Results for the six months ended 30 June 2022

Commenting on the results, David Sleath, Chief Executive, said:

“SEGRO has delivered both operationally and financially in the first half of 2022. Our prime portfolio of modern, sustainable warehouses focused on key urban markets and logistics corridors across the UK and Europe is in high demand from a diverse range of customers. This strong demand combined with low levels of supply in our key markets, particularly in the urban locations where two-thirds of our assets are located, has helped us to increase rents, capture reversion and indexation, and expand our development programme – resulting in inflation-beating earnings growth.

“Our focus on maintaining close relationships with our customers, our well-located land bank and our prudent capital structure, provide significant opportunities for further profitable growth arising from the ongoing structural changes in our customers’ markets.

“We are confident that by continuing to follow our well-proven strategy of disciplined capital allocation and operational excellence, with Responsible SEGRO at its core, we will be able to navigate the more challenging current macroeconomic environment and drive further sustainable compound growth in rental income, earnings and dividends over the coming years.”

Highlights^A:

• Adjusted pre-tax profit of £216 million up 29 per cent compared with the prior year (H1 2021: £168 million). Adjusted EPS is 16.9 pence, up 22 per cent (H1 2021: 13.8 pence) including 1.3 pence relating to recognition of performance fees from our SELP joint venture.
• Adjusted NAV per share is up 10 per cent to 1,249 pence (31 December 2021: 1,137 pence) driven by a 7.2 per cent increase in the valuation of the portfolio, reflecting asset management initiatives, a 5.9 per cent estimated rental value (ERV) growth and profitable development activity.
• Our customer focus and active management of the portfolio, supported by strong and diverse occupier demand, generated £55 million of new headline rent commitments during the period (H1 2021: £38 million), including £28 million of new pre-let agreements, and a 24 per cent average reletting spread on rent reviews and renewals.
• Further growth in the development pipeline with 1.3 million sq m of projects under construction or in advanced pre-let discussions equating to £118 million of potential rent (31 December 2021: £82 million), of which 70 per cent is associated with pre-lets, substantially de-risking the 2022-2023 pipeline.
• Delivering on our Responsible SEGRO commitments including progress with our renewable energy strategy; the formation of our first Community Investment Plan in Slough; and the enhancement of our early careers programme to help improve diversity within our business.
• £2.1 billion of new financing, including a €1.15 billion Green bond and €225 million US private placement helping to maintain our long-term debt structure and providing high visibility on funding costs with no significant debt maturities until 2026. 94 per cent of our debt is fixed or capped.
• Balance sheet positioned to support further, development-led growth with access to over £2 billion of available liquidity (including the US private placement debt signed in July) and a low level of gearing reflected in an LTV of 23 per cent at 30 June 2022 (31 December 2021: 23 per cent).
• Interim dividend increased by 9 per cent to 8.1 pence (2021: 7.4 pence), in line with our usual practice of setting the interim dividend at one-third of the previous full year dividend.

¹. A reconciliation between Adjusted profit before tax and IFRS profit before tax is shown in Note 2 to the condensed financial information.
². A reconciliation between Adjusted earnings per share and IFRS earnings per share is shown in Note 11 to the condensed financial information.
³. Total Accounting Return is calculated based on the opening and closing adjusted NAV per share adding back dividends paid during the period.
⁴. Percentage valuation movement during the period based on the difference between opening and closing valuations for all properties including buildings under construction and land, adjusting for capital expenditure, acquisitions and disposals.
⁵. A reconciliation between Adjusted net asset value per share and IFRS net asset value per share is shown in Note 11 to the condensed financial information.
⁶. Adjusted net asset value is in line with EPRA Net Tangible Assets (NTA) (see Table 4 in the Supplementary Notes for a NAV reconciliation).

^A Figures quoted on pages 1 to 15 of the press release refer to SEGRO’s share, except for land (hectares) and space (square metres) which are quoted at 100 per cent, unless otherwise stated. Please refer to the Presentation of Financial Information statement in the Financial Review for further details.

SEGRO has one of the best and most modern pan-European industrial portfolios with a heavy weighting towards major urban markets where the supply-demand dynamics are tightest and where long-term rental growth potential is therefore highest. Over the past decade, we have pro-actively repositioned our portfolio to be resilient and perform at all stages of the cycle, by recycling out of older secondary assets and focusing on prime locations and high quality, sustainable assets for which occupier and investor demand is likely to be greatest and supply is most limited.

Occupier demand for warehouse space is strong, broad and deep and continues to be driven by long-term structural tailwinds particularly in those urban markets where our space is used to provide a wide range of often essential goods and services to consumers and businesses. We are mindful that the coming months will be impacted by heightened macroeconomic risk but, against this backdrop, our portfolio offers considerable inflation protection: almost half of our rents are index-linked and the majority of the remaining leases are exposed to UK upwards-only rent reviews, where we have significant reversionary potential and continue to see strong demand led market rental growth.

Our sizeable, mostly pre-let, current development programme and well-located land bank provide us with both significant potential to grow our rent roll, and optionality due to the short construction periods of our assets. We will continue to be led by customer demand as we make decisions regarding the execution of future projects. The long-standing and strong relationship between our development teams and key construction partners is helping us to de-risk our pipeline by securing materials on a timely basis, whilst the tight occupier supply-demand situation has meant that we have been able to offset increased building costs with higher rents, which is in turn helping to drive further rental growth from our £20 billion portfolio. We will continue to take a disciplined approach to allocating capital to development and investment activity, ensuring that our portfolio should continue to outperform, and expect to invest at least £700 million on development capex in 2022.

Finally, in recent years we have significantly strengthened our balance sheet alongside our property portfolio. We benefit from low leverage and one of the longest debt maturities in the sector with no significant refinancing requirements in SEGRO before 2026. We have demonstrated again this year that we have access to diverse sources of debt finance. 94 per cent of our debt is either fixed rate or capped so we are well protected against interest rate rises and have plenty of capacity to continue to invest capital in the profitable opportunities available to us.

These factors combined mean that we are heading into the second half of the year with confidence in the outlook for our business. Whilst we remain watchful of the world around us and will respond accordingly to any changes in market conditions, we intend to continue to deliver the much-needed modern, sustainable warehouse space in the right locations to enable our customers to make their businesses fit for the future, and at the same time ensure that we continue to create value for all of our stakeholders.

View the full press release in PDF format.

Full details of our holdings can be found in the SEGRO Property Analysis Report.

Watch a video interview with David Sleath, Chief Executive.

WEBCAST / CONFERENCE CALL FOR INVESTORS AND ANALYSTS

A live webcast of the results presentation will be available from 08.30 (UK time) at:

https://www.investis-live.com/segro/62bab8c3299ad30e000907aa/smnbb

ABOUT SEGRO

SEGRO is a UK Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), listed on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, and is a leading owner, manager and developer of modern warehouses and industrial property. It owns or manages 9.7 million square metres of space (104 million square feet) valued at £23.8 billion serving customers from a wide range of industry sectors. Its properties are located in and around major cities and at key transportation hubs in the UK and in seven other European countries.

For over 100 years SEGRO has been creating the space that enables extraordinary things to happen. From modern big box warehouses, used primarily for regional, national and international distribution hubs, to urban warehousing located close to major population centres and business districts, it provides high-quality assets that allow its customers to thrive.

A commitment to be a force for societal and environmental good is integral to SEGRO’s purpose and strategy. Its Responsible SEGRO framework focuses on three long-term priorities where the company believes it can make the greatest impact: Championing Low-Carbon Growth, Investing in Local Communities and Environments and Nurturing Talent.

Forward-Looking Statements: This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to SEGRO’s expectations and plans, strategy, management objectives, future developments and performance, costs, revenues and other trend information. These statements are subject to assumptions, risk and uncertainty. Many of these assumptions, risks and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond SEGRO’s ability to control or estimate precisely and which could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Certain statements have been made with reference to forecast process changes, economic conditions and the current regulatory environment. Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of SEGRO are based upon the knowledge and information available to Directors on the date of this announcement. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that any particular expectation will be met and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Additionally, forward-looking statements regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. The information contained in this announcement is provided as at the date of this announcement and is subject to change without notice. Other than in accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations (including under the UK Listing Rules and the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority), SEGRO does not undertake to update forward-looking statements, including to reflect any new information or changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Past share performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance. Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit estimate or profit forecast. The information in this announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or an invitation to buy securities in SEGRO plc or an invitation or inducement to engage in or enter into any contract or commitment or other investment activities.
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