SWEF: Actualización de la cartera
Starwood European Real Estate Finance Ltd (SWEF)
Starwood Europea Financiación Inmobiliaria Limitada
Actualización trimestral de la cartera £37.9 million repaid across four investments Fourth and fifth capital redemptions totalling £45.0 million undertaken in February and March 2024
Starwood European Real Estate Finance Limited (“SEREF” or the “Group”), a leading investor managing and realising a diverse portfolio of high quality senior and mezzanine real estate debt in the UK and Europe, is pleased to present its performance for the quarter ended 31 March 2024.
Destacados
John Whittle, presidente de SEREF, dijo:
“2024 has started well in terms of our orderly realisation strategy, with £37.9 million being realised from loan repayments during the quarter. This has enabled us to return £45.0 million to shareholders via two capital redemptions in 2024 to date.
Despite continued high interest rates, volatile economic conditions and lower transaction volumes, the portfolio has continued to perform well. Following the settlement of the Shopping Centre loan, Spain and the partial repayment of the Three Shopping Centres, Spain loan, just 5 per cent of the total funded loan portfolio is allocated to the Retail sector as of 31 March 2024.
We are on track to meet our aim of paying out a 5.5 pence per share dividend for 2024. We also expect to make further realisations in the coming months and look forward to updating shareholders on these realisations in due course.”
La ficha técnica del período está disponible en: www.starwoodeuropeanfinance.com
Precio de la acción / NAV a 31 de marzo de 2024
Estadísticas clave de la cartera a 31 de marzo de 2024
*excluye cualquier extensión permitida. Tenga en cuenta que los prestatarios pueden optar por pagar los préstamos antes del vencimiento contractual.
*la división de divisas se refiere a la divisa del préstamo subyacente; sin embargo, el capital de todas las exposiciones distintas de la libra esterlina está cubierto en libras esterlinas.
(1) El rendimiento total anualizado no apalancado se calcula sobre los montos pendientes a la fecha de presentación, excluyendo los compromisos no utilizados y asumiendo que todos los préstamos dispuestos están vigentes durante todo el plazo contractual. 10 de los préstamos son a tasa variable (parcial o total y todos con piso) y los rendimientos se basan en un perfil supuesto para tasas interbancarias futuras, pero la tasa real recibida puede ser mayor o menor. Calculado solo sobre los montos financiados a la fecha de presentación y excluyendo los montos comprometidos (pero incluidas las tarifas de compromiso) y excluyendo el efectivo no invertido. The calculation also excludes the origination fee paid to the Investment Manager. (2) LTV to Group last £ significa el porcentaje que el préstamo total retirado menos cualquier reserva de efectivo controlada por el prestamista deducible y menos cualquier amortización recibida hasta la fecha (cuando se agrega con cualquier otra clasificación de endeudamiento junto y/o superior a este) le otorga al mercado valor determinado por la última valoración formal del prestamista recibida en la fecha del informe. LTV al primer grupo £ significa el punto de partida del rango de préstamo a valor de los préstamos emitidos (cuando se agrega con cualquier otra clasificación de endeudamiento superior). Para los proyectos de desarrollo, el cálculo incluye la instalación total disponible y se calcula contra el valor de mercado asumido al finalizar el proyecto relevante.
Realización Ordenada y Retorno de Capital
El 31 de octubre de 2022, el Consejo anunció la propuesta de realización ordenada y devolución de capital a los accionistas de la empresa. El 28 de diciembre de 2022 se publicó una circular relacionada con la realización ordenada propuesta, que contiene una convocatoria de Asamblea General Extraordinaria (EGM). Las propuestas fueron aprobadas por los Accionistas en la EGM en enero de 2023 y la Compañía ahora busca devolver efectivo a los Accionistas en de manera ordenada tan pronto como sea razonablemente posible después del reembolso de los préstamos, manteniendo al mismo tiempo suficiente capital de trabajo para las operaciones en curso y la financiación de compromisos de préstamos comprometidos pero actualmente no financiados.
The redemptions announced and implemented in 2023 returned circa £85.0 million in total to shareholders. During the first quarter of 2024, the Company announced and implemented its fourth and fifth capital redemptions, returning, in total, circa £45.0 million to shareholders through the compulsory redemption of 43,512,736 shares. Tras el quinto redemption, the Company has 270,178,206 shares in issue and the total number of voting rights is 270,178,206.
Liquidity and credit facilities
During 2023 the Company built up a cash reserve sufficient to cover its unfunded commitments (which as at 31 March 2024 amounted to £31.4 million). This cash reserve is included in the £53.9 million of cash held as at 31 March 2024.
During the quarter the Lloyds £25.0 million revolving credit facility was terminated. It had been due to mature in May 2024. The decision was taken to terminate it early as the Company holds sufficient cash to meet its commitments and there was no intention to use the facility before the end of the availability period.
Dividendo
On 25 April 2024, the Directors announced a dividend, to be paid in May, in respect of the first quarter of 2024 of 1.375 pence per Ordinary Share in line with the 2024 dividend target of 5.5 pence per Ordinary Share
Actualización de la cartera
The Group continues to closely monitor and manage the credit quality of its loan exposures and repayments. Despite continued high interest rates, volatile economic conditions and lower transaction volumes, the portfolio has continued to perform well.
On an aggregate portfolio level we continue to benefit from material headroom in underlying collateral value against the loan basis, with a current weighted average loan to value of 58 per cent. These metrics are based on independent third party appraisals (with the exception of one loan that has been marked against lower recent comparable sale levels). These appraisals are typically updated annually for income producing assets. The current weighted average age of valuations is eight months.
Significant loan repayments totalling £37.9 million, equivalent to 14 per cent of the 31 December 2023 total funded portfolio, were received during the quarter to 31 March 2024. This included full settlement of the Shopping Centre, Spain loan and 60 per cent of the Three Shopping Centres, Spain loan. These repayments mark a significant 73 per cent reduction in the Group’s exposure to the Retail sector, with just 5 per cent of the total funded loan portfolio allocated to the Retail sector as of 31 March 2024.
The Group’s exposure is spread across eleven investments. 99 per cent of the total funded loan portfolio as of 31 March 2024 is spread across six asset classes; Hospitality (50 per cent), Office (14 per cent), Light industrial (12 per cent), Healthcare (11 per cent), Life sciences (7 per cent) and Retail (5 per cent).
Hospitality exposure (50 per cent) is diversified across five loan investments. Two loans (12 per cent of hospitality exposure) benefit from State/Government licences in place at the properties and also benefit from significant amortisation that continues to decrease these loan exposures. One loan (37 per cent of hospitality exposure) has two underlying key UK gateway city hotel assets, both of which are undergoing comprehensive refurbishment programmes which are due to complete during 2024. The remaining two loans (51 per cent of hospitality exposure) have both been recently refurbished. The Group expects its exposure to hospitality to significantly reduce during 2024 from a combination of planned asset sales and refinancings of stabilised, strong performing assets. The weighted average loan to value of the hospitality exposure is 54 per cent.
The Group’s Office exposure (14 per cent) is spread across three loan investments. The weighted average loan to value of loans with office exposure is 75 per cent. The average age of these independently instructed valuation reports is less than one year and there continues to be headroom to the Group’s loan basis.
Light industrial and healthcare exposures comprise 12 per cent and 11 per cent each respectively, totalling 23 per cent of the total funded portfolio (across two investments) and provides good diversification into asset classes that continue to have very strong occupational and investor demand. Weighted average loan to value of these exposures is 57 per cent.
The Group’s Retail exposure has been materially reduced in the quarter to 31 March 2024 to £11.4 million remaining on one loan, equivalent to 5 per cent of the total funded portfolio. This is a reduction of £31.1 million or 73 per cent of Retail exposure versus the 31 December 2023 position. This followed the sale of three of the shopping centres underlying two Retail loans, with 100 per cent of net disposal proceeds being used to pay down the loans. The remaining Retail exposure of £11.4 million is held against one remaining shopping centre under the Three Shopping Centres, Spain, senior loan. This asset is well occupied and 100 per cent of the loan is forecast to be recovered when the asset is sold. The weighted average loan to value of the remaining retail exposure is 75 per cent. The value basis of this calculation is the lower of projected sale value (benchmarked against the recent sales value realised) and most recent third party independent appraisals.
The Group has no exposure to development and heavy refurbishment projects (as at 31 March 2023 this exposure amounted to 11 per cent of total loan commitments).
Análisis de Riesgo de Crédito
Todos los préstamos dentro de la cartera se clasifican y miden al costo amortizado menos deterioro.
During the quarter there have been no changes to the existing credit risk levels for any of the loans in the portfolio, however following the reduction during the quarter of the Retail sector exposure, there has been a £31.4 million, 33 per cent decrease in the aggregate of the Stage 2 and 3 category loans as of 31 March 2024 compared to 31 December 2023.
El Grupo sigue un modelo de deterioro de tres etapas basado en cambios en la calidad crediticia desde el reconocimiento inicial, como se resume a continuación:
The Group closely monitors all loans in the portfolio for any deterioration in credit risk. As of 31 March 2024, assigned classifications are:
Los préstamos de la Etapa 2 continúan beneficiándose del margen de maniobra para la base de inversión del Grupo. El Grupo tiene una estrategia para cada uno de estos acuerdos que apunta al reembolso total del préstamo durante un período de tiempo definido. El momento del reembolso variará según el nivel de apoyo de capital de los patrocinadores. Por lo general, cuando los patrocinadores están dispuestos a inyectar capital adicional para pagar parcialmente los préstamos y respaldar la ejecución de su plan de negocios, el Grupo otorgará cierto margen de maniobra financiera temporal. De lo contrario, los patrocinadores están ejecutando procesos de venta para vender activos y pagar sus préstamos.
Esta evaluación se ha realizado con base en la información en nuestro poder a la fecha del informe, nuestra evaluación de los riesgos de cada préstamo y ciertas estimaciones y juicios sobre el desempeño futuro de los activos.
Reembolsos
Durante el trimestre, los prestatarios reembolsaron un total de £37.9 millones de libras en virtud de las siguientes obligaciones crediticias:
These repayments, along with some of the cash balance held as at 31 December 2023, were used in the quarter to fund the fourth and fifth returns of capital to Shareholders (which amounted to circa £45.0 million).
Comentarios y perspectivas del mercado Global inflation has moved back significantly from the highly elevated levels seen in 2023 but remains above target levels. During the past few weeks the optimism around the speed at which target inflation would be reached and expectations for rapid central banks’ reductions in interest rate policy have diminished.
Recent inflation numbers have been persistently higher than expectations and target inflation levels. The overall decline since the peak in US Inflation has been considerable, having moved from 9.1 per cent in June 2022 to 3.5 per cent in March 2024. In the United Kingdom similarly there has been a significant reduction in inflation from 11.1 per cent in November 2022 to 3.2 per cent in March 2024. In this first quarter, economic data has generally pointed to a slower pace of stabilisation of inflation.
Interest rate policy makers have maintained a resolute stance on finishing the job on combatting this inflation with interest rate policy. Since the beginning of the year the expectations of the number of interest rate cuts the market expects in 2024 have reduced significantly. In the United States the Federal Reserve dot plots predicted three cuts during 2024 and the market had priced in six cuts at the beginning of the year but the expectation now is that there will only be one or two cuts during 2024. Similarly in the United Kingdom the market had priced in 1.04 percentage points of cuts at the beginning of the year but the expectation now is that there will only be 0.38 percentage points of cuts during 2024.
This has also fed into longer term interest rates which remain elevated relative to the past few years and which have rebounded from recent trough levels achieved at the end of 2023. Since the beginning of the year the US 10 Year Treasury yields have moved up more than half way back to recent peak levels. The US 10 Year Treasury rate has risen by 0.7 per cent to 4.6 per cent having started the year at 3.9 per cent which compared to a peak of 5.0 per cent in October 2023. Similarly UK 10 Year Gilt rates are 4.3 per cent which is up from 3.5 per cent at the beginning of the year and compared with a peak of 4.7 per cent in October of 2023. German 10 Year Bond rates follow the same directional trend but at lower rates and with smaller movement. The German 10 Year Bond yields are 2.5 per cent up from 2.0 per cent at the beginning of the year and compared with a peak of 3.0 per cent in October 2023.
European commercial real estate is typically financed using 3 to 5-year floating rate debt and the key benchmark for financing cost is the 5-year swap. The GBP and EUR 5-year swaps currently stand at circa 4.1 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively, having started the year at 3.3 per cent and 2.3 per cent.
Over the last two years higher uncertainty over the levels of inflation and interest rates has been one of the key factors leading to significantly lower transaction volumes in commercial real estate and according to CBRE research, 2023 had the lowest level of investment volume since the GFC in Europe with volumes half of the levels of recent years. With stickier inflation and a higher for longer expectation for interest rates this slower trend is continuing.
A crowded set of geo-political considerations including the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and other tensions in the Middle East combined could continue to disrupt supply chains and commodity pricing that could create increased volatility in the path of inflation and interest rates and lead to investor hesitancy in real estate investments.
In contrast with the investment market we have seen a competitive market in real estate credit for both acquisition and refinancings. Last quarter we reported that the sentiment was meaningfully better than this time last year with a high degree of confidence in capital markets. At that time spread tightening in secondary trading had already showed a stronger market appetite and the banks were expecting healthy volumes of new issuance being cleared efficiently and with further price tightening also on the cards.
While problem areas (such as lower quality offices and distressed thinly capitalised developers) will still need to be worked through, that general sentiment has played out as expected with a very strong start of the year in capital markets. This has been seen across the board in bond markets both in and outside of the real estate space. The Investment Grade and High Yield markets are off to strong starts and in real estate specifically the US CMBS market has seen USD 19.5 billion of CMBS issuance in the first three months of the year which is an increase of 166 per cent versus USD 7.3 billion at the same time last year. We have also seen the predicted spread tightening with the Single Asset Single Borrower AAA rated tranches having been issued as tight as 140 basis points over the benchmark interest rate versus low 200s at the end of last year.
While CMBS and the unsecured bond markets play a smaller part in the European commercial real estate market, the health of the public credit markets have a knock on effect into general real estate finance sentiment and we have seen a similar dynamic in the European loan markets. There has been a larger number of active loan requests in the market and with larger average loan sizes than we have seen over the last two years. The market has been competitive both on pricing and risk relative to last year. Many of the larger transactions are in the logistics and student refinancing sectors but we are also seeing strong appetite for asset classes across the board including demand for the right types of office with a good example being the £280 million refinancing of the Blue Fin building in London which closed in the first quarter.
There are some indicators that the second quarter may be more measured than the first quarter. The VIX is the popular name for the Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index, which is a popular measure of the stock market's expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index options. The VIX has risen to 18.96 which is the highest level since October 2023.We have also seen the Itraxx Crossover index which is a benchmark for crossover corporate credit retrace from a recent low of 290 to 341. This is still down from a peak of 473 in October 2023 but the recent change of direction is notable. Expectations for the pace of the recovery in transaction volumes continue to move around as the interest rate and geo-political outlook develops.
Cartera de Inversiones a 31 de marzo de 2024
Al 31 de marzo de 2024, el Grupo tenía 11 inversiones y compromisos de £256.4 millones de la siguiente manera:
Préstamo a valor (LTV)
All assets securing the loans undergo third party valuations before each investment closes and periodically thereafter at a time considered appropriate by the lenders. The LTVs shown below are based on independent third party appraisals with the exception of one loan which has been marked against the lower of the projected sale value (benchmarked against the recent sales value realised) and most recent third party independent appraisal. The current weighted average age of the dates of these valuations for the whole portfolio is just over eight months. On the basis of the methodology and valuation processes previously disclosed (see 30 September 2020 factsheet with the exceptions as noted above) at 31 March 2024 the Group has an average last £ LTV of 57.9 per cent (31 December 2023: 61.8 per cent). La siguiente tabla muestra la sensibilidad del préstamo al cálculo del valor para los movimientos en la valoración de la propiedad subyacente y demuestra que el Grupo tiene un margen considerable dentro de los últimos LTV informados actualmente.
Rendimiento del precio de las acciones
Las acciones de la empresa cerraron el 31 de marzo de 2024 a 92.2 peniques, lo que resultó en un rendimiento total del precio de las acciones para el primer trimestre de 2024 del 4.1 %. A 31 de marzo de 2024, el descuento del NAV se situó en el 11.7 %, con un descuento medio del NAV del 12.1 % durante el trimestre.
Nota: el descuento del 31 de marzo de 2024 al NAV se basa en el NAV actual del 31 de marzo de 2024 como se informa en esta hoja informativa. Todos los descuentos promedio al NAV se calculan como el último NAV cum-dividendo disponible en el mercado en un día determinado, ajustado por cualquier pago de dividendos a partir de la fecha ex-dividendo en adelante.
Para más información, por favor póngase en contacto con:
Buchanan +44 0 20 7466 5000 helen tarbet +44 0 7788 528 143 henry wilson
Notas:
Starwood European Real Estate Finance Limited es una sociedad de inversión que cotiza en el segmento premium del principal mercado de la Bolsa de Valores de Londres con el objetivo de inversión de realizar una realización ordenada de los activos de la Sociedad. www.starwoodeuropeanfinance.com.
Los activos del Grupo son administrados por Starwood European Finance Partners Limited, una subsidiaria indirecta de propiedad total de Starwood Capital Group. Difusión de un Anuncio Normativo que contiene información privilegiada de acuerdo con el Reglamento de Abuso de Mercado (MAR), transmitido por EQS Group. El emisor es el único responsable del contenido de este anuncio. |
ES EN: | GG00BRC3R375 |
Código de categoría: | UFP |
TIDM: | SWEF |
Código LEI: | 5493004YMVUQ9Z7JGZ50 |
Categorías OAM: | 3.1. Información adicional regulada que debe divulgarse según las leyes de un Estado miembro |
No de secuencia: | 317753 |
ID de noticias de EQS: | 1888779 |
Fin del anuncio | Servicio de noticias EQS |
Anuncio reglamentario del Reino Unido transmitido por EQS Group AG. El emisor es el único responsable del contenido de este anuncio.