Griffin Realty Trust Reports Third Quarter 2021 Results
Griffin Realty Trust Inc., a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust formerly known as Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, has reported its results for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.
Griffin Realty Trust Inc., a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust formerly known as Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, has reported its results for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.
The REIT reported total revenue of approximately $120.6 million for the third quarter 2021, an increase of $20.6 million compared to the same period last year.
The company said that the growth was primarily attributable to $23 million of rental income in connection with the acquisition of Cole Office & Industrial REIT, an unaffiliated non-traded REIT; offset by approximately $3 million of lower termination income in the current period.
Net income attributable to common stockholders was approximately $2.5 million, or $0.01 per basic and diluted share, for the third quarter 2021, compared to a net loss attributable to common stockholders of approximately $(8.6) million, or $(0.04) per basic and diluted share, for the same quarter of 2020.
Adjusted funds from operations was approximately $55.2 million and $39.7 million, or $0.15 per basic and diluted share, for the third quarter of 2021 and 2020, respectively.
“Despite ongoing COVID impacts, emerging inflationary headwinds and other macro challenges, our high-quality office and industrial portfolio continued to generate consistent performance…,” said Michael Escalante, chief executive officer. “We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet, with leverage at just 41.4 percent of enterprise value, which provides us with flexibility to navigate the current environment.”
Escalante explained that going forward, the REIT “intends to balance strategic initiatives with opportunities for accretive growth, particularly in the industrial market.”
“While our primary focus will be on industrial properties, we will selectively pursue acquisition opportunities for office properties leased to strong creditworthy tenants that offer attractive risk-adjusted returns,” he said.
Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $77.3 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. This resulted in fixed charge and interest coverage ratios of 3.0x and 3.8x, respectively, for the quarter.
Compared to the last quarter, net debt remained consistent at $2.5 billion. The company’s net debt to normalized EBITDAre and its net debt plus preferred to normalized EBITDAre were 7.3x and 7.6x, respectively. The ratio of debt, net, less cash and cash equivalents, to total real estate, was 42.8 percent.
As of September 30, 2021, the company’s weighted average loan maturity was four years with 70 percent of the loan balance having a fixed interest rate, including the effect of interest rate swaps. Approximately 40 percent of the company’s consolidated debt was secured and approximately 60 percent was unsecured.
The REIT signed five new leases totaling approximately 165,000 square feet and three renewal leases representing approximately 548,000 square feet.
The portfolio had a 94.4 percent occupancy rate, and the REIT collected 100 percent of contractual rent throughout the pandemic.
As reported by The DI Wire last month, Griffin Realty Trust temporarily suspended the quarterly publishing of its net asset value per share. The board authorized the suspension in light of certain “strategic initiatives” that the REIT is currently pursuing, although no specifics were provided in the SEC filing.
Griffin Realty Trust owns and operates a portfolio of corporate office and industrial properties that are primarily net leased to single tenants that the company has determined to be creditworthy. The portfolio, as of September 30, 2021, consisted of 121 office and industrial properties (144 buildings), totaling 29.1 million in rentable square feet, located in 26 states, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $5.7 billion. The weighted average remaining lease term was approximately 6.5 years.
