Hamborner REIT AG

Hamborner REIT AG

4.13
EUR
+0.02
(+0.36%)
360.76MMarket Cap
Nov 10Next Earn

Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 7, 2026

Operator

Welcome to the Hamborner REIT Q1 2026 financial results conference call. 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 dialing pound key 5 on their telephone keypad or clicking the raise your hand icon in the lower right corner in the video player. Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers.

Please go ahead.

Niclas Karoff

Yeah. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

This is Niclas Karoff for Hamborner REIT. Thank you for joining our conference call regarding our figures for the first quarter of 2026.

I'm pleased to be here today together with members of our team, including my colleague Christoph from IR. As usual, I will begin with a brief presentation, after which we will open the floor for a Q&A session.

We hope everything will run smoothly from a technical standpoint and look forward to engaging with you. Let's start with an overview of the key figures as of 31st of March, 2026.

Influenced by our disposals over the past 12 months, income from rents and leases declined moderately by 1.9% to €22.6 million in the first quarter. FFO decreased by 1.6% year-on-year and amounted to €11.7 million or 14 cents per share.

During the first quarter, financial and portfolio figures overall showed a positive development. EPRA NAV and LTV were positively influenced by the stable revenue and also the earnings development, as well as a value adjustment within the property portfolio resulting in a value of €9.27 per share and 43.1%, respectively.

Operating performance remained resilient with a vacancy rate and total portfolio WALT at solid levels of 3.5% and 5.2 years. As always, we are going to provide more details on the next slides.

Closer look at earnings performance. From the management of our properties, income from rents and leases amounted to €22.6 million.

As noted before, the 1.9% year-on-year decline came primarily due to property disposals completed in the first half of 2025, as well as in the first quarter of this year. In the first quarter, income from ancillary cost allocations increased by 16%, driven by higher prepayments, including effects from the restructuring of our facility management.

In contrast, operating expenses rose at a comparatively moderate rate of just 2.1%, which is primarily attributable to the disposal of properties with higher non-recoverable operating costs. Maintenance expenses decreased slightly in the first quarter and amounted to roughly €1.4 million, the costs related to ongoing minor maintenance and various smaller planned measures.

As in previous years, major maintenance projects and, especially, larger tenant improvements already announced in connection with our full-year guidance are scheduled for the second half of this year. Personal and admin expenses increased by around 5% and 12%, respectively.

On the one hand, this is due to the expansion of personal capacities and the filling of vacant positions. On the other hand, the rise in admin costs mainly related to our upcoming Annual General Meeting, where costs, in contrast to the past, have partly been recognized already in the first quarter of the year.

Other operating expenses were lower compared to the previous year, influenced by reduced external consultancy costs. Interest expenses slightly decreased in the first three month first months of 2026, mainly due to the refinancing at higher interest rates in the second half of 2025.

They increased in the first three months of 2000 first months. On the other hand, lower interest rates for cash deposits led to lower interest income.

Total FFO for the first quarter amounted to €11.7 million or 14 cents, down only 1.6% compared to the previous year period. Next slide, we'll briefly review the development of our portfolio key figures.

Following the transfer of the recently sold DIY property in Ditzingen in the first quarter of this year, our portfolio currently consists of 63 assets. Apart from this disposal, the portfolio development was influenced by a value enhancement of our office asset in Cologne, resulting in a total portfolio value of approximately €1.34 billion as at the end of March.

EPRA vacancy rate remained unchanged compared to year-end 2025 at a low level of 3.5%. Total portfolio WALT, as pointed out before, also remained largely stable at 5.2 years, with terms of 6.3 years for the retail and 3.8 years for the office portfolio.

Concerning rent development, on a year-on-year basis, our like-for-like annualized rental income again increased by 0.8%, primarily driven by indexation effects, especially in the office portfolio. The positive impact of indexation was partly offset by a higher vacancy level and slightly lower rent levels for follow-up leases, which are partly the result of numerous indexation-driven rent adjustments over the past 2.5 years.

On an annualized basis, the disposals of our properties in Osnabrück and Lübeck last year, as well as the retail asset in Ditzingen this year, resulted in a reduction in rental income of €4.1 million or 4.5 4.5%. As at the end of March, our annualized rents amounted to €87.8 million.

Concerning tenant structure, compared to the end of 2025, only minor changes happened within our tenant structure, primarily driven by index-linked rent adjustments and property disposals. The combination of sector diversification and the high stability of our top tenants continue to ensure the sound development of our operating business, yeah, even in a macroeconomic environment that remains challenging.

On leasing situation, yeah, further aspect of this is the consistently high level of tenant satisfaction, which is shown now on this slide here. Since the beginning of the year, we achieved several letting successes with a total contract volume of nearly 10,000 square meters.

As in recent years, the majority of this was attributable to contract extensions and the exercise of options by existing tenants, yeah, once again reflected in a high retention rate of around 89%. At this stage, Hamborner does not expect any major cluster risks in connection with upcoming relettings in the coming years.

This is clearly illustrated in the lease expiry schedule shown at the bottom of this slide. On the financing side, our company remains in a very solid position.

With 43.1%, our LTV remains at a comfortable level and furthermore within our current target range. Total debt remains largely stable, slightly below €640 million.

The average interest costs slightly increased to 2.2%, following our refinancing activities over the last three quarters. As we are currently tending to opt for shorter loan terms between 3 and 7 years, the average term has been slightly reduced to 3 years.

Further, debt metrics also remained largely stable, with net debt/EBITDA ratio at a level below 10 and an interest coverage ratio of 4.5. Regardless of the still challenging financing environment, the high quality of our portfolio and our extensive and reliable network of banks give us confidence in our ability to successfully complete the financing tasks ahead.

Finally, I would like to give a brief outlook. The company's Annual General Meeting will take place in early June.

We propose to distribute 65% of our operating income generated in 2025, which corresponds to a dividend of 39 cents per share. To date, our operational performance has been in line with plans.

We are optimistic about the remain of the year and confirm our current full-year guidance. Our rental income for the full year 2026 is expected to be between €87.5 and €89.5 million, and our assumptions for the FFO range between €38 and €42 million.

The operating result will be influenced in particular by the cost development in the areas of maintenance, personal expenses, and interest. With regard to these cost categories, we will continue to act with high discipline and try to achieve a balance between current financial burdens and securing future growth and cash flow prospects.

Regardless of the recently announced strategic adjustments, which include a growth focus on retail properties, a widened acquisition profile, as well as a reduction concerning our office exposure, our guidance currently does not take into account any further transactions. We have recently started sales activities for the first office properties and are simultaneously examining further acquisition opportunities.

However, based on the current outlook, we expect potential transactions to have only a minor impact on this year's revenue and earnings development. We'll keep you informed on our progress and, if necessary, update our guidance during the course of the year.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to conclude this short presentation and open the floor for your questions. Thanks so much for now for your attention.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial the pound key followed by 5 on your telephone keypad or click the raise your hand icon in the lower right corner of the video player to enter the queue. To withdraw your question, please dial the pound key followed by 6 on your telephone keypad if asking via phone, or click the raised hand icon again, which will appear as an X to cancel your request when using the video player.

Operator

The next question comes from Thomas Wissler from MWB Research AG. Please unmute your microphone.

Thomas Wissler

Yes, hello. Thanks for taking my question.

Just wanted to follow up on your recent statement regarding the property disposals. Can you maybe add some colors on how long this process will take?

Is it an exercise which might take a couple of years or what do we have to expect in terms of time frame of exiting the office segment?

Niclas Karoff

Yes, Thomas, good morning. Thanks for your question.

Regarding the disposal plan for the office properties, yeah, we anticipate a mid-term perspective here, and if I say mid-term, we are talking about, let's say, 4, 5 years. It might be run up to 6 years, but that's how we define mid-term here for us.

We don't see ourselves to be in a hurry. We want to do it in a disciplined way, and obviously it's also strongly connected with what we see on the acquisition side concerning the further development of the retail market.

The two things always have to be connected.

Thomas Wissler

Great, thank you very much. If I may, just one more follow-up question.

If I see your FFO, the run rate in Q1, if I just do the math and simply multiply this by 4, I would get to a number which is exceeding your upper end of the guidance range. Is it fair to assume that in the second half there will be more a burden coming from refinancing or what do you think you will remain with your guidance in the FFO range?

Yes,

Niclas Karoff

Thomas. I think there are a couple of things which have an influence here or which will have an influence here anticipated from our side.

One, obviously, are the effects from financing costs, higher financing costs, which you see to a larger extent in the second half. Then secondly, if you look at the maintenance history on our side, it's quite usual that typically during the second half, the part on maintenance is going up concerning the overall maintenance throughout the year.

It's especially focused during the last 5, 6 months. On top of that, we also anticipated as of today higher expenses compared to the first half of the year for IT-related costs.

Yeah.

Thomas Wissler

Perfect. Thanks, Niclas.

Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Philipp Kaiser from Warburg Research GmbH.

Please go ahead.

Philipp Kaiser

Hello everyone. Thanks for taking my question.

Following up on the maintenance expenses below last year Q1, you mentioned it also during the presentation that the majority of those planned maintenance is scheduled for the second half of the year. How much of this is already locked in compared to planned in the second half of this year?

Niclas Karoff

There are various measures, I think from today's perspective. Obviously, we are talking about several individual measures here, but as of today, I think it's fair to assume that several measures have been locked in already.

For us, please take into account that the overall expense we are planning here are also influenced by tenant improvements, and tenant improvements, apart from other regular maintenance, is sometimes really very difficult to predict because if you are still in negotiations, final negotiations, for instance, with tenants for upcoming leases, then there's a quite some movement still in there who's responsible for the final investments, is it the tenant or the landlord, for instance, and this can move the needle quite substantially. Just as an example, yeah.

Philipp Kaiser

Perfect. Thanks a lot.

Next one is on your maturity profile, especially on the upcoming years, 2027, 2028. Any concrete plans already to tackle this maturity schedule?

Niclas Karoff

What we did in the past 2 years was seeing that there stronger refinancing needs to move everything or to start the discussions with our banking partners on the financing side earlier than we did in the past, and that's what we're continuing as well for the next tranches for 2027, '28. I think we provide a lot of visibility to our financing partners concerning our refinancing, we start pretty early in the discussions.

Also the experience from last year has shown that sometimes for rather minor reasons like simply existing resources for final details, it takes a bit longer than expected, and that's another reason for us to start quite early on those. This has no fundamental influence or had no fundamental influence finally on the positive outcome.

We are very optimistic as of today.

Philipp Kaiser

Okay. Thanks for the clarification.

What's your kind of indicative all-in rate currently being quoted on 5 to 7 years secured bank debt compared to the 2.1%, 2.8%? Any major changes expected weighing on FFO?

Niclas Karoff

You mean the total costs now that we are currently based on today's financing level that we have on financing costs for refinancing, or?

Philipp Kaiser

Exactly. Yeah.

Niclas Karoff

I'd say it's around, let's say, around 4, a bit higher than 4% if you look at the current swap rate on a 5-year term, for instance. Obviously, it depends on for which term we fix the rate and what kind of assets we're talking about, etc.

All the influencing variables here. That's around the number, let's say, the high 3 and beginning 4%, yeah, let's say between roughly between 4%, maybe 4.2%, something that's 4.3%.

Concerning the FFO, we would expect compared to 2025 financing costs approximately 10% increase.

Philipp Kaiser

Okay. Thanks a lot.

Very helpful. Then on your valuation, your uplift the Cologne office building, could you shed some more light on the driver behind this uplift?

It's quite meaningful with almost 10%. [Mönchengladbach?]

Niclas Karoff

Yeah. This was this was that's right, that's a quite meaningful one and and that's that's the reason obviously why why we the the reason for this is is rent-related.

We get higher rent, substantially higher rent, and therefore we we this this was the conclusion here from the for the on the valuation side and it was a, yeah, that's that's the reason behind it.

Philipp Kaiser

Okay. Thanks a lot.

Very helpful. The last one, out of curiosity, I think there was this REIT Act in February allowing REITs to operate more in renewables and charging infrastructure.

Any tangible plans for Hamborner here, any first thoughts, meaningful changes expected?

Niclas Karoff

We are still internally analyzing really the effects from it, and the reason for this is, first of all, I'm very grateful and happy that this has more flexibility now. I think it should help us in certain areas.

Personally, I don't expect a major wave of opportunities coming from it, but in certain areas, it shall help us. We have analyzed the potential internally here that we can take from this, and it would help us, I think, on the energy side concerning how we handle, for instance, investments concerning solar systems on rooftops, etc.

It will give us more flexibility on this. You always have to take into account that apart from the legal framework, you have the situation and the assets itself, it's not the case that we would be able to install in a large-scale solar panels, for instance, across all our assets and run these technical systems because sometimes you have other burdens that you have to cover.

It's a mixture across the portfolio, but clearly it gives us more flexibility in further discussions with our tenants and with business partners here, and we also clearly, based on our sustainability strategy, anyhow have the interest to implement as much as possible, which helps us here on our decarbonization target.

Philipp Kaiser

Thanks a lot. Fully understood.

All from my side.

Operator

There are no more questions at this time, I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

Niclas Karoff

Then thanks so much again from our side and hope to talk to you soon and have a good remainder of the week. Thank you.