Gazit-Globe (GZT) Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

Gazit-Globe (NYSE: GZT)
Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Nov. 20, 2018 10:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Gazit Globe third-quarter 2018 results conference call. [Operator instructions] I advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Tuesday, November 20, 2018. The presentation that will be used in today's call and the financial statements can be found on Gazit Globe's website at www.gazitglobe.com.

Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements today may be forward looking in nature. Although we believe that such statements are based upon forward -- upon reasonable assumptions, you should assume that these statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied from these forward-looking statements. Additional information about the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ may be found in our latest financial statements and our filings with the Israel Securities Authority, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and on SEDAR operated by the Canadian Securities Administrators.

Statements made during the call are made as of the date of this call. Facts and circumstances may subsequently change, which may limit the relevance and accuracy of certain information discussed. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking or other statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr.

Chaim Katzman, founder and CEO of Gazit Globe. Please go ahead.

Chaim Katzman -- Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the third-quarter 2018 conference call. I would begin, as always, with a brief review of our business and strategic developments, and then Adi will emphasize the main results of the quarter, and then, of course, we will open up for questions. If I had to summarize the quarter in one sentence, I would say the following.

Our properties, on all fronts, generated more rental income while occupancy rate in our properties, which were already very high, continued to rise along with our tenant sales. This is, in a nutshell, the essence of our business and the real test of our success and progress over the course of this last quarter. And now let me elaborate in more detail. Our same-property NOI grew by 2.3% over the comparable period last year.

The growth came primarily from our private -- private wholly owned subsidiaries in Brazil and Israel, which grew by 9.9% and 2.3%, respectively. Our same-store tenant sales increased this quarter by 12% in Brazil and 2.5% in Israel. Meanwhile, the occupancy rate in our portfolio on average increased by 1.1% compared with last year and amounted to 96.5%. It is also worth noting that our occupancy rate was above 96% in every one of the group companies, with Israel leading with an occupancy rate of 97.5%.

New acquisitions of investment properties in our private portfolio totaled ILS 422 million during the quarter and through the date of publication of our results. Beyond these acquisitions, we continue to make progress in our development, expansion and renovation projects and completed the addition of the total area of approximately 59,000 square meters, almost 600,000 square feet, during the quarter through the publication date, of which Gazit share is approximately 36,000 square meters or close to 400,000 square feet. In Israel, in September and October, we acquired several interesting properties, which we see as strategic acquisitions and which establish a foothold in the heart of Tel Aviv city center. We invested approximately ILS 102 million on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv.

The Dizengoff corridor is one of the main public transport routes in Tel Aviv and a hub for four planned light rail stations, and the street is constantly bustling with pedestrian and is in the heart of one of the most dense areas in Tel Aviv. On Slide 8 and 9 -- I'm sorry, on Slide 7 and -- I'm sorry, on Slide 6 and 7, you would see those two assets as they are being presented on our presentation. We also purchased 30 dunams which is about 7.5 acres of land in Savyon, Savyon is probably one of the richest suburbs of Tel Aviv, for ILS 117 million, which now houses a mixed-use commercial property with a rental area of approximately 3,200 square meters, which is about 40,000 square feet of retail and office space, and which has additional building rights approved as of right for retail and office use and which is currently in the process of permitting for another 3,700 square meters. The remainder of the land will serve as the land bank for the company for additional future mixed-use expansion projects.

To summarize my review of Gazit Israel. Our occupancy rate for our portfolio is 97.5%, an increase of 0.7% compared with September 30, 2017. Same-property NOI from asset during the period increased by 2.3% and same property tenant sales were up 3% compared to the corresponding period last year. With that, let me move to Europe.

During the fourth quarter, Atrium completed 26,000 square meters, about 300,000 square feet, of expansion projects for existing assets. The most significant of which was the expansion of Atrium Promenada with a capacity of 13,200 square meters. And as a product of our development, Atrium Promenada has become the most dominant mall on the east bank of the city of Warsaw and one of the three top shopping centers in city. Another one of our notable expansion that was completed in October was Atrium Targowek, where we completed an addition of 8,600 square meters and increased both the numbers and size of the property's anchor tenants, adding another 27 tenants.

And in addition, we expanded the food court and established a newly created children's creation -- recreation, sorry, area. In addition, at Atrium, as we see on Slide 9, the company reported in October that we acquired the Wars Sawa Junior property in Warsaw, a truly unique dominant property in the center of the city with a GLA of 26,000 square meters. It's about 300,000 square feet. We paid in excess of EUR 300 million for this asset.

This property has access -- has in excess of 60 million annual pedestrians walking by that shopping center every year. We have about 24 bus lines serving the area, two metro stations and six light rail lines. And for example, I believe that every Israeli tourist in Warsaw visit the H&M, Zara and Mango stores in this property. This is a property, which I believe with a proper proactive management will produce substantial value.

In Citycon, the Mölndal Galleria shopping center development was completed and had its grand opening. The property is located in Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, with around one million people living in the metropolitan area. The property has a rental area of about 24,000 square meters and was the combination of an investment totaling about EUR 120 million. On the other hand, we continue to improve the quality of our portfolio in Europe and sold more than EUR 110 million worth of properties in secondary regions in Hungary and Romania, actually completing our exit from these two countries.

We had those sales at an average price, which was 9% above the property's book values. And we also sold a small asset in Norway. Also, another word about Citycon. We have a new CEO and COO.

The CEO is coming is from the United States and has 30 years' worth of experience in the commercial shopping center business. The CEO is a determined young Finnish lady, who joined Citycon 8 years ago as an analyst. I believe that this team will energize the company and bring new spirit to the company's culture and believe that the blend of Nordic and American culture and management practices will be a winning combination. Let me now move to Brazil.

In Mais Shopping Center, Stage 1 of the 8,750 square meters second floor expansion has been completed, and the government services office will open at the end of the month. And we expect dramatic increase in the number of daily visitors to the property, which in turn will lead to an increase in rental income. But as it is today, the asset's occupancy rate is already at a very high level of 97.5%. In our other mall, Shopping Internacional, which we acquired earlier this year, we have, since completing the acquisition, leased already 22 stores, opened 39 kiosks, signed new advertising contracts and have held 10 events in the property.

This activity demonstrates our proactive management and ability to buy and dramatically upgrade an asset and create value through a wide range of operating activity, not totally from expansion and redevelopment. In October, at the height of the election campaign in Brazil between the first and second round, we conducted a tour of our company in Sao Paulo with a group of Israeli capital market analysts. Attendance was strong, and the feedback we've received was very positive. We already have helped the market better understand what we have achieved so far in Brazil and the quality of our assets that we own.

No less important, we hope the trip displayed of the quality of the management team that we have built in Brazil and showcase the depth of our management team through the continuous improvement in assets that we have acquired. And not to mention, we illustrated a tremendous still unearth potential embedded in our properties in particular and in Sao Paulo in general. The occupancy rate of our properties in Brazil stand at 96.6%, an increase of 2.5% compared to September 30, 2017. The same-property NOI during the period increased by 9.9% compared to the comparable period last year, and the company recorded an increase in same-property tenant sales over the quarter of 12%.

Let's talk about the U.S. Gazit Horizons continues to examine acquisitions in New York, Boston, Miami and maybe other parts of the country, in properties that where we see potential for improvement and the ability to generate excess returns. I want to point out that we continue to be very selective when it comes to acquisitions of new properties and are holding our ground when negotiating these transactions. Yes, we are aware of the backdrop of a high interest rate environment, which has an undeniable effect on the values of real estate assets.

And the trajectory with regards to rental rates in the market, which in our opinion has already reached the peak in many markets and to the somewhat weakness more broadly in the real estate market in the U.S., which are products in our view for many -- of many consecutive years of strong rent growth and from somewhat increase in interest rates. It may take more time, but we will not be tempted to do deals just for the sake of doing deals. We are hyper focused on generating value. And only when we identify those opportunities, we will act.

As for the properties that we already own, our business plan for them are coming to fruition. And hopefully by the end of the year, we'll have more updates. One word on Canada. As a matter of fact, fewer than -- more than one word.

First Capital continues to report good operating results. The occupancy rate increased by 1.2% to 96.5%. Same-property NOI grew by 2.5% compared to the corresponding quarter of last year, and FFO increased by 3.8% compared with the corresponding quarter. During the quarter, there was an 8.7% increase in rent spreads and renewals, and the average annual rent increased by 3.4% compared to the corresponding period last year.

No question, First Capital is the leader in the Canadian real estate market, and we expect it to perform even stronger than its current performance. And finally, it is impossible to summarize the quarter without referring to the very extensive financial activities that we carried out. I'll give a brief overview in a few words and leave it to Adi to expand on the subject. Since the beginning of the year, the company has repaid over ILS 2 billion in short-term debt at an average interest rate of 5.5% and substituted some of it for long-term debt at a lower interest rate of 2.79%, everything CPI adjusted, which resulted in savings of approximately ILS 40 million per year in interest expense, while extending the duration of our debt from 4.1 years to 4.6 years.

And in addition, we're listing another ILS 1.5 billion from our private asset portfolio. Despite a temporary increase in leverage that is partly due to the weakening of the Brazilian real exchange rate on the day of the report, which by the way, since then risen by 9.9%, and in part because of the losses due to early repayment, the company is in much stronger financial condition today than it was at the beginning of the year, and it's really ready to take step -- the right steps to implement its strategy. If you take a look at Slide 11, and this is where I'm going to finish. This slide will illustrate what Gazit Globe is all about.

Today, 70% of the value of our asset portfolio, excluding FCR, is in growing and crowded metropolitan area: Tel Aviv, Stockholm, Warsaw, Prague, Sao Paulo, New York and so on. Our extensive experience in managing commercial properties, combined with the local market knowledge of our company's regional teams, we continue to lead to significant asset value growth across our territories in the coming quarters and years. And from here, I will give the floor to Adi. Adi?

Adi Jemini -- Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President

Thank you, Chaim. Good morning, everybody, in North America, and thank you all again for joining us. As Chaim noted, we had a very busy quarter with quite a significant activity in the financing, which I'll explain in further details later on. But I'd like to begin with our results and, in particular, with our private arms, which are becoming a major part of our portfolio but also becoming a much larger contributor to our operating results.

With that, I'll begin on Slide 13. As we progress with our strategic plan to increase the share of our private portfolio, we will start to report and focus more on proportionate NOI as we believe it's better reflecting our operating results. As you can see from the slide, for the nine-months period, the NOI proportionate increased by almost 4%. I think it's very important and you will see that carry through the rest of the call that the majority of that push or the increase is driven by the private arm.

For example, if you peel back this number, we saw an increase in proportionate NOI of about 15% that came from private subs versus the public subs that contribute 1%. Of course, as we still continue the transformation and giving the public subsidiaries still 60% of our balance sheet, the blended increase was about 4%. To the right-hand side, you can see that the moderate increase in the quarter about 0.5%. I'd just like to touch on that and explain that the moderate increase for the quarter was mainly as a result of the European disposition of its noncore asset as part of the recycling capital strategy.

Although that we're projecting that both in Central Europe and specifically in Atrium and Citycon these numbers will increase, as the developments and other income-generating properties will come in line. I'd like to touch about the same-store NOI. In terms of the same-store NOI, we see growth of about 2.3%. As well as then a proportionate NOI, you can see the most of that increase comes from Brazil and Israel.

The same-store in Israel increased 2.3%, which was mainly from the shopping center in Israel, G City, G Kfar Saba, G Tel Baruch, and G Horev in Haifa. In terms of Brazil, a lot of these efforts are coming from the stabilization of Morumbi that came out of the developing about a year ago and also due to Top Center and Shopping Light. Moving to the second slide. A little bit more drill down on the private sub.

As you can see, in Gazit Brazil, we saw an increase of about 56% on the total NOI versus the quarter of about 33%. The increase in Brazil was mainly due to the acquisition of Internacional but also due to the growth in the same-store NOI. As I mentioned before, the increase in Israel is about 2.6% and -- or 5.3% for the period, and we expect this growth to continue in the following quarters with the completion of the redevelopment in G City and the opening of the third floor as part of the G Horev expansion. As Chaim mentioned, the growth in the same-store NOI, the increase of the occupancy level and the growth in the same-property operating result is really the fundamentals that drive the engine growth for this business.

I'd like to move to the occupancy. In terms of the occupancy on Slide 15, the occupancy rate increased by 1.2% to 96.5% compared to the period -- the prior year period. And the occupancy remained very high at 96% in all of our territories. We continue to see the growth in the same-property sales in Brazil and Israel of approximately 9.7% and 3.5%, respectively.

And we believe that these are very impressive performance numbers, especially driven from our private subs. Moving to Slide 16. In terms of FFO, as we mentioned in the last quarter, due to the disposal of Regency share, which fully realized in July, we began providing FFO excluding Regency to better reflect the performance of our portfolio as of today. I'd like to pause here for a moment and explain the way we calculate that.

We're basically taking out our proportionate share of the FFO that came from Regency, but we're also neutralizing the effect of the proceeds from the sale and the benefit of reducing these financing costs. All-in-all, what we see is an organic growth of about 18.7% for the quarter and about 13% organic growth for the quarter -- for the six months -- for the nine-months period. I think in the bottom line is what we see is the growth in FFO that's coming from our current portfolio, in particular, from our private subsidiaries, while at the same time we disposed a significant investment of in excess of ILS 4 billion. Moving on to the FFO bridge.

We added the bridge in FFO to further illustrate the movement for the period. As you can see, this is the theme that repeating in this quarter. We can see the increase of ILS 0.15 per share in our FFO private subs. We see all the financing activities, which I will elaborate later on, that contribute about ILS 0.10 per share.

Our cost reduction in G&A still continue and will continue as we -- toward the end of the fourth quarter in 2019 that contribute about ILS 16 million, the movement on the FX, and of course, decrease due to the Regency sale. In terms of the FFO for the public subs, as I mentioned before, we believe that the contribution from our public subsidiaries FFO is expected to grow taking into account the recent acquisition of Wars Sawa Junior in Warsaw and the completion of the products that will come online in the fourth quarter in Warsaw, such as Reduta and Targowek, and the Gothenburg in Northern Europe. Our guidance -- our economic guidance for the year. We narrowed the range from ILS 3.58 to ILS 3.62, with a midpoint -- implying a midpoint of ILS 3.6.

This accelerated disposal of Regency shares earlier than expected lower the FFO per share where we expect the growth compared with 2017. I'd like to also note that we have about ILS 1.6 billion of proportionate investments that are currently in development with a potential future growth in NOI that -- as of the balance sheet date are about 60% complete. Moving to Slide 18. In terms of our equity and our LTV.

I'd like to take a moment here to explain what happened and there were three main events with respect to the equity decrease of ILS 900 million compared to the beginning of the year. One, we had about ILS 480 million revaluation due to decrease in Regency shares that we carry from Q1, which obviously we materialized already in July. Two, about ILS 153 million of repayment for the results of the advance repayments that occurred in Q3, of which most of the benefit we're going to see going forward. And three, we had the currency devaluation, as Chaim mentioned, of the BRL.

The BRL as of the end of the period was BRL 0.90 to the shekel, that was right before the election, the first round of election in Brazil. And as of today, it has increased by about 10%, which really implied another ILS 250 million back to our equity. This movement is very [Inaudible] as to what happened in the LTV, which will get back to the same level at the end of Q4 as a result of the strengthening of the real. Moving to Slide 19.

In Slide 19, you can see the bridge highlighting the impact of the foreign currency exchange as well as the loss from the buyback of the debenture. Page 21. In terms of liquidity and financial strength. We've been very busy in the financing front.

From the beginning of the period, we refinanced over ILS 2 billion with a weighted average interest rate of 5.5%., while at the same time, we recycled the raise about ILS 1.8 billion at an average coupon rate of 2.78%. We also -- our company and its wholly owned subsidiary also released an unencumbered asset in the aggregate of -- in excess of ILS 1.5 billion. All in all, that implies a ILS 40 million saving in the interest expense going forward as well as when we're looking forward, we have about ILS 3.6 billion of outstanding debentures that due to mature by 2022 with average coupon rate of about 5%. That will also generate in the close to -- or accumulate ILS 80 million per share over the next four year or on additional ILS 20 million saving in financing expense going forward.

In addition, due to those release of unencumbered assets, our ratio of unencumbered assets to unsecured debt has increased and now standing at 1.4. Moving to Slide 22. And continuing to our financing activity, in summary, we increased the maturity of our bonds from 4.1 years to five years while at the same time, we've reduced our average interest rate from 4.8% to 4.1%. We have a very well staggered debt maturity, as I said.

And looking forward, we're expecting a significant decrease in the financing expense due to the carry cost right now of our average coupon rate through 2022. Assuming that the company will refinance all its debt based on the current yields of our current Series 13 bond, we are expecting about ILS 20 million of additional savings in finance expense for the next four years. With that, I'd like to take you guys to the Q&A session. 

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] The first question is from Tavy Rosner of Barclays. Please go ahead.

Tavy Rosner -- Barclays -- Analyst

Hi. Thanks for the presentation and thanks for taking my questions. Maybe a first very quick one for Adi. You talked about the guidance.

Could you run me through what would be the growth rate, if we were to exclude for Regency?

Adi Jemini -- Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President

Well, I think you saw that in the organic growth, we had about 13% organic growth for the nine-months period. The guidance right now still taking into account the two months of Regency for Q1 and Q2 because the disposal was in Q3 of the quarter for the most part, what you see between Brazil double-digit same-store NOI growth and some of the completions of Gazit Israel and the development in Europe, like I said, reduced our entire rate. And of course, some addition of the purchase of Wars Sawa Junior is that we're going to land probably midpoint of ILS 3.60. Like I said, if you carve that out, then what we saw for the nine-months period is about 13% of growth.

Tavy Rosner -- Barclays -- Analyst

OK, yes, that's helpful. And then, I guess, generally speaking, looking at Citycon, we had kind of a muted year so far. But you talked about new management coming in, bringing in new dynamics. I guess, how do you guys see the potential, first of all, at the micro level with the new team there? And then more generally speaking, when you bake in into the dynamics of the region?

Chaim Katzman -- Founder and Chief Executive Officer

OK. This is Chaim. Thank you for the question. I think that Europe -- if you take a broader look at the peer group of the likes of Citycon and Atrium, and I'm lapping it for a second here, all these EUR 2 billion to EUR 5 billion companies, EUR 2 billion equity market cap to EUR 4 billion, EUR 5 billion whatever, there are all trading at a very deep discount to NAV.

And as we pointed out, when we sold the assets recently in Romania and in Hungary and other best assets, we have achieved IFRS there. So there is a disconnect between the private market and the capital markets as it reflected in a huge discount to NAV on this European peer group. And by the way, this is weighing on the Gazit's stock price because as we say, we missed about ILS 10 just the spread between our European subsidiaries trade and their IFRS NAV. As it relates to Citycon, Citycon is, I would say, 85% through its transition from a widely spread company in the Nordic region with more than 100 assets to a company with today, I guess, 50-something assets, of which about 10 assets make more than 50% of its portfolio, and it is focused almost exclusively on the major metropolitan markets in the Nordics be it Helsinki, be it Stockholm, Oslo, we just completed a development in Gothenburg and so forth.

I think that in its last earnings call, Citycon presented the divergence of its portfolio between core, which is almost 90% of it, and 10% that are still considered noncore, and it will divest of it in the coming few years. And you can clearly see that the core portfolio is moving in the right direction while, of course, the noncore is more challenging, but it's the minority of the assets, it's the leftover. And I believe that as always, new management, when they come in, they come in with more enthusiasm. And maybe there would be also a little bit of a cultural change bringing a little bit more of U.S.

culture into Europe. It's not easy but I think it's worthwhile. And we believe that Citycon has the right assets to be successful. If you look at Iso Omena, our largest asset, and it makes 15% of our portfolio, we've seen a huge increase in footfall, we've seen huge increase in same-store NOI in that asset, and I guess, we see it throughout the portfolio, when you look at the core assets in Citycon.

So at least three are very bullish on it. Again, the disconnect between the private and capital markets is beyond me. But I guess, this is not the first time we're seeing it, and probably not the last.

Tavy Rosner -- Barclays -- Analyst

All right. Thank you. I appreciate that color.

Operator

[Operator instructions] The next question is from Sam Damiani of TD Securities. Please go ahead.

Sam Damiani -- TD Securities -- Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon. Hi. I wonder if you could just expand on your comment during the opening remarks about, I think, sort of peak rents -- peak sort of cycle.

What specific markets are you seeing sort of closer to peak? And do you mean by investment markets or market rents?

Chaim Katzman -- Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I was referring mainly to the U.S., and I don't see it in Europe. I mean, look, Poland is enjoying 4% GDP growth annually, and it's forecasted to grow same in the next year. Similarly, you see in the Czech Republic, which is today 80-something percent of the Atrium portfolio. The Nordics are doing well.

And clearly, I know, but I don't see a peak in rents in these markets. Clearly, I mean, it's easier to call it, to call a peak in hindsight, and I think that's what we are seeing in the U.S., where if I had to put a point in time, I would say, that the U.S. peak is somewhere around 2015, '16. And since then, I guess, we've seen -- depends on which market deceleration in the U.S.

markets and combined with interest rate increases that that sort of paints the picture that we are talking about. That doesn't mean this is the end of the world or the end of the U.S. real estate market. What it means is that you have to be much more picky.

When we look for deals, you have to make sure that you can still earn rents you think that are achievable. And you have to look at growth. And as I said, I mean, spread investment is debt. You need to look at ways to grow the productivity of the asset, either through redevelopment, expansions, retenanting, all of the above, and not just leaving office spread that we believe does not exist, and we -- the interest rate environment in this country going to get even more challenging.

Sam Damiani -- TD Securities -- Analyst

OK. And there's been growth in direct investments in the U.S., Israel and Brazil. Going forward, I mean, when you look at the pipeline, does it look like growth is going to be skewed more toward Israel and Brazil versus the U.S.?

Chaim Katzman -- Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Not necessarily. We are clearly based in Israel. In Brazil, the management team is very busy earthing -- unearthing, I guess, the value that sits in the assets that we own already, mainly in the Internacional that we acquired in April this year. Just there, we have about 200,000 square meters of building rights.

No, we are doing -- we're not starting development of 200,000 square feet -- meters, I'm sorry, right there -- right today. But clearly just go to demonstrate the potential we have in our own assets and there's more. In Israel, we are clearly buyers at the right price and the right assets. The two -- a few assets that we have acquired in Israel are unique, trophy assets, really irreplaceable locations in the heart of Tel Aviv, I mean one of the best suburbs, probably the highest socioeconomical level in Israel.

And I believe that if we are presented with the right opportunities along with expansion opportunities that resides in our portfolio, we have about 75,000 square meters worth of office and retail development rights in two of our major assets in the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv that we are working on, and we are making progress on it. So I think that's where you're going to see growth. And in the U.S., selectively, absolutely, yes, in assets where we see long-term value and long-term ability to create more value given what we know in the industry.

Sam Damiani -- TD Securities -- Analyst

Thank you. And just -- maybe just one more is you commented on the rising interest rates. We saw the foreign exchange really impact the equity per share in the third quarter. It has recovered since.

But given that sort of volatile environment that you're experiencing, do you see impacting your goals for leverage over the next little while?

Chaim Katzman -- Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Our goals for leverage are the same. We're still working on delevering the company and bringing it down to below 50% mark. So I don't think that change that long-term. Look, currency rise and fall.

The Canadian dollar, when I got into Canada, was $1.38, and it went to $1.62, then it went to $1.21. And now, I guess, it's back to $1.30. The real went up to BRL 4.20. Now it's BRL 3.75.

It was as low as BRL 3 this year on or about. We are long-term investors. Currency fluctuations tend to take place. And we try to ignore the noise that it makes because we really are long-term investors.

And we believe in the economies. We believe in Sao Paulo economy. We believe in the Canadian economy. We believe in the economies of Central European countries, like Poland and the Czech Republic and the Nordics.

So we keep investing there, and we move along with the currencies.

Sam Damiani -- TD Securities -- Analyst

Great. Thank you very much.

Chaim Katzman -- Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Sam.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Chaim Katzman, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Chaim Katzman -- Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, everybody, for joining us. And we look forward to seeing you in our next call, which is going to summarize our year-end results. Thank you very much.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 0 minutes

Call Participants:

Chaim Katzman -- Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Adi Jemini -- Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President

Tavy Rosner -- Barclays -- Analyst

Sam Damiani -- TD Securities -- Analyst

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