Centuria Office REIT

Good morning. Thank you for joining Centuria Office REIT's full year 2026 results presentation. My name is Grant Nicholls, Head of Listed Funds for Centuria Capital. Presenting with me today is Belinda Cheung, Centuria Office REIT Fund Manager, and Cameron Mullen, COF Deputy Fund Manager. Starting on slide three, I would like to commence today's presentation with an acknowledgement of country. We are joining you from the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Venturia manages property throughout Australia and New Zealand and pays its respects to the traditional owners in each country, to their unique culture and to their elders past and present. The past year has demonstrated improved momentum across Australia's office markets with increased leasing activity, positive rental growth and signs of asset value stabilisation. This is occurring amid constrained future supply and the ongoing repurposing of office spaces for alternate use particularly in metropolitan markets. As a result, there is a positive outlook for stronger occupancy and rental growth in the markets COF is exposed to. COF's FY26 performance reflects this positive momentum and in today's presentation, Belinda and Cameron will cover an overview of COF's performance, COF's financial results, operational performance and conclude with a market overview and guidance. Moving to slide four, Centuria Office REIT is managed by Centuria Capital Group, which has over $22 billion of assets under management. DOF unit holders continue to benefit from Centuria's deep real estate expertise, including a fully integrated property, facilities, and asset management platform, synergies across the group's broader office real estate portfolio, and strong alignments as Centuria is COF's largest unit holder and the manager's interests are strongly aligned with yours as unit holders. Turning to slide six, COF's vision and strategy remains unchanged. We aspire to be Australia's leading pure-plate Office REIT. We are focused on generating sustainable and quality income streams and executing initiatives to create value across our portfolio of high-quality office assets that offer leading sustainability, amenity, and connectivity. The results the team present today reflect the execution of this strategy, supported by the deep real estate capability of the broader Centuria team. I will now pass over to Belinda.

Thank you, Grant, and good morning, everyone. Let me begin on slide seven. FY26 was an important year for COF. While office markets continue to recover at different speeds across the country, We believe many of the foundations for future growth are now firmly in place. Throughout the year, our focus remained on three priorities. Preserving incomes through leasing, strengthening the balance sheet, and positioning the portfolio to benefit from improving market conditions. I'm pleased to report the successful execution and outcomes across these priorities. During FY26, TOF delivered funds from operations, or FFO, of 11.2 cents per unit and distributions of 10.1 cents per unit, both in line with guidance. TOF completed almost 40,000 square metres of leasing, representing 14.5% of portfolio NLA, one of the strongest leasing years in its history. This activity addressed a significant portion of expiries, preserved portfolio occupancy, and captured positive rental reversion across a number of assets. From a capital management perspective, we refinanced $1 billion of debt, reduced margins, extended debt expiry, and completed the sale of 9 Help Street at a 12.5% premium to book value using the proceeds to repay debt. These initiatives improved financial flexibility while supporting portfolio quality and reduced hearings. COF reported stabilizing valuations which have been underpinned by sustained rental growth across the portfolio and improving leasing conditions in a number of our markets. These outcomes provide encouraging evidence that office market fundamentals are improving and that COF is well positioned for FY27. Turning to the guidance on slide eight. For FY27, we provide FFO guidance of 11.3 cents per unit. and distribution guidance of $0.09 per unit. The FY27 distribution represents an 80% payout ratio. We believe this is an appropriate setting in the current environment, retaining additional flexibility to support leasing initiatives, manage capital prudently, and position the REIT for future growth. This outlook reflects several factors. First, the disposal of 9 Help Street. We believe this transaction was the right capital management outcome, given the premium achieved and the strategic benefits delivered to the portfolio. Secondly, guidance incorporates conservative assumptions for existing vacancy and lease expiries. Improving leasing conditions are supporting activity across the portfolio, although tenant decision-making and lease commencement timing still remain key variables. We continue to make good progress on a number of negotiations across the portfolio. And finally, we expect the positive rental growth achieved across recent leasing activity to support the income growth over FY27. Slide 9. Throughout FY26, we have seen increasing evidence that conditions across many Australian office markets are improving. A key driver of this improvement is the supply outlook. Future office supply remains heavily constrained by elevated construction costs and development feasibility challenges. In all domestic markets, economic rents sit materially above market rents, and importantly, the gap continues to widen, and this is expected to constrain future supply for the foreseeable future. We expect this gap in rents to be a key catalyst for future rental growth. At the same time, demand is increasingly focused on high-quality existing office stock that offers strong amenity, sustainability credentials, and transport accessibility. The COF portfolio provides all this, but at a significantly lower cost compared to an equivalent new development. As tenants seek quality space without paying new construction premiums, we expect existing assets like those within the COF portfolio to be increasingly attractive. I will now hand over to Cameron to take you through the financial results and portfolio overview.

Thank you, Belle. Moving to our financial results on slide 11. COF delivered funds from operations of $66.9 million or 11.2 cents per unit. Net property income decreased primarily due to asset divestments executed during the year and higher portfolio vacancy. Finance costs increased by $2.5 million to $48.7 million over the full year. The average all-in cost of debt incurred for FY26 was 5.2%. COF declared and paid distributions of 10.1 cents per year across the period in quarterly installments, representing a payout ratio of 90.1%. Slide 12 details COF's capital management. As Belinda mentioned, during the period, COF completed a $1 billion loan refinance with existing lenders. resulting in beneficial outcomes such as extended debt duration to 4.3 years and a reduction in margins by circa 30 basis points. COF maintains sufficient liquidity and debt covenant headroom with no debt expiring until FY29. At June 30, 2026, COF remained 76% hedged, providing a defensive position to rising rates and support earnings stability from further rate-driven volatility. COF settled the divestment of Ninehelm Street Chathood in June for a gross price of $90 million. The net proceeds of the transaction were used to repay debt, reducing gearing to 43.7%. The interest cover ratio for 30 June 2026 was two times, and the loan-to-value ratio was 44.8%, providing comfortable headroom to our covenant requirements of 1.75 times and 60%. Turning to COF's portfolio on slide 14. COF's portfolio comprises young, quality assets positioned in Australian metropolitan and near city office markets. COF's portfolio of 18 assets is truly diversified with no single state exposure greater than 26%. Importantly, the portfolio is underpinned by the quality tenants boasting over 74% of the portfolio income derived from government, multinational corporations and listed entities. The quality of our tenant base demonstrates the portfolio's appeal with 65% of tenants being large corporates occupying tenancies greater than 2,000 square meters. Moving to slide 15. Leasing was a key highlight for FY26 with almost 40,000 square meters leased across 47 transactions representing 14.5% of the portfolio. We secured over 17,000 square metres of new leasing and approximately 23,000 square metres of renewals, contributing to positive portfolio re-leasing spreads of 5%. Notable outcomes included extending a major government tenant at 8 Central Avenue for a further five years over more than 7,700 square metres and securing a new seven-year commitment from a parent communications in the same property. executing two full-full leases at 203 Pacific Highway to drive.com.au and NextDC, taking that asset to 100% occupancy. In Queensland, we completed five new leases and one renewal at 825 Anne Street, achieving average releasing spreads of 18%. These results demonstrate the continued appeal of our assets to both corporate and government occupiers and the benefits of our active asset management approach. Turning to our lease expiry profile on slide 16, COF remains well positioned with only 4.7% of portfolio income expiring in FY27, providing strong medium term income visibility. Importantly, these expiries are currently around 6% under rented relative to market, creating an opportunity to capture positive rental reversion as leasing occurs. Achieving high portfolio occupancy remains a key management focus supported by a well-staggered lease expiry profile and improving leasing conditions across our markets, we are actively pursuing opportunities to further enhance portfolio occupancy and extend income visibility through proactive tenant engagement, targeted leasing initiatives, and asset strategies tailored to local market conditions. I will now hand back to Belle to take you through the valuation summary for the period.

Thank you, Ken. Now turning to valuation outcomes on slide 17. It is encouraging to note FY26 was the second consecutive year of positive valuation movements and provides evidence of continued stabilisation. At $1.8 billion, the portfolio has an average valuation of about $6,900 per square metre. Again, valuations improved despite a further increase in capitalisation rates. the portfolio weighted average cap rate expanded to 7.04% during the year. However, this expansion was more than offset by underlying rental growth. Valuers adopted average market rental growth of 4.4% across the portfolio, reflecting improving fundamentals and increasing rental tension across a number of our markets. The positive leasing outcomes delivered during FY26 translated into valuation gains across a number of assets, particularly at 8 Central Avenue, 100 Brook Street and 825 Anne Street. Taken together, these results provide us with further confidence that rental growth is beginning to offset valuation pressure from capital markets and is contributing to a more stable outlook for the portfolio. Turning to slide 18. Despite the portfolio's improving fundamentals, we believe COF continues to trade at a significant discount to underlying asset values. At $15,500 per square metre, the estimated replacement cost of a modern metropolitan office building is two times the current value of COF's portfolio and almost three times the implied valuation based on the current trading price. This disconnect is also reflected in capitalisation rates. There is a 230 basis point spread between COF's weighted average cap rate and the implied cap rate of approximately 9.4%. These are difficult to reconcile with the improving leasing conditions, rent growth and stabilising valuations we have reported today. We believe this disconnect presents a compelling value proposition within the COF portfolio for long-term investors. Moving to slide 19. The sale of 9 Help Street demonstrates COF disciplined approach to capital management and portfolio optimisation. The asset was sold at a 12.5% premium to book value and delivered a 12.3% IRR over our ownership period. Beyond reducing gearing and providing direct market evidence, this transaction is one of a number of strategic divestments we have executed over time that have resulted in improved portfolio quality. While divestments can address gearing, it can also impact earnings. This has been one of the factors contributing to COF's FFO history. As a result, we remain disciplined in assessing opportunities to transact where pricing, portfolio outcomes and capital management objectives are appropriately aligned. Now turning to sustainability on slide 20. Sustainability outcomes are increasingly supporting leasing outcomes. We continue to see corporate and government occupiers place greater emphasis on electrified, energy efficient buildings that align with their own decarbonisation pathways. We are on track towards COF's target of zero Scope 2 emissions by 2028, supported by 1.6 megawatts of solar installed across our assets. More than half of the portfolio is now electrified, and pleasingly, much of the progress achieved to date has come from relatively low-cost initiatives. COF's strong sustainability credentials, including a 5.1 star Neighbours SPI rating, Tenant engagement and community partnerships continue to deliver positive outcomes for key stakeholders, not only improving environmental performance, but also enhancing the quality, resilience and long-term appeal of the portfolio. We maintain a positive outlook for Australian office markets for the reasons detailed in slide 22. Australia continues to benefit from strong population growth, Expanding white-collar employment and a comparatively resilient economic trajectory, providing supportive backdrop for long-term office demand. At the same time, future office supply remains highly constrained. Inflated construction costs and a tight labour market has severely impacted feasible developments in metropolitan markets, giving way to continued rental growth for prime assets. Obsolescence-led office withdrawals are expected to further accelerate this trend. We also believe AI will reinforce demand for quality office space. While AI may disrupt some roles, history shows productivity gains ultimately support economic growth, business formation and higher-value work. As judgment, leadership and collaboration become increasingly important, we expect demand to continue concentrating in well-located, sustainable and amenity-rich buildings. Together, These trends are likely to further widen the bifurcation between high quality and lower quality office assets, positioning COS portfolio well for the years ahead. COS FY26 priorities are outlined on slide 23. Our focus remains simple. Execute leasing transactions to promote sustainable earnings. Maintain a high quality portfolio. and preserve balance sheet flexibility so that COF is well positioned to capture the opportunities emerging across domestic office markets. Closing on slide 24. For FY27, COF is providing FFO guidance of 11.3 cents per unit and distribution guidance of 9 cents per unit. While market conditions continue to improve, our focus remains on execution and generating sustainable income growth and long-term value for unit holders. Thank you for your continued interest in Centuria Office REIT. We look forward to updating you on our progress throughout FY27. I will now hand back to the operator and welcome questions you may have.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. In the interest of time, we ask that you please limit to two questions per person. Your first question comes from Lauren Berry with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys. I just wanted to start with the decision to set the dividends at $0.09 or 80% payout ratio. Looking at the last couple of years, you've been paying out... well over 100% and it looks like you're implied to pay out over 100% in FY27 as well. Why not cut the dividend to 100% payout ratio or less to give you more flexibility on the incentive side? I'm just wondering why you want to keep it over 100% payout.

Hi Lauren, thanks for your question. At 80% We believe this strikes the right balance between the current income and the long-term value creation for the fund. We have previously mentioned that 80% is our long-term payout aspiration. And I think just given where this year has gone and how stable the portfolio is now, I think it is a very sustainable payout ratio to maintain.

You're happy to pay out over AFFO going forward?

ASFO is something that we don't typically guide to and we haven't in the past. And one of the main reasons why is because things like CAPEX and leasing incentives can be quite lumpy and it really depends on when major deals will be done. For us, looking into FY27, we don't actually see too much expiries. We've got 4.7% of expiries coming up in FY27. So I think it's a relatively sustainable measure to use this year.

this year but in FY28 you've got a significant amount of expiry coming up. If you do see incentives increasing a lot into FY28 because of the volume of expiry, could we expect the payout ratio to be cut further to account for that?

It's very difficult for us to provide distribution guidance to 28 at this point in time, given that we still have quite a while to go until then. So we will provide the market with more updates then. I think the way we're thinking about it is 80% is a through cycle distribution payout ratio we think is sustainable.

Okay, great. Thanks.

Thanks.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Dodds with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys. Just one for me. It looks like you've got 154 Melbourne Street in the accounts. It's held for sale. I'd just be interested to hear sort of how you're thinking about this potentially sort of factoring into guidance and I guess some of the other building blocks into 27 guidance that you're happy to call out at this stage.

It's listed as held for sale at the moment, but we have factored, it's got very little impact on FY27's outlook, Andrew. So at this point in time, I wouldn't put too much weight on that.

Right. And just any of the other sort of building blocks for 27 guidance that you can call out?

Yeah, definitely. On our FY27 guidance slide, we would have pointed out that the key contributors to FY27's guidance is due to the divestment of Nine Health Street in Chatswood. We also have like-for-like property income growth and also because of the refinancing that we did during the year and because of the sale of Nine Health Street, we've got slightly reduced debt costs that are contributing. to a pretty stable outlook on FY27 earnings.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Cody Shields with UBS. Please go ahead.

Morning, Graeme, Linda and Cameron. Thanks for the time. I just want to pick up on Dodgy's question there, just on 154 Melbourne. I'm just trying to get my head around how that's not going to impact the 27 number. I mean, you've got the benefit from the debt refi of about 30 basis points. Can you provide any colour on the yield you're expecting on settlement for that asset?

Yeah, Cody. So the impact that we're expecting is if we sell an asset, depending on when or during the year, that will have a bigger impact. If you sell earlier, it will potentially have a bigger impact on FFO. we're not expecting anything in the first half. At the same time, if you're looking at the passing yield for the building and interest costs, it's almost offset. So I'd say that the impact on the overall earnings cost is very immaterial.

Okay. Is there anything else going on at the MPI line that we need to be aware of? Like, for example, property expense growth may be a little bit higher than you'd anticipated.

Nothing that's too far out of the ordinary. I think the key driver for the net income is we've got positive leasing spreads coupled with all the other leases on foot has a about 3.5% rent review put through it. So it's a combination of these things.

Okay, sure. Maybe just on divestment activity from here. I mean, how are you thinking about the potential of selling some other assets? I mean, maybe across Brisbane or Canberra, some of those assets with 27 expiry.

I mean, we usually get the best outcome selling assets. If we can sell an asset that's a little bit better leased, that's definitely an outcome that we'd like to achieve. I'm not opposed to doing divestments across the portfolio, and I think Nine Hill Street is good evidence of that. Over the last few years, we have sold a number of assets, but obviously we need to balance the outlook on earnings as well as gearing. We are prioritising gearing, but I think we can extract a bit more value out of the existing portfolio before we execute any further sales. All I'm saying is we'll take a very measured approach. If we receive unsolicited offers that are worth considering, we'll definitely take it to the board for consideration.

Okay, got it. Thanks for the time.

Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from Tom Beaudoin with Jarden. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Belinda Grant and Cameron. Just picking up on one of the answers to Lauren's question around maintenance capex and incentives. You mentioned that they can be quite lumpy, but looking at the last two years, they've been almost identical at maintenance capex 7.1 incentives between 10 and 11. where do you forecast these line items in 27 on the basis of the leasing you've got to do?

Tom, I guess we don't provide any guidance around those two items because it highly depends on the timing and if leasing is done across the remaining expiries. But I'd say over the last two years we have done really high amounts of leasing which have resulted in higher leasing related capex

so if there is less leasing done in in the next year I also expect those numbers to be less so is that another way of saying you think they will be less than say 10 next year again it depends on the leasing that's executed okay thanks and then the other question I had was just around your ICR at two times your covenant is around 1.75. Just your level of comfort being that close to your covenant?

Yeah, thanks Tom. I think at two times we are still comfort with that level because there is still headroom to the ICR covenant requirement. It's also worth noting that we're projecting earnings to be quite stable from here on and with positive rent reversions that we've seen just solid leasing spreads we also expect rents online to look a little bit healthier as a result of our refinancing we also expect interest expense to be lower than where it has been in the past further to that the loan portfolio is pretty highly hedged so the exposure that we have is relatively minimal

Do you expect that to be higher next year than this year?

Yes, I do.

Okay, thanks.

Thanks. Thank you. Your next question comes from Murray Connellan with Moalus Australia. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Just noting the comments around the under-renting for the FY27 expiries, would you be able to give any commentary around what your view is on, I guess, the passing rents across the broader portfolio versus market?

Hi, Murray. Yeah. Most of the leasing that we have to do in FY27 relates to Queensland. And at the moment, I think... everyone across the board has seen significant rental growth in the Brisbane market. So most of the under renting that we've quoted on that slide is in relation to Brisbane.

Got it. And so across the broader portfolio, do you think it's probably going to be a bit closer to market?

Yeah, it's pretty close to market. Yeah, I think Cameron's just telling me now that we're about $7 under-rented on average across the portfolio.

Got it. Got it, got it. And then just on the incentive levels that you've had to do on leasing over the course of the last, let's say, 6 to 12 months, Would you be able to give us just a bit of a sense on how I guess that percentage number has changed on average versus let's say a year ago?

Incentives have been pretty stable across the board over the last year or at least from half year. So for new leases, we had average incentives of about 35% to 36%. and for renewals it was at around 30% to 31%. So it's pretty in line, maybe a little bit better than what we reported at the half.

Got it. Thanks, Belinda.

No worries. Thank you. Your next question comes from Michael Armstrong with Bell Potter. Please go ahead.

Hi all, just on FY27 guidance, is there an all-in cost of debt or BBSW sort of average figure that you're predicating guidance on?

Hi Michael, we haven't disclosed the BBSW look forward, but we're estimating our all-in cost of debt for FY27 to be 5.1%.

Okay, thank you. And then earlier in the presentation, you said that there's some fairly conservative assumptions regarding downtime or lease up of existing vacancies. Can you share what the downtime assumptions are?

Yeah, definitely. For our Melbourne assets, where we have four-floor vacancies, similar to last year, we have assumed no income flowing through. I think we're being quite realistic about the leasing conditions in those particular Melbourne markets. So we have applied the same assumptions this year.

Okay, thank you. And is that the same for Sydney, like the St Leonard's assets?

In St Leonard's, yes. Some of these floors are being repositioned or split for multi-suites. So those may have some better outcomes. But at this point in time, Our FY27 guidance is relatively conservative.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1. The next question comes from Winky Tan with Morningstar. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Belle. Good morning, team. Just a question about FY26 FFO. It's down slightly from last year and you mentioned about it's because of the divestment that you have done but I know that 9 Help Street was settled in June 2026 and then you also have slightly higher vacancy but then would be offset by 4% rent growth that you have achieved in the past year. was just wondering how you've come to that FFO. Could you just give a bit of comment on that?

Thanks. Yeah, definitely, Minky. So I guess the simplest way to think about it is the portfolio on average, like if you think about the average vacancy or average occupancy during the year, we had carried more average vacancy in FY26 than we did in FY25. that's the easiest way to explain the slight drop in FSO.

Right and also about your cost of debt which is down from 5.4% to 5.2% but it seems like the market rate has gone up about at least 50 basis points and I know that you've reduced your debt margins by about 30 bits but just wondering how how that has come down, and was it solely because of hedging?

That's right. It's because we have high amounts of hedging put in place.

All right. Great. Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Ms Cheung for closing remarks.

Once again, thank you for your interest in Centuria Office REIT. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact Tim Mitchell or myself. Thank you and have a lovely day.