Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, inc (SKT) Q2 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

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Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, inc (SKT -0.30%)
Q2 2021 Earnings Call
Aug 4, 2021, 8:30 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning. This is Cyndi Holt, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations and I would like to welcome you to the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers' Second Quarter 2021 Conference Call. Yesterday evening, we issued our earnings release, as well as our supplemental information package and investor presentation. This information is available on our Investor Relations website investors.tangeroutlets.com.

Please note that during this conference call, some of management's comments will be forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results could differ materially from those projected. We direct you to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties.

During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G including funds from operations or FFO, core FFO, same-center net operating income and adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and in our supplemental information. This call is being recorded for rebroadcast for a period of time in the future. As such, it is important to note that management's comments include time-sensitive information that may only be accurate as of today's date, August 4, 2021.

[Operator Instructions] On the call today will be Steven Tanger, Executive Chair; Stephen Yalof, Chief Executive Officer; and Jim Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

I will now turn the call over to Steven Tanger. Please go ahead, Steve.

Steven B. Tanger -- Executive Chair of the Board

Good morning. And thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2021 earnings call. These results demonstrate the successful execution of our strategic initiatives and progress in continuing to evolve Tanger to drive improved profitability and shareholder value. We have seen traffic and sales return to pre-pandemic levels as our open-air centers offer an excellent value proposition for both retailers and the shoppers. I would also like to welcome, Sandeep Mathrani to Tanger's Board of Directors. Sandeep is currently the CEO at WeWork and previously was CEO of Brookfield Properties retail group and of GGP. We are privileged to benefit from his experience and wisdom and look forward to his ongoing counsel and guidance.

I will now turn the call over to Steve Yalof to provide details on our second quarter performance and to discuss our strategic priorities.

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Steve. Our second quarter results demonstrate continued progress in the leasing, operating and marketing of our open-air retail centers. Tenant sales and domestic traffic are now outpacing pre-pandemic levels. We've achieved a 130 basis point sequential increase in occupancy and a meaningful rebound in same-center NOI. We are curating a compelling mix of brands and uses, creating a sense of place for experiential outings, connecting with shoppers in more personalized ways and monetizing the non-store elements of our centers.

Same-center NOI in the second quarter was up 88% compared to the second quarter of 2020 and represents 93% of the same period in 2019. For the second quarter, traffic to our domestic centers was above the same period of 2019. This sustained rebound in traffic levels clearly reflects the attraction of our open-air shopping centers, their dominant market location and the value proposition that we offer to both our retailer partners and shoppers.

And in sales, have followed a similar trajectory. Average tenant sales productivity grew to $424 per square foot for the trailing 12 months of 7.3% from $395 per square foot with the comparable 2019 period. On a same-center basis, average tenant sales increased 5.5%. Categories that are performing particularly well include athleisure, youth-oriented brands, jewelry, accessories, beauty and home. Consolidated portfolio occupancy at quarter end was 93%, a 130 basis point increase from the end of the first quarter. We have recaptured 80,000 square feet of space due to bankruptcies and retailer restructurings through the end of the second quarter and shortly after we captured an additional 55,000 square feet, which was expected and represents negotiated early terminations for our legacy outlet brands where we collected lease termination fees.

When we were unable to achieve desired rents, our strategic approach to leasing included shortening term to enable us to reprice or repopulate our real estate sooner and preserving variable rent upside by reducing breakpoints and increasing variable rent pay rates. Some deals that were completed during the height of COVID uncertainty ultimately produced total rents that exceeded the prior contractual fixed rents. In these cases, our rent spreads don't fully capture variable rent contributions as spreads measure the change in base rent and common area charges only.

Leasing activity continues to accelerate with over 300 new leases and renewals totaling 1.6 million square feet of leasing that commenced during the last 12 months. As of the ended the quarter, renewals executed or in process represented 54% of the space scheduled to expire during the year. This pace reflects our strategy to hold on some of our renewal leasing activity, while the market continues to rebound and rental rates improve. This has proven sound as our sales and traffic, continue to build.

We continue to gain ground on our lease spreads, which represents sequential improvement from those reported as of the end of the first quarter. Permanent leasing activity is continuing to build and we continue to pursue top-up leases as a near-term strategy. These transactions contribute to occupancy, higher cash flow, help maintain the variety and vibrancy of our centers and provide us an opportunity to increase the value of our real estate as market conditions continue to improve.

The core tenancy of our portfolio remains apparel and footwear. However, we are continuing to realize the tremendous appeal our centers offer to new categories and uses. The addition of new food concepts such as sit-down restaurants, iconic cookie and cupcake brands, local micro breweries and upscale gourmet grocers have added to our place making, experiential activation and entertaining uses which have helped achieve our goal of driving shopper visits, frequency, dwell time and ultimately bigger baskets. Welcoming these new uses to Tanger's provided the opportunity for our retailer partners to introduce their brands and concepts to a whole new shopper base.

Additionally, as part of our ESG strategy, this year we launched our small business initiative, aimed at supporting up and coming retailers in our local communities. Through this program, we discovered compelling new retailers and brands, which have enhanced our tenant mix and provide us access to new shoppers. We are focused on growing our non-store revenue streams, which are delivering promising results. These initiatives include creating onsite paid sponsorship and media opportunities where brands can promote their business on center, but outside the four walls of their store. This includes marketing opportunities on bright walls, digital directories and common area activation.

In addition to providing more on-center branding, these programs and activations create fun ways to engage our shoppers during their visits. This revenue is captured in the other revenues line, which year-to-date is up 88% from last year and 26% over 2019. As we continue to monetize our real estate and create additional revenue streams, we've stood up a peripheral land team to take advantage of our existing portfolio about parcels and ancillary land. We presently have peripheral land inventory at over two-thirds of our centers and we'll opportunistically acquire additional parcels and leasing demand for these property types increase.

As an example, we have recently acquired an adjacent parcel to our Glendale, Arizona shopping center to expand our footprint at that center and provide more F&B and entertainment uses, as well as additional PayPort [Phonetic] event parking. We continue to enhance and expand our digital initiatives as we execute our strategy to meet our customer where they are. To further develop seamless customer experiences that connect our digital and physical space, we are expanding our online pre-shop capabilities where customers can search and feed products that are available in store in our centers. Through our virtual shopper program, customers can shop remotely and either pick up in-store or have merchandise shipped directly to them.

We also continue to grow our Tanger flash pop-up sales and live [Phonetic] sales through our website, app and social channels, which we hosted participating retailers as we innovate discovered ways to reach customers. Through all of our digital channels, we are providing more personalized and relevant content and this quarter we have introduced our Tanger Fashion Director who shops our brands and retailers, curates looks and post them on our social media channels. This initiative is aimed at our loyal Tanger insiders and Tanger Club members who shop our centers with greater frequency and is designed to reach new and emerging shoppers to the brand. By providing more enriched in visual content for the center, our goal is to drive higher frequency of shopper visits and more engagement with our virtual shops. These digital touchpoints complement our on-center experience and help to attract new customers, particularly in younger demographics.

In summary, we continue to execute our strategic plan and focus on our core business. We are delivering new leasing and actively pursuing new uses, new brands and new categories with a goal of increasing center occupancy. We continue to grow and build our new revenue streams such as paid media, sponsorship and peripheral land and we are innovating new ways to reach our customer to drive center visits. We are seeing our traffic, leasing and business development results improving rapidly and we are positioned to use this momentum to increase the value of our real estate, drive cash flow and deliver long-term growth.

I would now like to turn the call over to Jim Williams to take you through our financial results, balance sheet and outlook for the remainder of 2021

James F. Williams -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Thank you, Steve. We delivered strong second quarter results showing continued positive momentum. Second quarter core FFO available to common shareholders was $0.43 per share compared to $0.10 per share in the second quarter of 2020. Core FFO for the second quarter of 2021 includes $0.02 per share dilution from the shares issued to date and excludes a charge of $14 million or $0.13 per share for the early extinguishment of debt since we redeemed $150 million of our 2023 bonds.

Same-center NOI for the consolidated portfolio increased 87.6% for the quarter as the prior year reflects reductions in rental revenues due to the pandemic along with higher variable rents driven by better than expected tenant sales performance this year. As we discussed last quarter, we have maintained high rent collections. We have collected approximately 98% of contractual fixed rents build in the first half of 2021. We have also continued to collect rents build for prior periods including amounts related to 2020 that we allowed our tenants to defer to 2021. Through July 30, 2021, we had collected 98% of the 2020 deferred rents due to be repaid in the first half of 2021.

During the second quarter, we opportunistically raised capital using our ATM program to further reduce debt and strengthening our balance sheet. We issued 3.1 million common shares that generated $58 million in net proceeds at a weighted average price of $18.85 per share. Year-to-date, we sold 10 million shares and raised $187 million of equity at an average price of $18.97 per share.

As previously announced, on April 30, we completed the partial early redemption of $150 million aggregate principal amount of our 3.87% senior notes due December 2023 for $163 million in cash. This reduction in debt improves our leverage ratio and enhances our balance sheet flexibility. Subsequent to the redemption, $100 million remains outstanding. We also paid down our unsecured term loan by an additional $25 million in June, bringing the outstanding balance to $300 million.

Additionally, in July, we amended and extended our unsecured lines of credit, pushing the maturity date to July 2026 including extension options and providing borrowing capacity of $520 million within an accordion feature to increase capacity to $1.2 billion. The facility includes a sustainability metrics, tying potential interest savings to LEED and ENERGY STAR Certifications. This further demonstrates our commitment and accountability regarding environmental initiatives. We have no significant debt maturities until December 2023.

We have always prioritized maintaining a strong financial position. We will continue our disciplined and prudent approach to capital allocation. Our Board will continue to evaluate dividend distributions alongside earnings growth and our priority uses of capital include investing in our portfolio to grow NOI, reducing leverage to pre-COVID levels over time, extending debt maturities and evaluating selective growth opportunities.

Our guidance assumes current macro conditions continue through the remainder of the year and that there are no further government mandated retail shutdowns. For the full year 2021, we expect core FFO to be in the range of $1.52 and $1.59 per share, up from our prior expectations of $1.47 to $1.57. This guidance reflects continued sequential improvement in our business, offset by the additional dilution of approximately $0.02 per share related to the common shares sold in the second quarter, which is an addition to the $0.4 of dilution from the first quarter issuances included in our prior guidance.

Our guidance also reflects year-over-year comparisons, which get more difficult in the back half of 2021 due to higher occupancy and lower operating expenses last year, as well as lease termination fees and reserve reversals that we recognized in the second half of 2020. Our guidance includes the 135,000 square feet of space we have recaptured-to-date through the end of July, along with potential for an additional 65,000 square feet related to bankruptcies and brandwide restructuring for the remainder of the year.

For additional details on our key assumptions, please see our release issued last night. I'd now like to open it up for questions. Operator, can we take our first question.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Katy McConnell with Citi. Please go ahead.

Katy McConnell -- Citigroup -- Analyst

Hey, thanks, good morning, everyone. So the percentage went up significantly this quarter and relative to history. How should we think about an annualized run rate going forward and can you talk about higher structuring percentage ran into your new leasing deals today?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning. Katy, and thanks for the question. With regard to percentage rent, well, all we can say is percentage rent definitely is a reflection on our sales performance and as our sales performance continues to improve, I'm sure we'll see a material impact to our percentage rent on a going forward basis. With regard to deal structure, if you look back a year ago and consider the height of uncertainty around COVID, we structured deals, particularly renewal deals that leaned fairly heavily on variable rents, These were shorter-term deals, but those variable rent deals included lower break points, higher pay rates and where we exchanged with our retailer partners some downside protection. We structured deals that gave us more upside if the market inflected in-sales returned. And as our sales numbers would indicate, the sales across our portfolio came back far stronger and I guess we all had anticipated a year ago and we find ourselves in that enviable position to have a pretty big gain as far as variable rents are concerned.

Katy McConnell -- Citigroup -- Analyst

Got it. Okay. Thanks. And then you lowered your capex guidance fairly significantly this quarter. So, can you provide some more background on what drove that change and how capex could trend next year?

James F. Williams -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Hi, Katy, this is Jim. The reduction in capex only sort of reflects our strategy and how we're approaching the leasing environment right now. Certainly, we're, as Steve said, we're very pleased to see the rebound in our traffic and sales and we're trying to be very strategic on how we negotiate and enter these leases. So, some of the leasing activity has been to pushed to 2022 and that's reflective of the reduction in our capex spend.

Katy McConnell -- Citigroup -- Analyst

So would you expect next year's levels being mark-to-mark to your original guidance for this year?

James F. Williams -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Yes, yes, Katy. I think this is purely kind of a timing thing and again from a strategic thing, we're trying to negotiate these leases at the right time. I think next year, you'll see it probably normalize to something similar to what we got into originally this year.

Katy McConnell -- Citigroup -- Analyst

Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Todd Thomas with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Ravi Vaidya -- KeyBanc -- Analyst

Hey, good morning. This is Ravi Vaidya on the line for Todd Thomas. I just wanted to ask here, how much occupancy is temporary or short-term in nature? And can you talk about success in converting these short-term leases into permanent ones?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Ravi. So, and we've talked about in past quarters, but we're up to about 9.5% in short-term right now and again let's just go back and talk about the fact that short-term leasing or pent leasing or pop-up leasing as we like to call it, is really a strategy for us, again going back to a year ago where times were most uncertain and our folks weren't traveling and our retailer partners weren't traveling.

We empowered our general managers and really -- essentially deputized 36 new members of our leasing team to go out and help us fill space in shopping centers that was -- vacancy that was created by brandwide restructuring and other bankruptcies. And they did a pretty fantastic job, number of things occurred. As a result, we were able to first of all turn lights on a number of vacant rooms, get them to cash flow and really with a strategy of increasing the value of our real estate and driving our cash flow and delivering long-term growth, this went a long way. We brought new tenants in the shopping center that brought different customers and some of those uses turned out to be great draw uses for our properties and ones that we're in discussions with right now to turn into longer-term deals.

So all in all, I find that the shopper in general, probably doesn't know the difference between a short-term lease and a full-term lease, but they certainly know the difference between a closed store and an open-store and with the strategy of keeping lights on stores open, we've created an opportunity for ourselves to increase our near-term occupancy, but also test some new concepts in our shopping centers, which improved our results.

Ravi Vaidya -- KeyBanc -- Analyst

Perfect. Just one more here for me. Are retailers reporting any changes to sales or traffic or any operating conditions related to the delta variant and the rise in cases, just wondering if you're seeing or hearing anything from them since down the ground?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

We have not heard any of that yet.

Ravi Vaidya -- KeyBanc -- Analyst

Perfect. Thanks so much.

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks. Ravi.

Operator

Your next question comes from Samir Khanal with Evercore. Please go ahead.

Samir Khanal -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Good morning, everyone. Hi, Steve. So you talked about how sales is up and traffic is up, maybe give us a breakdown maybe centers, areas, regions where you're maybe seeing a better return in traffic and sales and others? I know you've talked about the initiatives you've kind of planned in some of the centers. Just trying to see if there is any kind of differences you're seeing from center to center or regions to regions here?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, Sameer, I would say that the centers that -- our core shopping centers are located in geographies that are drive time -- drive to resort and in the top 50 MSAs. That's really the sweet spot of our portfolio and most seem to be the markets that have shown the greatest amount of improvements. On the flip side of that, we've got a couple of shopping centers that are dependent on other things to drive traffic, whether it's international tourism or is casino gambling or it's the hotel business or entertainment uses and as you could probably imagine, as -- although those are coming back, they're not coming back at the same pace as the other centers are.

Samir Khanal -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Got it. And I guess my -- this is second question here, I mean your occupancy was up quite a lot in the second quarter, but -- you still have pressure on rents right and especially on the new lease -- on the new rent side. So, I'm just trying to understand how do you think about sort of spreads, how do you think that metric will trend, let's say over the next 12 months or do you guys think about balancing occupancy and rents over the next few quarters here?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

We spent a lot of time thinking about rent and rent spreads and obviously prioritizing leasing hours at our centers and if you take a look at some of the legacy vacancy caused by some of those brands that have gone out in recent years, stores that have been -- stores that closed at the -- at high rent pay mark that we're now replacing with different uses to the portfolio. So, in an effort to be a little bit less dependent on the apparel and the footwear, we're pivoting to new uses. We talked about some of those uses in the opening remarks, do deals like Dick's Sporting Goods, Purple mattresses, Nantucket Meat & Fish.

These are brands that are iconic, great draws to our shopping center, new uses in both the direct-to-consumer space, going with grocery uses in some of our shopping centers, which in fact we're seeing great results from a traffic drop point of view, but also with the frequency of customer, historically folks would come to an outlet center maybe once on their trip to a particular resort community, but with the grocery store, in this particular center, we're seeing far more frequency of visit by that same customer. So these uses are working, they're enhancing and they're replacing old legacy space, but -- and might be doing so at a lower base rent, but we're being strategic in the variable rent component of these deals and in many instances the sum of those two parts is higher than the old base rents that we were collecting, although those numbers aren't reflected in our rent space.

Samir Khanal -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

That's it from me. Thanks so much, Steve.

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Sameer.

Operator

The next question comes from Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Caitlin Burrows -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Hi, good morning. I just, first have a quick follow-up on the recent leases that were more reliant on the percent rents. Over the life of those leases, does that kind of sales threshold change or is it consistent over the life of that lease?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Look, Caitlin I'm sure you know all leases are written differently, but rents that have a base rent component and a percentage rent component to it, as the base rent grows, whether it's a CPI or a fixed annual increase so does that natural break point commensurately grow with the base -- the growth of the base rent.

Caitlin Burrows -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Okay, got it. And then I was wondering on the recapture estimate of 200,000 square feet for the year. I know that you guys gave that estimate back with 4Q earnings. So, I was just wondering if you could give some commentary on how that's playing out versus initial expectations in terms of the timing, exact stores that are impacted or anything like that?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

We mentioned that we've got another 55,000 square feet back earlier this quarter from one of the legacy brands was expected, we knew was coming back, but that was really the bulk of our known space coming back. Beginning of the quarter, we shared 200,000 square feet of guidance, but in that remainder is definitely some buffer.

Caitlin Burrows -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Got it, OK. And then maybe just a last one. I'm wondering if you could give any updated commentary if there is some on the Nashville development. I guess, given the strength in retail that we've seen this year, just wondering if there has been progress there or not quite yet?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, we announced, when we get to 60% lease, we'll put a shovel in the ground. We anticipate we'll probably get there at the beginning of next year, but we think it's a great market and there's definitely some interest from our retailer partners and we'll certainly keep you updated as the progress moves forward on that development.

Caitlin Burrows -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Okay, great, thanks.

Operator

Our next question comes from Craig Schmidt with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Craig Schmidt -- Bank of America, Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Thank you. My question surrounds the chart -- outlet center ranking. I'm wondering if the -- within the fifth and sixth year, I know that you periodically call the portfolio, but looking at the occupancy still hasn't really worked its way up and just the difference between square footage percent to total and portfolio NOI percent to total. I'm just wondering if these are assets that may be, you might want to consider disposing of?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Craig, thanks for the question. First of all the center is still cash flow, but we're not currently marketing any of our centers.

Craig Schmidt -- Bank of America, Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Okay. So, all the centers in that list are -- you're saying having the cash flow still?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

I'm sorry, you -- I think what you said is all those centers are cash flowing.

Craig Schmidt -- Bank of America, Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

I'm just confirming. I'm sorry. I was just confirming that all centers in that list, they're positive cash flow?

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Craig Schmidt -- Bank of America, Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Okay, thanks a lot.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Mike Mueller with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Michael Mueller -- J. P. Morgan -- Analyst

Yeah, hi. Looking at what you've done year-to-date for FFO in the full year guidance, it implies an average quarterly FFO of about $0.36 to get to the midpoint of the range. Can you walk through what the major moving parts are from the $0.43 Q2 print down to that $0.36? It looks like there may have been a couple of cents onetime property tax benefit, but just if you could bridge that gap that would be helpful.

James F. Williams -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Sure, Mike. Good morning, this is Jim. So you did identify one of the major things there, the refund of property taxes is around $0.02 a share. There's also another penny a share per quarter that we expect from evolution of the ATM shares we issued in the second quarter. That's on top of the $0.04 dilution that we have built into the guidance last time. I think the remaining things really that's driving that is -- you've got the effect of the 55,000 square feet that came back in July, that Steve just mentioned and that potential 65,000 additional feet that may come back before the end of the year and then the final component as we do have a higher operating expenses in the second half as we go through the advanced like back-to-school and the holiday seasons. Those are your main components.

Michael Mueller -- J. P. Morgan -- Analyst

Got it, OK. That was it. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Steve Tanger for any closing remarks.

Steven B. Tanger -- Executive Chair of the Board

Good morning. I want to thank each of our colleagues on the Tanger team for their tireless efforts to produce these excellent results. Have a wonderful summer and I hope to see you soon. Goodbye.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Duration: 34 minutes

Call participants:

Steven B. Tanger -- Executive Chair of the Board

Stephen J. Yalof -- Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

James F. Williams -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Katy McConnell -- Citigroup -- Analyst

Ravi Vaidya -- KeyBanc -- Analyst

Samir Khanal -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst

Caitlin Burrows -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst

Craig Schmidt -- Bank of America, Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Michael Mueller -- J. P. Morgan -- Analyst

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