First Capital, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the first Capital Reads Q4 results conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to turn the conference over to Alison. Please proceed with your presentation.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. In discussing our financial and operating performance and in responding to your questions during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current estimates and assumptions, many of which are beyond our control, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. A summary of these underlying assumptions, risks, and uncertainties is contained in our various securities filings, including our MD&A for the year ended December 31st, 2021, and our current AIF, which are available on CDAR and our website. These forward-looking statements are made as of today's date, and except as required by securities law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements. During today's call, we will also be referencing certain financial measures that are non-IFRS measures. These do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and should not be construed as alternatives to net income or cash flow from operating activities determined in accordance with IFRS. Management provides these measures as a complement to IFRS measures to aid in assessing the REIT's performance. These non-IFRS measures are further defined and discussed in our MD&A, which should be read in conjunction with this call. I'll now turn the call over to Adam.

Okay. Thank you very much, Alison. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our year-end conference call. The quality of our portfolio continued to be demonstrated throughout 2021, as our properties not only showed stability and resiliency, but also very good momentum, especially leasing and disposition transactions. Last quarter, we talked about the two primary components of our portfolio, exceptionally strong grocery anchored centers, predominantly situated in top tier suburban neighborhoods and mixed use properties in Canada's super urban neighborhoods. We headed into 2022 with solid fundamentals and momentum across both property types. with values in the private markets having never been higher for these types of assets. We, of course, will cover our Q4 and annual results, but before we do, I think it's important to step back as we view the results of our strategy and activities through a lens that spans more than any given quarter or year, for that matter. Since 2019 through 2021, we have been more proactive than normal, improving the quality of our portfolios, and positioning FCR for the future. This resulted in $1.5 billion or 15% of our portfolio being sold during that time. We were very deliberate in the properties we sold. We exited entire markets such as Quebec City, Windsor, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke, Red Deer and Airdrie to name just a few. Virtually our entire portfolio is now located in Canada's largest cities. In Ottawa, where we expect growth but not at the same level as our other markets such as Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver, we executed a strategy that reduced our invested capital without compromising our operating scale. We did this by selling 50% non-managing interest to compatible institutional partners. This increases our returns on invested capital through the fee income we earn from our partners and frees up capital for more productive uses. We feel this is a more efficient way of maximizing our exposure to our highest growth properties and neighborhoods without compromising the benefits of scale. During that time, we also invested approximately a billion dollars into top tier assets and markets through acquisitions, developments, and capex. The cumulative impact of these activities resulted in a 25% turn of the portfolio. This is very significant, especially on a longer-term basis, as our improved asset base has even more powerful earnings potential in Canada's most sought-after markets and neighbourhoods. This took a lot of work by our team, and it is a major differentiating factor between our portfolio and those of our peers. You can also see the impact of our investment strategy on our demographic metrics. The average population density within five kilometers of the $1.5 billion of property sold over the last three years is 167,000 people, a good density number, but well below FCR's average. Turning to the billion dollars we invested during that same period, those properties have nearly tripled the density at 483,000 people. FCR continues to be positioned as the clear and distant leader amongst its peers with respect to this metric with a portfolio density number that exceeds 300,000 people on average today. We're very pleased with our portfolio today and we have reached our initial disposition target of 1.5 billion. Accordingly, we expect our disposition activities to be far more balanced in 2022 and even more opportunistic in terms of the pricing we require to transact. Now focusing on 2021, our healthy operating and financial results were underpinned by our strategic focus on high quality, grocery anchored and mixed use properties in neighborhoods with strong demographics. Notwithstanding numerous waves of disruption, demand consistently remained strong for our portfolio. Through 2021, we completed a healthy 2.9 million square feet of lease transactions, including 2.1 million square feet of renewals at a healthy average rent increase of 8.6%. This, together with contractual rent steps and higher rents on new leases for formerly vacant space, contributed to an in-place average rental rate at year end of $22.42 per square foot. This is an all-time high, comping against Q3's all-time high, which comps against Q2's all-time high, and so on. In fact, the average in-place rental rate for SGR's portfolio has increased every single quarter for 22 quarters in a row now. This demand has continued to allow us to be particular about the types of tenants in our properties, resulting in a tenant mix that better serves the communities in which we operate with stronger covenants. Doherty will cover our 2021 investment activities, which were robust, strategic, and value-creating, perhaps none more so than our Christy Cookie transaction this year. Throughout 2021, we also made significant progress on our ESG priorities, further embedding environmental, social, and governance principles into our business and culture. Some highlights of the year include some firsts. First Capital was the first Canadian REIT to be a signatory for the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, and we are committed to establishing a concrete plan to align with the TCFD recommendations. FCR was the first Canadian retail REIT to achieve the Well Health Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management from the International Well Building Institute. We improved our Gresby score and ranked number one in our retail peer group this year. We also met or exceeded our targets for decreased greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. We completed our five-year commitment set in 2016 to convert all of our exterior parking lot lighting to energy-efficient LED. And we incorporated sustainability-linked features into our main unsecured operating facility. Turning to progress on our eDNI initiatives, Our employee-led ED&I Council has made exceptional progress in such a short time. We have a clear vision, and we have developed our three-year ED&I Action Plan to direct and measure our efforts going forward. For the second consecutive year, we were honored to be listed in the Report on Business Magazine benchmark, Women Lead Here, a designation recognizing strong gender diversity metrics at the senior levels. And we were recognized as one of Canada's best small to medium businesses and Greater Toronto's top 100 employers for the third year in a row. Our commitment to helping our neighborhoods thrive is embedded in our strategy and culture. As an extension of this, we launched the FCR Thriving Neighborhoods Foundation to support charitable initiatives that make a positive impact in the communities where we operate. This employee-led registered charity chose to focus on combating food insecurity and poverty as its priority during 2021. I am humbled to say not only did the FCR team exceed their fundraising goal, but our trustees and our corporate friends and partners really stepped up, and together we raised over $280,000 this fall, every penny of which was given to Second Harvest. These funds equate to the rescue and redistribution of over half a million meals for Canadians in need and avoided 2.9 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from what would otherwise be food waste. Talk about a win-win. I would like to personally thank our employees, board members, and corporate friends who helped make this happen. We look forward to providing more updates on ESG in the future. In the meantime, The ESG section of our website is regularly updated and has a wealth of information on our activities. And with that, I will now pass things over to Neil to cover our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021. Neil.