Warehouses de Pauw (WDP) announces its financial results for the first quarter of 2024. The company’s EPRA earnings rose by 15.3 percent to 72.3 million euros. This increase was largely driven by organic rental growth of 3.5 percent and the impact from the pre-let projects and acquisitions combined with a low financing cost (1.7% for Q1 2024), despite high interest rates.
At 98.4 percent as of 31 March 2024, the occupancy rate remains at a high level (98.5 percent at the end of 2023).
Minor portfolio revaluation: +26 million euros (+0.4 percent q/q), mainly based on stability in the existing portfolio and unrealised capital gains on projects and recent acquisitions. EPRA Net Initial Yield is 5.3 percent
In Q1 2024, about 200 million euros of directly yielding assets (acquisitions, project completions) have accrued into the balance sheet at a yield of 9.1 percent and the investment pipeline accounts for 500 million euros.
New growth plan #BLEND2027: through this four-year plan for 2024-27, WDP intends to continue earnings growth by combining multiple drivers in multiple (geographic) markets and targets a total investment volume of 1.5 billion euros (being 500 million euros per year with full-year impact in 2027).
Based on this, WDP aims for EPRA Earnings per share of 1.70 euros in 2027, an annual underlying increase of +6%. The current strong financial position, combined with expected retained earnings and optional dividend, ensure that WDP has sufficient funds to finance this plan.
