there was an historical case of oversupply that is disappearing and disappearing because no more supply is being added and demand is taking care of it, no?
A stronger momentum.
Carmina Ganyet
Sorry, Celine, probably one data from the market perspective. The size of the market, the office market in Barcelona, it's 6 million office market, 6 million square meters of is the stock.
Madrid is 13 millions. This first quarter, the take-up in Madrid has been roughly 90,000 square meters, total market, and the take-up for Barcelona, 75,000 square meters.
In relative terms to the size of each market, Barcelona has been accelerated because it's almost 50% of the market Madrid, and the take-up it's in line.
Céline Soo-Huynh
I guess I'm just a little bit confused because if you look at your peer on an earlier call today, they're losing a big tenant in Barcelona, and they weren't as optimistic, I would say, compared to you guys. That's why I was interested in why the divergence in views.
Pere Viñolas
Maybe the product is not exactly the same, and look, I cannot have an opinion on their views. I think that in our case it's quite consistent, no, with views that we have been before, and we are supporting a little bit this with the data that we're just sharing with you, like the numbers that Carmina were sharing with you.
Céline Soo-Huynh
Super. Thank you very much.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you, Céline.
Operator
Next question comes from Florent Laroche-Joubert from ODDO. Please go ahead.
Florent Laroche-Joubert
Yes, good evening. Thank you for for for this presentation.
I will have two questions, if I may. The first one would be would you be able to to give us maybe more color on your strategy for the late for the letting of Scope in Paris?
I think it will be delivered in 2026. Maybe my second question, maybe as a follow-up on your disposals, could you maybe precise or give more colors on what are your target targeting in terms of deleveraging by doing maybe more more disposals?
Thank you.
Pere Viñolas
Yes, on the first question, I think there's nothing in particular to say. Scope is actively now being marketed in the Paris market.
There's a good reception by prospective tenants, but we are just at the beginning. As the central case for marketing of this building would be second half of this year and first half of next year.
We are quite, let's say, comfortable with standards of quality and uniqueness of the product. I think it will has the reputation that the SFL product has had always in the market, which has led always, no, to outstanding letting performance.
We have high conviction, no, on the reception that it will have from the market. I think we are in early stages, no, to give you additional color on this, no?
On deleveraging, additional target level, Carmina, if you want to step in.
Carmina Ganyet
On the target level, meaning the capital structure, as I think we always have said the same, no? When we look at the metrics on the rating agencies, this is a more holistic approach in terms of EBITDA, net debt to EBITDA, loan-to-value, and ICR.
To give you some numbers, we would be in the range of 40% loan-to-value, which is in line what the rating agencies are providing us to be in the investment grade higher end of the investment grade range.
Florent Laroche-Joubert
Right. So 40% is for your LTV, IFRS LTV, not EPRA?
Carmina Ganyet
IFRS LTV, yeah.
Pere Viñolas
Yes. Florent, to be honest, as Carmina is saying, not so much about the magic of a certain ratios like LTV.
For us, the fundamental issue, it's the quality of our debt, no, which is proven several times, no, that it has the support of the debt markets. It's not only that recently, no, again, BBB+ by S&P just a few weeks ago, it's about the spread that we show on the debt market.
It's the overall quality, no, that we care more about than a specific number of LTV or any other KPI that in our view it can be simplistic and misleading many many times, no? It's true that we tend to show, let's say, more limited numbers regarding LTV than in previous quarters, but the overall goal for us is to have a highest quality of the debt in a more, let's say, holistic analysis level, such as the one that is being provided by rating agencies.
Florent Laroche-Joubert
Okay. Thank you very much.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you, Florent. Thank you.
Now,
Operator
there are no further questions. Therefore, I give back the floor to Mr.
Pere Viñolas.
Pere Viñolas
Thank you. It's been a pleasure to share with you these results.
Even a higher pleasure when they are good results, as the one of this quarter. We hope to see you again soon for the next presentation of results, for the Capital Markets Day, or in any other occasion.
Thank you, and have a very good day.
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