Centuria Capital Group (ASX: CNI) announces FY22 results

• Operating NPAT of $114.5 million
• AUM grew to $20.6 billion, up 18%
• FY23 OEPS guidance in line with FY22, DPS up to 11.6cps

Centuria Capital Group (ASX: CNI) has announced its full year results, with the company delivering on its FY22 guidance: operating earnings of 14.5 cents per share, up 20.8% on the last financial year, and distributions of 11 cps, up 10%.

The company said mergers and acquisitions over previous reporting periods have borne fruit, with Centuria opening up to a more diversified portfolio including healthcare, agriculture, real estate credit, daily needs retail, and large format retail.

Centuria said the diversification helped the company achieve considerable scale, growing Assets Under Management (AUM) to $20.6 billion, up 18% from FY21. Centuria’s real estate funds management platform expanded to $19.8 billion with $13 billion across unlisted funds (up 18% pcp) and $6.8 billion across listed funds (up 24% pcp).

“The Group delivered record operating earnings and distributions throughout the period, following upgraded guidance during the year,” said Centuria joint CEO John McBain.

“Centuria demonstrated how its corporate acquisitions in previous periods have significantly increased the size of the platform with correspondingly high increases in both management fee revenues and transaction fee revenues as is evident in the FY22 result.”

“These acquisitions allowed the group to diversify across several additional asset classes as well as the West Australian and New Zealand geographies, delivering strong growth. This has occurred despite the backdrop of rising inflation, COVID lockdowns and geopolitical events.”

Source: Centuria.

CNI’s total operating revenue was up 38% from FY21, the company reported its revenue for FY22 was $292.6 million.

The financial year’s management fee revenue grew 77% to $146.8 million, with transaction fee revenue also increasing – up 162% to $39.3 million, and $33 million of performance fees were recognised.

The company managed 419 assets across FY22, leased to approximately 2,480 tenant customers. The company also leased over half a million square metres (503,638sqm) across 469 deals. This accounted for 12.6% of Centuria’s net lettable area (NLA).

During FY22, Centuria grew its real estate funds management platform by 20% to $19.8 billion. Unlisted AUM increased 18% to $13.0 billion and listed AUM grew 24% to $6.8 billion.

FY22 gross real estate activity of $3.1 billion was split between $2.6 billion of real estate acquisitions and $500 million of real estate lending. Valuation uplift across the platform during FY22 was $1.0 billion.

Centuria’s FY22 development pipeline totalled $2.1 billion and development completions of $100 million were successfully delivered throughout the period. Development management fees rose during FY22 to $11.4 million.

“The Group continued to expand its scale throughout FY22 with a record number of transactions, totalling $3.1 billion,” said Centuria joint CEO Jason Huljich.

“This growth is attributed to our diversification by geography, asset class, fund types and capital sources, which continue to generate new opportunities for sustainable and long-term expansion.

“Centuria’s development pipeline also significantly contributed to recurring revenues while providing high quality assets for our listed and unlisted funds in Australia and New Zealand,”

“Centuria’s rental income streams continue to be underpinned by high quality tenant covenants. Among our top tenant customers are household names such as Woolworths, Telstra, Coles, Wesfarmers, Arnott’s, and Visy, many of whom lease space across multiple asset classes including retail, industrial and office.”

Centuria’s FY23 OEPS guidance is in line with FY22 at 14.5 cps and FY23 DPS increases to 11.6 cps.

The company opened trading yesterday at $1.84, when the results were announced. Throughout Wednesday, Centuria traded at a high of $1.92. Today, CNI’s share price jumped early in the morning to a high of $1.99, and at the time of writing is trading at $1.98.