Public Storage (PSA) Risk Analysis

Dividends payable by REITs may be taxed at higher rates than dividends of non-REIT corporations. The maximum U.S. federal income tax rate for qualified dividends paid by domestic non-REIT corporations to U.S. stockholders that are individuals, trusts, or estates is generally 20%. Dividends paid by REITs to such stockholders are generally not eligible for that rate, but under current tax law, such stockholders may deduct up to 20% of ordinary dividends (i.e., dividends not designated as capital gain dividends or qualified dividend income) received from a REIT for taxable years beginning before January 1, 2026. Although this deduction reduces the effective tax rate applicable to certain dividends paid by REITs, such tax rate may still be higher than the tax rate applicable to regular corporate qualified dividends. This may cause investors to view REIT investments as less attractive than investments in non-REIT corporations, which in turn may adversely affect the value of the stock of REITs, including our stock.

At December 31, 2023, we had a pipeline of development projects totaling $766.2 million (subject to contingencies), and we expect to continue to seek additional development projects. There are significant risks involved in developing self-storage facilities, such as delays, cost increases, or inability to complete development projects due to changes in or failure to meet government or regulatory requirements, failure of revenue to meet our underwriting estimates, delays caused by weather issues, unforeseen site conditions, or personnel problems. Self-storage space is generally not pre-leased, and rent-up of newly developed space can be delayed or ongoing cash flow yields can be reduced due to competition, reductions in storage demand, or other factors.

We maintain a portfolio of trademarks and trade dress that we believe are fundamental to the success of the Public Storage brand. While we actively seek to enforce and expand our rights, failure to adequately protect our rights could lead to loss of such trademark and trade dress protection. We also own and seek to protect other intellectual property, such as propriety systems, processes, data, and other trade secrets that we have collected and developed in the course of operating our business and that we believe provides us with various competitive advantages. Our protections could be inadequate or we could lose rights to our other intellectual property and trade secrets. Competitor use of our trademarks and trade names could lead to likelihood of confusion, tarnishment of our brand, and loss of legal protection for our marks.

In the ordinary course of our business we acquire and store sensitive data, including personally identifiable information of our prospective and current customers and our employees. The secure processing and maintenance of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. Although we believe we have taken commercially reasonable steps to protect the security of our confidential information, information security risks have generally increased in recent years due to the rise in new technologies and the increased sophistication and activities of perpetrators of cyberattacks. Despite our security measures, we face cybersecurity threats, including system, network, or Internet failures; cyberattacks, ransomware, and other malware; social engineering; and phishing schemes. In these cases, our information technology and infrastructure could be vulnerable and our or our customers' or employees' confidential information could be compromised or misappropriated. Any such cybersecurity incident, including those impacting personal information, could result in serious and harmful consequences for us or our customers. A cybersecurity incident could also interfere with our ability to comply with financial reporting requirements. Additionally, future or past business transactions (such as acquisitions or integrations) could expose us to additional cybersecurity risks and threats, as our systems could be negatively affected by vulnerabilities present in acquired or integrated entities' systems and technologies. Furthermore, we may discover security issues that were not found during due diligence of such acquired or integrated entities, and it may be difficult to integrate companies into our information technology environment and security program. Our confidential information may also be compromised due to programming or human error, negligence, or fraud. Although we and our third-party service providers make efforts to maintain the security and integrity of our information, including the implementation of security measures, required employee awareness training, and the existence of a disaster recovery plan, there is no guarantee that they will be adequate to safeguard against all cybersecurity incidents or misuses of data. In addition, as the regulatory environment related to information security, data collection and use, and privacy becomes increasingly rigorous, with new and changing requirements applicable to our business from multiple regulatory agencies at the local, state, federal, or international level, compliance with those requirements could also result in additional costs, or we could fail to comply with those requirements due to various reasons. Any such access, disclosure, or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, regulatory penalties, disruption to our operations and the services we provide to customers, or damage to our reputation, any of which could adversely affect our results of operations, reputation, and competitive position. In addition, our customers could lose confidence in our ability to protect their personal information, which could cause them to discontinue leasing our self-storage facilities. Such events could lead to lost future revenues and adversely affect our results of operations, or result in remedial and other costs, fines, or lawsuits, which could exceed any available insurance that we have procured. We have identified and expect to continue to identify cyberattacks and cybersecurity incidents on our systems and those of third parties, but none of the cyberattacks and incidents we have identified to date has had a material impact on our business or operations. While we have purchased cybersecurity insurance, there are no assurances that the coverage would be adequate in relation to any incurred losses. Moreover, as cyberattacks increase in frequency and magnitude, we may be unable to obtain cybersecurity insurance in amounts and on terms we view as adequate for our operations. Further information relating to cybersecurity risk management is discussed in Item 1C. "Cybersecurity" in this report.

Economic downturns or adverse economic or industry conditions, including those related to high levels of inflation, could adversely impact our financial results, growth, and access to capital. Our revenues and operating cash flow can be negatively impacted by reductions in employment and population levels, household and disposable income, and other general economic factors that lead to a reduction in demand for self-storage space in each of the markets in which we operate. Our ability to raise capital on attractive terms to fund our activities may be adversely affected by challenging market conditions, including high interest rates resulting from government efforts to manage inflation. In periods when the capital and credit markets experience significant volatility, the amounts, sources, and cost of capital available to us may be adversely affected. If we were unable to raise capital at reasonable rates, prospective earnings growth through expanding our asset base could be limited.

We own approximately 35% of the common shares of Shurgard, and this investment has a $390.2 million book value and a $1.7 billion market value (based upon the closing trading price of Shurgard's common stock) at December 31, 2023. We recognized $27.9 million in equity in earnings and received $39.0 million in dividends in 2023 with respect to Shurgard. Shurgard, as an owner, operator, and developer of self-storage facilities, is subject to many of the same risks we are with respect to self-storage. However, through our investment in Shurgard, we are exposed to additional risks unique to the various European markets in which Shurgard operates, which may adversely impact our business and financial results, and many of which are referred to in Shurgard's public filings. These risks include the following: - Currency risks: Currency fluctuations can impact the fair value of our investment in Shurgard, our equity earnings, our ongoing dividends, and any other related repatriations of cash. - Legislative, tax, and regulatory risks: Shurgard is subject to a variety of local, national, and pan-European laws and regulations related to permitting and land use, the environment, labor, and other areas, as well as income, property, sales, and value added and employment tax. These laws and regulations can be difficult to apply or interpret, can vary in each country or locality, and are subject to unexpected changes in their form and application due to regional, national, or local political uncertainty and other factors. Such changes, or Shurgard's failure to comply with these laws, could subject it to penalties or other sanctions, adverse changes in business processes, and, potentially, adverse income tax, property tax, or other tax burdens. - Impediments to capital repatriation could negatively impact the realization of our investment in Shurgard: Laws in Europe and the U.S. may create, impede, or increase our cost to repatriate distributions received from Shurgard or proceeds from the sale of Shurgard shares. - Risks of collective bargaining: Collective bargaining, which is prevalent in certain areas in Europe, could negatively impact Shurgard's labor costs or operations. Many of Shurgard's employees participate in various national unions. - Potential operating and individual country risks: Economic slowdowns or extraordinary political or social change in the countries in which it operates have posed, and could continue to pose, challenges or result in future reductions of Shurgard's operating cash flows. - Liquidity of our ownership stake: We have no plans to liquidate our interest in Shurgard. However, while Shurgard is a publicly held entity, if we chose to, our ability to liquidate our shares in Shurgard in an efficient manner could be limited by the level of Shurgard's public "float" relative to any ownership stake we sought to sell. Our existing relationship with our legacy joint venture partner may place further contractual limitations on our ability to sell all of the shares we own if we desired to do so. - Impediments of Shurgard's public ownership structure: Shurgard's strategic decisions, involving activities such as borrowing money, capital contributions, raising capital from third parties, and selling or acquiring significant assets, are determined by its board of directors. As a result, Shurgard may be precluded from taking advantage of opportunities that we would find attractive but that we may not be able to pursue separately, or it could take actions that we do not agree with.

Our self-storage facilities generate most of our revenue and earnings. Significant competition from self-storage operators, property developers, and other storage alternatives may adversely impact our ability to attract and retain customers and may negatively impact our ability to generate revenue. Competition in the local market areas in which many of our properties are located is significant and affects our occupancy levels, rental rates, and operating expenses. There is also an increasing influx of capital from outside financing sources driving more money, development, and supply into the industry. Development of self-storage facilities may increase, which may intensify competition as newly developed facilities are opened. Development of self-storage facilities by other operators could increase, due to increases in availability of funds for investment or other reasons, and further intensify competition.

Significantly lower logistics costs could introduce new competitors, such as valet-style storage services, which may reduce the demand for traditional self-storage. Customer preferences and/or needs for self-storage could change, decline, or shift to other product types, thereby impacting our business model and ability to grow and/or generate revenues. Shifts in population and demographics could cause the geographical distribution of our portfolio to be suboptimal and affect our ability to maintain occupancy and attract new customers. Security incidents could result in the perception that our properties are not safe. If our customers do not feel our properties are safe, they may select competitors for their self-storage needs, or if there is an industry perception of inadequate security generally, customer use of self-storage could be negatively impacted.

Marketing initiatives, including our increasing dependence on Google to source customers, may fail to be effective and could negatively impact financial performance. Approximately 65% of our new storage customers in 2023 were sourced directly or indirectly through "unpaid" search and "paid" search campaigns on Google. We believe that the vast majority of customers searching for self-storage use Google at some stage in their shopping experience. Google is providing tools to allow smaller and less sophisticated operators to bid for search terms, increasing competition for self-storage search terms. The predominance of Google in the shopping experience, as well as Google's enabling of additional competitors to bid for placements in self-storage search terms, may reduce the number of new customers that we can procure, and/or increase our costs to obtain new customers. In addition, the inability to utilize our pricing methodology due to regulatory or market constraints could also significantly impact our financial results.

We may not effectively or appropriately identify ready-now succession candidates for our CEO and executive management team, which may negatively impact our ability to meet key strategic goals. Failure to implement succession plans for other key employees may leave us vulnerable to retirements and turnover.

We could be subject to increases in property or other taxes, repair and maintenance costs, payroll, utility costs, insurance premiums, workers compensation, and other operating expenses due to various factors such as inflation, labor shortages, commodity and energy price increases, weather, increases to minimum wage rates, supply chain disruptions, and changes to governmental safety and real estate use limitations and other governmental actions. Our property tax expense, which totaled approximately $413.2 million during the year ended December 31, 2023, generally depends upon the assessed value of our real estate facilities as determined by assessors and government agencies and, accordingly, could be subject to substantial increases if such agencies change their valuation approaches or opinions or if new laws are enacted, especially if new approaches are adopted or laws are enacted that result in increased property tax assessments in states or geographies where we have a high concentration of facilities. See also "We have exposure to increased property tax in California" below.