The RMR Group Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the RMR first quarter of fiscal 2023 financial results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Melissa McCarthy, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining RMR's first quarter of fiscal 2023 conference call. With me on today's call are President and CEO Adam Portnoy and Chief Financial Officer Matt Jordan. In just a moment, they will provide details about our business and quarterly results, followed by a question and answer session. I would like to note that the recording and retransmission of today's conference call is prohibited without the prior written consent of the company. Today's conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on RMR's beliefs and expectations as of today, February 3rd, 2023, and actual results may differ materially from those that we project. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to the four looking statements made in today's conference call. Additional information concerning those factors that could cause those differences is contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be found on our website at www.rmrgroup.com. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements. In addition, we may discuss non-GAAP numbers during this call, including adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA margin. A reconciliation of net income determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles to adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, adjusted EBITDA, and that calculation of adjusted EBITDA margin can be found in our earnings release. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Adam.

Thanks, Melissa, and thank you for joining us this morning. Before we discuss the first quarter results, I would like to start by highlighting the enhanced earnings release format that we issued last night. This enhanced format is intended to align more closely with our alternative asset manager peers, and we expect it to be easier for investors and analysts to efficiently digest our results and make comparisons to our peer group. We have also evolved the way we define our clients, and as a result, throughout our earnings release and 10Q, you will see them presented as either perpetual capital clients or private capital clients. As I sit here today and survey the overall economic environment, the ongoing market uncertainty, driven in large part by the Fed's rapid interest rate increases, has created significant headwinds for the commercial real estate industry. This market uncertainty has significantly slowed real estate transaction volumes with many, including our organization, taking a more wait-and-see approach. The impact on the publicly traded REIT industry has also been significant, with the U.S. REIT index down over 24% in 2022, and each respective publicly traded REIT sector generating negative returns since returns last year. In light of these challenges, RMR's strong first quarter financial results are a testament to the diversity of our clients and the durability of our business model. We ended the calendar year 2022 with $37.4 billion in assets under management with $30 billion representing perpetual capital. Additionally, over the course of 2022, our fee earning AUM increased almost 10% to end the year at $26.9 billion. This quarter, we reported adjusted net income of 51 cents per share, Distributable earnings of $0.58 per share, adjusted EBITDA of $26.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 50.8%. Finally, we again declared our dividend of $0.40 per share this quarter, which remains secure and well covered as evidenced by our 62.4% distribution payout ratio. From an operational perspective, our organization continued its focus on delivering high-quality and amenity-rich buildings to our tenants. Despite a slowing and cautious commercial real estate market, from a leasing perspective, fundamentals across our managed assets remained favorable. Our portfolio of managed real estate ended the quarter at nearly 96% leased, and during the quarter, we helped arrange 2.5 million square feet of leases on behalf of our clients. which resulted in a combined 2% roll-up in rents and a weighted average lease term of almost nine years. As a reminder, we are limited as to what we can discuss this quarter regarding our publicly traded clients as we are reporting results in advance of them. With that said, I wanted to highlight some items of note across our perpetual capital clients. In October, SVC amended its revolving credit facility to extend the facilities maturity date to July 2023, and remove restrictions on paying dividends and issuing secure debt. With the amendment behind them, SVC's board increased the quarterly cash dividend from one cent per share to 20 cents per share, which is well covered at a conservative 37% payout ratio. SVC management is currently focused on refinancing $500 million in bonds that will mature this June. with multiple options currently available to them. Bond refinancing discussions at SVC have also been helped because all aspects of its business continue to perform well. In the hotel sector, fundamentals remain solid as evidenced by higher TSA checkpoint travel volumes and increasing occupancy and red bar levels across the industry. This positive momentum was evident this past week at the ALICE conference in Los Angeles. a major hotel industry event that included representation from both SVC and Senesta, where the mood was the most upbeat since the beginning of the pandemic. As it relates to the retail portion of SVC's business, this same positive momentum is also evident as discretionary consumer spending continues to remain resilient across all income levels, household cash cushions remain well above pre-pandemic levels, and the majority of SVC's retail tenants remain current on their lease obligations. Turning to our real estate lending platform, Seven Hills Realty Trust, our publicly traded mortgage REIT, continues to be a growth story for the organization as its loan book approaches $1 billion. And on certain times like these, lending against commercial real estate as compared to owning the equity in the same real estate is an attractive way to generate high risk adjusted returns. Seven Hills default free track record coupled with the ability to access the broader RMR real estate platform continues to be a differentiating factor for us. In January, Seven Hills Board declared a 40% increase in its quarterly dividend from 25 cents per share to 35 cents per share. This new dividend rate is a strong signal of our confidence in the company's momentum and the stability of its loan portfolio. At OPI, occupancy remains above 90% despite headwinds from hybrid work arrangements and cost-cutting measures across corporate America. While national indicators suggest office usage is improving, our internal data shows OPI's assets tracking ahead of national averages. which most likely reflects the diverse geographic nature of OPI's portfolio and its limited reliance on gateway markets. Given the current environment, we expect office fundamentals to remain subdued, specifically rent growth and leasing velocity. As such, the organization is focused on getting ahead of OPI's upcoming 2023 and 2024 lease expirations by actively engaging tenants and thoughtfully investing in OPI's properties. At DHC, we are working with its senior living operators to improve DHC's operating performance. As a reminder, in the third calendar quarter, DHC reported its sixth consecutive quarter of occupancy growth in its senior living communities. That trend is consistent with the broader industry though inflationary pressures and labor supply challenges remain a headwind to margin and profitability for the entire industry. These efforts are critical to DHC's long-term success and its ability to refinance upcoming debt maturities in 2024. With over $800 million in cash as of September 30th, we are confident DHC can both weather these near-term challenges and continue strategically investing in its assets. I'll close with our private capital business, which ended the year at over $7 billion in managed assets, including the mountain joint venture that was created when ILPT acquired Monmouth Reef in early 2022. The private capital portion of our business now represents 20% of our consolidated overall AUM and 15% of our fee earning AUM. Both significant milestones given this portion of our business is only about five years old. At this time, we are simultaneously pursuing organic private capital growth with our existing capital partners, developing new private capital vehicles, and assessing strategic M&A opportunities as they present themselves. With over $200 million in cash and no debt, We believe we are well positioned to take advantage of strategic opportunities that we believe will result from the ongoing market volatility. I'll now turn the call over to Matt Jordan, our Chief Financial Officer.