Veris Residential, Inc. (NYSE:VRE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Josh Dennerlein: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Tom Catherwood with BTIG. Please go ahead.

Thomas Catherwood: Thanks and good morning, everybody. Maybe starting with Amanda, you had mentioned using the remaining or at least some of the remaining proceeds for the asset sales that are still under contract as you go to refinance the 300 plus million dollars that are maturing. When you finish those roughly 71 million of sales, that’ll put you roughly at $90 million of cash. Do you have all of that earmarked for debt reductions or do you think you’ll have some remaining for other sources and uses?

Mahbod Nia: I’ll take that if that’s okay and then Amanda can chime in. So today, from a liquidity standpoint, we also have the line. So there’s around $90 million of liquidity, $71 million of assets under binding contract today. That said, there’s also cash flow coming off of the operation, surplus cash flow coming off of the operations that’s adding to that and potentially further non-strategic assets that could be sold between now and next year that could further add to that. So there are plenty of sources available in the pot and I think over these coming months, we’ll be working with the board to determine the highest and best use for that capital. Rates being where they are today, one would rightly assume that debt repayment would be a very accretive and appropriate use of any capital that’s freed up, but that’s something that we’ll work with the board to ultimately determine and it could be a combination of things or it could go towards that repayment.

Thomas Catherwood: Got it. And then, Mahbod you’d mentioned moving from in the response to Steve’s question, moving from this transformation period to this optimization period. When we think of the rebranding and severance costs, that kind of cycle that you’ve gone through during the transformation period, now that you’re in that optimization phase, do you think we’re closer to that clean G&A run rate or is there still some remaining or rebranding expense that you think is going to run through that line over the coming year?

Mahbod Nia: It’s going to take a little while to settle and not necessarily in relation to the rebranding, but more generally, just to give you an example, so repayment of Rockpoint, we’ve talked about how that will result in anticipated cost savings related to obligations we had with regard to that partnership that will cease to exist going to next year. Some of those things, it just takes time to work through and actually probably won’t really come through into the numbers until back end of next year or second half of next year. And then between now and then, we also have factors outside of our control, such as inflation, which seems to be moderating at this point, but it still has an impact. So it’s difficult to give you guidance on a run rate G&A, but what I would say is it has come down a lot.

We’ve now brought it down to the lowest level in a decade and actually in real terms, since the 90s. If you look at us, which is the only appropriate way to look at us, given scale is the most significant factor in looking at the various metrics when assessing G&A, if you look at us relative to the mid cap is the percentage of gross asset value, which is really the asset base that we have to manage, we’re right at the median there. And so I think gone a long way, potentially have some more to go, but also combating inflation and factors that are outside of our control, very difficult to give you a run rate at this stage. And the other thing is just the business is not, as we go through this optimization phase, there’ll be pushes and pulls there as well.