Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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John Caulfield: So Jeff, I’ll jump in there. So for the full year, our weighted average cap rate was 6.1, but to the points that Jeff is making, there is variability in there because we focus on the IRR, there can be a delta in the going-in cap rate based on the amount of growth that we have. So if you were to look at our third quarter acquisitions compared to our fourth quarter acquisitions, the fourth quarter was closer to our total year weighted average cap rate, but I would — the IRRs make up for the growth in that asset relative to the third quarter. And I think as we look to ’23, if you’re — if ’22 is at 6.1, I can see that we’re assuming some — we’ll have a slightly higher cap rate on that assumption. So let’s say, anywhere from 15 to 30 basis points, but it could be wider than that, again, dependent upon the amount of growth. And the key element for us is that 9% IRR and exceeding that.

Juan Sanabria: And then just a second follow-up question on retention versus pushing the spreads for the small shop tenants. I know the retention is very strong for anchors. But just curious on your willingness to maybe have a little short-term vacancy to drive rates at this point? It seems like you’re pretty darn full. So just curious on how strategically you’re thinking about that interplay between rate and retention.

Jeffrey Edison: It’s a great question. It’s one that there’s a lot more R2 than there is science because obviously, the numbers can tell you how much TI you’re putting in and what the increase in rent is compared to the lower TI for retention. And that certainly goes into our analysis, but a lot of ours is also making sure we have the right merchant in the center that matches that store because if they can continue to generate and increase their sales, they can, over time, pay us a lot more rent. And so finding the right retailer for us is a critical part of that sort of decision process as we look at filling out our small store space with the right merchandising mix for each market that we go into.

Devin Murphy: Jeff, the only thing I would add to that, Juan, is that I think our retention rate in the fourth quarter was indicative of our willingness to push rate and potentially be less focused on retention. You saw our retention rate in Q4 at 67%, which is lower than the full year average of 77.5% because the decision we made in that fourth quarter was we wanted to push rate and we wanted to optimize merchandise mix. So at the end of the day, we’re not overly weighting retention, what we’re waiting is our ability to push rates and get the right merchandise mix into the centers. And I think you see that with what our retention rate for in-line did in the fourth quarter.

Operator: We’ll go next now to Todd Thomas of KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Todd Thomas: Thanks. John, first question, I just wanted to go back to the balance sheet. So the swap expires in September and guidance assumes throughout the balance of this year, ’23, the cost on the $255 million increases by about 325 basis points for the balance of the year and perhaps in early ’24. Is that right? And it looks like the ’24 maturities are September and October, when would you expect to refinance those maturities.

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