2/12/2026

speaker
Vincent Menny
Chief Executive Officer

Good morning and a warm welcome to URW's full year 2025 results. My first as CEO. I'm going to take you through some key highlights and share some insights on the key priorities. Fabrice will cover financials and then we will both be available for questions. 2025 was another big year for URW with many achievements and a good start to a platform for growth business plan, including a 2025% Rx guidance beat at €9.58 per share. We are reporting a strong performance across our business plan priorities, attractive growth, organic growth, disciplined capital allocation and substantial deleveraging. First, the key foundation is our strong retail operational performance. Footfall and tenant sales are up, leasing activity is strong, and vacancy is down to a record low. We also made very important strategic inroads in preparing for a bright future through two capital light initiatives. A new franchising business, an industry first in flagship retail globally, and the acquisition of a 25% stake in St. James Quarter in Edinburgh. These demonstrate the significant growth potential of the Westfield ecosystem of performance with top mall owners. We also had successful deliveries with Westfield, Hamburg, Ubersi Quartier and Westfield Charnymost in Czech Republic. Second, on the capital allocation side, Valuations are up and our LTV has significantly improved, helped by 2.2 billion euros of disposals completed or secured since the start of 2025. We have delivered on our earnings and distribution commitments for 2025, thanks to all these great achievements and to the successful financing and hedging activity delivered by Fabrice and his teams. one more point we will present in a few slides how we are preparing the future as a top innovator thanks to the exciting possibilities data and ai offer us and our retail partners i'm sincerely grateful to all our teams for the outstanding performance across the four regions in 2025 and i'm very excited to lead this great company Our Platform for Growth business plan focuses on delivering growth from a dominant network of retail-anchored urban infrastructure assets. And you can see that clearly in our 2025 results. For me, they clearly reinforce our strong underlying fundamentals and showcase the strengths and attractiveness of a unique business. Our EBITDA margin stands at 63%, a level very few businesses enjoy, and post-disposals, we now have an attractive cash flow conversion rate in excess of 70%. With the completion of our non-core disposals program, our business now comprises a portfolio of irreplaceable destinations. The strengthening of a balance sheet with an LTV at its lowest level since 2017 means we are well on track to achieve a 40% 2028 LTV target. All this is great news as it gives us the strategic flexibility to unlock URW's embedded growth potential in line with our business plan. As I shared at the start, a business has once again demonstrated its attractivity and consistent compounding growth. We saw continued improvement in key operating metrics across all regions within our retail portfolio. Tenant sales continue to outperform sales indices and core inflation, and vacancy is down a further 20 basis points to record low, driven by dynamic leasing activity. Zooming in on our key leasing metrics, we signed over 400 million euros of MGR with an 11% uplift on long-term deals consistent with 2024 activity. We made good progress in 2025 and we want to go even further with leasing being our number one priority for me and our teams. In a platform for growth, we have a simple plan which will drive growth through our established ecosystem of performance that combines unique assets best-in-class retail operations expertise, and the powerful Westfield brand. As a result, we see a clear opportunity to increase traffic, to keep driving tenant sales up with our partners, further enhance rental tension and retail tension, and reduce vacancy, and solidify our competitive advantage and capture market share. This is the key work that will drive like-for-like growth and unlock capital-light opportunities for our group. Now I want to spend a couple of minutes on why we outperform our sector. It's pretty simple, and this is at the core of our competitive advantage. Flagship stores are an essential part of a retailer's brand expression and customer acquisition strategy. Traditionally, these stores were located in premium city center or high streets with high footfall, and today they are increasingly a key component of the Westfield value proposition. We offer brands premium locations, incredible footfall, and most importantly, a profitable growth platform. A value proposition combines brand awareness with earned media value equal to 20 to 25% of annual occupancy costs at our centers and a cost-efficient customer acquisition channel 80% lower than digital. For these reasons, our stores are big business for many tenants. Her top 20 fastest growing brands achieved a plus 40% sales increase across her portfolio over only the two past years and generate an average of 16 million euros of annual sales from each store. Here is another data point. Her 10 largest brands are grossing between 100 and 900 million euros in annual sales volume across her portfolio. This is huge, and we're super excited to see which one will first reach the 1 billion sales with us. Finally, I would add that this success also reflects the benefits of highly curated destinations for customers. These are safe, secure, comfortable locations that offer a superior experience in real-life human connection. This being said, here is a thought-provoking comparison. We have taken key leasing data from Forum des Halles in Paris and compared it to our city's leading high street, Avenue des Champs-Elysées. We're talking about roughly the same annual footfall levels, around 65 million, yet Forum des Halles has materially lower rents. Given our similar to higher sales densities, this means higher profits for retailers at our Westfield destination. You'll also notice that average store sizes are four times larger on Champs-Élysées. Usually in retail, the larger the store, the lower the rent per square meter. Interestingly here, the opposite is true with Champs-Élysées. And this is clearly the beauty and power of operating in the flagship locations business, where retailers are ready to pay a premium for brand awareness and visibility. OCR is much less part of the conversation. Obviously, you could argue that Champs-Élysées represents a different proposition for major brands. And I'm not saying that we will soon match these rental levels. However, we clearly offer a compelling value proposition that provides comparable traffic levels and attractive demographics while also delivering profitability for retailers. And it certainly gives us confidence about the true value of our offer and the upside potential we see on our very best flagship assets. And beyond this sales performance, as a single landlord compared to Champs-Élysées multiple ownership, this means that we are in full control of tenant mix, customer journeys, and visitor data. And this is where we can be a top innovator in the flagship retail segment. In 2025, we continue to see a strong lineup of new flagship openings. Bringing in new flagship concepts that are in demand by our customers is key to increasing the level of commercial tension at our locations. The U.S. offers in particular a deep reservoir of great brands like Schemes, Viori and others that are very open to the flagship opportunity we offer and look to Westfield as a natural partner to expand into Europe. A great example is premium activewear brand Allo, which has seven stores in our US portfolio and just opened its first shopping center location at Westfield London. Early data is extremely positive, outperforming the brand's gross revenue target by 80%. We also hear it is frequently outperforming their other flagship stores. In Europe, our newest flagship asset, Westfield Hamburg Uber C Quartier, is also proving to be a major draw for big brand flagships, such as Aesop, Lego, Polo Ralph Lauren, or Dyson. We have a huge opportunity in front of us, and I'm confident we can do more to attract exciting new concepts by better demonstrating our value proposition and this potential to brands. Hence our leasing, leasing, leasing priority for 2026. In the end, it's fairly simple. The higher the attractivity, the higher the demand, which results in more leasing tension and occupancy, which delivers a higher rental growth profile. We are also leading the way in data intelligence, thanks to years of investment in technology, as well as our scale and the quality and size of our assets. We see it as another way to unlock the full potential of Westfield through AI. We partnered with DJs to develop mapping algorithms to convert video footage into GDPR-compliant segmented data, harnessing the power of AI to analyze real customer visits and traffic patterns. We have now rolled out this technology across 21 Westfield shopping centers in Europe, and what is truly exciting is its massive potential as a performance tool in areas like asset management and leasing. We are unlocking new KPIs and data sets like capture rates, conversion rates, or bounce rates, today received or estimated in almost real time, i.e. not a month later, like tenant sales. These KPIs are making a real difference in decision-making and providing insights that were not possible with traditional metrics like rent per square meter and sales intensity. And this powerful data can allow a deeper, evidence-based conversation with tenants to drive their performance at a shopping center and a portfolio level with URW. This understanding provides valuable insights and data intelligence that can unlock higher long-term growth, but also allows us to provide additional value-add services like Westfield Rise packages. On this slide, we have shared some anonymized data showing these new KPIs for a medium-sized fashion tenant with stores at multiple locations. By comparing store performance at such a granular level, you start seeing how much richer conversations with retail partners can be. How can we help you improve capture rates at a given store? Do you know why this store has a significantly higher bounce rate than your others? Why is the conversion rate so low at store X versus usual standards? This is obviously a ton of new data to digest for our teams. And this is where AI technology will be of great support to start unlocking this full potential. To further illustrate this, we selected three other concrete examples of how data is already enabling active asset management and driving operating performance at URW. First leasing. Thanks to new passing by and demographic data, we were able to demonstrate the true potential of an area that had been perceived as soft and a specific unit that had been vacant or only short-term let for several years at Westfield for MDL. Traffic data helped us convince an existing tenant to upsize and relocate into the space and unlock the second opportunity within the same asset, i.e. allowing another tenant to expand as well into the free space to create a flagship store, which it had been looking for for quite some time. Second, the retailer performance. We can now measure the real impact of introducing new concepts, not just on traffic in the immediate area, but also on visits to adjacent stores or brands in the same category. This gives us tangible evidence for rental discussions and powerful insights in opportunity zones across a mall. And third, retail media. Data enables more precise audience targeting and far more effective brand campaigns. Across 11 recent Westfield Rise campaigns in our portfolio, we were able to measure a 16% increase in store visits for advertising retailers, with an estimated 17% sales growth over the campaign months. Looking ahead, AI will allow us to go even further, generating smarter, automated campaign recommendations based on our custom datasets. Using this data, we will also be able to create digital simulations of our assets to further optimize our tenant mix and customer journey. And I can tell you, you simply don't get this on the best high streets. We are excited by the potential and one of our key priorities for 2026 is to scale use cases and turn them into a driver of shared performance with retailers. With this, data and AI-led physical retail truly becomes the future of commerce. Moving now to disposals, which have been key to streamlining and simplifying our business and the continued strengthening of our balance sheet. Despite tough market conditions, we were very active in 2025 and have now completed or secured 2.2 billion euros of disposals. I remember vividly the many questions received at our investor day last year about the feasibility of a disposal plan well within it and at pricing levels in line with book values. This now means a strategic shift to a capital recycling mode to fund any additional investment and development activities going forward that can contribute to our organic growth profile in a disciplined way. Speaking of capital-like growth, it will be an important tool for creating long-term value for our group. We established very important foundations in 2025. First, our acquisition of a 25% stake in St. James Quarter, an 81,000 square meter flagship shopping center in Edinburgh, and one of only four A++ assets in the UK. As you could guess, Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City are two of the other three. This transaction demonstrates our ability to strengthen a presence in an existing market and expand the Westfield platform in a way that is consistent with our capital light strategy. Our ecosystem of performance, including the Westfield brand, was key to majority owner APG actively seeking us out, creating an opportunity to improve the future performance of the asset and generate management fees for the group. Second, a new franchising business is generating fees as well, while allowing us to reach new markets and customers with no capital deployment. This is a first in the world in flagship retail, and we are very proud of this achievement. In December, a 58,000 square meter mall in Saudi Arabia's third largest city became Westfield Daman, and the first asset to be rebranded. Based on early feedback, the rebranding has already driven stronger than expected footfall and increased commercial tension. In the coming year, two new flagship centers in Riyadh and Jeddah will open under the Westfield brand. A key focus for URW this year will be to demonstrate the substantial added value we can bring to owners of flagship assets in new markets. Let's now spend a few minutes on our developments. We delivered projects that totaled $1.8 billion of total investment costs, including 3T retail projects, all at high leasing levels. In November, Westfield Charny Most became the 41st Westfield-branded asset in our portfolio, and we opened its extension, bringing in 32 new shops and dining concepts. Westfield Hamburg Uber C Quartier has now crossed 10 million visits and, as mentioned earlier, has proven to be the new destination for flagship retail for major brands and retailers in Hamburg. With completion of the IB Hotel and remaining office works, a committed development pipeline drops to €0.7 billion over H1 2026, down from €3 billion a year ago. This significant progress means our development focus can now shift to discipline capital allocation and capital-light growth outlined in our Platform for Growth business plan. Moving to sustainability next and a better places roadmap, which is a core strategic driver for the group and a key to a long-term competitive advantage. In 2025, URW achieved significant progress and was recognized again among the top 100 most sustainable companies worldwide by Corporate Nights and Time Magazine. Other highlights include the Le Louvre Sand partnership, bringing iconic Louvre artwork reproductions into six French molds to expand cultural access and reconnect communities with a shared heritage. URW is fully on track to achieve its Better Places targets and we will publish more information on the 2025 performance in our URD in March. At the end of the day, with a portfolio of 49 billion euros and an annual footfall in excess of 900 million, we have a substantial impact in our communities and an increasingly meaningful role to play in today's society. We are in a position to deliver at scale and on our purpose to reinvent being together. In addition to leasing and innovation, our third core priority for 2026 is the continued simplification of our business. We've already made significant progress in 2025, including our organizational shift to four regions, the disposals of non-core businesses and 21 non-core assets, and administrative changes like delisting our Australian CDIs. In addition, we are preparing to destaple URW shares. This would be tax neutral and have no change to economic exposure, and we plan to propose this to shareholders at this year's AGM. We will continue to reduce the number of group subsidiaries, and Fabrice will cover the further decrease in net admin expenses in 2025. In 2026, we will remain very focused on driving down costs while developing a culture of simplicity and agility for all teams at all levels in all regions and for everything we do. This is key to freeing up internal resources so that we can allocate a valuable time to generate growth, push our advantage in data and AI, and drive impact. Before I hand over to Fabrice, I am happy to welcome Kathleen Verepst, who joined our management board as chief investment officer at the start of the year. She brings a deep real estate experience and relationships and will lead a disciplined capital allocation approach. Kathleen joins Anne-Sophie, Fabrice, Sylvain and I, and we are all together tremendously excited to lead the group in this next chapter. In May, we presented a platform for growth business plan, which was well received by the market. The whole management board is focused on delivering the plan and achieving those targets. We've already made significant progress with LTV Downs' 355 basis points on a pro forma basis and generated underlying AREPS growth of more than 5%. And we have very clear priorities for 2026. Leasing, leasing, and once again leasing. Innovation, including leveraging the Westfield brand and their data and AI capabilities, and continued simplification and development of an agile and entrepreneurial culture. I want to thank once again our teams across our business and regions for their significant commitment and focus. We have achieved attractive growth with lower costs, less capex and more innovation, and we are well positioned to continue this strong momentum in 2026. I will now hand over to Fabrice to share more detail on the results, and I will then return to cover 2026 guidance and answer questions.

speaker
Fabrice
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Vincent, and good morning, everyone. In 2025, we once again saw a strong operating dynamic. Tenant sales increased plus 3.9% compared to 2024, supported by a fruitful increase of plus 1.9%. Leasing activity was robust, and vacancy fell further to 4.6%, the lowest level since 2017. We completed or secured 2.2 billion euros of disposals in 2025 and in the year to date. And as a result, IFRS net debt, including hybrid, is down to 19.7 billion euros pro forma for secure disposals. This net debt reduction, together with the increase in valuations and in like-for-like EBITDA, led to a further improvement of the gross rate matrix. Let's look at our 2025 figures. Arup stands at 9.58 euros per share, down minus 2.7% on 2024, mainly as a result of the disposals completed in 2024 and 2025. Our ARF figure also reflects the 3.25 million URW shares issued to CPPIB in December 2024 in exchange for an additional 39% stake in URW Germany. 2025 ARF is consistent with guidance, taking into account the timing of disposals, strong underlying growth, and lower financial costs. EBITDA growth was plus 3.6% on a like-for-like basis, mainly from higher shopping center NRIs. Office NRI was done under 34.7% due to disposals, partly offset by the full letting of Lightwell and the full delivery of the Coppermaker Square residential project. 2025 earnings loss also benefited from the reduction in both financial expenses and the aggregate coupon, which I will comment on later. Here we provide a detailed bridge showing the RF's evolution year on year. Disposals net of acquisitions had a minus 57 cents impact on 2025 EREPs. 2025 EREPs was also down minus 19 cents year on year due to the contribution of the Paris Olympics to CN activity in 2024. Rebase for disposals, net of savings, infancial expenses, the Olympics, and the impact of the CPPIB deal who have delivered underlying EREP growth 5.4%. And this is in line with the underlying growth rate of at least 5% in our guidance for 2025. Retail NRI growth contributed plus 51 cents, thanks to our positive operating performance and recent deliveries. This performance was partly offset by minus 7 cents from offices, as well as the usual CME seasonality effect between even and audios. Financial expenses had a positive contribution of four cents thanks to proactive refinancing and effects hedging. And we also saw a positive impact of plus 13 cents from the hybrid liability management exercises completed in April and September. The other category reflects the negative effects impact on EBDA before hedging as well as minority interest. So let's look more closely at URW's retail performance on a life-for-life basis. NRI was up 3.8% like for like, made up of plus 3.5% for Europe and plus 5% for US flagship assets. Indexation made a plus 1.4% contribution at group level, reflecting a plus 1.7% increase in Europe. Leasing activity and sales-based rents in Europe made a total contribution of plus 1.2% on top of indexation. Our U.S. flagship NRI growth was supported by leasing activity and higher sales days rents, representing growth of plus 5.4%. And the other category contributed plus 0.4% thanks to variable income, including waste field rise and parking, as well as lower service charges in Central Europe. It was slightly down in the U.S. due to a few bankruptcies. Moving to vacancy now, which stands at 4.6% at group level. This corresponds to a minus 20 basis points decrease from last year, thanks to strong leasing activity. In particular, vacancy decrease in Q4 with 125 million euros in MGR signed, corresponding to around 30% of total leasing activity for the year. Vacancy in Europe was 3.3% compared to 3.6% in December 2024, thanks to a noticeable reduction in Northern Europe, which dropped from 5.5% to 4.8%, with a further decrease in UK vacancy. Vacancy remained low in Southern Europe and Central Europe at 3.1% and 2.2% respectively. U.S. flagship vacancy was 6.3%, in line with December 2024, slightly reflecting the impact of bankruptcies in Q3. And despite this, U.S. flagship delivered lack for lack growth of 5% in 2025. Leasing activity remained strong in 2025 with 423 million euros of MGR signed. Total MGR is slightly down on last year, due to lower vacancy and lower bankruptcies to address, as well as the FX impact. Rental uplift continued to be healthy, standing at plus 6.7% on top of indexation, combining a 5.4% uplift in Europe and a plus 9.4% uplift in the US, and this is in line with the 6.5% uplift that we achieved in 2024. 2025 performance was supported by an 11.3% uplift on long-term deals, including plus 6.6% in Europe and plus 23.8% in the U.S. It also benefited from a higher proportion of long-term deals at 82%. And the uplift in the U.S. was driven by the introduction of new food, luxury, automotive, and fashion brands replacing non-performing tenants. Rent per square meter signed in 2025 stood at 659 euros per square meter in Europe and $80 per square foot in the U.S. This was an increase of 17.8% and 17.4% respectively compared to rent signed in 2024. Moving now to occupancy cost ratio, we stand at 15.7% in Europe, slightly above its 2024 level of 15.6%. In the US, OCR for flagship assets decreased from 12.6% in 2024 to 12.2% as of December 2025. And as we have demonstrated previously, the volume of activity generated by omnichannel retailers through in-store initiatives, as well as brand and marketing value, as highlighted by Vincent, goes well beyond the sales figure used to compute the OCR. NOI for our CNA activities to that 160 million euros, a 27% decrease compared to last year, reflecting the positive effects of the Paris Olympics on 2024 and the usual seasonality between event and audios. On the like-for-like basis, i.e. excluding two annual shows, the Olympics and scope changes, NOI was minus 0.9% compared to 2024 and plus 31% above 2023, the last comparable year. This was thanks to lower energy costs and the full recovery of this activity. Bookings and pre-bookings stand at 93% of the expected rental revenues planned for 2026, demonstrating the appeal of URW's convention and exhibition venues. Our 2025 performance was also supported by a minus 4.6% decrease in our general expenses as part of wider cost saving initiatives. And this is on top of the minus 10% decrease achieved in full year 2024. General expenses as a percentage of NRI have now decreased from 10.1% in 2022 to 8% in 2025, reflecting both the improvement in our operating performance and the efficiency gains that we've achieved on top of the effect of disposals. These gains include the positive effect of the simplification of the organization into four regions, as well as stringent procurement and ongoing process automation. Moving now to the evolution of our gross market value. The group GMV at December 2025 amounted to 48.9 billion euros, a minus 1.6% decrease compared to last year. This is mainly due to the 1.5 billion euros in disposals achieved in 2025, partly compensated by capex of 1.1 billion spent over the period. GMB was also impacted by a minus 1.2 billion euros FX impact from the weakening of the US dollar and sterling versus the euro. Net of investment, disposals and FX, portfolio reductions were up 836 million euros, corresponding to a plus 1.7% increase. This is the first positive revaluation of the portfolio, excluding FX, investment and disposals, since 2018. And it is above the 1% annual growth we referred to at our investor day. Net rate statement values to that 143.80 euros per share at the end of 2025, in line with year-end 2024. This includes an EREPS contribution of 9.58 euros per share and a 3.50 euros distribution paid in May. NAV saw a positive asset revaluation contribution of plus 3.85 euros per share at group share. This was partly offset by a negative FX impact of minus 5.18 euros from US and UK assets net of liabilities and minus 1.49 euros on the market-to-market of debt hybrid and financial instruments. It also takes into account an increase in the fully diluted number of shares. Moving to shopping center portfolio valuations next. Like-for-like retail valuation was up 1.9% in 2025, driven by a positive rent impact of plus 1.6% and plus 0.4% from yield impact. This positive rent impact reflects a strong operating performance achieved in both Europe and in the U.S. in 2025. Overall, a yield impact which had been negative in previous years was slightly positive in 2025, thanks to Europe. And this comes from an overall minus 10 basis points reduction on the discount rate, while exit cap rates remain unchanged. Lack-for-lack valuations were up plus 2.3% in Europe, slightly above the 2024 revaluation, up plus 1.6%. Valuations were up in the U.S. for the first time since the Westfield acquisition at plus 0.7%, and the GMV increase for U.S. flagship assets was plus 1.6%, fully coming from a rent impact. The net initial yield for European assets as of December 2025 stands at 5.3%, i.e. 10 basis points below 2024 level, while potential yield was stable at 5.7%. The NRI growth assumed by appraisers for the European portfolio stands at 3.5%, including a plus 1.8% assumption on indexation. The net initial yield for U.S. flagship assets stands at 5.2%, plus 10 basis points above its 2024 level and 40 basis points above its 2023 level. The stabilized yield for U.S. flagship assets based on assumed rental increase in year three stands unchanged at 5.7%. And these yields are consistent with recent transaction on A++ assets in the US, like North Park Center in Dallas sold at 5.3%. These yields also reflect the potential growth embedded in our US assets. And the NRI growth assumed by appraisers for the US flagship assets stand at 3.8%. And this is based on cash flow growth, including the contractual rents and cam escalation of 3% on average. This means that more than three quarters of the growth assumed by appraisers comes from current leases in place, assuming their extension, with no capture of rental uplift, nor vacancy reduction. Moving now to development. The key event in 2025 was the successful delivery of the retail component of Westfield Hamburg, as well as the handover of the first office to Shell. Following these deliveries, the total investment cost of our committed pipeline decreased from 3 billion to 1.2 billion euros between 2024 and 2025. Works on the Ibis Hotel and the remaining offices in Hamburg are due to be completed in H1 2026. And when handed over to tenants, this will reduce the total investment cost of our pipeline by a further 0.5 billion, leaving just 0.7 billion euros in committed projects. The control pipeline amounts to 1 billion at 100% in line with last year. And any decision to launch control pipeline projects will be fully consistent with the capital allocation policy presented at our investor day. Net debt has further reduced in 2025 from 21.9 billion to 20.3 billion euros on a life-size basis, including hybrids. This results from the 1.6 billion euros disposals completed in 2025, which has a positive impact of over 200 basis points on the LTV. The retained profit, net of distribution and others also contributed to the LTV reduction for a net impact of circa 120 basis points. And this was partly offset by the 1 billion of investment spent in 2025. Net debt decreased by 0.4 billion euros as a result of the weakening of the sterling and the US dollar, which also impacted the GMB as we saw earlier, leading to a novel negative impact of circa minus 20 basis points from FX on the LTV. And last. Portfolio valuation had a positive impact of circa 90 basis points on our LTV. In total, IFRS LTV, including hybrid, stood at 42.8%, down from 45.5% at year-end 2024, a 270 basis points decrease. The group has also secured an additional €0.5 billion of disposals. And taking into account these disposals, the IFRS net debt, including hybrid, would send out 19.7 billion euros on a pro forma basis. And as a consequence, the LTV would decrease further to 42%. The IFRS net debt over EBITDA ratio including hybrid further improved to 9.1 times in 2025 down from 9.5 times in 2024. This is consistent with the trajectory presented at our investor day and the nine times level anticipated in 2026. This results from the net debt reduction of 1.6 billion euros achieved in 2025. It also reflects an FBDA decrease of minus 2.9% due to disposals and the 2024 Olympics impact and a plus 3.6% FBDA increase on the life-for-life basis. This ratio does not take into account the further €0.5 billion of disposals secured or the full-year NRI impact from projects delivered in 2025 and to be delivered in 2026. The cost of debt for 2025 amounted to 2.1%, slightly above the 2% in full year 2024. This includes the benefit of refinancing completed, in particular in the US, and the hedges put in place in 2025 to cover rates and effects. This was partly mitigated by the maturity of low coupon debt in 2025, a lower cash amount, and decreasing cash remuneration. Going forward, the cost of debt is expected to be aligned with the trajectory presented during the investor day of a 20 to 30 basis bonds increase per year. So let's look at those refinancings in more detail. The group has successfully executed major financing transactions in 2025, illustrating its access to funding at attractive conditions and its ability to seize market opportunities. We fully refinanced our hybrid stack in April and September 2025. The new hybrids issued have an average coupon of 4.8%, while the group reimbursed its 2028 hybrid with a coupon of seven and a quarter. Through these transactions, the group has generated savings of around 55 basis points on its hybrid coupon, representing a positive contribution of plus 18.6 million euros to its 2025 EREPs. The group's hybrid portfolio stand at 1.8 billion euros at the end of 2025 and will decrease to 1.5 billion euros by April 2026 with the repayment of the remaining 226 hybrid. We also refinanced 1.2 billion dollars of commercial mortgage-backed securities, managing to both extend the maturity and secure improved conditions with an average coupon of 5.3%. This corresponds to a saving of around 190 basis bonds compared to conditions previously in place. And this included the refinancing of $925 million for Century City, which was the tightest spread for Triple H Ranch over the 2020-2025 period, and the tightest CNBS coupon for a single asset in the past five years. And last, the Group renewed and extended its trade facilities, and thanks to this activity, our average debt maturity was unchanged at seven years. Finally, the Group's IFRS cash position decreased from 5.3 billion euros to 2.7 billion euros during 2025. This results from the use of available cash to repay 3 billion euros of maturing debt. This also included proactive repayment of €600 million of bonds at a 2.5% coupon, maturing in June 2026, and €150 million loans at 4.2% maturing in 2027. We also proceeded with a discounted repayment of Wheaton and the debt on Wheaton, generating a $30 million net debt reduction. And this is consistent with the group's approach to reducing its cash position as regulation conditions deteriorated with a decrease in central banks' rates, and as we made significant progress in our deleveraging program. And as the group's cash position decreased, we re-accessed the commercial paper markets in Europe and in the US to benefit from decreasing short rates. And these programs are backed by Android credit facilities, standing at 8.7 billion euros at the end of the year. And the Group's strong liquidity position gives us the full flexibility to access debt markets as and when we see fit. In total, we have secured the €2.2 billion of disposals announced during the investor day. We have shown a strong operating performance in 2025. Our credit metrics improved on the back of the Group's net debt reduction, lack-for-lack EBITDA growth and a 1.7% increase in asset values. We have also demonstrated our strong access to funding through the CNBS and hybrid issuances completed in 2025. In view of these achievements, and as already disclosed, we intend to propose a distribution of 4.50 euros per share for fiscal year 2025. This corresponds to an increase of circa 30% compared to 2024, and a payout ratio of 47%, which we intend to increase to 60% for fiscal year 2026. And as in 2024, this distribution will be paid out of premium. With that, let me hand back to Vincent for some closing remarks.

speaker
Vincent Menny
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Fabrice. Solid performance. Let's now look at our guidance for 2026. At our investor day, we provided Arabs guidance of at least €9.15, reflecting the mechanical effect of disposals. We are now increasing the range of a full year 2026 Arabs guidance to between €9.15 and €9.30. This represents another year of underlying growth of at least 5%, supported by your solid retail operating performance. No major deterioration of the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment is built into this guidance. Finally, in line with our commitment to increase shareholder distributions, we intend to propose a payout of €550 per share for fiscal year 2026 to be paid 27, consistent with our confidence in the group's outlook. This represents a payout ratio of circa 60% and a 22% increase versus 2025. Before we move to Q&A, I would like to share why I'm excited to lead this amazing business and confident we will deliver sustainable long-term growth. We have an unmatched and irreplaceable flagship portfolio located in the best cities and catchment areas in the U.S. and Europe, powered by our retail operations expertise and the iconic Westfield brand. Our assets, our expertise, and our brand are an ecosystem of performance and a powerful competitive advantage. looking more broadly beyond the real estate industry. We also have a sound, highly profitable and cash-generative business and are fully focused on unlocking a full potential through a platform for growth business plan and being the leading innovator in our industry. This will generate compelling shoulder returns and create value for all our stakeholders. With the depth of talent in this group and the plan we have in place, I have absolute confidence in our ability to deliver something truly incredible. And with that, let's start the Q&A.

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