Spirit Realty Capital, Inc. (NYSE:SRC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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So I know it just seems like to us to be more prudent with that 1% just as we look at it. And obviously, I can tell you our company and teams goal is to do a lot less than 1% in terms of lost rent this year. So yes, we’ll continue to update that as we go through the year to investors. And right now, we just think at the beginning of this year, just given some of the economic uncertainties that we want to be a little bit more conservative as we think about it.

Mike Hughes: Haendel, as Jackson mentioned, I mean that is a normal assumption that we start the year with. And one thing that makes it kind of a headwind to our guidance this year is that last year was just so good. We had very, very little loss rent. So just from a year-over-year kind of lapping the year standpoint. That assumption does create a headwind in our guidance.

Jackson Hsieh: And one thing, if you look at our unit coverage and corporate coverage, you’ll notice that there wasn’t much change between the third and fourth quarter. And look, we’re seeing good performance in a lot of lines of businesses. The casual dining area, convenience stores, auto services, home furnishings, golf and particularly well, specialty retail. And obviously, there’s some areas that have a little bit more pressure, car dealerships right now are dealing with some additional inventory and floor plan financing is going up. So I think in balance, it’s basically the same, but we’re just obviously being a lot more vigilant, staying close to our tenants right now.

Operator: Your next question comes from Michael Goldsmith with UBS.

Michael Goldsmith: You went heavy with industrial acquisitions this quarter, which has been telegraphed, but 75% of your activity was it industrial, industrial penetration picked up 230 basis points. So I guess as you continue to kind of transform the portfolio, have your assumptions kind of been correct in that this is where you want to be. What are you seeing kind of within the industrial category now? And I guess, kind of like just generally, with this macro backdrop, what are you seeing on the retail side? And is that just considered maybe more risky just given the economic environment. Thanks.

Jackson Hsieh: Sure. I’ll start. Thanks. This is Jackson. Look, I think one of the reasons why we were so successful this past quarter in the industrial area is that just the challenges in the corporate financing markets, bank debt, high yield has made a sale-leaseback option, a more compelling financing option long-term for corporate tenants. And that’s particularly the case that we highlighted this past quarter in the industrial space. I mean for us, we have this three-pronged approach that we talk about all the time, industry duration, tenant credit, real estate. And we’re going to stick to that. We’ve been doing that since we all joined here at this company since we’ve reshaped it beginning in 2017. And I think it’s going to pay off.

Obviously, we talk a lot about Party City. We fundamentally have underwritten assets that way in the industrial sector as well as retail. And we think that the things that we’re buying today in the industrial sector are just super mission-critical, especially some of this industrial outdoor storage facilities that we’re buying. That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do retail. We still like it. We obviously, are very close to a handful of tenants and industries that we’re particularly still bullish around. But I think that the crack in the financing markets corporately have enabled us to be more competitive in this industrial space. That’s why you’re seeing it increase. The mortgage financing market has sort of made it more challenging for some of the private equity players, real estate private equity players that compete against us in this sector.

So I think we’re going to continue to make progress this year. And obviously, as the markets become to normalize and get more competitive again, we may have to shift away from industrial. But right now, we’re seeing really good opportunities to sort of fit the things the criteria that we underwrite to.

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