StorageVault Reports 2021 First Quarter Results and Increases Dividend

May 05, 2021

STORAGEVAULT CANADA INC. (“StorageVault” or the “Corporation”) (SVI-TSX-V) reported the Corporation’s 2021 first quarter results and increases its dividend. Iqbal Khan, Chief Financial Officer, commented:

“We achieved a record number of move-ins and inquiries, resulting in strong same store performance, with 10.5% year over year increase in revenue and an 11.8% increase in NOI in Q1. The market continues to be extremely strong and we are well positioned to take advantage of this for the balance of the year. We will continue to be disciplined purchasers of assets and expect the recent launch of our last mile storage technology platform, FlexSpace Logistics, to help drive revenues and NOI.”

2021 First Quarter Results

Revenue for the first quarter of 2021 increased to $43.3 million compared to $35.8 million in Q1 2020 and net operating income (“NOI”), a non-IFRS measure, grew to $27.4 million from $23.1 million for the comparative period. Our cash flow from operations increased year over year and when combined with our financing and investing activities resulted in a cash balance of $20.3 million at the end of the quarter. The Q1 2021 net loss of $11.4 million (net loss of $8.4 million for Q1 2020) is mainly after $22.1 million of depreciation and amortization and deferred tax recovery recorded in the quarter of $2.2 million. Both amounts are non-cash items.

As a result of our occupancy levels, revenue management program and operational efficiency, Revenue and NOI from existing self storage stores increased by 10.5% and 11.8%, compared to the same period last year. Funds from operations (“FFO”), a non-IFRS measure, were $8.7 million for Q1 2021 compared to $7.9 million in Q1 2020, a 9.5% increase year over year. Adjusted funds from operations (“AFFO”), a non-IFRS measure, were $10.0 million for Q1 2021 compared to $8.8 million in Q1 2020, a 14.1% increase. Both the FFO and AFFO are muted by the operational and interest expenses related to the $114.6 million in new build and lease-up stores and raw land acquisitions completed in Q4 2020. In Q1 2021, these acquisitions reduced our FFO and AFFO by $0.6 million. The Corporation expects to be cash flow positive and realize the benefits of these acquisitions in fiscal 2022 and beyond.

For a reconciliation of the above NOI, FFO, and AFFO amounts to IFRS, please see pages 12 through 17 of the Corporation’s Management’s Discussion & Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2021 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Increased Dividend

StorageVault is increasing its quarterly dividend by 0.5% beginning Q2 2021 to $0.002734 per common share.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Since the commencement of the pandemic and for the future benefit of the Corporation, we modified our operating platform to continue to meet the strong demand for our services. These changes included improving our virtual systems to offer no-contact rental processes, installation of plexiglass partitions and limiting the number of customers in our offices to one at a time. Our teams are fully employed and clients are able to safely store and access their valuables. We continue to be extremely proud of our team for continuing to adapt to new processes and for being committed to providing exceptional client and community service.

To date in fiscal 2021, we continue to experience a significant increase in leads and rentals which has resulted in higher occupancies and rental rates across our portfolio. These positive trends resulted in the Corporation achieving strong same store revenue and NOI growth. While clients may be further impacted, including through unemployment, the Corporation has experienced no meaningful increases in accounts receivable.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Corporation continued to execute on our strategies to attract clients through search engine marketing, improving our online presence, virtual community connection programs and the development of a national platform and initiatives to fulfill last mile storage needs. These efforts have allowed us to attract clients who are leveraging our national footprint to offer a complete storage, inventory management and mobilization solution through our self and portable storage and records management infrastructures.

As at March 31, 2021, we continue to generate significant cash flows from our operations, with $20.3 million in cash on hand. Our balance sheet, along with our strong relationships with our lenders, provides us with sufficient borrowing capacity, refinancing and liquidity options to take advantage of acquisition opportunities that meet our requirements, evidenced by the $129.5 million in acquisitions announced so far in fiscal 2021.

Our Strategy

StorageVault is focused on owning and operating storage in the top markets in Canada. Our goal is to have multiple stores in each market, with complementary portable storage units and records management storage services, to take advantage of economies of scale. Our growth strategy is focused on acquisitions, organic growth, expansion of our existing stores and expansion of our portable storage and record management businesses.

Further Information

For comprehensive disclosure of StorageVault’s performance for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and its financial position as at such date, please see StorageVault’s Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2021 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Management uses both IFRS and non-IFRS Measures to assess the financial and operating performance of the Corporation’s operations. These non-IFRS Measures are not recognized measures under IFRS, do not have a standardized meaning under IFRS and are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The non-IFRS Measures referenced in this news release include the following:

1. Net Operating Income (“NOI”) – NOI is defined as storage and related services revenue less related property operating costs. NOI does not include interest expense or income, depreciation and amortization, corporate administrative costs, stock based compensation costs or taxes. NOI assists management in assessing profitability and valuation from principal business activities.
2. Funds from Operations (“FFO”) – FFO is defined as net income (loss) excluding gains or losses from the sale of depreciable real estate, plus depreciation and amortization, stock based compensation expenses, and deferred income taxes; and after adjustments for equity accounted entities and non-controlling interests. The Corporation believes that FFO can be a beneficial measure, when combined with primary IFRS measures, to assist in the evaluation of the Corporation’s ability to generate cash and evaluate its return on investments as it excludes the effects of real estate amortization and gains and losses from the sale of real estate, all of which are based on historical cost accounting and which may be of limited significance in evaluating current performance.
3. Adjusted Funds from Operations (“AFFO”) – AFFO is defined as FFO plus acquisition and integration costs. Acquisition and integration costs are one time in nature to the specific assets purchased in the current period or pending and are expensed under IFRS.
4. Existing Self Storage – means stores that StorageVault has owned or leased since the beginning of the previous fiscal year.

NOI, FFO, AFFO and Existing Self Storage, should not be viewed as an alternative to, in isolation from, or superior to, net income or cash flow from operations, or results from StorageVault’s comprehensive operations, respectively, or other measures calculated in accordance with IFRS. NOI, FFO and AFFO should not be interpreted as an indicator of cash generated from operating activities and is not indicative of cash available to fund operating expenditures, or for the payment of cash distributions. Existing Self Storage should not be considered a measure of StorageVault’s comprehensive operations. NOI, FFO, AFFO and Existing Self Storage are simply additional measures of operating performance which highlight trends in StorageVault’s core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS financial measures.StorageVault’s management also uses these non-IFRS measures in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period and to prepare operating budgets. In addition, the Corporation’s definitions of NOI, FFO, AFFO and Existing Self Storage may differ from that of other issuers.

About StorageVault Canada Inc.

StorageVault now owns and operates 216 storage locations in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. StorageVault owns 176 of these locations plus over 4,600 portable storage units representing over 9.6 million rentable square feet on over 570 acres of land. StorageVault also provides professional records management services, ‎such as document and media storage, imaging and shredding services.

For further information, contact Mr. Steven Scott or Mr. Iqbal Khan:

Tel: 1-877-622-0205
ir@storagevaultcanada.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information regarding: statements regarding StorageVault’s expected future performance, including the strong market in 2021 and StorageVault’s ability to take advantage of the strong market, StorageVault continuing to be a disciplined purchaser of assets and expectations that FlexSpace Logistics may help drive revenues and NOI; the timing for the benefits of the Q4 2020 acquisitions and for StorageVault to be cash flow positive. StorageVault’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential anticipated impact of COVID-19 on Storagevault’s expected future performance, the impact of COVID-19 on its customers and StorageVault’s beliefs regarding its ability to navigate the pandemic; statements regarding StorageVault’s liquidity position and its ability to meet liquidity requirements and to take advantage of acquisition opportunities as a result of its liquidity position; StorageVault’s beliefs regarding the resiliency of its business and its customers’ needs for storage; the proposed $129.5 million of previously announced acquisitions; and StorageVault’s strategic objectives, goals, growth strategy and focus, including focusing on acquisitions, improving StorageVault’s operational performance, expansion of StorageVault’s existing stores and expansion of StorageVault’s portable storage and records management businesses. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects StorageVault’s current beliefs and is based on information currently available to StorageVault and on assumptions StorageVault believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the level of activity in the storage business and the economy generally; consumer interest in StorageVault’s services and products; competition and StorageVault’s competitive advantages; trends in the storage industry, including macro-trends in relation to increased growth and growth in the portable storage business; the availability of attractive and financially competitive asset acquisitions in the future; the potential closing of previously announced acquisitions, if any, continuing to proceed as they have progressed to date and StorageVault’s continued response and ability to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic being consistent with, or better than, its ability and response to date. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of StorageVault to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; the actual results of StorageVault’s future operations; competition; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting StorageVault; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations and appraisals; lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals; and risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, service disruptions, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have on StorageVault may include: a short-term delay in payments from customers, an increase in accounts receivable and an increase of losses on accounts receivable; decreased demand for the services that StorageVault offers; and a deterioration of financial markets that could limit StorageVault’s ability to obtain external financing. A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in StorageVault’s disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although StorageVault has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of StorageVault as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. However, StorageVault expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.