CubeSmart (CUBE) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Jenny, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the CubeSmart Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Josh Schutzer, Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.

感謝您的支持。我叫珍妮，今天我將擔任您的會議接線生。現在，我歡迎大家參加 CubeSmart 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）現在我想將電話轉給財務副總裁 Josh Schutzer。請繼續。

Thanks, Jenny. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to CubeSmart's Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Participants on today's call include Chris Marr, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Martin, Chief Financial Officer. Our prepared remarks will be followed by a Q&A session. In addition to our earnings release, which was issued yesterday evening, supplemental operating and financial data is available under the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.cubesmart.com.

謝謝，珍妮。大家早安。歡迎參加 CubeSmart 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。參加今天電話會議的人員包括總裁兼執行長 Chris Marr 和財務長 Tim Martin。我們的準備好的發言之後將進行問答環節。除了我們昨天晚上發布的收益報告外，您還可以在公司網站 www.cubesmart.com 的投資者關係部分找到補充營運和財務數據。

The company's remarks will include certain forward-looking statements regarding earnings and strategy that involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The risks and factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements are provided in documents the company furnishes to or files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Form 8-K we filed this morning, together with our earnings release filed with the Form 8-K and the Risk Factors section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K.

該公司的評論將包括某些有關收益和策略的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述涉及風險、不確定性和其他因素，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述有重大差異。可能導致我們的實際結果與前瞻性陳述存在重大差異的風險和因素在公司向美國證券交易委員會提供或提交的文件中有所說明，特別是我們今天上午提交的 8-K 表格，以及我們隨 8-K 表格提交的收益報告和公司 10-K 表格年度報告中的風險因素部分。

In addition, the company's remarks include reference to non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures can be found in the second quarter financial supplement posted on the company's website at www.cubesmart.com. I will now turn the call over to Chris.

此外，該公司的評論中也提到了非公認會計準則指標。您可以在公司網站 www.cubesmart.com 發布的第二季財務補充報告中查看 GAAP 和非 GAAP 指標之間的對帳。現在，我將電話轉給克里斯。

Thank you, Josh. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. We posted a very solid beat and raise second quarter. The stabilization trends we experienced in the first quarter continued their positive momentum throughout the second quarter and into the month of July. Year-to-date, our key performance indicators have exceeded the expectations we articulated entering the year. Our expectation of an anemic housing market and the absence of any catalyst for a sharp recovery have proven accurate.

謝謝你，喬希。大家早安，感謝大家的參與。我們在第二季度取得了非常穩健的成績並實現了成長。我們在第一季經歷的穩定趨勢延續了整個第二季和七月的正面動能。年初至今，我們的關鍵績效指標已經超出了我們年初所設定的預期。事實證明，我們先前對房地產市場疲軟和缺乏任何推動其快速復甦的催化劑的預期是正確的。

Our belief in the continued health of our customer base, the resiliency of our product and the gradual improvement of fundamentals have been directionally accurate, albeit the impact of new supply and the pace and magnitude of improvement in new customer move-in rates have been more positive compared to our base case assumptions. Digging a bit deeper into performance through the busy season, our trough-to-peak occupancy grew 190 basis points compared to 180 basis points last year. Our net effective rates for new customers grew 28.3% compared to 15% in 2024.

我們對客戶群持續健康、產品彈性和基本面逐步改善的信念在方向上是準確的，儘管新供應的影響以及新客戶入住率的改善速度和幅度與我們的基本情況假設相比更加積極。深入研究旺季的表現，我們的入住率從低谷到高峰增加了 190 個基點，而去年同期為 180 個基點。我們新客戶的淨有效利率成長了 28.3%，而 2024 年這一數字為 15%。

Overall, rate trends have been very constructive. In the first quarter, move-in rents were down 8.3% over the first quarter of last year. That gap in the second quarter contracted to 4%. And in July, the gap was 3.3% and has been narrowing throughout the month. We are experiencing similar solid trends in occupancy with the gap to last year narrowing further in July.

總體而言，利率趨勢非常積極。第一季度，入住租金比去年第一季下降了8.3%。第二季這一差距縮小至4%。7月份，這一差距為3.3%，並且整個月都在縮小。我們的入住率也呈現了類似的穩健趨勢，7 月與去年的差距進一步縮小。

Continuing one further layer deeper and looking at major market performance, our urban markets along the Acela Corridor, along with the stores in Chicago continue to be our top performers, indicative of the more muted reliance on housing transactions and stickier customer base. And the laggards are the markets across the more volatile Sunbelt, primarily Florida and Arizona, which are more reliant on housing mobility and are still absorbing new supply. Our New York MSA continues to shine with solid sequential acceleration in net rental income from the first quarter. The boroughs continue to lead the way, benefiting from the reduction in new supply and the broad base of consumer and small business demand, followed by very good performance in Long Island, while Northern New Jersey continues to gradually improve as the supply is absorbed.

繼續深入一層，看看主要的市場表現，我們沿著 Acela 走廊的城市市場以及芝加哥的商店繼續成為我們表現最好的市場，這表明對住房交易的依賴程度更低，客戶群也更加粘稠。而落後的是波動性更大的陽光地帶的市場，主要是佛羅裡達州和亞利桑那州，這些市場更加依賴住房流動性，並且仍在吸收新的供應。我們的紐約 MSA 繼續表現亮眼，淨租金收入自第一季起連續穩定成長。各行政區繼續保持領先，受益於新增供應量的減少以及廣泛的消費者和小型企業需求，其次是長島的表現非常好，而新澤西州北部則隨著供應量的吸收而繼續逐步改善。

Looking ahead, we expect the baseline for occupancy and move-in rates should approach parity by the end of the year. Naturally, given the fact that we turn over approximately 5% of our cubes in any given month, it will take time for all of that positive momentum to flow through the revenue algorithm. We recognize that there remains a risk of volatility with the consumer as they have likely not fully absorbed the impact of ongoing governmental and monetary policy decisions.

展望未來，我們預計今年底入住率和入住率的基準應該會接近平價。當然，考慮到我們每個月都會轉換大約 5% 的立方體，所有這些積極的勢頭都需要時間才能流經收入演算法。我們認識到，消費者仍有波動風險，因為他們可能尚未完全吸收當前政府和貨幣政策決策的影響。

While acknowledging that risk, our results through our busy season, along with more recent trends have made us increasingly more confident that our operational trends will continue to steadily improve through the back half of 2025, putting us on much better footing as we head into 2026.

儘管承認存在風險，但我們在繁忙季節取得的業績以及最近的趨勢使我們越來越有信心，我們的營運趨勢將在 2025 年下半年繼續穩步改善，為我們邁向 2026 年奠定更良好的基礎。

Thank you. And I'd now like to turn the call over to Tim Martin, our Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝。現在我想將電話轉給我們的財務長 Tim Martin。

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone. And as always, thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day and spending it with us. Second quarter results reflect exactly what Chris was touching on, the continuation of stabilizing operating trends that we talked about back in the first quarter. Same-store revenue growth was down 0.5% over last year, with average occupancy for our same-store portfolio down 80 basis points to 90.6% during the quarter. From a rate perspective, our move-in rates during Q2 were down about 4% year-over-year, improving from down 8% in Q1 and from down 10% back in Q4 of last year.

謝謝你，克里斯。大家早安。和往常一樣，感謝您抽出幾分鐘時間與我們共度時光。第二季的業績恰恰反映了克里斯所說的內容，即我們在第一季談到的持續穩定的營運趨勢。同店營收成長較去年同期下降 0.5%，本季同店平均入住率下降 80 個基點至 90.6%。從利率角度來看，我們第二季的入住率年減約 4%，高於第一季 8% 的降幅以及去年第四季 10% 的降幅。

Same-store operating expenses grew 1.2% over last year, again, this quarter, trending a bit better than our expectations. We've had sector-leading expense controls over the past three years, and our team's focus in this area continues to show up in the results. I'll expand on some of the expense line items in a moment when discussing changes to our full year guidance ranges. Revenue growth of negative 0.5% combined with 1.2% expense growth yielded negative 1.1% same-store NOI growth for the quarter. We reported FFO per share as adjusted of $0.65 for the quarter, which was at the high end of our guidance range entering the quarter.

本季同店營業費用較去年同期成長 1.2%，表現略優於我們的預期。過去三年來，我們的費用控制一直處於行業領先地位，我們團隊對這一領域的關注也繼續體現在業績中。在討論全年指導範圍的變化時，我將詳細說明一些費用項目。營收成長-0.5%加上支出成長1.2%，導致本季同店淨利成長-1.1%。我們報告本季調整後的每股 FFO 為 0.65 美元，這處於本季度開始前的指導範圍的高端。

We were quiet this quarter as it relates to on-balance sheet investments. The team continues to evaluate a healthy volume of acquisition opportunities, but returns on marketed transactions haven't reached compelling levels on a risk-adjusted basis from our perspective. We remain well positioned with plenty of capacity when we do find attractive deals.

由於涉及資產負債表投資，本季我們表現平淡。團隊繼續評估大量的收購機會，但從我們的角度來看，市場交易的回報在風險調整後尚未達到令人信服的水平。當我們確實找到有吸引力的交易時，我們仍然擁有充足的產能和良好的定位。

We added 30 stores to our third-party management platform during the quarter, bringing that total to 873 stores at quarter end. We have seen some churn in the third-party portfolio from larger transactions, including our acquisition of 28 stores from our joint venture last quarter as well as a handful of portfolios that our third-party owners have sold this year.

本季度，我們為第三方管理平台增加了 30 家門市，至季末，門市總數達到 873 家。我們看到第三方投資組合在較大交易中出現了一些波動，包括上個季度我們從合資企業收購了 28 家門市，以及我們的第三方所有者今年出售的少量投資組合。

Balance sheet metrics remain strong with net debt-to-EBITDA at 4.7 times. Our $300 million of 2025 senior unsecured notes mature in November of this year. So we will be actively monitoring the market in the coming months with a focus on issuing long-term unsecured debt and effectively pushing that debt out to the end of our maturity schedule. Details of our 2025 earnings guidance and related assumptions were included in our release last evening.

資產負債表指標依然強勁，淨負債與 EBITDA 比率為 4.7 倍。我們的 3 億美元 2025 年優先無擔保票據將於今年 11 月到期。因此，我們將在未來幾個月積極監控市場，重點發行長期無擔保債務，並有效地將這些債務推遲到到期日。我們昨晚發布的新聞稿中包含了 2025 年盈利預測和相關假設的詳細資訊。

Second quarter results, combined with the continuation of stabilizing operating trends were the primary drivers of our improved FFO per share and our same-store operating estimates. Overall trends, as we've mentioned, continue to move in a positive direction with all key operating metrics seeing better-than-forecasted performance through July. The negative occupancy and rate gaps have narrowed throughout the year.

第二季的業績，加上持續穩定的經營趨勢，是我們每股營運現金流量和同店經營預期改善的主要驅動力。正如我們所提到的，整體趨勢繼續朝著正面的方向發展，截至 7 月份，所有關鍵營運指標的表現均優於預期。全年負入住率和房價差距有所縮小。

The cadence and pace that these improving trends have on year-over-year revenue growth as we look at the balance of the year are impacted by a variety of things, including the timing of changes we made in our fee structure mid last year, the timing related to rate increases to existing customers and how that flows through revenue year-over-year as well as the reality that only about 5% of our customers churn on a monthly basis.

從全年來看，這些改善趨勢對收入同比增長的節奏和速度受到多種因素的影響，包括去年年中我們調整費用結構的時間、現有客戶費率上調的時間以及這對收入的影響，以及我們每月只有約 5% 的客戶流失的現實情況。

Embedded in our expectations for third quarter results is our expectation that same-store revenue growth will be slightly more negative than it was in the second quarter and then improving as we get into the fourth quarter. So while we're very encouraged by the positive trends in operating fundamentals, I just want to manage expectations that these improvements will take a little bit of time to flow through. On the expense front, as I mentioned, we had a really good first half of 2025 as we continue to be laser-focused on improving expense efficiencies.

我們對第三季業績的預期是，同店營收成長將比第二季略微下降，然後進入第四季後會有所改善。因此，儘管我們對營運基本面的正面趨勢感到非常鼓舞，但我只是想管理這些改進需要一點時間才能實現的預期。在費用方面，正如我所提到的，我們在 2025 年上半年表現得非常好，因為我們繼續專注於提高費用效率。

Our improved expectations that led to our improved expense growth guidance range were driven by a variety of line items, but the leading areas of improvement were the much better-than-anticipated insurance renewal in May, successful property tax appeals and the impact of efficiency-focused projects at our stores, including staffing and telecom initiatives.

我們改善的預期導致了我們費用增長指導範圍的改善，這是由各種項目推動的，但主要的改善領域是 5 月份遠好於預期的保險續保、成功的財產稅上訴以及我們門店以效率為重點的項目的影響，包括人員配備和電信計劃。

That wraps up our prepared remarks for this morning. Thanks again for joining us on the call. And at this time, Jenny, let's open up the call for some questions.

今天早上我們準備好的演講到此結束。再次感謝您參加我們的電話會議。珍妮，現在讓我們開始回答一些問題。

(Operator Instructions) Samir Khanal, Bank of America.

（操作員指示）美國銀行的 Samir Khanal。

I guess, Chris, thanks for the color on July. It looks like you are seeing positive trends, which is good to see. Just curious on the revenue side, you took the midpoint up, which was good, but you also took the top end down slightly. So I guess what were you assuming at the top end that you felt was sort of out of reach based on your assumptions?

我想，克里斯，感謝七月的色彩。看起來你看到了積極的趨勢，這是令人高興的。只是對收入方面感到好奇，你把中間點提高了，這很好，但你也把最高點稍微降低了。那麼，我猜你認為根據你的假設，在最高端你認為什麼是遙不可及的？

Samir, it's Tim. Yes, the top end would have assumed a stronger improvement in overall levels of demand. And we're just reining in the high end of those expectations as a result of that's not how the busy season played out. We just don't see that the high end is in the cards. So we brought it down. But again, I would much rather focus on the fact that we raised guidance in the midpoint than the part that you're pointing out that we narrowed the top end.

薩米爾，我是提姆。是的，高端市場本來預期整體需求水準會有更強勁的改善。我們只是控制了這些預期的上限，因為繁忙季節的情況並非如此。我們只是沒有看到高端產品的出現。所以我們把它放下來了。但是，我更願意關注我們在中期提高了指導這一事實，而不是您指出的我們縮小了頂端的部分。

Okay. Got it. And then I guess on the revenue growth as it relates to New York, still very strong versus the portfolio, but did decelerate a little bit. Maybe provide some color around the New York boroughs and kind of what you're seeing maybe in the Northern New Jersey area. Any color would be helpful.

好的。知道了。然後我猜想，就紐約而言，收入成長相對於投資組合來說仍然非常強勁，但確實略有放緩。也許可以為紐約各區提供一些色彩，就像您在新澤西州北部地區看到的那樣。任何顏色都會有幫助。

Yes. So the positive trends across the portfolio are also embedded in the New York MSA as a whole. So net rental income accelerated from Q1 to Q2 fairly nicely. The overall total revenue came down a bit, again, back to Tim's comments at the beginning related to changes we made last year in fees, et cetera, that had a very difficult comp, particularly given the nature of the customer in the boroughs, difficult comp for Q2. So very encouraged by net rental income growth continue to move in a really positive direction in both the boroughs as well as in Long Island.

是的。因此，整個投資組合的正面趨勢也體現在紐約 MSA 整體中。因此，淨租金收入從第一季到第二季成長相當順利。總收入再次略有下降，這又回到了蒂姆一開始的評論，他談到了我們去年在費用等方面所做的改變，這些改變帶來了非常困難的競爭，特別是考慮到各行政區客戶的性質，第二季度的競爭非常困難。因此，受到淨租金收入成長的鼓舞，這兩個行政區以及長島的租金收入繼續朝著非常積極的方向發展。

I think as it relates to North Jersey, that same-store cadence, net rental income there, we're seeing continued movement in a good direction, albeit it does remain slightly negative year-over-year and therefore, is a bit of a drag on the MSA as a whole. But no real meaningful supply being delivered. The supply in North Jersey is being absorbed. And so overall, really pleased with New York, the cadence of New York, continued stickiness of the customer base there and our position on a relative basis to our peers and our outperformance relative to other operators in that market during the quarter.

我認為，就北澤西而言，我們看到同店節奏、淨租金收入繼續朝著好的方向發展，儘管與去年同期相比仍然略有下降，因此對整個 MSA 造成了一些拖累。但沒有提供任何真正有意義的供應。北澤西的供應正在被吸收。因此，總體而言，我們對紐約感到非常滿意，紐約的節奏、那裡的客戶群的持續粘性、我們相對於同行的地位以及我們在本季度相對於該市場其他運營商的優異表現。

Michael Goldsmith, UBS.

瑞銀集團的麥可‧戈德史密斯。

You mentioned twice on the call that the monthly turnover of your customers is 5%. And then can you help us tie that to just the pace of recovery in that the third quarter is going to be a little bit more negative than the second quarter and just how street rates continue to close the gap and get better, but then it just takes time for that to flow through. Can you kind of just tie that all together and just provide a picture of how the recovery and the stabilization should take place?

您在電話中兩次提到，您的客戶的月營業額為 5%。然後，您能否幫助我們將其與復甦速度聯繫起來，即第三季度將比第二季度稍微負面一些，以及街頭利率如何繼續縮小差距並變得更好，但這需要時間才能實現。您能否將所有這些結合起來並提供一幅圖景，說明復甦和穩定應該如何進行？

Yes. Thanks, Michael. So it is the reality that the operating fundamentals, all of the key metrics that we look at, whether it's levels of demand, pricing to new customers, narrowing the occupancy gap, all of those things are improving. The reality is that probably the most encouraging thing about 2025 is it's feeling more normal from day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, certainly more normal than it has been over the last two years.

是的。謝謝，麥可。因此，現實情況是，營運基本面，我們所關注的所有關鍵指標，無論是需求水準、新客戶的定價，還是縮小入住率差距，所有這些都在改善。事實是，2025 年最令人鼓舞的事情可能是，每天、每週、每月都會感覺更正常，肯定比過去兩年更正常。

As we've talked about for the past several quarters, if not the past two years, it's just been a little bit bumpy here as we've gone through post pandemic and kind of the reset that we've all been through the last three years. And so what that does is it creates a little bit of that volatility that we saw last year creates interesting comps year-over-year. And so it just doesn't naturally flow through in a steady and programmatic way, the way everybody that's building a model would like it to. And so that's why we're pointing out that there still is a little bit of volatility in how all of that flows through.

正如我們在過去幾個季度（如果不是過去兩年）所討論的那樣，這裡的情況有點坎坷，因為我們經歷了疫情後的時期以及過去三年我們都經歷過的某種重置。因此，它會產生一點波動，就像我們去年看到的一樣，從而產生有趣的同比變化。因此，它不能以穩定和程序化的方式自然流動，而這正是每個建立模型的人所希望的。這就是為什麼我們要指出，所有這些流程仍然存在一些波動。

The 5% is just a reminder that even if we have a really good month, it's a really good month that churns 5% of the portfolio, right? And so it just takes time as all that goes through. We touched upon some of the things that are creating the bumpiness and perhaps, I guess, the unpredictability from your perspective on how all that flows through related to what we did with fees, what we did and what we continue to do with rate increases to existing customers. And all of those things create a little bit of noise in how all of the positive fundamentals flow through to the bottom line.

5% 只是一個提醒，即使我們有一個非常好的月份，但如果投資組合的 5% 都處於波動狀態，那麼這個月份就是非常好的月份，對嗎？所以所有事情的發生都需要時間。我們談到了造成這種不順暢的一些因素，我想，從您的角度來看，所有這些流程的不可預測性都與我們對費用的處理方式、我們對現有客戶的費率上調所做的處理以及我們繼續採取的措施有關。所有這些因素都會對所有正面基本面如何傳導到底線產生一些影響。

Ultimately, all of this is gearing towards the ultimate stabilization and kind of the end of the reset, and I think we're going to be in a great spot here as we think about where we're starting 2026.

最終，所有這一切都是為了最終的穩定和重置的結束，我認為當我們思考 2026 年的起點時，我們將處於一個很好的位置。

And then just as a follow-up. First quarter, you were able to acquire out of a JV, little activity in the second quarter. So can you provide a little color on what you're seeing in the transaction market? Is there a lot on the market is what does pricing look like? It sounds like it hasn't been too favorable to your appetite. So can you just provide a little more color on that.

然後只是作為後續行動。第一季度，您能夠從合資企業中收購股份，但第二季度的活動很少。那麼，您能否稍微介紹一下您在交易市場上看到的情況？市面上有很多這樣的產品，價格是怎麼樣的？聽起來這對你的胃口不太有利。您能否對此提供更多詳細資訊？

Yes. Thanks, Michael. Not a lot has changed from what we've talked about in the prior handful of quarters. We continue to underwrite. I would say deal volume is -- it's up from where it was last year. The number of opportunities that we're underwriting is a little bit higher than where we were this time last year. But the result remains the same, which is we're competitive on some deals. We're not as competitive on others.

是的。謝謝，麥可。與我們在前幾季討論的內容相比，並沒有太大的變化。我們繼續承保。我想說的是，交易量比去年增加。我們承保的機會數量比去年同期略高。但結果仍然是一樣的，那就是我們在某些​​交易上具有競爭力。我們對其他人的競爭力並不強。

And just on a risk-adjusted basis, where it makes sense for us to invest based on our outlook for an individual opportunity and our cost of capital, just not quite there yet, just not able to transact in any meaningful way.

僅從風險調整的角度來看，根據我們對個別機會和資本成本的展望進行投資是合理的，但目前還沒有達到這個程度，還不能以任何有意義的方式進行交易。

Todd Thomas, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

托馬斯 (Todd Thomas)，KeyBanc 資本市場。

Yes. I was just wondering, just following up a little bit on your comments around same-store revenue growth stabilizing and beginning to recover in the fourth quarter later in the year. You talked about the New York City Metro. I'm curious if you can speak to the operating trends in the Sunbelt markets where it's been a little bit weaker, Texas, Phoenix, Atlanta. Is the inflection that you're anticipating later in the year consistent with what you would expect to see in those markets? Or will those markets take a little bit longer to recover still?

是的。我只是想知道，只是想稍微跟進一下您關於同店收入增長將在今年晚些時候的第四季度穩定並開始復甦的評論。您談到了紐約市地鐵。我很好奇，您是否可以談談陽光地帶市場（這些市場稍微弱一些）的營運趨勢，例如德州、鳳凰城、亞特蘭大。您預計今年稍後出現的變化與您預期在這些市場中看到的變化一致嗎？或者這些市場還需要更長的時間才能復甦？

Yes. Todd, I think the positive directional trends are across markets, right? So when you think about just as an example, if we think about acceleration from markets kind of first quarter to second quarter, and then you've got some of the Sunbelt markets that are actually showing that improvement, Orlando, Miami, Atlanta. I think 6 of our top 20 showed some acceleration, albeit still not positive.

是的。托德，我認為正面的方向趨勢是跨市場的，對嗎？因此，舉個例子，如果我們考慮從第一季到第二季的市場加速成長，那麼你會發現一些陽光地帶市場實際上正在顯示出這種改善，例如奧蘭多、邁阿密、亞特蘭大。我認為我們前 20 名中有 6 名表現出了一定的加速，儘管仍然不是積極的。

So I think we're -- on the one hand, I think you're seeing things being constructive. On the other hand, when you think about the supply that is out there and that is supposed to be delivered. And again, I think some of these projects will clearly lag into next year, but it eventually will be delivered. You still have pretty high amount of deliveries in Atlanta and Houston and Dallas and Phoenix.

所以我認為我們——一方面，我認為你看到事情是建設性的。另一方面，當你考慮現有的供應和需要交付的供應。而且，我認為其中一些項目顯然會拖延到明年，但最終將會交付。亞特蘭大、休士頓、達拉斯和鳳凰城的送貨量仍然相當高。

So again, I recognize that there are large MSAs, they're sprawling. It's possible to construct storage in those markets where you're not necessarily clumped together with existing product as you are in some of the urban areas. But I do think it will be a longer time frame for those higher impacted supply markets to recover, but I do think trends will get better.

因此，我再次認識到，存在著大型 MSA，它們正在蔓延。您可以在那些不必像某些城市地區那樣將現有產品集中存放的市場中建造倉庫。但我確實認為，受影響較大的供應市場需要更長的時間才能恢復，但我確實認為趨勢會變得更好。

Okay. It seems pretty broad-based. The other question I had was this morning, we got a little bit of a weaker jobs report and uncertainty around the economy and consumer has been high for a little while in general. As you think about your ECRI program and revenue management, you shift your strategy at all in sort of a proactive way to consider a potentially weakening macro or economic backdrop. Does anything change? Or do you let the system continue to manage it based on demand?

好的。它看起來相當廣泛。我今天早上遇到的另一個問題是，我們收到了一份略顯疲軟的就業報告，而且總體而言，圍繞經濟和消費者的不確定性在一段時間內一直居高不下。當您考慮 ECRI 計劃和收入管理時，您會以主動的方式轉變您的策略，以考慮可能減弱的宏觀或經濟背景。有什麼改變嗎？還是讓系統依需求繼續管理？

Yes. I think fundamentally, because of the nature of the product is just one in which the need is so broad-based, which is why it's so resilient. The systems will identify the need and the expected demand and then sort of match those two up and lather rinse, repeat. I do think we watch, again, the health of the existing customer relative to kind of what's going on macro. But as I think we've said to date, the existing customer continues to remain pretty healthy.

是的。我認為從根本上來說，由於產品的性質，其需求非常廣泛，這就是它如此有彈性的原因。系統將識別需求和預期需求，然後將兩者進行配對、沖洗，然後重複。我確實認為，我們再次關注現有客戶的健康狀況與宏觀情況的關係。但我認為我們迄今為止已經說過，現有客戶仍然保持相當健康的狀態。

Juan Sanabria, BMO Capital Markets.

Juan Sanabria，BMO 資本市場。

Apologies if I missed this, but I guess what is the main driver of the expected decel in same-store revenue in the third quarter versus second quarter. Is it a product of tougher comps in kind of the other ancillary revenue line? Or is it something else?

如果我錯過了這一點，請原諒，但我猜第三季與第二季相比同店收入預計下降的主要原因是什麼。它是其他輔助收入線中更嚴格的比較的產物嗎？還是其他什麼？

I'm sorry, Juan. Just to reiterate, it's a combination of the timing is to really just how things flow through and show up in revenue. It's the timing of when we made adjustments to some of the fees earlier in 2024. It's the reality as to how the rate increases to existing customers just flow through revenue and the timing of that, the volatility that we are seeing less of now, but we did see volatility last year, which creates a little bit of bumpiness in a variety of different comps.

對不起，胡安。重申一下，這其實是時間的結合，只是事情如何進展並體現在收入中。這是我們在 2024 年初對部分費用進行調整的時機。現實情況是，現有客戶的費率上漲只會影響收入和時間，我們現在看到的波動性已經減少了，但去年我們確實看到了波動，這給了各種不同的公司一些波動。

And then just the reality that as fundamentals continue to improve, you get a little bit of that help in each month, but only a little bit given the churn. So it just takes time for all this to flow through. We're super positive about the direction of all of the trends in operating fundamentals. Just want to make sure that we're telegraphing how we think it's all going to flow through ultimately into the revenue result that you should expect to see for the balance of the year.

而現實情況是，隨著基本面的不斷改善，你每個月都會得到一點幫助，但考慮到客戶流失，幫助只是一點點。所以這一切都需要時間來完成。我們對所有營運基本面趨勢的方向都非常樂觀。只是想確保我們能夠清楚地表達出我們認為這一切最終將如何流入到您期望在今年餘下時間看到的收入結果中。

And then just you noted 3PM business saw some churn. I guess what's the expectation in the second half? Are there any other large chunkier portfolios that are being sold away from you guys that could see that number of third-party managed stores actually go down? Or just curious on what visibility you have there?

然後您就注意到下午 3 點的業務出現了一些波動。我猜下半場的期望是什麼？你們是否也出售了其他更大規模的投資組合，從而導致第三方管理商店的數量實際上下降？或只是好奇你在那裡能見度如何？

Yes, not a great deal of visibility. Obviously, the stores that are leaving our platform as they're sold that we know about, we're incorporating that into our expectations. We've talked about it in the prior quarters, one of the benefits that we've had from a relatively sluggish transaction market over the past 18 to 24 months has been that we had been experiencing less churn as a result of a slow transaction market. Now that it's starting to pick up at least a little bit, we're starting to see some stores leave the platform.

是的，可見度不高。顯然，我們知道有些商店在銷售後會離開我們的平台，我們將這種情況納入我們的預期。我們在前幾個季度已經討論過這個問題，過去 18 到 24 個月相對低迷的交易市場給我們帶來的好處之一是，由於交易市場緩慢，我們的客戶流失率較低。現在情況開始有所好轉，我們開始看到一些商店離開該平台。

And part of the business, we try to do a great job for our owners. I think we do. And oftentimes, that positions them to accomplish their objectives, which is to maximize the cash flow and be in a good position to transact and realize a profit. So part of the business, what we can do to control it is to continue to do a great job of onboarding stores, 30 more stores onboarded to the program this year. That's the part that we have a little bit more control over. The rest of it is kind of a result.

作為業務的一部分，我們努力為業主提供優質服務。我認為是的。通常，這使他們能夠實現其目標，即最大化現金流並處於有利的交易和實現利潤的位置。因此，作為業務的一部分，我們可以做的就是繼續做好商店入職工作，今年又有 30 家商店加入了該計劃。這是我們能夠更好地控制的部分。其餘部分都是一種結果。

Eric Wolfe, Citi.

花旗銀行的埃里克·沃爾夫。

It's Nick Joseph here with Eric. You touched on the high non deliveries in some of the markets and the continued impact that you're feeling there. Are there any indications of construction starts picking up in any of your markets? Obviously, you're dealing with the residual of starts that have already occurred.

我是尼克·約瑟夫，和艾瑞克在一起。您提到了某些市場未交付率高的問題以及您在那裡感受到的持續影響。是否有跡象表明您所在的市場建築業開始回升？顯然，您正在處理已經發生的啟動的殘餘。

No, I think it's actually the opposite. For the most part, as you would expect, raw material costs are up, land values certainly have not gone down. Labor is challenging to obtain and expensive. And your cost of borrowing, if it's available for speculative development is tight and then trying to pencil out returns that make sense in this market today, given all that for your potential equity investors is also a challenge.

不，我認為事實恰恰相反。在大多數情況下，正如您所預料的那樣，原材料成本上漲，土地價值肯定沒有下降。勞動力很難取得，而且成本昂貴。如果你的借貸成本夠高，並且可用於投機性開發，那麼試圖計算出在當今市場上合理的回報，對於你的潛在股權投資者來說也是一個挑戰。

So obviously, deals are coming out of the ground or had already come out of the ground or getting completed. But I think as we look out a little bit further and you look at '26, '27, I think we're going to see a lot of delays, a lot of projects that don't get started until some of those factors that I just discussed are resolved more favorably. So I think supply will continue to be overall constructive, albeit in certain markets, it's continued -- it will continue to have a bit of a headwind.

顯然，交易正在醞釀、已經醞釀或即將完成。但我認為，如果我們把眼光放長遠一點，看看26年、27年，我們會看到很多延誤，很多專案要等到我剛才討論的一些因素得到更有利的解決後才能啟動。因此我認為供應總體上將繼續保持建設性，儘管在某些市場，這種情況仍將繼續——它將繼續面臨一些阻力。

That's helpful. How far off do you think -- or how far do in-place rents need to move before supply starts to pencil?

這很有幫助。您認為距離有多遠——或者在供應開始下降之前，現有租金需要變動多少？

Yes. I mean that's just such a micro market specific. And again, it all comes back down to -- on the cost side as well. And if you own the dirt, how long have you owned it, what your basis is, et cetera. So given where rates are, again, relative to certainly where they would have been in 2020 or 2021 when some of these developers would have started focusing in on these projects, I think we've still got a bit of a ways to go.

是的。我的意思是這只是一個特定的微型市場。再次，這一切都歸結於成本方面。如果您擁有這片土地，您擁有它多久了，您的基礎是什麼，等等。因此，考慮到目前的利率相對於 2020 年或 2021 年（當時一些開發商開始專注於這些項目）的利率，我認為我們還有一段路要走。

Spenser Glimcher, Green Street.

史賓塞‧格里姆徹 (Spenser Glimcher)，綠街。

Can you just provide an update on the Texas JV you entered into at the beginning of the year? I'm just curious how these properties have been trending from an operational standpoint.

您能否提供今年年初在德州成立的合資企業的最新情況？我只是好奇從營運的角度來看這些屬性的趨勢如何。

The Hines portfolio you're referring to, the Dallas stores, everything is going very much according to what we thought would happen. We -- that portfolio, as a reminder, was extraordinarily attractive to us because those assets, if you could have taken a map and said, where would you like to add stores to complement our existing footprint in the Dallas MSA, the overwhelming majority of those were basically a perfect fit for us as to how they fit in.

您所提到的 Hines 產品組合，即達拉斯商店，一切都按照我們預想的方式進行。需要提醒的是，該投資組合對我們來說極具吸引力，因為如果您能拿著地圖說，您想在哪裡增加商店以補充我們在達拉斯 MSA 的現有業務，那麼絕大多數資產基本上都非常適合我們。

So the integration of those stores went very, very smoothly. The pricing of those stores and how they're complementary to our existing assets has played out just as we had hoped and expected. So nothing really to report other than we're delighted with the transaction. It's performing very much in line with how we thought it would.

因此這些商店的整合進行得非常非常順利。這些商店的定價以及它們與我們現有資產的互補性正如我們所希望和預期的那樣。所以除了我們對交易感到滿意之外，沒有什麼可報告的。它的表現與我們的預期非常一致。

Okay. Great. Are you able to share maybe what the occupancy and/or rental gap is between those assets and then the same-store pool?

好的。偉大的。您能否分享一下這些資產與同店資產之間的入住率和/或租金差距？

I don't have that right in front of me. Happy to follow up with you.

我面前並沒有這個東西。很高興與您聯繫。

Okay. And then maybe just kind of shifting gears. I know you guys already talked about the Sunbelt quite a lot. But maybe just more specifically, and I know it's a smaller market, but if you could just share a little color on the Austin market dynamics. I'm just curious what drove operating expenses so high in the quarter?

好的。然後可能只是換個方式。我知道你們已經多次談論過陽光地帶。但也許更具體地說，我知道這是一個較小的市場，但如果你能否分享一些有關奧斯汀市場動態的資訊。我只是好奇是什麼導致本季的營運費用如此之高？

Yes. Austin on the operating expense side is taxes. So that's just the nature of timing and getting information from the state, et cetera. Overall, Austin is impacted by supply as is Dallas. Again, one of those markets where five years ago, everybody would have told you that you can't build another self-storage facility. And here we are today with a lot more self-storage facility. So good market long term under some supply pressure at the moment. And then on the operating expense side, as I said, just a --

是的。奧斯汀的營運費用方面是稅金。所以這只是時機的本質以及從國家獲取資訊等等。總體而言，奧斯汀和達拉斯一樣受到供應的影響。再說一次，五年前，每個人都會告訴你，你不能再建造另一個自助倉儲設施。如今，我們擁有更多的自助倉儲設施。因此，儘管目前存在一些供應壓力，但長期來看市場表現良好。然後就營運費用方面而言，正如我所說，--

And specifically on taxes, it's not bad news this year. It was good news last year. We had a refund. We had a nice refund last year, which creates a difficult comp when comparing this year's expenses to last year's.

具體到稅收方面，今年並不是壞消息。去年這是個好消息。我們獲得了退款。去年我們獲得了不錯的退款，這使得今年的支出與去年的支出進行比較變得困難。

Michael Griffin, Evercore ISI.

邁克爾·格里芬（Michael Griffin），Evercore ISI。

I'm curious if you can unpack the same-store expense guidance a bit. Obviously, you guys have done a good job controlling expenses and about 1% year-to-date in the first half. Looking ahead, I mean, this acceleration, I guess, expected in guidance, probably about 3% in the back half. Is that a timing issue? It seems like comps from the second half of '24 may be more favorable. I don't know if there's kind of anything you can add there about why you're expecting that acceleration to get to the revised midpoint.

我很好奇您是否可以稍微解釋一下同店費用指導。顯然，你們在控制開支方面做得很好，今年上半年迄今的開支約為 1%。展望未來，我的意思是，我猜，預計下半年的加速幅度大概在 3% 左右。這是時間問題嗎？看起來 24 年下半年的業績可能更為有利。我不知道您是否可以補充一些關於為什麼您預計加速度會達到修改後的中點的資訊。

Yes. The -- part of it is what we talked about last quarter, we had some of our beat in the first quarter was timing related, but some of it was better-than-expected seasonal type expenses. So that was some good news that we talked about last quarter that we're not expecting to repeat itself or we don't have the opportunity for it not to snow in August and have that help our results.

是的。其中一部分是我們上個季度討論的內容，我們在第一季取得的一些超出預期的業績是與時間有關的，但其中一部分是好於預期的季節性支出。所以這是我們上個季度談到的一些好消息，我們預計不會重演，或者我們沒有機會在八月不下雪，這對我們的業績有幫助。

Part of it is some of the efficiencies that we've seen on personnel expense. We've been fortunate to be able to capture a lot of efficiencies, as I mentioned, over the past going now north of three years. But at some point, those efficiencies kind of lap and you're back to kind of normal inflationary type growth in those line items. Some of the cadence between what we experienced in the first half of the year versus the back half of the year is timing related. We are going to have a little bit heavier repair and maintenance.

部分原因是我們在人員費用方面看到了一些效率的提升。正如我所提到的，在過去三年裡，我們很幸運能夠實現許多效率提升。但到了一定時候，這些效率就會重疊，這些項目就會回到正常的通膨型成長。我們上半年所經歷的情況與下半年所經歷的情況有些相似，這和時間有關。我們將進行更繁重的維修和保養。

Our expectation is that our repair and maintenance expense will be a little bit higher in the second half of the year than it has been in the first, in line with our expectations, but a lot of that comes down to timing. Marketing is always the wildcard as to we're going to spend based on the opportunities that we see and the returns that we get on that incremental spend. We also have a little bit of a difficult comp in the fourth quarter related to real estate taxes, some refunds that we had last year, relative to an expectation of not very many, who knows? Maybe we get some across the finish line in the fourth quarter, but that's not our expectation as we sit here.

我們預計，下半年的維修和保養費用將比上半年略高，這符合我們的預期，但很大程度上取決於時間。行銷始終是一個未知數，我們將根據所看到的機會以及從增量支出中獲得的回報來決定支出金額。我們在第四季也遇到了一些與房地產稅相關的困難，去年我們獲得的一些退稅，相對於預期的並不多，誰知道呢？也許我們會在第四節取得一些進展，但這並不是我們的期望。

The biggest driver on the positive side when you think about the back half is on the insurance renewal. I mentioned it briefly, but we had a very favorable property insurance renewal back in May. That was better than what we expected. Our risk management team did a great job there, and we're in a much better position than we thought we were going to be from an insurance standpoint.

當您考慮後半部時，最大的正面驅動力是保險續保。我簡單提了一下，但我們在五月的財產保險續保非常有利。這比我們預期的要好。我們的風險管理團隊在那裡表現出色，從保險角度來看，我們的狀況比我們想像的要好得多。

That's some helpful context. And then maybe just on the new customer acquisition front. Obviously, kind of Google searches and search engine optimization has been a priority over the past couple of years. But as we get this emergence of AI or GPT and usage there, do you have a sense of how many prospective customers are starting to use these AI tools to find storage units? Or is most of the traffic still coming in from traditional Internet searches.

這是一些有用的背景資訊。然後可能只是在新客戶獲取方面。顯然，過去幾年來，Google搜尋和搜尋引擎優化一直是我們的首要任務。但是，隨著 AI 或 GPT 的出現和使用，您是否知道有多少潛在客戶開始使用這些 AI 工具來尋找儲存單元？或者大部分流量仍然來自傳統的網路搜尋。

Yes. Most of the traffic is still coming in through traditional Internet searches. The LLMs are evolving. And when you think about the utilization and the types of queries, you can get your mind around those queries that involve some form of additional information, judgment. For example, you could see using an LLM to say, which college would be appropriate for my daughter because you're going to get that interaction then with a follow-up to say, well, can you help me by giving some more information?

是的。大部分流量仍來自傳統的網路搜尋。法學碩士學位正在不斷發展。當您考慮查詢的使用率和類型時，您可以考慮那些涉及某種形式的附加資訊和判斷的查詢。例如，您可以看到使用法學碩士學位來表示哪所大學適合我的女兒，因為您將獲得這種互動，然後進行後續跟進，那麼，您能否透過提供更多資訊來幫助我？

What is she interested in? What part of the country? What your what's your affordability index, et cetera. Compare that to self-storage near me, there's just not that same level. And so I think we were with our partners, our agency and our friends at Google last week digging into all this and the use of Gemini and how one can get ahead of the curve here, and it's moving fast. Our marketing team is all over it. But I would say to date, the traditional sort of self-storage near me on a map continues to dominate.

她對什麼感興趣？位於該國的哪個地區？您的負擔能力指數是多少，等等。與我附近的自助倉儲相比，那裡的水平完全不一樣。所以我認為我們上週與我們的合作夥伴、我們的代理商以及我們在谷歌的朋友們一起深入研究了這一切以及 Gemini 的使用以及如何在這裡取得領先地位，而且它進展很快。我們的行銷團隊對此非常關注。但我想說，到目前為止，地圖上顯示我附近的傳統自助倉儲仍然佔據主導地位。

Ki Bin Kim, Truist.

Ki Bin Kim，Truist。

Just a follow-up on that previous question. Let's say, more of that search gets funneled through AI agents. Do you think that leads to price discovery becoming a bigger factor for customers?

這只是上一個問題的後續答案。假設更多的搜尋是透過人工智慧代理進行的。您認為這是否會導致價格發現成為顧客更重視的因素？

Yes. Ki Bin, I think at this point, it really does seem that, that interaction through a more AI-driven search, the underlying tenets of what gives the response, again, you're looking for that response that regardless of the form is meant to deliver the best answer for the query. I still think you're going to come down to things like reviews, like the speed and validity of your website, like anything that gives your product higher validity, higher respect within the answer that whatever engine is trying to get you to.

是的。Ki Bin，我認為在這一點上，確實看起來，透過更人工智慧驅動的搜尋進行的交互，給出回應的根本原則是，再次強調，你正在尋找那種無論形式如何都能為查詢提供最佳答案的回應。我仍然認為，你會考慮諸如評論之類的事情，例如你網站的速度和有效性，以及任何能讓你的產品在答案中獲得更高有效性、更高尊重的東西，無論引擎試圖讓你得到什麼。

So at the moment, there are going to be some things that change. They always do in the search environment as they always have as Google has changed its priorities and algorithms over the years. But again, fresh off of this summit, I think at the moment, it's a work in progress. And again, will video be more important? Will other things get higher priority in terms of the responsiveness, probably, but exactly what they are today, work in progress.

因此目前，有些事情將會改變。他們在搜尋環境中總是這樣做，因為谷歌多年來一直在改變其優先事項和演算法。但是，再次強調，在這次峰會剛結束之際，我認為目前這項工作仍在進行中。那麼，影片會更重要嗎？在響應性方面，其他事情是否會獲得更高的優先級，可能吧，但目前的具體情況是，工作仍在進行中。

Okay. And just a broader question. Do you think the sector -- software sectors rents can grow something closer to inflationary levels even if housing doesn't come back, given that we are probably lapping some of that? And assuming supply is kind of static, do you think the rents can rise in this group?

好的。這是一個更廣泛的問題。您是否認為，即使房屋市場沒有回暖，軟體產業的租金也能成長到接近通膨水平，因為我們可能已經承受了部分通膨壓力？假設供應量保持不變，您認為這群人的租金會上漲嗎？

Yes. I think -- again, I think once you've reestablished a baseline that is reflective of the existing -- of the existing demand, what you need then is that churn, right? Again, back to the number of customers that come in and out every month after you've reestablished that baseline, then I think you grow from there. And again, I think that -- I think we're on that path of both Cube and the industry at that.

是的。我認為——再說一次，我認為一旦你重新建立了反映現有需求的基線，那麼你需要的就是客戶流失，對嗎？再次，在您重新建立該基準後，回到每月進出的顧客數量，然後我認為您會從那裡開始增長。而且，我認為——我認為我們正走在 Cube 和行業發展的道路上。

Okay. And Chris, if I can squeeze in a third one, you might like this one. I'm just curious, like why do you guys have a BBB rating from S&P Global, whereas like EXR that has more leverage has a better rating? And I'm looking at your pricing, I don't think you're paying more for it, but is there any -- are you leaving any money on the table for not getting a better rating.

好的。克里斯，如果我能擠出第三個，你可能會喜歡這個。我只是好奇，為什麼你們獲得了標準普爾全球的 BBB 評級，而像 EXR 這樣槓桿率更高的評級卻更高？我看了你們的定價，我認為你們並沒有為此支付更多費用，但是你們是否因為沒有獲得更好的評級而損失了一些錢？

Man, I might have you join my next call with our friends at S&P and Moody's. I think you make some valid points there. I think part of the disconnect, certainly from a consistency of credit metrics and conservative credit metrics and continued access to our unsecured bondholders. We have an awful long track record with this strategy, and I think that goes a long way down that path.

哥們，我可能會請你們參加我與標準普爾和穆迪的朋友的下一次電話會議。我認為你提出的一些觀點是正確的。我認為造成這種脫節的部分原因肯定是信貸指標和保守信貸指標的一致性以及我們無擔保債券持有人的持續獲取管道。我們在這項策略上有著悠久的歷史，我認為它將對我們未來的發展起到很大的作用。

I think size becomes part of it. Part of the differentiator. But I would agree with the premise of what you're suggesting and certainly something that we're aware of and think about and talk about. I think at the end of the day, though, Ki Bin, when we do transact, I do think that there's the view of S&P and Moody's and there's the rating. And then there's ultimately, as with anything, there's how investors look at us and look at that rating.

我認為尺寸是其中的一部分。差異化因素的一部份。但我同意您所建議的前提，當然這也是我們意識到、思考和談論的事情。不過，Ki Bin，我認為，當我們進行交易時，最終我們會考慮標準普爾和穆迪的觀點以及評級。然後最終，就像任何事情一樣，投資者如何看待我們以及如何看待評級。

And I do think we get credit for all of the metrics that you're referring to in how our bonds trade. So it's not like there's a specific point where you say you have this rating, therefore, this is your pricing. I think our investors in our bonds do look at all of the things that you're looking at as they think about how to price our bonds, both our existing bonds and future issuances.

我確實認為，我們所提到的有關債券交易的所有指標都值得稱讚。因此，並不是說您在某個特定點上說您有這個評級，因此，這就是您的定價。我認為，我們的債券投資者在考慮如何為我們的債券（包括現有債券和未來發行的債券）定價時，確實會考慮您所考慮的所有因素。

Mike Mueller, J.P. Morgan.

摩根大通的麥克·穆勒。

I guess, Chris, when you look back over the past 30 years or so in the business, have there been any like clear triggers or catalysts that cause stagnant market move-in rates to move up outside of housing cycles? I mean we know significant supply kind of does the opposite, but just curious about on the upside.

克里斯，我想，當你回顧過去 30 年左右的行業歷程時，是否有任何明顯的觸發因素或催化劑導致停滯的市場入住率在住房週期之外上升？我的意思是，我們知道大量的供應會產生相反的效果，但只是對上行趨勢感到好奇。

Well, I think to the sharpness of the upside, certainly, the period in the second half of '20 through the very beginning of '22 in my 30 years was the sharpest of the up driven by the various factors related to the pandemic. I think when you look back, you're right, supply is always going to be the headwind. Macro events that cause the consumer to freeze in place, COVID, Lehman bankruptcy, 9/11, those tend to cause a short-term blip that freezes demand. It generally, when you take out supply and you take out Black Swan events, pricing has always tended to sort of move up at or a little bit higher than inflation.

嗯，我認為就上漲幅度而言，毫無疑問，在我 30 年的職業生涯中，20 世紀下半年到 2022 年初這段時間是受疫情相關各種因素推動上漲幅度最大的時期。我認為，當你回顧時，你是對的，供應永遠是逆風。導致消費者停滯的宏觀事件，如新冠疫情、雷曼破產、9/11 事件，這些往往會導致短期波動，從而凍結需求。一般來說，當去掉供應和黑天鵝事件時，價格總是會趨於上漲，或略高於通貨膨脹率。

I think the last several years, as we've had a variety of differing strategies across the sector as to how to price the new customer, I think that's created a bit of volatility that we did not have in the past.

我認為過去幾年，由於我們在整個行業中對如何為新客戶定價採取了各種不同的策略，我認為這造成了一些過去沒有的波動。

Got it. Okay. And second question, how has ECRI pushback been recently compared to, say, the past couple of years?

知道了。好的。第二個問題，與過去幾年相比，ECRI 的反擊情況如何？

No change. I think we are, again, still in an environment where the existing customer remains pretty healthy. And I think -- and I think the stickiness of them and the nature of the product has supported the ECRI process. As Tim talked about, the one thing we are doing more of is testing and trying out different cadence, different strategy around the timing and the amount of that increase, which has created some bumpiness as we've talked about here for a while. But overall, general reaction from the customers is unchanged.

沒有變化。我認為我們仍然處於現有客戶仍然相當健康的環境中。我認為——它們的黏性和產品的性質支持了 ECRI 流程。正如蒂姆所說，我們正在做的更多的事情是測試和嘗試不同的節奏、不同的策略，圍繞時間和增加的數量，這造成了一些坎坷，正如我們在這裡討論過的。但整體而言，顧客的整體反應並沒有改變。

Ravi Vaidya, Mizuho.

瑞穗的拉維·瓦伊迪亞 (Ravi Vaidya)。

I wanted to ask about the transaction markets. I think that we might see more product coming to market in the second half of the year here. Maybe can you describe your appetite to execute on acquisitions and maybe some of your funding sources? And what are some of the IRRs or benchmark returns that you're looking to target as you make these decisions?

我想問一下交易市場的情況。我認為我們可能會在今年下半年看到更多產品上市。您能否描述一下您對執行收購的興趣以及一些資金來源？在做出這些決定時，您希望實現哪些 IRR 或基準回報？

Yes. Thanks. As I mentioned earlier, the transaction market, the volume of opportunities that we've had to underwrite this year is up a little bit from where it would have been a year ago. Seasonally, the transaction market in our sector tends to pick up here in the coming months as many sellers want to get through that one more busy season, that one more leg of rate growth or occupancy growth in order to sell their assets.

是的。謝謝。正如我之前提到的，在交易市場中，我們今年承保的機會數量比一年前略有增加。從季節性來看，我們行業的交易市場在未來幾個月內趨於回暖，因為許多賣家希望度過另一個繁忙季節，度過又一個價格增長或入住率增長階段，以便出售他們的資產。

So this is the time of the year where if you are a seller, you're starting to think about gearing up to bring your store to market. So this tends to be seasonally a good time to go forward. From our perspective, we are very focused on finding opportunities that are consistent with our overall portfolio growth strategy, which is primarily focused in top 40 MSAs, high-quality assets in high-quality markets. And so that's our -- that's what we're looking for on balance sheet.

因此，如果您是賣家，現在是您開始考慮將您的商店推向市場的時候了。因此從季節角度來看，這往往是前進的好時機。從我們的角度來看，我們非常注重尋找與我們的整體投資組合成長策略一致的機會，該策略主要集中在前 40 個 MSA、高品質市場中的高品質資產。這就是我們的——這就是我們在資產負債表上尋找的東西。

And then from a return standpoint, we're looking for things that are -- certainly, if they're stable acquisitions, we're looking at pricing that would be accretive to our earnings. If there's something that's less than stable or something that we see a good opportunity for it to grow, significantly under our operating platform, then we're going to look at stabilized type returns and think about how the potential acquisition is complementary or not to our existing portfolio. So there are a variety of things that we're looking for.

然後從回報的角度來看，我們正在尋找能夠增加我們收益的定價。當然，如果它們是穩定的收購，我們會考慮這些定價。如果有些東西不太穩定，或者我們認為它在我們的營運平台下有很好的成長機會，那麼我們就會專注於穩定的回報，並思考潛在的收購是否與我們現有的投資組合互補。因此，我們正在尋找各種各樣的東西。

Ultimately, where we are right now is that, as I had mentioned, on a risk-adjusted basis, given our cost of capital and our return requirements, we're just not seeing -- we're not seeing things of high-quality trade at prices that work for us. I think that could change any day. I think that could change tomorrow from how would we fund it. We have an $850 million line of credit. We have great access to a variety of different capital sources. We have established a leverage level, as I talked about earlier, that gives us quite a bit of capacity.

最終，正如我所提到的，我們現在的情況是，在風險調整的基礎上，考慮到我們的資本成本和回報要求，我們只是沒有看到——我們沒有看到以對我們有利的價格進行高品質交易。我認為這種情況隨時都可能改變。我認為明天我們如何為其提供資金可能會改變。我們有8.5億美元的信用額度。我們擁有豐富的管道獲取各種不同的資金來源。正如我之前提到的，我們已經建立了槓桿水平，這給了我們相當大的容量。

If we saw a wave of opportunity, we could -- we don't need to be reliant upon issuing equity because we have some capacity in our balance sheet that we could, for a period of time, find some things that are -- if they're attractive, we could utilize debt to do that. We have a significant amount of free cash flow that we generate each year that could also fund those opportunities. I would think for us that the -- even sector-wide, I think the opportunities are as you're coming out of a development cycle, you would think that a lot of the stores that have been developed over the past two, three, four years are developed as they traditionally are by merchant builders and by pockets of capital that do not have forever time lines on how long they want to own their self-storage asset.

如果我們看到一波機遇，我們可以——我們不需要依賴發行股票，因為我們的資產負債表上有一定的容量，我們可以在一段時間內找到一些東西——如果它們有吸引力，我們可以利用債務來做到這一點。我們每年都會產生大量的自由現金流，可以為這些機會提供資金。我認為，對我們來說，甚至在整個行業中，我認為機會在於，當你走出一個發展週期時，你會認為過去兩、三、四年裡開發的許多商店都是按照傳統方式由商業建築商和資本口袋開發的，這些資本對於他們想要擁有自助存儲資產的時間長度沒有永久的時間表。

So I do think that there is a building wave of potential opportunities of folks that have been sitting on the sidelines from a selling standpoint that ultimately need liquidity and desire liquidity and want to come to market.

因此，我確實認為，那些一直站在賣方立場觀望的人們正在湧現出一波潛在的機會，他們最終需要流動性、渴望流動性並希望進入市場。

They're just waiting for a better time as are we as a buyer waiting for a time where the math makes sense for us and returns make sense for us and for our shareholders.

他們只是在等待一個更好的時機，就像我們作為買家一樣，等待一個對我們來說數學有意義、對我們和我們的股東來說回報有意義的時機。

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Chris Marr for closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題。現在我將把電話轉回給克里斯·馬爾，請他作最後發言。

Thank you, everyone. It was a very solid quarter here at Cube. Those stabilizing trends continued into July, which gave us comfort and confidence to raise our guidance expectations for the year. So we believe we're in a good position here as we navigate the back half of '25, and we're optimistic about what 2026 will hold for us. I think we'll continue to see reduced levels of deliveries, reduced impact from supply. The existing customer continues to be quite healthy.

謝謝大家。對於 Cube 來說這是一個非常穩健的季度。這些穩定趨勢持續到了7月份，這讓我們感到安心和有信心提高今年的指導預期。因此，我們相信，在 2025 年下半年，我們處於有利地位，並且對 2026 年的前景充滿樂觀。我認為我們將繼續看到交付量下降，供應影響減弱。現有客戶依然保持著相當良好的狀態。

So a good backdrop as things stabilize here and we begin to see more positive opportunities as we move into next year. So thank you all for listening. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and we will look forward to speaking with you on our third quarter earnings call.

因此，隨著情況趨於穩定，我們將迎來一個良好的背景，進入明年，我們將開始看到更多積極的機會。感謝大家的聆聽。享受您剩餘的夏天，我們期待在第三季財報電話會議上與您交談。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開連線。