Argosy Property Limited logo

Market Update and FY20 Dividend Guidance

Full Year Results1 April 2020ARGReal Estate

1 ⸺

Argosy Property Limited (Argosy or the Company) wishes to update investors given the

continued volatility in relation to Covid-19, the rise to alert Level 4 and the state of the market as

we see it today. In particular:

• Diversification and strong portfolio metrics. Having executed a clear strategy to improve the

quality and resilience of the portfolio before Covid-19, Argosy’s business is strong. The

Company has a diversified portfolio of properties by location, type and tenant. As at 29

February, the portfolio (including the Albany Lifestyle Centre) was weighted 45% to Industrial,

38% to Office and 17% to Large Format Retail. By location, 72% of the portfolio was located

in Auckland and 26% in Wellington. Argosy has maintained high occupancy at 98.4% and

has a weighted average lease term of 6.1 years.

• Exposure to Government. Government accounts for approximately 26% of Argosy’s current

rental income, providing a high degree of future revenue certainty (note 69% of this rental

income is from Government agencies providing essential services).

• Exposure to essential services: Outside Argosy’s Government tenants, a further 42% of

tenants by rental income are categorised as being involved in the provision of essential

services and are operating at various capacity levels during the lockdown period.

• Short term rental income risk: Argosy has completed initial rental income risk assessments

across the entire portfolio. The Covid-19 risks are fluid and ongoing but it is clear there will be

some negative impact on rental income in FY21. Our initial short term assessment, which

excludes the expected positive impact on rental income from the inclusion of the Albany

Lifestyle Centre noted below, indicates a potential reduction in net distributable income in

FY21 in the order of $5 million to $8 million.

• Developments: All of Argosy’s construction sites have been locked down and safely

secured. As a result of these closures, there will be delays in completion.

• Re-introduction of depreciation allowances. As part of the assistance package offered by

the Government on 17 March 2020, depreciation allowances have been re-introduced

which will be positive for Argosy’s FY21 earnings. We estimate the impact of this will be to

increase net distributable income in FY21 by approximately $2.7 million.

• Lower floating interest rates. The reduction in the OCR by 75bps to 25bpts for at least 12

months will immediately reduce interest costs to Argosy’s business for the FY21 financial

period, as Argosy has a high proportion of floating debt to total debt. We estimate the

Market Release

2 April 2020

Market Update and FY20 Dividend Guidance



2 ⸺


impact of this interest saving will be to increase net distributable income in FY21 by

approximately $1.6 million.

• Albany Lifestyle Centre. Cook Property Group Limited, who nominated APF Nominee Limited

as custodian for Augusta Property Fund, failed to settle the sale of this property on 30 March

2020. This means the Albany Lifestyle Centre will provide additional unplanned rental

income in FY21. Argosy has received a $4.5 million non-refundable deposit from Cook

Property Group Limited.

• Dividend maintained: The ongoing impact of Covid-19 is unknown. However, Argosy remains

comfortable with the business overall and can reaffirm its FY20 guidance of 6.35 cents per

share. The fourth quarter dividend will be paid in June 2020.

CEO Peter Mence said, “Whilst there is a lot of volatility and uncertainty in the market, we are

confident in the resilience of our business and the quality of our diversified portfolio. We

acknowledge that the effect of Covid-19 will be negative for the economy generally, however

we will be working hard to minimise the impact on Argosy’s business. We have strong

relationships with tenants and continue to work closely with them. We remain focused on

ensuring the sustainability of dividends to shareholders and will continue to monitor this

unprecedented situation closely. We will update the market as the ongoing impact from Covid-

19 unfolds.”

− END −

ENQUIRIES

Peter Mence

Chief Executive Officer

Argosy Property Limited

Telephone: 09 304 3411

Email: pmence@argosy.co.nz

Dave Fraser

Chief Financial Officer

Argosy Property Limited

Telephone: 09 304 3469

Email: dfraser@argosy.co.nz

Stephen Freundlich

Head of Investor Relations

Argosy Property Limited

Telephone: 09 304 3426

Email: sfreundlich@argosy.co.nz

Data sourced from publicly available filings. Our datasets may not be complete. Automated analysis can produce errors. If you believe any data on this page is incorrect, please contact us at hello@nzxplorer.co.nz. For informational purposes only. Not investment advice.

Other issuers discussed similar conditions around this time

Matched by meaning across NZX announcement text, not keywords — based on our semantic index of announcement bodies.

  • KPG — Kiwi Property: Kiwi Property Annual Meeting presentation and address
    2020-06-28

    9 POSITIVE RETAIL SALES (SLIDE 23) A note on the retail sales information shown here - because of COVID-19, we were unable to collect sales data for the month of March 2020 and have therefore shown annual statistics for the year ended 29 February 2020. Across the portf…”

  • APL — Asset Plus: Financial result for the year ended 31 March 2020
    2020-06-15

    Chairman’s Letter Chairman’s Letter Over the past 12 months we have set out to progress our transformation to a diversified value-add strategy, continuing to reposition the existing portfolio to facilitate that change, and successfully completing two new acquisitions in lin…”

  • APL — Asset Plus: ASSET PLUS UPDATE
    2020-04-15

    NZX RELEASE 16 April 2020 ASSET PLUS UPDATE Asset Plus wishes to provide the following update regarding 31 March 2020 valuations and the on-going impact of the Covid-19 lockdown. As noted in an announcement on 19 March 2020, valuation firms had advised that they would…”