W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jim Kammert: Thanks, Brooks. That makes sense. And then stepping back to the second question. Have you ever disclosed as a company what percentage of your annual base rent is covered by a reporting tenant where you get either parent or unit level, any form of financial reporting regarding your assets?

Jason Fox: Yeah. I mean, we don’t disclose it and it’s a little bit different than, I would say, a typical retail REIT and I think…

Jim Kammert: Sure.

Jason Fox: …there’s a couple components here. I think, number one, with financial reporting for the tenant or the guarantor, I would say, probably, close to all of our tenants. The high 90% range of ABR provides us with annual audits and quarterly updates. I think, in addition to that, a number of our tenants will provide site-level coverage to the extent that’s relevant. I think with some of the retail operating assets, that clearly would be self-storage, things like that. And even in our case, many of our light manufacturing where there are P&Ls at the property level, we’ll get that so we can understand coverages and how that translates to our view on criticality, contribution from those properties to the parent, things like that I think are important to us. But high level, it’s high 90s report to us with audits and quarterly financials for the tenants themselves.

Jim Kammert: Great. That’s what — that’s great you have that insight. That’s what I was looking for. Thank you.

Jason Fox: You’re welcome.

Operator: And the next question comes from the line of Joshua Dennerlein with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Farrell Granath: Hi. This is Farrell Granath on behalf of Josh. And so I wanted to touch on, I know we’ve now been speaking a lot about dry powder and acquisition guidance for 2024. I’m curious if you could touch on any more color of other key drivers for internal growth into next year?

Toni Sanzone: Yeah. I think…

Jason Fox: Yeah. Certainly. So — Toni, why don’t I start high level and why don’t you jump in with some of the details? I think from a — just from a macro perspective, certainly external deal volume is a driver of growth for any net lease. I think what’s maybe a bit unique for us is the magnitude of our built-in rent increases within our leases, especially the amount that’s tied to inflation. So that’s going to be a big driver for us as well. We were at 4% for most of 2024 in terms of maybe a little over 4% from the same store contractual basis. With inflation monitoring a little bit next year, I think, we’ll expect to be around 3%, but it’ll still be meaningful. So, Toni, I don’t know if you want to add any color on some of the details, but that’s kind of high level big picture.

Toni Sanzone: I think that’s the driving component is really on a same store basis, and as I just highlighted in a previous answer that, the drag that we would expect from contractual to comprehensive is expected to diminish from kind of our previous history. So I would throw that in.

Farrell Granath: Great. And also I wanted to ask about, compared to the last time of the announcement with the strategic assets or the office sales, was there a change in either just the timing or volume coming out of 3Q into 4Q? I believe you were mentioning it was the cap rates that maybe were a driver of changing in timing, but I’m curious if you could give a little bit more detail on…

Jason Fox: Is this a change in timing on office sales or do you mean just normal…

Farrell Granath: Yeah.

Jason Fox: … course investments that we’re doing on the office sales? Yeah. Brooks, do you want to touch on that?

Brooks Gordon: No. I’d say our Office Sale Program on balance sheet is going pretty much according to plan, potentially even a little bit ahead of plan. So we’re making good progress there and certainly a choppy market, but I think where we are right now, we feel very good about it. So that’s materially in line with when we made the announcement.

Farrell Granath: Great. Thank you for that.

Jason Fox: You’re welcome.

Operator: And the next question comes from the line of Harsh Hemnani with Green Street. Please proceed with your question.

Harsh Hemnani: Thank you. Jason, as you mentioned, since the time you announced the office sales program, yields have moved quite up — yields have moved up quite a bit. Are you seeing some of those acquisitions, some, excuse me, some of the dispositions on the Office Sale Program that might be under contract, maybe coming back trying to renegotiate on that? And then can you talk about the 10% of sales that are still to be negotiated? How confident do you feel in getting the pricing that you guys have outlined on that piece?

Jason Fox: Yeah. Brooks, do you want to tackle that?

Brooks Gordon: Sure. So I think overall our confidence level is good. I mean, I think, in this market nothing’s closed until we receive the funds and that’s our mindset. But we have a very clear path to get this done as expected. There is a two-thirds of it is either closed or under binding contracts that do not have wiggle room to re-trade. And we feel like the balance really those deals were negotiated post-rise in interest rates and really that’s baked into people’s thinking. And so we’re certainly cautious and cognizant of a volatile market, but every deal we’ve negotiated with that in mind and so we feel optimistic that we can get this done according to plan. So we’ll certainly keep everybody posted, but that’s currently where we’re on track.

Harsh Hemnani: That’s helpful. And then on the acquisition side, so you mentioned that from the third quarter to the fourth quarter seller expectations have adjusted. The bid-ask spread is now coming in. Are you seeing the same in Europe and how’s the dynamic differing there?