2/12/2025

speaker
Operator
Operator

the investors section of the company's website at inventrustproperties.com. If you'd like to register a question during today's events, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I'd now like to hand over to Mr. Dan Rado, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

speaker
Dan Rado
Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending our call today. Joining me from the Inventrust team is DJ Bush, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Phillips, Chief Financial Officer, Christy David, Chief Operating Officer, and Dave Heimberger, Chief Investment Officer. Following the team's prepared remarks, the lines will be opened for questions. As a reminder, some of today's comments may contain forward-looking statements about the company's views on the future of our business and financial performance, including forward-looking earnings guidance and future market conditions. These are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of today's date and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made on today's call or that are in the quarterly financial supplemental or press release. In addition, we will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. The comparable GAAP financial measures are included in this quarter's earnings materials, which are posted on our investor relations website. With that, I will turn the call over to DJ.

speaker
DJ Bush
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. I appreciate everyone joining us this morning. I'm going to start the call with some high-level commentary regarding the fourth quarter and full year 2024 accomplishments, as well as key strategic objectives for 2025. After that, Mike will provide more detail on our financial results and expectations for the year ahead. Finally, Christy will share highlights of our operational successes and offer additional color on market performance and leasing activity. We're pleased to report strong results for the fourth quarter of full year 2024, driven by robust demand for our properties and Inventra's highly effective capital deployment. Core FFO per share grew by 5% both in the fourth quarter and for the full year, which marks the third consecutive year of cash flow per share growth above 4%. Increased occupancy, solid leasing spreads, expense management, and strategic capital allocation continue to be the underpinning factors of our consistent above-sector average cash flow growth. Healthy economic growth, perpetual migration tailwinds, and favorable business conditions continue to drive demand across our markets. As we've consistently emphasized, Sunbelt cities are experiencing significant population inflows, particularly from higher-cost coastal areas, which is driving demand for our retail real estate. Recent forecasts project that The Sunbelt's population will grow by approximately 7% over the next decade, outpacing the national growth rate of less than 1%. Beyond these demographic trends, the region's expanding tech, healthcare, and logistics sectors create a solid foundation for sustained long-term job growth. We are especially optimistic about opportunities in these markets, where we believe demand will outpace supply, further enhancing the strength and resilience of our portfolio. Supporting this dynamic, retail development starts across the U.S. fell to the lowest level since the first quarter of 2015, underscoring the constrained pipeline for retail strip centers. Leasing activity and portfolio operations remain impressive despite some well-documented retailer disruptions in late 2024 and early 2025. Inventress has minimal exposure to headline bankruptcies and store closures, and we fully expect to maintain significant leasing leverage across our properties in upcoming negotiations. We ended the year with lease occupancy at 97.4% and economic occupancy at 95.3%, a 210 basis point spread representing approximately $6.3 million in incremental annualized base rent expected to come online over the next several quarters. If you take into consideration an all-time high occupancy, the built-in leasing pipeline, and the high retention rate of our existing tenants, the recipe for accelerated AFFO and free cash flow growth is quite promising. Due to a relatively favorable capital markets backdrop in the late summer and early fall of 24, coupled with a compelling mix of high quality and creative acquisition opportunities, we should approximately $250 million of equity to accelerate growth. This meaningfully expanded our acquisition activity while also taking the opportunity to pay off expensive variable rate debt. In the fourth quarter, we acquired four high quality assets. In Charleston, a new market for InvenTrust, we added market at Mill Creek. an 80,000-square-foot center anchored by a high-performing Lowe's Foods. We also acquired Nexton Square, a 134,000-square-foot open-air lifestyle center featuring a strong mix of high-performing restaurants and local retailers. In Fort Myers, one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census, we secured The Forum, a 186,000-square-foot center with 96% occupancy shadow anchored by a Target. And as mentioned on our last call in October, We grow our presence in the Richmond market with Stonehenge Village. In total for 24, we acquired eight properties for $282 million and opportunistically disposed of two properties for $68 million. As we move into 2025, we are highly confident in our ability to continue executing on our strategy and believe the future holds even greater promise for InvenTrust. We will remain focused on creating value through property acquisitions, portfolio optimization, operational excellence, and leveraging our in-place established platform. I'll now turn the call over to Mike for a detailed review of our financial results and to discuss our expectations for 2025. Mike?

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