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4/24/2025
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the VESA First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow today's prepared remarks, and as a reminder, this call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Fernanda Bettinger, VESA's Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our review of VESA's First Quarter Earnings Results. Presenting today with me is Lorenzo Dominique Gueron, Chief Executive Officer, and Juan Sotil, our Chief Financial Officer. The earnings release detailing our first quarter 2025 results was released yesterday after market close and is available on VESA's IR website along with our supplemental package. It's important to note that on today's call, management remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking states. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risk and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ. For more information on these risk factors, please review our public filings. VESA assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. Additionally, note that all figures included herein were prepared in accordance with IFRS, which differ in certain significant respects from U.S. DACs. All information should be read in conjunction with and is qualified in its entirety by reference to our financial statements, including the notes thereto on our status in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. I'll now turn the call over to Lorenzo Herrera.
Thank you, Fernanda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Vesta's first quarter 2025 earnings call. Before we begin our review of Vesta's results for the first quarter, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the broader operating environment. As can be expected, uncertainty prevails. This volatility and ambiguity continue to shape, and in most instances, halt decision-making across industries and markets, particularly around long-term commitments during the quarter. Leasing activity has slowed in Mexico, as it has in the U.S. and Europe. However, while market-wide absorption has essentially paused and new leasing decisions are being delayed, vested tenants are staying while we also gain new tenants in the first quarter of the year. Most of our clients have not altered their long-term plans despite trade-related headlines. Recent conversations we have had show that a substantial majority have not adjusted their investment outlook because of tariffs or regulatory risks. Vesta remains focused and disciplined. Our company has a demonstrated history of successfully weathering headwinds, and the steps we have taken underscore our resilience, not just in navigating through volatility, but adapting, reacting, and executing with clarity in uncertain times to emerge stronger. Vesta's competitive advantages in the Mexican industrial real estate sector are rooted in a combination of strategic positioning, operational excellence, and long-term vision. Let me briefly reiterate these advantages, which are particularly relevant in today's operating environment. First, the exceptional quality of our assets across strategic markets is a compelling differentiator with powerful client stickiness. Vesta has cultivated a diverse blue-chip tenant base with long-term dollar-based lease structures This drives tenant retention with visibility into future cash flows. We are Mexico's go-to partner for global firms entering or expanding in Mexico, and our company operates with prudent leverage, ample liquidity, and a track record of disciplined capital allocation. Finally, we have demonstrated our ability to be agile when needed and to be grounded in making decisions in both reaction and anticipation. We therefore view the current environment as one of opportunity. Companies like ours are uniquely positioned to take advantage of change by being close to our markets and close to our clients, which will drive renewals and releasing opportunities whenever the dust settles in reaction to new realities and in anticipation of demand. That combination of quality, agility, and discipline has served us well. Jorge Mancilla- best of the lever solely operational performance in first quarter, despite the macro backdrop during the first quarter 2025. Jorge Mancilla- best of focus and maturing leases and renewals which has enabled us to mark to market rents and generate a 11.5% trailing 12 month weighted average spread for the quarter, the highest since 2022 some of these renewals have seen rental uplifts of over 20%. And same-store NOI has increased by 4.3% year-over-year, reflecting the strength of our tenant relationships and the quality of our portfolio. Total leasing activity for the first quarter reached 1.4 million, comprising 139,000 square feet of new contracts with three new tenants and 1.2 million square feet in lease renewals during the quarter, levels which we have sustained over the last two years. Our team is focused on expense discipline and cost control, also in property management, which supported growth in both NOI and EBITDA, which reached 95.7% and 85.2% respectively during the quarter. Meanwhile, we are capitalizing on the current environment to leverage our strong balance sheet to pave the way for future growth. As you read in last night's results press release, we made targeted and highly strategic new land acquisitions in Mexico City and Monterrey. Urban infill markets align with the Route 2030 strategy and particularly relevant for e-commerce and last mile logistics, which remain among the most resilient sectors in our portfolio. We're also making high conviction decisions to put our capital to work the best way possible to drive value for Vesta shareholders. At our March annual shareholders meeting, Vesta shareholders approved a $150 million share buyback program. During the first quarter, we executed a major share buyback, 15.5 million shares, or $36 million, taking advantage of the significant disconnect we're seeing between our share price and the intrinsic value of our existing operating portfolio, which today is at 95% stabilized occupancy with rents indexed to inflation and the sustained growth recurring income, and long-term maturity profile of Vesta's portfolio represents. These share repurchases were made at an attractive entry point from a replacement cost, yield multiple, and net asset value perspective. And I'd like to underscore that the shares we're acquiring will be canceled, enabling us to opportunistically repurchase our shares at a considerable discount, returning value our shareholders at a substantial discount to net value. As I noted, we have maintained one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry. Our loan-to-value ratio is 20.6% during the first quarter, one of the lowest ratios of the company following a 50 million debt repayment. That gives us flexibility to invest when the time is right without sacrificing liquidity or financial stability. In short, we're doing what resilient companies do, protecting downside, remaining patient, and putting capital to work where it drives the most long-term value. In closing, it's a uniquely challenging and unpredictable environment, but Vesta has a long history of demonstrating our resilience. We adapt, we react, and we lead. During uncertain times, we will remain focused on what's in our control, discipline capital allocation, tenant engagement, and strategic land banking building for the long term. With that, Let me turn our conversation over to Juan to discuss our financial results. Juan?
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