424B3 1 d292098d424b3.htm PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT NO.17 PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT NO.17

Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(3)

Registration No. 333-154975

TNP STRATEGIC RETAIL TRUST, INC.

SUPPLEMENT NO. 17 DATED JANUARY 30, 2012

TO THE PROSPECTUS DATED APRIL 14, 2011

This document supplements, and should be read in conjunction with, our prospectus dated April 14, 2011, relating to our offering of up to $1,100,000,000 in shares of our common stock, as supplemented by Supplement No. 12 dated October 18, 2011, Supplement No. 13 dated November 4, 2011, Supplement No. 14 dated November 18, 2011, Supplement No. 15 dated December 5, 2011 and Supplement No. 16 dated January 10, 2012. Terms used and not otherwise defined in this Supplement No. 17 have the same meanings as set forth in our prospectus. The purpose of this Supplement No. 17 is to disclose:

 

   

the status of our public offering;

 

   

a clarification that property management fees are included in the calculation of operating expenses with respect to the 2%/25% limitation; and

 

   

updated information regarding our Funds from Operations, or FFO, and Modified Funds from Operations, or MFFO.

Status of Our Public Offering

We commenced our initial public offering of up to $1,100,000,000 in shares of our common stock on August 7, 2009. As of January 25, 2012, we had accepted investors’ subscriptions for and issued 6,400,765 shares of our common stock in our initial public offering, including 124,931 shares of our common stock issued pursuant to our distribution reinvestment plan, resulting in gross offering proceeds of $63,549,212. As of January 25, 2012, approximately 93,686,666 shares of our common stock remained available for sale to the public under our initial public offering, excluding shares available under our distribution reinvestment plan. We will sell shares of our common stock in our initial public offering until the earlier of August 7, 2012 or the date on which the maximum offering amount has been sold.

Clarification that Property Management Fees are Included in the Calculation of Operating Expenses with Respect to the 2%/25% Limitation

Under the terms of our charter and advisory agreement with our advisor, we will not reimburse our advisor for operating expenses that at the end of the four preceding fiscal quarters exceed the greater of (1) 2% of our average invested assets or (2) 25% of our net income for that period, which we refer to as the “2%/25% limitation,” unless the independent directors have determined that such excess expenses were justified based on unusual and non-recurring factors. For purposes of determining whether operating expenses exceed the 2%/25% limitation, property management fees are included in calculating operating expenses for the measurement period. Leasing commissions are not included in the calculation of operating expenses as they are capitalized in accordance with GAAP.

Updated Information Regarding Our FFO and MFFO

In response to comments received from the Pennsylvania Securities Commission, we are revising our disclosure with respect to FFO and MFFO. The following provides information with respect to FFO and MFFO for the nine months ended September 30, 2011 and for the year ended December 31, 2010.

Due to certain unique operating characteristics of real estate companies, as discussed below, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, or NAREIT, an industry trade group, has promulgated a measure known as funds from operations, or FFO, which we believe to be an appropriate supplemental measure to reflect the operating performance of a real estate investment trust, or REIT. The use of FFO is recommended by the REIT industry as a supplemental performance measure. FFO is not equivalent to our net income or loss as determined under GAAP.


We define FFO, a non-GAAP measure, consistent with the standards established by the White Paper on FFO approved by the Board of Governors of NAREIT, as revised in February 2004, or the White Paper. The White Paper defines FFO as net income or loss computed in accordance with GAAP, excluding gains or losses from sales of property but including asset impairment writedowns, plus depreciation and amortization, and after adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures. Adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures are calculated to reflect FFO. Our FFO calculation complies with NAREIT’s policy described above.

The historical accounting convention used for real estate assets requires straight-line depreciation of buildings and improvements, which implies that the value of real estate assets diminishes predictably over time, especially if such assets are not adequately maintained or repaired and renovated as required by relevant circumstances and/or as requested or required by lessees for operational purposes in order to maintain the value disclosed. We believe that since real estate values historically rise and fall with market conditions, including inflation, interest rates, the business cycle, unemployment and consumer spending, presentations of operating results for a REIT using historical accounting for depreciation may be less informative. Historical accounting for real estate involves the use of GAAP. Any other method of accounting for real estate such as the fair value method cannot be construed to be any more accurate or relevant than the comparable methodologies of real estate valuation found in GAAP. Nevertheless, we believe that the use of FFO, which excludes the impact of real estate related depreciation and amortization, provides a more complete understanding of our performance to investors and to management, and when compared year over year, reflects the impact on our operations from trends in occupancy rates, rental rates, operating costs, general and administrative expenses, and interest costs, which may not be immediately apparent from net income. However, FFO and MFFO, as described below, should not be construed to be more relevant or accurate than the current GAAP methodology in calculating net income or in its applicability in evaluating our operating performance. The method utilized to evaluate the value and performance of real estate under GAAP should be construed as a more relevant measure of operational performance and considered more prominently than the non-GAAP FFO and MFFO measures and the adjustments to GAAP in calculating FFO and MFFO.

Changes in the accounting and reporting promulgations under GAAP (for acquisition fees and expenses from a capitalization/depreciation model to an expensed-as-incurred model) that were put into effect in 2009 and other changes to GAAP accounting for real estate subsequent to the establishment of NAREIT’s definition of FFO have prompted an increase in cash-settled expenses, specifically acquisition fees and expenses for all industries as items that are expensed under GAAP, that are typically accounted for as operating expenses. Management believes these fees and expenses do not affect our overall long-term operating performance. Publicly registered, non-listed REITs typically have a significant amount of acquisition activity and are substantially more dynamic during their initial years of investment and operation. While other start-up entities may also experience significant acquisition activity during their initial years, we believe that public, non-listed REITs, like us, are unique in that they have a limited life with targeted exit strategies within a relatively limited time frame after acquisition activity ceases. As disclosed in our prospectus, our board of directors will determine to pursue a liquidity event when it believes that the then-current market conditions are favorable. However, our board of directors does not anticipate evaluating a liquidity event (i.e., listing of our common stock on a national exchange, a merger or sale of our company or another similar transaction) until 2015. Thus, as a limited life REIT we will not continuously purchase assets and will have a limited life.

Due to the above factors and other unique features of publicly registered, non-listed REITs, the Investment Program Association, or IPA, an industry trade group, has standardized a measure known as MFFO, which the IPA has recommended as a supplemental measure for publicly registered non-listed REITs and which we believe to be another appropriate supplemental measure to reflect the operating performance of a public, non-listed REIT having the characteristics described above. MFFO is not equivalent to our net income or loss as determined under GAAP, and MFFO may not be a useful measure of the impact of long-term operating performance on value if we do not continue to operate with a limited life and targeted exit strategy, as currently intended. We believe that, because MFFO excludes costs that we consider more reflective of investing activities and other non-operating items included in FFO and also excludes acquisition fees and expenses that affect our operations only in periods in which properties are acquired, MFFO can provide, on a going forward basis, an indication of the sustainability (that is, the capacity to continue to be maintained) of our operating performance after the period in which we are acquiring our properties and once our portfolio is in place. By providing MFFO, we believe we are presenting useful information that assists investors and analysts to better assess the sustainability of our operating performance after our offering has been completed and our properties have been acquired. We also believe that MFFO is a recognized measure of sustainable operating performance by the non-listed REIT industry. Further, we believe MFFO is useful in

 

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comparing the sustainability of our operating performance after our offering and acquisitions are completed with the sustainability of the operating performance of other real estate companies that are not as involved in acquisition activities. Investors are cautioned that MFFO should only be used to assess the sustainability of our operating performance after our offering has been completed and properties have been acquired, as it excludes acquisition costs that have a negative effect on our operating performance during the periods in which properties are acquired.

We define MFFO, a non-GAAP measure, consistent with the IPA’s Guideline 2010-01, Supplemental Performance Measure for Publicly Registered, Non-Listed REITs: Modified Funds from Operations, or the Practice Guideline, issued by the IPA in November 2010. The Practice Guideline defines MFFO as FFO further adjusted for the following items, as applicable, included in the determination of GAAP net income: acquisition fees and expenses; amounts relating to deferred rent receivables and amortization of above and below market leases and liabilities (which are adjusted in order to reflect such payments from a GAAP accrual basis to a cash basis of disclosing the rent and lease payments); accretion of discounts and amortization of premiums on debt investments; nonrecurring impairments of real estate-related investments (i.e., infrequent or unusual, not reasonably likely to recur in the ordinary course of business); mark-to-market adjustments included in net income; nonrecurring gains or losses included in net income from the extinguishment or sale of debt, hedges, foreign exchange, derivatives or securities holdings where trading of such holdings is not a fundamental attribute of the business plan, unrealized gains or losses resulting from consolidation from, or deconsolidation to, equity accounting, and after adjustments for consolidated and unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures, with such adjustments calculated to reflect MFFO on the same basis. The accretion of discounts and amortization of premiums on debt investments, nonrecurring unrealized gains and losses on hedges, foreign exchange, derivatives or securities holdings, unrealized gains and losses resulting from consolidations, as well as other listed cash flow adjustments are adjustments made to net income in calculating the cash flows provided by operating activities and, in some cases, reflect gains or losses which are unrealized and may not ultimately be realized. While we rely on our advisor for managing interest rate, hedge and foreign exchange risk, we do not retain an outside consultant to review all our hedging agreements. Inasmuch as interest rate hedges are not a fundamental part of our operations, we believe it is appropriate to exclude such non-recurring gains and losses in calculating MFFO, as such gains and losses are not reflective of on-going operations.

Our MFFO calculation complies with the IPA’s Practice Guideline described above. In calculating MFFO, we exclude acquisition related expenses, amortization of above and below market leases, fair value adjustments of derivative financial instruments, deferred rent receivables and the adjustments of such items related to noncontrolling interests. Under GAAP, acquisition fees and expenses are characterized as operating expenses in determining operating net income. These expenses are paid in cash by us. All paid and accrued acquisition fees and expenses will have negative effects on returns to investors, the potential for future distributions, and cash flows generated by us, unless earnings from operations or net sales proceeds from the disposition of other properties are generated to cover the purchase price of the property, these fees and expenses and other costs related to such property. In the event that proceeds from our initial public offering are not available to fund our reimbursement of acquisition fees and expenses incurred by our advisor, such fees and expenses will need to be reimbursed to our advisor from other sources, including debt, operational earnings or cash flow, net proceeds from the sale of properties, or from ancillary cash flows. The acquisition of properties, and the corresponding acquisition fees and expenses, is the key operational feature of our business plan to generate operational income and cash flow to fund distributions to our stockholders. Further, under GAAP, certain contemplated non-cash fair value and other non-cash adjustments are considered operating non-cash adjustments to net income in determining cash flow from operating activities. In addition, we view fair value adjustments of derivatives, impairment charges and gains and losses from dispositions of assets as non-recurring items or items which are unrealized and may not ultimately be realized, and which are not reflective of on-going operations and are therefore typically adjusted for when assessing operating performance. In particular, we believe it is appropriate to disregard impairment charges, as this is a fair value adjustment that is largely based on market fluctuations and assessments regarding general market conditions which can change over time. An asset will only be evaluated for impairment if certain impairment indications exist and if the carrying, or book value, exceeds the total estimated undiscounted future cash flows (including net rental and lease revenues, net proceeds on the sale of the property, and any other ancillary cash flows at a property or group level under GAAP) from such asset. Investors should note, however, that determinations of whether impairment charges have been incurred are based partly on anticipated operating performance, because estimated undiscounted future cash flows from a property, including estimated future net rental and lease revenues, net proceeds on the sale of the property, and certain other ancillary cash flows, are taken into account in determining whether an impairment charge has been incurred. While impairment charges are excluded from the calculation of MFFO as described above, investors are cautioned that due to the fact that impairments are based on estimated future undiscounted cash flows and the relatively limited term of our operations, it could be difficult to recover any impairment charges.

 

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Our management uses MFFO and the adjustments used to calculate MFFO in order to evaluate our performance against other public, non-listed REITs which have limited lives with short and defined acquisition periods and targeted exit strategies shortly thereafter. As noted above, MFFO may not be a useful measure of the impact of long-term operating performance on value if we do not continue to operate in this manner. We believe that our use of MFFO and the adjustments used to calculate MFFO allow us to present our performance in a manner that reflects certain characteristics that are unique to public, non-listed REITs, such as their limited life, limited and defined acquisition period and targeted exit strategy, and hence that the use of such measures is useful to investors. By excluding expensed acquisition costs, the use of MFFO provides information consistent with management’s analysis of the operating performance of the properties. Additionally, fair value adjustments, which are based on the impact of current market fluctuations and underlying assessments of general market conditions, but can also result from operational factors such as rental and occupancy rates, may not be directly related or attributable to our current operating performance. By excluding such changes that may reflect anticipated and unrealized gains or losses, we believe MFFO provides useful supplemental information.

Presentation of this information is intended to provide useful information to investors as they compare the operating performance to that of other public, non-listed REITs, although it should be noted that not all public, non-listed REITs calculate FFO and MFFO the same way, so comparisons with other public, non-listed REITs may not be meaningful. Furthermore, FFO and MFFO are not necessarily indicative of cash flow available to fund cash needs and should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss) or income (loss) from continuing operations as an indication of our performance, as an alternative to cash flows from operations as an indication of our liquidity, or indicative of funds available to fund our cash needs, including our ability to make distributions to our stockholders. FFO and MFFO should be reviewed in conjunction with GAAP measurements as an indication of our performance. MFFO has limitations as a performance measure in an offering such as ours where the price of a share of common stock is a stated value and there is no regular net asset value determinations during the offering stage and for a period thereafter. MFFO is useful in assisting management and investors in assessing the sustainability of operating performance in future operating periods, and in particular, after the offering and acquisition stages are complete and net asset value is disclosed. MFFO is not a useful measure in evaluating net asset value because impairments are taken into account in determining net asset value but not in determining MFFO.

Neither the SEC, NAREIT nor any other regulatory body has passed judgment on the acceptability of the adjustments that we use to calculate FFO or MFFO. In the future, the SEC, NAREIT or another regulatory body may decide to standardize the allowable adjustments across the non-listed REIT industry and in response to such standardization we may have to adjust our calculation and characterization of FFO or MFFO accordingly.

 

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Our calculation of FFO and MFFO and the reconciliation to net income (loss) is presented in the following table for the nine months ended September 30, 2011 and the year ended December 31, 2010:

 

     Nine Months
Ended September 30,
2011
    Year Ended
December 31,
2010
 

Net loss

   $ (4,399,000 )   $ (4,392,000 )

Adjustments:

    

Gain on sale of real estate

     (310,000 )     —     

Depreciation of real estate assets

     2,481,000        1,554,000   

Amortization of tenant improvements and tenant allowances

     280,000        202,000   

Amortization of deferred leasing costs

     74,000        315,000   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

FFO

   $ (1,874,000 )   $ (2,321,000 )

FFO per share - basic and diluted

   $ (0.59 )   $ (1.56 )

Adjustments:

    

Revised estimated asset management fees

     (195,000 )     —     

Straight line rent(1)

     (205,000 )     (255,000 )

Acquisition costs(2)

     2,260,000        1,353,000   

Amortization of above market leases(3)

     267,000        169,000   

Amortization of below market leases(3)

     (554,000 )     (298,000 )

Accretion of discounts on debt investments

     (71,000 )     (2,000 )

Amortization of debt premiums

     49,000        37,000   
  

 

 

   

 

 

 

MFFO

   $ (323,000 )   $ (1,317,000 )

MFFO per share - basic and diluted

   $ (0.10 )   $ (0.89 )

Net loss per share - basic and diluted

   $ (1.38 )   $ (2.96 )

Weighted average common shares outstanding - basic and diluted

     3,190,502        1,483,179   

 

(1) Under GAAP, rental receipts are allocated to periods using various methodologies. This may result in income recognition that is significantly different than underlying contract terms. By adjusting for these items (to reflect such payments from a GAAP accrual basis to a cash basis of disclosing the rent and lease payments), MFFO provides useful supplemental information on the realized economic impact of lease terms and debt investments, providing insight on the contractual cash flows of such lease terms and debt investments, and aligns results with management’s analysis of operating performance.
(2)

In evaluating investments in real estate, management differentiates the costs to acquire the investment from the operations derived from the investment. Such information would be comparable only for non-listed REITs that have completed their acquisition activity and have other similar operating characteristics. By excluding expensed acquisition costs, management believes MFFO provides useful supplemental information that is comparable for each type of real estate investment and is consistent with management’s analysis of the investing and operating performance of our properties. Acquisition fees and expenses include payments to our advisor or third parties. Acquisition fees and expenses under GAAP are considered operating expenses and as expenses included in the determination of net income and income from continuing operations, both of which are performance measures under


  GAAP. All paid and accrued acquisition fees and expenses will have negative effects on returns to investors, the potential for future distributions, and cash flows generated by the company, unless earnings from operations or net sales proceeds from the disposition of properties are generated to cover the purchase price of the property, these fees and expenses and other costs related to the property. In the event that proceeds from our initial public offering are not available to fund our reimbursement of acquisition fees and expenses incurred by our advisor, such fees and expenses will need to be reimbursed to our advisor from other sources, including debt, operational earnings or cash flow, net proceeds from the sale of properties, or from ancillary cash flows. The acquisition of properties, and the corresponding acquisition fees and expenses, is the key operational feature of our business plan to generate operational income and cash flow to fund distributions to our stockholders.
(3) Under GAAP, certain intangibles are accounted for at cost and reviewed at least annually for impairment, and certain intangibles are assumed to diminish predictably in value over time and amortized, similar to depreciation and amortization of other real estate related assets that are excluded from FFO. However, because real estate values and market lease rates historically rise or fall with market conditions, management believes that by excluding charges relating to amortization of these intangibles, MFFO provides useful supplemental information on the performance of the real estate.

 

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