Dream Industrial REIT Reports Strong Q3 2023 Financial Results and Announces Appointment of New Chief Executive Officer

This press release contains forward-looking information that is based upon assumptions and is subject to risks and uncertainties as indicated in the cautionary note contained within this press release. All dollar amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated.

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dream Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (DIR.UN-TSX) (the “Trust” or “Dream Industrial REIT” or “Dream Industrial” or “we” or “us”) today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023. Management will host a conference call to discuss the financial results on November 8, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. (ET).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Diluted funds from operations (“FFO”) per Unit⁽¹⁾ was $0.25 in Q3-2023, a 10.4% increase when compared to $0.22 in Q3-2022.
• Comparative properties net operating income (“CP NOI”) (constant currency basis)⁽²⁾ was $84.6 million in Q3-2023, a 10.4% increase when compared to $76.6 million in Q3-2022. The Canadian portfolio posted a year-over-year CP NOI (constant currency basis) growth of 12.1%. The European portfolio saw 8.9% year-over-year CP NOI (constant currency basis) growth.
• Net rental income was $84.5 million in Q3-2023, a 17.4% increase when compared to $72.0 million in Q3-2022. Year-over-year net rental income increased by 17.2% in Ontario, 8.6% in Québec, 3.4% in Western Canada and 21.5% in Europe excluding disposed investment properties, primarily driven by strong CP NOI (constant currency basis) growth in 2023 and 2022 and the impact of acquired investment properties in the past year.
• Net income was $50.5 million in Q3-2023, a decrease of $75.2 million when compared to net income of $125.7 million in Q3-2022, mainly driven by fair value adjustments to financial instruments. The net income in Q3-2023 was comprised of net rental income of $84.5 million, fair value adjustments to investment properties of $(33.5) million, fair value adjustments to financial instruments of $15.1 million and other expenses of $15.6 million.
• Total assets were $7.9 billion as at September 30, 2023, a 7.9% increase when compared to $7.3 billion as at December 31, 2022, driven by acquisitions and higher investment property values.
• Total equity (including LP B Units)⁽²⁾ and total equity (per condensed consolidated financial statements) was $4.8 billion and $4.6 billion as at September 30, 2023, respectively. This represents a 2.7% increase and 3.9% increase, respectively, when compared to December 31, 2022.
• Net asset value (“NAV”) per Unit⁽¹⁾ was $16.80 as at September 30, 2023, compared to the NAV per Unit of $16.97 as at December 31, 2022.
• Mr. Alexander Sannikov, currently President and Chief Operating Officer of Trust, has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trust effective January 1, 2024. Mr. Brian Pauls will be stepping down as Chief Executive Officer at the end of 2023 to focus on Dream’s U.S. multi-family operations as Chief Executive Officer of Dream Residential Real Estate Investment Trust.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

“DIR continues to outperform the market across all operating and financial metrics with continued strong CP NOI and FFO per unit growth,” said Brian Pauls, Chief Executive Officer of Dream Industrial REIT. “The value-creation potential from the embedded growth opportunities within our portfolio and our private capital partnerships should allow us to continue to deliver strong returns for unitholders. Our financing initiatives have further enhanced our balance sheet strength and flexibility and allow us to pursue opportunities to continue to enhance the overall quality of our portfolio and the business.”

ORGANIC GROWTH

• Continued strong leasing momentum at attractive rental spreads – Since the end of Q2 2023, the Trust has transacted approximately 1.2 million square feet of leases across its portfolio at an average rental rate spread of 41% over prior or expiring rents.
  • In Canada, the Trust signed 1 million square feet of leases, achieving an average rental rate spread to expiry of 45% and an annual contractual rent growth of nearly 4%.
  • In Europe, the Trust signed 191,000 square feet of leases at an average rental rate spread of 9%. All of the leases are fully indexed to local consumer price indices (“CPI”) or have contractual rent steps of 2%.

As at September 30, 2023, estimated market rents exceeded the average in-place rent across the Trust’s Canadian portfolio by nearly 48% with average contractual annual rent rate growth of over 2.8%. For the Trust’s overall portfolio, excluding U.S. assets held in a private U.S. industrial fund (the “U.S. Fund”) and assets held in a joint venture between GIC and the Trust in which the Trust has a 10% interest (the “Dream Summit JV”), estimated market rents exceeded the average in-place rent by nearly 35%.

Since the closing of the Dream Summit JV transaction, the Trust has successfully integrated Dream Summit JV’s operations with the Trust’s operating platform and completed or finalized terms on approximately 1.8 million square feet of new leases and renewals at an average spread of more than 100% over prior and expiring rents.

• Solid pace of CP NOI (constant currency basis)⁽¹⁾ growth – CP NOI (constant currency basis) for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 was $84.6 million and $230.6 million, respectively. For the same periods in 2022, CP NOI (constant currency basis) was $76.6 million and $206.4 million, respectively. This represents an increase of 10.4% for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and 11.7% for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, compared to the prior year comparative periods.

  The Canadian portfolio posted a year-over-year CP NOI (constant currency basis) growth of 12.1%, driven by 16.7%, 12.4% and 4.0% CP NOI growth in Ontario, Québec and Western Canada, respectively.

  Year-over-year CP NOI (constant currency basis) growth in Ontario was primarily driven by increasing rental spreads on new and renewed leases and the lease-up of completed expansion in the Greater Toronto Area (“GTA”), which increased the average in-place base rent by 15.3%.

  In Québec, year-over-year CP NOI (constant currency basis) growth was driven primarily by higher average in-place base rents of 15.5% and two completed expansions in the Greater Montréal Area.

  In Europe, the lease-up of an expansion at the Trust’s properties in Dresden, Germany, and The Hague, Netherlands, in addition to CPI indexation, led to a 7.4% and 7.9% increase in in-place base rent for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively, which drove year-over-year CP NOI (constant currency basis) growth of 8.9% and 10.9%, respectively.

• In-place and committed occupancy – The Trust’s in-place and committed occupancy remained high at 97.2%, compared to 98.0% as at June 30, 2023. The decrease was primarily attributable to transitory vacancies including the recently completed development in Caledon and a 225,000 square foot vacancy near the Port of Montréal. The Trust expects significant opportunities to capture rent increases across its markets as we re-lease these spaces.

  Over the next two years, the Trust has over 8.5 million square feet of GLA maturing. Over 6 million square feet of this space is located in Canada, of which approximately 74% is located in Ontario and Québec where the average market rent is approximately double that of in-place rent.

• Continued growth in net rental income for the quarter and year-to-date – Net rental income for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 was $84.5 million and $249.0 million, respectively, representing an increase of $12.5 million, or 17.4%, and $43.0 million, or 20.9%, relative to the prior year comparative periods. Year-over-year net rental income increased by 17.2% in Ontario, 8.6% in Québec, 3.4% in Western Canada and 21.5% in Europe, excluding disposed investment properties. The increase was mainly driven by strong CP NOI (constant currency basis) growth in 2023 and 2022, and the impact of acquired investment properties in the past year.

INVESTMENT UPDATE

The Trust continues to evaluate investments that meet its objective of improving the cash flow growth profile and overall quality of the portfolio, while preserving balance sheet flexibility. The Dream Summit JV provides a new source of growth capital for the Trust to pursue strategic acquisitions and strengthens the Trust’s property management and leasing fee stream.

During the quarter, the Dream Summit JV acquired a 19-acre land site and a 150,000 square foot income-producing property located in the GTA. Subsequent to the quarter, the Dream Summit JV acquired four additional income-producing assets totaling 0.6 million square feet. Furthermore, the Dream Summit JV is in exclusive negotiations or under contract to acquire two assets located in the GTA totaling 0.2 million square feet.

In total, the Trust’s equity investment to fund these acquisitions is expected to be approximately $5 million. Combined with the associated property management and leasing income, the Trust expects the income-producing assets to generate a going-in yield on equity in excess of 7.5% with further upside as the Trust estimates current market rents to be over 30% higher than in-place rents.

DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

The Trust’s development pipeline provides a significant opportunity to add high-quality assets in core markets at attractive economics to the Trust. The Trust has approximately 2.8 million square feet of development projects that are recently completed, currently underway or in advanced planning stages.

• Over the past 15 months, the Trust has completed and substantially completed approximately 0.9 million square feet of development projects across Canada and Europe. These completed developments are more than 90% leased and the Trust is targeting to achieve an unlevered yield of 7.4% upon full stabilization.
• The Trust currently has 1.7 million square feet of projects underway across Canada including the Trust’s share of projects held in its development joint venture (the “Development JV”). With total estimated costs to completion of $167 million, the Trust expects unlevered yield on development cost of approximately 6.4% upon completion. The Trust expects these projects to be completed in the next 12-18 months and is currently engaging with prospective tenants. The Trust recently signed a conditional 20,000 square foot lease at its recently completed development in Caledon at a rental rate over 6% higher than the previous lease signed at this property earlier this year.

“DIR reported its fourth consecutive quarter of strong year-over-year CP NOI growth and we continue to see a long runway for robust organic growth going forward,” said Alexander Sannikov, President and Chief Operating Officer of Dream Industrial REIT. “Our focus on private capital partnerships continues to prove successful with strong expected accretion from our investments despite the elevated interest rate environment.”

CAPITAL STRATEGY

The Trust continues to maintain significant financial flexibility as it executes on its strategy to grow and upgrade portfolio quality. During the quarter, the Trust issued 7.5 million units through its at-the-market program (“ATM”) at an average price of $14.27 for total proceeds of $107 million. In July, the Trust closed on €229 million of European mortgages with three lenders at a weighted average interest rate of 4.93% for five years. These mortgages, in addition to the ATM proceeds, were utilized to refinance existing mortgage maturities and reduce the outstanding balance on the Trust’s credit facility which bore an average rate of approximately 6.2%. The Trust’s net debt-to-total asset (net of cash and cash equivalents) ratio was 35.1% at September 30, 2023, which was more than 100 basis points lower than the prior quarter.

The Trust has addressed all of its 2023 debt maturities and has $304 million of debt maturing in 2024 at an average rate of 3.53%. Of the 2024 debt maturities, 95% are denominated in Euros and the Trust is targeting to refinance the maturities in Euros.

The Trust’s proportion of secured debt⁽¹⁶⁾ is 7.3% of total assets and represents 20.7% of total debt⁽¹⁷⁾, compared to 7.0% and 24.2% one year ago, respectively. The Trust’s unencumbered asset pool⁽¹¹⁾ totaled $5.3 billion as at September 30, 2023, representing 78% of the Trust’s investment properties value as at September 30, 2023.

The Trust ended Q3 2023 with available liquidity⁽¹²⁾ of $527 million, and an additional $250 million that could be exercised through the accordion on its unsecured credit facility.

“We continue to focus on maintaining a strong and flexible balance sheet through the issuance of $107 million of units through our ATM program. With the closing of $330 million of European mortgages this quarter, the availability of debt for our business remains healthy,” said Lenis Quan, Chief Financial Officer of Dream Industrial REIT. “We are also actively exploring several disposition opportunities at prices that are expected to be accretive to our total return profile while improving overall portfolio quality. Proceeds from these capital recycling initiatives are likely to be used to fund our development and solar pipeline as well as our contributions towards our private capital partnerships.”

MANAGEMENT UPDATE

The Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Alexander Sannikov as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trust effective January 1, 2024. Mr. Sannikov joined Dream Asset Management Corporation (“Dream”), the Trust’s asset manager, in 2008. Mr. Sannikov joined the Trust’s management team in 2019 and is currently serving as the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Trust. In his new role, Mr. Sannikov will oversee all aspects of the Trust’s business as Dream Industrial continues to execute on core pillars of its strategy. Mr. Brian Pauls will be stepping down as Chief Executive Officer at the end of 2023 to focus on Dream’s U.S. multi-family operations as Chief Executive Officer of Dream Residential Real Estate Investment Trust.

“Over the past six years since joining the REIT as CEO, Brian has done an outstanding job in leading DIR to become one of the largest industrial landlords in the country with over 70 million square feet of industrial assets under management in strong markets across Canada, Europe, and the U.S.,” said Vincenza Sera, Chair of Dream Industrial REIT. “I would like to thank Brian for his remarkable achievements and wish him well on his continuing endeavors. We also welcome Alex as President and CEO and recognize his significant contributions to the REIT since he joined in 2019. He has been leading the operations and the development program of the REIT and has been instrumental in strengthening DIR’s private capital partnerships, including the recent acquisition and integration of the Dream Summit portfolio. We look forward to his continued contributions to the REIT as its new leader.”

CONFERENCE CALL

Senior management will host a conference call to discuss the financial results on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. (ET). To access the conference call, please dial 1-800-319-4610 (toll free) or 416-915-3239 (toll). To access the conference call via webcast, please go to Dream Industrial REIT’s website at www.dreamindustrialreit.ca and click on the link for News, then click on Events. A taped replay of the conference call and the webcast will be available for ninety (90) days following the call.

OTHER INFORMATION

Information appearing in this press release is a select summary of financial results. The condensed consolidated financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis for the Trust will be available at www.dreamindustrialreit.ca and on www.sedarplus.ca.

Dream Industrial REIT is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust. As at September 30, 2023, Dream Industrial REIT owns, manages and operates a portfolio of 322 industrial assets totaling approximately 70.6 million square feet of gross leasable area in key markets across Canada, Europe, and the U.S. Dream Industrial REIT’s goal is to deliver strong total returns to its unitholders through secure cash flows underpinned by its high-quality portfolio and an investment grade balance sheet as well as driving growth in its net asset value and cash flow per unit. For more information, please visit www.dreamindustrialreit.ca.

FOOTNOTES

1. CP NOI (constant currency basis) is a non-GAAP financial measure. The most directly comparable financial measure to CP NOI (constant currency basis) is net rental income. The table included in the Appendices section of this press release reconcile CP NOI (constant currency basis) for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and September 30, 2022 to net rental income. For further information on this non-GAAP measure, please refer to the statements under the heading “Non-GAAP financial measures, ratios and supplementary financial measures” in this press release.
2. FFO is a non-GAAP financial measure. The most directly comparable financial measure to FFO is net income. The tables included in the Appendices section of this press release reconcile FFO for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and September 30, 2022 to net income. For further information on this non-GAAP measure, please refer to the statements under the heading “Non-GAAP financial measures, ratios and supplementary financial measures” in this press release.
3. Diluted FFO per Unit is a non-GAAP ratio. Diluted FFO per Unit is comprised of FFO (a non-GAAP financial measure) divided by the weighted average number of Units. For further information on this non-GAAP ratio, please refer to the statements under the heading “Non-GAAP financial measures, ratios and supplementary financial measures” in this press release.
4. A description of the determination of diluted amounts per Unit can be found in the Trust’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and September 30, 2022, in the section “Supplementary financial measures and ratios and other disclosures”, under the heading “Weighted average number of Units”.
5. “Number of assets” comprise a building, or a cluster of buildings in close proximity to one another attracting similar tenants.
6. Includes the Trust’s owned and managed properties as at September 30, 2023, December 31, 2022 and September 30, 2022.
7. Includes the Trust’s share of equity accounted investments as at September 30, 2023, December 31, 2022 and September 30, 2022.
8. Net total debt-to-total assets (net of cash and cash equivalents) ratio is a non-GAAP ratio. Net total debt-to-total assets (net of cash and cash equivalents) ratio is comprised of net total debt (a non-GAAP financial measure) divided by total assets (net of cash and cash equivalents) (a non-GAAP financial measure). The most directly comparable IFRS financial measure to net total debt is non-current debt, and the most directly comparable IFRS financial measure to total assets (net of cash and cash equivalents) is total assets. The tables included in the Appendices section of this press release reconcile net total debt to non-current debt and total assets (net of cash and cash equivalents) to total assets as at September 30, 2023, December 31, 2022 and September 30, 2022. For further information on this non-GAAP ratio and these non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to the statements under the heading “Non-GAAP financial measures, ratios and supplementary financial measures” in this press release.
9. Net total debt-to-normalized adjusted EBITDAFV is a non-GAAP ratio. Net total debt-to-normalized adjusted EBITDAFV is comprised of net total debt (a non-GAAP financial measure) divided by normalized adjusted EBITDAFV (a non-GAAP financial measure). The most directly comparable IFRS financial measure to normalized adjusted EBITDAFV is net income. The tables included in the Appendices section of this press release reconcile adjusted EBITDAFV to net income (loss) for the three months ended September 30, 2023, December 31, 2022 and September 30, 2022, for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, September 30, 2022 and September 30, 2021, and for the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021.

Contacts

Dream Industrial REIT

Brian Pauls
Chief Executive Officer

(416) 365-2365

[email protected]

Lenis Quan
Chief Financial Officer

(416) 365-2353

[email protected]

Alexander Sannikov
President & Chief Operating Officer

(416) 365-4106

[email protected]

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