Firm Capital Property Trust announces strong 2014 results

TORONTO, March 25, 2015 /CNW/ - Firm Capital Property Trust ("FCPT" or the "Trust"), (TSXV : FCD.UN) reported today its consolidated financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2014.

FOURTH QUARTER AND 2014 HIGHLIGHTS

• Three Months Ended December 31, 2014 ("Q4/2014") FFO and AFFO of $1.1 million and $0.9 million, which is an 86% and 52% increase over Q4/2013;
  
  
• Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2014 ("4Q/2014") FFO and AFFO of $3.5 million and $3.2 million; which is a 77% and 69% increase over 4Q/2013;
  
  
• 4Q/2014 FFO and AFFO per Unit of $0.477 and $0.438 per Unit, which is an 18% and 13% increase over 4Q/2013;
  
  
• Q4/2014 FFO and AFFO payout ratios of 74% and 88%, in line with the Trust's targeted AFFO payout ratio of 85%;
  
  
• Q4/2014 Cash Net Operating Income ("NOI") of $1.7 million, a 2% sequential increase over Q3/2014 and a 39% increase over Q4/2013;
  
  
• 4Q/2014 Cash NOI of $5.8 million, which is a 69% increase over 4Q/2013;
  
  
• Solid 90.4% and 93.3% occupancies for the commercial and multi-residential portfolios, respectively;
  
  
• Conservative leverage profile with Debt / Gross Book Value ("GBV") at 46.6%;
  
  
• Closed Two Significant Acquisitions for $29.2 million during 2014;
  
  
• Issued $17.3 million of Trust Units during 2014;
  
  
• Exceeded Annual AFFO Performance Incentive Fee Threshold: 4Q/2014 AFFO per Unit is well above FCPT's annual AFFO Performance Incentive Fee threshold of $0.40 per Unit (8% AFFO return from the Trust's initial equity issuance) and has been achieved after only its second full year of operation;
  
  
• Creates Geographically and Asset Class Diversified Portfolio: With the acquisition of the Centre Ice Portfolio and Ottawa Apartment Complex during 2014, the Trust generates cash flow from all of its targeted asset classes and is geographically diversified, with properties located in the majority of all Canadian provinces;
  
  
• Announced Second Distribution Increase: Announced on October 20, 2014 that the Board of Trustees approved its second distribution increase in less than one year with an 8.1% increase in its monthly distributions to $0.033333 per unit from $0.030833 per unit. On an annualized basis this equates to anticipated distributions of $0.40 per unit;
  
  
• 10.9% Total Return Ahead of All Major Indices: Including distribution reinvestment, FCPT Trust Units delivered a 10.9% total return to Unitholders for all of 2014. This return is ahead of the S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index of 10.2% and the TSX Composite Index of 10.6%.
  
  
• 98.2% Tax Deferral of Distributions: Announces that the 2014 tax deferral of unitholder distributions is 98.2%, which is well above the 2013 tax deferral of unitholder distributions of 83.3%. For additional information, please refer to the Trust's website at www.firmcapital.com;
  
  
• Renewed Credit Facility: Announced the Trust renewed its Bank Indebtedness Credit Facility (the "Facility") with a Canadian Chartered Bank for an additional 24 month term; and
  
  
• Distribution Announcement: Announces the Trust has declared and approved distributions in the amount of $0.033333 per Trust unit payable on or about May 15, 2015, June 15, 2015 and July 15, 2015 to unitholders of record on April 30, 2015, May 29, 2015 and June 30, 2015 respectively.
  
  
• Closed $3.0 million Private Placement of Trust Units: On March 24, 2015, the Trust closed a non-brokered private placement of 557,008 trust units at a price of $5.35 per Trust Unit for gross proceeds of approximately $3.0 million.The Trust will use the net proceeds of the offering to strengthen the Trust's balance sheet and to fund future acquisitions.

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 56 commercial properties with a total Gross Leasable Area ("GLA") of 833,373 square feet (830,315 square feet of Net Leasable Area) and one apartment complex comprised of 135 apartment units. The portfolio is diversified across geographies with 56% of the NOI generated from Ontario, 30% from Quebec, 9% from Nova Scotia and 5% collectively from BC, Alberta, Manitoba and New Brunswick. The portfolio is diversified across asset classes with 57% of NOI generated from Net Lease Convenience Retail, 30% from Industrial, 8% from Core Service Provider Office and 5% from Multi-Residential.

TENANT DIVERSIFICATION
The portfolio is well diversified by tenant profile with no tenant accounting for more than 9.9% of total net rent. Further, the top 10 tenants are largely comprised of credit worthy and large national tenants and account for 33.2% 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 8.7% of the issued and outstanding trust units of the Trust.

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 Realty Partners Inc., through a structure focused on an alignment of interests with the Trust, will source and syndicate investments.

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]