Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Branicks Group Q1 results 2024. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen only mode. The floor will be open for the presentation, followed by a Q&A. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Jasmin Dentz. Thanks a lot, operator. Welcome everybody to our Q1 results presentation for 2024. This call will also be webcast live on our website, and a replay of the call will be available there also shortly after the end of the call. Your participation in this call implies your consent with this. Our CEO, Sonja Wärntges, will now give you an overview of our financials, our guidance, and the current market environment. After the presentation, we will be happy to take your questions. Please note that management comments during this call will include forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of risk factors, I encourage you to review the safe harbor statement contained in today's presentation. All documents related our Q1 reporting have been made available on our website. I now turn the call over to Sonja for her remarks. Sonja, please, the floor is yours. Thanks, Jasmin, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Also from my side, a very warm welcome to Branicks Q1 2024 results conference call. Today, as usual, I'm joined by my colleagues from the accounting and investor relations departments. As we did just publish our full year results two weeks ago, today's presentation will rather be a short one. Nevertheless, of course, we underline that our focus on operational strength and value creation remains on top of our heads. With our operating business in the first quarter, we are on track with another strong letting performance. Following the consistent reorganization of our financial structures, we have set the course to be at the forefront when the industry recovers. We are concentrating on the further development of the quality and sustainability of our portfolio within our portfolio focus areas, office and logistics, and on the development of the new asset class renewables. As per usual, during our quarterly calls, I will give you an overview on what has been achieved in Q1 and our key numbers, and we will also offer you the possibility to ask questions afterwards. Dear all, in terms of a rough Q1 overview, I would like to highlight the topics mentioned on slide number two. Our market environment remains challenging. We deliver on our promises. During the call two weeks ago, I presented in detail what we have achieved in terms of the successful extension of our promissory note loans, as well as our bridge financing. Our focus remains on reducing liabilities further with a continued concentration on our liquidity situation, laying the foundation for shaping the company in the future. Our commercial portfolio shows a positive momentum. Our clear strategic focus on office and logistics real estate is once again reflected in the high percentage rate these two asset classes constitute with regards to their market value. As in former quarters and years, our commercial portfolio generated stable and predictable rents, benefiting from new leases and rent indexation. Again, we report a like-for-like rental growth of 4.6%. In addition to that, the value of our assets remained very stable without any negative valuation effects in the first quarter. With EUR 9.4 billion, the assets under management, our institutional business remains the second strong pillar of our business model. The announced partnership with Encavis regarding our new asset class renewables, has the potential for further successful activities, supporting profitable growth within this segment. We also saw further progress in the implementation of the Performance 2024 action plan. After a reduction of 16% already in full year 2023, OpEx were again further reduced on a quarterly basis by 7%, from EUR 16.7 million in Q1 2023, to EUR 15.6 million in Q1 2024. We are planning further cost savings to strengthen our financial situation. With regards to our financial maturities profile, let me repeat that points were decisive here. At the end of the reporting period, the lenders of the 2024 promissory note loans amounting to EUR 225 million, voted in favor of the company's restructuring plan. In doing so, the promissory note loans in question were extended to June 30, 2025. On the other hand, with the lenders of the bridge financing for the acquisition of the shares in VIB. We will go back at the beginning of what we've said on slide number three. Sorry, Sonja, if you could just repeat what you said from the beginning. Sorry. I start again with our slide number three, with regards to our financial maturities profile, let me repeat the points that were decisive here. At the end of the reporting period, the lenders of the 2024 promissory note loans amounting to EUR 225 million voted in favor of the company's restructuring plan. In doing so, the promissory note loans in question were extended to June 30, 2025. On the other hand, with the lenders of the bridge financing for the acquisition of the shares in VIB completed in 2022, we agreed an immediate repayment in the amount of EUR 40 million, an extension of the term concerning the remaining EUR 160 million until December 31, 2024. The extension had been achieved on almost unchanged conditions. Let me also underline that our focus to deleverage our balance sheet while monitoring our green bond covenants remains one of our highest priorities. With 57.3%, the bond loan to value covenant should have peaked in Q1 and will improve due to disposals and the planned redemption of the bridge financing over the course of 2024. We are aiming to reduce our LTV further in 2024 to achieve an even bigger headroom in the midterm. With 2.0, the ICR covenant has also enough headroom to the 1.8 threshold, we are confident to keep our interest cover ratio stable. With even an improvement expected in 2024, also due to the planned redemption of the bridge, of course, above the 1.8 threshold. In terms of our average interest rates that you also find on this slide, it is important for me to underline that also our average interest for 2024 growth, the total amount of debt due in 2024 could be significantly reduced. What goes along with an absolute reduction of total interest expenses to be expected in 2024. To sum it up, this slide shows that following the agreed achievements, we are sustainably and sufficiently financed until at least 2026. Let's now take a deeper look at the results of our real estate platform in the first three months in 2024, shown on slide number four. As already mentioned, our like-for-like rental income remains strong, our teams once again performed exceptionally well. The like-for-like rental income rose by 4.6% for the entire portfolio under management, both in the commercial portfolio with a plus of 2.3% and the institutional business with a plus of 5.6%. Rent increases were realized primarily through indexations. In terms of square meters, the letting performance of the Branicks platform in Q1 2024 declined by 12% year-on-year to 109,000 sq m, mainly due to the disposals. In total, the assets under management with EUR 13.1 billion were slightly down compared to last year's end, mostly due to the disposals, which became effective in the course of the year. The commercial portfolio saw a decrease from EUR 4.1 billion down to EUR 3.7 billion, which was a direct result of the disposal activities year-on-year. The institutional business was also affected by the end of a larger property management mandate. As of today, only 1.9% of the total annualized rental income would expire in 2024 if lease contracts were not prolonged. On our next slide, let me highlight the development of our main income streams. Net rental income fell to EUR 38.5 million, primarily because the prior year quarter still included rents from properties in the VIB Retail Balance I. The same effect resulted in the increase of income from associated companies. It mainly consists of deferred income from fund shares and, in contrast to Q1 2023, still contains the share of profits in VIB Retail Balance I. The real estate management fees decreased from EUR 10.5 million to EUR 9.7 million. This number solely comprise recurring assets, property, and development fees. As in the prior year quarter, no fees were generated from transactions. Our recurring income on the platform was slightly lower year-over-year, and the share of recurring income in relation to the total income composes 100% in Q1. Let's take a closer look on the development of the FFO year-over-year, that were overall in line with our guided expectations. The net rental income saw a decrease of around EUR 5.5 million. As previously mentioned, this was due to the fact that the prior year quarter still included rents from properties in the VIB Retail Balance I fund. The development fees, the share of the profit from associates, and our OpEx development, as well as our net interest result, had a positive contribution to our FFO. This resulted in FFO of EUR 9.0 million for the first quarter of 2024. In view of our expectations for the current business year, we did not make any changes. We still expect a gross rental income in the range from EUR 160 million to EUR 175 million, real estate management fees between EUR 40 million and EUR 50 million, an FFO one after minorities and before taxes of EUR 40 million - EUR 55 million, acquisitions of EUR 150 million - EUR 300 million, whereas we expect all of them in our institutional business. Last but not least, disposals of EUR 650 million - EUR 900 million, whereas EUR 500 million -EUR 600 million in our commercial portfolio and EUR 150 million -EUR 300 million in our institutional business. Beyond our unchanged guidance for the current year, our midterm ambition also remains unchanged. We strive to transform Branicks Group towards a profitable ESG focus and value generating asset expert with sustainably strengthened cash flows and financial positions. Our ambitions are clear. We are working hard to achieve them. We want to substantially improve our earnings and cash flows and return to net profit and positive net cash flow in 2026. In doing that, we want to monetize our ESG expertise. We have a clear midterm ambition to further reduce our debt, we will go along with improving the respecting KPIs. Having said this, I would like to hand over to the moderator for your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your phone. If you would like to withdraw your questions, please press nine and star a second time. Now, please press nine and star to register your question. First question comes from Mr. Clark McPherson, Clearance Capital. Yeah. Good morning. Thank you very much for hosting the call. I have a couple of questions. First of all, of the cash that is disclosed as of Q1, how much of that cash is actually restricted? Second question would be, can you give us some more color on the timing of disposals going forward? And then a third point, if we go back to the full year results, on the slides that we downloaded before the earnings call, on page 16, there was a point that referred to substantial intercompany transactions between Branicks and VIB. However, the slides that were presented during the call had this point- Sorry to interrupt you. I cannot really understand you, the line is not very good. Can you repeat? I could not hear what you're saying. The first question, I can answer this directly. The restricted is around about EUR 58 million. Hello, can you hear me now? Yes. Yeah. I can answer the first question directly. The restricted cash is around about EUR 58 million. For the second question, I didn't hear really. If you can repeat it. Sure. Second question, would you be able to give us some color on the timing of disposals, going forward? Then finally, if we go back to the full year results, the presentation that we downloaded before the call on slide 16 had a point that referred to substantial intercompany transactions between Branicks and VIB. However, the slides on the earnings call had this point removed. I wonder if you could just explain to us why this point was removed. Was the point inaccurate, or are there indeed plans for further intercompany transactions? I got it. Yeah, the disposals, as said in the call two weeks ago, we have a very clear plan and we have also started all our transaction purposes at the end of last year. I think for the time being, we are in a very good position here in the discussions. We have also LOIs on some of the processes. I think we will get the first things done, yeah, end of June. Then it will take time over the next quarters until the end of the year, because we have a big program, so to say, and we have the one or the other portfolio which we sell as a deal, so to say. It takes time due to due diligence, as I said in the last call, the actual buyers are very professional buyers with very clear processes, but they take sometimes a little bit longer than in the past. Therefore, we have started to summarize and we have started all the processes. I think we will see the first things coming at the end of June, at the end of Q2, the rest coming over the next quarters. Then, the disposal of the assets from Branicks commercial portfolio to VIB commercial portfolio. We did a transaction in the first quarter and we reported about it. We have the one or other plan here. We are discussing this at the moment between VIB and Branicks. Definitely we will broaden or VIB will broaden their portfolio also with commercial assets, so to say, not only logistic, to broaden also the income stream, the asset classes, but there is no final decision taken here at the moment. Could I just push you a little bit on the point of why that was actually removed from the original presentation? Okay. I do not really know what you mean, but when I got it right. I mean, there was a presentation released at 6:00 or 7:00 A.M. in the morning that had that point in there, but the presentation on the earnings call had that point removed. Okay. I thought this was a result of the reversion of the presentation. We had brought it in, by failure, so to say, in our webcast, but we had to revise it and that was the final part that we have loaded up then. Okay. As I said, it's in discussion. We could not report really with figures and numbers at the moment here. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. The next question comes from Mr. Andre Remke, Baader Bank. Good morning, Sonja, and thanks for the presentation. A very short follow-up on the disposals, Clark meant to ask for. Could you give us probably a kind of ballpark number for what you expect ahead of the summer course, i.e., you mentioned June? After that it could be the case again that there will be a further time pause until the next ones occur. It would be helpful to see whether this will be already a kind of meaningful number. Morning, Andre. You're asking the right question. I ask my colleague from transaction every day, so to say. As said, we are working on the process and I cannot really say that, as I said, when the process will be over. We plan to have at the end of June around about EUR 200 million -EUR 300 million as sales transaction done here. Whether it will be closed or not, I do not really know, but that's the number we have in place here where we have good discussions, yeah. Okay, thanks. Excellent. Second very brief question on your LTV target, your plan of below 50% in 2025, does it refer to the adjusted LTV, including the institutional business or the total LTV? That's the plan for the total LTV, not the adjusted one. Okay. Last question on your interest expenses of EUR 28 million in the first quarter. Is this the kind of run rate over for the next quarters, or will this increase in the second quarter due to the refinancing activities and higher interest costs? Or could it be already be lower due to the EUR 200 million you change from cash into repayment of debt? No, I think that's a clear answer. That was what that should be and is the highest number for a quarter in 2024. On the one hand, we had the full bridge year in, so to say, because we paid EUR 40 million end of March, so the total number was in for the first three months. The interest rates for the bridge were a little bit down after the discussions with the bridge bank. They go down even if we would have the same absolute number of the bridge, but we have EUR 40 million less. The normal secured financing stayed the same. Besides, we are doing disposals, so they would even go down if we had disposals. When we pay back the bridge, we plan to pay back during the year if it's possible. The amount for the bridge financing will also go down. At the end of the day, to sum it up, should be the highest number for a quarter in 2024. Okay, excellent. Thank you very much. That's from my side. Thank you. The next question comes from Mr. Jochen Schmitt from Metzler. Thank you very much. Good morning. I have two questions, please. Firstly, on adjustments in FFO, could you explain which adjustments you made in Q1? I guess it was slightly below EUR 2 million, if I'm right. Which amount should we assume for the full year 2024? Second question on the EUR 129 million of bank debt maturities in 2024, which you state on slide three of your presentation. When will this amount come to you, and are you currently in loan prolongation talks? These are my questions. Thank you. Hello, this is Dirk. The FFO adjustment relates to the bridge financing and the amortization items there, and yeah, that's pretty much all. It's EUR 1.6 million, I guess, that we adjusted here. The second question, yeah, we are still in the discussions with the bank for the secured financing. We have started them already in January, and that's our two financing, so to say, with two different banks. The discussions are good and very constructive, so to say. I think they will be refinanced with the same banks. We also talk to others, as you can imagine. They are in place end of September and beginning of November. Thank you. Just one follow-up question, if I may, on the adjustments in FFO. Could you give an indication which figure we should expect for the full year? Thank you. For the bridge interest expenses, you can think about EUR 17 million-EUR 18 million, overall, because we have some costs that we now amortize over the maturity, that will come to the P&L over the next couple of months. Sorry, just if I got it right, EUR 17 million or EUR 18 million during course of 2024. Is that right? Yes. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Mr. Ingo Hillen, MMI. Hi, good morning. Thank you. It's about disposals. I think this question has been asked. On one hand, I think we all a little bit disappointed that there is nothing concrete. We noted that there will be, I think, Ms. Wärntges, you said it like three or four times, end of June. Did I get it right that end of June, your expectation is that there will be signing of some contracts, whatever? Latest, yes. That's the expectation. Okay. Next question is coming from Mr. Stefan Scharff, SRC Research. The next question is coming from Mr. Nick Linnane from Sefton. Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two, if that's okay. Firstly, in relation to the announced sale of eight properties to VIB, announced at the end of March. When is that expected to close, and how much cash do you actually expect to receive from that? I guess you're selling shares, so you just get some amount of cash for that, but how much is that? Second question is, in relation to the EUR 116 million or so of loans to related parties that's on your balance sheet at March, do you expect any of that to be recoverable in the next, say, one to two years? If so, how much do you think could be recovered, and roughly what is the loan-to-value ratio on those loans? Good morning. We understand you hardly hear. If I understand the first question right, you asked about the transaction we did in the first quarter to VIB, or did I understand it? Yeah. What comes on cash-wise? Yeah. Yeah. Around about EUR 60 million. Okay, roughly when? It's already closed. It was a deal in Q1. Okay. That's already closed. Okay. The second question was around the related party loans on the balance sheet. We have around about EUR 137 million there. We are still in negotiation for one of the contracts, so to say. The others have maturities during the end of the year and the next year, so to say. We expect them to come back, besides the one we are discussing at the moment. Is there any collaterals for any of the main loans? They have all collaterals. Roughly what would be the sort of loan-to-value ratio you would estimate on those loans? I haven't hear it. Maybe you call us later and we find it out and can give you the answer there. Okay. Thank you. There are currently no further questions, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your phone. Press nine and star on your phone to place your question. We have another question coming from Mr. Philipp Kaiser from Warburg Research. Yeah. Hello, everyone. Thanks for the presentation. Just one quick question left from my side with regards to your OpEx. You already reduced it on a quarterly basis by 7%. Is there more reduction to come in the course of the year, or can we just take the Q1 OpEx as a run rate for the current year? Good morning, Philipp. Thank you for the question. If you look on the split between personal and administrative expenses, you can see that we have a smaller, higher number in the administrative expenses. This is the result of our negotiations and transactions we did in the first quarter with the SSDs and bridge banks. This rate or this number will go down because these were more or less one-off, so to say. The personal expenses will also go down a little bit. I think for a run rate, it's a little bit too high, but it will not go down by 20% or something like this because it's step-by-step done. We will reduce it further according to our Performance 2024 plan. As said, in Q1, we had one-off in the administrative expenses here. I think the expectation will be a little bit more than 7%. Okay, perfect. Sounds great. Thanks for the answer. All from my side. Thank you. The next question coming from Mr. Stephan Simmroß from Simmross Capital. Yes. Thank you very much for taking my question. Sorry for the voice. I managed to catch a cold in the summer. Just for the restructuring, you used StaRUG to prolong the current loans that were pretty small, so that was successful. Looking at the bond that's still outstanding, would you consider to use StaRUG to change the payment details of the bond as well? Would that be something that you could do in 2025, or would that be a new restructuring program, or is this old StaRUG procedure that you already initiated, could that be extended into other securities? Thank you very much. Good morning. I'm not a lawyer at the end of the day. I can only tell what we have done. Once again, we use the StaRUG as a technical process, so to say. Only, and just to say it clearly, only for the SSDs, yeah, not for the total liabilities. We had 34 SSDs in place here, and we had a short time period, so everybody needs a little more time or less time, so to say. Therefore, we said we want to convince every one of the SSDs to see the restructuring plan as a good plan, and which they can follow. At the end of the day, to bring 34 SSDs under one head within six weeks, so to say, it will be complicated. Therefore, the StaRUG was taking in place from the government 1.5 years ago, that if you have a maturity of 75% of the SSDs on your side and they follow you, the court can say, "I take the decision for the rest of the 25%, and the restructuring plan is good, and you can do this." We got more than 93% on our side. At the end of the day, the court says, "This is a good plan for the next three years. We think you can do this, so please do it," and decided that the restructuring plan should be made, but only for SSDs. We do not plan to have a new restructuring plan, a new StaRUG or something like this, because we plan the next three years on a very good basis. Not everything will happen as it was written down here, because we all do not know what is in one and a half or two years. This is a plan, and we have some options if one or the other thing does not come. This is our plan, and we do not work on another restructuring plan or another StaRUG or something like this. We are refinanced now. We got the decision from the court, but also from the neutral consultants who did the independent business review. They supported the plan and said, "This is a good plan," and we are working on doing what we have planned. That's it, yeah. No other plans in place here. Another question coming in from Mr. Ingo Hillen from MMI. Yeah, thanks for taking my question again. [inaudible], you just reiterated that there will be disposals June, and then you said end of June latest. Basically, you said within the next six weeks. Maybe you can give us some color of the range or the size you imagine to dispose. Are we talking about more EUR 100 million or more like EUR 500 million or something between? That would be helpful. As when I about to close or about to sign something within six weeks, there must be pretty good impression of what you will dispose or how much you will dispose. Exactly. Therefore, I answered the question some minutes ago, EUR 200 million-EUR 300 million. Thank you very much. Thank you. Another question is coming in from Mr. Jochen Schmitt, Metzler. Thank you. Sorry to ask again on the adjustments in FFO, which you apply for the bridge. Could you briefly explain what is precisely adjusted and why? I just want to get a better understanding for the rationale behind these adjustments. Thank you very much. On the IFRS, we have this amortized cost method, and we do linearize or do it on a proportionate basis all the costs we had in relation with the program we did in the first quarter. Therefore, all the transaction costs with that prolongation and all these kind of things are now coming into the P&L month by month. These adjustments, the so-called effective interest rate adjustments, we adjust for FFO purposes because that's something that is not on a regular basis, because that was kind of a one-off. If we wouldn't have the possibility in terms of recognizing these costs over the maturity, we would have a one-time impact in the P&L in Q1, and we would have adjusted that as well. That's the reason why we adjust the FFO, because it's a non-operating item. Okay, these adjustments also refer to the promissory notes prolongation in the StaRUG procedure, if I got you right? All of the- Exactly. Okay. Thank you very much. The next question is coming from Mr. Chrysis Aristidou from Sefton Place. Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I had two follow-ups and one new question. My first follow-up is regarding related loans. You said you're in discussions for one to extend, and the rest are maturing this year, next year. What is the size of the one that you're discussing to extend? EUR 32 million. Okay, thank you. The other clarification I would like to ask is, you mentioned EUR 58 million of restricted cash. What's the unrestricted cash at the Branicks level, i.e., excluding the VIB cash? We have a consolidated balance sheet, we consolidated this and this is the total amount. I think that's what we report, and that's what we are talking about here, the total cash. Yeah. Okay. You cannot disclose the restricted cash at VIB level yet before the financials come out? No. Okay, I understand. My last question, what is the balance of the loan from VIB to Branicks, please? EUR 250 million. EUR 250. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Thank you. There are no further questions, and I will hand back for the closing to Jasmin Dentz. Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session, and thanks a lot for joining us today. Stay healthy, and talk to you soon. Thank you