American Realty Capital Properties Announces First Quarter 2015 Operating Results

PHOENIX, May 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARCP) ("ARCP" or the "Company") announced today its operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2015.

First Quarter 2015 Consolidated Financial Results

Revenues
Consolidated Revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $72.8 million to $394.0 million as compared to revenue of $321.2 million for the same quarter in 2014.

Net Loss
Consolidated Net Loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 decreased $275.1 to ($30.7) million as compared to a net loss of ($305.8) million for the same quarter in 2014.

Normalized EBITDA
Consolidated normalized EBITDA for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $107.2 to $316.1 million as compared to normalized EBITDA of $208.9 million for the same quarter in 2014.

FFO and FFO per Diluted Common Share
Funds From Operations ("FFO") for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $339.8 million to $195.0 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, as compared to ($144.8) million, or ($0.24) per diluted share, for the same quarter in 2014.

AFFO and AFFO per Diluted Common Share
Adjusted Funds From Operations ("AFFO") for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $85.3 million to $200.1 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, as compared to $114.8 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, for the same quarter in 2014.

Financial Statistics
Consolidated Financial Statistics as of the quarter ended March 31, 2015 are as follows: Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio of 2.6x, Net Debt to Normalized EBITDA of 7.6x, Net Debt to Undepreciated Real Estate Assets of 53.3% and Unencumbered Gross Real Estate Assets to Total Gross Assets ratio of 62.5%.

First Quarter 2015 Real Estate Investment Financial Results

Revenues
Real Estate Investment segment revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $99.6 million to $366.5 million as compared to revenue of $266.9 million for the same quarter in 2014, primarily due to the increased size of the real estate portfolio.

Net Loss
Real Estate Investment segment net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 decreased $265.6 million to ($30.6) million as compared to a net loss of ($296.2) million for the same quarter in 2014, primarily due to merger and other non-routine transaction costs that were recorded in the quarter ended March 31, 2014.

Normalized EBITDA
Real Estate Investment segment normalized EBITDA for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $97.8 million to $306.7 million as compared to normalized EBITDA of $208.9 million, for the same quarter in 2014, mainly due to the increased size of the real estate portfolio.

FFO and FFO per Diluted Common Share
Real Estate Investment segment FFO for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $330.3 million to $195.1 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, as compared to ($135.2) million, or ($0.23) per diluted share, for the same quarter in 2014.

AFFO and AFFO per Diluted Common Share
Real Estate Investment segment AFFO for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $86.4 million to $195.1 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, as compared to $108.7 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, for the same quarter in 2014.

Real Estate Portfolio Update
As of March 31, 2015, ARCP's portfolio consisted of 4,647 properties with total portfolio occupancy of 98.4%, investment grade tenancy of 47.0% and a weighted average remaining lease term of 11.7 years.

Same Store Rent Increases
During the quarter ended March 31, 2015, same store rents (2,524 properties) increased 1.0% to $137.5 million as compared to $136.1 million for the same quarter in 2014.

Property Acquisitions
During the first quarter of 2015, the Company acquired four properties for $6.0 million at an average cash cap rate of 6.6%. Additionally, the Company acquired six land parcels for $1.6 million with $8.0 million of budgeted construction costs to complete the build-to-suit development projects at an average cap rate of 7.3% with weighted average anticipated lease terms totaling approximately 15.0 years.  In addition, six build-to-suit properties were completed and placed into service during the quarter with $7.6 million invested by the Company at an average cash cap rate of 7.3%.

Property Dispositions
As part of its ongoing active portfolio management, during the quarter ended March 31, 2015, the Company sold 11 properties for approximately $271.8 million at an average cash cap rate of approximately 7.1%.  The loss on first quarter sales was approximately $7.5 million, excluding the goodwill allocation.

First Quarter 2015 Cole Capital^® Financial Results
Note: The Company completed its acquisition of Cole Capital on February 7, 2014.

Revenues
Cole Capital segment revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 decreased $26.8 million to $27.5 million as compared to revenue of $54.3 million for the same quarter in 2014, as a consequence of reduced capital raise.

Net Loss
Cole Capital segment net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 decreased $9.5 million to ($86,000) as compared to a net loss of ($9.6) million for the same quarter in 2014, primarily due to higher asset management and transactional fees.

Normalized EBITDA
Cole Capital segment normalized EBITDA for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $9.5 million to $9.4 million as compared to normalized EBITDA of ($60,000), for the same quarter in 2014, primarily due to higher asset management and transactional fees.

FFO and FFO per Diluted Common Share
Cole Capital segment FFO for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased $9.5 million to ($86,000), or $0.00 per diluted share, as compared to ($9.6) million, or ($0.02) per diluted share, for the same quarter in 2014.

AFFO and AFFO per Diluted Common Share
Cole Capital segment AFFO for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 decreased $1.0 million to $5.1 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, as compared to $6.1 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, for the same quarter in 2014.

Investment Management Capital Raise
Raised $61.9 million of capital on behalf of four publicly registered, non-traded REITs managed by Cole Capital (the "Managed REITs"), including $32.1 million through the Managed REITs' Distribution Reinvestment Plans ("DRIPs"), compared to $461.2 million, including $8.3 million through the Managed REITs' DRIPs, in the first quarter of 2014.

Investment Management Acquisitions
Invested $225.8 million in 79 properties on behalf of the Cole Capital Managed REITs, compared to $235.3 million in 65 properties in the first quarter of 2014.

Sale of CCIT to SIR
On January 29, 2015, Cole Corporate Income Trust, Inc., Cole Capital's first office and industrial-focused REIT, merged into a wholly owned subsidiary of Select Income REIT netting the Company approximately $4.4 million in disposition fees.

Management Commentary

Glenn Rufrano, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "After five weeks, I can make the following observations:  ARCP is a full-service real estate operating company. Our experienced team can buy, sell, finance, asset manage, property manage, and lease, our properties all in-house. Our scale permits us to maintain an integrated and sophisticated real estate team with decades of experience, allowing us to efficiently access all segments of the net lease market: retail, office, industrial, restaurant, build-to-suit and sale-leaseback. We also have a well-respected investment management arm, Cole Capital, a combination of Cole Capital distribution and Cole Capital investment management, the latter a shared resource model with ARCP."

Subsequent Events

Board Reconstitution
On April 1, 2015, the Company announced the appointment of Hugh R. Frater as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and the addition of Julie G. Richardson as an Independent Director.  This was done in conjunction with two directors stepping down effective April 1, 2015.  Additionally, Glenn Rufrano joined the Board in conjunction with his appointment as the Company's Chief Executive Officer on April 1, 2015.  The Company expects to announce an additional independent board member in the near term.

Balance Sheet
Subsequent to the first quarter, the Company paid down $590.0 million on its line of credit from available cash, bringing the total amount outstanding under its term loan and revolving credit facility to $2.6 billion.  As a result, floating rate debt as a percentage of total debt decreased to approximately 16% from 21%.

Cole Capital Distribution
The major clearing firms, including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Pershing and TD Ameritrade, have all resumed processing trades of Cole Capital sponsored REITs on behalf of independent broker-dealers. Currently, there are 201 broker-dealer and RIA's able to sell Cole Capital sponsored REITs, which represents approximately 42% of 2014 gross capital raise.  2014 gross capital raise is based on full year capital raise for Cole Capital, which excludes DRIP and redemptions, but does include the time period before ARCP acquired Cole Capital on February 7, 2014.

During April 2015, Cole Capital raised $30.1 million of capital on behalf of the Managed REITs, including $11.1 million through the Managed REITs' DRIPs.

Dividend
The Board expects to be able to provide its dividend policy, along with the business plan, in August 2015, in conjunction with the release of Q2 2015 earnings.

Audio Webcast Details
The live audio webcast, beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, May 7, 2015, is available by accessing this link:
http://services.choruscall.com/links/arcp150507.html
*Participants should log in 10-15 minutes early.

Shortly after the live webcast, a replay of the webcast will be available in the Investor Relations section of our website.

About the Company
ARCP is a leading, self-managed commercial real estate investment trust ("REIT") focused on investing in single tenant freestanding commercial properties subject to net leases with high credit quality tenants. ARCP owns approximately 4,650 properties totaling 102 million square feet of leasable space in 49 states, as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Canada. Additionally, ARCP acquires and manages assets on behalf of the Cole Capital® non-traded REITs. ARCP is a publicly traded Maryland corporation listed on The NASDAQ Global Select Market. Additional information about ARCP can be found on its website at www.arcpreit.com. ARCP may disseminate important information regarding it and its operations, including financial information, through social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Terms and Definitions

Description of Funds From Operations and Adjusted Funds From Operations

Due to certain unique operating characteristics of real estate companies, as discussed below, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Inc. ("NAREIT"), an industry trade group, has promulgated a measure known as funds from operations ("FFO"), which we believe to be an appropriate supplemental measure to reflect the operating performance of a REIT. The use of FFO, a non-GAAP supplemental financial performance measure, is recommended by the REIT industry as a supplemental performance measure. FFO is not equivalent to our net income or loss as determined under U.S. GAAP.

NAREIT defines FFO as net income or loss computed in accordance with U.S. GAAP, excluding gains or losses from disposition of property, depreciation and amortization of real estate assets and impairment write-downs on real estate including pro rata share of adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures. Our FFO calculation complies with NAREIT's policy described above.

In addition to FFO, we use Adjusted Funds From Operations ("AFFO") as a non-GAAP supplemental financial performance measure to evaluate the operating performance of our company. AFFO, as defined by our Company, excludes from FFO one time items such as acquisition related costs, merger and other non-routine transactions costs, gains or losses on sale of investments, insurance and litigation settlements and extinguishment of debt cost. We also exclude certain non-cash items such as impairments of intangible, straight-line rental revenue, unrealized gains or losses on derivatives, amortization of intangibles, deferred financing costs, above and below market lease amortization as well as equity based compensation. Management believes that excluding these costs from FFO provides investors with supplemental performance information that is consistent with the performance models and analysis used by management, and provides investors a view of the performance of our portfolio over time, including after we cease to acquire properties on a frequent and regular basis. AFFO also allows for a comparison of the performance of our operations with other traded REITs that are not currently engaging in acquisitions and mergers, as well as a comparison of our performance with that of other traded REITs, as AFFO, or an equivalent measure, is routinely reported by traded REITs, and we believe often used by analysts and investors for comparison purposes.

For all of these reasons, we believe FFO and AFFO, in addition to net loss and cash flows from operating activities, as defined by GAAP, are helpful supplemental performance measures and useful in understanding the various ways in which our management evaluates the performance of our company over time. However, not all REITs calculate FFO and AFFO the same way, so comparisons with other REITs may not be meaningful. FFO and AFFO should not be considered as alternatives to net loss or to cash flows from operating activities, and are not intended to be used as a liquidity measure indicative of cash flow available to fund our cash needs.

AFFO may provide investors with a view of our future performance and future dividend policy. However, because AFFO excludes items that are an important component in an analysis of the historical performance of a property, AFFO should not be construed as a historic performance measure. Neither the SEC, NAREIT, nor any other regulatory body has evaluated the acceptability of the exclusions contemplated to adjust FFO in order to calculate AFFO and its use as a non-GAAP financial performance measure.

EBITDA and Normalized EBITDA
Normalized EBITDA as disclosed represents EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, modified to exclude one time items such as acquisition related costs, merger and other non-routine transactions costs, gains or losses on sale of investments, insurance and litigation settlements and extinguishment of debt cost. We also exclude certain non-cash items such as impairments of intangible, straight-line rental revenue, unrealized gains or losses on derivatives, amortization of intangibles, deferred financing costs, above and below market lease amortization as well as equity based compensation. Management believes that excluding these costs from EBITDA provides investors with supplemental performance information that is consistent with the performance models and analysis used by management, and provides investors a view of the performance of our portfolio over time.  The Company believes that Normalized EBITDA is a useful supplemental measure to investors and analysts for assessing the performance of the Company's business segments, although it does not represent net income that is computed in accordance with GAAP. Therefore, Normalized EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net income or as an indicator of the Company's financial performance. The Company uses Normalized EBITDA as one measure of its operating performance when formulating corporate goals and evaluating the effectiveness of the Company's strategies. Normalized EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

Gross Real Estate and Related Assets represent total gross real estate and related assets, including net investments in unconsolidated entities, investment in direct financing leases, investment securities and loans held for investment, net of gross intangible lease liabilities.

Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio is the sum of (i)interest expense incurred on the outstanding principal balance of our debt, excluding certain GAAP adjustments reported as interest expense, such as amortization of of deferred financing costs, premiums and discounts, (ii) secured debt principal amortization and (iii) dividends attributable to preferred shares divided by Normalized EBITDA.

Net Debt is a calculation to show the Company's outstanding principal balance, excluding certain GAAP adjustments, such as premiums and discounts, less all cash and cash equivalents.

Net Debt Leverage Ratio equals Net Debt divided by Gross Real Estate Assets.

Net Debt to Normalized EBITDA Annualized equals Net Debt divided by the current quarter Normalized EBITDA multiplied by four.

Forward Looking Statements
Information set forth herein (including information included or incorporated by reference herein) contains "forward-looking statements" (as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended), which reflect American Realty Capital Properties, Inc.'s ("ARCP," the "Company," "us," "our" and "we") expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Generally, the words "expects," "anticipates," "targets," "goals," "projects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," variations of such words and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, and any statements regarding ARCP's future financial condition, results of operations and business are also forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond ARCP's control.

The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: ARCP's plans, market and other expectations, objectives, intentions and other statements that are not historical facts; the developments disclosed herein; ARCP's ability to reestablish the financial network that supports Cole Capital®; ARCP's ability to regain the prior transaction and capital raising volume of Cole Capital prior to the filing of ARCP's Current Report on Form 8-K on October 29, 2014; the timing and expense of the remediation of ARCP's material weaknesses in disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting; the impact and outcome of litigation and regulatory investigations related to the recent Audit Committee investigation and restatement of ARCP's financial statements; ARCP's ability to regain compliance with the requirements of the NASDAQ Stock Market; the impact of ARCP's debt documents on ARCP's overall borrowing flexibility; the level and frequency of the dividend to be established by ARCP's Board of Directors compared to the level and frequency of the dividend ARCP previously paid; ARCP's ability to establish a timely financial reporting schedule; the impact of the recent downgrade in ARCP's credit rating to below investment-grade; the unpredictability of the business plans and financial condition of ARCP's tenants; the impact of impairment charges in respect of certain of ARCP's properties or other assets; the inability to retain or hire key personnel; and continuation or deterioration of current market conditions. Additional factors that may affect future results are contained in ARCP's filings with the SEC, which are available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

The forward-looking statements contained herein reflect ARCP's beliefs, assumptions and expectations regarding ARCP's future performance, taking into account all information currently available to it. These beliefs, assumptions and expectations are subject to risks and uncertainties and can change as a result of many possible events or factors, not all of which are known to ARCP. If a change occurs, ARCP's business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations may vary materially from those expressed in its forward-looking statements. ARCP disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, new information, future events or other changes, except as required by law.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140806/133976

SOURCE American Realty Capital Properties, Inc.