Firm Capital Property Trust announces another solid quarter of earnings and portfolio growth

TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2015 /CNW/ - Firm Capital Property Trust ("FCPT" or the "Trust"), (TSXV : FCD.UN) reported today its consolidated interim financial results for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2015.

THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

• Three Months Ended September 30, 2015 FFO and AFFO of $1.2 million and $1.1 million is a 12% and 14% sequential increase over the amounts reported for the three months ended June 30, 2015 and a 37% and 23% increase over the amounts reported for the three months ended September 30, 2014;

• Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015 FFO and AFFO of $3.3 million and $3.0 million are a 39% and 33% increase over the amounts reported for the nine months ended September 30, 2014;

• Three Months ended September 30, 2015 FFO and AFFO per Unit of $0.121 and $0.107 per Unit, is a 3% and 4% sequential increase over the three months ended June 30, 2015;

• Nine months ended September 30, 2015 FFO and AFFO per Unit of $0.345 and $0.316 are largely unchanged over the nine months ended September 30, 2014;

• Three months ended September 30, 2015 FFO and AFFO payout ratios of 83% and 93%. Nine months ended September 30, 2015 FFO and AFFO payout ratios of 87% and 95%;

• Three months ended September 30, 2015 Cash NOI of $1.9 million is an 11% sequential increase over the three months ended June 30, 2015 and a 17% increase over the three months ended September 30, 2014. Nine months ended September 30, 2015 Cash NOI of $5.3 million is a 31% increase over the nine months ended September 30, 2014;

• Commercial portfolio occupancy was 93.4%, a 400 bp increase over June 30, 2015 and a 78 bp increase over September 30, 2014. Multi-Residential Occupancy was 94.1%, a 222 bp increase over June 30, 2015;

• Conservative leverage profile with Debt / Gross Book Value ("GBV") at 47.5%

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

										% Change
	Three Months					Nine Months
	Sept 30, 2015		Sept 30, 2014			Sept 30, 2015		Sept 30, 2014		Three months	Nine months
Rental Revenue	$	3,277,289	$	2,772,254		$	9,226,792	$	6,792,675	18%	36%
Net Operating Income (NOI)
- IFRS Basis	$	1,955,829	$	1,685,256		$	5,447,886	$	4,147,506	16%	31%
- Cash Basis	$	1,925,116	$	1,648,534		$	5,328,912	$	4,070,676	17%	31%
Funds From Operations (FFO)	$	1,245,318	$	907,553		$	3,319,534	$	2,393,648	37%	39%
Adjusted Funds From Operations (AFFO)	$	1,110,619	$	903,995		$	3,036,596	$	2,286,142	23%	33%
FFO Per Unit	$	0.121	$	0.129		$	0.345	$	0.342	(7%)	1%
AFFO Per Unit	$	0.107	$	0.129		$	0.316	$	0.327	(17%)	(3%)
Distributions Per Unit	$	0.100	$	0.092		$	0.300	$	0.277	9%	8%
FFO Payout Ratio		83%		72%			87%		81%
AFFO Payout Ratio		93%		72%			95%		85%

• Closed significant industrial acquisition for $31.2 million: On August 27, 2015, the Trust acquired a 70% undivided interest in seven industrial buildings located in Waterloo, Ontario for $31.2 million (including transaction costs). As a result of the acquisition, the Trust increased the size of its current portfolio to 61 properties;

• 5% distribution increase is third increase and 20% in aggregate increases in less than three years: As a result of the closing of the acquisition of the industrial portfolio in Waterloo, the Trust declared and approved monthly distributions in the amount of $0.033333 per Trust Unit for unitholders of record on October 30, 2015 payable on or about November 16, 2015 and $0.035 per Trust Unit for unitholders of record on November 30, 2015 and December 31, 2015 payable on or about December 15, 2015 and January 15, 2016. This revised distribution is expected to result in a pro forma AFFO payout ratio of below 85% for the Trust;

• Closed $11 million non-brokered private placement: On September 22, 2015, the Trust announced the closing of its previously announced non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $11 million. The Trust issued 1,961,300 trust units at a price of $5.60 per trust unit. The Trust used the net proceeds to repay the revolving credit facility and to fund future acquisitions; and

• Approved distributions for January, February and March, 2016: The Trust also announces that it had declared and approved monthly distributions in the amount of $0.035 per trust unit for unitholders of record on January 29, 2016, February 26, 2016 and March 31, 2016 payable on or about February 15, 2016, March 15, 2016 and April 15, 2016.

For the complete financial statements, Management's Discussion & Analysis and supplementary information, please visit www.sedar.com or the Trust's website at www.firmcapital.com

PROPERTY PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS
The Trust's property portfolio consists of 60 commercial properties with a total Gross Leasable Area ("GLA") of 1,189,965 square feet (1,186,576 square feet of Net Leasable Area) and one apartment complex comprised of 135 apartment units. The portfolio is diversified across geographies with 66% of the NOI generated from Ontario, 23% from Quebec, 8% from Nova Scotia and 3% collectively from BC, Alberta, Manitoba and New Brunswick. The portfolio is diversified across asset classes with 46% of NOI generated from Industrial, 44% from Net Lease Convenience Retail, 6% from Core Service Provider Office and 4% from Multi-Residential.

TENANT DIVERSIFICATION
The portfolio is well diversified by tenant profile with no tenant accounting for more than 6.9% of total net rent. Further, the top 10 tenants are largely comprised of credit worthy and large national tenants and account for 27.5% of total net rent.

DISTRIBUTION REINVESTMENT PLAN & UNIT PURCHASE PLAN
The Trust has in place a Distribution Reinvestment Plan ("DRIP") and Unit Purchase Plan (the "Plan"). Under the terms of the DRIP, FCPT's Unitholders may elect to automatically reinvest all or a portion of their regular monthly distributions in additional Units, without incurring brokerage fees or commissions. Under the terms of the Plan, FCPT's Unitholders may purchase a minimum of $1,000 of Units per month and maximum purchases of up to $12,000 per annum. Management and trustees have not participated in the DRIP or Plan to date and own approximately 6.8% of the issued and outstanding trust units of the Trust.

APPROVED AMENDMENTS TO ASSET MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT
On October 20, 2015, the independent board of trustees approved the following amendments to the Asset Management Agreement with the asset manager, a party related to the property manager. These changes are reflective of the current operations which are focused on smaller multi-tenanted properties and which require significant management resources to operate:

Asset Management Fees: The Trust will pay the following fees annually:

	I.		0.75% of the first $300 million of the Gross Book Value of the Properties; and
	II.		0.50% of the Gross Book Value of the Properties in excess of $300 million.

Acquisition Fees: The Trust will pay the following acquisition fees:

	I.		0.75% of the first $300 million of aggregate Gross Book Value in respect of new properties acquired in a particular year;
	II.		0.65% of the next $200 million of aggregate Gross Book Value in respect of new properties acquired in such year; and thereafter
	III.		0.50% of the aggregate Gross Book Value of new properties acquired in such year.

ABOUT FIRM CAPITAL PROPERTY TRUST
Firm Capital Property Trust is focused on creating long-term value for Unitholders, through capital preservation and disciplined investing to achieve stable distributable income. In partnership with management and industry leaders, The Trust's plan is to co-own a diversified property portfolio of multi-residential, flex industrial, net lease convenience retail, and core service provider professional space. In addition to stand alone accretive acquisitions, the Trust will make joint acquisitions with strong financial partners and acquisitions of partial interests from existing ownership groups, in a manner that provides liquidity to those selling owners and professional management for those remaining as partners.  Firm Capital Properties Inc., through a structure focused on an alignment of interests with the Trust sources, syndicates and property and asset manages investments on behalf of the Trust.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION
This press release may contain forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue", and by discussions of strategies that involve risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Trust. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and various future events will not occur. Although management of the Trust believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements will occur as anticipated. Neither the Trust nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any forward-looking statements, and no one has any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or such other factors which affect this information, except as required by law.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, which may be made only by means of a prospectus, nor shall there be any sale of the Units in any state, province or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under securities laws of any such state, province or other jurisdiction. The Units of the Firm Capital Property Trust have not been, and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered, sold or delivered in the United States absent registration or an application for exemption from the registration requirements of U.S. securities laws.

SOURCE Firm Capital Property Trust

Robert McKee, President & Chief Executive Officer, [phone]; Sandy Poklar, Chief Financial Officer, [phone]