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Text: Also on the call are Brian McDade, chief financial officer; and Adam Reuille, chief accounting officer.
Please note, our 8-K filing is still in process with the SEC.
However, it has not yet been accepted to it.
Now, for those of you who would like to participate in the question-and-answer session, we ask that you please respect our request to limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question so we might allow everyone with interest the opportunity to participate.
I'm pleased to report our business is solid and improving.
Demand for our space and our well-located properties is increasing.
I'll turn to some highlights.
Our profitability and cash flow have significantly increased.
Second-quarter funds from operations were $1.22 billion or $3.24 per share.
Our domestic operations had an excellent quarter.
Our international operations continue to be affected by governmental closure orders and capacity restrictions, which cost us roughly $0.06 per share for this quarter compared to our expectations due to the equivalent of a two-and-a-half month of closures.
We generated over $1 billion in cash from operations in the quarter, which was $125 million more than the first quarter.
And additionally, compared to the second quarter of last year, our cash flow from operations was breakeven due to the lockdown.
Domestic-international property NOI combined increased 16.6% year over year for the quarter and 2.8% for the first half of the year.
Remember, the first quarter of 2020 was relatively unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
These growth rates do not include any contribution from the Taubman portfolio or lease settlement income.
Malls and outlets occupancy at the end of the second quarter was 91.8%, an increase of 100 basis points compared to the first quarter.
We continue to see demand for space across our portfolio from healthy local, regional and national tenants, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and mixed-use demand ever so increasing day by day.
Our team is active in signing leases with new and exciting tenants.
Average base minimum rent was $50.03.
Our average base rent was impacted by the initial lower base rents we agreed to in addressing certain tenant COVID negotiations in exchange for lower sales breakpoints.
The variable rents that were recognized in the first half of the year were included.
It would add approximately $5 per foot to our average base minimum rent.
Leasing spreads declined again due to mix of deals that are now included, as well as the activity that had fallen out of the spread given its rolling 12-month nature and metric.
New leasing activity that has affected the spread include large footprint entertainment, fitness and large-scale retailers, big boxes.
Big box deals reduced our opening rate as they're all included in our spread metric.
As a reminder, the opening rate included in our spread calculation does not include any estimates for percentage rent-based income based on sales, as I mentioned just recently.
Leasing activity accelerated in the quarter.
We signed nearly 1,400 leases for approximately 5.2 million square feet and had a significant number of leases in our pipeline.
Through the first six months, we signed 2,500 leases for over 900 -- I'm sorry, 9.5 million square feet.
Our team executed leases for 3 million more square feet or over approximately 800 more deals compared to the first six months this year, as well as -- I'm sorry, compared to the first six months of 2019.
We have completed nearly 90% of our expiring leases for 2021.
We recently had deal committee, and what I'm told by my leasing folks is that that was the most active deal committee that they've had in several years.
Now, retail sales continued to increase.
Total sales for the month of June were equal to June 2019 and up 80% compared to last year and were approximately 5% higher than May sales.
If you exclude two well-known tenants, our mall sales were up 8% more than compared to June of 2019.
Multiple regions in the US recorded higher sales volume in June and for the second quarter, compared to our 2019 levels.
We're active in redevelopment and new development.
We opened West Midlands Designer Outlet, and we started construction in the Western Paris suburb for a third outlet in France.
The end of the quarter, new development/redevelopment was underway across all our platforms for our share of $850 million.
Our retail investments posted exceptional results.
All of our global brands within SPARC Group outperformed their budget in the quarter on sales, gross margin and EBITDA, led by Forever 21 and Aeropostale.
SPARC's newest brand, Eddie Bauer, also outperformed our initial expectations.
We're also very pleased with JCPenney results.
They continue to outperform their plan.
Their liquidity position is growing, now $1.4 billion, and they do not have any outstanding balance on their line of credit.
Penny will launch several private national brands later this year, as well as their new beauty initiative.
Taubman Realty Group is operating their 2021 budget at a level above that and above our underwriting.
And their portfolio, our portfolio shows resilience as sales are quickly returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Year to date through June, retail sales are 13% higher than the first half of 2019.
As you would expect, we've been very active in the capital markets.
We refinanced 13 mortgages in the first half of the year for a total of $2.2 billion in total, our share of which is $1.3 billion at an average interest rate of 2.9%.
Our liquidity is more than $8.8 billion, consisting of $6.9 billion available on our credit facility and $1.9 billion of cash, including our share of JV cash.
And again, our liquidity is net of $500 million of US commercial paper that's outstanding at quarter-end.
We paid $1.40 per share of dividend in cash on July 23 for the second quarter.
That was a 7.7% increase sequentially and year over year.
Today, we announced our third-quarter dividend of $1.50 per share in cash, which is an increase of 7.1% sequentially and 15.4%, 15.4% year over year.
The dividend is payable September 30.
You will know that going forward, we are returning to our historical cadence of declaring dividends as we announce our quarterly earnings.
Given our results for the first half of the year, as well as our view for the remainder of 2021, we are increasing our full-year 2021 FFO guidance range from $9.70 to $9.80 per share to $10.70 to $10.80 per share.
This is an increase of $1 per share at the midpoint, and the range represents approximately 17% to 19% growth compared to 2020 results.
Before we open it up to Q&A, I wanted to provide some additional perspective.
First, we expect to generate approximately $4 billion in FFO this year.
That will be approximately 25% increase compared to last year and just 5% below our 2019 number.
To be just 5% below 2019, given all that we've endured over the last 15, 16 months, including significant restrictive governmental orders that forced us to shut down unlike many other establishments is a testament to our portfolio and a real testament to the Simon team and people.
Second, we expect to distribute more than $2 billion in dividends this year.
Keep in mind, we did not suspend our dividend at any point during the pandemic.
And in fact, we have now increased our dividend twice already this year.
Now, just a point on valuation.
And I tend to never really talk about it, but I thought it was appropriate today.
Our valuation continues to be well below our historical averages when it comes to multiple -- FFO multiples compared to other retail REITs, retailers and the S&P 500.
And our dividend yield is higher than the S&P 500 by more than 250 basis points, treasuries by 325 basis points and the REIT industry by 150 basis points.
And as I mentioned to you, our dividend is growing.
Our company has a diverse product offering that possesses many, many multiple drivers of earnings growth, accretive capital investment opportunities and the balance sheet to support our growth.
We are increasing our performance, profitability, cash flow and return to our shareholders.

user
simon property group raises quarterly dividend.
sees fy ffo per share $10.70 to $10.80.
q2 ffo per share $3.24.
u.s. malls and premium outlets occupancy was 91.8% at june 30, 2021.
declared a quarterly common stock cash dividend of $1.50 for q3 a 7.1% increase compared to q2 dividend.

assistant