MADISON, NJ - (Marketwired - Nov 4, 2013) - Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY), a global leader in residential real estate franchising and provider of real estate brokerage, relocation, and title and settlement services, today reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, including the following highlights:
"We had an outstanding third quarter," said Richard A. Smith, Realogy's chairman, chief executive officer and president. "Our 29% increase in year-over-year homesale transaction volume exceeded the 26% sales volume increase reported by the National Association of Realtors. While industry observers anticipated that the mortgage rate environment would slow the housing recovery, we now believe the exact opposite occurred -- it accelerated. In our view, the strong volume increase was driven by a combination of pent-up demand, relatively low inventory and a shift in homebuyer preference to purchase existing homes over new homes due to the ability to lock in mortgage rates for the shorter period it takes to close on an existing home purchase over a new home."
During the third quarter of 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012, the Realogy Franchise Group (RFG), our franchise segment, and NRT, the operator of our company-owned brokerage offices, reported closed homesale transaction gains of 19% and 17%, respectively. Average homesale price improved 10% at RFG and 8% at NRT compared with the third quarter of 2012. NRT's average homesale price of approximately $476,000 is nearly double the national average of $255,000.
"In the fourth quarter, we expect year-over-year homesale transaction volume growth to continue, however, at a comparatively slower pace than the uncharacteristically strong fourth quarter of last year, which was influenced by the then-impending change in the capital gains taxes," said Anthony E. Hull, Realogy's executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer. "Accordingly, we expect that fourth quarter homesale transaction volume for RFG and NRT combined should increase 6% to 8% compared with the fourth quarter of 2012, even on the heels of the extremely strong transaction volume increases in the third quarter. Looking ahead, we expect full-year 2013 homesale transaction volume to increase 17% to 19% compared to 2012, resulting in annual Adjusted EBITDA for 2013 in the range of $785 to $800 million, an increase of 16% to 19% year-over-year. This reflects the expected impact from reduced refinance activity, principally in our PHH Home Loans mortgage origination venture, on our fourth quarter financial results."
The Company ended the quarter with a cash balance of $173 million and $40 million of outstanding borrowings on its revolving credit facility under its senior secured credit agreement.
"Our proactive year-to-date deleveraging activity combined with the strong cash flow we have generated so far this year allowed us to reduce our net debt to 12-month trailing Adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio to 4.7 times at September 30, 2013 from 5.9 times at year-end 2012. We remain focused on achieving our target leverage goal of 3.0 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA," said Hull.
A consolidated balance sheet is included as Table 2 of this press release.
Today, November 4 at 8:30 a.m. (EST), Realogy will hold a conference call via webcast to review its third quarter results. The call will be hosted by Richard A. Smith, chairman, chief executive officer and president, and Anthony E. Hull, executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, and will conclude with an investor Q&A period with management.
Investors may access the conference call live via webcast at www.realogy.com under "Investors" or by dialing (888) 895-3527 (toll free); international participants should dial (706) 679-2250. Please dial in at least 5 to 10 minutes prior to start time. A webcast replay also will be available from November 4 through November 15.
Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY) is a global leader in real estate franchising with company-owned real estate brokerage operations doing business under its franchise systems as well as relocation and title services. Realogy's brands and business units include Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, CENTURY 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Coldwell Banker Commercial®, The Corcoran Group®, ERA®, Sotheby's International Realty®, NRT LLC, Cartus and Title Resource Group. Collectively, Realogy's franchise system members operate approximately 13,600 offices with 244,000 independent sales associates doing business in 104 countries around the world. Realogy is headquartered in Madison, N.J.
Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Realogy Holdings Corp. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Statements preceded by, followed by or that otherwise include the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "projects", "estimates" and "plans" and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will", "should", "would", "may" and "could" are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. Any statements that refer to expectations or other characterizations of future events, circumstances or results are forward-looking statements.
Various factors that could cause actual future results and other future events to differ materially from those estimated by management include, but are not limited to: adverse developments or the absence of sustained improvement in general business, economic and political conditions; adverse developments or the absence of improvement in the residential real estate markets including but not limited to the lack of sustained improvement in the number of home sales and/or stagnant or declining home prices, low levels of consumer confidence, the impact of slow economic growth or future recessions and related high levels of unemployment in the U.S. and abroad, continued low inventory levels, renewed high levels of foreclosures, seasonal fluctuations in the residential real estate brokerage business, and increasing mortgage rates and down payment requirements and/or constraints on the availability of mortgage financing; the Company's geographic and high-end market concentration, particularly with respect to its Company-owned brokerage operations; the Company's failure to enter into or renew franchise agreements or maintain its brands; risks relating to our outstanding debt and interest obligations; variable rate indebtedness which subjects the Company to interest rate risk; the Company's inability to access capital; any outbreak or escalation of hostilities on a national, regional or international basis; government regulation as well as legislative, tax or regulatory changes that would adversely impact the residential real estate market, including but not limited to potential reform of the financing of the U.S. housing and mortgage markets and/or the Internal Revenue Code and changes in state or federal employment laws; the Company's inability to realize benefits from future acquisitions; the Company's inability to sustain improvements in its operating efficiency; and the final resolution or outcomes with respect to Cendant's (our former parent) remaining contingent liabilities.
Consideration should be given to the areas of risk described above, as well as those risks set forth under the headings "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors" in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, and in our other filings made from time to time, in connection with considering any forward-looking statements that may be made by us and our businesses generally. Except for our ongoing obligations to disclose material information under the federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements, to report events or to report the occurrence of unanticipated events unless we are required to do so by law.
This release includes certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined under SEC rules. As required by SEC rules, important information regarding such measures is contained in the Tables attached to this release.
Table 1
Table 1a
Adjusted net income (loss) is defined by us as net income (loss) before compensation expense related to the Phantom Value Plan and loss on the early extinguishment of debt. Adjusted earnings per share is Adjusted net income (loss) divided by the weighted average common and common equivalent shares outstanding. We present Adjusted net income and Adjusted earnings per share because we believe these measures are useful as supplemental measures in evaluating the performance of our operating businesses and provides greater transparency into our results of operations.
Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
Table 5a
Table 5b
Table 6
A reconciliation of net income (loss) attributable to Realogy to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the twelve months ended September 30, 2013 is set forth in the following table:
Table 7
Set forth in the table below is a reconciliation of net income (loss) attributable to Realogy to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the three month periods ended September 30, 2013 and 2012:
Table 8
A reconciliation of net income attributable to Realogy Holdings to free cash flow for the three months ended September 30, 2013 is set forth in the following table:
Table 9
Non-GAAP Definitions
EBITDA is defined by us as net income (loss) before depreciation and amortization, interest expense, net (other than relocation services interest for securitization assets and securitization obligations) and income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA calculated for a twelve-month period is presented to demonstrate our compliance with the senior secured leverage ratio covenant in the senior secured credit facility. Adjusted EBITDA calculated for a twelve-month period corresponds to the definition of "EBITDA," calculated on a "pro forma basis," used in the senior secured credit facility to calculate the senior secured leverage ratio. Adjusted EBITDA includes adjustments to EBITDA for restructuring costs, former parent legacy cost (benefit) items, net, IPO related costs for the Convertible Notes, loss on the early extinguishment of debt, non-cash charges, non-recurring fair value adjustments for purchase accounting, Apollo management fees, fees for the secondary equity offerings and incremental securitization interest costs, as well as pro forma cost savings for restructuring initiatives, the pro forma effect of business optimization initiatives and the pro forma effect of acquisitions and new franchisees, in each case calculated as of the beginning of the twelve-month period. Adjusted EBITDA calculated for a three-month period adjusts for the same items as for a twelve-month period, except that the pro forma effect of cost savings, business optimizations and acquisitions and new franchisees are calculated as of the beginning of the three-month period instead of the twelve-month period.
We present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are useful as supplemental measures in evaluating the performance of our operating businesses and provide greater transparency into our results of operations. Our management, including our chief operating decision maker, uses EBITDA as a factor in evaluating the performance of our business. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net income or other statement of operations data prepared in accordance with GAAP.
We believe EBITDA facilitates company-to-company operating performance comparisons by backing out potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting net interest expense), taxation, the age and book depreciation of facilities (affecting relative depreciation expense) and the amortization of intangibles, which may vary for different companies for reasons unrelated to operating performance. We further believe that EBITDA is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in their evaluation of companies, many of which present an EBITDA measure when reporting their results.
EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider EBITDA or Adjusted EBITDA either in isolation or as substitutes for analyzing our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
In addition to the limitations described above, Adjusted EBITDA includes pro forma cost savings, the pro forma effect of business optimization initiatives and the pro forma full period effect of acquisitions and new franchisees. These adjustments may not reflect the actual cost savings or pro forma effect recognized in future periods.
Free Cash Flow is defined as net income (loss) attributable to Realogy before income tax expense, net of payments, interest expense, net, depreciation and amortization, capital expenditures, restructuring costs and former parent legacy costs (benefits), net of payments, loss on the early extinguishment of debt, working capital adjustments and relocation assets, net of change in securitization obligations. Cash Earnings Per Share is defined as Free Cash Flow divided by the weighted average basic shares outstanding. We use Free Cash Flow and Cash Earnings Per Share in our internal evaluation of operating effectiveness and decisions regarding the allocation of resources. Free Cash Flow and Cash Earnings Per Share are not defined by GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income (loss), net cash provided by (used in) operating, investing and financing activities or other financial data prepared in accordance with GAAP or as an indicator of the Company's operating performance. Free Cash Flow and Cash Earnings Per Share may differ from similarly titled measures presented by other companies.
Alicia Swift
(973) 407-4669
alicia.swift@realogy.com
Jennifer Pepper
(973) 407-7487
jennifer.pepper@realogy.com
Mark Panus
(973) 407-7215
mark.panus@realogy.com
Realogy's company-owned real estate brokerage, is the largest residential brokerage company in the United States, operates under several of Realogy's brands and also provides related residential real estate services.