PSP Swiss Property AG

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the PSD Swiss Property Half-Year Results 2026 Conference Call. I am Mayra, the Correspondent Operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference has been recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and 0. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcasting. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Giacomo Balzarini, CEO of PSP Swiss Property. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our release of the half-year results. As always, I will do a quick rundown of the key highlights and then open for questions, as I have seen we are many participants. We are pleased to report strong half-year results. They are predominantly driven by the already announced disposal of the Richtig Park sale. We report an adjusted like-for-like growth of 1.7%. You remember that Q1 2025 we had a one-off effect on the costs. Giacomo Balzarini, Ronald Ruepp Giacomo Balzarini, Ronald Ruepp and we demonstrate and continue to demonstrate a very strong cost discipline and a very stable financials which has been recognized by Moody's with an upgrade on the rating from an A3 to an A2. Furthermore, we have seen again lower taxes, release of deferred taxes more than 10 million in the first half which clearly helps the earnings per share growth Giacomo Balzarini, but also here we have a strong visibility for letting successes and here we are already at the letting status of more than 70% so the vacancy rate by year end will come back down to 3.5% and we see some early signs of recovery in Basel, especially in the Peter Merion building. We had some letting successes and we are in discussions for further lettings so we see first signs of a recovery also in that market. On the transactional side, we continue to see a very strong market. Also, there are rather little opportunities in our target segment, but clearly the valuation gains were a demonstration by the strong market, but also by a strong cash flow development. Our outlook is confirmed at the EBITDA guidance of $335 million, also the vacancy rate is Guidance is converted 3.5% despite a slight increase in the half-year. The top line will come a bit down by the year-end due to the disposals of the Richtig Park and the Gurten of last year and developments which are going on. But overall, we are on target to continue our shareholder-friendly dividend policy throughout the year. So all in all, a very solid and strong half-year result. With that, I would like to end my entry remarks and hold handover for Q&A.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Ken Cargarell from ZKB. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning everyone and thank you for taking my questions. The first two are with regards to the financing, the credit financing. Firstly, I mean, I've seen that the duration is becoming shorter and shorter. What is the strategy behind here? Do you just intend to go more below three years or is it again something that you think about a longer duration? The second one is with regards to the pricing of potential bonds following the ranking change by Moody's. What is the impact there we can expect in your opinion? And the last one is on the like-for-like growth. You have shown some adjustments here. Could you please detail the reasons for those? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ken. On the duration, as you remember, we are of the opinion, first of all, that we have a very strong inflation link in the portfolio of more than 90%, so we have a strong protection on inflation increase, which in our view would then Giacomo Balzarini, What we try to do is to have a constant maturity of the debt. And then whenever we have a maturity, we clearly look at the curve. So for us, a three-year is fine. But obviously, whenever we see that there's a window, we go a bit longer. But with the protections I mentioned with inflation linked and with the low debt, I think we're fine to be a bit on the short end of the duration, which has been our strategy over the last 25 years. With regard to the pricing of the bond, I think it's a bit early days. I think what can be said that it's a rating improved. So clearly, if you look at the bond pricings and credit pricings, they're very strongly linked to a rating. How much this then makes up, we will see when we come up with the next bond pricing. We are in discussions continuously with the banks and the DCM teams. So I would expect an improvement. However, I think we talk on a single digit levels with regard to spread levels. And you have also keep in mind that those spread levels change also the time. So it's also difficult then to compare with former spread levels. On the like-for-like adjustment, if we would just report the like-for-like as we did, and we report, it's a 0.7% increase. If you recall last year on the Rue du Marché in Geneva in the first quarter, we had a very strong tax benefit, which reduced... The Q1 costs disproportionately. If you take out that effect, the like for like of this half year would be 1.7%. It is only based on the letting activities without the single cost effect coming out of the rudimentary. Thank you very much.

The next question comes from the line of Holger Frisch from Raiffeisen. Please go ahead.

Good morning from our side and thanks for taking my question. I have two questions. First one would be on the two earn-out agreements relating to the sale of the Richtig Park and the acquisition of the property Schützengasse Beatengasse. So what do the earn-out agreements entail and what is the time frame for the payments? And could you remind us of the annual rental income of the newly acquired property? That would be the first one.

There are three earnouts on the RISD part which are linked to the progress of the developments and the permissions of the developments. These are earnouts which are linked to 10, 10 and 5 million. Probability, I would say, is difficult to say because it's really now in the hands of the new owner and in that space. And we will review every quarter what the status is and if the probability of having a successful potential earn-out is higher than 50%, we will book out that earn-out phase. With regard to the Schützengasse, the new rental income is roughly 2 million per year. I hardly hear you, Holger.

The second question would be on the increase in the property values in Zurich. You said they were broadly based. But are they broadly based or were there individual properties that saw more significant increases in the first half of the year?

Well, I would say they are broadly based whatever is in CBD or close to CBD. Besides the one in the Löwenbräu side, which we reported to Q1, the others are all around the Bahnhofstrasse. There are some also in the Dingsdweidstrasse and clearly also the Hürlimann side, so some accretions. There was also one in Geneva, which was above the top 10.

Great, thank you.

The next question comes from the land of Alexander Totomanov from Green Street. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. Two questions for me. What is the deferred taxes release expected for the full year? Is it still consistent with the guidance of about 10 million Swiss francs? And second question, how are the discussions for the rest of the vacant area in Hotel de Poste in Lausanne progressing? And what areas are left to lease out? I think you said that the leases commencing in Q3 and Q4 are going to take you up to about 70% occupancy. Yes.

Thank you. With regard to the guidance on deferred taxes, it's roughly 14 million we see for the full year. With regard to Hotel du Post, we are in advanced negotiation with a tech company on a larger floor. The one which are left to be rented out is the highest floor, the fifth floor, which has a rooftop terrace. On the rooftop terrace we have a concept for the summer periods. The other one is not a super high ceiling, so I think here we have a couple of options. and then on the right and left side of the wings we have some little floor plates but with the discussions with this tech company which is active in the AI field we are fairly advanced. Besides that we have a very little retail area left so it's really then more of a filling up. We are still waiting for some building permissions for the fit-out works. So this causes a slight delay on the 10 starting airworks. And clearly with that and also slight delay in starting of the contracts. Here we talk about perhaps one, two months delays in that. But everything is going very well. Thank you. Thank you.

As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. The next question comes from the line of Tommaso Alberto from UBS. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. I just have one question, and it's fairly speculative, so apologies. But I'm wondering on the dividend. I mean, now that you've gone through the Drifted Park sale, with spreads continuing to be at very tight levels, with balance sheets super healthy. Is there any chance of a bigger dividend step up potentially coming through or is there anything you could share on that policy front?

Thank you, Thomas. Well, it's not a speculative question. It's just in the responsibility of the board. I think what I can say, what we did in the past, in the last 25 years, we never had special dividends. When we had a little bit higher rent increase, it was due to rather acquisitions. and rather strong lettings which changed a bit the curve. I think our policy is to be a very predictable dividend contributor. I would not exclude it because it's not my responsibility, but I would expect a continuous development of the dividend.

Got it, thanks.

Once again, to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Giacomo Balzarini for any closing remarks.

Well, thank you very much to everybody for the inquiries. We'll be in touch in the next couple of days and I wish you all a very good day. Thank you.