COPT Reports Strong Second Quarter 2020 Results

7/30/20

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC) announced financial and operating results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020.

Management Comments

Stephen E. Budorick, COPT’s President & Chief Executive Officer, commented, “The Company delivered strong second quarter results, with FFO per share exceeding the high-end of our guidance range by 1-cent. Cost savings and the timing of repair and maintenance costs more than offset the reserves we took on tenants impacted by the shutdowns and drove same-property cash NOI growth of 1.7%.” He continued, “Our operations and ability to execute development and renewal leasing continue to be minimally impacted by the pandemic due to the high concentration of U.S. Government national security activity in our portfolio. Accordingly, we affirm the $2.07 mid-point of our updated 2020 guidance for FFO per share, as adjusted for comparability.”

Financial Highlights

2nd Quarter Financial Results:

  • Diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) was $0.21 for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 as compared to $0.95 for the second quarter of 2019.
  • Diluted funds from operations per share (“FFOPS”), as calculated in accordance with Nareit’s definition and as adjusted for comparability, was $0.51 for the second quarter of 2020 as compared to $0.52 for second quarter 2019 results.

Operating Performance Highlights

Operating Portfolio Summary:

  • At June 30, 2020, the Company’s core portfolio of 172 operating office and data center shell properties was 93.6% occupied and 94.7% leased.
  • During the quarter, the Company placed into service 412,000 square feet that were 97.5% leased.

Same-Property Performance:

  • At June 30, 2020, COPT’s same-property portfolio of 152 buildings was 92.3% occupied and 93.5% leased.
  • For the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2020, the Company’s same-property cash NOI increased 1.7% and 3.3%, respectively, over the prior year’s comparable periods.

Leasing:

  • Total Square Feet Leased: For the quarter ended June 30, 2020, the Company leased 959,000 total square feet, including 613,000 square feet of renewals, 70,000 square feet of new leases on vacant space, and 276,000 square feet in development projects. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, the Company executed 1.6 million square feet of total leasing.
  • Renewal Rates: During the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2020, the Company respectively renewed 75.6% and 81.0% of total expiring square feet.
  • Cash Rent Spreads & Average Escalations on Renewing Leases: For the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2020, cash rents on renewed space decreased 3.2% and 2.0%, respectively. For the same time periods, annual escalations on renewing leases averaged 2.4%.
  • Lease Terms: In the second quarter, lease terms averaged 5.2 years on renewing leases, 4.9 years on new leasing of vacant space, and 16.3 years on development leasing. For the first six months, lease terms averaged 5.1 years on renewing leases, 6.7 years on vacancy leasing, and 16.3 years on development leasing.
  • DC-6: At the Company’s wholesale data center, COPT executed a new, 3.1 megawatt lease with a defense contractor in April, increasing DC-6 to 90.6% leased.

Investment Activity Highlights

Development & Redevelopment Projects:

  • Development Pipeline: At July 7, 2020, the Company’s development pipeline consisted of 11 properties and expansions in three fully-operational properties totaling 1.9 million square feet that were 84% leased. These projects have a total estimated cost of $612.2 million, of which $379.1 million had been incurred as of June 30, 2020.

Balance Sheet and Capital Transaction Highlights

  • As of June 30, 2020, the Company’s net debt plus preferred equity to adjusted book ratio was 38.8% and its net debt plus preferred equity to in-place adjusted EBITDA ratio was 6.4x. For the quarter ended June 30, 2020, the Company’s adjusted EBITDA fixed charge coverage ratio was 3.8x.
  • As of June 30, 2020, and including the effect of interest rate swaps, the Company’s weighted average effective interest rate on its consolidated debt portfolio was 3.66% with a weighted average maturity of 3.0 years; additionally, 88.5% of the Company’s debt was subject to fixed interest rates.

2020 Guidance

Management is increasing its prior full-year guidance ranges of $0.65-$0.69 for EPS to a new range of $0.76-$0.80. Management is maintaining its full-year guidance ranges for FFOPS per Nareit and FFOPS, as adjusted for comparability, at $1.95-$1.99 and $2.05-$2.09, respectively.

Associated Supplemental Presentation

Prior to the call, the Company will post a slide presentation to accompany management’s prepared remarks for its second quarter 2020 conference call, the details of which are provided below. The accompanying slide presentation can be viewed on and downloaded from the ‘Latest Updates’ section of COPT’s Investors website: https://investors.copt.com/

Replay Information

A replay of the conference call will be immediately available via webcast on the Investors website. Additionally, a telephonic replay of this call will be available beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, July 31, through 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, August 14. To access the replay within the United States, please call 855-859-2056; to access it from outside the United States, please call 404-537-3406. In either case, use passcode 4686936.

Definitions

For definitions of certain terms used in this press release, please refer to the information furnished in the Company’s Supplemental Information Package furnished on a Form 8-K which can be found on its website (www.copt.com). Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the attached tables.

About COPT

COPT is a REIT that owns, manages, leases, develops and selectively acquires office and data center properties. The majority of its portfolio is in locations that support the United States Government and its contractors, most of whom are engaged in national security, defense and information technology (“IT”) related activities servicing what it believes are growing, durable, priority missions (“Defense/IT Locations”). The Company also owns a portfolio of office properties located in select urban/urban-like submarkets in the Greater Washington, DC/Baltimore region with durable Class-A office fundamentals and characteristics (“Regional Office Properties”). As of June 30, 2020, the Company derived 88% of its core portfolio annualized rental revenue from Defense/IT Locations and 12% from its Regional Office Properties. As of the same date and including 15 properties owned through unconsolidated joint ventures, COPT’s core portfolio of 172 office and data center shell properties encompassed 19.6 million square feet and was 94.7% leased; the Company also owned one wholesale data center with a critical load of 19.25 megawatts that was 90.6% leased.