PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: IRT) (“IRT”) announced today the sale of four properties in four markets, as part of the Company’s Portfolio Optimization and Deleveraging Strategy. The total gross sales price of the four properties was $200.7 million, with each property sale closing in December 2023.
As a result of these sales, IRT repaid $196.8 million of debt, comprised of $112.3 million of property level debt associated with the sold properties and $84.5 million of borrowings outstanding on its line of credit.
“We are successfully executing our Portfolio Optimization and Deleveraging Strategy, which we announced in October 2023. These recent non-core asset sales highlight our effort to exit or reduce our presence in certain markets while also deleveraging our balance sheet over the near term,” said Scott Schaeffer, Chairman and CEO of IRT. “These initiatives will continue to increase our financial flexibility, reduce our leverage and keep us on-track towards achieving an investment grade rating.”
Five of the six remaining assets that are part of the Portfolio Optimization and Deleveraging Strategy are currently under contract and are expected to close in the first quarter of 2024. Once the sale of all ten properties are complete, IRT expects to generate gross sales proceeds of approximately $521 to $533 million, as previously disclosed, with proceeds used to delever the balance sheet. This will result in IRT exiting five single-asset markets and lowering its net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio by 0.8x to 0.9x, providing a clear path to reach its target of mid-5x’s by year-end 2024.
About Independence Realty Trust, Inc.
Independence Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: IRT) is a real estate investment trust that owns and operates multifamily communities, across non-gateway U.S. markets including Atlanta, GA, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Raleigh-Durham, NC, Oklahoma City, OK, Nashville, TN, Houston, TX, and Tampa, FL. IRT’s investment strategy is focused on gaining scale near major employment centers within key amenity rich submarkets that offer good school districts and high-quality retail. IRT aims to provide stockholders with attractive risk-adjusted returns through diligent portfolio management, strong operational performance, and a consistent return on capital through distributions and capital appreciation. More information may be found on the Company’s website www.irtliving.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our earnings guidance and certain actions that we expect or seek to take in connection with our portfolio optimization and deleveraging strategy and anticipated enhancements to our financial results and future growth from this strategy. All statements in this release that address financial and operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur or be achieved in the future are forward-looking statements.
Our forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve estimates, projections, forecasts and assumptions, including as to matters that are not within our control, and are subject to risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties related to changes in market demand for rental apartment homes and pricing pressures, including from competitors, that could lead to declines in occupancy and rent levels, uncertainty and volatility in capital and credit markets, including changes that reduce availability, and increase costs, of capital, unexpected changes in our intention or ability to repay certain debt prior to maturity, increased costs on account of inflation, increased competition in the labor market, failure to realize cost savings, efficiencies and other benefits that we expect to result from our portfolio optimization and deleveraging strategy, inability to sell certain assets, including those assets designated as held for sale, within the time frames or at the pricing levels expected, failure to achieve expected benefits from the redeployment of proceeds from asset sales, delays in completing, and cost overruns incurred in connection with, our value add initiatives and failure to achieve rent increases and occupancy levels on account of the value add initiatives, unexpected impairments or impairments in excess of our estimates, increased regulations generally and specifically on the rental housing market, including legislation that may regulate rents or delay or limit our ability to evict non-paying residents, risks endemic to real estate and the real estate industry generally, the impact of potential outbreaks of infectious diseases and measures intended to prevent the spread or address the effects thereof, the effects of natural and other disasters, unknown or unexpected liabilities, including the cost of legal proceedings, costs and disruptions as the result of a cybersecurity incident or other technology disruption, unexpected capital needs, inability to obtain appropriate insurance coverages at reasonable rates, or at all, or losses from catastrophes in excess of our insurance coverages, and share price fluctuations. Please refer to the documents filed by us with the SEC, including specifically the “Risk Factors” sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and our other filings with the SEC, which identify additional factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are based upon the beliefs and expectations of our management at the time of this release and our actual results may differ materially from the expectations, intentions, beliefs, plans or predictions of the future expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as may be required by law.
