Final Results

17 January  2024

 

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

 

Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer commented:

"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-like⁸ revenue growth of over 30.3% and Adjusted Diluted
EPRA EPS growth of 57.3%.

The Group's industry leading REVPAF¹⁰ grew by 1.9% on a like-for-like⁸ 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."
 

Highlights

Financial Performance

• Group revenue for the year up 5.5% (up 4.8% in CER¹)
• Like-for-like⁸ Group revenue for the year in CER¹ up 1.7%
• Underlying EBITDA² up 4.5% in CER¹ which, combined with a reduced gain on investment properties of £93.8 million (FY2022: £381.6 million), resulted in statutory operating profit9 of £230.4 million (FY2022: £514.5 million)
• Strong cost control with like-for-like costs increasing 0.3% on a CER basis
• Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share⁶ up 0.8% at 47.9 pence (FY2022: 47.5 pence)
• 1% increase in the dividend for the year to 30.1 pence (FY2022: 29.8 pence) in line with our progressive policy

Strategic Progress

• New stores or acquisitions adding c. 500,000 sq ft of new MLA⁴ across thirteen projects in the financial year (five in the UK, six in Spain and two in Netherlands)
• Total Group development and extension pipeline increased to 30 projects and 1.5 million sq ft representing c. 18% of the existing portfolio providing £25-£30 million of future EBITDA at stabilisation
• Purchases of the freehold interests of two stores in Barcelona and West Birmingham
• Lease extensions completed for four stores in Edinburgh, London- Charlton, London- Slough and Burnley
• Successful integration of Benelux acquisition
• Entry into German market via a new Joint Venture¹⁵ ("JV") with Carlyle which has acquired the seven-store myStorage business with 326,000 sq ft of MLA⁴

Strong and Flexible Balance Sheet

• 9.3% increase in property valuation (including investment properties under construction)
• 4.8% increase in EPRA basic NTA per share to £9.52 (FY2022: £9.08)
• New ESG linked Revolving Credit Facilities (RCFs) completed in November 2022 with an increased £400 million unsecured multi-currency four-year facility (with two, one-year extension options, the first of which has been completed recently). Margins remain at 1.25% in line with previous RCFs and all facilities, including private placement notes, are unsecured
• Approximately £200 million of headroom under the RCF plus £100 million accordion facility
• 73% of debt at fixed interest rates with tenors from 2024 to 2033
• Group loan-to-value ratio ("LTV"¹¹) at 25.4%, calculated on net debt (31 October 2022: 23.6%) and interest cover ratio ("ICR"¹²) at 6.7x (31 October 2022: 10.4x) 

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For further information, please contact:

Safestore Holdings PLC     020 8732 1500
Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer    via Instinctif Partners
Andy Jones, Chief Financial Officer     
www.safestore.com

Instinctif Partners     020 7457 2020
Guy Scarborough/ Bryn Woodward    
 
Notes
We prepare our financial statements using IFRS. However, we also use a number of adjusted measures in assessing and managing the performance of the business. These measures are not defined under IFRS and they may not be directly comparable with other companies' adjusted measures and are not intended to be a substitute for, or superior to, any IFRS measures of performance. These include like-for-like figures to aid in the comparability of the underlying business as they exclude the impact on results of purchased, sold, opened or closed stores and constant exchange rate ("CER") figures are provided in order to present results on a more comparable basis, removing FX movements. These metrics have been disclosed because management reviews and monitors performance of the business
on this basis. We have also included a number of measures defined by EPRA, which are designed to enhance transparency and comparability across the European Real Estate sector; see notes 6 and 13 below and "Non-GAAP financial information" in the notes to the financial statements.
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. Euro denominated results for the comparative period are translated at the exchange rates effective in that period. This is performed in order to present the reported results for the current period on a more comparable basis).
2 - 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.
3 - Occupancy excludes offices but includes bulk tenancy. As at 31 October 2023, closing occupancy includes 18,000 sq ft of bulk tenancy (31 October 2022: 24,000 sq ft).
4 - MLA is Maximum Lettable Area. At 31 October 2023, Group MLA was c. 8.09 million sq ft (FY2022: c. 7.70 million sq ft).
5 - Average Storage Rate is calculated as the revenue generated from self storage revenues divided by the average square footage occupied during the period in question.
6 - 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.
7 - Free cash flow is defined as cash flow before investing and financing activities but after leasehold cost payments.
8 - 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
9 - Operating profit decreased by £284.1 million to £230.4 million (FY2022: £514.5 million) principally as a result of a decrease in the gain on investment properties of £287.8 million to £93.8 million (FY2022: £381.6 million), as well as an increase of £7.1 million or 5.3% in Underlying EBITDA as a result of stronger trading performance. Profit before income tax in FY2022 additionally included exceptional items of £10.8m, being other exceptional gains. This included £5.5 million relating to the valuation gain of the 20% equity investment held in the Joint Venture with CERF, when the Group acquired the remaining 80% on 30 March 2022 and £5.1
million relating to the net gain on disposal of the Paris Nanterre site in November 2021.
10 - REVPAF is an alternative performance measure used by the business. REVPAF stands for Revenue per Available Square Foot and is calculated by dividing revenue for the period by weighted average available square feet for the same period
11 - 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.
12 - ICR is interest cover ratio and is calculated as the ratio of Underlying EBITDA after leasehold costs to net interest payable.
13 - EPRA basic NAV was superseded and transitioned to three new measures: EPRA Net Reinstatement Value ("NRV"), EPRA Net Tangible Assets ("NTA") and EPRA Net Disposal Value ("NDV") for periods commencing 1 January 2020 or thereafter. Safestore considers EPRA NTA to be the most consistent with the nature of the Group's business. The basis of calculation, including a reconciliation to reported net assets, is set out in note 11 of the Financial Statements.
14 - In 2019, Safestore entered a strategic arrangement with Carlyle to enter the Benelux market, with an investment of 20%. This arrangement represented a joint venture and has been referred to as such. On 30 March 2022, the Group acquired the remaining 80% of the Joint Venture with CERF. Prior to acquiring the 80%, the Joint Venture with CERF, which represented a 20% investment, was accounted for as an associate using the equity method of accounting, as described in the "Investment in associates" note to the financial statements.
15 - 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.
16 - Store Protect has replaced our customer goods insurance programme from 1 November 2023, attracting VAT rather than Insurance Premium Tax (IPT). When comparing the first two months of the 2024 financial year, the 2023 comparative included revenue of £0.4 million representing 12% IPT on insurance sales for the two months. For 2024, VAT is not included in the revenue. The overall impact of these changes is neutral at EBITDA. With the LFL revenue figure adjusted to remove the IPT from the prior year, LFL revenue is down 0.6%. Including the IPT in revenue in the PY would result in a variance of -1.6%.