LondonMetric Property Plc

Great. Good morning then, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for coming for the London Metric half-year results for the period ending the 30th of September. I suspect most of you are pretty familiar with the format. I'll give you a brief overview of the highlights for the last six months, hand over to Martin to give you an update on the financials in more detail, the numbers that I won't have covered. I'll come back and give you an update on our thoughts in the market and also how our portfolio is performing and then our insights or our own views on the outlook, again, both for ourselves and the wider real estate market before then opening up to Q&A in the floor and then also to those of you who are listening online. So an overview for those of you who don't know. But interest rates do remain the yardstick by which all assets in the sector are valued. But the pleasing thing is that I think we are reaching hopefully an inflection point on inflation and in turn for interest rates as well. Swap rates have fallen. I think they're about... Jason sends a nice note round every morning telling me what they are, but I think we're about 4.23 this morning or something like that. So we're down about 120 basis points from where we were back in August. And I think that's quite important. I'll come on to talk about that in more detail later. For those of you who followed the sector over the last week or so, it's pretty apparent that the capital markets are continuing to recalibrate at different speeds. You have those that are enjoying a structural tailwind, predominantly beds and sheds, and you've got those that are facing some pretty strong headwinds. And therefore market liquidity will polarise around those different thematics. So our portfolio at the end of September is valued at just under 3.2 billion, and we continue to shape by the structural trends in consumer behaviour. And as I think our numbers highlight, we're seeing some strong returns. Our income metrics, which I'll go into more detail in a moment, are all on a positive trajectory. Like for like is up 2.9%. Our rent reviews in our re-years on a five-year basis are up 21% against previous passing, which is a wonderful achievement. And looking further ahead, over the next two to three years, but probably two and a half actually to be more accurate, we see embedded reversion of another 20% that we will capture. And again, both Martin and I will touch on that in a bit more detail going forward. As you would expect, we maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation. We successfully executed on the takeover of the CTPT portfolio and have already started the sell-down of some of the non-core assets. So to date, we've sold 25 million of those assets. We've probably got a little bit more than that to go again. So I think we've sold 9% of the portfolio. We've probably got another 11 or so to go. And that's been, I won't say too much now because there's a slide on it, but effectively high street retail and offices has been the thematic of those sell downs and all small lot sizes, which again is an important point to make. Over the six months, we've disposed in total across the enlarged portfolio, £157 million worth of assets. And that, together with the stabilisation of the portfolio values, has allowed us to print an LTV today, down from 32, I think it's 32.4 six months ago, to 29.5% today. And that's bang in line with what our aspirations would have been back in the summer. And equally important is the fact that our debt is largely 100% fixed or hedged. And that is, for me, incredibly important. So briefly on the financial highlights, again, I don't need to spend too long on these because they're self-explanatory. Earnings are up, per share is up, and we've announced this morning another quarterly dividend of 2.4 pence, which is a 4.3 increase on where we were this time last year. And we're well on track. This is our ninth year of dividend progression. We're well on track to complete that ninth, and I think we're well set for 10 as well. without making too many forecasts. I will mention the 109% dividend cover. It's amazing how many companies forget to mention cover these days. But anyway, 109% dividend cover that gives us that margin of safety that is so important to me. And then there's an interesting slide down on the bottom right around the equivalent yield movements that the portfolio has taken since probably the peak valuation, which I think we had in March 22. So you can see there's some pretty big equivalent yield movements. So we've navigated most of those pretty well, not all of them. The biggest, obviously, impact is when you start with a low yield and you have a big increase in the outward shift. It has a multiplying impact on the percentage reduction in valuations. But we've got to open our eyes up to... We live in a different world today. The period of free money is well and truly over. And for us, it's all about the income and the income growth. And that's what frames our thoughts around where we allocate the capital. So on that note, I'll pass over to Martin, otherwise he will absolutely have nothing to say. Take us through.

That was quite concise. So I think for the first time in ten years, I won't start off with, as Andrew's already said... So, as Andrew's already said, it's a half year which has continued to be dominated by economic and political volatility, but I think we've delivered a strong trading performance. We've delivered net rental income of £76.9 million, an increase of 6.7% over the same period last year. This increase in net rental income is driven by additional rents from new acquisitions, particularly the CTPT acquisition, and rent starting to flow from completed developments. Taken together with additional rents arising from rent reviews and re-gears, that amounts to £12 million in total, which more than outweighs the rental income lost from property disposals in the period of £7 million. We reported another very strong rent collection performance in the period with 99.8% of rent due having been collected. Our administrative cost is £8.6 million which shows no increase on the same period last year. This is the result of continuing to monitor costs closely. Our cost ratio has fallen by 80 basis points since the last half year to a low of 11.5% and our gross to net property cost leakage remains consistently at extremely low at less than 1%. Our finance costs are £16 million, an increase of £2.4 million over last year. So despite a lower average debt balance compared to the same period last year, the higher average cost of debt compared with that period has driven that increase in finance costs. Our rental growth and attention to controlling costs has driven our EPRA profit to 53.1 million, or 5.25 pence per share, which supports the increase to the dividend for the period to date to 4.8 pence per share. That's an increase of 4.3%, and as Andrew said, provides very strong 109% dividend cover. We've reported an IFRS profit for the period of £81 million, compared to a loss in the comparative period last year of £243 million. So whilst the portfolio valuation was broadly flat, there was a £4.9 million increase in the fair value of our derivatives alongside the strong EPRA earnings, but most significantly was the acquisition of the CTP portfolio in August at a discount of £23.3 million compared to the previous valuation, which is reflected as an IFRS profit. Turning to the balance sheet, the portfolio valuation is £3.18 billion, an increase of £176 million over the year end. Obviously primarily due to the acquisition of the CTPT portfolio, which added £262 million net of that price discount on acquisition to the balance sheet, which less the proceeds of disposal of assets in the period which had a book value of £136 million. At the period end, we had £28.2 million of cash on the balance sheet and £974 million of debt. Net liability position in the period was £53 million, the major component, as always, being rent received in advance. So in summary, our EPRA net tangible assets at the period end is £2.18 billion, an increase of 11.4% over the year end, EPRA NTA of £1.96 billion. On a per share basis, taking account of the new shares issued in the period, the NTA of 199.6 pence represents an increase of 0.7 pence or 0.4%. Following the two reported periods of valuation decline, we're pleased to see a period of relatively flat valuations and therefore a positive TAR of 2.8%. We have £1.42 billion of debt facilities on our balance sheet at the period end. The gross drawn debt of £974 million has decreased by £57 million in the period. Disposal proceeds and the repayment of the first tranche of our 2016 private placement have more than outweighed the additional debt brought in under the CTP transaction. But that £90 million debt facility with Canada Life had three and a half years left to maturity at 3.36% all in cost, an important rationale for us to do the deal. Our strategic focus in the last year has been to utilise the proceeds of disposals to reduce our LTV and to repay floating rate debt. As a result, our hedge debt at the period end is 99.5%, up from 93% at the year end, and our loan-to-value in the period is 29.5% compared to 32.8% at the year end. We've exercised plus-one options on our revolving credit facilities of £400 million in the period and a further £275 million post-period end. which helped to lengthen the maturity of our debt to 6.2 years compared to six years at the year end. As we reported in May, our early refinancing of our debt, this time last year, was well-timed and eliminated our refinancing risk through FY24, 25 and 26, such that we have no material refinancings until FY27. Our cost of debt at the period end is 3.3% compared to 3.4% at the end of March, and we've complied comfortably throughout the period with our debt covenants, and our interest cover ratio is now 4.6 times. Steve, you missed my bid on debt. I can't believe it. Our contracted rent roll has grown to £159 million as a result of asset management activity in the period of £3.6 million, but most significantly as a result of that CTPT acquisition, which added £17.7 million to the contracted rent roll, more than outweighing £7.5 million of contracted rent roll foregone on disposals. We expect this number to grow materially to £173 million as we expect an additional £8 million of rent to flow from open market rent reviews and £7 million from contractual uplifts which Andrew will cover in more detail later. This significant increase in the rent delivered by capturing more growth at review supports our confidence that we will continue to grow our earnings and be able to progress our dividend from its current consensus of 9.8 pence for FY24.

Thanks, Martin. So just sharing some thoughts on the market overview. As I touched on earlier, the investment backdrop remains dominated by macro metrics, heightened inflation and debt costs, and increasing the availability of debt is impacting liquidity across the sector. with some markets, sub-markets, relatively close to virtually no bid. However, as I said, I think we will see, in a period of stabilisation now, hopefully it's not another false dawn, and that should improve liquidity going forward. And swap rates below 400 could be a good big turning point. But I think debt funding and then debt availability are two different things, and I think there will be a relatively polarised... polarization over the coming period about those who can get it and those who can't um and we are seeing a huge amount of debt opportunities um people you know needing to refinance or people needing to sell um coming to the market across numerous sectors the polarization of performances across those sectors though um you know we ask you know that it is the like i said those enjoying the the tailwind and those facing the headwind Beds and sheds transacting. You saw some fantastic numbers yesterday from Grainger. There is rental growth. There is money flowing into those sectors. You are getting proper price transparency. Disputed sectors remain challenging. The fact is technology, as one of you wrote, is now disrupting the office sector in a similar way that it decimated the valuations of shopping malls. We are seeing, as I said, interesting funding opportunities and obviously corporate opportunities. But the refinancing tsunami, and we're just starting to see it, but I think it's got a way to play out, is forcing a number of assets into the market. And it's something that will create more opportunities for us. And the truth is, the overall property market, and we're actually talking about the listed sector per se, but the overall UK property market is over-levered in an environment where we have interest rates up at 5 plus percent. We're also seeing development supply increase in ecotail. I think that will be very good for rental growth, particularly in the logistics sector. Maybe not so much in 2024, but certainly then in 2025, I think you'll see a shortage of supply available in the market. The take-up is still pretty good across all sub-sectors of the logistics market, but I can see us running out of buildings this time next year because nobody's starting. Turning then to our own portfolio, this is a slide that we've now used probably for 10 years or so. As you can see there, distribution continues to dominate our allocation of capital, 72.5% across the three sectors. Total portfolio today, £3.17 billion. Strong occupancy, as Martin's touched on, 99%. Weighted average on its by at least terms of 11 years. And we are seeing, you know, it's a good, strong demand-supply dynamics. So moving to the right, looking at the numbers. Not the far right, but the one in the column before that. Total property return. Overall, the logistics portfolio saw eight basis points outward yield shift. You can see there the breakdown between the three key subsectors. And that... was marginally offset by 2.4% of ERV growth to deliver a positive 3.4% total property return for the six months. Long income, resilient performance, 16 basis points of outward yield shift, relatively flat ERV growth, and a positive 2.2% total property return, which culminates in that 3.2% TPR that you see there at the bottom. So diving into the portfolios in a little bit more detail, our distribution investments now total just under 2.3 billion, a fantastic income granularity, 99% occupancy, and fantastic three-year ERV growth. I think that will moderate over the coming period, but it's still going to be pretty healthy. And that is translating itself into the rent review settlements that you see there. On the right-hand side, urban logistics reviews settled at 35%. I think open market urban logistics reviews were settled at about 43%. Those are big numbers, big, big numbers. But overall, including our contractual uplifted rent reviews, 19% above previous passing. Rent reviews in the warehouse market today is just a pure pleasure. It's probably the highlight of my job. Well, I didn't do any, but it's still the highlight of my job. So then turning to our triple net long income, I think most of you know my admiration for the triple net model. It's why we were able to run such an efficient ship at LNP. We have 3.3 billion of assets. We have 34 people. That is not... You can't do that. you know, when you've got a lot of operational assets. I think triple net is a fantastic sector. You know, our portfolio now just under three quarters of a billion in the strongest, you know, retail and trade sectors, you know, dominated by our exposure to the convenience grocery market, just under 40% in convenience grocery assets. Portfolio's always been, I think it's been 100% left for as long as I can remember. 12 years waited on expired lease terms. attractive net initial yield. And despite the 16 basis point outward yield shift that I mentioned, we still managed to deliver a positive TPR. As you can see there, rent reviews up 20%. So overall, it's a portfolio and it's with customers that we know extremely well. It's got increasing granularity, both from a tenant and from a sectorial perspective. And it's something that we embrace warmly. So quick slide here on how the integration of the CT property trust acquisition has gone. For those just to remind you, £285 million portfolio. It was a NAV for adjusted NAV transaction. The adjustment meaning that... I think we took down the value of some of their, what I consider their non-core assets, particularly high street retail offices that we wouldn't feel quite so bullish about. But overall, it was highly complementary. And the sell-down of the non-core means that 86% of it now would sit comfortably within the enlarged LNP portfolio. As I touched on earlier, we have begun the sell-down. We've had some great outcomes. We've had some good results. We're benefiting from the fact that the average lot sizes are quite small, and there is still quite good liquidity in that space. Eight sales, 25 million. Like I said, I think we've probably got another 27 million to go. Numbers versus underwrite, good. But like I said, we're only halfway through the process, so judge us at the end, not at halftime. And then on the assets that we were really attracted to, there is embedded reversion there. We are acquiring some very, very well-located or have acquired very well-located logistics assets around the Southeast. This was a well-managed portfolio. This was a well-composed portfolio with one or two exceptions. But again, we expect to benefit without too much drama from the 23% reversion on those core logistics assets that now are within our ownership. So then a bit more detail on the occupier market. Like I said, whilst I think ERV growth going forward will moderate a little bit, I still think it's pretty good. And we are benefiting from structural tailwinds which continue to support our preferred sectors. Demand is still coming. It's pretty varied. It is online 3PL. It is coming from people needing convenience. They need to be closer to where their customers reside and ongoing onshoring. And I think that that will drive rental growth, particularly in an environment where very few new developments are going to be started in the current debt environment. Like I said, it's not even a cost issue. Asking God's banker at the back for a speculative development funding is going to be probably a futile exercise. Um, our activity in the period added 3.6 million pounds of rent to our rent roll. Um, again, it's just a wonderful experience to be able to collect this amount of extra rent without having to do much work. I mean, it really is wonderful. Um, you know, it's a 21% increase when you put those two together, the 28 and 21 weightings or whatever, it comes out at about a 21% increase in, in, in passing rents without too many dramas. Um, And we continue to enjoy, looking forward, we continue to enjoy significant embedded reversion across our logistics assets. And if you look at that chart on the bottom right, there's 15 million to come. I suspect we'll upgrade that. I mean, we've already upgraded it from where we were last time. Seven of it is baked in, and eight million will probably drift up a little bit as we get closer to those reviews and feel more comfortable with what we will actually settle those at. The fact of the matter is, when we look back, none of our reviews, I can't remember the last time that we took a rent review to arbitration. They all get settled. The affordability is there. It's great. Now, you could say, well, you should push it a bit harder then. But we'll pick it up next time. Maybe we're just going to get rich slowly. But the fact of the matter is, when the rent review guys come in to see me, they tend to come in with, well, this is what we underwrite. This is what we got. Like I said, it is a wonderful experience. And that reversion, that 15 million of uplift that we'll get over the next two and a half years, that's based on 77 million of rent that comes up for renew in that period. That's how we get to that 26% apiece. As you know, actively looking to improve our portfolio physically is part of our DNA. And what we're trying to do here is capture three of the key themes, whether or not it's improving new amenities to some of our locations, whether or not it's improving our solar capabilities of some of our buildings, particularly in our logistics portfolio, or looking at consumer behaviour by looking to install new EV charging systems. points across various locations. All of it is important to us. Not only do we make a little bit of money on the initiative per se, but we're improving the overall appeal and in turn the liquidity of our individual assets. And that's something that is very much baked into our DNA. And like I said, we're probably on average, I mean, there's a very wide delta on this. We're probably seeing a 10% return on marginal cost across these three initiatives. I mean, some of them are very profitable, some of them are not so profitable. But overall, we're improving the appeal and the quality of those assets within the portfolio. Our EPC rating A to C at 86, actually that's slightly down, partly because we've acquired, you know, The CTP assets, which were only 70%, so we've taken a dilution now. I don't think we should be judged on that snapshot. We are fantastic stewards of bad buildings. I've said it in the past. We have a desire, we have an experience, we have capital to do it. We will improve. Bad buildings are in better hands with us than they are with most other people, and therefore we expect that 86 to regain its positive trajectory over the coming period. So then finally, my last slide is an outlook slide. It's actually quite a busy slide because I've got lots of moving parts. We do think the challenging macro investment environment is settling. However, UK consumer does remain resilient, but there are signs, to use a Formula One expression, that the consumer is beginning to lift and coast. I think that discretionary spend is going to come under pressure. We probably have seen less than half of the quantitative tightening that the BOE have put into the system actually affecting people. You have to remember that not everyone has a mortgage. Some people have savings. And those who do have mortgages are on fixed rates that don't run off. But when they come, they're painful. They are going to be painful. And so we have to be alert to that. Again, to reiterate the point, I do think that falling inflation rates will create that inflection point on interest rates. And for us, it is the five-year swap that's important. And we are beginning to see that coming down. I'd like to obviously see it lower because then we get proper liquidity. But we have to remember, the so-called market predictions that we get from these experts, we were pricing three months ago, people were pricing interest rates peaking at 6%. I mean, we're now probably assuming that they've peaked at five and a quarter. I mean, you know, if you were studying a master's degree at university, I'd probably fail you. But the truth of the matter is, you know, dislocation in the markets, both the property markets and the stock market, for that matter, will create opportunities. We think that the troubled sectors are going to be increasingly exposed. We think debt financing and fund redemptions and fund wind-ups will bring opportunities and, most importantly, price discovery outside of just beds and sheds. I mean, very difficult to price this office building today. Very difficult. I mean, there'll be aspirations. I saw that somebody's put the mailbox in Birmingham on the market, quoting a number materially below what was paid for it. But it'll be interesting. It was very difficult. And we think also corporate consolidations offer attractions around synergies, efficiencies, and improved liquidity as companies start to get a bit bigger. I think there's a long tail of small micro-cap REITs out there that are possibly not serving a fantastic purpose. side the manager. And then for LNP, our focus will be on sectors that continue to offer up the strong fundamentals. The truth of the matter is that technology and consumer behaviour are just two powerful forces to ignore. For some, they are creating challenging headwinds. For others, they are creating a wonderful tailwind. Income and income growth will continue to deliver attractive returns and qualities. For those of you who think about compounding like I do, it is exponential. It builds momentum as it grows. Our balance sheet strength that we've demonstrated hopefully today gives us incredible optionality where dislocated pricing exists. And our dividend, again I want to keep coming back to my dividend because I do think nine years of progression covered puts us in a rarefied club and we expect that to continue. So on that note, I'm probably virtually all done. I'm so happy for us to take some questions. And any difficult ones, Andrew's sitting there as well.

Miranda Coburn from Berenberg. Just on developments, I'm just conscious that you're at the lowest amount of development and you've been for a long time. You highlight that, obviously, development supply is obviously very limited at the moment. Are you tempted at all to step back into that market, obviously, if the numbers make sense? Funding.

Yes. Funding.

We're not building. It's too difficult. Yeah. So you haven't got any land or there's nothing at the moment that you would want to do?

One piece of land.

A little bit of land down in Weymouth.

One piece of land. It's historic. It's sat in at a pretty low cost, but we've got a pre-let. So we'll secure planning and we'll crack on with it if we can make sure that cost price inflation is acceptable.

Morning, Max at Numis. I think I probably know the answer to this question, but I'm interested to get your view on it. Someone kind of said to me, how can London Metric continue to buy assets at high levels and recycle them at lower yields? But it sounds like that opportunity set for you is continuing to actually grow and driven by some of this distress that might come into the market. If we see, and if economists are to be believed, that rates do come down quite sharply, is there a chance that actually some of these refis, you know, you get another year extension, rates are a bit lower, and that pain doesn't actually come through, and that opportunity set isn't quite as large as it could be for you?

Yeah, I think, Max, I don't see refi pain in the logistics market in the same way that I would do in the office sector, where it's going to be pretty serious. But I think in the logistics, it's more around redemptions. I can't sell my bad building, so I'm going to have to sell my good building. We're in negotiations on a situation on one of those, which will be the first... warehouse acquisition that we've made in a year at the moment. So there's that. And I think the other opportunity set will be equity expiry, private equity. We came in with a five-year view. We're coming to the end of it. Do we roll or not? Well, actually, the metrics looking forward, if we roll, don't look at the metrics. Let's bag the IRR that we've already got. So there's a bit of that. I don't think there's going to be a tsunami of warehousing opportunities. I think... So there will be more opportunities coming, but it won't be anything like if we were wanting to play in the office space or even in actually the retail space. I mean, there are retail parts that are getting offered to me at some pretty juicy numbers as well.

I would just add that the only thing I would say, yes, I think the opportunities won't be a tsunami. But one thing for sure, particularly on the one we're looking at at the moment and we're in negotiation, which we should be able to announce fairly shortly anyway as a purchase, is that actually redemptions have timescales. And the one counterparty that these funds, et cetera, seem to wish to deal with are reliable ones. I can't tell you how unreliable a number of USP, managers of other people's money, are in transactions at the moment. They say they're going to do something in two weeks, you're still sitting there six weeks later. And then, oh, we've still got to get a US approval. The one thing about London Metric is we are a purchaser of choice, even if we're not the best price. And that's particularly the one we're doing at the moment. That's why we've been chosen ahead of several other bidders. as being reliable. So I think we are, and we have another transaction ongoing where we're trading with a developer that we know well who needs some short-term finance. We'll facilitate that, and we'll end up owning the asset, and the only person he's come to talk to is us. But he's not getting bank debt, so therefore he's come to talk to us. And we'll buy the asset, provide the finance that he needs, and we'll have some kind of profit share arrangement. So they're interesting, structured-type purchases that we're looking at.

Great, thank you. And second one, if I can. You talked about it's a bit of a delight for rent reviews at this point in the logistics market, and I appreciate that rent is an overall part of business costs. So it's very low in logistics, probably sub-5%, maybe even sub-3%. But at what point do you think affordability becomes an issue?

No idea. Yeah. I mean, I suppose, I've said this for many years, when they start dragging us to arbitration, because they just can't, you know, it was a good indicator for us in retail warehousing, you know, when we decided to step away from the highly rented shopping park market because people didn't want to pay 45, 50, 60, 70 pound a foot, you know, we thought, hmm, maybe not. I think, Max, I don't know. I really don't. Because we've got such a diverse group of businesses as well, all operating on different margins. But I'll tell you when we go into arbitration. I mean, just ask me that question next time.

I will do.

Thank you. morning Andrew Saunders from Shore Capital quite an impressive reduction in the cost ratio during the first half I wonder if you could just walk us through the moving parts behind that and whether you think it can improve any further Martin you can do that is it down to our we could drop Andrew's bonus that would be a help

The fact is the admin cost stayed the same and the property cost leakage reduced. So the moving part that changes is the growth in the rent roll, in net rents. And so if we can continue to drive net rents forward and we can keep control on our costs, then that ratio will be kept there or thereabouts. At 11.5%, I'm not sure... Will we get a load of benefit from it being 10.5% or will we get a kicking for it being 12.5%? It's in a good place. And I don't see anything driving it, making it go higher.

I think the main purpose of putting it in, Andrew, is to highlight the inefficiencies of some of the other REITs.

Callum Marley from Colytics. You alluded to in your statement that you remain active in looking for M&A opportunities. Just looking out into the market today where some other industrial portfolios are trading 20, 30% discount to GAV relative to where you're trading at, you know, 7%. Would these be the prime candidates that you're looking at or are you looking at other subsectors maybe with better tailwinds? Do you want some names or not?

No, I think we're alert and we're wide-eyed about opportunities both in the direct real estate market and also where we think there's mispricing taking place in the stock market. We've demonstrated that, I think, with a number of deals over the years. Look, we want to stay in... We like sectors, obviously, that we understand. We like sectors that are relatively low operationally. We like sectors that are going to enjoy a... that are not going to be disrupted by technology and changing consumer or evolving consumer behaviour. So, you know, I don't see we're going to all of a sudden get really interested in big discounts in the office space. But I wouldn't say that we would just only look at logistics businesses. You know, we like the logistics market, don't get me wrong, but, you know, there are other parts. We have a £744 million long income business. fund and we like it and um it creates an incredible basis of you know it's a higher yielding asset base and it's always 100 let and it's got reversions baked in um so yeah we like logistics but it doesn't mean we have to only look at the logistics market i mean ctpt wasn't just a logistics play and some of the other ones aren't either. So we'll be pretty wide-eyed about it, but we'll stay within our circle of competence. And if you can't find enough to do in the circle of competence, do nothing, don't expand the circle.

Thanks. Eleanor from Barclays here. Maybe just one on the transaction markets. Who are the other buyers and sellers you're seeing? Who are you competing with when you're making offers? Who else is selling out there?

I'll do the selling and then Valentine can do the buying bit. Look, selling is funds. There's an awful lot of funds that are looking to monetise and that might be the retail funds. You know, they're going to wind up, you know... I mean, the retail fund sector just shouldn't exist, really. You know, we've gone from 10 retail funds seven years ago covering £20 billion worth to four today at £3 billion. I mean, so there's been a lot of monetisation in that. I think M&G are the latest to say they're going to wind theirs up. So they'll be selling. You're also seeing a number of corporates coming out, defined benefit corporate pension funds coming out of direct real estate and putting it into bonds and assets that they consider to be more appropriate to liabilities from a liquidity and monetization perspective. So you're going to see that coming through without a doubt. And then you've got individual sellers who've got refinancings on buildings that will come through. So there's quite a wide church of vendors out there that have their own individual motivations. And in our perspective, it tends not to be we're in default or we're going to sell, to be honest with you. There are other reasons why they need to sell. But that on the buying side?

I mean, on the buying side, it's typically characterized by PE-type purchases, U.S. particularly. Names such as Copley Point, Brookfield, Mileway, South Africans, we've got Leftfield Capital. So, you know, very few institutions buying because, as Andrew said, they're selling. I mean, apart from perhaps Aviva and M&G. Another U.S. is Cabot. We've been bidding against them a little bit lately. They've been looking to buy off us. So, yeah, it's USP and particularly managers of other people's money.

I'd say just on the transactions in the period, when I look back, because it is quite a wide... To do 157 million, I mean, there would have been a lot of transactions in there. I don't think in that 157 there was a single asset over 15 million.

No, it's a portfolio. Yeah, but if you break down the individual... No, you're right.

So we're talking now about 15 million lot sizes. They were all cash. Our smallest was probably 2 million, a high street in Nottingham or something. So there's a number of deals gone through there. And the buyers, if you look at that, there is the platform, which tends to be US private equity, which Valentine touches on. But there will also be owner-occupiers in there, local prop cos, family offices, high net worths. But nobody's writing big cheques. And I think the granularity of our portfolio is helpful in that respect.

Hi, Vanessa Guy from JP Morgan. A question that we often get from investors, given they think that the logistics market is very close to the consumer, and given the worries that are coming on the consumer side, what would be your response to these questions?

Look, the consumer's still strong. You know, let's be clear. I mean, I think it's going to have some tough times, but, you know, we have virtually full employment. You can't have a, you know, like a deep recession with full employment. I mean, it's impossible. And it's very difficult, different to some of the other downturns that a few of us in the audience have been through in the past. So let's start with full employment, and let's start with, you know, we still, people have, saving ratios are still in a pretty good shape. I mean, they're coming, they'll come down. But, you know, the logistics market isn't as tied to the consumer. I don't think it's as simple as that because, you know, there's essential consumption as well. You know, I mean, people aren't going to stop eating. You know, and also I'd say, you know, when you look at our list of occupiers, you know, the delivery channel, you know, and for us, a lot of it is people having to improve the efficiencies of their logistics networks. And that generally means we need better buildings. Whether or not it's a mega shed, a regional, the shed market is still a good market. And when you compare it to the others, you are getting the other sectors. It's still a wonderful place to be. And I think the diversity of the occupiers that we have, I think we feel pretty good about it. So we've got one on the call.

To ask a question over the telephone, please signal by pressing star 1.

Okay, whilst I'm waiting for that, I've got a couple here on the... Okay, I think we've answered that question. So Sam asks, you've disposed of about 9% of the CTP portfolios. Can you comment on how much remains? I think I said roughly about 11%-ish to go. But by the way, we don't just stop at 11%. I mean, we'll take a bid on anything. Nobody on the line?

There appears to be no questions at the moment. That's disappointing.

Okay. Well, thanks very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your time. Appreciate it enormously. And we'll hang around, so if anybody's got any questions that they weren't brave enough to ask in the audience, we're here. Thanks.