Ascencio Q1 trading update: results in line

Ascencio reported its Q1 trading update last night. The like-for-like rental growth amounts to 3.8% which is above our expectations. This was negatively impacted by the asset sale in Jemappes so the overall rental growth is +2.9%. The portfolio valuation was stable vs YE24 (30/09), likely as there was already a rent uplift in 2H24. Still we would have expected a positive figure as listed peers with large exposure to supermarkets showed this as well in their FY results. The CoD decreased from 2.2% to 2.1%. Ascencio's CoD will have moderate increases in the next years as there is no bond refinancing and the hedge maturity is higher than the debt maturity. The EPRA EPS is perfectly in line with our estimates so we expect to see dividend growth of +2.3% in FY25. We believe the valuation of the company is undemanding but don't see immediate triggers that will make it outperform the benchmark. We repeat our Hold recommendation and EUR 52.0 PT.