- Self-storage still hot property
- NSR profits up 154%
- ABP profits up 336%
The Property Tribune reported earlier this year that the self-storage market was one of the most lucrative around, with industrial and logistics more broadly reported as the “most sought-after” property class.
That seems to be reflected in the financial results of National Storage (ASX: NSR) and Abacus Property (ASX: ABP). While Abacus is not purely in the self-storage game, the company’s self-storage portfolio is valued at $2.0 billion; Abacus’ commercial portfolio for comparison sake is $2.1 billion.
National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR)
“We have achieved record Group rate, occupancy and REVPAM growth with rate increasing 8.3% to $260/m2, occupancy increasing 8.5% to 86.1% and REVPAM increasing 22.8% to $227/m2,” said NSR MD Andrew Catsoulis.
The company acquired 22 new centres totalling $320 million across FY21, representing 128,000 square metres of new net lettable area, and three development sites totalling $32 million.
| FY21 | Change | Direction | |
| A-IFRS profit after tax | $309.7 million | 154% | ↑ |
| Revenue from ordinary activities | $217.7 million | 22% | ↑ |
| NTA | $1.89 | 15% | ↑ |
| Underlying earnings | $86.5 million | 28% | ↑ |
| Underlying EPS | 8.5 cps | 2.40% | ↑ |
| Total return | 19.50% | ||
| Total assets | $3.25 billion | 23% | ↑ |
| Gearing | 22% |
NSR has also already settled or contracted 4 acquisitions worth $33 million dollars in FY22 so far.
Abacus Property Group (ASX: ABP)
ABP made significant investments in the self-storage arena during FY21, acquiring $271 million of stores and other self storage investments, including the remaining 75% of storage operator, Storage King.
Abacus also acquired the remaining 60% portion of The Oasis Centre in Broadbreach Queensland for $103.5 million, half of 241 Adelaide Street in Brisbane for $31.8 million, and more.
The company also acquired post balance date, one-third of Myer Melbourne for $135.2 million, and a Sydney self-storage portfolio for $160 million.
| FY21 | Change | Direction | |
| Statutory profit | $369.4 million | 336% | ↑ |
| FFO | $136.4 million | 9.50% | ↑ |
| FFO per security | 18.4 cents | 5.10% | ↓ |
| Full year DPS | 17.5 cents | 5.40% | ↓ |
| NTA | $3.43 | 3.30% | ↑ |
Breaking down the portfolios further, the self-storage portfolio data is as follows:
| FY21 | Change | Direction | |
| FFO | $69.6 million | 15.50% | ↑ |
| Portfolio valuation increase | $227.9 million or 19% | ↑ | |
| Portfolio valuation | $2 billion | ||
| RevPAM increase | 6.30% | ↑ | |
Abacus also reported a passing yield of 5.8% on established portfolio valued at $874 million.
The commercial portfolio data is as follows:
| FY21 | Change | Direction | |
| FFO | $86.9 million | 23.90% | ↑ |
| Portfolio valuation increase | $9.5 million or 0.5% | ↑ | |
| Cap rates | 5.50% | Compressed by 11 bps | |
| Portfolio valuation | $2.1 billion | ||
| Office net property income | $69.2 million | 16% | ↑ |
| Retail net property income | $11 million | 26% | ↑ |
“Abacus had an active year including deployment of $1 billion of capital, completion of a $402 million Entitlement Offer and internalisation of our Self Storage manager Storage King, to become a vertically integrated Self Storage investment platform,” said Abacus MD Steven Sewell.
The expected FY22 full-year distribution will reflect a payout ratio broadly in line with the target range of 85 – 95% of FFO.
