Ernest Freedman
Analyst · RBC Capital Markets
Thanks, Terry. On today's call, I will cover the following subjects: first, our first quarter financial and operating results; second, our recent balance sheet activities; and third, I will provide second quarter guidance and update full year 2011 projections. First, financial results. First quarter pro forma FFO of $0.39 per share was $0.04 per share above the midpoint of our guidance range, primarily due to better-than-expected property operating results. At the property operations, as shown in the table on Page 2 of our earnings release, total portfolio NOI was up 7.6% year-over-year. Revenues across our total portfolio were up 1.9%, while expenses decreased 5.8%. Total same-store NOI, which includes conventional and affordable properties, was up 8.5% year-over-year, with Conventional Same Store up 7.2% and Affordable Same Store up 17.8%. I will speak to the performance of our Affordable Same Store portfolio in a moment, but first, I will run through the particulars on the Conventional Same Store portfolio. Conventional Same Store revenue was up 1.6% higher than first quarter 2010, with gains in both occupancy and rate. Year-over-year rate growth of 60 basis points reflects both the earning of leases executed during prior quarters and rate increases on leases expiring during the current quarter. Aimco measures changes in Conventional Property rental rates by comparing, on a lease-by-lease basis, the rate on a newly executed lease to the rate on the expiring lease for that same unit. Newly executed leases are classified as either a new lease, where a vacant unit is leased to a new customer or a renewal of an existing lease. Under this methodology, rates on Aimco's new leases during the quarter averaged 1.9% higher than expiring lease rates. Results by month were: January, up 1.4%; February, up 1.6%; and March, up 2.4%. April is coming in currently, up 3.5%. Rates on renewal leases during the quarter averaged 3% above expiring lease rates. Results by month were: January, up 2.5%; February, up 3.4%; and March, up 3.0%. April is coming currently, up 3.3%. Turning to expenses, during the first quarter, Conventional Same Store expenses were down 6.6% or $5 million, as a result of reductions in nearly every expense category. Specifically, on-site payroll was down $1.8 million or nearly 10%. Half of this result was achieved from productivity gains, while the other half was due to the timing of bonus accruals in 2010. Real estate taxes were down $1.7 million, also nearly 10%, due to adjustment of previously estimated real estate taxes, mainly from prior years after successful settlement of appeals during the quarter. In utilities, we're down approximately $0.5 million or about 3.5%. On a combined basis, these 3 expense categories account for nearly 70% of Aimco's property operating expenses, and they were down a combined $4 million or nearly 8%. Across the remaining expense categories, costs were down about $1 million or about 4%. While some portion of the expense savings achieved during the quarter are expected to be of a longer term benefit, we do expect to see year-over-year increases in operating expenses during the balance of 2011. Expected expenses for the full year will be about flat to last year. A couple of quick comments about Affordable property revenue trends. As you will see on Page 2 of this morning's earnings release, first quarter Affordable Same Store revenue growth was 5.5% compared to the first quarter of 2010. This unusually high growth rate is primarily the result of favorable rent adjustments on a handful of our larger Affordable properties. In some cases, those adjustments were retroactive to parts of the fourth quarter of 2010, so we recognized about $100,000 of prior year revenue in the first quarter related to last year. The bigger drivers of revenue growth during the quarter were rent adjustments related to the current year, which drove Affordable Same Store revenue up 4.2% from prior year. We also saw gains from higher occupancies and lower bad debt, which increased the revenue 0.8% from prior year. Looking forward to the remainder of 2011, we should expect to see revenue growth for the Affordable Same Store portfolio to normalize to about 4%. Turning to our balance sheet, our only recourse debt obligation is our revolving line of credit, which other than to collateralize letters of credits, was undrawn at March 31 when its available capacity was $253 million. During the first quarter, we further strengthened our balance sheet by reducing our 2011 property debt maturity exposure by $90 million, leaving just $14 million of maturities during the balance of the year. We also reduced our 2012 property debt maturity exposure by $105 million or 25%. During the first quarter, before tender and sales activity, we reduced our share property debt by $30 million, with $20 million of scheduled amortization and $10 million from refinancing activity, where old loans are replaced with new loans on a net basis at lower balances. You'll find the details of our refinancing activity on Supplemental Schedule 4 of our earnings release. We continue to look for opportunities to reduce refunding risks and to take advantage of current interest rates. To this end, we are considering potential transactions that allow us to extend maturities, lock in lower interest rates and possibly reduce debt balances. Some of these transactions, which may or may not close, are expected to include prepayment penalties that are not currently contemplated in FFO guidance. Lastly, on the balance sheet, year-to-date, Aimco has issued 1.5 million shares under its ATM at a weighted average price of $24.69 per share, generating risk proceeds of $37 million. The proceeds from the ATM offering were used primarily to fund de-leveraging activities and partnership merger transactions. Looking ahead, we are increasing full year pro forma FFO guidance to a range of $1.49 to $1.59 per share, which is an increase of $0.03 per share at both ends of our range. We are also increasing full year guidance for Conventional Same Store NOI from a range of 2.5% to 4.5%, to now a range of 3% to 5%, which is driven by a reduction in expense growth expectations based on first quarter results. We expect full year total portfolio NOI growth to be in a range from 2.5% to 4.5%, which reflects the 50 basis point increase in Conventional Same Store NOI guidance. For the second quarter, pro forma FFO is projected to be $0.33 to $0.37 per share, with year-over-year Conventional Same Store NOI growth of 2.5% to 3.5%. We expect revenue growth to improve on a year-over-year basis from the first quarter while expenses will increase somewhat on a year-over-year basis as I described earlier. Before we take questions, I would like to remind folks that we will again be hosting several property tours in 2011. The schedule for which is included on Page 5 of this morning's earnings release. If you are interested in attending one of these events, please contact Elizabeth Coalson to sign up. With that, we will now open up the call for questions. [Operator Instructions] Jamie, I'll turn it over to you for the first question.