Third Quarter Trading Update: 07/09/23

 

Safestore Holdings plc

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

 

Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“After very strong comparative quarters in the last two years (18.6% like-for-like revenue growth in 2021 and 9.5% in 2022), I am pleased to report that the group has delivered further like-for-like revenue growth as well as what we believe to be industry leading REVPAF in our key markets. Whilst we have seen some softness in the UK’s business customer segment, reflective of a weaker macroeconomic environment, trading with our domestic customers and the remainder of the business has been robust.

We have opened a further two new stores in the period in Spain and added five new stores or extensions in the UK, Paris and Spain to our pipeline which represents 19% of our existing portfolio’s MLA. We anticipate that our pipeline will continue to grow over the coming months. Our strong and flexible balance sheet has significant funding capacity, allowing us to continue to consider and execute strategic investments as and when they arise. Whilst the pipeline and associated financing will be dilutive to earnings in the near term, the returns generated by new stores are reliable and we are confident that it will be significantly value-accretive as the new sites mature.

Alongside our attractive development pipeline, we continue to prioritise the significant upside from filling our 1.7m 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.

For 2023, we anticipate that the business will deliver Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share⁷ towards the lower end of the range of analysts’ forecasts⁸ of 47.3p to 50.3p”.
 

Highlights

• Group revenue for the quarter in CER¹ up 2.9% and 3.3% at actual exchange rates
• Like-for-like⁵ Group revenue for the quarter in CER¹ up 1.2%
  • UK up 0.7%
  • Paris up 3.2%
  • Spain down 2.2%
• Like-for-like⁵ average rate for the quarter up 4.5% in CER¹
  • UK up 4.4%
  • Paris up 4.3%
  • Spain up 5.6%
• Like-for-like⁵ closing occupancy at 81.8% (2022: 85.3%)
  • UK down 4.0ppts at 81.8% (2022: 85.8%)
  • Paris down 0.7ppts at 82.1% (2022 82.8%)
  • Spain down 8.2ppts at 82.8% (2022: 91.0%)
• Two new store openings in the period in Eastern Madrid and South Barcelona with a combined MLA of 81,000 sq ft.
• Three new sites secured in Watford and Eastleigh in the UK and in Pamplona in Spain adding 132,000 sq ft of MLA to the pipeline.
• Two new extensions of existing sites added at London- Holloway and Paris- Poissy adding 21,500 sq ft of MLA.
• Group Property Pipeline of 1.523m sq ft representing c. 19% of the existing portfolio.

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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

Ends

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 – Q3 2022 is the quarter ended 31 July 2022.
3 – Occupancy excludes offices but includes bulk tenancy. As of 31 July 2023, closing occupancy includes 18,000 sq ft of bulk tenancy (31 July 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 49.1p. The thirteen analyst forecasts range from 47.3p to 50.3p
9 – 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.