W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Joshua Dennerlein of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Joshua Dennerlein: Hello. Excuse me, Jason and John. It’s Joshua Dennerlein. My question is, what are your expectations for same store in 2023? And any additional commentary on what’s driving your guide would be appreciated. Thank you.

Jason Fox: Yes. Toni, do you want to talk about that?

Toni Sanzone: Yes, on the same-store side, I get some comments there. We are expecting to continue to see inflation push through just given the lag in our leases. So we do expect that to tick up to about 4% and remain right around that level for the full year, and that’s on the contractual same store side. I didn’t catch the second part of the question.

Joshua Dennerlein: Just any type of additional commentary on what’s driving the provided guidance.

Toni Sanzone: I’m sorry, driving the

Joshua Dennerlein: Driving guidance.

Toni Sanzone: In terms of the growth for the full year?

Brooks Gordon: Yes.

Toni Sanzone: Yes. I think I did just mention a little bit of the headwinds that we’re experiencing in the upcoming years, the interest expense being the largest factor, as I mentioned. And then there is really just an aggregation of a number of other smaller items that I highlighted being tax expense, G&A expense and some of the dividend that we would have received this in 2022 from Lineage and from Walt to an occur next year. So those things are aggregating in addition to some leakage that we’re seeing on vacancy and some downside on certain assets downtime.

Joshua Dennerlein: Awesome. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Spenser Allaway of Green Street. Please go ahead.

Spenser Allaway: Yes. Thank you. Just on the Marriott assets, I understand that you are going to provide more color as you go along. But just curious if you can just comment at a high level on how that €“ how the market looks currently for these assets?

Brooks Gordon: Sure. So, yes, as we noted, the 12 of those assets converted to operating in January, that’s a very seamless transition. Marriott continuing to operate those and they are operating well. Hard to gauge in terms of exact timing and execution. But we think interest is going to be pretty strong. And we were looking to sell nine of those assets were in our guidance, assuming that closes at year-end. But again, hard to specifically tie it down timing, we wouldn’t comment on pricing at this point. Three of the assets which we will retain are really excellent development opportunities. One is an industrial opportunity in New York. Another is really well-located potential lab opportunity in San Diego, and then the third is in Urban, California. And again, those will operate seamlessly in the meantime as we pursue those opportunities, but very good redevelopment sites there.

Spenser Allaway: Thanks. And then maybe just more broadly on the transaction market. Can you guys just provide some color on how total deal volume that you have sourced thus far in the year in both the U.S. and Europe compared to last year?

Jason Fox: I mean at this point in the year compared to this point last year? Is that the question, Spencer?

Spenser Allaway: Yes. Just trying to get a sense of how the overall like market looks, just maybe not on everything that you are seriously underwriting, but just in terms of like total deal volume just out there being sourced?