First Quarter Trading Update

21 February 2023

Safestore Holdings plc

("Safestore", "the Company" or "the Group")

 

Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"I am pleased to report that the solid early trading indicated in our January 2023 announcement has continued through to the end of our first quarter with the Group delivering like-for-like revenue growth of 4.2% and total revenue growth of 9.4% (3.4% and 8.4% respectively on a CER basis).

We have opened two new stores in the period in Spain, acquired an existing operation in the Netherlands and added two stores in the UK and Spain to our pipeline which, at 1.5m sq ft, now represents 19% of our existing portfolio's MLA. We anticipate the pipeline will continue to grow over the coming months. Our strong and flexible, recently refinanced balance sheet has significant funding capacity, allowing us to continue to consider and execute strategic, value-accretive investments as and when they arise.

Alongside our attractive development pipeline, we continue to prioritise the significant upside from filling our 1.8m square feet of fully invested, currently unlet space. The business has demonstrated its inherent resilience in recent times and we look to the future with confidence. The first quarter's trading performance has provided us with a solid base for the rest of the financial year and we anticipate that the business delivers Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share7 for 2022/23 in line with the consensus of analysts' forecasts⁸".
 

Highlights

• Group revenue for the quarter in CER¹ up 8.4% and 9.4% at actual exchange rates
  • Like-for-like⁵ Group revenue for the quarter in CER¹ up 3.4%
    • UK up 3.5%
    • Paris up 2.6%
    • Spain up 7.1%
  • Like-for-like⁵ average rate for the quarter up 6.0% in CER¹
    • UK up 7.2%
    • Paris up 1.0%
    • Spain up 8.5%
  • Like-for-like⁵ occupancy at 79.1% (2022: 81.5%)
    • UK down 3.3ppts at 78.7% (2022: 82.0%)
    • Paris up 1.5ppts at 80.7% (2022 79.2%)
    • Spain down 4.9ppts at 80.8% (2022: 85.7%)
• As previously reported, Revolving Credit Facilities (RCF's) refinanced with a new increased £400m unsecured multi-currency four-year facility (with two one-year extension options) in November 2022. Margins remain at 1.25% in line with previous RCF's and all facilities, including private placement notes, are now unsecured.
• Group Property Pipeline of 1.5m sq ft representing c. 19% of the existing portfolio.
• Two new sites secured in Ellesmere Port in the UK and in Central Barcelona adding 69,700 sq ft of MLA.
• Edinburgh leasehold re-geared and freehold of Valencia store acquired in Barcelona.
• Acquisition of 58,000 sq ft existing storage facility in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.
• Entry into German market via a new Joint Venture ("JV") with Carlyle which has acquired the seven-store myStorage business with 326,000 sq ft of MLA⁴.

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For further information, please contact:

Safestore Holdings PLC     
Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer    via Instinctif Partners
Andy Jones, Chief Financial Officer     
www.safestore.com

Instinctif Partners     
Guy Scarborough/ Bryn Woodward    07917 178920/ 07739 342009
 
Notes
1 - CER is Constant Exchange Rates (Euro denominated results for the current period have been retranslated at the exchange rate effective for the comparative period, in order to present the reported results on a more comparable basis).
2 - Q1 2022 is the quarter ended 31 January 2022.
3 - Occupancy excludes offices but includes bulk tenancy. As of 31 January 2023, closing occupancy includes 24,000 sq ft of bulk tenancy (31 January 2022: 14,000 sq ft).
4 - MLA is Maximum Lettable Area.
5 - Like-for-like information includes only those stores which have been open throughout both the current and prior financial years, with adjustments made to remove the impact of new and closed stores, as well as corporate transactions.
6 - The Spain business was acquired on 30 December 2019 with the four originally acquired stores now considered like-for-like.
7- 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 are 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.
8 - The analyst consensus for Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS for the current financial year, based on the forecasts of thirteen analysts, is 49.5p. The thirteen analyst forecasts range from 45.3p to 54.0p