Safestore Regulatory News (SAFE)

28 November 2023

Safestore Holdings plcFourth quarter trading update for the period 1 August 2023 to 31 October 2023

A year of significant strategic progress

Highlights

· Group revenue for the year in CER1 was up 4.8% and 5.5% at actual exchange rates

· Like-for-like5 Group revenue for the year in CER1 up 1.7%

· Like-for-like5 average rate for the year up 5.0% in CER1

· Like-for-like5 closing occupancy at 79.6% (2022: 82.8%)

· Openings of four new stores and one extension since Q3 adding 150,100 sq ft of MLA

· Two new pipeline sites/extensions in the quarter increased the pipeline by 100,000 sq ft.

· Group Property Pipeline of 1.5m sq ft representing c. 18% of the existing portfolio to be funded from existing financial resources and expected to generate £25-£30m of stabilised EBITDA.

Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"After two years of out-performance in which the Group delivered total like-for-like5 revenue growth of c. 25%, 2023 has been a resilient year in which significant strategic and operational progress has been made.

In the year, at CER1, the Group's industry leading REVPAF9 grew by 1.4% on a like-for-like5 basis with like-for-like5 revenue up 1.7%. Total Group revenue grew by 4.8% reflecting recently added new stores and the annualisation effect of our acquisition of the Benelux business.

We believe that the COVID period has acted as an accelerator of growth for the self-storage industry. Whilst demand stabilised during the year at a level that is below 2022, we are still seeing enquiry levels that are ahead of the pre-COVID period.

We have made significant strategic progress during the year having opened, acquired, or extended thirteen stores (five in the UK, six in Spain and two in Netherlands) adding over 500,000 sq ft of MLA to the portfolio. In addition, a pipeline of a further 1.5m sq ft across 30 projects has been established which represents 18% of the existing MLA of the business. A joint venture with Carlyle was established earlier in the year, which facilitated the Group's entry into the under-penetrated German market. In addition, the integration of our Benelux business, acquired in 2022, is now complete.

Looking beyond any potential short-term volatility, there remains a significant under-supply of high quality self-storage capacity across the UK and Europe which provides a structural growth driver for the industry. New locations feed awareness which subsequently drives demand. Safestore's industry leading business model remains unchanged and we have substantial growth to deliver both from filling the 1.8m square feet of fully invested, currently unlet space, and from the new sites in our pipeline, across major cities in the UK and continental Europe. Safestore has a proven track record, and the returns we deliver are significantly ahead of our cost of debt, so we look to the future with confidence.

For 2023, we anticipate that the business will deliver Adjusted Diluted EPRA Earnings per Share7 in line with the guidance given in our third quarter trading statement8."

Trading Performance

Trading Data- Total

Trading Data- Like-For-Like5

Details of trading operating KPI's are included in the tables above.

UK

UK revenue was up 2.1% for the year in total and 1.2% on a like-for-like5 basis.

In the fourth quarter like-for-like5 revenue was stable across the period and finished the quarter at 1.2% below the prior year.

Demand, measured by enquiry levels, was down on the previous year but ahead of pre-COVID levels.

In the business customer segment we saw a small improvement in our customer numbers compared to the third quarter. In the fourth quarter we saw a 25,000 sq ft inflow in business occupancy compared to a 2,000 sq ft inflow in the same period last year.

We believe that our REVPAF9, a measure of how effectively we yield manage our assets, is the strongest in the industry. REVPAF9 grew by 0.9% for the year on a like-for-like5 basis.

Paris

Our Paris business did not experience the same surge in demand that we saw in the UK during the COVID period but continued to grow steadily.

Paris revenue grew 3.5% in total for the year on a total and like-for-like5 basis. Like-for-like5 revenue growth in the fourth quarter was 3.2%.

Our REVPAF9, which we believe is significantly ahead of the local competition, grew by a further 3.6% for the year.

Enquiry levels in Paris were marginally down compared to the same period last year but ahead of pre-COVID levels.

Spain

Since acquiring our Spanish business in 2019 we have opened a further seven stores. We now have eleven open stores and a pipeline of a further five stores.

Over the year our Spanish business grew revenue by 19.4% and by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Like-for-like5 revenue was flat in the quarter and across the year.

In line with our expectations, like-for-like5 occupancy in Barcelona has initially been diluted by the new Barcelona stores which have opened in close proximity and within the same catchment area as an existing store. Management believes that, given the limited supply in central Barcelona, once the absorption phase has been passed, the stores will generate higher revenue and profits and provide significant long-term value.

Netherlands

Our Netherlands business, acquired on 30 March 2022, contributed ?1.9m revenue in the quarter and ?7.2m for the year.

During the year, a new store in Amersfoort has opened and an additional store in Apeldoorn was acquired. We now have eleven stores open in the Netherlands and a pipeline of a further four sites.

The Netherlands business is not treated as like-for-like5 during the 2023 financial year. However, the stores that were in the Group for the whole of the fourth quarter in 2022 delivered 10.7% growth in Q4 2023.

Belgium

Our Belgium business, acquired with our Netherlands business on 30 March 2022, contributed ?1.1m revenue in the quarter and ?4.1m for the year.

We have six stores open in Belgium and a pipeline of one additional site.

The Belgian business is not treated as like-for-like5 during the 2023 financial year. However, the stores that were in the Group for the whole of the fourth quarter in 2022 delivered 10.0% growth in Q4 2023.

Property Pipeline Developments

Openings of New Stores and Extensions in the period

The extension of our London- Paddington March Arch store, two new freehold stores in Ellesmere Port and Amersfoort, Netherlands and one new leasehold site in Central Barcelona were opened in the period adding 136,100 sq ft of MLA. The new satellite conversion at Eastleigh was also open post year-end, adding a further 14,000 sq ft of MLA.

New Development Projects added in the Period

We have added two development sites to the pipeline in the period.

Paris West 4 is a freehold site with planning permission where we will build a new build 53,000 sq ft store, opening in 2024.

In Belgium, we have exchanged contracts on a freehold site in the Brussels conurbation at Melsbroek. We plan to open a 47,400 sq ft new build store in 2025.

Pipeline Summary

We are leveraging our effective and scalable operating platform to increase our expansion plans across both the UK and continental Europe. This approach has resulted in the largest development pipeline in our history which will be funded from our existing financial resources. This pipeline of c. 1.5m sq ft represents c. 18% of our existing property portfolio. The pipeline and associated financing is dilutive to earnings in the near term but, as the stores mature, we are confident, based on our track record, that reliable, secure and significant earnings and value accretion will be achieved. We estimate that, on stabilisation, the current pipeline will deliver in the range of £25-£30m of incremental EBITDA.

Ends

1 - CER is Constant Exchange Rates (Euro denominated results for the current period have been retranslated at the exchange rate effective for the comparative period, in order to present the reported results on a more comparable basis).

2 - Q4 2022 is the quarter ended 31 October 2022.

3 - Occupancy excludes offices but includes bulk tenancy. As of 31 October 2023, closing occupancy includes 18,000 sq ft of bulk tenancy (31 October 2022: 24,000 sq ft).

4 - MLA is Maximum Lettable Area.

5 - Like-for-like information includes only those stores which have been open throughout both the current and prior financial years, with adjustments made to remove the impact of new and closed stores, as well as corporate transactions.

6 - The Spain business was acquired on 30 December 2019 with the four originally acquired stores now considered like-for-like.

7- Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS is based on the European Public Real Estate Association's definition of Earnings and is defined as profit or loss for the period after tax but excluding corporate transaction costs, change in fair value of derivatives, gain/loss on investment properties and the associated tax impacts. The Company then makes further adjustments for the impact of exceptional items, IFRS 2 share-based payment charges, exceptional tax items and deferred tax charges. This adjusted earnings is divided by the diluted number of shares. The IFRS 2 cost is excluded as it is written back to distributable reserves and is a non-cash item (with the exception of the associated National Insurance element). Therefore, neither the Company's ability to distribute nor pay dividends are impacted (with the exception of the associated National Insurance element). The financial statements will disclose earnings on a statutory, EPRA and Adjusted Diluted EPRA basis and will provide a full reconciliation of the differences in the financial year in which any LTIP awards may vest.

8 - The analyst consensus for Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS for the current financial year, based on the forecasts of fifteen analysts, is 48.0p. The fifteen analyst forecasts range from 47.3p to 50.0p. In our third quarter trading statement we guided towards the lower end of the range of analysts' forecasts for 2023. This guidance remains in place for our fourth quarter.

9 - REVPAF is an alternative performance measure used by the business. REVPAF stands for Revenue per Available Square Foot and is calculated by dividing revenue for the period by weighted average available square feet for the same period.

10 - Where reported amounts are presented either to the nearest £0.1m or to the nearest 10,000 sq ft, the effect of rounding may impact the reported percentage change.

Enquiries

Notes to Editors

· Safestore is the UK's largest self-storage group with 190 stores on 31 October 2023, comprising 133 wholly owned stores in the UK (including 73 in London and the South East with the remainder in key metropolitan areas such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, and Bristol), 29 wholly owned stores in the Paris region, 11 stores in Spain, 11 stores in the Netherlands and 6 stores in Belgium. In addition, the Group operates 7 stores in Germany under a Joint Venture agreement with Carlyle.

· Safestore operates more self-storage sites inside the M25 and in central Paris than any competitor providing more proximity to customers in the wealthiest and more densely populated UK and French markets.

· Safestore was founded in the UK in 1998. It acquired the French business "Une Pièce en Plus" ("UPP") in 2004 which was founded in 1998 by the current Safestore Group CEO Frederic Vecchioli.

· Safestore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2007. It entered the FTSE 250 index in October 2015.

· The Group provides storage to around 90,000 personal and business customers.

· As of 31 October 2023, Safestore had a maximum lettable area ("MLA") of 8.090 million sq ft (excluding the expansion pipeline stores) of which 6.231 million sq ft was occupied.

· Safestore employs around 750 people in the UK, Paris, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium.