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“I am pleased that 2023 has been a resilient year of significant strategic and operational progress building on two years of out-performance in which we delivered total like-for-like revenue growth of over 30.3% and Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS growth of 57.3%.
The Group’s industry leading REVPAF grew by 1.9% on a like-for-like basis whilst Total Group revenue grew by 5.5% reflecting recently added new stores and the annualisation effect of our acquisition of the Benelux business.
We have made excellent strategic progress during the year having opened, acquired, or extended thirteen stores across three countries adding c. 500,000 sq ft of MLA to the portfolio. In addition, we have grown the development pipeline to a further 1.5 million sq ft across 30 projects which represents 18% of the existing MLA of the business and will contribute £25-30 million upside to EBITDA upon stabilisation. Following our previous successful JV with Carlyle, we partnered again to facilitate the Group’s entry into the under-penetrated German market and the integration of our Benelux business, acquired in 2022, is now complete.
Our strong and flexible balance sheet was significantly enhanced by the agreement of an unsecured four-year £400 million multi-currency RCF at the beginning of the year which increases funding capacity, allowing us to continue to consider strategic, value-accretive investments as and when they arise.
Importantly, the underlying fundamentals of the European self storage industry with limited supply, strong barriers to entry and a steadily growing product awareness are as strong as ever. We believe that the COVID period has acted as an accelerator of growth for the still relatively immature self storage industry. Whilst demand (as measured by enquiry growth) stabilised during the year at a level that is below 2022, we are still seeing enquiry levels that are ahead of the pre-COVID period.
Over the last ten years, Safestore has delivered an industry leading 16% CAGR of its adjusted diluted EPRA EPS. During that period, we expanded our geographical reach to six European countries leveraging and improving our platform and central functions while carefully managing investment risk. I’m confident that Safestore will continue to play a leading role in the development of the self storage industry across Europe, delivering significant further value to its stakeholders.
Our industry leading business model remains unchanged and we have substantial EPS growth to deliver both from filling the 1.9 million sq ft of fully invested, currently unlet space, and from the new sites and expansion of existing sites in our pipeline, across major cities in the UK and continental Europe. Safestore has a proven track record, and as the returns we deliver are significantly ahead of our cost of debt, we look to the future with confidence.
Finally, I would like to thank all our colleagues in the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium for their commitment and loyalty in 2023. We are appreciative of their efforts.”
Frederic Vecchioli, Safestore's Chief Executive Officer
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Overview - Chairman's Statement
Our purpose remains simple – to add stakeholder value by developing profitable and sustainable spaces that allow individuals, businesses and local communities to thrive.
The last year has demonstrated Safestore’s resilience and significant strategic and operational progress, after two exceptional years over which the Group delivered 57% growth in Earnings per Share. After four years in the role, I continue to be impressed by the dedication and resilience of the store, property development and Head Office teams which have been instrumental in delivering this progress.
Our purpose remains simple, to continue to add stakeholder value by developing profitable and sustainable spaces that allow individuals, businesses and local communities to thrive. Our strategy is underpinned by our values, our behaviours and our governance structure which shape our culture and remain central to the way we conduct our business.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all my colleagues throughout the Group for their exceptional contributions this year.
Strategic Progress
Management’s first priority remains to maximise the economic return on our existing store portfolio and its 1.9 million sq ft of fully invested unlet space, building on the significant operational improvements made over the current management team’s tenure.
In addition to improving returns from our existing portfolio, the Group has continued to make significant strategic progress in expanding its presence across Europe through a combination of new store openings and acquisitions. The Group has now acquired 47 and opened 31 stores over the last seven years and all are performing in line with or better than their original business cases. Our Spanish business, acquired as a four store portfolio in 2019, now has eleven open stores and a further five in the pipeline. Our Benelux businesses which was acquired in 2022 is now fully integrated into the business and has a pipeline of a further five stores. Overall, we have a development property pipeline of an additional 1.5 million sq ft of MLA, which provides significant future opportunity for the business and underpins our continued growth.
Our joint venture
1 with Carlyle in Germany provides us an exciting platform to gain exposure to a new attractive geography and I believe that Safestore’s highly scalable platform will allow us to take advantage of further opportunities in due course.
The establishment, in November 2022, of a £400 million unsecured multi-currency RCF at attractive margins offers us significantly greater strategic flexibility to support these growth plans.
Financial results
Revenue for the year was £224.2 million, 5.5% ahead of last year (FY2022: £212.5 million), or 4.8% ahead on a constant currency basis. Like-for-like
2 revenue was up 1.7% in constant currency.
The growth in like-for-like revenue, combined with strong cost control despite the challenging inflationary environment was particularly encouraging, delivering a further improvement in like-for-like margins. On a total basis, underlying EBITDA
3 increased by 5.3% to £142.2 million (FY2022: £135.1 million) and on a constant currency basis by 4.5%.
Statutory operating profit reduced by £284.1 million to £230.4 million in 2023 (FY2022: £514.5 million), reflecting a lower investment property gain in 2023 combined with the increase in Underlying EBITDA
3 and a reduction in the share-based payments charge.
Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share
4 grew by 0.8% to 47.9 pence (FY2022: 47.5 pence). Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share
4 has grown by 37.2 pence or 348% over the last ten years. Statutory diluted Earnings per Share decreased to 91.8 pence (FY2022: 212.4 pence) as a result of the reduced gain on valuation of investment properties, offset by an increase in Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share
4.
The Group’s balance sheet remains robust with a Group LTV
5 ratio of 25.4%, calculated on net debt (FY2022: 23.6%) and an ICR
6 of 6.7x (FY2022: 10.4x) leaving considerable headroom against our banking covenants and internal thresholds. This represents a level of gearing we consider appropriate for the business to enable the Group to increase returns on equity, maintain financial flexibility and achieve our medium term strategic objectives.
Finally, this year’s results consolidated a sustained period of excellent performance by the Group. Over the last ten years, the management and store teams have delivered a Total Shareholder Return of 607.9%, ranking at number one in the UK property sector. Since flotation in 2007, Safestore has also delivered the highest Total Shareholder Return of any UK listed self storage operator.
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance)
Away from the financial results, I am pleased with the progress the Group has made with its ESG strategy.
Even though Safestore already has one of the lowest environmental impact profiles of any company within the overall property sector, we have continued to focus on our environmental agenda, with year-on-year reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced disclosures in recognition of the recommendations of the TCFD. I am pleased to report that we have retained a Silver rating in the 2023 EPRA sustainability awards, an ‘A’ rating for public disclosures by GRESB and an ‘AA’ rating for ESG by MSCI.
In addition, we have demonstrated our commitment to our ESG agenda by linking the margin on our £400 million bank facility to ESG related KPIs agreed with our lending group. Details of these achievements are covered more fully in the Chief Executive’s report and the sustainability section of our Annual Report.
Non-Executive Board changes
During the year, Ian Krieger, our Senior Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair, has confirmed his intention to step down at the 2024 AGM. I would like to thank Ian for his excellent contribution over the last ten years. Jane Bentall will take over as Chair of the Audit Committee.
I have also been pleased to welcome Avis Darzins to the Board in the period. Avis has over 20 years of senior executive level and management consulting experience in the retail, entertainment and media sectors, specialising in customer experience, strategy and business transformation and I look forward to working with her.
Finally, Andy Jones, our CFO, notified the Board of his intention to retire from his role as Chief Financial Officer and as a director of the Company. Andy will continue in his role until the transition to his successor is complete and an external search for Andy’s replacement is underway. For over ten years, Andy has been instrumental in helping deliver the Company's strategy, significantly expanding its store portfolio and entering four additional geographies. During his career with Safestore, he has overseen a period of sector leading growth and shareholder returns and I’d like to thank Andy for his outstanding contribution and to wish him well for the future.
Dividend
Reflecting the Group’s progressive dividend policy, the Board is pleased to recommend a final dividend of 20.2 pence per share (FY2022: 20.4 pence) resulting in a full year dividend up 1% to 30.1 pence per share (FY2022: 29.8 pence).
Over the last ten years, the Group has grown the dividend by 423% or 24.4 pence per share during which period the Group has returned to shareholders a total of 180.1 pence per share. The total dividend for the year is covered 1.59 times by Adjusted EPRA Diluted Earnings (1.59 times in 2022). Shareholders will be asked to approve the dividend at the Company’s Annual General Meeting on 13 March 2024 and, if approved, the final dividend will be payable on 9 April 2024 to Shareholders on the register at close of business on 7 March 2024.
Summary
In conclusion, the Board remains confident in the future growth prospects for the Group and will continue its progressive dividend policy in 2024 and beyond. In the medium term it is anticipated that the Group’s dividend will grow at least in line with Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share4.
David Hearn
Chairman
1 – On 1 December 2022, the Group made an initial investment into a new joint venture with Carlyle, to enter the German self storage market, of c. €2.2 million for a 10% share. The Group will also earn a fee for providing management services to the joint venture.
2 – Like-for-like adjustments remove the impact of the 2023 acquisition of Apeldoorn, the 2023 openings of Wigan, London-Morden, Ellesmere Port, North Barcelona, South Barcelona, Central Barcelona 3, South Madrid, North Madrid, East Madrid, Nijmegen, and Amersfoort, the 2022 acquisition of the Netherlands and Belgium Joint Venture, the 2022 acquisition of Christchurch, and the 2022 openings of London-Bow and Central Barcelona.
3 – Underlying EBITDA is defined as Operating Profit before exceptional items, share-based payments, corporate transaction costs, change in fair value of derivatives, gain/loss on investment properties, variable lease payments, depreciation and the share of associate’s depreciation, interest and tax. Underlying EBITDA therefore excludes all leasehold cost charges. Underlying profit before tax is defined as Underlying EBITDA less leasehold cost, depreciation charged on property, plant and equipment and net finance charges relating to bank loans and cash.
4 – Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS is based on the European Public Real Estate Association's definition of Earnings and is defined as profit or loss for the period after tax but excluding corporate transaction costs, change in fair value of derivatives, gain/loss on investment properties and the associated tax impacts. The Company then makes further adjustments for the impact of exceptional items, IFRS 2 share-based payment charges, exceptional tax items and deferred tax charges. This adjusted earnings is divided by the diluted number of shares. The IFRS 2 cost is excluded as it is written back to distributable reserves and is a non-cash item (with the exception of the associated National Insurance element). Therefore neither the Company’s ability to distribute nor pay dividends is impacted (with the exception of the associated National Insurance element). The financial statements will disclose earnings on a statutory, EPRA and Adjusted Diluted EPRA basis and will provide a full reconciliation of the differences in the financial year in which any LTIP awards may vest.
5 – LTV ratio is Loan-to-Value ratio, which is defined as gross debt (excluding lease liabilities) as a proportion of the valuation of investment properties and investment properties under construction (excluding lease liabilities). At 31 October 2023, the Group LTV ratio was 25.4%, calculated on a net debt basis.
6 – ICR is interest cover ratio and is calculated as the ratio of Underlying EBITDA after leasehold costs to net interest payable.