STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Bill Crooker: Yes, we’re seeing opportunities similar to the one that we’re executing in Tampa, where the initial price is low. So when you think about our pipeline, the pipeline is — call it, $100 million to $150 million of these potential development opportunities but that’s just our initial outflow of capital for that. So $8 million to $15 million land parcel and then you’ll build another $40 million to build a development. So there’s a lot of those opportunities we’re seeing just given the state of the capital markets. But we’re focused — I think I’ve mentioned this on a prior call as well. Our strategy is being in the Tier 1 CBRE markets. From a development standpoint, it’s really the top half of those markets, so probably the top 30 markets.

And that’s what we’re doing with in both our Port 290 and our Tamper development. So we expect there to be more opportunities. We’re seeing opportunities is just they take a little bit longer. And obviously, we wanted to get them for the most effective price for us.

Samir Khanal: And the funding for those opportunities would come from sort of free cash flow? Or how are you thinking about that?

Bill Crooker: Yes, a combination of free cash flow and revolver right now.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Kamal [ph] with Bank of America.

Unidentified Analyst: This is Andrew Berger [ph] on behalf of Kamal [ph]. Just wondering if we could get some more thoughts around dispositions. I know your dispositions this quarter were noncore. But just wondering about how you’re thinking about capital recycling, big picture, whether you sell core assets as we end ’23 and head into ’24.

Bill Crooker: Yes. I mean, on an aggregate basis, this year, we had about half of our dispositions were noncore, half for, call it opportunistic. On aggregate, I think the cap rate was high 6s, low 7s. So opportunistic dispositions were in the mid-5s. So very good execution given the capital market environment. When we adjust our acquisition guidance down, we also adjust our disposition guidance down. It’s — we really entered again a price discovery phase in the market. So when we’re not able to efficiently acquire, it’s tough to efficiently dispose of assets. So it’s something that is always in our capital plan each year [ph] and we’ll fine-tune this as we give our 2024 guidance in February. But right now, the markets require just given the volatility of interest rates.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it. That makes sense. And then as my follow-up, could you please talk a little bit about how you’re thinking about equity versus debt as a capital source and maybe the current cost spread between the two?

Matts Pinard: Absolutely. This is Matts. I think number one, the overarching thing is we need an appropriate use for any capital deployment. As Bill mentioned, in the acquisition market, look, we reverted to price discovery. We do not have anything on our closing schedule. Tons of capacity on the balance sheet were lowly levered through a significant amount of liquidity. We’re going to retain $90 million to $100 million of free cash flow this year. So as we deploy capital, that would be the first piece. And then as Bill mentioned, there would be some incremental revolver dollars to the extent we find appropriate opportunities. But I think really the take-home point here right now is we’re not seeing opportunities. Deals aren’t trading deals are being pulled and hit 5 that kind of reset the market.

So we’re not really evaluating many opportunities today but if we were to go out and issue long-term debt, it’s in the low 7s, if we’re going to issue term loans and be in the low 5s. And from an equity perspective, we’re not really looking at that right now.