speaker
Johanna
CEO

Welcome everyone joining us today for our first quarter interim report. My name is Johanna and I will be co-presenting together with my CFO, Jakob. We entered 2026 with a high level of business activity, similar to the previous quarter in fact. As I mentioned before, maintaining a strong business momentum is a key ambition of mine and I'm proud to see that this quarter we are seeing results from our efforts, both in meeting customer needs our letting activity, and on the transaction side. Despite a turbulent macro environment with geopolitical tensions and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, we have successfully closed several important agreements. We delivered a strong letting performance, including several large lettings and a successful renegotiation stock with solid rental growth. Net letting amounted to 20 million Swedish crowns, and we improved our occupancy rate. All of this net letting was generated from our office portfolio. We likely have not seen yet the full long-term effects of the war in the Middle East, particularly regarding energy prices, inflation and interest rates, but we are noting some volatility in market rates and slightly more cautious focus in the Swedish economy recovery. So far, we have not experienced any slowdown in corporate decision-making, but we remain mindful that this could change. My guiding principle, however, is to focus on what we can control, and that is where we put in our efforts. That said, here and now, we are delivering. Speaking of our strongest business momentum, most notable, we recently signed a major combined asset swap with the Port of Gothenburg. creating multiple positive effects. In addition, in January, we signed a letter of intent regarding a future land allocation adjacent to Gothenburg Central Station, both of which I will return shortly. Our finance function has also maintained a high level of activity, contributing positively to our earnings from property management this quarter. We also repurchased 95 million SEC of our Class B shares ahead of the AGM in March. Looking at the figures for the quarter, rental income decreased by 2%, driven by net divestments last year and vacancies. Net operating income decreased by 4% due to these factors, of course, as well as high costs related to a cold and very snowy winter. At the same time, we report stable income from property management. It's up 1% and it's supported by our active financing efforts. We have improved our net financials driven by lower average interest rate in our portfolio combined with reduced debt. We have also continued to strengthen our financial position through extended capital duration and by entering our into new derivatives. That is a way that we navigate in a more volatile interest rate environment. Of course, our concluded transaction agreements also contribute and provide increased flexibility going forward. Diving into our asset swap with Port of Gothenburg, we have completed this strategically important deal with the Port of Gothenburg and that strengthens our growth journey within the industrial and logistic segment. So let me elaborate a little bit on the completed deal and what we divest and what we acquire. The transaction makes us a net seller releasing approximately 684 million Swedish crowns in capital. The divestment is made slightly above book value. Closing is extended to no earlier than Q4 2026 and is subject to approval by the Municipal Council. This is standard for municipality-owned entities. We divest land, water, and office building, and we buy a logistic building of 24,000 square meters. This is what we divest. It's nine office buildings, and the occupancy rate is 71%. And we acquired this modern logistic building with Schenker as a tenant. And we have also an expression of intent regarding future development right of 9,000 square meters adjacent to this building. If we look at this picture on the left side, you can see Portview. The investment includes 22,000 square meters of logistic development rights that we sell. In exchange for this, we get this modern income-generating asset in one of the strongest logistics locations in the Nordics. And we remain, we have approximately 25,000 square meters that we retain. Overall, this is strategically important. It strengthens our portfolio. It releases capital for continued growth and contributes to the long-term development of both Gothenburg and the port of Gothenburg, something that is really positive also for our own property assets in Arendelle. This is a clear example of how we actively manage our portfolio today, but we're also building for the future. When the office market and the employment pick up again, we will be in a position to start larger office projects. While that might take some years, we are already preparing for it. We have the building rights of two different areas. We have both Stora Blå. comprising 40,000 square meters, and recently we have also signed a new letter of intent with the City of Gothenburg for future building rights adjacent to Gothenburg Central Station. It gives us approximately 100,000 square meter development potential with zoning plans in place and the potential to start projects somewhere between 2028 and 2032. So we are very well positioned to launch projects when the market is ready, and that will give us a clear leverage on value creation. Here we see two of the projects that we are currently running. One is ASSA in Portview, which we have previously not communicated by name, and the other one is a joint venture in Southern Logistics Park. This is where we have an option to acquire the asset upon completion. Looking at net netting, which remains strong this quarter at 20 million SEK, all of the contribution comes from our office portfolio. In fact, we need to go back to second quarter of 24 to find a single quarter with a higher volume of renegotiations and a more positive outcome. We have completed several new lettings, including 2,700 in Lillebomen and 3,300 square meters in Gamleston. At the same time, we have seen a strong ability to renegotiate with large volumes of 64 million Swedish crowns and a solid rental growth of 6% in those renegotiations. Our tenant Rambol has indicated that they will leave Gorda in August 2027 for Grand Central. They currently lease 4,900 square meters. The tenant has not formally given notice, hence it does not reflect in the net vesting of this quarter. If you look at this picture, we can see some of the activity that I have mentioned already. If you then look at our customer base across our 724 lease agreements that we have at the moment, our 10 largest tenants account for 33% of our total contract value. And we have a very broad mix of tenants, including hotels, public sector, industrial and office users. And that creates a resilience and stability for us. During this quarter, we increased our economic occupancy rate from 90.4 to 90.6. And we reach a surplus ratio of 77% in the quarter and 79% if you look at the year-to-year. In terms of area distribution, our portfolio roughly is evenly split with industrial logistics and projects counting for about 50% and the other segment offices about 50%. So a little bit about the Gothenburg markets. At present, we are in a normalized economic environment in Gothenburg, slightly above 100, and the manufacturing PMI is at its highest level in four years. The recovery is largely driven by households, and the service sector has strengthened to around 100, which is supportive for office demand over time. Unemployment has also decreased slightly to 6.4%, which is still the lowest figure in Sweden. That said, we remain humble regarding the potential longer-term effects of geopolitical uncertainty. Gothenburg benefits from a unique mix of large international companies and innovative startups combined with a highly educated workforce. Around one in 10 people holds a master of science in engineering. Gothenburg also plays a leading role as a center for R&D and innovation. acting as a strong engine for growth. It's also Sweden's main export hub, and despite the trade war, export has remained surprisingly resilient last year. Around 10% go to the US and 70% to Europe. Global trade patterns are currently shifting through new trade agreements, which will be important to follow going forward. The Port of Gothenburg also have reached new volumes of records last year, once again, I would say. The business landscape is broad and dynamic and ranging from companies like Saav and growing defense sector to significant investment in life science, which is actually currently the fastest growing segment for us. We are more than just an automotive hub, although it is noting that Volvo Cars' new EX60 is being developed and produced here in Gothenburg with stronger than expected sales. And looking especially at manufacturing and the automotive sector, the industry is facing pressure from China and the strongest Swedish corona. However, according to the latest confidence indicators from Nordea and the National Institute of Economic Research, based on very recent data from end of March, In other words, when the Middle East war had started, the sentiment has recovered to more normal levels. So let us look into our segment relevant to these businesses, industrial and logistics. We experienced a strong transaction market and high demand from investors with yields well below 5%. There is also strong demand in the letting market and the low vacancy rate in prime locations of 4%. Turning to the office market in Gothenburg, the letting volume has decreased to around 75% of the 2024 levels. We are now in line with the same levels as 2019. Activity remains solid, though, with similar numbers of leases signed, but smaller average size of each lease. So the average size is around 500 square meters. Rental levels remain stable with prime rents of about 4,200 kilometers per square meter. Vacancy has increased to around 14%. It's primarily driven by significant new office supply during 2021 and 2022. That was equivalent to 10 years of new supply that was put into the market in two years. This quarter also includes Kvarteret Johanna in the vacancy numbers, hence it's going up. Looking ahead, no new project starts have taken place last year and also not so far this year. And we have now 60,000 square meter that is currently under construction with completion in 2027, of which about 4,000 square meter remains unlet. So beyond that, new supply is very limited the next few years. After 2028 and 2029, we have virtually no new additions so far being added to the market as a project like this takes about three and a half years to produce. So a reduction of vacancy will take time, but it do requires that employment rate and the growth in the office intensive sectors goes up. I will have a look at that. Unlike some other cities in Sweden, the employment rate in office intensive sectors has not turned down, actually, during these three years of recession, but it has flattened out. Historically, though, the office insurance sectors have grown by around 4% annually in Gothenburg, and that is really high. Going forward, a more sustainable growth rate could be around 2%, assuming no major macro disruption happens, and that the expected turn in economy will take place, and that is numbers according to CityMark's newest analysis. And with that, I also look into how our portfolio looks. So, looking at these sectors, this is our portfolio today. In summary, we continue to see stable property values totaling just above 30 billion with yield requirements remaining around 5.1 in line with previous periods. Markets in the office segments are also supported by recent transactions, including electors acquisition from Technopolis and folks on purchase of her share from Vasa Kronan. With that, as a starting point, I will hand over to you, Jakob, to take us through the portfolio and financial key figures in more detail.

speaker
Jakob
CFO

Thank you, Johanna. So if I start where Johanna left off with our property portfolio, we continue, as Johanna said, with a stable property value of just about 30 billion Swedish crowns. In the quarter, we have an unrealized value change of 40 million. That's driven by increased cash flow from lettings and renegotiations. As Johanna said, the yield is the same as year-round at 5.2%. The investment volume was relatively low in the quarter, 57 million SEK, and the LTV ratio on total assets remained at 47% just as at year end. If we look at the LTV ratio for our properties, it's amount to 49%, that as well as Q4 25. If we look at the earnings, we delivered growth also in this quarter when it comes to income from property management, plus 1% compared to Q1 2025. If we look at the rental income, it decreased by 2% to 435 million compared to 445 in the first quarter of 2025. The decrease is mainly driven that we have made divestments and that we have a higher vacancy in the portfolio. The rental income of 435, I said, if we compare that to the indication we had in the earning capacity on January 1st, the rental income here exceeds the earning capacity by 30 million, and that mainly explains as it also was in the two previous quarters by rent supplements and short-term income, such as parking. The heavy winter meant higher costs for us, especially for snow removal and heating. This is reflected in our operating surplus, which decreased by 4% compared to 2025. That's 15 million lower than first quarter 2025. Now, as already mentioned, we still report growth in profit from property management of 1%, and that's due to that we have improved our net financial items by 19 million CX to 126 million. And that's driven both by lower debt volumes, lower rent levels, and better margins. Compared to the previous quarter, we improved the financial items by 7 million SEK. And the improved net financial items enable us also to increase the interest cover ratio to 2.6, while the reduction we had in operating surplus made that we have an increase in net debt compared to EBITDA up to 11.5 for the quarter. We have continued to work actively with the financing during the quarter, which I will return to. If we summarize, we continue to have growth in income from property management. We have stable property values and stable financial key ratios that have strengthened over the last year. Finally, I would like to mention profit after tax, which in the court amounted to 268 million, or 2.26 SEK per share, and the earnings were positively impacted by unrealized value changes in financial instruments of 98 million SEK. So then let's look a little bit more closely at the reasons for the development during the quarter divided into our three pillars, like-for-like, projects, and transaction. We start with revenues. We see that we are increasing revenues in the like-for-like portfolio, and that's mainly a net effect of index increases and higher vacancies. The decrease of 8 million in projects mainly refers to the fact that Manlyke Healthcare left its premises in our property in Gamla Staden this summer. Part of that premises we have leased out, 3,300 square meters, and that will be occupancy late this year. The decrease in transaction is a net effect of the sale of the English school in Q1 2025, and the acquisition of the industrial property in Tudor that we made in the autumn. In total, it means that we reduce the revenue by 2% in the quarter. In the middle row, we have our property costs, which we increased by 5 million SEK, or 5%, compared with the corresponding quarter last year. And that mostly is in the like-for-like portfolio. And that, as said, is explained by the cold and snowy winter. Both heating costs and snow removal increased sharply, totaling 5.3 million SEK, and 4.8 of those were in the like-for-like portfolio. In projects, cost decreased due to a one-off payment, 2025, and in transactions, there are increased costs for property tax, but also media due to the winter. In total, it means that we are reducing the operating surplus in both the like-for-like project and transaction by a total of 50 million or 4%. The surplus ratio for the quarter was 77%, but 79% rolling 12 months. In summary, revenues declining as expected, from that we have been a net seller in the previous year, as well as that we have a higher vacancy in the office portfolio. This, together with increased costs for the winter, results in a reduction in the operating surplus overall. As before, we are fully focused on vacancies and lettings, and we're pleased to see that we have shown positive net letting in this quarter as well. We are also continuing our strong cost focus where we were successful in the previous year. So let's look at our financing. We have a stable financial position, as mentioned, we have strengthened our credit-related key figures over the past year. If we look at the market, the quarter began at the end of last year with a strong banking and capital market with continued declining credit margins. And in connection with the conflict in the Middle East, the situation changed rapidly, especially in the fixed-income market with high volatility and increased interest rates. especially in the short term. On the bond side, we feel that it's relatively stable. We estimate that the credit spread for us has increased about 15% since the bottom, which means that we are back on the same levels as in the autumn 2025. During the quarter, we were active with our financing. We refined bank loans of approximately one billion. and issued 150 million SEK in bonds. And in February, before the conflict in the Middle East, we extended interest rate swaps of 700 million SEK. The net outgoing debt increased slightly during the quarter. So as you can see, the average interest rate, the closing average interest rate was 3.46, including commitment fees. That is one basis point higher than the closing at year end. We had during the quarter rising interest rates with nine basis points, but they were offset by lower margins, so we could basically stay at the same average rate. For both net debts compared to EBITDA, rolling 12, the share of secured financing and the LTV ratio had been small movements during the quarter. The interest cover ratio, the ICR, rolling 12 months, increased slightly to 2.5. In February, our rating institute, NCR, published a rating action report in which they confirmed our existing long-term BBB minus rating with stable outlook, while they raised our short-term rating from N4 to N3. As mentioned, we were active in the fixed-income markets before the conflict in the Middle East and signed derivatives contracts of 700 million SEK. which allowed us to increase our average fixed interest period slightly, but rumbled off 2.8 years as previous quarter. If we look at the chart from year one and going forward, we have an even and good distribution of maturities over the next five to six years, and we have also some maturities longer than that. Of the 32%, that matures within one year, 5% of those are cancelable swaps that are running. The refinancings we made in the quarter have meant that we have further extended our credit maturity, and the capital duration is now 2.8 years in average from 2.7 years a quarter ago. As on the fixed income side, we aim for an even maturity for each coming year. To sum up the financing, we have significantly improved the financial position over the last year. The growth in our earnings combined with the larger liquidity buffer and the upgrade of the rating in 2025 has given us much better opportunities to actively work with our capital, both in the financing but also in project or transactions, all to create value for the shareholders. An example of such a transaction is the combination deal that Johanna mentioned earlier. I will now go into more detail about the effects the transaction will have on our key figures. As Johanna explained, the transaction means that we are net sellers in an amount of 684 million SEK, which means that our loan-to-value ratio will decrease by 1% each point. all other things alike, of course. Based on our earnings capacity on April 1st, included in today's report, net earnings capacity will decrease by 75 million SEK, while rental income will decrease by 49 million, and operating surplus by 39 billion. Then we take into account both what we sell and that we buy, of course. So the total deal in those numbers. If we then calculate reduced interest costs and use the average rate that we have of approximately 3.5%, it means that we will have a total effect in income from property management of approximately 15 million SEK. So a reduction in income from property management of 15. In the office portfolio that we are selling, the economic occupancy rate is 71%, 7-1, which means that our total occupancy rate will increase by about 1% when the deal is completed. However, as a large proportion of the vacancies in what we sell are classified the transaction will have a marginal impact on the reported occupancy rate, which is currently 90.6% since that is excluding land and projects. Growth. TASO have a long history of growth since 2013 when TASO was listed. On average, we have grown income from property management per share by 13% per year. During the same period, the net asset value per share has grown by an average of 14% per year, and the dividend by an average of 12% for the same period. During the quarter, we continued to create value for our shareholders by being active both in property management, projects, transactions, and our financing. The Platzi share, between December 10 and until the AGM on March 24, we repurchase shares for value of 95 million SEK in accordance with the resolved share buyback program of 100 million. And at the AGM, there was a renewed mandate for further share purchases. Sustainability. Our sustainability transition continues and is now fully integrated into the business. The share of sustainable financing now amounts to 75%. an increase of another two percentage points since we closed the year. Last time I told you that we have a strong focus on reducing our climate emissions, especially in renovations. We are intensifying our work on circularity and resource efficiency with our concept of interior design called SIEB. We make it easy for the customers to choose sustainable solutions and cost-effectively. During the year, the concept was used in alternate adaptions and contributed to reducing emissions by 180 tons of CO2 equivalents, which is the same as actually 37.5 laps around the world in a car. Quite amazing. We have been good at improving energy efficiency for many years. In this quarter, though, the cold winter had an impact, and we increased the, energy use compared to quarter one, 2025. But we have decreased, if we look on a longer perspective, we've decreased it 40% since 2013. This is good for the environment, for the customers, and for our bottom line. Over to you, Johanna.

speaker
Johanna
CEO

Thank you. I would like to sum up. We have maintained a high level of business activity during the quarter across electing, transactions, and finance, and that is a pace that we intend to sustain. Our focus is clear, to reduce vacancies, strengthen cash flow, and stay close to our customers. We are taking pride in acting fast, professional, and being flexible in every deal. Filling our vacancies is where we create value here and now, and it will remain our top priority going forward. At the same time, we also continue to invest for the future through active portfolio rotation, for example, such as the Port of Gothenburg deal that we described, and through growth in industrial logistics by product development and transaction, and by securing opportunities for the next generations of office projects. The outlook for Swedish economy and for the Gothenburg region is improving, although it will take some time. While the global environment remains uncertain, we remain focused on what we can control and where we can make a difference. We have proven our ability to deliver and to be long-term specialists in a dynamic growing city, and we have the same ambition going forward. So with that, I would like to thank you for listening, and we are happy to take the questions.

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