CTO Realty Growth, Inc. (NYSE:CTO) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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John Albright: Sure. So the group that basically we signed the ground lease with the option to buy, they really wanted to buy the parcel, but from a timing perspective, that didn’t work for us. So we gave them the option after a year, where they could purchase the site. So that was definitely their preference was to buy the site. It’s — the group is well capitalized. It will be a very good draw and very complementary to collection. We’ll bring good customers with big spending sort of outlook. And so we’re very excited about it. If they drop out, we — it was a tough choice to go with this group. We had two other groups that were buying for it. And to be honest with you, the other groups would pay more, but we felt more comfortable with this use and the timing it would go faster than the other groups, but the other groups would pay more. So I have no problem, if these guys don’t make it or feel like it will be fairly easy to backfill that for sure.

John Massocca: And you might not be able to provide this, but just any kind of color of brackets in the purchase option and what that would kind of imply in terms of a return on your investment?

John Albright: Yes, the return will be very, very good for the shareholders. So it would be basically almost a double.

John Massocca: Okay. That’s very helpful, and that’s it for me. Thank you very much.

John Albright: Thanks, John.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of R.J. Milligan with Raymond James.

R.J. Milligan: Hi. Good morning, guys. Just one question for me for the investment guidance for the year. The cap rates, $775 million to $825 million, I’m just curious, obviously, you’ve shown an appetite to buy back either common or preferred shares. And I’m curious with your stock trading in the 8% cap rate range or north of that. How do you feel about additional buybacks versus making more investments?

John Albright: Yes. Thanks, R.J. So remember, a lot of this acquisition is being driven by the recycling from — for instance, Santa Fe, that’s under contract for $20 million, the forward credit building that we sold that’s part of that money is in [1031] (ph) and then the seller financing of that will come through. So a lot of it is being driven by 1031 needs. And then the other part of it, as you’ve seen, we were very active in buying back shares at very interesting levels for shareholders. So it — so it wouldn’t be — we would not be using proceeds from asset sales to buy back stock. But certainly, we would look at other certain levers to buy back stock, if it got down to low levels again. For instance, we could sell some of our structured finance investments and use that. So we’re certainly not shy about buying back stock, when it becomes ridiculous in our opinion and interesting, but a lot of the acquisitions are going to happen because of the 1031 nature.

R.J. Milligan: That’s was it from me. Thanks, guys.

John Albright: Thanks.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from the line of Michael Gorman with BTIG.

Michael Gorman: Yes. Thanks. Good morning. Just a quick question, Matt, on the disposition guidance range, does that include the payoff of the seller financing on Sable Pavilion? Or is that above and beyond the dispositions guidance?

Matthew Partridge: No, that would be above and beyond the disposition guidance.

Michael Gorman: Okay. Great. And the remaining two structured investments after that — do they — I know John just mentioned potentially selling, but do they also have any accelerated prepayment options associated with those?

John Albright: If they do, we have a make whole provision.

Michael Gorman: Okay. Great. Thanks so much.

John Albright: Thank you.

Operator: And that concludes today’s question-and-answer session. This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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