FRP Holdings, Inc.
Q3 2018 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 13 Nov 2018

[Operator:]

Excuse me, everyone. We now have John Baker, Executive Chair of FRP Holdings in conference. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Baker. Please begin.

[John Baker:]

Thank you and good afternoon everyone. I am John Baker, Executive Chairman of FRP Holdings. And with me this afternoon are John Milton, our Executive Vice President and CFO; John Klopfenstein, our Chief Accounting Officer; and David deVilliers, our President who has joined us from Baltimore by phone. Before we begin, let me remind you that any statements on this call which relate to the future are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are listed in our SEC filings. As we complete our second full quarter since the sale of our warehouses to Blackstone, I am reminded of how different a company we are these days every time I read our financial statements. Before the sale, our asset management group, which owned the warehouses, had $187 million of net book value. Today that number is $10.7 million in the 3 remaining office buildings and 1 warehouse, which is classified as a discontinued operation. While this sounds terribly negative, it is far more than offset by the fact that we have $260 million of cash on the balance sheet, approximately $28 million less debt and the opportunity to redeploy this cash in a higher return business model. No longer will we build and hold buildings. Our business plan going forward is to play to our strength, which is taking raw land and converting it into developed land or developed projects which have vastly increased value. We are not a NOI play today we are value creation play that opportunistically monetizes our assets. As we wait to deploy the cash, the goal is to invest the cash in 2-year average bond durations with a yield of about 3.5% today. This enables us to generate income while preserving liquidity. The next part of our transformation is the redeployment of our cash in projects that we are confident will yield higher returns than our old buy and hold strategy. As of today, we budgeted capital expenditures of $200 million over the next 5 years and while nearly half of this in projects where we have only letters of intent to close, we are optimistic that we can find good opportunities even in a high-priced environment. Furthermore, having the $8 million royalty stream coming in and actually growing, plus the interest income that we are earning, allows us to maintain a fortress balance sheet throughout the period should the inevitable recession occur. That’s the future we are planning. Let me now turn it over to David deVilliers to describe the quarter in each of our business groups.

[David deVilliers:]

Thank you, John and good day to those on the call this afternoon. As a follow-up to John’s opening remarks, our company may look a little different on paper following the warehouse sale. But we have certainly been busy initializing the redeployment of cash into potential future opportunities for the business. So relative to our asset management business segment and to reiterate, our entire warehouse portfolio is reclassified to discontinued operations last quarter, including 1 warehouse facility that an affiliate of Blackstone has an option to purchase for $11.7 million, pending the outcome of litigation with the current tenant relative to its right of first refusal option. Thus, our remaining Asset Management segment consists of 3 office buildings. This being said, total revenues for this business segment were up 1.6% to $568,000, and operating profit were $242,000, an increase of 9% over the same period last year. As to our other business segments, the mining and royalty segment enjoyed a 19% increase in its revenues for the quarter just ended, increasing $339,000 over the same period last year to $2.1 million. Total operating profit in this segment was $1,933,000, an increase of 18.1% over the same period last year. I might add this is the third straight quarter of increased revenues for this segment. And what’s more impressive is the fact that this is the most revenue the segment has generated through the first 9 months of any year ever. With respect to Land Development and Construction, this business segment is the main driver behind value creation. And as we have said before, the segment generates minimal revenues but incurs a significant cost to accomplish its objectives. So with respect to ongoing and new projects, they include

[John Baker:]

Thank you, David. Good report. Now, I will open up the floor for questions if any of you have anything you would like to dig in with us.

[Operator:]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Curtis Jensen with Robotti & Company.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Good afternoon, fellas.

[John Baker:]

Good afternoon, Curtis.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Just couple maybe a few questions, John. In the royalty segment, I mean it sounds like there is a pretty good tailwind there. Is this kind of like one-off things that help the business or is this kind of just improvements in volume price? Did you – some of the quarries had been expanded or a little bit more color would be helpful?

[John Baker:]

It is really just price improvements at the various quarries, nothing extraordinary, I think just – that point in the cycle where things are hitting on all cylinders.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Okay. And was Hyde Park somewhere in the balance sheet before and...

[John Baker:]

No, it is not in the balance sheet, it is a piece of property that we are going to finance and develop with a partner.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Okay. And Hampstead Heath was known as Hampstead trade center, I guess is what you guys maybe called it in the past?

[John Baker:]

Yes, correct.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Alright. I don’t know if John is there. Do you have a rough idea what the book value of that is, less than $10 million or something?

[John Baker:]

Yes.

[John Milton:]

It’s $7 million, about $7 million.

[John Baker:]

It’s about $7 million, Curtis.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Alright. And then as far as The Maren construction goes, is there anything happening in terms of labor and materials that has caught you by surprise or is there any pressure there?

[John Baker:]

No.

[David deVilliers:]

No, this is David deVilliers. No, we have a guaranteed maximum price from our contractor and a lot of that stuff was pre-bought and we don’t feel too concerned about that.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Okay. And then the last question, I will turn it over in. Bryant Street, I guess that will be a total of somewhere between $55 million and $60 million of cash, correct and it will go in as common equity in preferred?

[David deVilliers:]

Yes, sir.

[Curtis Jensen:]

There is no land or anything you are going to donate or anything contribute to that?

[David deVilliers:]

No. But we are going to be – we are buying, the joint venture will buy the land.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Can you say anything more about that kind of piece of property in that area of town and what you see and as you look out sort of 5 years or something?

[David deVilliers:]

Well, I guess, Curtis, if you are familiar with DC, it’s just – it’s two stops north of Pen Station on the Red Line and the wave of development has been kind of heading in that direction, west to east. We love the idea that it’s kind of a transit-oriented development if you will. There are other smaller developments that are cropping up around this area. The thing we like about it is a little bit like what we are hoping to do at Anacostia is to create a sense of place over time. So, this isn’t a one-off type of development that we kind of create a town within a town. So, it’s a great location. There is a tremendous move west to east. These rents are going to be a little less expensive than our RiverFront project and we are pretty excited about it.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Great. And maybe going back to The Maren for a minute, I mean, since you did Phase 1 with Dock 79, was there any learning that went on that helps you on the cost side in terms of The Maren and maybe improve the economics a little bit?

[David deVilliers:]

Yes, absolutely. I mean, just the design itself is a lot different. This building was a little bit more efficient from a construction standpoint. It’s a little bit more linear. Dock 79 almost looks like a reverse C-shape. And this building just by virtue of its design is more efficient and so that’s really helping us, not only in the construction, but also will help in the efficiencies of operating the building as everybody starts to lease it up.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Okay. And then at Dock 79, was all that wonderful retail space leased up as the baseball season finished and the summer was finishing?

[David deVilliers:]

Yes. Again, as I said in my report, we have four basic suites there. The fourth one is not leased and we are kind of happy that we didn’t do what we originally thought which was to try to make that a loss leader, because it’s facing the water, but it was kind of at the far end of the building. Now with Phase 2 under construction when that opens up, all of a sudden, it makes the location of the fourth retail spot a lot more exciting. So, I don’t think you will see anything for that until Phase 2 gets it up, but the third of the four retail sports is under construction now. They are not – they did fall behind a little bit in their construction activity, which certainly hurts them from a revenue standpoint. They are out from underneath of the free rent mark, so they are actually paying us a portion of the rent even though they are not open.

[Curtis Jensen:]

Okay. Alright, thanks. I will leave it there for the moment. Thank you.

[Operator:]

[Operator Instructions] Okay. And I am showing there are no current questions.

[John Baker:]

Thank you all for joining us. As you can tell by our report, we are enthusiastic about our future. We think we have got really a good team put together and can deliver very competitive and acceptable returns going forward. We have been – I have been surprised that we have been able to locate the number of projects that I think are really good in the short period of time since the sale. And we have worn you out with the mantra that we don’t – it was a great time to sell, because prices were high and we didn’t want to be the victim of buying when prices are high. And I think what we have done is we found projects where there is significant value add by developing the land and the buildings, and we are excited. We think it’s going to go forward quickly and we will be back up to a full operating company before too long. Again thank you so much for your interest in our company and we look forward to talking to you next quarter.