Earnings call transcript: Hema Real Estate Q3 2025 sees steady growth in rental income

Hema Real Estate, listed on NASDAQ OMX Iceland, reported its Q3 2025 earnings with an 8.2% increase in rental income, reflecting a solid performance in a challenging Icelandic market. The company’s stock saw a slight increase of 0.54% to 36.8, despite a broader decline of around 3% earlier. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains remarkably low price volatility with a beta of 0.29, making it a relatively stable investment. The company’s financial health is bolstered by a 1.4 percentage point rise in its equity ratio and a 3% decrease in its leverage ratio, with current analysis suggesting the stock is slightly undervalued.

Key Takeaways

• Rental income and EBITDA both grew by 8.2%.
• The occupancy rate remains high at 97%.
• The company aims to increase its environmentally certified buildings.
• No refinancing needed until at least 2027.

Company Performance

Hema Real Estate demonstrated robust growth in Q3 2025, with rental income and EBITDA both rising by 8.2%. The company’s focus on sustainable building practices is evident, with 42% of its portfolio now environmentally certified. Despite challenging market conditions in Iceland, Hema Real Estate maintained a high occupancy rate of 97% and an average lease term of six years, underscoring its competitive position.

Financial Highlights

• Rental income: 8.2% increase
• EBITDA: 8.2% increase
• Net profit: SEK 2.9 billion
• Equity ratio: Increased by 1.4 percentage points
• Leverage ratio: Decreased by almost 3%
• Return on equity: 5.6%
• Investment properties: Valued at DKK 222 billion

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, Hema Real Estate has no refinancing needs until 2027, providing financial stability. The company expects a significant positive impact from its CLASI associate company, potentially adding SEK 800 million to SEK 1.4 billion annually. InvestingPro data confirms management’s commitment to shareholder value through aggressive share buybacks, with the company trading at an attractive P/E ratio of 13.03. Hema Real Estate continues its share buyback program, aiming for up to SEK 2 billion. For detailed analysis of the company’s valuation metrics and growth potential, investors can access the comprehensive Pro Research Report available on InvestingPro.

Executive Commentary

Investor Relations Representative highlighted the company’s growth trajectory, stating, "We are a reliable and responsible investment opportunity with steady growth in EBITDA and top line revenue growth." Another executive emphasized the company’s strategic foundation, noting, "Our operations are on a solid foundation where the whole is surely greater than the sum of its parts."

Risks and Challenges

• Market conditions in Iceland remain challenging, potentially impacting future growth.
• The company’s reliance on commercial real estate could be affected by broader economic shifts.
• Maintaining high occupancy rates amid economic fluctuations poses ongoing challenges.
• Environmental certification targets may require additional investment and resources.

With a strong performance in Q3 2025, Hema Real Estate remains well-positioned in the real estate sector, focusing on sustainable growth and financial stability.

Full transcript - Heimar hf (HEIMAR) Q3 2025:

Investor Relations Representative, Hema Real Estate: Welcome to the financial presentation for the financial result of Hema Real Estate listed on NASDAQ OMX Iceland for the first nine months of 2025. Earlier today, the Board of Directors approved the interim financial accounts, and they’re being published simultaneously in Icelandic and English on NASDAQ OMX Iceland and on our website, heimar.is. For the next fifteen minutes or so, I will go through the financial results and all material is readily available on our website. And as always, I am reachable as the IR contact of this company. You can reach me either by telephone or via e mail.

But let’s begin with the beginning. We are reporting rental income increasing by roughly 8.2% following substantial investments that we presented to you in the last quarterly call. We say that new high quality assets and revenue streams have strengthened the solid operations within our core areas. The rental income is increasing by 8.2% in nominal terms, which translates roughly into 4% real revenue growth and the occupancy rate of the portfolio remains extremely high at roughly 97%. EBITDA is around billion and increases by 8.2, the same as the top line over the period.

Net profit comes in at SEK2.9 billion. In the last few quarters, the equity ratio has increased by 1.4 percentage points. And if you look at the last rolling twelve months, the leverage ratio has decreased by almost 3% over the same period. As has been released to the market, we have been initiating share buyback programs of roughly billion thus far, and we’re in the middle of a SEK500 million share buyback program. Treasury shares amounted to roughly 1.6% of total share capital.

And as we’ve stated before in these investor presentations, intrinsic value is the benchmark for our buybacks. Just briefly about the investment opportunity. We’re a reliable and responsible investment opportunity with steady growth in EBITDA and top line revenue growth. We operate within core areas. We have a very clear strategy, and we have shown time and again that we are delivering on strong execution of our strategy.

Rental income from our defined core areas is roughly 75% of all of our income, as I will go through in more detail later on in the presentation. We have a moderate LTV ratio, and we have been lowering the debt profile of the company in the last few quarters. And currently, the LTV ratio stands around 60% and has come down from 64% in the middle of the year 2023. Again, we place sustainability and social responsibility at the forefront of our operations. 40% of our portfolio is environmentally certified with an even higher share targeted.

39% of our financing has been issued through a green financing framework. And we see that since 2019, we have reduced our carbon footprint by roughly 12%. If you look at the key figures from the first nine months of the year, we see, as I’ve stated, that the rental income is increasing by 8.2%, and that is delivered all the way down to the EBITDA, which is increasing by 8.2% at the same time. EBITDA percentage is around 72% for the operations in whole, and our occupancy rate remains extremely high, around 97%, which means that vacancies in our portfolio are only 3%. Profit after tax comes in at SEK2.9 billion, and the fair value adjustment of investment properties has been very low this year and remains low at roughly SEK3.1 billion.

And the yield of investment properties is roughly 5.4%. Return on equity is similar, around 5.6%. But if you look at the financial position of the company, we see that investment properties are booked at DKK222 billion, interest bearing liabilities are around DKK130 billion. And as stated before, the leverage ratio has been coming down. At the end of the quarter, it was reported at 60.6%, and the equity ratio on the same part is around 32.4% and has increased from thirty one percent twelve months earlier.

If you look at our strategy and how we’re delivering on it on a quarterly basis, Just to give you a highlight of the portfolio, we own roughly 97 assets in the portfolio. The book value is around SEK222 billion. 75% of all our rental revenue comes from well defined core areas. And within these core areas, around 70% of the square meters in the portfolio are located. The total portfolio is just shy of 400,000 square meters registering at 389,000.

We have a broad range of customers, around four thirty customers. And thereof, public entities and listed companies amount to roughly 42% of our rental income. The average lease term in our portfolio is six years. And as stated before, the proportion of green buildings stands around 42% and the proportion of green financing is just shy of 40040%. If you look at the company’s strategy, we say that it’s clear and it’s delivering strong results on a quarterly basis.

That is based on disciplined operations and strategic investments. Let’s look at that a bit closer. As stated, 75% of our rental income comes from core areas. 12% stems from listed companies, 30% from public entities, and within our portfolio, 41% are environmentally certified buildings. At the back of that, 38% of our financing structure is through a green financing structure.

So we have roughly 40% of our debt listed as green debt. We aim higher. And in the next few quarters, we will hopefully come closer to the long term goals that are listed on this slide. And that is the name of the game, to improve from quarter to quarter. And that is the story that we’ve been telling you over the last few years.

If we dive into the finance and operations, and we begin by looking at the income statement for the first nine 2025, we see 4% real revenue growth, delivering 4% real increase in EBITDA. You see that in nominal terms, the rental income is increasing by 8.2%, and that’s delivered all the way down to the EBITDA, which is also increasing by 8.2%. On the right hand side, you see the comparison of rental income, EBITDA, operating costs of investment properties and administrative costs over the last few quarters, and it’s all moving in the right direction. If we break it down into the third quarter results, we see that EBITDA growth in EBITDA outpaces that of rental income. Rental income is increasing by 14.6% in the quarter, whereas EBITDA before fair value adjustments is increasing by roughly 15.4%.

That means that there is 10.7 real growth of rental income for the quarter. On the right hand side, we have the same comparisons as mentioned in the slide before. If we step back a bit and look at the development of the equity ratio and the leverage ratio of the company dating back to nine months 2023 for the last two years, you see there’s a stark difference. Equity ratio currently stands at 32.4% and has increased from 30.4% on the left hand side on the upper right hand side of the slide. The leverage ratio, at the same time has been decreasing or lowering.

It topped at 64.8%, but currently stands at just north of 60% or 60.6%. On the left hand side, you see that the equity of the company stands at the end of the period at just shy of SEK75 billion, which is around the market value of the company at the end of the quarter. If we break down the revenue growth and compare the first nine months of ’twenty five to the ’4, you see that inflation is the largest contributor to the revenue growth registering at roughly $432,000,000. Increase above inflation is just shy of 0.2%. And then the change in property portfolio, new assets acquired and other assets divested, are netting roughly CHF400 million.

And if you add that all together, you see that the revenue development is registering a healthy 8.2% growth year on year. At the same time, as stated there on the right hand side, price levels were increasing by roughly 4.2%, which translates again into four percent real growth. Throughout our businesses, we’re seeing strong demand for commercial real estate within the company, which again reaffirms that the occupancy rate remains extremely high at 97%. By looking at the intrinsic value of the share trading on NASDAQ OMX Iceland, we say that intrinsic value is and will remain the benchmark for buybacks. And we say that the price to book ratio adjusted for non interest bearing deferred tax liability is the reference point for our buyback programs.

As shown on the right hand side, we are currently in an active buyback program. And we have said to the market and reiterated here that buybacks this year could amount to up to ISK SEK2 billion. Currently, we’re somewhere around SEK1.2 billion. So there will be there is room for further buybacks throughout the remainder of the year. Looking at the fair value adjustments, we’re reporting a positive fair value adjustment of roughly billion for the first September 2025.

And at the same time, the company has been investing for roughly billion in its portfolio year to date. The weighted average cost of capital remains unchanged from the second quarter when we increased it by nine basis points as compared to year end 2024. Looking at the refinancing plan or the debt maturity profile of the company, we say that the company boasts an enviable debt profile with no refinancing needed in ’twenty five or ’twenty six, very limited in ’twenty seven and almost nonexistent in ’twenty eight. So we say this is an enviable debt profile. We recently issued a new green non indexed bond in the series maturing in 2028.

The series carries a floating interest rates linked to three months’ rebar plus a spread And bids totaling DKK 1,100,000,000.0 in nominal value were accepted at a spread of 90 basis points. As stated before, green financing accounts for roughly 38% of total interest bearing debt, and approximately 30% of interest bearing loans are bank loans. The effective average interest rates on our indexed loans was 3.44% at the end of third quarter in 2025. In our last presentations, we told you the story of ancillary revenue. We opened our books and showed you into our associate company, CLASI.

And just to reiterate, our operations are on a solid foundation where the whole is surely greater than the sum of its parts. What does this mean? The core operations are the operations of Heimar that I’m reporting to you today and have been doing on a quarterly basis. But on a six to twelve month period, we tell you the story of ancillary revenues and how we expect them to continue to grow over the next quarters and years. And we expect them in three to five years to be somewhere around 2.3% to 2% to 3% of our total revenue on an annual basis.

In our associate company, CLASI, which we hold onethree of the share capital, we estimate that the equity value of that stake will increase by roughly 50% on an 15%, one-five percent, on an annual basis for the next three years. So shareholders can expect SEK 700,000,000 to SEK 900,000,000 from that direction on an annual basis. That sums up to roughly SEK 800,000,000 to SEK 1,400,000,000.0 in positive impact on annual profit for the foreseeable future. Just briefly about our shareholders. There have been significant changes in the shareholder structure of Heimar this year, and we categorized our shareholders into pension funds, which hold around 50% of the share capital, private investors that hold around 25%, and other shareholders that hold around one fourth as well.

I especially want to highlight that foreign shareholders account for roughly 6% of the share capital, and that has been rising steadily over the last few quarters. And briefly, the market has been challenging in Iceland this year and Heimar’s share price slid a bit in the quarter, roughly 3%. And at the end of the period, the share price was at 34.8%. Interestingly, Haymar remains again, quarter after quarter, one of the most actively traded share on NASDAQ Iceland and has been in the last few quarters in the top 10, the top six, the top eight among the most traded and liquid shares on NASDAQ OMX Iceland. And just briefly, our next steps to the financial calendar for the year.

The annual results will be presented on February 1226, and the AGM will be held on March 26. Thank you for tuning in. Until later, goodbye.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.