I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Nikki Panagopoulos, Fund Manager. Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Welcome to the annual results announcement for the Australian Unity Office Fund for financial year 2021. My name is Nikki Panagopoulos. I am the Fund Manager for AOF. I am joining you from Melbourne. I am also joined by Simon Beake, the Portfolio Manager for AOF, who is in Sydney. I was appointed as the AOF Fund Manager in July, having spent more than 30 years in the property industry in both listed and unlisted markets, including the last 17 years at Australian Unity. I am very excited about the opportunity to lead AOF into the next phase of its journey. I look forward to working with our unit holders and tenants to drive mutually beneficial outcomes. Earlier today, we published various documents on the ASX, including the annual financial report, Appendix 4E, AOF's property book, and the investor presentation, which we'll go through this morning. Following the presentation, we will have time for Q&A. Let's now turn to slide two. Today, Simon and I will take you through the portfolio highlights for financial year 2021, provide detail on the outcomes of the strategic assessment that we completed, update the key financial results, and provide a property update and financial year 2022 guidance and outlook. We will also highlight our AOF portfolio is well-positioned, offering affordable accommodation with excellent accessibility and amenities. Let's now turn to slide three. Before I start, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land our properties are located on and pay my respects to elders, past, present, and emerging. Slide five. It is pleasing to advise that AOF had an excellent year, with funds from operations at the top end of guidance at AUD 0.187 per unit and occupancy increasing by 2% to approximately 96%. The increase in occupancy was driven by strong leasing outcomes, with approximately 16,500 sq m completed during the year. This equates to 15% of the portfolio and was largely driven by small to medium enterprise tenants looking for affordable accommodation closer to home, with good amenities and easily accessible by car and public transport for staff convenience. The fund provided approximately AUD 500,000 of rent relief support to tenants impacted by COVID. This equates to about 1% of rental income. Pleasingly, collections remained robust during the year at 98% of FY 2021 billings, and over AUD 1 million of FY 2020 arrears were also collected. This highlights the resilience of AOF's tenants and the benefits of having a diversified and quality tenant base. Most importantly, the high collections demonstrate how we worked constructively with our tenants to ensure they could navigate through a very challenging period to continue their businesses. We are by no means through this COVID pandemic, we do believe that we have the right frameworks in place to continue to support our tenants while ensuring returns to investors. At AOF's half-year results, it was announced that the board had initiated a strategic assessment to challenge the existing strategy and examine all options to enhance value and generate returns for unit holders. The assessment, including obtaining feedback from unit holders, was completed during the year. Later in the presentation, I will provide details of the scenarios which were considered, the strategic priorities which were identified, and the conclusion reached. For now, I will talk to AOF's refined strategy. Let's turn to slide six. In July, we announced the conclusion of the strategic assessment, and I am pleased to provide the outcome, which presents a refined strategy that delivers on the existing AOF strategy. That is, it's focused on owning Australian office properties in metropolitan and CBD markets, but complemented by a targeted and diversified portfolio of Australian real estate assets. Maintaining an office focus while investing in other asset classes helps to deliver a diversified income profile, which can withstand economic shocks while maintaining sustainable distributions. Together with active management strategies, including refurbishments, asset recycling, and a balanced lease expiry profile, investor returns can be maximized. We believe that a well-constructed portfolio with assets focused on affordability, amenity, and accessibility will be well positioned to outperform. Let's now turn to slide seven. AOF's asset management has seen approximately 16,500 sq m of leasing during the year, which equates to 15% of the portfolio NLA. This leasing has driven 2% in occupancy to 95.7%, from 93.7% as of June 2020. This is an exceptional result considering it was delivered during periods of extended COVID-related lockdowns. There was a good level of leasing activity, particularly at 468 St Kilda Road and at 5 Eden Park Drive, with approximately 67% of the 16,500 sq m of leasing completed at these properties, resulting in the occupancy for five Eden Park increasing by 3% to 96%, and for 468 St Kilda Road, the weighted average lease expiry increased to 3.9 years from 2.3 years as at June 2020. I'm also pleased to announce that the last vacant suite at 5 Eden Park Drive has just been leased, delivering 100% occupancy. Seasonally, across the transactions, face rents were typically at or above independent valuations, with incentives in line with prior periods. Turning our attention to the major expiries at 10 Valentine Avenue and 30 Pirie Street. The tenants continue to assess their accommodation needs, but their requirements have been delayed, impacted by COVID lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria. We expect them to make decisions as their accommodation requirements become clearer and their expiries approach. At 10 Valentine Avenue in Parramatta, Property NSW is the major tenant, whose lease expires in June 2022. As previously communicated, they did not exercise their five-year option. We've been in regular dialogue with the Property NSW team, meeting with them as recently as last week to discuss their occupancy requirements. Property NSW is liaising with a number of New South Wales government departments to finalize their future occupancy requirements. Parramatta remains a core market for Property NSW due to the affordable nature of the market, while also providing excellent transport, accessibility and staff amenities. At 30 Pirie Street, Adelaide, Telstra has recently come to the market with a circa 4,500-7,000 sq m occupancy requirement. We have been in active dialogue with Telstra's team, working through their future requirements and service needs. It is important to note that Telstra does have a lease of a 21-level, but does not occupy all of its floors, having sublet five to a range of tenants. We have refurbishment strategies underway for 10 Valentine Avenue and 30 Pirie to reposition these assets with sustainable features, including enhancing amenities to maximize the wellness experience. We believe this will position the assets well to capture future leasing opportunities. Let's now turn to slide eight. Our asset management extends to recycling assets and enhancing portfolio construction. We successfully sold 241 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, an aging leasehold asset requiring significant capital expenditure, and will redeploy the funds to 96 York Street, Beenleigh, in the City of Logan in Brisbane. The Beenleigh asset is leased to the City of Logan and will be occupied by the Department of Water for a 10-year term, with two five-year options. Being newly constructed with sustainable Green Star and energy ratings, the property is well positioned to deliver on the sustainable income strategy. We're also considering divesting 32 Phillip Street, Parramatta, to maintain a balanced portfolio construction in the Parramatta market as we commence the refurbishment strategy on 10 Valentine Avenue and possibly 2 Valentine Avenue developments, providing a pre-commitment is achieved. Let's turn to slide 10. As discussed earlier, the purpose of the strategic assessment was to challenge the existing strategy and examine options to maximize returns and realize value for unit holders. We identified three broad categories to assess a range of scenarios. They were grow and enhance the portfolio, maintain the current portfolio, and divest the portfolio and return capital. We established a comprehensive framework to assess the scenarios, including engagement with many of AOF's investors, including institutional, high net worth, and retail investors, an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for AOF, consideration of the future of office, evaluation of AOF's portfolio construction, including a detailed assessment of AOF's properties, tenants, and future cash flows, and an analysis of AOF's position within the listed real estate investment trust universe. Turning to slide 11. The outcome of the strategic assessment refines the existing strategy, complementing AOF's continuing core focus on office with an expanded asset ownership mandate, allowing AOF to own commercial real estate that aligns with the key asset attributes of affordability, accessibility and amenity. Core to achieving this strategy is to focus on enhancing the current portfolio, enhancing through acquisitions and divestments, enhancing through asset repositioning and development, and enhancing through potential larger scale portfolio combinations. We've already started to deliver on our portfolio enhancement in a number of ways, including the divestment of 241 Adelaide Street in Brisbane, the acquisition of 96 York Street, Beenleigh, the potential divestment of 32 Phillip Street in Parramatta, the initiatives being considered at 30 Pirie Street, Adelaide, and Valentine Avenue, Parramatta, and the ongoing assessment of the potential merger with the Diversified Property Fund. Specifically on the investigation of the merger with DPF, we continue to believe this opportunity has financial and strategic merit. Over the last several weeks, management have been focused on finalizing year-end accounts and preparing the results presentation. We continue our assessment of the merger and expect to update the market over the coming weeks. Various other initiatives were considered as part of the strategic assessment, including maintaining the current portfolio in various structures and divesting the current portfolio. These options didn't achieve the strategic priorities. In particular, a full portfolio divestment presented significant uncertainty around what proceeds could actually be returned to unitholders and when. Further details regarding value uncertainty are included in the appendix. Finally, I would note that while the strategic assessment has been completed, our focus will remain on maximizing returns and realizing value for unitholders. I'll now hand over to Simon, who will provide an update on AOF's annual results. Thank you, Nikki. Turning to slide 13. As Nikki discussed, AOF had a strong FY 2021, with FFO of AUD 0.187 per unit at the top end of guidance. Distributions of AUD 0.15 per unit were in line with guidance. The profit for the year increased by AUD 10 million to AUD 23.3 million. The increase was due to a combination of low borrowing costs, low trust expenses, improved valuation outcomes, and a gain on the mark-to-market valuation of interest rate swaps. The NTA for the year was AUD 2.71 per unit. Turning to slide 14. All assets were independently revalued during the year, with an overall increase from June 30th, 2020 independent valuations of AUD 5.95 million. The portfolio capitalization rate firmed by 25 basis points to 5.84%. The two Macquarie Park assets experienced strong valuation growth, driven by strong leasing outcomes and cap rate compression. 2-10 Valentine Avenue, Parramatta, also increased in value, driven by an increase in the valuation of the development site. The valuation of 30 Pirie Street, Adelaide, reduced due to an increase in the capital expenditure refurbishment allowances. Turning to slide 15. The capital structure of AOF remains robust, gearing is 28.4%, with AUD 190.8 million of debt drawn against AUD 250 million of debt facilities. The drawn debt will increase post-assessment in 96 York Street, Beenleigh, in December of this year. The cost of debt has reduced to 2.9% as of today, and is expected to reduce further once an interest rate swap expires later in June 2020. There remains significant headroom to the debt covenants. I'll now hand back to Nikki, who will provide an update on AOF's portfolio positioning. Thank you, Simon. Let's turn to slide 17 and portfolio positioning. As discussed, the AOF portfolio is built around three key themes: affordability, amenity, and accessibility. AOF seeks to hold assets that are positioned in markets that offer great amenity, with retail or open space convenience, and are highly accessible with existing infrastructure, or will benefit from future infrastructure investments. AOF's underlying allocation of 67% by book value to metropolitan markets and 33% to the smaller Australian CBDs with affordable rent positions it well. Turning to slide 18. The markets where AOF assets are located, which are highlighted in orange on the table, have growth effective rents between 53%-68% discount to Sydney CBD. In a cost-conscious environment where employees are seeking to work closer to home, we believe these markets are well-positioned as they offer a distinct cost advantage, while typically having greater flexibility and amenity for staff. AOF's average capitalization rate of approximately 5.8% is at the top end of the yield range for these markets and provides an opportunity for valuation growth. Turning to slide 19. The environmental credentials of AOF's portfolio are a key focus. An important objective of the upcoming refurbishment program will be to improve their environmental credentials and implementing initiatives to enhance the occupancy experience and wellness. Enhancing the portfolio's NABERS ratings and collaborating with tenants to implement ESG initiatives in lease agreements is also a key focus. From a social and governance perspective, AOF aligns with the Australian Unity Group more broadly and benefits from the group's broader expertise and builds on the group's framework of community focus, connection and diversity, reconciliation, and the modern slavery assessment criteria. Importantly, AOF has a majority independent board. Turning to slide 20. I'm pleased to provide FFO guidance of AUD 0.18-AUD 0.185 per unit and distribution guidance of AUD 0.152 per unit for financial year 2022. FFO guidance includes an allowance for the disposal of 241 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, the acquisition of 96 York Street, Beenleigh, additional rent relief support to tenants impacted by the COVID pandemic, noting the recent lockdown in Sydney and Melbourne, and for the potential sale of 32 Phillip Street, Parramatta. Our focus remains on enhancing value and delivering the best possible returns to unit holders. To achieve this, the near-term priorities are to drive the active management strategy and deliver leasing outcomes to maintain and improve sustainable distributions. To execute on the asset refurbishment initiatives to improve occupancy levels, rents, and capital values. Including the settlement of 96 York Street, Beenleigh, and exploring the divestment of 32 Phillip Street, Parramatta. Finally, maximize value for unit holders by implementing the refined strategy. In closing, I thank you for your time today and for your investment in AOF. We look forward to continuing to advance the priorities listed and providing an update to investors in due course, with a focus on delivering the best possible returns. This concludes the formal part of our presentation. I will now pass you back to the moderator for Q&A. Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one on your telephone, and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star and then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset on, to ask, ask your question. The first question we have comes from Leanne Truong from Ord Minnett. Please go ahead. Good morning, Simon. Good morning, Nikki. Just some questions from me. The first one, re the financial year 2022 guidance. It looks like it's below financial year 2021. You did touch a bit on it. Can you just explain, I guess, or talk about what assumptions in terms of rental relief and the divestment of 32 Phillip that you've assumed in there? Hi, Leanne. Thanks very much for your question. I'll hand over to Simon with regards to discuss on the rent relief assumptions because they have been modeled to a degree on what we witnessed in 2021. He can provide more detail on that. Really from the 32 Phillip Street assumption, we've assumed that if we take the asset to market, noting the recent lockdowns now in New South Wales, appetite might be difficult to sell that asset this side of 2021 calendar year. Our assumptions assume that possibly in quarter one, there may be the possibility of that asset transacting. I will just hand over to Simon because he has had, within the financials, he has sort of allowed for a period of downtime for both the rent-free and for sale. Simon, just handing over to you. Thank you, Leanne. The main differences between the FY 2021 and FY 2022 financial year will be, I mean, 241 Adelaide Street was obviously owned for that for pretty much the whole of FY 2021, whereas it's being disposed of and it won't be owned at all during FY 2022. 241 Adelaide Street, as we mentioned, we have recycled the cash into 96 York Street, the timing settlement of that will not be until December. That's where you're missing six months worth of income in relation to that. As Nikki previously mentioned, we are seeing the disposal of 32 Phillip Street, that won't be until, well, probably until into the second half of the year. In terms of COVID rent relief, we are seeing a similar level of COVID rent relief will have to be provided to support tenants, compared to the FY 2021 levels. In FY 2021, we had about AUD 350,000 and we're assuming a similar level into FY 2022. Thanks. Unless you have any more queries. Yeah. Just on 32 Phillip Street. I'm wondering what the strategy is there. There's a few lease expiries coming up there or a major lease expiry coming up. Are you going to look to sell it with that lease expiry or I guess renew or do some leasing activity before you sell that asset? Do you want to do it, Nikki, or me? I don't mind. I'll answer. We are in discussions with GE Capital as well as some of the subtenants at the moment. Ideally, we would like to finalize those discussions prior to sell. It will all dependent on a timing issue, so I can't provide certainty either way. Yeah. We would test the market's appetite. Ideally, we will finalize those discussions. And if I can jump- Extension I can jump in there as well, Leanne. I think the reality is that, we are looking on embarking. As Simon said, to add to Simon, we're actively engaging with GE, their expiry is in 2023, so it's still got a couple of years before it expires. We are looking at embarking on our refurbishment project. If we can dispose of 32 Phillip Street with still a two-year lease term, then that would be an attractive proposition. I think that would provide also an opportunity for someone who's acquiring it, the opportunity to determine how they want to proceed with GE and the subtenants that currently exist in the property. Thanks. Just a final question from me. What's the timing in terms of the proposed merger? Good question, and thanks for that. I think as we sort of communicated in the presentation, we've been working on the annual results and the presentation over the last month or so, and have also been continuously discussing the merger proposition. At this point, we are still investigating the proposal, which we think has strategic merit, and we will come out to the market over the next month, I'd say, or two or three weeks with a further update. Okay. Thanks, guys. Thank you. The next question we have is from Murray Connellan from MA Financial. Nikki and Simon, I was wondering whether you could just give us a bit more color around the repositioning projects and marketing processes at Pirie Street and 10 Valentine. Maybe just a bit of a better sense of the timing around those projects and, I guess just what the level of inquiry has been so far. Yeah. Thanks, Murray, and I'll take that on board. Well, both those refurbishment projects have got a project team on hand to start, that's been looking at the refurbishment and repositioning of those assets. If I talk initially about 30 Pirie Street, there is an existing lease in place. Telstra do lease the whole building. Commencing some of those works are in collaboration with discussions with Telstra and understanding also their service needs as part of a future expose. Commencing those refurb works is a collaboration. We haven't determined how that's going to proceed at this stage because they do have a lease over the whole building. However, we are engaging on the type of offer and amenity that we're looking to present to the building and getting a collaborative approach with that. With 10 Valentine, there's again, Property New South Wales have got an existing lease over the entire building. We are in our process and been working on that refurbishment design and intent with, again, collaborating with Property New South Wales. I think as we sit here today, both the refurbishment at 10 Valentine is of a similar ilk that we're trying to achieve with 30 Pirie Street and improving the amenity for it to be sustainable and introduce convenience and wellness to it. The challenge we have is bringing all those refurbishment works with sitting tenants, that's a collaborative approach, we do have to be mindful that the leases that are in place as well. From a timing perspective, we're still working through that, it is working with both those sitting tenants in a collaborative way. Thanks very much. If I can open this query on 150 Charlotte Street and that expiry of the lease with Boeing, would your assumption still be that Boeing retain that tenancy? That Boeing, sorry, didn't hear that bit. Sorry, Murray. Would your assumption still be that they remain a tenant beyond their plus 2024? Yeah. That's exactly right. Again, with all our tenants, we have collaborative discussions about their future occupancy. I think it's a bit too early to call and for Boeing to make a decision. All the discussions that we've been having and leads us to believe that they will be staying situ, and that's our assumption. I do note that they have refurbished some of the amenities within their premises, and in particular, they've integrated and upgraded their security system within the building to which it was a costly exercise. We've been doing some work to improve their amenity and their connectivity between the floors. From our perspective, it's our belief that they'll be staying. Oh, well, I shouldn't say that. We are collaborating, and our assumption is that there's a good opportunity there. Great. Thanks very much. I don't know if you want to add to that because, and just bear with me, Murray, because I've only been here for the last month, so I'm just getting myself on board with all the discussions to date. The only thing I would add is they have also, over the past couple of years, been expanding within the building, and as such, we're optimistic that we will be able to renew them in due course. As Nikki says, because it's valid until FY 2024, it's a little bit too early to hit renew them at this time. Perfect. Thanks. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one now. We'll pause a moment to see if we have any further questions. Ma'am, at this stage, it seems that we have no further questions. Do you have any closing comments? No. Well, I'd just like to thank everyone who listened in today, and I hope you found it useful. As I said earlier, at AOF management and board are here to maximize returns for investors, and we can provide further details as we go along. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that then concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect.
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