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Four Corners Property Trust, Inc. (FCPT)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Wed, Oct 28, 2020

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the FCPT Third Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gerry Morgan, CFO. Please go ahead, sir.

Gerald Morgan

Analyst

Thank you, Judith. During the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements, which are based on beliefs and assumptions made by us. Our actual results will be affected by known and unknown factors, including the uncertainty related to the scope, severity and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic that are beyond our control or ability to predict. Our assumptions are not a guarantee of future performance and some will prove to be incorrect. For a more detailed description of some potential risks, please refer to our SEC filings, which could be found at fcpt.com. All the information presented on this call is current as of today, October 28, 2020. In addition, reconciliation to non-GAAP financial measures presented on this call, such as FFO and AFFO, can be found in the company's supplemental report also available on our website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bill.

William Lenehan

Analyst

Good morning. Thank you, everyone, for joining us to discuss our third quarter results. As we approach the fifth anniversary of FCPT's formation, we are proud of the progress made in building the team and growing and diversifying our high-quality portfolio. We are very pleased with the third quarter results and the strong level of 99% of contractual rent collections for the quarter and for October. While this has been one of the most challenging operating periods for restaurants in recent history, it's very important to differentiate between different restaurant types and specifically the kinds of properties that Four Corners owns. Our assets are typically suburban and not in urban course. They're all branded, and they're all part of large chains. These restaurant operators have proven resilient and adjusting their business models as many in the quick service and casual dining sectors have returned to sales near 2019 levels. In the case of quick-service operators, some have even exceeded 2019 levels. As we said last quarter, we continue to believe that strong operators, like those in our portfolio, should benefit in the long run from their scale and from their investment in technology and off-premise to-go capabilities. The coming months could be a fluid situation and, of course, hard to predict for restaurant operators. But we believe that the FCPT portfolio will continue to perform very well. On collections, a quick recap of the second and third quarters. For the second quarter, we collected over 92% of second quarter rent payments agreed to approximate -- to defer approximately 3% of repayments until -- defer the 3% and to abate an incremental 4% of rent as part of lease amendments with favorable modifications. Today, we're working with 3 remaining tenants, representing less than 0.4% of the portfolio to either modify their…

Gerald Morgan

Analyst

Thanks, Bill. Our results returned to a more normalized level in the third quarter with less impact of COVID-19 related items than in the second quarter. We generated $36.8 million of cash rental income in the third quarter after excluding $1.8 million of straight-line and other noncash rental adjustments. 3 comments on accounting for rental income this quarter: First, we had no rental -- rent deferrals in the third quarter. As you may recall, we deferred $1.1 million of cash rent in the second quarter, which we recognized in the second quarter and still expect to be paid by the end of the year. Secondly, we did not abate any third quarter rent. We did complete several lease amendments in the third quarter in which we agreed to abate $1.6 million of second quarter rent as we disclosed on last quarter's call. In accordance with the appropriate GAAP revenue guidance in cases where the company abates rent as part of lease amendments, we are required to recognize the revenue for the abated rent in that current period and then treat the abated rent as a lease incentive to be amortized against future GAAP rental revenue over the remaining life of the leases as part of straight-line rent adjustments. We had deducted from Q2 AFFO $1.4 million as the rent we had expected to abate. We are deducting the remaining $200,000 of abated rent from third quarter AFFO. We did not deduct abated rent from FFO in accordance with the NAREIT definition of FFO. Finally, on collections, as Bill mentioned, we collected 99% of contractual rent in Q3, and we're also over 90 -- or at approximately 99% collected for Q2 after taking into account the deferred and abated rent referenced above. This means we had no material change to our…

William Lenehan

Analyst

Thanks, Gerry. As I mentioned when we opened the call, we are closing in next week on our fifth anniversary of our founding. We are grateful to our Board members who always provide meaningful counsel and to all of you, our equity and debt investors, who have been supporting us throughout. Over the last 5 years, we've been prudent in our investment approach and conservative in our capitalization and stand ready now to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace, whether they derive from tax motivated selling or from COVID-related vacancy in the joint venture. We look forward to speaking with many of you during the upcoming virtual Nareit meetings and otherwise are available to answer any questions in the quarter or the portfolio. So please reach out. With that, we will turn back over to Judith for Q&A.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Nate Crossett with Berenberg.

Nathan Crossett

Analyst

Obviously, it was a strong 3Q. I was wondering if you can give us some color on how the pipeline looks going into the end of the year? You mentioned the tax-driven sales. Can you try and quantify this for us potentially? And also, can you remind us how much is left to close on the Seritage and Brookfield agreements?

William Lenehan

Analyst

Sure. So on the mall outparcel transactions, we'll be filing an updated presentation and all that detail will be in the appendix. But as far as the pipeline overall, very busy. Don't quite know exactly how much we're going to see on these tax-motivated deals, but it's been ramping the last couple of weeks. And depending on the outcome of the election, could imagine a very busy end of the year. So we don't provide guidance or talk about pipeline amounts. But I'd simply say, we're very busy.

Nathan Crossett

Analyst

Okay. On the recent venture with Lubert-Adler, I'm just curious how did that come about? Did they come to you? Did you go to them? And is this something where you could actually acquire the full $150 million back from them once everything is stabilized there? I'm just trying to [Technical Difficulty] you guys.

William Lenehan

Analyst

Sure. So it's very difficult as a REIT to buy non-income producing properties and so we wanted to bring in outside capital, and specifically outside capital that brought expertise with it. And we're very excited to work with Lubert-Adler. We were introduced by an investor in both of our platforms, who we've known for well over a decade. So it's been a terrific working relationship thus far. I do expect that we will be acquiring for full ownership, a significant number of the properties that we invest in. And we really think it will be -- has the potential for really aiding our 2022 and 2023 acquisition volumes as well as being strategic for our tenants who are looking for ways to grow.

Nathan Crossett

Analyst

Okay. I guess like who's doing most of the legwork in sourcing the potential properties for that venture? Is it them? Or is it you guys? Or is it...

William Lenehan

Analyst

We are working collaboratively. But obviously, we're in this market every day. And even the mall counterparties that we've worked with are already providing an ample list of properties that are actionable.

Nathan Crossett

Analyst

Okay. And maybe just on the weightings of the types of properties, is it going to be mostly restaurants? Or is it just property retail stuff?

William Lenehan

Analyst

I think it will be mostly restaurants. But certainly, we won't shy away from the other kinds of property types that we work with. But I think the source of the vacant property will be largely restaurant. And these will be the brands that were struggling pre-COVID, brands like Sizzler, Ponderosa, Fuddruckers, red roof Pizza Huts, Captain D's, things like that, that were struggling pre-COVID, and COVID has really made it difficult to see how those brands are going to come through.

Nathan Crossett

Analyst

Okay. I mean the successful restaurant brands right now, are you guys in dialogue with them and they're saying we're looking for new high-quality locations. And so when you kind of -- when the joint venture needs vacant asset, you can kind of go to them immediately and say, we have a location for you? Or how is that done?

William Lenehan

Analyst

I think that's precisely it. The winners in this marketplace, brands like Darden, but also brands like Taco Bell and KFC and BJs and Chili's, are going to want to grow coming out of this. And we provide a real estate solution for that growth. And we've been in constant dialogue with those brands over the last few months.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Sheila McGrath with Evercore ISI.

Sheila McGrath

Analyst

Bill, on the joint venture, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more detail on how the pricing mechanism might work? Once the property is leased, how will you agree on terms on pricing? And do you envision that the cap rate to the REIT on these acquisitions will compare favorably to pricing in the auction market? And if so, about how much an advantage?

William Lenehan

Analyst

Sure. So the -- we don't have an obligation to purchase the properties. And reciprocally, there isn't a fixed cap rate that we can demand to purchase them at. We'll have to work out and negotiate a fair price. But I would note that if, in fact, it was a transaction we brought to the table and, therefore, earn a promote, crediting that promote against the purchase price, the basic math is 50 to 60 basis points in cap rate credit. And so, obviously, we want to be fair with our partners. But I think they clearly understand our motivation, which is not to be generating fees and promote, frankly, but the long-term ownership of well-located, high-quality properties. So it's a negotiation thus far. Lubert-Adler has been very fair and straightforward in their dealing. So we're looking forward to executing on that.

Sheila McGrath

Analyst

And then on the mall relationships, you bought mostly leased properties. Just wondering if this venture would enable you to go back to those partners and possibly purchase vacant properties?

William Lenehan

Analyst

Precisely. And we're already doing so.

Sheila McGrath

Analyst

Okay. Great. And one last one. Gerry, on the 1.5% Darden increase that you mentioned, I think you said November 9. Is that already straight-lined into rent revenues? Or how will we see that in the income statement?

Gerald Morgan

Analyst

Yes. It's already part of our straight-line. I'm just saying in the capped income, you'll see that increase in our fourth quarter cash revenues.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from RJ Milligan with Raymond James.

R.J. Milligan

Analyst

Just one question. The mix towards non-restaurant properties and acquisitions in the third quarter was a little bit higher than it's been in the past. Just curious how you envision that mix going forward for acquisitions?

William Lenehan

Analyst

Yes. It's -- RJ, it's not something that we've planned specifically. Obviously, we widened our aperture a year ago or so. And so deals have just been coming through the pipeline. A lot of these are in the Seritage deals, which were a little bit more evenly distributed between restaurants and non-restaurants. But there's not a master plan behind that. We're going to look to buy properties that we think are sensible. The mix will change over time. And certainly, as we've looked into other property types, we feel like the amount of properties that we can address is greater.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from John Massocca with Ladenburg Thalmann.

John Massocca

Analyst

So looking at the portfolio where it stand today and kind of just in the context of the fact that your first kind of 5 tenants are publicly traded and what they've done to kind of build a capital reserve in light of the current volatile environment is kind of publicly known. But maybe outside of that, as you look at the portfolio today, what portion roughly do you think is maybe slightly at risk if you do go into either a second lockdown or some of these commercial restrictions end up being a little longer term? Just any color there would be helpful.

William Lenehan

Analyst

Very small.

John Massocca

Analyst

Okay. And then as I think about Kerrow, maybe longer term, obviously, it's been an insightful view into the restaurant industry in kind of recent months. But is that longer-term a portion of kind of the business you want to keep? Or could that potentially be something that's either fully disposed of or kind of structured into more of a net lease kind of investment for you guys?

William Lenehan

Analyst

Sure. So I think it's important to keep in mind that Kerrow is an extraordinarily well-run business. Carol, who runs that business in San Antonio, obviously overseen from here in Mill Valley. But Carol, who runs that business and the 6 managing partners that report to her are true professionals. And it's been very valuable to understand day-by-day how they're operating. So I'll leave it at that. It obviously put a little bit of noise into our numbers, but I think it's understandable and it's proven to be very valuable as we negotiate with tenants and want to understand exactly what's going on, on a day-to-day basis. And it allows us to explore some growth that we wouldn't normally be able to explore as we were able to purchase an Olive Garden this summer that had adjacent land in which we can, in very sort of mindful of risk way, grow a seventh property, which further provides some learnings on that process. So again, very well run, very insightful. Certainly during the spring, we were in daily contact with Carol on exactly what was going on in the business, the changes she was making, ways in which they were creating additional revenue. But no plans as of today.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question is a follow-up from Sheila McGrath with Evercore.

Sheila McGrath

Analyst

So I was wondering if -- since you're ramping up acquisitions, if we expect any increase in G&A with adding personnel for the -- going into fourth quarter and 2021?

William Lenehan

Analyst

I wouldn't look at fourth quarter as much as going forward. I think G&A will increase as our properties number increases. But we've been very careful on G&A. And now in addition to that, we have the offset of some of the economics from the Lubert-Adler venture. But I don't think the G&A change will be anything surprising to folks. We're just maturing as a team, bringing in more capability, but nothing substantial.

Sheila McGrath

Analyst

And then on the JV, should we be modeling some sort of other income fee stream or it's just immaterial? Or how should we think about that?

William Lenehan

Analyst

I mean our reason for doing this deal is not to create an asset management business. It's not really capturing onetime promotes. It's providing a pipeline of great tenants, long-term leases, our lease form that we intend to have a 100% ownership of once the properties are paying. So that's the way I'm thinking of it and how I think it will unfold. But it certainly -- it does -- it will offset some amount of the additional overhead that we're going to incur in order to execute the plan on the joint venture.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There are no more questions registered. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Morgan for any closing remarks.

Gerald Morgan

Analyst

Bill?

William Lenehan

Analyst

None from me. Thanks, everyone. We're certainly available for questions. If anyone would like to chat, reach out. Hope all is well. Thanks.

Gerald Morgan

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.