Prologis Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Earnings Results

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Prologis, Inc. (NYSE: PLD), the global leader in logistics real estate, today reported results for the fourth quarter and full year 2018.

Net earnings per diluted share was $0.94 for the quarter and $2.87 for the year compared with $0.55 and $3.06 for the same periods in 2017.

Core funds from operations (Core FFO)* per diluted share was $0.80 for the quarter (including $0.05 of net promote income) compared with $0.67 for the same quarter in 2017. For the full year 2018, Core FFO was $3.03 compared with $2.81 for the same period in 2017. Further, Core FFO for full-year periods 2018 and 2017 included net promote income of $0.14 and $0.16 per diluted share, respectively.

"We had a great fourth quarter, capping out our strongest year ever," said Hamid R. Moghadam, chairman and CEO, Prologis. "The occupancy and the utilization of our buildings are running at peak levels and we expect activity to remain strong, with our most dynamic customers building out new-and-improved logistics networks."

 

STRONG OPERATING RESULTS DRIVEN BY HIGH-QUALITY, WELL-LOCATED PORTFOLIO

 

ACTIVE CAPITAL DEPLOYMENT MARKED COMPLETION OF MULTI-YEAR DISPOSITION STRATEGY

 

WELL-POSITIONED WITH BEST-IN-CLASS BALANCE SHEET
During the fourth quarter, Prologis and its co-investment ventures completed $1.4 billion of refinancings with a weighted average rate of 2.3% and term of 7.7 years. The company ended the year with leverage of 25.0% on a market capitalization basis and debt-to-adjusted EBITDA* of 4.2x. As previously announced and subsequent to quarter end, the company recast and upsized its global line of credit, bringing its total liquidity to $4.0 billion.

 

COMPANY ESTABLISHES 2019 EARNINGS GUIDANCE RANGES
The company established a guidance range for net earnings per diluted share of $1.77 to $1.92 and a range for Core FFO* per diluted share of $3.12 to $3.20, which includes $0.10 of net promote income.

"At the midpoint of our range, we project Core FFO growth of approximately 7.5%, excluding promotes," said Thomas S. Olinger, chief financial officer, Prologis. "Cash Same Store NOI growth is projected to be 4.25% at the midpoint, reflecting our current operating strategy of favoring rent growth over occupancy."

Olinger added, "We are confident in our ability to outperform in any future environment given our embedded rent upside, development-ready land bank and significant liquidity."

The earnings guidance described above includes potential gains recognized from real estate transactions but excludes any foreign currency or derivative gains or losses as these items are difficult to predict. In reconciling from net earnings to Core FFO*, Prologis makes certain adjustments, including but not limited to real estate depreciation and amortization expense, gains (losses) recognized from real estate transactions and early extinguishment of debt, impairment charges, deferred taxes and unrealized gains or losses on foreign currency or derivative activity. The difference between the company's Core FFO* and net earnings guidance for 2019 relates predominantly to these items. Please refer to our fourth quarter Supplemental Information, which is available on our Investor Relations website at www.ir.prologis.com and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov for a definition of Core FFO* and other non-GAAP measures used by Prologis, along with reconciliations of these items to the closest GAAP measure for our results and guidance.

 

WEBCAST & CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATION
Prologis will host a live webcast and conference call to discuss quarterly results, current market conditions and future outlook. Here are the event details:

• Tuesday, January 22, 2019, at 12 p.m. U.S. Eastern time.
• Live webcast at http://ir.prologis.com by clicking Events & Presentations.
• Dial in: +1 (866) 393-4306 (toll-free from the United States and Canada) or +1 (734) 385-2616 (from all other countries) and enter Passcode 4659788.

A telephonic replay will be available January 22-29 at +1 (855) 859-2056 (from the United States and Canada) or +1 (404) 537-3406 (from all other countries) using conference code 4659788. The webcast replay will be posted when available in the Investor Relations "Events & Presentations" section.

 

ABOUT PROLOGIS
Prologis, Inc. is the global leader in logistics real estate with a focus on high-barrier, high-growth markets. As of December 31, 2018, the company owned or had investments in, on a wholly owned basis or through co-investment ventures, properties and development projects expected to total approximately 768 million square feet (71 million square meters) in 19 countries. Prologis leases modern distribution facilities to a diverse base of approximately 5,100 customers across two major categories: business-to-business and retail/online fulfillment.

 

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
The statements in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the industry and markets in which we operate as well as management's beliefs and assumptions. Such statements involve uncertainties that could significantly impact our financial results. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," and "estimates," including variations of such words and similar expressions, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature.  All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future — including statements relating to rent and occupancy growth, development activity, contribution and disposition activity, general conditions in the geographic areas where we operate, our debt, capital structure and financial position, our ability to form new co-investment ventures and the availability of capital in existing or new co-investment ventures — are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Although we believe the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained and, therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that may affect outcomes and results include, but are not limited to: (i) national, international, regional and local economic and political climates; (ii) changes in global financial markets, interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates; (iii) increased or unanticipated competition for our properties; (iv) risks associated with acquisitions, dispositions and development of properties; (v) maintenance of real estate investment trust status, tax structuring and changes in income tax laws and rates; (vi) availability of financing and capital, the levels of debt that we maintain and our credit ratings; (vii) risks related to our investments in our co-investment ventures, including our ability to establish new co-investment ventures; (viii) risks of doing business internationally, including currency risks; (ix) environmental uncertainties, including risks of natural disasters; and (x) those additional factors discussed in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by us under the heading "Risk Factors." We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements appearing in this document except as may be required by law.

 

 

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA. We use Adjusted EBITDA attributable to common stockholders/unitholders ("Adjusted EBITDA"), a non-GAAP financial measure, as a measure of our operating performance. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to Adjusted EBITDA is net earnings.

We calculate Adjusted EBITDA beginning with consolidated net earnings attributable to common stockholders and removing the effect of:  interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, impairment charges, gains or losses from the disposition of investments in real estate (excluding development properties and land), gains from the revaluation of equity investments upon acquisition of a controlling interest, gains or losses on early extinguishment of debt and derivative contracts (including cash charges), similar adjustments we make to our FFO measures (see definition below), and other items, such as, stock based compensation and unrealized gains or losses on foreign currency and derivatives. We also include a pro forma adjustment to reflect a full period of NOI on the operating properties we acquire or stabilize during the quarter and to remove NOI on properties we dispose of during the quarter, assuming all transactions occurred at the beginning of the quarter. The pro forma adjustment also includes economic ownership changes in our ventures to reflect the full quarter at the new ownership percentage.

We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides investors relevant and useful information because it permits investors to view our operating performance, analyze our ability to meet interest payment obligations and make quarterly preferred stock dividends on an unleveraged basis before the effects of income tax, depreciation and amortization expense, gains and losses on the disposition of non-development properties and other items (outlined above), that affect comparability. While all items are not infrequent or unusual in nature, these items may result from market fluctuations that  can have inconsistent effects on our results of operations. The economics underlying these items reflect market and financing conditions in the short-term but can obscure our performance and the value of our long-term investment decisions and strategies.

We calculate our Adjusted EBITDA, based on our proportionate ownership share of both our unconsolidated and consolidated ventures.  We reflect our share of our Adjusted EBITDA measures for unconsolidated ventures by applying our average ownership percentage for the period to the applicable reconciling items on an entity by entity basis.  We reflect our share for consolidated ventures in which we do not own 100% of the equity by adjusting our Adjusted EBITDA measures to remove the noncontrolling interests share of the applicable reconciling items based on our average ownership percentage for the applicable periods.

While we believe Adjusted EBITDA is an important measure, it should not be used alone because it excludes significant components of net earnings, such as our historical cash expenditures or future cash requirements for working capital, capital expenditures, distribution requirements, contractual commitments or interest and principal payments on our outstanding debt and is therefore limited as an analytical tool.

Our computation of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to EBITDA reported by other companies in both the real estate industry and other industries. We compensate for the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA by providing investors with financial statements prepared according to GAAP, along with this detailed discussion of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation to Adjusted EBITDA from consolidated net earnings attributable to common stockholders.

Business Line Reporting is a non-GAAP financial measure. Core FFO and development gains are generated by our three lines of business: (i) real estate operations; (ii) strategic capital; and (iii) development.  The real estate operations line of business represents total Prologis Core FFO, less the amount allocated to the Strategic Capital line of business.  The amount of Core FFO allocated to the Strategic Capital line of business represents the third party share of asset management, Net Promotes and transactional fees that we earn from our consolidated and unconsolidated co-investment ventures less costs directly associated to our strategic capital group.  Realized development gains include our share of gains on dispositions of development properties and land, net of taxes. To calculate the per share amount, the amount generated by each line of business is divided by the weighted average diluted common shares outstanding used in our Core FFO per share calculation. Management believes evaluating our results by line of business is a useful supplemental measure of our operating performance because it helps the investing public compare the operating performance of Prologis' respective businesses to other companies' comparable businesses. Prologis' computation of FFO by line of business may not be comparable to that reported by other real estate investment trusts as they may use different methodologies in computing such measures.

Estimated Value Creation represents the value that we expect to create through our development and leasing activities. We calculate Estimated Value Creation by estimating the Stabilized NOI that the property will generate and applying a stabilized capitalization rate applicable to that property. Estimated Value Creation is calculated as the amount by which the value exceeds our TEI and does not include any fees or promotes we may earn. Estimated Value Creation for our Value-Added Properties that are sold includes the realized economic gain.

Estimated Weighted Average Margin is calculated on development properties as Estimated Value Creation, less estimated closing costs and taxes, if any, on properties expected to be sold or contributed, divided by TEI.

Estimated Weighted Average Stabilized Yield is calculated on development properties as Stabilized NOI divided by TEI.

FFO, as modified by Prologis attributable to common stockholders/unitholders ("FFO, as modified by Prologis"); Core FFO attributable to common stockholders/unitholders ("Core FFO"); AFFO attributable to common stockholders/unitholders ("AFFO"); (collectively referred to as "FFO"). FFO is a non-GAAP financial measure that is commonly used in the real estate industry. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to FFO is net earnings.

The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("NAREIT") defines FFO as earnings computed under GAAP to exclude historical cost depreciation and gains and losses from the sales, along with impairment charges, of previously depreciated properties. We also exclude the gains on revaluation of equity investments upon acquisition of a controlling interest and the gain recognized from a partial sale of our investment, as these are similar to gains from the sales of previously depreciated properties. We exclude similar adjustments from our unconsolidated entities and the third parties' share of our consolidated co-investment ventures.

Our FFO Measures

Our FFO measures begin with NAREIT's definition and we make certain adjustments to reflect our business and the way that management plans and executes our business strategy.  While not infrequent or unusual, the additional items we adjust for in calculating FFO, as modified by Prologis, Core FFO and AFFO, as defined below, are subject to significant fluctuations from period to period. Although these items may have a material impact on our operations and are reflected in our financial statements, the removal of the effects of these items allows us to better understand the core operating performance of our properties over the long term.  These items have both positive and negative short-term effects on our results of operations in inconsistent and unpredictable directions that are not relevant to our long-term outlook.

We calculate our FFO measures, as defined below, based on our proportionate ownership share of both our unconsolidated and consolidated ventures.  We reflect our share of our FFO measures for unconsolidated ventures by applying our average ownership percentage for the period to the applicable reconciling items on an entity by entity basis.  We reflect our share for consolidated ventures in which we do not own 100% of the equity by adjusting our FFO measures to remove the noncontrolling interests share of the applicable reconciling items based on our average ownership percentage for the applicable periods.

These FFO measures are used by management as supplemental financial measures of operating performance and we believe that it is important that stockholders, potential investors and financial analysts understand the measures management uses. We do not use our FFO measures as, nor should they be considered to be, alternatives to net earnings computed under GAAP, as indicators of our operating performance, as alternatives to cash from operating activities computed under GAAP or as indicators of our ability to fund our cash needs.

We analyze our operating performance principally by the rental revenues of our real estate and the revenues from our strategic capital business, net of operating, administrative and financing expenses. This income stream is not directly impacted by fluctuations in the market value of our investments in real estate or debt securities. 

FFO, as modified by Prologis

To arrive at FFO, as modified by Prologis, we adjust the NAREIT defined FFO measure to exclude the impact of foreign currency related items and deferred tax, specifically:

We use FFO, as modified by Prologis, so that management, analysts and investors are able to evaluate our performance against other REITs that do not have similar operations or operations in jurisdictions outside the U.S.

Core FFO

In addition to FFO, as modified by Prologis, we also use Core FFO. To arrive at Core FFO, we adjust FFO, as modified by Prologis, to exclude the following recurring and nonrecurring items that we recognized directly in FFO, as modified by Prologis:

We use Core FFO, including by segment and region, to: (i) assess our operating performance as compared to other real estate companies; (ii) evaluate our performance and the performance of our properties in comparison with expected results and results of previous periods; (iii) evaluate the performance of our management; (iv) budget and forecast future results to assist in the allocation of resources; (v) provide guidance to the financial markets to understand our expected operating performance; and (vi) evaluate how a specific potential investment will impact our future results.

AFFO

To arrive at AFFO, we adjust Core FFO to include realized gains from the disposition of land and development properties and recurring capital expenditures and exclude the following items that we recognize directly in Core FFO:

We use AFFO to (i) assess our operating performance as compared to other real estate companies, (ii) evaluate our performance and the performance of our properties in comparison with expected results and results of previous periods, (iii) evaluate the performance of our management, (iv) budget and forecast future results to assist in the allocation of resources, and (v) evaluate how a specific potential investment will impact our future results.

Limitations on the use of our FFO measures

While we believe our modified FFO measures are important supplemental measures, neither NAREIT's nor our measures of FFO should be used alone because they exclude significant economic components of net earnings computed under GAAP and are, therefore, limited as an analytical tool. Accordingly, these are only a few of the many measures we use when analyzing our business.  Some of the limitations are:

• The current income tax expenses that are excluded from our modified FFO measures represent the taxes and transaction costs that are payable.
• Depreciation and amortization of real estate assets are economic costs that are excluded from FFO. FFO is limited, as it does not reflect the cash requirements that may be necessary for future replacements of the real estate assets. Furthermore, the amortization of capital expenditures and leasing costs necessary to maintain the operating performance of logistics facilities are not reflected in FFO.
• Gains or losses from non-development property dispositions and impairment charges related to expected dispositions represent changes in value of the properties. By excluding these gains and losses, FFO does not capture realized changes in the value of disposed properties arising from changes in market conditions.
• The deferred income tax benefits and expenses that are excluded from our modified FFO measures result from the creation of a deferred income tax asset or liability that may have to be settled at some future point. Our modified FFO measures do not currently reflect any income or expense that may result from such settlement.
• The foreign currency exchange gains and losses that are excluded from our modified FFO measures are generally recognized based on movements in foreign currency exchange rates through a specific point in time. The ultimate settlement of our foreign currency-denominated net assets is indefinite as to timing and amount. Our FFO measures are limited in that they do not reflect the current period changes in these net assets that result from periodic foreign currency exchange rate movements.
• The gains and losses on extinguishment of debt or preferred stock that we exclude from our Core FFO, may provide a benefit or cost to us as we may be settling our obligation at less or more than our future obligation.
• The natural disaster expenses that we exclude from Core FFO are costs that we have incurred.

We compensate for these limitations by using our FFO measures only in conjunction with net earnings computed under GAAP when making our decisions. This information should be read with our complete Consolidated Financial Statements prepared under GAAP. To assist investors in compensating for these limitations, we reconcile our modified FFO measures to our net earnings computed under GAAP.

 

Guidance. The following is a reconciliation of our annual guided Net Earnings per share to our guided Core FFO per share:

 

Prologis Share represents our proportionate economic ownership of each entity included in our total owned and managed portfolio whether consolidated or unconsolidated.

Rent Change (Cash) represents the percentage change in starting rental rates per the lease agreement, on new and renewed leases, commenced during the period compared with the previous ending rental rates in that same space. This measure excludes any short-term leases of less than one-year, holdover payments, free rent periods and introductory (teaser rates) defined as 50% or less of the stabilized rate.

Rent Change (Net Effective) represents the percentage change in net effective rental rates (average rate over the lease term), on new and renewed leases, commenced during the period compared with the previous net effective rental rates in that same space. This measure excludes any short-term leases of less than one year and holdover payments.

Same Store. Our same store metrics are non-GAAP financial measures, which are commonly used in the real estate industry and expected from the financial community, on both a net-effective and cash basis. We evaluate the performance of the operating properties we own and manage using a "same store" analysis because the population of properties in this analysis is consistent from period to period, which allows us to analyze our ongoing business operations.

We define our same store population for the three months ended December 31, 2018 as our owned and managed properties that were in the Operating Portfolio at January 1, 2017 and owned throughout the same three month period in both 2018 and 2017. The same store population excludes non-industrial real estate properties and properties held for sale to third parties, along with development properties that were not stabilized at the beginning of the period (January 1, 2017) and properties acquired or disposed of to third parties during the period. Beginning January 1, 2018, we modified our definition of same store to align on consistent methodologies with members of the industrial REIT group. This did not materially change our historical amounts reported. To derive an appropriate measure of period-to-period operating performance, we remove the effects of foreign currency exchange rate movements by using the reported period end exchange rate to translate from local currency into the U.S. dollar, for both periods. We believe the factors that affect rental revenues, rental recoveries, rental expenses and NOI in the same store portfolio are generally the same as for our consolidated portfolio.

As our same store measures are non-GAAP financial measures, they have certain limitations as analytical tools and may vary among real estate companies. As a result, we provide a reconciliation of rental revenues, rental recoveries and rental expenses from our Consolidated Financial Statements prepared in accordance with GAAP to same store property NOI with explanations of how these metrics are calculated. In addition, we further remove certain noncash items (straight-line rent adjustments and amortization of lease intangibles) included in the financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP to reflect a cash same store number. To clearly label these metrics, they are categorized as same store portfolio NOI – net effective and same store portfolio NOI – cash.

The following is a reconciliation of our consolidated rental revenues, rental recoveries, rental expenses and property NOI, as included in the Consolidated Statements of Income, to the respective amounts in our same store portfolio analysis:

Weighted Average Stabilized Capitalization ("Cap") Rate is calculated as Stabilized NOI divided by the Acquisition Price. 

 

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SOURCE Prologis, Inc.