W. P. Carey Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Results

NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2025 -- W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE: WPC) (W. P. Carey or the Company), a net lease real estate investment trust, today reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2024.

Financial Highlights

• 2025 AFFO guidance range of between $4.82 and $4.92 per diluted share announced, based on anticipated full year investment volume of between $1.0 billion and $1.5 billion
  
  
• Fourth quarter cash dividend of $0.880 per share, equivalent to an annualized dividend rate of $3.52 per share

Real Estate Portfolio

• Record investment volume for a quarter of $841.3 million completed during the fourth quarter, bringing total investment volume for 2024 to $1.6 billion
  
  
• Gross disposition proceeds of $118.8 million during the fourth quarter, bringing total dispositions for 2024 to $1.2 billion
  
  
• Contractual same-store rent growth of 2.6%

Balance Sheet and Capitalization

• Issued €600.0 million of 3.700% Senior Unsecured Notes due 2034
  
  
• Subsequent to quarter end, repaid $450 million of 4.0% Senior Unsecured Notes due February 2025

MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY

"The fourth quarter concluded a pivotal year for W. P. Carey during which we successfully exited the office sector, setting the foundation for future growth," said Jason Fox, Chief Executive Officer. "We finished strongly with record investment volume for the quarter, and we're well-positioned to capitalize on opportunities in 2025. We can fund our investments this year without needing to access the equity market, achieved through accretive sales of non-core assets — including self-storage operating properties — which should generate a meaningful spread to our net lease investments.

"Given the uncertainty in the broader market, however, particularly over the direction of interest rates and other macroeconomic factors, our guidance reflects a measured approach, which we hope proves conservative as the year progresses."

QUARTERLY FINANCIAL RESULTS

Note: Beginning January 1, 2024, the Company no longer separately analyzes its business between real estate operations and investment management operations, and instead views the business as one reportable segment. As a result of this change, the Company has conformed prior period segment information to reflect how it currently views its business.

Revenues

• Revenues, including reimbursable costs, for the 2024 fourth quarter totaled $406.2 million, down 1.5% from $412.4 million for the 2023 fourth quarter.
  
  
  • Lease revenues increased primarily due to net investment activity and rent escalations, as well as outstanding rents collected in connection with a disposition during the current-year period, partly offset by the Net Lease Office Properties (NLOP) Spin-Off in November 2023 and dispositions under the Office Sale Program during 2023 and 2024, the majority of which occurred during the first quarter of 2024.
    
    
  • Income from finance leases and loans receivable decreased primarily as a result of the disposition of the U-Haul portfolio during the 2024 first quarter.
    
    
  • Operating property revenues decreased primarily as a result of the sale of five hotel operating properties during the 2023 fourth quarter and one during the 2024 second quarter (out of 12 hotel properties that converted from net lease to operating upon lease expiration during the 2023 first quarter).

Net Income Attributable to W. P. Carey

• Net income attributable to W. P. Carey for the 2024 fourth quarter was $47.0 million, down 67.4% from $144.3 million for the 2023 fourth quarter, due primarily to lower gain on sale of real estate and a mark-to-market loss recognized on the Company's shares of Lineage of $90.4 million during the current-year period, partly offset by lower impairment charges.

Adjusted Funds from Operations (AFFO)

• AFFO for the 2024 fourth quarter was $1.21 per diluted share, up 1.7% from $1.19 per diluted share for the 2023 fourth quarter, primarily reflecting outstanding rents collected in connection with a disposition during the current-year period, along with the impact of net investment activity and rent escalations, which were partly offset by the impact of the NLOP Spin-Off and dispositions under the Office Sale Program.

Note: Further information concerning AFFO, which is a non-GAAP supplemental performance metric, is presented in the accompanying tables and related notes.

Dividend

• On December 12, 2024, the Company reported that its Board of Directors increased its quarterly cash dividend to $0.880 per share, equivalent to an annualized dividend rate of $3.52 per share. The dividend was paid on January 15, 2025 to shareholders of record as of December 31, 2024.

FULL YEAR FINANCIAL RESULTS

Revenues

• Revenues, including reimbursable costs, for the 2024 full year totaled $1.58 billion, down 9.2% from $1.74 billion for the 2023 full year.
  
  
  • Lease revenues decreased primarily as a result of the NLOP Spin-Off in November 2023 and dispositions under the Office Sale Program during 2023 and 2024, partly offset by net investment activity and rent escalations.
    
    
  • Income from finance leases and loans receivable decreased primarily as a result of the disposition of the U-Haul portfolio during the 2024 first quarter.
    
    
  • Operating property revenues decreased primarily as a result of the sale of eight hotel operating properties during 2023 and one during 2024 (out of 12 hotel properties that converted from net lease to operating upon lease expiration during the 2023 first quarter).

Net Income Attributable to W. P. Carey

• Net income attributable to W. P. Carey for the 2024 full year totaled $460.8 million, down 34.9% from $708.3 million for the 2023 full year, due primarily to lower gain on sale of real estate, the mark-to-market loss recognized on the Company's shares of Lineage of $134.0 million during the current year and the impact of the NLOP Spin-Off and dispositions under the Office Sale Program. These declines were partly offset by lower impairment charges and a $31.8 million gain on change in control of interests recognized in connection with our acquisition of a third party joint venture partner's interest in nine self-storage operating properties during the 2024 third quarter.

AFFO

• AFFO for the 2024 full year was $4.70 per diluted share, down 9.3% from $5.18 per diluted share for the 2023 full year, primarily reflecting the impact of the NLOP Spin-Off and dispositions under the Office Sale Program.

Note: Further information concerning AFFO, which is a non-GAAP supplemental performance metric, is presented in the accompanying tables and related notes.

Dividend

• Dividends declared during 2024 totaled $3.490 per share, a decrease of 14.2% compared to total dividends declared during 2023 of $4.067 per share, reflecting the impact on dividends declared since the 2023 fourth quarter of both the Company's strategic exit from the office assets within its portfolio and a lower payout ratio.

AFFO GUIDANCE

2025 AFFO Guidance

• For the 2025 full year, the Company expects to report AFFO of between $4.82 and $4.92 per diluted share, based on the following key assumptions:

(i)   investment volume of between $1.0 billion and $1.5 billion;

(ii)   disposition volume of between $500 million and $1.0 billion;

(iii)  total general and administrative expenses of between $100 million and $103 million;

(iv)  property expenses, excluding reimbursable tenant costs of between $49 million and $53 million; and

(v)  tax expense (on an AFFO basis) of between $39 million and $43 million.

Note: The Company does not provide guidance on net income. The Company only provides guidance on AFFO and does not provide a reconciliation of this forward-looking non-GAAP guidance to net income due to the inherent difficulty in quantifying certain items necessary to provide such reconciliation as a result of their unknown effect, timing and potential significance. Examples of such items include impairments of assets, gains and losses from sales of assets, and depreciation and amortization from new acquisitions.

REAL ESTATE

Investments

• During the 2024 fourth quarter, the Company completed investments totaling $841.3 million, bringing total investment volume for the year ended December 31, 2024 to $1.6 billion.
  
  
• The Company currently has six capital investments and commitments totaling $98.6 million scheduled to be completed during 2025.

Dispositions

• During the 2024 fourth quarter, the Company disposed of five properties for gross proceeds totaling $118.8 million (including the sale of the final property under the Office Sale Program for gross proceeds of $26.8 million, thereby concluding the program), bringing total disposition proceeds for the year ended December 31, 2024 to $1.2 billion.

Contractual Same-Store Rent Growth

• As of December 31, 2024, contractual same store rent growth was 2.6% year over year, on a constant currency basis.

Composition

• As of December 31, 2024, the Company's net lease portfolio consisted of 1,555 properties, comprising 176 million square feet leased to 355 tenants, with a weighted-average lease term of 12.3 years and an occupancy rate of 98.6%. In addition, the Company owned 78 self-storage operating properties, four hotel operating properties and two student housing operating properties, totaling approximately 6.4 million square feet.

BALANCE SHEET AND CAPITALIZATION

Liquidity

• As of December 31, 2024, the Company had total liquidity of $2.6 billion, including approximately $1.9 billion of available capacity under its Senior Unsecured Credit Facility (net of amounts reserved for standby letters of credit) and $640.4 million of cash and cash equivalents.

Senior Unsecured Notes

• As previously announced, on November 19, 2024, the Company completed an underwritten public offering of €600 million aggregate principal amount of 3.700% Senior Notes due November 2034.
  
  
• Subsequent to quarter end, the Company repaid $450 million of 4.0% Senior Unsecured Notes due February 2025.

*     *     *     *     *

Supplemental Information

The Company has provided supplemental unaudited financial and operating information regarding the 2024 fourth quarter and certain prior quarters, including a description of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to GAAP measures, in a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 11, 2025, and made available on the Company's website at ir.wpcarey.com/investor-relations.

*     *     *     *     *

Live Conference Call and Audio Webcast Scheduled for Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time 
Please dial in at least 10 minutes prior to the start time.

Date/Time: Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time
Call-in Number: 1 (877) 465-1289 (U.S.) or +1 (201) 689-8762 (international)

Live Audio Webcast and Replay: www.wpcarey.com/earnings 

*     *     *     *     *

W. P. Carey Inc.

W. P. Carey ranks among the largest net lease REITs with a well-diversified portfolio of high-quality, operationally critical commercial real estate, which includes 1,555 net lease properties covering approximately 176 million square feet and a portfolio of 78 self-storage operating properties as of December 31, 2024. With offices in New York, London, Amsterdam and Dallas, the company remains focused on investing primarily in single-tenant, industrial, warehouse and retail properties located in the U.S. and Northern and Western Europe, under long-term net leases with built-in rent escalations.

www.wpcarey.com 

*     *     *     *     *

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Certain of the matters discussed in this communication constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, both as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding the intent, belief or expectations of W. P. Carey and can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "should," "would," "will be," "goals," "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate" "opportunities," "possibility," "strategy," "maintain" or the negative version of these words and other comparable terms. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements made by Mr. Jason Fox regarding acquisitions, dispositions, sources of capital, and expectations for future growth. These statements are based on the current expectations of our management, and it is important to note that our actual results could be materially different from those projected in such forward-looking statements. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Other unknown or unpredictable risks or uncertainties, like the risks related to fluctuating interest rates, the impact of inflation on our tenants and us, the effects of pandemics and global outbreaks of contagious diseases, and domestic or geopolitical crises, such as terrorism, military conflict, war or the perception that hostilities may be imminent, political instability or civil unrest, or other conflict, and those additional risk factors discussed in reports that we have filed with the SEC, could also have material adverse effects on our future results, performance or achievements. Discussions of some of these other important factors and assumptions are contained in W. P. Carey's filings with the SEC and are available at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov, including Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors in W. P. Carey's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this communication, unless noted otherwise. Except as required under the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations of the SEC, W. P. Carey does not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions to the forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this communication or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Institutional Investors:
Peter Sands
1 (212) 492-1110
institutionalir@wpcarey.com 

Individual Investors:
W. P. Carey Inc.
1 (212) 492-8920
ir@wpcarey.com 

Press

This News is brought to you by Qube Mark, your trusted source for the latest updates and insights in marketing technology. Stay tuned for more groundbreaking innovations in the world of technology.