Kite Realty Group Trust (NYSE:KRG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Heath Fear: Sure. So as you mentioned, the $3 million interest expense savings from the hedge is embedded in that number. And so what we’re currently modeling, Todd, is basically riding out each one of our existing maturities until the very end. This is obviously attractively priced debt. So, no rush to prepay it. We are putting it on our line. And then in the fourth quarter, we end up issuing a bond issuance again in our model for $300 million. And when you put all that together, it’s a $0.01 dilutive into 2023. I will say however, and I mentioned in my remarks, we are looking at other ways of retiring maturities. As I €“ looking at our indicative credit spread and contrasting that to our net debt-to-EBITDA and our coverage ratios and every other metric that you see, it really doesn’t feel very good for us to want to be into the fixed income market.

And so we’ll wait for that to settle down until our spreads are more price indicative to our actual credit profile. So some of the things we’re looking at is we may put a mortgage on one of our residential joint venture assets using agency debt, which is still pretty attractively priced. We may sell some non-income-producing properties and use that to pay down debt. And also, if you think about it, Todd, we’re sort of in this interesting spot right now where €“ if you look at where you might dispose of an asset and yield on an asset versus what I could avoid in issuing new debt, call it, at 6.5% or 7%, we could actually dispose of assets in a way that de-levers you and is also neutral to your earnings. So it’s another method of flexibility.

So to the extent we’re successful in disposing of something and we don’t have an immediate use in terms of an acquisition, why not just pay down debt at this point, a risk-free return and avoid having to issue that debt later on. So again, it’s just great having such a wonderfully flexible balance sheet that we can do a little bit of choose your adventure and figure out what’s the best way for us to address these maturities in 2023.

Todd Thomas: Okay, great. And what are you earning on the $150 million of cash on the balance sheet right now?

Heath Fear: Gosh, I haven’t looked at our depository rate recently. Is it…

John Kite: Not enough.

Heath Fear: About 3.5%.

Todd Thomas: Okay, alright, great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Craig Mailman from Citi. Your question please.

Craig Mailman: Hey, good afternoon guys. Just a follow-up kind of on your thoughts, Heath, I hear you on not wanting to hit the bond market until kind of spreads reflect where you guys think you are from a credit perspective. But at the same time, John, you talked a little bit about thinking as of the acquisition market. I mean, from your kind of vantage point, I mean, how do you get comfortable with market cap rates if the debt market and maybe it’s the difference between unsecured and secured market, but the debt market hasn’t materially normalized to where your credit profile is being recognized. Can you kind of just bridge that view on the debt market versus acquisition cap rates?

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