Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Vikram Malhotra: Thanks for taking the question. Just I wanted to clarify, maybe I misheard, did you give us sort of an update on the FFO kind of run rate or the full year FFO expectation? And just given all the moving pieces we’ve just talked about, do you mind just sort of giving us any larger moving buckets we should think about, whether it’s big expirations or other pieces as we model into 2024?

Steven Roth: As you know, we don’t give guidance. And I think your question goes to guidance. So basically, that’s not a question that we’re going to be able to handle, sorry.

Vikram Malhotra: Okay. And then I guess just – you talked a lot about New York being back. And I just wanted to see if we can square that with you sort of – in prior cycles, you’ve always made money kind of at the bottom of the cycle, finding those interesting assets. And I’m just wondering given New York is back, debt markets are challenged, but where are we in sort of that time line or what milestones are you looking for in terms of finally putting capital to the work?

Steven Roth: The – my comment about New York is back was basically about the traffic, the tourism, the activity level in the buildings and in the streets. With respect to opportunities to buy assets, that’s totally influenced by the fact that interest rates have gone from, say, pick a number 4% to pick a number 8%. So if interest rates have doubled, then it’s pretty easy to predict that most assets, which have financing on them have probably halved in value. So the action will be in the debt as it almost always is, which we’re looking at very carefully.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question today comes from Nick Yulico with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Nick Yulico: Thanks. I was just hoping to get a feel for how capitalized interest burn off is going to work, the timing of that for PENN 1 and PENN 2 over the next two years?

Michael Franco: Nick, I’ll give you a general commentary. But I think if we want to deal with specifics probably better to put it offline. I think we’ve got the number will stay fairly constant this year. This year, I think it’s about a little over $40 million, probably goes down a little bit next year. And then I think it’s $25 million. The PENN 2 is done, that number will decline significantly in 2025.

Nick Yulico: Okay. Thanks. And then secondly, I just wanted to ask about the dividend and – it kind of sounds like your strategy right now or the Board’s strategy is to match the dividend to taxable income. And I guess I’m just wondering when you suspended the dividend earlier this year, it kind of felt like you have some potential asset sales in the work and maybe there could be a special dividend that was affecting the decision making. But I guess I’m just trying to understand like going forward, how we should think about this? Why only pay a dividend that is matching taxable income?

Steven Roth: The policy of the company in this environment is to retain as much cash as we can. We think that that’s the preservation of our balance sheet is the number one priority. So basically, what we’re after is to pay a reasonable but may I use the word low dividend to preserve cash.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question today comes from Ron Kamdem with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Ron Kamdem: Hey, just starting with the cash flow statement. I just saw $62 million of cash from operations this quarter, which sort of surprised us. Maybe can you comment, is there sort of any one-timers with working capital or – just trying to figure out why sort of that cash conversion maybe dipped this quarter a little bit?

Michael Franco: Ron, we’ll have to come back to you on that. I don’t have the statement in front of me offhand, but there’s nothing in particular that jumps out from that, but we’ll come back to you on that.