Third Quarter Trading Update

5 September 2024

Safestore Holdings plc

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

 

Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"We have delivered robust trading performance in the quarter, with improving Like-for-Like revenue growth across the Group.

The UK has seen improving occupancy, continuing the trend from Q2, driven by increasing levels of space taken by domestic customers. Since the end of the quarter, this momentum has continued with domestic occupied space growing to be 2.8% ahead of prior year at the end of August and with business customers with stable levels of occupancy since the end of Q2.

Outside of the UK, Paris continues to deliver a steady level of growth with the strong Like-for-Like growth in Spain, Netherlands and Belgium demonstrating the exciting opportunity in these developing markets.

We have continued with the successful delivery of our development pipeline with six stores and extensions opening in the quarter, adding nearly 300,000 sq ft to our portfolio. The pipeline includes two further stores and two extensions scheduled to open this financial year with 24 further stores opening in 2025 and beyond, which are projected to continue to drive earnings growth in the medium term.

With UK revenue stabilising and with continued growth in Europe we expect Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share for the full year to be broadly in line with consensus forecasts".
 

Highlights

• Q3 2024 revenue at CER grew 1.1% year on year excluding £0.6m of insurance premium tax relating to the sale of customer goods insurance in 2023 not repeated this year⁷
• Like-for-Like Group revenue for the quarter in CER was flat
• Like-for-Like Group closing occupancy² at 80.3% (Q3 2023: 81.5%)
• Like-for-Like average rate for the quarter up 0.4% year on year in CER
• Openings of six new stores and extensions in the quarter, adding 297,000 sq ft of MLA with a development pipeline of 28 stores totalling 1.4m sq ft representing 17% of the existing portfolio
• Significant UK domestic occupancy momentum in July and August with Like-for-Like domestic occupied square feet now up 2.8% year-on year as of end of August resulting in overall UK occupancy now flat on prior year
• Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share for the full year expected to be broadly in line with consensus forecasts⁸

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For further information, please contact:

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

Instinctif Partners     
Guy Scarborough/ Joe Quinlan    07917 178920/ 07739 342009
  Ends

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 - Occupancy excludes offices but includes bulk tenancy. As of 31 July 2024, closing occupancy includes 18,000 sq ft of bulk tenancy (31 July 2023: 18,000 sq ft).
3 - MLA is Maximum Lettable Area.
4 - 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.
5 - The Belgium and Netherlands businesses were acquired in March 2022 with the 15 stores now considered like-for-like.
6 - 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. It is stated on an annual equivalent basis.
7 - Store Protect replaced our customer goods insurance programme in the UK from 1 November 2023, attracting VAT rather than Insurance Premium Tax ('IPT'). The Q3 2023 YTD revenue includes £1.7 million representing 12% IPT on insurance sales for the nine months. Excluding this impact, total revenue increased 0.4% year on year for the Group and decreased 1.1% for the UK. The IPT in 2023 has been excluded from Like-for-Like figures to aid comparability.
8 - Company compiled consensus of published reports, as at 30 August 2024, from 12 analysts reflecting range of 40.7p to 44.6p with mean 42.8p