ADO Properties Aktie

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Adler Group Q1 2026 Results Call. Speakers today, as usual, are our CEO, Dr. Karl Reinitzhuber; and our CFO, Thorsten Arsan. Both will lead through today's presentation and then answer your questions. Also, please note that this call is being recorded and will be made available on our website, where you can also find today's presentation.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Karl.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Sven. Before we start with the Q1 numbers, let me give you an overview of our recent asset disposals on Page 4. As already communicated in our full year figures, we closed Quartier Kaiserlei in January '26 as well as Benrather Garten and Holsten Quartier in March '26. Let me remind you that we have received 80% of the Holsten purchase price. The remaining proceeds will be received in the coming months. The proceeds from these 3 transactions were used to further reduce the first lien new money facility in March and April of '26.

Let me also shortly comment on our forward sale projects. Quartier Hoym in Dresden was successfully handed over to the buyer Aberdeen in March with very little residual work to be done. Ostforum in Leipzig is also close to completion outside of the lettable area, and we are now progressing the interior fit-out for our office anchor, Deloitte, to be handed over by year-end.

Another current focus is the letting of the remaining floor areas following the successful signing of lease contracts with Deloitte and Aldi. We also made progress in the disposal of our nonstrategic yielding assets in Berlin. Earlier in May, we closed Hansastrasse, Kornversuchsspeicher and Hedemannstrasse closed at the end of March and the beginning of April, and the proceeds were also used to reduce the first lien new money facility. Furthermore, we signed 21 condominium units in Berlin for a total sales price of EUR 7 million. All of these disposals have enabled us to repay debt of EUR 197 million since the beginning of the year.

Let me elaborate my take on the market environment for residential development and new building in Germany from Q1. My perception is that after a stabilization until February, the backdrop for residential developers has clouded over in the recent months with the increased interest rates driven by the Iran war. It seems that German developers and their equity partners are more cautious and delay their investment decisions. We are currently running a number of development sales processes in advanced stages where we had liked to inform you about successful signings of the purchase agreements, but where the track to finalization is longer than projected. We hope to come up with some good news in due course. With EUR 245 million, our disposal holdback basket remains almost fully filled, unchanged versus 3 months ago.

Moving on to Page 6. On the financials, our net rental income came in at EUR 31 million for the first 3 months. Compared to the prior year period, net rental income decreased as a result of the disposals of the North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio. The decrease was partly compensated by rent increases realized on the remaining assets. We are on track to reach our '26 net rental income guidance in the range of EUR 124 million to EUR 129 million. The adjusted EBITDA from rental activities amounted to EUR 21 million with a margin clearly improved compared to last year. The adjusted EBITDA total amounted to EUR 14 million, also reflecting increasing efficiency. As more and more development projects are being sold and the organization is becoming smaller, the negative financial impact from the development business will continue to become smaller.

Our group's equity position stands at EUR 0.8 billion. The LTV increased slightly to 77.1%, in line with our expectations. Our cash position amounts to EUR 301 million. Please note that the increase in cash is attributable to inflows from Holsten and Kornversuchsspeicher at the end of March, while the respective repayments under the first lien new money facility were done in April. Thorsten will provide more color on financials later in the presentation.

Overall, our Berlin-anchored yielding portfolio continued its strong operational performance, fully in line with what we have seen throughout last year. We achieved 3.6% like-for-like rental growth on a year-on-year basis. This was supported by increases of current rental contracts and ongoing reletting activities. We'll have a closer look at all KPIs on the following slides.

Let's proceed to portfolio and operational performance on Page 8. At the end of March '26, we had 17,483 rental units. It is a marginal decrease of 21 units compared to December, driven by the condo sales in Q1, which I mentioned before. As a reminder, our portfolio is fully Berlin anchored with more than 99% Berlin assets. Only 49 units are located outside of Berlin, and we expect to sell these units within the coming quarters. In the terms of value, the GAV of our yielding portfolio remained stable at EUR 3.5 billion. This reflects virtually no change from the prior period as there were no revaluation and only limited disposals during the first quarter. The GAV per square meter decreased slightly to EUR 2,870, down from EUR 2,875 in December.

Let's now move on to Page 9 to further discuss our operational KPIs. We achieved 3.6% like-for-like rental growth year-on-year. This is the same figure we reported for the last quarter, Q4 '25. As expected, we continue to achieve like-for-like rental growth well in our target zone of above 3% per year. Over the last 12 months, we have increased the rents of close to 50% of our residential units. Thereof half CPI indexed and half Mietspiegel-based leases. The rental growth of 3.6% is a healthy and sustainable level that reflects increases on current rental contracts as well as ongoing reletting activities. We are confident to report a rental growth number north of 3% at year-end '26.

The new biannual Mietspiegel '26 for Berlin is expected to be published today. We can expect an appreciation in line with inflation over the last 24 months, which will support our upcoming rent increases. Our average rent increased from EUR 8.31 per square meter per month reported a year ago to EUR 8.64 in March '26. Turning to vacancy. Our operational vacancy rate remains at a very low level of 1.4%, slightly down from 1.5% a year earlier. This confirms the continuous demand for rental apartments in Berlin, driven by continued population growth and the very limited new housing supply.

Now I would like to hand it over to Thorsten, who will walk you through the financials, starting on Page 11.

Thank you, Karl, and also a warm welcome from my side. At the end of March 2026, our yielding portfolio was valued at EUR 3.5 billion and our development portfolio at around EUR 400 million based on externally appraised values. This brings our total GAV to EUR 3.9 billion, slightly down from EUR 4 billion at the end of December 2025. This change was primarily driven by the handover of Quartier Hoym, which was transferred to the buyer during Q1, as stated earlier. In yielding assets, there was a slight decrease in value resulting from disposals of 21 condominium units in Berlin. These disposals reduced the GAV only marginally.

Let's now move on to the financing section on Page 12. Let me briefly walk you through the debt repayment update. We made further partial redemptions of the first lien new money facility in Q1 2026, amounting to EUR 51 million in total. This included EUR 11 million repaid on the 2nd January 2026 following the closing of UpperNord Tower, EUR 17 million repaid on 15th January 2026 from the closings of the Offenbach development project and Parkhaus and EUR 23 million repaid on 20th March 2026 after the closing of Benrather Garten. In the course of Q2, we have returned another EUR 131 million to the creditors, of which EUR 116 million are redemptions of the first lien new money facility. The proceeds came from the closings of Holsten, Kornversuchsspeicher, Hedemannstrasse, Hansastrasse and from condo sales.

Turning to the 2026 maturities. The remaining EUR 50 million Adler Real Estate bond falling due in April 2026 has been repaid from additional disposal proceeds in March, in line with the new money facility. During the second quarter, we also successfully completed the prolongation of a EUR 6 million secured bank loan, extending the maturity from 2026 to Q4 2028. This is another good example of constructive discussions with our lending banks, especially where assets in Berlin provide strong collateral.

The remaining EUR 12 million of 2026 bank maturities, discussions are ongoing. These are standard bilateral talks with the respective lenders. And based on the tone so far, we expect to reach prolongation agreements well ahead of maturity. Overall, the picture remains unchanged with the continuous inflow of disposal proceeds and the supportive dialogue with banks, the 2026 maturity profile is largely addressed, and we remain focused on reducing the first lien facility with further disposal proceeds.

Let's now move on to Page 13 and take a look of our current debt KPIs. Following the further partial redemptions of the first lien new money facility in Q1, our total nominal interest-bearing debt decreased to EUR 3.6 billion, down from EUR 3.7 billion in December. As already outlined by Karl, when commenting on our increased cash position, our debt decreased further following the repayments under the first lien new money facility in early April. Our LTV increased slightly to 77.1% as we had expected. The weighted average cost of debt is at 7.1% at the end of March, and our average debt maturity is around 3.2 years with the vast majority of financing maturing only in 2028 or later. All our ratings, including the issuer rating of B- with a stable outlook remain unchanged.

Let's turn to the debt maturity schedule on Page 14. The debt maturity picture looks largely unchanged compared to 3 months ago, only reflecting the repayments of the first lien new money facility in Q1 and the repayment of the Adler Real Estate bond in March. All other changes, which mainly are the repayments linked to Holsten Quartier, Kornversuchsspeicher and Hedemannstrasse will only be incorporated in our Q2 reporting. Looking ahead, our next significant maturity is in 2027, where we have a total of EUR 89 million secured loans due. As you can see on this slide, 97% of our financial debt matures only in 2028 or beyond.

Let's turn to LTV on the next page, Page 15. The LTV increased this quarter by 80 basis points, mainly due to the usual impact from interest expenses, both paid and accrued. The increase has been partially offset by disposals. As always, a reminder, kindly notice that our bond LTV covenant with a threshold of 90% is calculated differently, leading to a lower figure than stated here.

Let's continue with cash on the next page, Page 16. At the end of the first quarter, our cash position stood at EUR 301 million, in line with our expectations. As you might know, we invest our cash holdings usually in money market funds and call money in order to generate interest income. As you see, the development of the cash position is the usual format on this slide. On the cash inflow side, we realized proceeds from various disposals as discussed earlier. Yielding asset disposals include proceeds from condominium sales and Kornversuchsspeicher. Development asset disposals include proceeds from the completed sales of Offenbach, Benrather Garten and Holsten development projects. These proceeds were largely returned to the investors of the first lien notes. The net increase in our cash position is mainly driven by the fact that we have received disposal proceeds by the end of March, but only made the corresponding repayments in April.

And with that, back to you, Karl.

Thank you, Thorsten. Let me now conclude this presentation with some final remarks. We confirm our guidance of a net rental income between EUR 124 million to EUR 129 million for the full year '26. We are able to capture rental growth with our strong 3.6% like-for-like increase in line with our expectations, and we confirm our net rental income guidance for 2026. The direction of the German residential real estate market remains uncertain at this point in time. The private buyers for residential units remain the current backbone of the new build market. Institutional investors for both new and standing assets are restrained and hold back until there will be more visibility in the market.

A supporting element is the ongoing solid rental growth in all segments. When it comes to the disposal of our development projects, we are making good progress as a credible and trustable partner, for example, with our successful disposals in Hamburg, Frankfurt Offenbach and Dusseldorf. We are pursuing a number of sales processes in advanced stages and expect more signings in the time to come. The recent disposals have translated into debt repayments of EUR 197 million since the beginning of the year. We continue and progress the evaluation of options for our Berlin residential portfolio and the related financing structures together with our adviser, Evercore. We are closely monitoring the debate about expropriation of private housing in Berlin. In the last few days, the topic has reached the level of federal politics, namely with Bavarian Premier Soder putting forward the idea of a federal council initiative, a Bundesrat initiative, to prohibit expropriation on the level of single states like Berlin.

It would be helpful for Germany as a leading European business hub in banking, finance and real estate if the expropriation debate came to an end rather sooner than later. We do not face any maturities of capital market indebtedness before the end of '28. Just as Thorsten said, 97% of our financial debt matures only in '28 or beyond. It goes without saying that we remain focused on our comprehensive cost-cutting programs and budget discipline to ultimately preserve our liquidity position.

And with that, I would like to thank you for dialing in. We are now looking forward to your questions. Sven, back to you for the Q&A.

Thank you, Karl and Thorsten. And I hand it to our operator, Matilda, to open up the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from the line of Othman El Iraki from Fidelity International.

Just 2 questions for me. The first one is, given, as you said, increased interest rates, can you maybe just give some color on the kind of investment market for standing assets rather than development? That would be good to understand the impact of rates on the market? And then my second question is if there's any update on your strategic options with Evercore. That would be helpful.

Yes. Many thanks for the questions. Now question one, let's say, our view on the investment market for standing assets and residential portfolios. Well, I think what we can say is that we have seen a very limited number of transactions in Germany and in Berlin over the last few months and the fact that the interest rates increased with the Iran war, I think hasn't helped really the market. So the institutional investors are still holding back. And we are not, as I pointed out, seeing many transactions. So I would say the market is rather flat at this point in time.

Now with regard to our work on our options with Evercore, let's say, there is not much really I can report in detail. We continue to work. And as I pointed out also previously, when we come to conclusions and steps to be taken, we will share that with you, but this is not the case at this point in time.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Dr. Karl Reinitzhuber for any closing remarks.

Thanks, everyone, for joining today. We will publish our Q2 '26 figures on August 27, and the respective results presentation will take place on the same day. Thorsten and I look forward to speaking to you then. All the best for everyone. We close the call.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us for the Adler Group 2025 Results Call. Speakers today, as usual, are our CEO, Dr. Karl Reinitzhuber; and our CFO, Thorsten Arsan. Both will guide you through today's presentation and then answer your questions. Please note that this call is being recorded and will be made available on our website where you can also find today's presentation. For me, today marks my first results call with you since I took over the role as Head of Investor Relations and Communications at the end of 2025. I look forward to staying in close contact with you going forward. You will find my contact details on the last slide of this presentation.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Karl.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Sven. Before we start with the Q4 numbers, let me give you an overview of our recent asset disposals on Page 4. As communicated in our press release from 9 February, we continue to make good progress on the disposals of our development projects and Q4 was a particularly eventful quarter. In December '25, we closed UpperNord Tower, which had been signed in April. Furthermore, we closed Quartier Kaiserlei in January '26 and Benrather Garten in March '26, following their signing in Q4 '25. The proceeds from these 3 transactions were used to further reduce the first lien new money facility in the first quarter of '26. In addition, we signed Holsten Quartier in Hamburg during October '25. The first closing of this transaction happened yesterday. We have received more than 80% of the purchase price. The remaining proceeds for a smaller part of the plot will be received within -- with the second closing in the coming months.

Sales efforts for the remaining projects will continue with high priority throughout the year. Some of the sales processes are well advanced, and we expect further signings in the coming weeks. As we continue to experience good momentum in the disposal of our development assets, let me reiterate my take on the market environment for residential development and new building in Germany from the Q3 investor presentation. Now my perception is that the environment for residential developers has continued to stabilize over the recent months. Municipalities are more supportive of new housing projects, while construction costs are not rising above the CPI.

Financing remains challenging, but transactions get done. Just to be clear, we do not expect any material price uplift for our remaining developments. Still, we are building a solid track record of disposals through focused and competitive sales processes. The effect of the increased interest rates driven by the Iran war remains to be seen. But as of today, this seems not to immediately impact the German residential development business as their perspective is more long term. We made also progress in disposal of our nonstrategic yielding assets in Berlin. We sold Kornversuchsspeicher and 2 more buildings in Berlin for an aggregate amount of EUR 33 million. Parkhaus Loschwitzer Weg closed in December '25 and both Kornversuchsspeicher as well as Hedemannstrasse closed yesterday, and we received the purchase price.

We continued the disposal of our noncore assets in Eastern Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia, thereby reducing the remaining units outside of Berlin from 117 down to 49. Further disposals of these noncore assets are in the pipeline. We also signed 6 condominium units in Berlin for a total sales price of EUR 2 million. With EUR 245 million, our disposal holdback basket remains almost fully filled, unchanged versus 3 months ago. We will return the net proceeds from the recent closings of approximately EUR 125 million in the coming days to the [indiscernible] investors and banks.

Let me now turn to our key figures on Page 6. First, to the financial overview. Our net rental income came in at EUR 132 million. Compared to the prior year period, net rental income decreased substantially as a result of the disposals of BCP and the North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio early in '25. Net rental income for '25 came in well within our net rental income guidance in the range of EUR 127 million to EUR 135 million. The adjusted EBITDA from rental activities amounted to EUR 72 million with a slightly higher margin compared to last year. The adjusted EBITDA total was negative as the Development segment did not contribute positive earnings. As more and more development projects are being sold and we are downsizing the organization, the negative financial impact from the development business is becoming smaller as well.

Our group's equity position stands at EUR 0.9 billion. The LTV increased slightly to 76.3%, in line with our expectations. Our cash position amounts to EUR 214 million. Thorsten will provide more color on financials later in the presentation.

Next, to the portfolio performance. Overall, our Berlin-anchored yielding portfolio continued its strong operational performance, fully in line with what we have seen throughout the year. We are happy with the performance of our rental portfolio in the recent quarter, particularly with the 3.6% like-for-like rental growth. We'll have a closer look at all KPIs on the following slides. Let me first discuss our revaluation results realized in the second half of '25. We continue to see a different dynamic for yielding assets and for development projects similar to the first half. Valuations for our yielding assets continue to stabilize with another slight increase of 0.6% reported for HQ '25. On the other side, there was a negative like-for-like valuation of development assets of minus 6.5% in H2 '25. Values are still under pressure due to continuously rising construction costs as well as flat values for new build residential apartments in Germany.

Let's now proceed to portfolio and operational performance on Page 8. At the end of December '25, we were holding on to 17,504 rental units. This is a decrease of 191 units compared to September, driven by the disposals in Q4, which I mentioned before. As a reminder, our portfolio is fully Berlin anchored with more than 99% Berlin assets. Only 49 units are located outside of Berlin, and we expect to sell these units within the coming quarters. In terms of value, the GAV of our yielding portfolio remained stable at EUR 3.5 billion with a marginal increase in valuations offsetting disposals. The GAV per square meter increased slightly to EUR 2,875, up from EUR 2,847 in Q3.

Moving on to Page 9 to update you on yielding portfolio revaluation and rental. Now as in previous periods, our semiannual portfolio valuation was conducted by CBRE. After 3 consecutive years of like-for-like value declines, our portfolio recorded a positive like-for-like fair value change of 0.6% in H2 '25 following plus 0.4% in H1. In 2025, valuations have been marked up by an aggregated 1%, a further validation of the stabilization in the residential real estate market. Rental growth outpaces the development of valuations, leading to an increase in rental yield from 3.5% to 3.6%. Again, it remains to be seen how the interest rates and the real estate markets will move in the coming months with war in the Middle East and Ukraine and a rather fragile world economy.

Let's now move on to Page 10 to further discuss our operational KPIs. We achieved 3.6% like-for-like rental growth year-on-year, well in our target of around 3% per year. This is substantially higher than the 1.8% we reported last year in December with 2024 being subdued due to the timing of Mietspiegel and CPI-related adjustments in '23 and '24. Rent increases for almost 1,000 rental units became effective in the fourth quarter. Over the last 12 months, we have increased the rents of over 9,000 of our residential units, thereof half CPI indexed and half Mietspiegel-based leases. This is more than half of our portfolio. The rental growth of 3.6% is a healthy and sustainable level that reflects increases on current rental contracts as well as ongoing reletting activities. We are confident to report a rental growth number north of 3% again at year-end '26. The government of the State of Berlin has announced recently that a new Berlin Mietspiegel will be published midyear '26. We can expect some tailwind for '26 and even more for '27 from that new Mietspiegel.

Average rent increased from EUR 8.29 per square meter per month reported a year ago to EUR 8.61 in December '25. This is the first time that the average rent for last year is not distorted by the North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio, which had structurally lower rents compared to our Berlin assets. These units were excluded in the prior year figures. On a like-for-like comparable basis, the average rent grew from EUR 8.30 to EUR 8.61.

Turning to our vacancy. Our operational vacancy rate remains at a very low level of 1.3%, matching the rate for our Berlin assets a year earlier. This confirms the continuous demand for rental apartments in Berlin, driven by continued population growth and the very limited new housing supply.

Now I would like to hand it over to Thorsten, who will walk you through the financials, starting on Page 12.

Thank you, Karl, and also a warm welcome from my side. At the end of 2025, our yielding portfolio was valued at EUR 3.5 billion and our development portfolio at around EUR 500 million based on externally appraised values. This brings our total GAV to EUR 4 billion at the end of December 2025, slightly down from EUR 4.2 billion in September 2025. This change was primarily driven by the signing and closing of 3 development projects, Holsten, Offenbach and Benrather Garten, as stated earlier. Moreover, as mentioned before, the development projects saw a like-for-like devaluation of minus 6.5% compared to the previous quarter. This lowered the GAV by around EUR 36 million compared to Q3 2025. In yielding assets, there was a slight decrease in value resulting from disposals of 68 of the remaining rental units based in Eastern Germany, 121 rental units in Berlin and 6 condominium units also in Berlin. The decrease in value resulting from disposals was more or less compensated by the positive revaluation result of plus 0.6% during the second half of '25.

Let's now move on to the financial update on Page 13. Let me briefly walk you through the debt repayment update. As you know, we continue to use ongoing inflow of disposal proceeds to deleverage our capital structure. In Q4 2025, we made a partial redemption under the first lien new money facility, returning EUR 6 million to investors. This repayment was from proceeds received from condo sales in Berlin. We made further partial redemptions of the first lien new money facility in Q1 '26, amounting to EUR 51 million in total. This including EUR 11 million repaid on 2nd of January '26 following the closing of UpperNord Tower, EUR 17 million repaid on 15th of January from the closing of the Offenbach development project in Parkhaus and EUR 23 million repaid on 20th of March after the closing of Benrather Garten. As already mentioned by Karl, we will return net proceeds from the recent closings of approximately EUR 110 million in the coming days, alongside with the repayment of bank debt of EUR 15 million.

Turning to the 2026 maturities. The remaining EUR 50 million Adler Real Estate bond falling due in April '26 have been repaid on March 16 from disposal proceeds in line with the new money facility. As already outlined in Q3, we also successfully completed the prolongation of a EUR 9 million secured bank loan, extending the maturity from March '26 to Q4 '28. This is another good example of constructive discussions with our lending banks, especially where assets in Berlin provide strong collateral. The remaining EUR 80 million of 2026 bank maturities discussions are well progressing. These are standard bilateral talks with the respective lenders. And based on the tone so far, we expect to reach prolongation agreements well ahead of maturity.

Overall, the picture remains unchanged with the continuous inflow of disposal proceeds and supportive dialogue with banks. The 2026 maturity profile is largely addressed, and we remain focused on reducing the first lien facility with further disposal proceeds.

Let's now move on to Page 14 and take a look at our current debt KPIs. With limited redemptions of the first lien new money facility in Q4, our total nominal interest-bearing debt remains at EUR 3.7 billion. Our LTV increased slightly to 76.3% as we had expected. The weighted average cost of debt decreased by 0.1% points to 7% at the end of December, and our average debt maturity is around 3.4 years with the vast majority of our financing maturing only in 2028 or later. Based on our request, S&P withdrew its rating of the remaining Adler Real Estate bond 2026 notes in Q4 2025. There was no obligation to maintain this rating, and the notes have been fully redeemed earlier this month. All other ratings, including the issuer rating of B- with stable outlook remain unchanged.

Let's turn to the debt maturity schedule on Page 15. The debt maturity picture looks largely unchanged compared to 3 months ago. Looking ahead, our next significant maturity is in 2027, where we have a total of EUR 89 million secured loans. Discussions with the lenders of the 2027 bank maturities are progressing, and we are confident these will be addressed well ahead of maturity. As you can see on this slide, 97% of our financial debt matures in 2028 or beyond.

Let's turn to LTV on the next page, Page 16. LTV increased this quarter by 280 basis points as anticipated, mainly due to the usual impact from interest expenses, both paid and accrued and CapEx. As always, as a reminder, kindly notice that our bond LTV covenant with a threshold of 90% is calculated differently, leading to a lower figure than stated here. Let's continue with cash on the next page, Page 17. At the end of the fourth quarter, our cash position stood at EUR 240 million, in line with our expectations. You see the development of the cash position in the usual format on this slide. On the cash inflow side, we realized proceeds from various disposals as discussed earlier. Yielding asset disposals include proceeds from the closing of condominium and smaller asset sales. Development asset disposals include proceeds from the completed sale of UpperNord Tower and office development projects.

These were largely returns to investors of the first lien notes as highlighted earlier. The net decrease in our cash position resulted primarily from interest expense, debt repayments and capital expenditures spent on our development assets, particularly construction activities around our forward projects.

And with that, back to you, Karl.

Thank you, Thorsten. Let me now conclude this presentation with some final remarks and our guidance for 2026. Now for the year 2026, we expect net rental income in the range of EUR 124 million to EUR 129 million. As you can see in the bridge, this decrease compared to 2025 reflects the impact of our strategic disposals, particularly the North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio in February '25 and is partly offset by rental growth. Finally, let me summarize some key points relevant for '26. We have seen clear signs of stabilization and gradual recovery in yielding asset values over the last 18 months. As mentioned before, we cannot foresee the directions of interest rates and real estate markets on the back of the Iran war.

We are delivering on our strategy. We continue to strengthen our Berlin portfolio. Disposals of development projects are progressing, and we adjust our organization to the small business. With no bond maturities until '28, Adler Group has good flexibility to determine its next strategic steps. The Board of Directors is being advised by Evercore, a leading international investment bank and strategy adviser to evaluate strategic options for the Berlin residential portfolio and the related financing structures. This open-ended review represents a key strategic focus for the company in '26, and we will keep you updated on this process.

The debate on expropriation of private housing in Berlin is a growing concern in our reasoning. Even if the process of the expropriation initiative is not expected to commence before the Berlin election in September '26, we closely monitor the events and the legal assessment.

And with that, I would like to thank you for dialing in. We are now looking forward to your questions.

Thank you Karl and Thorsten. And I hand it over to our operator [ Moritz ] to open up for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions]

So it looks like there are no questions. So I would now like to turn the conference back over to Karl Reinitzhuber for any closing remarks.

Yes. Thanks, Moritz. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining today. We will publish our first quarter report on May 28, and the respective results presentation will take place on the same day. Thorsten and I look forward to speaking to you then. All the best for everyone. We close the call.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Adler Group Q3 2025 Results Investor Conference Call. I am Valentina, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Julian Mahlert, Head of Investor Relations and Communications at Adler Group. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Valentina. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Adler Group Q3 2025 Results Call. Speakers today, as usual, are our CEO, Dr. Karl Reinitzhuber; and our CFO, Thorsten Arsan. Both will lead through today's presentation and then answer your questions.

Also, please note that this call is being recorded and will be made available on our website, where you can also find today's presentation. For me, today will be my last results call with you as I am leaving Adler Group by the end of November after 6 eventful years. I have always appreciated working with you, and it has been an honor to be part of this great team. As such and with great confidence, I will hand over my responsibilities to my successor, Sven Doebeling, our Head of Finance, whom some of you already know. You will find his contact details on the last slide of the presentation.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Karl.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Julian. Thanks, Julian, for your knowledgeable and effective handling of your role as Head of Investor Relations. It has been instrumental in securing a smooth and dependable communication for Adler Group.

Now before we start with the Q3 numbers, let me give you an overview of our recent asset disposals on Page 4. As communicated before, in the third quarter, we fully completed the disposal of our North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio holding entities. We exercised the put option in order to transfer the remaining 10.1% stake in the respective propcos to the buyers, Orange Capital Partners and One Investment Management. The closing occurred in August and the net proceeds of EUR 21 million were fully returned to the investors of our first lien.

We also continue to make good progress on the disposals of our development projects. In the third quarter, we executed and completed the transactions of Cologneo III and The Wilhelm in Berlin. The net proceeds were also returned to the first lien holders. We have made further significant progress with additional disposals post the Q3 balance sheet date. First, we notarized the sale of the Holsten Quartier to a Hamburg consortium consisting of Quantum and HanseMerkur Grundvermögen in cooperation with the Hamburg-based housing provider, SAGA, at Q2 2025 book value. We expect the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of '26. We are very pleased with the sale of this project, which with its exceptional size and location in Hamburg is obviously one of the most prominent projects in our portfolio.

Second, we sold the Kaiserlei development project in Offenbach to the Frankfurt housing association, ABG. Closing of this transaction is expected for early '26, if not earlier. And third, we have signed the sale of the Düsseldorf-based development project, Benrather Gärten, to Instone Real Estate at Q2 2025 book value. We expect the closing of this transaction by the end of this year. And we expect more signings before year-end or in Q2 2026. We'll then inform and alert you on this.

Now as we experienced good momentum in the disposal of our developments, let me elaborate a bit on the market environment for residential development and new building in Germany. My perception is that the framework for resi developers has somewhat stabilized over the recent months and a higher degree of certainty and less fear of adverse changes in the market prevails. The average price for new residential units in Germany is up around 3% compared to last year. The time to market for sale of condo units is slowly but steadily decreasing.

I could witness in some of our development sales processes that the municipalities are increasingly supportive to enable residential developments and acknowledge the more challenging environment for financially successful projects compared to 4 or 5 years ago. Construction costs seem to flatten and bank financing has come through for the buyers of our projects. All buyers of Adler developments will now engage in zoning and permitting processes and will then execute construction themselves. There is no buyer with speculative intent behind the acquisition of the project or land plot.

Now all of this is not to say that we expect significant uplift in the pricing of our remaining developments over the coming year, but we have proven that we can sell even complex assets like Wilhelm in Berlin or Kaiserlei in Offenbach to experienced and well-financed buyers in what continues to be a challenging market.

Now I attribute our ability to do all these transactions also very much to the excellence and tenacity of our sales team, which works closely with the best local brokers. We run very focused and competitive sales processes and execute on transactions once we have reached the best possible outcome.

Now in terms of smaller yielding asset sales, we continued the disposal of our noncore assets in Eastern Germany, thereby reducing the remaining units from 162 down to 117. Further disposals of these noncore assets are in the pipeline. We also took the opportunity to dispose 32 condominium units in Berlin for a total sales price of EUR 9 million. With EUR 245 million, our disposal holdback basket remains almost fully filled, unchanged versus 3 months ago.

Now moving on to Page 6. On the financials, our net rental income came in at EUR 101 million for the first 9 months. Compared to the prior year period, net rental income decreased as a result of the disposals of BCP and the North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio. The decrease was partly compensated by rent increases realized on the remaining assets. We are well on track to reach our 2025 net rental income guidance in the range of EUR 127 million to EUR 135 million. The adjusted EBITDA from rental activities amounted to EUR 58 million with a margin slightly improved compared to last year.

The adjusted EBITDA total was negative as the development segment did not contribute positive earnings. As more and more development projects are being sold and the organization is becoming smaller, the negative financial impact from the development business will become smaller as well. Our group's equity position stands at EUR 0.9 billion. The LTV increased slightly to 73.5%, in line with our expectations. Our cash position amounts to EUR 241 million. Thorsten will provide more color on financials later in the presentation.

Our portfolio, overall, our Berlin anchored assets continued its strong operational performance, fully in line with what we have seen throughout the year. We achieved 3.2% like-for-like rental growth on a year-to-year basis. This was supported by an increase on current rental contracts and ongoing reletting activities. We have a closer look at all KPIs on the following slides.

Then let's proceed to portfolio and operational performance on Page 8. At the end of September 2025, we had 17,695 rental units. It's a marginal decrease of 77 units compared to June, driven by the disposals in Q3, which I mentioned before. As a reminder, our portfolio is fully Berlin anchored with more than 99% Berlin assets. Only 117 units are located outside of Berlin, and we expect to sell these units within the coming quarters. In terms of value, the GAV of our yielding portfolio remained stable at EUR 3.5 billion. This reflects no change from the prior period as there were no revaluation and only limited disposals during the third quarter. The GAV per square meter increased slightly to EUR 2,847, up from EUR 2,843 in Q2.

Let's now move on to Page 9 to further discuss our operational KPIs. We achieved 3.2% like-for-like rental growth year-on-year. This is lower than the 4.1% we reported last year, which is explained by the timing of Mietspiegel-related adjustments in 2023 and 2024. As expected, we realized like-for-like rental growth well in our target zone of around 3% per year. Rent increases for almost 3,000 rental units became effective in the third quarter.

Over the last 12 months, we have increased the rents of 50% of our residential units, therefore -- thereof half CPI indexed and half Mietspiegel-based leases. The rental growth of 3.2% is a healthy and sustainable level that reflects increases on our current rental contracts as well as ongoing reletting activities. We are confident to report a rental growth number north of 3% at the year-end 2025. Our average rent increased from EUR 7.71 per square meter per month reported a year ago to EUR 8.52 in September 2025. This growth is largely driven by the disposal of the North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio, which had structurally lower rents compared to our Berlin assets. These units were still included in the prior year figures. On a like-for-like comparable basis, the average rent grew from EUR 8.24 to EUR 8.52 per square meter per month.

Turning to vacancy. Our operational vacancy rate remains at a very low level of 1.6%, slightly down from 1.7% a year earlier. This confirms the continuous demand for rental apartments in Berlin, driven by continued population growth and the very limited new housing supply.

Now I would like to hand it over to Thorsten, who will talk -- walk you through the financials, starting on Page 11.

Thank you, Karl, and also a warm welcome from my side. At the end of September 2025, our yielding portfolio was valued at EUR 3.5 billion and our development portfolio at around EUR 700 million based on externally appraised values. This brings our total GAV to EUR 4.2 billion, slightly down from EUR 4.3 billion at the end of June 2025. This change was primarily driven by the disposal of the 2 development projects, Cologneo III and The Wilhelm, both of which were signed and transferred to the respective buyers during Q3 as stated earlier.

In yielding assets, there was a slight decrease in value resulting from disposals of 45 of the remaining rental units based in Eastern Germany and 32 condominium units in Berlin. These disposals reduced the GAV only marginally. Also in the GAV overview, we marked the value of the Offenbach Kaiserlei project down to the notarized sales price level. With that, all development projects, which were sold post the Q3 balance sheet date are reflected with the agreed price within our Q3 financials.

Let's now move on to the financing section on Page 12. Let me briefly walk you through the debt repayments update. As you know, we continue to use the ongoing inflow of disposal proceeds to deleverage our capital structure. Over the last -- over the past quarter, we made further partial redemptions under the first lien New Money Facility, returning a total of EUR 87 million to investors of the first lien notes. These repayments were fully funded by asset sales, both smaller yielding asset disposals in Berlin and completed development project sales. And there is more in the pipeline in terms of expected net proceeds when looking at the recently signed more sizable project disposals such as Holsten Quartier, Offenbach Kaiserlei and Benrather Gärten, which we expect to close in the coming months, if not weeks.

Turning to the 2026 maturities. The remaining EUR 50 million Adler Real Estate bond falling due in April 2026 is expected to be repaid from additional disposal proceeds in line with the New Money Facility. We also successfully completed the extension of a EUR 9 million secured bank loan, extending the maturity from March 2026 to Q4 2028. This is another good example of constructive discussions with our lending banks, especially where assets in Berlin provide strong collateral. For the remaining EUR 19 million of 2026 bank maturities, discussions are ongoing. These are standard bilateral talks with the respective lenders. And based on the tone so far, we expect to reach prolongation agreements well ahead of maturity. Overall, the picture remains unchanged. With the continuous inflow of disposal proceeds and the supportive dialogue with the banks, the 2026 maturity profile is largely addressed, and we remain focused on reducing the first lien facility with further disposal proceeds.

Let's now move on to Page 13 and take a look at our current debt KPIs. Following the further partial redemption of the first lien New Money Facility in Q3, our total nominal interest-bearing debt decreased to EUR 3.7 billion, down from EUR 3.8 billion in June. Our LTV increased slightly to 73.5% as we had expected. The weighted average cost of debt remains unchanged at 7.1% at the end of September, and our average debt maturity is around 3.6 years with the vast majority of our financing maturing only in 2028 or later.

Let me add one minor update on the ratings. Based on our request, S&P withdrew its rating on the remaining Adler Real Estate 2026 notes. There is no obligation to maintain this rating. And given the very small outstanding nominal amount, we decided to discontinue it for reasons of cost efficiency and structural simplification. All other ratings, including the issuer rating of B- with stable outlook remain unchanged.

Let's turn to the debt maturity schedule on Page 14. The debt maturity picture looks largely unchanged compared to 3 months ago. As told in the last quarter, there is no outstanding financial debt maturity this year. Looking ahead, our next significant maturity is in 2026, where we have a total of EUR 42 million due, comprising EUR 15 million of the remaining Adler Real estate bond maturing in April '26, which is expected to be repaid using disposal proceeds. EUR 9 million of the remaining EUR 27 million of bank debt were already extended after the end of Q3, leaving EUR 19 million with maturity not before October 2026. Discussions with the lenders of the 2026 bank maturities are ongoing, and we are confident that these will be addressed well ahead of maturity. As you can see on this slide, 97% of our financial debt matures only in 2028 or beyond.

Let's turn to the LTV on the next page, Page 15. As anticipated, the LTV increased this quarter by 140 bps points, mainly due to the usual impact from interest expenses, both paid and accrued. Other movements such as CapEx expenses for our yielding and development asset portfolio can be out with various smaller effects. As always, as a reminder, kindly notice that our bond covenant LTV with a threshold of 90% is calculated differently, leading to a lower figure than stated here.

Let's continue with cash on the next page, Page 16. At the end of the third quarter, our cash position stood at EUR 241 million, in line with our expectations. As you might know, we invest our cash holdings usually in money market funds and call money in order to generate interest income. You see the development of the cash position in the usual format on this slide. On the cash inflow side, we realized proceeds from various disposals as discussed earlier. Yielding asset disposals include proceeds from the second closing of the Cosmopolitan transaction as well as from condominium and smaller asset sales. Development asset disposals include proceeds from completed sales of the Cologneo III and The Wilhelm development projects. These proceeds were largely returned to the investors of the first lien notes. The net decrease in our cash position resulted primarily from capital expenditures spent on our development assets, particularly construction activities around our forward sales projects, Ostforum in Leipzig and LEA in Frankfurt.

And with that, back to you, Karl.

Thank you, Thorsten. Let me now conclude this presentation with some final remarks. We confirm our guidance of a net rental income between EUR 127 million to EUR 135 million for the full year 2025. Experts see a moderate improvement in the residential real estate market. Last quarter, standing assets were perceived moving ahead, driven by strong rental growth. As I mentioned earlier, we now see a stabilization and soft improvement in the activities around developments in new building. We are able to capture rental growth with our strong 3.2% like-for-like growth, in line with our expectations, and we confirm our net rental income guidance for 2025.

On the back of recent guidance provided by our peers, we expect a stable revaluation result for our Berlin portfolio for the full year 2025. When it comes to the disposal of our development projects, we are making good progress as a credible and trustable partner, for example, with our successful disposals in Hamburg, Offenbach and Düsseldorf. We do not face any material maturities of capital market indebtedness before the end of 2028. Just as Thorsten said, 97% of our financial debt matures only in 2028 or beyond. It goes without saying that we remain focused on our comprehensive cost-cutting programs and budget discipline to ultimately preserve our liquidity position.

And with that, I'd like to thank you for dialing in. We are now looking forward to your questions. Julian, back to you for the Q&A.

Thank you, Karl and Thorsten. And I hand it over to our operator, Valentina, to open the Q&A, please.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Emmanuel Arnoldi from Barclays.

A quick question. I couldn't hear the comment that you made on the Holsten development asset in relation to the price. And if you didn't do any comment, please just say so, in relation to the book value. And I wanted to ask, and it's the same question really, if we should take the -- I think it's EUR 289 million value for current -- noncurrent assets held for sale as a proxy of the sum of the prices for all these assets where you signed a document, but you haven't -- or a purchase agreement, but you haven't yet closed the disposal.

Okay. Well, we do not publish the pricing for individual assets, but we can -- what we can say on Holsten is that we sell it at book value. And well, yes, with the EUR 289 million comprising the assets that have been sold, but where the process is not closed, you're quite right on that.

So it would be the Holsten, the Kaiserlei, the other one that I was -- forgot how it's called...

Holsten, Kaiserlei, Düsseldorf and we still have, yes, Schwabenland Tower, [ Cologneo III. ] Yes. That's what it is.

Emanuele, you are right. I mean the EUR 289 million are mainly the developments that we've signed and not closed yet. Offenbach is not included because that's something we basically signed after Q3, but all other developments are mainly comprising the EUR 289 million.

Okay. Yes. So to be -- let's say, to be complete, right, we also have Grand Central, Eurohaus and UpperNord Tower within the EUR 289 million.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Antonio Casari from Northlight Investment Services.

First of all, thank you very much to Julian and best of luck for your next endeavor. It was really helpful, the dialogue with you. And then my question is regarding the regulation. A few of your peers talked about this Bau-Turbo that is going to be put in place and clearly has been in line with what you mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, but it would be interesting to have your perspective around that.

Okay. It was a bit difficult hearing you, but I understand your question is around the Bau-Turbo, right?

Yes. Yes, sorry.

Yes. What I can say from my observation in the disposal processes of our developments and the interaction with municipalities is that a number of municipalities are thinking about using the Bau-Turbo on some of our disposal projects, at least for a part of the intended buildings within the project. I have not seen Bau-Turbo yet, but I would expect that over the course of the coming year, we would see the first examples, particularly there where, let's say, the expected zoning for residential buildings is very clear and undisputed and where the municipalities do not have to expect any, let's say, criticism from within the political environment in the city or from neighbors or other stakeholders around these projects.

Great. And then the second question relating to your forward sale and condominium, you mentioned a book value of EUR 0.2 billion. I assume the list is only the 3 projects that are listed in Slide 31, which has expected completion in 2026. So my question is, do we expect monetization of all of them in 2026? And how much would be the cash proceeds from the disposal since with forward sale and condominiums, there's a portion, I understand that is paid as the project advances.

Yes. Well, I cannot tell you, let's say, the individual expected cash-ins or the pricing. But what I can say is that on Ostforum, this will be disposed over the course of '26. and we will then eventually receive the full proceeds at closing. Now it is slightly different with the 2 other projects with Hoym in Dresden, there have been -- this one has been presold, and we have received progress payments from the buyer so that there would be still a rather small cash value coming in going forward. And in the LEA at Frankfurt, there out of 165 apartments, a bit less than 150 apartments have been sold. And progress payments have been received. There are further progress payments to be received from these 150 owners over the course until completion, and we will sell the remaining around 15 apartments once the construction and the building is fully completed.

Perfect. Very clear. But just to be clear, the EUR 0.2 billion book value reflects the expectation of what in total you should cash in from forward sale and condominiums?

Yes. This is, let's say, the gross value of these assets at this point in time. The cash from the received progress payments has not been netted at this point or in this number.

The next question comes from Niki Kouzmanov from Jefferies.

Can you guys hear me?

Hear you well.

Great. Just on -- I think I wanted to ask more on the cost savings and G&A optimization and CapEx optimization and the cash balance that we have at September, which is quite elevated and the upcoming, as you mentioned, the additional disposal on the development side, which is going to further pay down the first lien. I think the 1.5 lien has a noncore until February. Are there any sort of plans or thinking about refinancing and further optimizing the capital structure, especially if some of the CapEx for these developments, specifically the condominiums is going to disappear once the projects are completed? And then probably in relation to that, I think you referred to some early signs of warming up of the yielding transaction market in Berlin. But how are you thinking about your -- I think last -- at the last call, you mentioned you're doing sort of a soft marketing exercise to look at the value of the units in Berlin and how they could be disposed of. Kind of these 2 things hand in hand together, is there any progress or update you can provide us on?

Yes. Well, first on your question, what we are doing with regard to our Berlin portfolio. As I said, we are assessing our options and no decisions are taken at this point in time, but we are working on it, but there is not more I can say with regard to your first question. Thorsten?

Thank you. Niki, I can basically touch or answer your question regarding the potential refinancing. I mean, with EUR 3.7 billion of total debt and a weighted average cost of debt slightly above 7%, I mean, it's our utmost duty to always assess whether there are opportunities to refinance more attractively than currently. There are no specific plans right now. I mean you know we refinanced the 1L and the 1.5L in the first half of this year. As said, we are assessing all kind of opportunities, but there are no specific plans right now.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Karl Reinitzhuber for any closing remarks.

Yes. Thanks, everyone, for joining today. We will publish our 2025 annual report on April 30, 2026, and the respective results presentation will take place on the same day. Thorsten and I look forward to speaking to you then. All the best for everyone. We close the call.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Adler Group H1 2025 results call. Speakers today are our CEO, Dr. Karl Reinitzhuber; and our CFO, Thorsten Arsan. Both will lead through today's presentation and then answer your questions.

Please note that this call is being recorded and will be made available on our website where you can also find today's presentation. And with that, I hand it over to Karl.

Thank you, Julian. Welcome to all of you. Before we start with the Q2 numbers, let's have a look at the status of our recent disposals on Page 4. As communicated before, the BCP transaction was fully completed in the second quarter. From the EUR 219 million of total cash proceeds, we used EUR 120 million for repayment of our first lien New Money facility, while the remainder was added to our disposal holdback basket.

We have also fully completed the disposal of our North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio holding entities. We recently exercised the put option in order to transfer the remaining 10.1% stake in the respective propcos to the buyers, Orange Capital Partners and One Investment Management. The closing occurred just a few days ago and proceeds will be fully returned to the investors of our first lien New Money facility.

We also continue to make progress on the disposals of our development projects. Since the beginning of the second quarter, we have completed the transactions of our 2 Cologne-based projects, CologneApart and Cologneo III. Furthermore, we signed a contract to sell our Düsseldorf based project, UpperNord Tower, which will be transferred to the buyer, Nexus Investment, by year-end.

As you may have read in the press, the real estate developer, Quantum, and the Hamburg-based housing provider, SAGA Group, have been granted exclusively to purchase the Holsten Quartier, one of our prime development projects. We are confident to be able to sign a sales contract in the coming weeks.

We also expect progress on our development asset sales over the next couple of weeks and months, such as The Wilhelm, Benrather Gärten, VAI Campus and Schwabenlandtower, just to mention a few.

Please let me also mention one significant milestone on our forward sale project, Ostforum in Leipzig. On this landmark building with a total rental area of 20,000 square meters for office, residential and retail, we signed a long-term lease contract with the big four audit company, Deloitte, 2 weeks ago. Deloitte will occupy around 8,000 square meters, more than 2/3 of the office space available in the building. This is the biggest commercial lease in Leipzig this year. We are convinced that this will allow us to negotiate further attractive lease contracts for the remaining space and ultimately enable us to successfully sell the project to a long-term investor around the completion at '26.

In terms of smaller unit asset sales, we took the opportunity to dispose around 60 units in Berlin in 2 transactions at around book value. The larger of these 2 transactions in the volume of EUR 10 million will close by year-end. The other one is already done. We also continued the disposal of our noncore assets in Eastern Germany, thereby reducing the remaining units from 220 down to 162 million. Further disposals of these noncore assets are in the pipeline. As of now, with EUR 245 million, our disposal holdback basket of up to EUR 250 million is almost fully filled.

Now we move to Page 6. First to the financial highlights. Compared to the prior year period, net rental income decreased in the first half of the year as a result of the disposals of BCP and the North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio. The decrease was partly compensated by rent increases realized on the remaining assets. We are well on track to reach our 2025 net rental income guidance in the range of EUR 127 million to EUR 135 million. The adjusted EBITDA from rental activities amounted to EUR 40 million with a slightly improved margin compared to last year. The adjusted EBITDA total was negative as the development segment did not contribute material earnings and was impacted by construction costs.

Our group's total equity position amounts to EUR 1 billion. Our LTV increased slightly to 72.1% as expected. Our cash position amounts to EUR 285 million, largely unchanged compared to the last quarter. Thorsten will provide more color on financials later in the presentation.

We are very happy with the performance of our rental portfolio in the recent quarter, particularly with the 3.4% like-for-like rental growth, and we'll have a closer look at all KPIs on the following slides.

Let me quickly discuss our H1 revaluation results realized in this quarter. We continue to see a different dynamic for yielding assets and for development projects. Valuations for our yielding assets continue to stabilize with another slight increase in values reported for H1 '25. On the other side, values for development projects are still under pressure due to continuously rising construction costs as well as flat values for new build residential apartments in Germany. Almost half of the negative like-for-like revaluation of our development results, well, in the minus 15.5% attributable to the development project, The Wilhelm in Berlin, for which we booked the provision to account for the expected sales price, which we will generate at closing currently expected for September 2025.

Now let's proceed to portfolio and operational performance on Page 8. As of June 2025, our total number of rental units stands at 17,772. It's a marginal decrease of 136 units compared to March 2025, driven by the mentioned disposals signed in Q2. Our portfolio is fully Berlin anchored with more than 99% Berlin assets. Only 162 units are located outside of Berlin, and we expect to sell these units within the coming quarters.

In terms of value, the GAV of our yielding portfolio remained stable at EUR 3.5 billion. This reflects virtually no change from prior periods as there were no material revaluations and only limited disposals during the second quarter. The GAV per square meter increased slightly to EUR 2,843, up from 2,821 in Q1.

Let's now move on to Page 9 to discuss yielding portfolio valuation. As in previous periods, our semiannual portfolio valuation was conducted by CBRE. After 3 consecutive years for -- of like-for-like value declines, the first half of 2025 confirms that the devaluation phase has come to an end. Our portfolio recorded a positive like-for-like fair value change of plus 1.4% in H1 2025, while rental yields continued to expand to 3.5% from 3.4%, the realized value uplift stems from our rental growth and is supported by the stabilized interest rate environment. The positive revaluation is also reflected in the results of our market peers.

Please join me now on Page 10 to discuss our further operational KPIs. As projected in our Q1 results, we saw our like-for-like rental growth to pick up again more significantly in the second quarter. For the 12 months to June 2025, rental growth amounted to 3.4%, well in our target of around 3% per year. The main factor was that the contribution from the Mietspiegel related rents well -- delivered well. The rent increase for almost 4,000 rental units became effective in the second quarter. Over the last 12 months, we increased the rent of more than half of our residential units.

For the 12-month period ending June 2024, we had reported a rental growth of 5.2% for our Berlin assets, which was mainly driven by the strong Mietspiegel related rent increases in H2 2023. Therefore, H2 2024 was rather flat as the time between the 2 rent increases is not less than 15 months by law. Also with inflation being higher at that time, we had an additional extraordinary contribution from the CPI-linked rental contracts in Berlin, which account for approximately 1/3 of our units. That said, we feel comfortable with the 3.4% reported now as this reflects a rather sustainable level in line with our midterm annual target.

Our average rent increased from EUR 7.65 per square meter per month reported a year ago to EUR 8.45 in June 2025. This growth is largely driven by the disposal of the North Rhine-Westphalia Cosmopolitan portfolio, which had structurally lower rents compared to our Berlin assets. On a like-for-like basis, the average rent grew from EUR 8.16 to EUR 8.45 per square meter per month.

Turning to vacancy. Our operational vacancy rate remains at a very low level of 1.6%, slightly down from 1.8% a year earlier. This confirms the continuous demand for rental apartments in Berlin driven by continued population growth and the structural limited new housing supply.

Now I would like to hand it over to Thorsten, who will walk you through the financials, starting on Page 12.

Thank you, Karl. And also a warm welcome from my side. At the end of June 2025, our yielding portfolio was valued at approximately EUR 3.5 billion, and our development portfolio at around EUR 800 million based on externally appraised values. This brings our total GAV to about EUR 4.3 billion, slightly down from EUR 4.5 billion at the end of March '25.

As mentioned before, the development projects saw a like-for-like valuations of minus 15.5% compared to the previous quarter. This lowered the GAV by around EUR 150 million in H1 2025. This was largely caused by continued increases in construction costs as well as the persisting challenges for residential new build in Germany, as explained by Karl before. Additionally, there was a marginal decrease due to the disposal of the UpperNord Tower and office project in Düsseldorf. In yielding assets, the decrease in value resulting from disposals was more or less compensated by the positive revaluation result of 0.4% during the first 6 months in 2025.

Let's now move on to the financial update section on Page 13. One achievement that we realized in the second quarter was the successful refinancing of the Adler Real Estate 2026 bond. In May 2025, we had launched a cash tender offer to repurchase the outstanding EUR 300 million Adler Real Estate senior secured notes due April 2026. The offer closed with a strong participation rate of around 95% with EUR 285 million nominal tender at the purchase price of EUR 98.5 per EUR 100 principal plus accrued interest.

To fund the repayment, we upsized our first lien New Money facility by EUR 281 million. The transaction settled on 27th June 2025, reducing the outstanding nominal of the Adler Real Estate 2026 bonds from EUR 300 million to EUR 15 million. With the successful refinancing, we have now no material capital market indebtedness maturing before the end of 2028.

Turning to debt repayments and prolongation. We made further partial redemptions of the first lien New Money facility in Q2 and Q3 2025, thereby returning approximately EUR 50 million to the holders in their respective instruments between April and August this year. The proceeds resulted from the second tranche of the BCP transaction, smaller yielding assets and condo sales as well as the completed sale of the development project, Cologneo III. Proceeds in the amount of EUR 21 million received for transferring the remaining 10.1% stake in the Cosmopolitan portfolio are scheduled to return to the investors of the first lien New Money facility next Monday, September 1. Please let me also mention that we completed the prolongation of EUR 21 million secured loan originally due in Q1 '26 to Q4 2028.

As for 2026 maturities, only the remaining EUR 15 million of the Adler Real Estate bond is due April '26, and discussions are ongoing with lenders regarding the prolongation of the remaining 2026 bank maturities.

Let's now move on to Page 14 and take a look at our current debt KPIs. As of June 2025, our total nominal interest-bearing debt stood at approximately EUR 3.8 billion, broadly unchanged from March '25. This reflects the offsetting effects of the tender offer of the Adler Real Estate '26 bonds funded through an upsizing of the first lien New Money facility and ongoing partial debt repayments from disposal proceeds.

Our LTV increased to 72.1%, with the revaluation of our development assets being the main driver. The weighted average cost of debt increased to 7.1% at the end of June, due to the refinancing of the Adler Real Estate bonds at terms of the existing first lien New Money facility. Our average debt maturity continues to stand at around 4 years with the majority of maturities concentrated in 2028.

Following the settlement of the Adler Real Estate bond tender offer, S&P revised its ratings on the Adler Group and Adler Real Estate instruments on 30th June 2025. The issue rating on the first lien New Money facilities was downgraded from B+ to B due to the upsizing in volume. The ratings on the 1.5 lien secured loans and the remaining Adler Real Estate senior unsecured notes were successfully downgraded from CCC+ to CCC. The rating on the second 2L notes due 2030 remained unchanged at CCC. The issuer credit rating of Adler Group remains at B- with a stable outlook.

Let's turn to the debt maturity schedule on Page 15. As told in Q1 results, there is no financial debt maturing this year. Looking ahead, our next maturities are in 2026 where we have a total of EUR 42 million due comprising EUR 15 million of the remaining Adler Real Estate bond maturing April '26, and EUR 27 million of bank debt maturing between March and December '26. Discussions with the lenders of the '26 bank maturities are ongoing, and we are confident that those will be addressed well ahead of maturity. As you can see on this slide, 97% of our financial debt matures in '28 or beyond.

Let's turn to the LTV on the next page, Page 16. As projected last quarter, the LTV increased again this quarter mainly due to 3 drivers. First, the negative H1 revaluation result for our development projects including the provision booked for the onerous contract in regards to The Wilhelm project. Second, the usual impact from interest expenses, both paid and accrued. And third, CapEx expenses for our yielding and development asset portfolio. As always, as a reminder, kindly notice that our bond covenant LTV with a threshold of 90% is calculated differently, leading to a lower figure than stated here.

Let's continue with cash on the next Page 17. At the end of the second quarter, our cash position stood at EUR 285 million, which is no material change compared to the last quarter. As you might know, we invest our cash volumes usually in money market funds and call money in order to generate interest income. You see the development of the cash position in the usual format on the slide.

On the cash inflow side, we realized proceeds from various disposals. Yielding asset disposals, including a multifamily house that we signed in December last year as well as several condo sales. Development asset disposals, including the completed sale of the CologneApart development project. And third, the remaining tranche of the BCP transaction. As projected in our last call, payments relating to our restructuring costs have been declined significantly. The EUR 29 million debt repayment in Q2 resulted from the second tranche of the BCP transaction and the sale of a Berlin yielding asset. Further redemptions were made post Q2 balance sheet date. Kindly note that the repayment of the tender Adler Real Estate 2026 bond is blended with the upsizing of the first lien New Money facility in the amount of EUR 281 million.

And with that, back to you, Karl.

Thank you, Thorsten. Let me now conclude this presentation with some final remarks. Experts see a moderate improvement in the residential real estate market, more in standing assets than a new building activity. This is in line with our current experience at Adler. We have passed the valuation turning point and see a stabilization of yielding asset values, which is not yet true for development assets. Overall, it is the market expectation that yields will no longer expand.

We are able to capture rental growth with our strong 3.4% like-for-like growth in line with our expectations, and we confirm our net rental income guidance for 2025. We have completed the BCP and North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio transactions and remain fully focused to dispose or complete all remaining development projects. In the current market for this particular asset class, this remains a challenge, but we are making good progress as a credible and trustable partner. For example, when it comes to the Holsten Quartier in Hamburg.

On the capital structure side, we successfully refinanced the EUR 300 million Adler Real Estate bond and are now facing no material capital market indebtedness before end of 2028. Just as Thorsten said, 97% of our financial debt matures only in '28 or beyond. It goes without saying that we remain focused on our comprehensive cost-cutting programs and budget discipline to ultimately preserve our liquidity position.

And with that, I would like to thank you for dialing in. We are now looking forward to your questions. Julian, back to you for the Q&A.

Thank you, Karl and Thorsten. And I'll hand it over to our operator for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Wolfgang from Sarria.

I really only have one question, and that relates to your operating income, which is relatively low this year, if not largely flat. What's been weighing on that, please? And I'm afraid I might have missed it if you've said it.

So Wolfgang, it was quite difficult to understand. If I understood you correct, you basically refer to the development of the net rental income, where we basically have the effect that in the first 6 months of '24, we had a rental income for the Berlin portfolio, 6 months BCP and 6 months Cosmopolitan. Whereas if we look at our net rental income in the first 6 months of this year, it's only 6 months Berlin, 2 months Cosmopolitan and no contribution for BCP since we sold it at the 2nd January this year.

So basically, what we can see is that remaining focused on executing our strategy, i.e., focusing on the Berlin portfolio also is now reflected in our numbers in the P&L and in the balance sheet.

But would you therefore say that your operating cash flow as per Slide 17, the first item, should that remain flat going forward? Or is there something in there that you can cover?

No, it basically means that we continue to have a cash balance of shy above EUR 300 million, most likely not because I mean we have certain costs from the development area, which are right now not being covered by the rental income. So basically, going forward, we expect that the cash balance, which was at EUR 285 million by the end of June, should go down by quarter-by-quarter, ideally with, let's say, reducing -- decrease. But at the end, going forward, we expect that the cash balance will be lower than as it is or as it was by the end of June.

The next question comes from the line of Armin Akhavan from Schonfeld.

The rental guidance that you've given, is that like-for-like versus the EUR 123 million of rent you should for as of Q2? Or does that include rent from disposed assets during Q1?

Yes. This includes 2 months of our North Rhine-Westphalia portfolio, January and February, and 12 months from our building portfolio.

Got it. How much is the 2 months of the Cosmo portfolio?

One second. It's EUR 6 million. You can find it on Page 24.

Perfect. The question -- a couple of questions on your projects. You show in the presentation a breakdown of the appraised values by city, which sums up to EUR 934 million. How does that compare? And then obviously, like earlier in the presentation, you show a total value of EUR 800 million. Can you just help me bridge the gap between those 2 numbers?

Okay. So the EUR 934 million on Page 23 includes 3 projects, Grand Central, Eurohaus and UpperNord Tower that are already sold where the SPA has been signed, but which have not closed to this day. Our GAV of EUR 830 million does not include these 3 projects. That's the bridge.

Okay. That's helpful. All right. Got it. When looking at your GAV for the forward sales, the EUR 137 million. Does that reflect any provisions you might have taken because of cost overruns or lower than initially expected rental income?

To what number, 137, what are you referring to?

The forward sales, you have 2 forward sales. I think the GAV for the 2 together is EUR 137 million, just a sum. And I think -- I just wanted to check, like in case you have taken any provisions because costs were just higher than initially expected or rental results are going to be lower than initially expected. Would that be reflected in that number? Or would that be gross of any provisions? Because I think in your annual report, you had some provisions for forward sales.

Yes. Well, let's say, the cost structure of the project would not be reflected in the GAV. But we have added, if you see the columns further right on Page 32, the CapEx for up to the date of June '25 and the remaining CapEx for the 6 months, July to December '25, which will give you an indication of the cost situation of the project. We can say that we have a slight cost overrun compared to last quarter in Quartier Hoym in Dresden, but well stable on the other assets.

Okay. Helpful. On your upfront sales. For some of the projects, it seems like you signed and you closed relatively quickly. For others, the time between signing and closing can be fairly long period of time. Can you just explain a little bit what that is driven by like why do some projects take much longer to close than others?

Yes. Well, we have, let's say, quite different starting points for the different projects, particularly with regard to the situation of planning permit and building permit. So in some cases where we take a longer time, most in these cases, some discussions with the authorities will have to take place to give the buyer comfort on the cornerstones of the planning permit going forward. So this is taking some time. And for this reason in some of the projects, we have quite significant time between signing and closing.

Understood. So for example, for the Holsten project, you mentioned that you expect to sign that in the near term. And I think if we believe the numbers in the press, it would be a meaningful disposal.

On Holsten, we have not signed yet, right? We expect signing in September, and we would then expect maybe 6 months to closing.

6 months. Okay. All right. Got it. And then last question for me. If we look at the 5 projects where you -- that you have under exclusivity but you haven't signed yet. Can you tell us what the aggregated appraised value for these assets is? So not by project, just like the aggregated for the 5.

Well, we do not report individual GAVs or individual also, let's say, numbers for subgroups of assets. So I'm sorry, no.

[Operator Instructions] We now have a question from the line of Antonio Casari from Northlight.

I actually had the same question as the previous person had. I can try to ask it in a different way. You provide the land plot and the area for the projects in Slide 31. And if I calculate the 5 projects in exclusivity represents roughly either 33% of the land plot or 45%, 46% of the area excluding the first 4 project. Is that percentage somehow reflective of how much value they represent of the EUR 130 million GAV that you disclosed?

Well, again, we are not reporting the individual GAVs of projects or subgroups. So I'm sorry.

But just in general, the land plot of the area, is it -- it's the only thing that you report, so.

Yes. This is true, yes. But well, I would say we have different status of maturity, if you like, on different projects, right? We have different levels of planning permit or building permit. And in some cases, like on The Wilhelm, for example, there is an excavation fit already in the ground, yes. So I think it's difficult. But let's say, as this is maybe the best proxy we have, I guess you have to do with it.

Okay. Perfect. And just confirming, once you signed the contract, do you receive any payment? Or is there any penalty for the buyer in case it does not...

Yes. Our standard in our SPAs is that there is a down payment of at least 10% to escrow with signing. And in case the buyer doesn't eventually close, that would work as a penalty. But we don't have -- we don't see really any cases where the buyer would not close.

No, it was in -- with reference to this, you mentioned 6 months of -- between signing and closing. So 6 months is a fairly long time and a lot of things can happen in this respect. So that's why I wanted to...

Yes. But this 6 months is, I would say, let's say, for Germany, if you buy a land plot or an asset, it would always take you up to 6 months with all the conditions precedent for the -- like the municipalities, right for first refusal and so on. So it takes quite some time for the conditions to be fulfilled.

The next question comes from the line of Niki Kouzmanov from Jefferies.

I have a couple, but maybe if you can start with a continuation of the net rental income. And kind of like the EUR 123 million shown on the portfolio overview table, which drives the implied rental yield of 3.5%. And then kind of like the annualized 2Q number, which would not include North Rhine-Westphalia, the Cosmopolitan portfolio anymore. What is driving that delta? And can we sort of see either further valuation upside going forward? Or based on this run rate 2Q '25 net rental income that you reported or effectively a widening of the implied yield, which sort of my understanding, was based on peers as well, you're not expecting? And then I have another follow-up question on the building portfolio.

Yes. Thank you for your questions. The first one with regards to the net rental income. So if we annualize the June rental income of the Berlin portfolio, i.e., you multiply it by 12, we will be at around EUR 123 million annualized.

What you can see in our guidance is EUR 6 million contribution from the Cosmopolitan, i.e., so you can deduct EUR 6 million from the guidance. And if we then basically take the June rent where we already have some rent increases that we conducted within the first 6 months of the year, i.e., taking the June rent times 12 is EUR 123 million.

Okay. I was using the EUR 31.5 million from the income statement, which gives me EUR 126 million. It was kind of like the number that I was...

Which number do you have?

So EUR 31.5 million or EUR 31.484 million times 4. So is that the whole second quarter rather than just June monthly?

Maybe I think it's getting too technical. Maybe we can take this separately or bilaterally after the call.

And then on Berlin, there were some media reports earlier this quarter talking about potentially the company thinking about winding down that portfolio next year and preparing for that potential on hiring advisers. Is there a timing on when you think some Berlin sort of portfolio sales might happen, whether the whole 17-plus thousand apartments or subsets of that? Has there been any progress around that?

Well, we don't comment on these rumors. But what we can say is that we hired an adviser to assess the options on -- for our Berlin portfolio, but we are far from taking any decisions. So this is what we can say at this point.

Is there any timing on when you'd be in a position to comment?

No. There is not.

Good. And then my other question, just a final one. Third one, maybe sort of a little bit in relation to all these disposals. And obviously, you've been paying down from proceeds, the first lien. Once -- if you think about The Wilhelm, the Holsten Quartier, there will be a few more sort of sizable development sales, which hopefully should reduce the first lien further in the sort of the debt burden. Have there been any thoughts around a potential refi of the first lien and 1.5 lien after sort of the non-call on the 1.5 lien has lapsed?

No. I mean there are, as of today, no specific plans to, again, refinance the first lien and the 1.5. lien. I mean, as you just mentioned, our holdback is more or less fully filled, EUR 245 million to EUR 250 million. And so whenever we now generate disposal proceeds, they will be used to repay the first lien, respectively. But as said, there are currently no plans to do another refinancing as of today.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Karl Reinitzhuber for any closing remarks.

Yes. Thanks, everyone, for joining today. We will publish our Q3 report on November 27, and the respective results presentation will take place on the same day. Thorsten and I look forward to speaking to you then. All the best for everyone. We close the call.