Third quarter trading update

RNS Number : 6077I

Safestore Holdings plc

01 September 2016

 

Safestore Holdings plc

Third quarter trading update for the period 1 May 2016 to 31 July 2016

Strong trading performance continues, new store openings on track.

Group Operating Performance	Q3 2016	Q3 20152	Change	Change- CER1
Like-for-like (LFL) Revenue (£'m)	28.6	26.2	9.2%	6.6%
Revenue (£'m)	28.6	26.7	7.1%	4.5%
LFL Revenue- year-to-date (£'m)	82.7	75.2	10.0%	9.0%
Revenue- year-to-date (£'m)	82.7	77.1	7.3%	6.3%
Closing Occupancy (let sq ft- million) 3	3.69	3.61	2.2%	n/a
Closing Occupancy (% of MLA) 4	74.8%	72.2%	+2.6ppts	n/a
LFL Closing Occupancy (let sq ft- million)	3.69	3.56	3.7%	n/a
LFL Closing Occupancy (% of MLA) 4	74.8%	72.7%	+2.1ppts	n/a
Average Storage Rate (£)	25.87	24.53	5.5%	2.3%
Average Storage Rate (£)- year-to-date	25.97	24.75	4.9%	3.9%

Highlights
 

·      Like-for-like Group revenue for Q3 2016 in CER¹ up 6.6% on Q3 2015 with a particularly strong UK performance

o  UK up 7.5%

o  Paris up 2.3%

·      Group closing occupancy³ of 74.8% (up 2.6 ppts on Q3 2015) at 3.69 million square feet ("sq ft") with strong UK performance

·      Group average storage rate up 2.3% in CER¹ in the quarter

·      Completion of the Space Maker acquisition on 29 July 2016

Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer commented:

"I am pleased to report continuing positive trading across the business and we remain, as ever, focused on the significant organic growth opportunity represented by our 1.2m square feet of currently unlet space from the existing estate.

In addition, the recent completion of the acquisition of Space Maker and the opening of our newly redeveloped Wandsworth store in August further consolidates our leading UK market position and I look forward to the opening, on time and on budget, of an additional three stores in the UK and one in Paris in the coming weeks.

Market dynamics remain favourable and, combined with positive current trading and the impact of the recent weakening of Sterling on the translation of our Parisian results, as we approach the end of the current financial year, we are confident in generating cash tax adjusted earnings slightly ahead of current market expectations⁵."

Business highlights

UK Trading Performance

UK Operating Performance	Q3 2016	Q3 20152	Change
Like-for-like (LFL) Revenue (£'m)	21.5	20.0	7.5%
Revenue (£'m)	21.5	20.5	4.9%
LFL Revenue- year-to-date (£'m)	62.6	56.8	10.2%
Revenue- year-to-date (£'m)	62.6	58.7	6.6%
Closing Occupancy (let sq ft- million) 3	2.86	2.79	2.5%
Closing Occupancy (% of MLA) 4	73.0%	70.0%	+3.0ppts
LFL Closing Occupancy (let sq ft- million)	2.86	2.74	4.4%
LFL Closing Occupancy (% of MLA) 4	73.0%	70.5%	+2.5ppts
Average Storage Rate (£)	24.29	23.59	3.0%
Average Storage Rate (£)- year-to-date	24.64	23.55	4.6%

The UK business had another strong quarter growing like-for-like revenue by 7.5%. Performance was strong across the UK with London and the South East up 7.0% and Regional UK up 9.2%.

After the relaunch of our consumer website at the beginning of the financial year, enquiry growth in Q3 was up 10.2% year-on-year, continuing the strong momentum seen at the end of the second quarter. Further improvements were made in the conversion rate and new lets increased by 11.0% in the quarter and 6.4% for the year-to-date.

The third quarter is traditionally the busiest period in the year and, driven by the new lets performance, 170,000 sq ft of occupancy was added since the end of Q2 (2015: 105,000 sq ft added). As a result, Q3 closing occupancy, at 73.0%, increased by 3.0 percentage points compared to the prior year.

As we have previously guided, our rate growth slowed slightly in the quarter and was up 3.0% year-on-year. This is in line with our full year expectations.

In the period since the EU referendum on 23 June 2016, we have seen no discernible change in trading patterns in the UK and we continue to implement our business strategy accordingly.

Paris Trading Performance

Paris Operating Performance	Q3 2016	Q3 20152	Change
Like-for-like (LFL) Revenue (€'m)	8.8	8.6	2.3%
Revenue (€'m)	8.8	8.6	2.3%
LFL Revenue- year-to-date (€'m)	26.1	24.8	5.2%
Revenue- year-to-date (€'m)	26.1	24.8	5.2%
Closing Occupancy (let sq ft- million) 3	0.83	0.82	1.2%
Closing Occupancy (% of MLA) 4	82.0%	80.8%	+1.2ppts
LFL Closing Occupancy (let sq ft- million)	0.83	0.82	1.2%
LFL Closing Occupancy (% of MLA) 4	82.0%	80.8%	+1.2ppts
Average Storage Rate (€)	38.84	38.59	+0.6%
Average Storage Rate (€)- year-to-date	39.42	38.84	+1.5%
Revenue (£'m)	7.1	6.2	14.5%
Revenue (£'m)- year-to-date (£'m)	20.1	18.4	9.2%

Our Paris business had a solid quarter growing both rate and occupancy with like-for-like revenue now up by 5.2% in CER¹ for the year-to-date. The impact of the significant weakening of Sterling in the period resulted in the Sterling equivalent like-for-like revenue being up 14.5% on Q3 2015. 

The business grew occupancy by 26,000 sq ft since the end of Q2 (2015: 37,000 sq ft) resulting in closing occupancy of 82.0%, up 1.2 percentage points compared to the prior year.

Pricing was robust and our average rate was up 0.6% year-on-year in the quarter.

We continue to pursue our strategy of growing revenue by achieving an appropriate balance of rate and occupancy growth.

Space Maker

Safestore completed the acquisition of Space Maker on 29 July 2016. The final initial consideration, after certain downward adjustments, was £40.9m. Up to £1.4m of deferred consideration may be payable in cash between six months and three years from July 2016, subject to the Space Maker business achieving certain performance targets in that period.

In the year to 30 April 2016, Space Maker delivered EBITDA (before management fees) of £3.9m on turnover of £8.7m. At the initial consideration price, the Space Maker portfolio has an implied first year net operating income yield of c. 9.5%. Including the deferred consideration, the net operating income yield would be c. 9.2%.

The Space Maker stores have now been fully integrated into the Safestore regional management structure. However, as the transaction completed at the end of the quarter, the trading statistics reported in this announcement are for the existing Safestore business only. Following completion, the acquisition is immediately earnings enhancing and will support the Group's dividend capacity for the current financial year and beyond.

New Stores

We are pleased to confirm that our newly redeveloped Wandsworth store (33,200 sq ft) opened on 26 August 2016. We look forward to the openings of our Birmingham (51,000 sq ft), Altrincham (39,000 sq ft) and Chiswick (42,500 sq ft) stores as well as our Paris-Emerainville (60,000 sq ft) store in the coming weeks. All stores are anticipated to be completed on time and on budget.

Outlook

Reflecting normal industry trading patterns, we anticipate a reduction in occupancy in Q4 compared to Q3. However, early Q4 trading is healthy and, combined with the positive impact of the recent weakening of Sterling on the translation of our Parisian results, we are confident in generating cash tax adjusted earnings slightly ahead of current market expectations⁵.

Ends

1 - CER is Constant Exchange Rate

2 - Q3 2015 is the quarter ended 31 July 2015

3 - Closing occupancy excludes offices but includes 37,750 sq ft of bulk tenancy as at 31 July 2016 (31 July 2015 - 62,772 sq ft); this excludes Space Maker, which was acquired at the end of the quarter

4 - MLA is Maximum Lettable Area

5 - As of today's date, based on the forecasts of 7 analysts, the consensus for cash tax adjusted earnings per share for the year ended October 2016 is 18.9p and the range is from 18.6p to 19.0p

Enquiries

Safestore Holdings plc	020 8732 1500
Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer
Andy Jones, Chief Financial Officer
www.safestore.com
Instinctif Partners	020 7457 2020
Mark Reed Guy Scarborough

Notes to editors:

·	Safestore (excluding Space Maker) is the UK's largest self-storage group with 119 stores, comprising 95 wholly owned stores in the UK (including 56 in London and the South East with the remainder in key metropolitan areas such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Bristol) and 24 wholly owned stores in the Paris region.
·	Safestore completed the acquisition of Space Maker on 29 July 2016, which has added an additional 12 stores to Safestore's store portfolio, increasing the number of wholly owned stores to 131. As the acquisition of Space Maker completed at the end of the quarter, the trading statistics reported in this announcement are for the existing Safestore business only
·	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 densest 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 (excluding Space Maker) provides storage to around 49,000 personal and business customers.
·	Safestore (excluding Space Maker) has a maximum lettable area ("MLA") of 4.925 million sq ft (excluding the expansion pipeline stores) of which 3.686 million sq ft is currently occupied.
·	Safestore employs around 525 people in the UK and France.

 

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