CT Real Estate Investment Trust (CRT-UN) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning. My name is Gigi and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to CTREIT's Q4 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during that time, simply press star 11 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star 11. The speakers on the call today are Kevin Salzberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of C.T. REIT, Jody Spiegel, Senior Vice President, Real Estate, and Leslie Gibson, Chief Financial Officer. Today's discussions may include forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management's assumptions and beliefs. These forward-looking statements are subject to uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. Please see CTREIT's public filings for a discussion of these risk factors, which are included in their Q4 2025 Management Discussion and Analysis and 2025 Annual Information Form, which can be found on CTREIT's website and on CDAR+. I will now turn the call over to Kevin Salzberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of CTREIT. Kevin?

Thank you, Gigi, and good morning, everyone. We were very pleased to report that 2025 shaped up to be a great year for CTREIT. In the face of continued geopolitical uncertainty and macroeconomic disruption, CTREIT once again delivered on its value proposition to unit holders. CTREIT's goal is to provide its investors with strong returns, growing distributions, and stability. We manage our business with these hallmarks in mind, focusing on growth opportunities that leverage our strategic relationship with Canadian Tire, optimizing our existing asset base, and maintaining a balance sheet that provides us with a resilient foundation. In 2025, we successfully deployed approximately $235 million and added nearly 900,000 square feet of new retail to our portfolio, with approximately 400,000 square feet of that being added in the fourth quarter alone. Although we were very pleased with the quantum and quality of the new space that we brought on this past year, as I discussed on our conference call last quarter, we were even happier with how we delivered these results. Across 13 discrete investments, our team found new opportunities to acquire assets from third parties, to redevelop and improve existing CTREIT properties, and to build new locations both for Canadian Tire and for other third-party tenants. As we look to the future, we will lean into these growth levers and the core competencies that we have built in order to continue to create value for our unit holders and to improve our portfolio. This portfolio growth, coupled with our foundation of contractual rent escalations and our successful lease renewals, contributed to our strong financial performance in 2025. As we have seen across our peer group, demand for retail space continues to outpace supply, and the fundamentals for retail real estate are currently very strong. Jody will provide a little more color on this momentarily, but we continue to leverage this dynamic to drive organic growth and seek out new opportunities. Our successes over the course of the last year led to solid growth in our bottom line. In the fourth quarter, net operating income grew by 4.9 percent and adjusted funds from operations per unit grew by 2.9 percent. For the full year, growth in net operating income came in at 4.6 percent and adjusted funds from operations per unit grew by 2.8 percent and we achieved this growth while maintaining our payout ratio in the low 70 range and further reducing our indebtedness ratio by approximately 130 basis points relative to the end of 2024. we were also pleased that construction began at the canvas square property related to canadian tires new long-term head office lease in q4 this project will substantially refurbish the existing 640,000-square-foot office complex with completion anticipated towards the end of 2028. With the improvements that we will be making to the property and the new Eglinton LRT line now operational, the future for this asset looks bright. I want to take a moment to recognize the CTREAD team for their hard work and dedication over the past year. In addition to our financial and operational achievements, we made a difference in our communities in 2025 through our fundraising efforts, the way we managed our assets, and through our various sustainability related initiatives. I am very proud of the efforts of our entire team, and I'm optimistic about what 2026 will bring for CT REIT as we continue to advance our business. And with that, I will pass it over to Jody for her comments on our investment development and leasing activity. Jody?

Thanks, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. As highlighted in our press release yesterday, we were pleased to have completed several previously announced projects in the fourth quarter. These included six intensification projects, five of which represented expansions of existing Canadian Tire stores that are located in Victoria, British Columbia, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Fergus and Brampton, Ontario, and Donacona, Quebec. The last intensification project related to the development of a third-party pad at an existing Canadian Tire anchored property in Fort Francis, Ontario. In Q4, we also completed the development of a new 172,000 square foot Canadian Tire store in Kelowna, British Columbia, and the redevelopment of a vacant former Canadian Tire store in Lloydminster, Alberta. This building was successfully backfilled with a national grocer, furniture store, and a footwear retailer. Finally, as previously announced, we also acquired the freehold interest underlying an existing Canadian tire ground lease, as well as a multi-tenant commercial retail building in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. As Kevin noted, this is a very productive quarter for growth. In total, projects completed in the fourth quarter represented $160 million of investment and added more than 400,000 square feet of incremental GLA to the portfolio. They are also strong examples of how we collaborate with our principal tenant, Canadian Tire, to unlock additional value for our unifold. Looking ahead, our development pipeline remains healthy. We currently have 11 projects at various stages of progress, with four expected to be completed in 2026 and the remainder in 2027 and beyond. These developments, including the Canada Square Office Retrofit Project in Toronto, represent a committed investment of approximately $329 million, of which $102 million has been spent to date. We expect to invest roughly $78 million over the next 12 months to advance these projects. Once completed, they will add just over 600,000 square feet of new GLA to the portfolio, approximately 95% of which is already pre-leased. Turning to leasing, during the fourth quarter, CTREAT completed a little over a million square feet of lease extensions, primarily comprised of 14 Canadian tire store lease renewals. For the full year, we completed 30 Canadian Tire store lease extensions and overall renewed retail leases representing over 2 million square feet of GLA. For the full year, these renewals were completed at a weighted average first-year rental uplift of approximately 10.4%. As of year-end, we maintained a long, weighted average lease term for the portfolio at 7.2 years, and our occupancy rate remained robust at 99.5%, up 10 basis points from a year ago. I will now turn it over to Leslie to discuss our financial results. Leslie?

Thanks, Jody, and good morning, everyone. As Kevin mentioned, we are very pleased with the REIT's financial performance in the fourth quarter and full year 2025. Once again, our results demonstrated the steady growth and resilience of our portfolio. Same Property NOI, which includes the impact of intensifications, grew 2% in the quarter compared to Q4 2024. For the full year, Same Property NOI increased 2.2%. These increases reflect the contractual rent escalation of approximately 1.5% per year in many of our Canadian tire leases, as well as the contributions from intensification projects completed in 2024 and 2025 of $1.2 million and $3.3 million for the quarter and year, respectively. Overall, net operating income for the quarter grew 4.9% year-over-year, representing an increase of about $5.7 million. For the full year 2025, NOI grew 4.6%, or over $21 million. dollars. This strong performance was supported by the same property NOI growth that I just spoke out to and the impacts of acquisition and development activity over the relevant period. In the fourth quarter, general administrative expenses as a percentage of property revenue were 2.8% compared to 2% in the same period last year. The increase was mainly due to the timing of non-cash fair value adjustments on unit-based compensation in Q4 2025. Excluding these fair value adjustments, G&A's percentage of property revenue decreased 20 basis points to 2.7%. On a full-year basis, G&A expense represented approximately 3.1% of revenue, or roughly 2.8% after normalizing for unit-based compensation fair value changes, slightly better than the 2.9% in 2024. The fair value adjustment of our investment properties was $110.4 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $54.8 million in the prior year. This sizable gain was driven primarily by increases to underlying cash flows due to updates made to market leasing assumptions, strong leasing and renewal activity completed during the period, the impact of numerous development project completions mentioned by Jody earlier, and the compression of terminal capitalization and discount rates for certain retail properties within the portfolio. These factors more than offset the expansion of terminal capitalization discount rates applied to the valuation of our industrial properties, a change that was made to reflect current market conditions. For the full year, fairway adjustments totaled $195.4 million, up from $119.1 million in 2024. In the fourth quarter, AFFO per diluted unit was $0.31.7, up 2.9% compared to the fourth quarter last year and the full year. AFFO per unit diluted was up 2.8% year-over-year. FFO on a diluted basis was $0.33.9 per unit, up 1.5% compared to Q4 2024, and up 2% on a full basis. Growth in FFO and AFFO primarily reflects increases in O&Y partially offset by higher interest expense. Cash distributions paid in the quarter increased 2.5% compared to Q4 2024 to 23.7 cents per unit, reflecting the higher monthly distribution rate that became effective in July 25. This continued growth is further evidence of our strong track record of increasing distributions every year since our IPO in 2013, reflecting the cumulative growth of 45.9% that unit holders have enjoyed since that time. With AFFO per unit growing faster than distributions, our payout ratio improved slightly. The AFFO payout ratio for Q4 was 74.8% compared to 75% a year ago. On a full year basis, the AFFO payout ratio remained stable at 73.5%. Turning to the balance sheet, our interest coverage ratio for the fourth quarter was 3.34 times compared to 3.52 times in Q4 2024. This decrease reflects the higher interest costs arising from the reset of interest rates on several series of our Class C LP units effective June 1, 2025, an increased utilization of our credit facilities to fund acquisitions and developments, and the issuance of $200 million of Series J unsecured debentures in June 25. Even with these financing activities, our total indebtedness to EBITDA fair value improved to 6.77 times in 2025 from 6.81 times a year ago, as earning growth outpaced the increase in debt. Our indebtedness ratio at the year end also improved relative to the end of 2024 at 39.8%, down from 41.1%. This improvement reflects the continued increase in the fair value of our investment properties and the growth in total assets from acquisitions and developments, partially offset by drives on our credit facilities. The strength in our balance sheet and these industry-leading debt metrics provide us with ample financial flexibility to fund our future growth initiatives. With respect to liquidity, we ended Q4 with approximately $4 million of cash on hand. Our committed $300 million bank credit facility was essentially undrawn at year end, And we also maintained our $300 million uncommitted credit facility with CTC, with roughly $104 million available on this line at year-end. Altogether, we continue to have adequate liquidity and balance sheet capacity to fund ongoing investments and to pursue new opportunities. And with that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for any questions.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone that in order to ask a question, please press star, then 1-1 on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Brad Sturges from Raymond James.

Hey, good morning. Congrats on a good quarter and obviously a lot of success on a number of fronts on the growth side. I'm just curious on the, I guess, as you think about the expansion intensification opportunity, you know, you completed a number of projects in the quarter. Like, how do you think about new opportunities to be added to the pipeline this year? Kind of what do you see in terms of new opportunities right now?

Thanks, Brad. Yeah, I'm super happy about the completions in Q4. I think that was a big quarter for us. obviously looking to reload the pipeline just in terms of new opportunities and continue to work with Canadian Tire. I think the cost environment is still somewhat challenging on the new development side. You know, as you know, we have several growth levers that we can pull, whether it be, you know, store intensification, new store development, acquiring assets from other third-party landlords, or even vendors, which we haven't done in some time. So we're obviously looking to the opportunities and availability of each of those types of transactions. And, you know, I'm pretty optimistic that we'll be able to find some that fit our strategy and our financial parameters. And 2026, you know, will shape up similarly to the way we were able to deliver in 2025.

Okay. So you think pipeline across all those buckets could be pretty similar year-over-year?

Yeah, I mean, it's always opportunity-based, so it's hard to say exactly, but certainly we're out there. We're looking at some things that are on-market, some things that are off-market. We're having discussions with Canadian Tire, so I guess the best I would say is I'm optimistic, but time won't tell.

Okay, and just what got completed or delivered in the quarter?

Can you just comment, generally speaking, on going in yield on cost? uh probably a mixed bag i mean obviously we had some uh different project types one you know ground up development for a third party some of the store intensifications uh an acquisition so uh you know on a blended basis i would probably say mid to high sixes um but that's without really spending a lot of time thinking about the math in my head so um i think that's probably a good rough guide.

Okay. Appreciate that. Thank you.

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Giuliano Thornhill from National Bank.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Good morning. Just had one question on the kind of end-in opportunity. How large is that?

And do you think kind of CCT is mostly fleshed out on the industrial distribution side?

on the supply chain side yes I think they're they're pretty set you know they had a major swell in COVID when their inventory positions increased and we helped them with that as we built a new DC for them in Calgary I would say you know looking back at the last couple quarters I think they've normalized that to a certain extent so I don't see any huge opportunities with CTC necessarily on the supply chain side, although we do always look at synergies with respect to our existing holdings and if there's anything, you know, in terms of adjacent sites or opportunities in the nodes that we operate in to consolidate space, so that continues to be a strategy for us. In terms of your first question, in terms of the vendant opportunities, there's roughly 10 to 15 Canadian Tire stores that we believe meet our investment criteria. You know, the last couple of years, our unit price hasn't been exactly where we want to be in terms of issuing equity in exchange for assets, which is part of the formula we've used in the past when acquiring assets from Canadian Tire. I think today we feel a little better about that. And certainly with the development pipeline, a little bit smaller than it was this time last year, that is something we will be looking at.

And just with leverage kind of declining, you know, at all time lows, really, is there maybe the possibility to pursue larger distribution increases or possibly buying back stock at these levels? I'm just wondering kind of how you would utilize like that low leverage level for our unit holders.

Yeah, I mean, we've said before, Sure. While being below 40% is not necessarily a target for us, we certainly feel comfortable where we are. We also believe it provides some dry powder as you're sort of intimating. We prefer to use that dry powder to acquire or develop sites. At the unit price levels that we're currently experiencing, I'm not sure we'd be users of our NCIB. That was something we were a little bit more active on when we were trading kind of in the low to mid $13 range. Today we're in the high $16. So I think primarily we would like to use it for growth initiatives at the portfolio level.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Tao Woolley from CIBC Capital Markets.

Hi, good morning. Apologies if I missed some earlier commentary. I had to jump on late. Just with Canada Square, now that the Eglinton LRT is done, can you just talk a little bit about, I know this was one of the hitches sort of in getting things moving on that site. Can you talk a little bit more about just progress there?

Sure. So very happy that the crosstown LRT is finally open. In terms of hitches there's kind of two components of that. One was the actual usability of the new line. The other is the two acres at the I guess northwest corner of our site are being controlled by CrossLynx, the consortium that built the LRT. And the first phase development cannot begin on those lands until such time as they relinquish control. We don't have a specific timeline as to when that will happen. I would imagine it would be sooner than later, but we have no notice yet at this point. Having said that, although the benefits of the LRT still accrue to the existing commercial complex and its users, the connectivity that it brings in access to the employee base here, we're really focused on the commercial refurbishment, the retrofit of the office space that we'll be undertaking with Oxford between now and the end of 2028. So I think while we will continue to advance the master plan and the zoning efforts, we're not really turning our minds quite yet to incremental density on the site in terms of the desire to proceed with that part of the project.

And does that sort of, does the ongoing weighing like a question about when you will, you know, sort of maybe start that piece. Is that sort of factoring into why the pipeline is sort of where it's at right now that you wanted, you know, when you're thinking about this a few years ago, you wanted to have capital available to pursue that and so took on less or is it a function of just there are fewer projects to do at Canadian Tire?

I think it's mostly the latter or there's fewer projects. Certainly having that dry powder to allocate as we feel is appropriate is a nice to have. So if, you know, in a couple of years the market has improved, the density is realized, and it's something we want to pursue, having the balance sheet capacity to do that is obviously great. But in the current circumstances, I think it's more the cost environment that's impeding our ability to continue to add to the store intensification and new store development pipeline.

And then just lastly, I guess this would be for Leslie, you have the, I believe, a $200 million debenture maturing in June. Would we expect you to move earlier on that? And I'm assuming you'd be looking to refinance the, whatever you have left in your credit facilities to, in addition to the $200 million?

Tal, definitely we're watching markets, and I think the public debt market, which is sort of our continued preferred avenue for sort of financing, you know, is very constructive right now, and it has been, and it's quite active. So, definitely looking to refinance the existing maturity, the $200 million, and likely some upsize to that. We'll just see where we are drawn on the line and where our use for the rest of the year is in terms of, you know, how much new offering could be. But, yeah, definitely in the next sort of three months, we'll be watching the markets to find an opportune time.

Okay, that's great. Thanks very much, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes in the line of Sam Domiani from TD Cowan.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I just jumped on a little late, so I think the question was asked about the former Canadian tire store in Kelowna that has been backfilled. Has it been like 100% backfilled? And I wonder if you comment on the rents versus the pre-existing rents on that space?

Good morning, Sam. It's Jody. Just to clarify, it was a former Canadian tire store in Lloydminster, Alberta that we backfilled. We completed a new store in Kelowna as well in this quarter but the backfill was in Lloydminster and so that's the the tenants that were the grocer, the footwear retailer and furniture store.

Okay okay but there is there is an empty former Canadian Tire store in Kelowna too, is that not correct?

That is correct. Canadian Tire still occupies it and has lease terms, so we're determining what comes next for that asset.

I see. Okay, thank you for the clarification. And I appreciate the new disclosure on rent increases, on renewal rent increases. That's very helpful. You showed both an uptick in the fourth quarter versus sort of first nine months both on the Canadian Tire and third-party tenants. You know, was there anything unusual in the Q4 stats there, or would you say that's indicative of kind of just a market trend?

I don't think there's anything unusual. I think certainly we're seeing, you know, an improved leasing and renewal market, as we kind of commented on earlier. You know, we've substantially dealt now with our 2026 maturities. So, you know, in the next couple of months, we'll be turning our eyes to, you know, the first few that, you know, come up in 2027. But, yeah, I think, you know, there's certainly an opportunity to replicate these kind of results across the portfolio. I mean, every batch of renewals that we deal with is slightly different in terms of where they're located, the size of the market, where the rents are relative to market rent. So there certainly could be some fluctuation up and down amongst the output, but we do think there is upside for us as we continue to get at these renewals. And, you know, that'll start kicking in, you know, more and more as time goes on as we get further into our, you know, our lease expiries. I think, you know, in 2027, I think there's about 6%, 7%, 6% of CTR leases come up for renewal, 2028, almost 9%. So that number will continue to grow in prominence and will continue to hopefully follow the trends that we're seeing more broadly in the retail leasing market.

I appreciate that, Kevin. And the sort of 10.5%, 11% on the Canadian Tire Store lease renewals, just to clarify, those are five-year fixed renewals, is that correct?

That's correct. Yeah, that's correct.

And so the average sort of annual increase is a SNCC above 2%. If I'm not mistaken, that is higher than previous years, which I seem to recall was more in the 1.5% annual, sort of average annual increases. Is that right?

That's correct, Sam.

And is that any reason, anything different with the 2025 renewals that would sort of justify that? Or is it purely just a reflection of overall markets? You know, the mix geographically isn't meaningfully different year to year?

I think it's a combination of the improved retail leasing market as well as the mix of those leases that we were dealing with. Okay.

Perfect. I think the rest of my questions have been answered, so thank you very much, and I'll turn it back.

Thank you, Sam.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, please press star, then 1-1 on your telephone keypad. As there are no further questions at this time, I will now turn the call over to Kevin Salzberg, President and CEO, for closing remarks.

Thank you, Gigi, and thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again in May after we release our Q1 results. Thank you.

This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.