Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) today issued the following statement
in response to a letter from Elliott Associates, L.P. and Elliott
International, L.P. (together, “Elliott”):
The Public Storage Board of Trustees and management team are
committed to serving the best interests of the Company and its
shareholders, and will continue to take decisive action to drive
sustainable value creation.
Public Storage is the world’s largest owner, operator, and
developer of self-storage properties, with a $46 billion total
market capitalization. This success has come through executing
strategies that promote the long-term resilience of its properties
and of the Company, as well as enhancing shareholder value,
resulting in the generation of 20-year Compounded Annual Growth
Rates (CAGR) of: 7% for core funds from operations (FFO) per
share1, 12% for dividends per share and 16% for total shareholder
return (vs. 7% for the S&P 500). Since the beginning of 2019,
Public Storage has undertaken important growth initiatives and has
significantly refreshed its Board of Trustees, including:
- Expanding its portfolio by approximately 13.9 million net
rentable square feet, or 9%, through $1.9 billion of acquisitions,
development, and redevelopment, including properties currently
under contract and the approximately $500 million recent
acquisition of the Beyond Storage Portfolio
- Delivering $471 million of properties from the Company’s
development platform, the only one of its kind among public
competitors, with a current pipeline of $563 million additional
activity planned (in addition to the $1.3 billion previously
delivered in 2013-2018)
- Executing a $500 million, five-year “Property of Tomorrow”
investment program to improve customer satisfaction and enhance its
existing portfolio
- Adding additional scale by growing its third-party property
management business to a total of 113 properties
- Investing in its proprietary in-house technology platforms that
drive operational capability, streamlining workflows and driving
labor efficiencies, while enhancing customer and employee
experiences
- Raising over $3 billion of debt and preferred capital to fund
growth and lower in-place capital costs
- Driving revenue through both occupancy and rent optimization,
resulting in leading revenue per available foot
- Aggregation of 33 million square foot non-same store portfolio,
which provides significant embedded revenue growth as properties
stabilize
- Adding five new independent Trustees in the past 18 months, who
bring deep operational, technology, real estate investing, and
corporate governance expertise, as well as proven track records as
public company leaders and board members, and announcing the
retirement of three longer-tenured Trustees, effective December 31,
2020, following which the average tenure of the Board will be
approximately 6 years
- Year-to-date total shareholder returns of +6% compared to MSCI
US REIT Index of -10%
- Last twelve months total shareholder returns of +9% compared to
MSCI US REIT Index of -8%
In addition to Public Storage’s growth initiatives, the Company
will drive performance through: (i) team and culture; (ii) brand,
scale and superior operating platform; (iii) development
leadership; and (iv) a balance sheet built upon financial strength,
discipline, and flexibility to fund growth. The unique interplay
among these drivers strengthens the Company’s business as it
innovates across every component of the platform. Public Storage
looks forward to discussing its strategy in more detail at its
upcoming Investor Day, which will be held on May 3, 2021.
Company Information
Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500,
is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns and operates
self-storage facilities. At September 30, 2020, we had: (i)
interests in 2,504 self-storage facilities located in 38 states
with approximately 171 million net rentable square feet in the
United States, (ii) an approximate 35% common equity interest in
Shurgard Self Storage SA (Euronext Brussels:SHUR) which owned 239
self-storage facilities located in seven Western European nations
with approximately 13 million net rentable square feet operated
under the “Shurgard” brand and (iii) an approximate 42% common
equity interest in PS Business Parks, Inc. (NYSE:PSB) which owned
and operated approximately 28 million rentable square feet of
commercial space at September 30, 2020. Our headquarters are
located in Glendale, California.
Additional information about Public Storage is available on the
Company’s website at www.PublicStorage.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. All statements in this press release, other than statements
of historical fact, are forward-looking statements which may be
identified by the use of the words “expects,” “believes,”
“anticipates,” “should,” “estimates” and similar expressions. These
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties, which may cause our actual results and performance
to be materially different from those expressed or implied in the
forward-looking statements. Factors and risks that may impact
future results and performance include, but are not limited to,
those described in Part 1, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in our most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 25, 2020 and in our
other filings with the SEC including: general risks associated with
the ownership and operation of real estate, including changes in
demand, risk related to development, expansion and acquisition of
self-storage facilities, potential liability for environmental
contamination, natural disasters and adverse changes in laws and
regulations governing property tax, real estate and zoning; risks
associated with downturns in the national and local economies in
the markets in which we operate, including risks related to current
economic conditions and the economic health of our customers; risks
associated with the COVID Pandemic or similar events, including but
not limited to illness or death of our employees or customers,
negative impacts to the economic environment and to self-storage
customers which could reduce the demand for self-storage or reduce
our ability to collect rent, and/or potential regulatory actions to
(i) close our facilities if we were determined not to be an
“essential business” or for other reasons, (ii) limit our ability
to increase rent or otherwise limit the rent we can charge or (iii)
limit our ability to collect rent or evict delinquent tenants; risk
that even after the initial restrictions due to the COVID Pandemic
ease, they could be reinstituted in case of future waves of
infection or if additional pandemics occur; risk that we could
experience a change in the move-out patterns of our long-term
customers due to economic uncertainty and the significant increase
in unemployment in the last 30 days. This could lead to lower
occupancies and rent “roll down” as long-term customers are
replaced with new customers at lower rates. We observed such a
trend during the recessionary circumstances of 2009; however, to
date we have not seen any material change in the move-out patterns
of long-term customers; risk of negative impacts on the cost and
availability of debt and equity capital as a result of the COVID
Pandemic, which could have a material impact upon our capital and
growth plans; the impact of competition from new and existing
self-storage and commercial facilities and other storage
alternatives; the risk that our existing self-storage facilities
may be at a disadvantage in competing with newly developed
facilities with more visual and customer appeal; risk related to
increased reliance on Google as a customer acquisition channel;
difficulties in our ability to successfully evaluate, finance,
integrate into our existing operations and manage properties that
we acquire directly or through the acquisition of entities that own
and operate self-storage facilities; risks associated with
international operations including, but not limited to, unfavorable
foreign currency rate fluctuations, changes in tax laws and local
and global economic uncertainty that could adversely affect our
earnings and cash flows; risks related to our participation in
joint ventures; the impact of the legal and regulatory environment,
as well as national, state and local laws and regulations
including, without limitation, those governing environmental
issues, taxes, our tenant reinsurance business, and labor,
including risks related to the impact of new laws and regulations;
risks of increased tax expense associated either with a possible
failure by us to qualify as a REIT, or with challenges to the
determination of taxable income for our taxable REIT subsidiaries;
risks due to a November 2020 California ballot initiative (or other
equivalent actions) that could remove the protections of
Proposition 13 with respect to our real estate and result in
substantial increases in our assessed values and property tax bills
in California; changes in United States federal or state tax laws
related to the taxation of REITs and other corporations; security
breaches or a failure of our networks, systems or technology could
adversely impact our operations or our business, customer and
employee relationships or result in fraudulent payments; risks
associated with the self-insurance of certain business risks,
including property and casualty insurance, employee health
insurance and workers compensation liabilities; difficulties in
raising capital at a reasonable cost; delays and cost overruns on
our projects to develop new facilities or expand our existing
facilities; ongoing litigation and other legal and regulatory
actions which may divert management’s time and attention, require
us to pay damages and expenses or restrict the operation of our
business; and economic uncertainty due to the impact of war or
terrorism. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the
date of this press release. All of our forward-looking statements,
including those in this press release, are qualified in their
entirety by this statement. We expressly disclaim any obligation to
update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements,
whether because of new information, new estimates, or other
factors, events or circumstances after the date of these
forward-looking statements, except when expressly required by law.
Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not rely on any
forward-looking statements in this press release, or which
management may make orally or in writing from time to time, neither
as predictions of future events nor guarantees of future
performance.
Additional Information
In connection with Public Storage’s 2021 Annual Meeting of
Shareholders (the “2021 Annual Meeting”), Public Storage intends to
file a proxy statement and associated WHITE proxy card with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) in connection with
the solicitation of proxies for the 2021 Annual Meeting of
Shareholders. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING DECISION, INVESTORS AND
SHAREHOLDERS OF THE COMPANY ARE URGED TO READ ALL RELEVANT
DOCUMENTS FILED WITH OR FURNISHED TO THE SEC, INCLUDING THE
COMPANY’S DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT AND ANY SUPPLEMENTS THERETO,
IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN
IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Investors and shareholders can obtain a copy
of the relevant documents filed by the Company with the SEC,
including the definitive proxy statement, when it becomes
available, free of charge by visiting the SEC’s website,
www.sec.gov. Investors and shareholders can also obtain, without
charge, a copy of the definitive proxy statement, when available,
and other relevant filed documents from the Company’s website at
www.PublicStorage.com.
Certain Information Regarding Participants
Public Storage, its trustees, trustee nominees and certain of
its executive officers will be deemed participants in the
solicitation of proxies from shareholders in respect of the 2021
Annual Meeting. Information regarding the names of the Company’s
trustees and executive officers and their respective interests in
the Company by security holdings or otherwise is set forth in the
Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 25, 2020, and the
Company’s definitive proxy statement for the 2020 Annual Meeting of
Shareholders, filed with the SEC on March 12, 2020. To the extent
holdings of such participants in the Company’s securities have
changed since the amounts described in the proxy statement for the
2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, such changes have been
reflected on Initial Statements of Beneficial Ownership on Form 3
or Statements of Change in Ownership on Form 4 filed with the SEC.
These documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources
indicated above. Additional information regarding the interests of
these participants in any proxy solicitation and a description of
their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or
otherwise, will also be included in any proxy statement and other
relevant materials to be filed with the SEC, if and when they
become available.
__________________________ 1 FFO per share is a non-GAAP measure
defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment
Trusts and generally represents net income before depreciation and
amortization expense, gains and losses and impairment charges with
respect to real estate assets. A reconciliation of GAAP diluted net
income per share to FFO per share, and additional descriptive
information regarding this non-GAAP measure, is included in the
Company’s SEC filings.
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Ryan Burke (818) 244-8080, Ext. 1141
Public Storage (NYSE:PSA)
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