W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jason Fox: Yeah. I mean, Europe, as I mentioned earlier, it’s been slower to adjust. I think that we’re finally starting to bridge that gap. Bid-ask yields have come in. So the pipeline, I would say, right now is weighted about 50-50 between the U.S. and Europe and that’s in contrast to year-to-date deal volume of probably closer to 90-10 North America and Europe. So we expect to see some contributions from Europe going forward. I think what’s helpful over there is, we’ve seen our cost of borrowing euros also come down. You look back over the summer and there’s a point in time in which there probably was not a lot of difference between our borrowing costs and U.S. dollars versus euros. We’re starting to trend back to maybe what’s been more the historical norm, which is cost of euro debt is inside of the U.S. and it’s maybe 50 basis points to 100 basis points.

Maybe even a little bit more if we were to do some cross-currency swaps as opposed to direct euro issuances. So I think that’s helping, especially because cap rates probably maybe are in line or similar, maybe slightly below, if anything, to the U.S. Maybe there’s an opportunity to generate some better spreads in Europe going forward, similar to what we’ve done in the past.

Harsh Hemnani: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question is a follow-up from Eric Wolfe with Citi. Please proceed.

Eric Wolfe: Hey. I appreciate you taking the follow-up. I thought I heard you say that 1Q 2024 is the guidance or not guidance, but the actual number would be the highest next year, because I would think it would be the lowest or maybe 2Q would be the lowest given U-Haul option. But I guess either way, I’m trying to understand what the cadence of AFFO should be through the year. I would think that second half AFFO should ramp, but is that not the right way to think about it?

Toni Sanzone: No. That is the right way to think about it. I think I want to caution that we typically don’t get into quarterly run rates, especially this early in advance of 2024, but we do expect the U-Haul and Office Sale Program to fall off at the end of the first quarter. And then the ramp from there, I think what I said in my remarks, was that we do have our expectation is that the majority of the $1.5 billion assumption that we have in our 2024 guidance is weighted towards the back half of the year. So that ramp will come and whether that happens in the third quarter or more in the fourth quarter, time will tell for us and we’ll refine that as we get a better line of sight, but I think that is the right way to think about it.

Eric Wolfe: Okay. Right. Because when you talk about $2 billion of capital inflows, $350 million is coming from NLOP right now, $800 million from office sales by early 1Q, $470 from U-Haul, I think that’s March and then another $100 million from Marriott sales by year end, so that’s like $1.7 billion of capital coming to you by 1Q. So, I mean, are you just assuming that, like I guess, what level of cash are you assuming through the first half of the year is just earning 5%, because you have a lot of capital coming to you in a short period of time. So trying to understand what the assumption is around how you’re deploying that before you end up reinvesting into other acquisitions.

Toni Sanzone: Yeah. Look, I think, cash is fungible, as we all know and we don’t really want to get into too much of the specifics around the timing of deployment in 2024, given where we stand, but as you know, we have a bond maturity that’s due in April and another in July. So we can certainly put that capital to work there. Our bias is towards putting it into investments and potentially would like to be in the capital markets and need to do more in next year. But I think that really does all come down to the plan coming together and having better line of sight into timing in 2024. So we’ll give a lot more color on that, I think, as we get into February.

Eric Wolfe: Okay. Thanks for taking the follow-ups.

Operator: And at this time, I am not showing any further questions. I’ll now hand the call back to Mr. Sands.

Peter Sands: Great. Thanks, everybody, if you’re interested in W. P. Carey. If anyone has additional questions, please call Investor Relations directly on 212-492-1110 and that concludes today’s call. Everyone may now disconnect.

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