Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc.

session following the prepared remarks from our leaders. During the call today, we will reference slides highlighting key points of discussion as well as certain non-GAAP financial metrics. The reconciliation of the non-GAAP metrics are provided in the appendix of our supplemental slides. The supplemental materials are accessible on our IR website at ir.bridgeig.com. These slides can be found under the events and presentations portion of the site along with the fourth quarter and full year earnings call event link. They are also available live during the webcast. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Robert.

Thank you, Bonnie, and let me be the first to publicly welcome you to Bridge. Your impressive IR and real estate experience will undoubtedly augment our shareholder communications as we continue to share the Bridge story. 2021 was a watershed year for our company. As you can see on slide five, our financial results for the year achieved records across most key performance indicators. Jonathan and Katie will review our financial results in more detail, so I will be brief here. The second set of data metrics show over 50% growth across both our fee-related earnings and distributable earnings. This year-over-year growth reflects the upward trajectory of our company, the continued expansion of our mature strategies, the launch of new and exciting verticals, and the inorganic expansion into attractive sectors of U.S. real estate. As you will see, our structure and purpose-built organization has delivered outstanding returns, which performance has powered additional capital commitments from existing and new investors. Please turn to slide six. Our successful IPO in July 2021 was a catalyst for Bridge in so many ways, visibility and profile enhancement, which is translated to record capital raising across both retail and institutional platforms, strong and continuing dialogue with our shareholders, and an enhanced competitive profile as an attractive consolidator in the selected verticals in which we have an interest to expand. It is also worth noting that of the 270-plus IPOs in 2021, the average return through year-end was negative 4%. In contrast, Bridge ended the year 56% above our initial offer price, making our company the 26th best performing IPO in the U.S. Thank you to all who made this possible. The IPO amplified our ability to leverage our expertise and differentiated investment approach in new and adjacent verticals. We have communicated some of the areas of interest in the past, And we completed the acquisition of Gorelick Brothers and Gold Property Management as of January 31st to create what we believe will be one of the most competitive participants in the large, growing, and still nascent single-family rental sector. In a short period of time, we feel validated in our decision to bring Bridge public and are excited about the wide opportunity set and potential for continued growth in 2022 and beyond. Before we talk about the future, let me quickly summarize what we believe are impressive results for 2021. First, Bridge raised $5 billion of capital in 2021. Dean will provide more detail, but from my perspective, the most impressive aspect of the capital raise is how broad-based it was, both by investor type and fund strategy. We have grown our client solutions group organization. We have dramatically expanded our stable of institutional investors. We have expanded the wire house platforms with whom we do business, and we have deep penetration across the spectrum of sovereign wealth funds, pension plans, the insurance sector, endowments and foundations, and family offices. Best of all, we are only scratching the surface, notwithstanding the record capital raising results for 2021. Our pipeline is as strong as ever. All CSG members are traveling again. We currently have in-person meetings confirmed with a literal who's who of institutional investors, and we've substantially invested in our CSG organization. Moving down the page, investing capital at scale both selectively and without sacrificing strategy or returns is critical. In 2021, Bridge deployed a record $4.6 billion. Bridge is able to do this due to our purpose-built structure, our focus, on the U.S., on selected prime growth markets within the U.S., our specialized investment teams oriented towards the most high-growth sectors of U.S. real estate, and our investment in and commitment to forward integration to generate alpha at the asset level. Not only does deep knowledge of our assets and markets drive alpha for fund investors, but it also allows us to be nimble in markets without marginalizing our differentiated and proven diligence. And this same concept also applies to fund realizations, where in 2021, we realized $1.3 billion, which netted over 83 million in realized performance fees. First and foremost, we're thrilled to add to our track record of performance for our fund investors. But similarly, we believe our platform to drive both AUM growth and scaled investment and realizations of those funds offer a compelling value engine for our shareholders. In addition, Our unrealized accrued carry, which Jonathan will discuss further, has increased to $440 million, demonstrating the pipeline for future performance-driven, distributable earnings is significant. Lastly, we are proud to say that Bridge got stronger as a company with key additions to our talented team of professionals and to the continued evolution of our funds management infrastructure. After several years of hard work, we expect to complete both SOC 1 and SOC 2 audits and have internalized fund administration, which we believe will allow us to be more accurate and more responsive. If we turn to slide seven, I'll wrap up my comments on 2021 by framing them against our history. As we noted on the IPO Roadshow, we believe BRIDGES' unique approach to forward integration in property management and our focus on carefully selected commercial real estate sectors positions us very well to replicate strong and steady growth for years to come. As you can see here, the foundation of our most visible earnings streams has grown at an impressive rate over the past five years, including 2021, the five-year compound average growth rates of our gross AUM and our fee-paying revenues are 41% and 30%, respectively. We believe the drivers of these key performance indicators have only become stronger in the past year for Bridge. Many of our legacy fund strategies continue to rank in the top quartile. Our vertical integration continues to drive alpha and synergy across strategies and broaden the investment opportunity set available to Bridge. If we turn to slide eight, let's talk a little bit about 2022 and beyond with our view of the environment and how we're structured to succeed. First, the backdrop for institutional investment in commercial real estate remains robust. According to Hodesweil, the average institutional investor remains underweight commercial real estate as an asset class. Said another way, the average investor has a target allocation of 10.7% compared to current investment mix of just 9.3%. For reference, these small percentages represent very big dollars. Each percentage point of allocation shifts represents approximately $134 billion. We believe this trend will likely accelerate given the global search for yield and commercial real estate's natural inflation hedge, especially in property sectors that we focus on like residential and logistics. Altogether, these factors provide a strong foundation for liquid commercial real estate markets in the coming years, and our platform is well positioned. Next, I'd like to speak to how Bridge succeeds in what is a competitive commercial real estate investment market. As you may know, 2021 was an incredibly active year for asset transactions. According to Real Capital Analytics, total U.S. commercial real estate transaction volumes were $840 billion, nearly double 2020's total and exceeded the previous record of $600 billion in 2019. an impressive 42% of the volume transacted in the fourth quarter alone due to the typical seasonality of the business. In markets that are liquid and competitive, it's hard to overstate how important our approach is to our fund performance. We have purposely constructed fund strategies investment teams focused on real estate markets with the best and most durable secular demand drivers. Specifically, Bridges overweight the U.S. residential market because of the chronic undersupply of housing in the country since the great financial crisis. We are focused on logistics and infrastructure and on multiple strategies that offer high-yielding returns in both open-end and closed-end structures. And our Opportunity Zone vertical was recently ranked number one out of 613 Opportunity Fund vehicles that have been offered. This is important context, especially when considered against our performance track record. Bridge does not drive alpha by participating in markets the same way that the broader herd does. Bridge instead is structured to drive better returns with superior local knowledge of markets, faster speed to market, and a full set of capabilities across the capital stack to finance our investments. Our property management and development capabilities also serve a distinct advantage in our ability to source and execute value-add or redevelopment investments. The value-add market is inherently less competitive, and as a result, Bridge wins often. It is for these reasons that our fund performance has been strong, as you can see on slide nine. We're equally excited about our prospects in our new strategies in logistics, net lease income, single family for rent, opportunity zone development, and agency MBS. We published our inaugural firm-wide ESG report last spring and will release our second annual ESG report later this quarter. As a United Nations PRI signatory, BRIDGE completed its first PRI report submission in 2021 for our equity strategies. Our commitment to sustainability reporting also included two first-time Gradsby reporting submissions for the BRIDGE Workforce and Affordable Housing Fund and the BRIDGE Office Fund, too. Bridge became a supporter of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, as well as completed a TCFD maturity assessment in 2021. In early 22, we launched a dedicated climate change task force comprised of senior leadership. Over the course of 2021, our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and passionate advocates drove company-wide programming that supported diverse hiring and retention, education and awareness building, a firm-wide diversity assessment, and the launch of six additional employee resource groups, or ERGs. Bridge was also a leader in the real estate industry in recognizing Juneteenth as a paid company holiday. We are also thrilled to share that 55 Bridge-owned commercial office buildings earned the highly acclaimed Well health safety rating in early 2022, an example of our commitment to implement evidence-based strategies that support the overall wellness of our properties. Furthermore, the Bridge Workforce and Affordable Housing Strategy received multiple awards in 2021, including Best ESG Fund in Private Equity by ESG Investing, Social Fund of the Year by Environmental Finance, and ESG Private Market Strategy of the Year by Pension Bridge. Before I turn the call to Jonathan, I'd just like to reiterate the importance we place in serving all of our stakeholders. As I noted, we are proud of the returns we drive for our shareholders and fund investors, but we also view the value we create for our employees, partners, and those that occupy our properties as imperative to our strategy and success. Whether it be our commitment to investments in alternative energy, such as solar, or through our work with employee resource groups, we are proud of the difference that Bridge makes every day. And with that, let me turn the call to Jonathan. Thank you, Bob, and good to speak to you all again.

Bridge had a great fourth quarter, which is a perfect way to cap off a momentous year for our company. As you can see on slide 12, Bridge's total revenues for the fourth quarter grew 50% over the same quarter last year to $107 million. This is our highest quarter on record, and notably, three of our top five highest quarters have been reported in the last year. Our investment income of $148 million was nearly double the same period a year ago. For context, this exceeded last quarter by nearly 75%. Similarly, net income of $166 million was up 79% year over year. Fee-related earnings for the quarter increased 57% over the same quarter last year to $36 million. This growth has been driven by record deployment combined with record capital raising. Our realized performance fees for Q4 totaled $10 million, but most impressively, our unrealized accrued carry grew to $440 million. In line with Bob's comments on Bridge's strategic advantages, this performance is both from Bridge being in the right sectors as well as our outperformance in these sectors driven by our unique approach to our in-house management. Distributable earnings of $39 million for the quarter increased 12% from the same period in 2020. All of this helped drive impressive results for the full year of 2021. Total revenue increased 42% from 2020 to $330 million. Realized performance fees of 83.4 million were up 97%. An unrealized carry of 440 million, which represents approximately $164 million of future distributable earnings to the company. Turning to slide 13, You can see in these graphs the tremendous growth I just reviewed. I'd like to give some color on the drivers of these metrics relative to the business strategy and capabilities we spoke about at the top of the call. Our fee-earning AUM grew 31% in 2021, largely by outstanding LP capital raising and deployment over the year. And as you can see in the lower right, distributable earnings grew by 57%. Dean will speak to our capital raising in a minute. What is important to understand is that Bridge continues to be able to scale both in capital raising and deployment while seeking top quartile returns. We believe Bridge has a significant strategic advantage because we have local knowledge from our boots on the ground and our in-house management of our assets at a national scale. This helps our investment teams. These strategic advantages are really what drive returns and earnings for Bridge shareholders that you see on the remaining three charts on this page, each of them new records for our company. One thing I will highlight is that there is seasonality to our business, particularly as it relates to first quarter of each year. Historically, Rich has generated less than 15% of its annual fee-related earnings from Q1, and nearly two-thirds of the fee-related earnings have come in the last two quarters. In 2021, 66% of our fee-related earnings came from our last two quarters. Katie will elaborate on this, but we'd expect a similar pattern in 2022, where our earnings are stronger in the back half of the year. On slide 14, we can see the visibility and duration of Bridges' fee streams. Over the past five years, Bridges' fee-related revenues have grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 30%. More importantly, the growth of our recurring fund management fees has increased by a compounded annual growth rate of 44% over that same period. As noted, the macroeconomic demand drivers related to the shortage of residential housing, logistics, real estate, combined with the deep and growing demand for commercial real estate exposure among institutional investors gives us confidence this growth will continue. Specifically, the trend toward more open-end capital, longer-duration funds, combined with larger vehicles and new strategies singles strong visibility into more durable and stable fee-related revenue streams. In the fourth quarter, capital commitments had an average duration of 10.8 years. And as you can see on the chart on the right, As of year end, over 76% of our fee-earning AUM had a duration over five years, and we increased our weighted average duration of our fee-earning AUM from 7.2 years in 2020 to eight years at the end of 2021. In total, a deep market with strong demand drivers and long-dated capital is a powerful backdrop for our model, and we are excited about what lies ahead. Turning to slide 15, I'll take a minute on our performance fees for the quarter. As mentioned, we generated $10.3 million over Q4. That was driven mainly by realizations in multifamily and debt strategies. As we have noted in the past, realization of performance fees varies substantially from quarter to quarter, but the market conditions were strong in both Q4 and the full year of 2021. Rising interest rates and inflation have not materially impacted commercial real estate pricing or cap rates. Instead, we are seeing demand tailwinds for assets like residential rental and logistics that have been so strong that we continue to see values rise and cap rates compress. As we introduced last quarter, we believe the best view of our performance pipeline can be seen in our accrued performance allocation. We've updated on the upper right of this page, and you can see that the market remains very strong as evidenced by a 46% increase in that accrual to $440 million. Timing of realization of these performance fees will vary, but at the bottom right, we present unrealized performance allocation by fund vintage. While the majority is in funds that are less than four years old, nearly 22% are nearing their seventh year, which is a typical seasoning or the realizations. Again, the trend for larger, longer duration funds combined with our ability to scale deployment presents a strong backdrop for performance fees to continue on a strong growth pattern. As previously noted, we have approximately $164 million of potential future distributable earnings to the operating company on the balance sheet. Turning to slide 16. It is my pleasure to present an exciting new growth driver for Bridge in the single-family rental sector. As you likely saw, we announced the launch of single-family residential strategy along with the majority acquisition of the management platform of Gorelick Brothers Capital. In partnership with the principals of Gorelick, which can execute against another investment class with significant secular demand drivers. As we mentioned, The chronic undersupply of housing in the U.S. has driven our focus in the multifamily housing space for years abridge. While home building has increased, it continues to lag and in many ways has widened the affordability gap for many first-time homebuyers. Additionally, demographic tailwinds for young Americans beginning families and creating households is still in its early years. We also believe that the single-family residential sector offers a broad, addressable market with lower institutional competition, and our local approach, which we believe can be highly effective, will succeed in this area. For context, the market for institutionally managed single-family rental housing has grown substantially in the past decade, but remains highly fragmented, and only 2% is institutionally owned. Better yet, our new partners from Gorelick share our passion and belief that value is driven through operations. and they are experienced, vertically integrated operators of single-family residential. So they bring breadth and capabilities that fit very well with Bridge's model and will be synergistic to our existing portfolio in multifamily. On page 17, you can see Bridge now has a significant presence across all residential for rent asset classes that cover the full cycle and can leverage our market knowledge and tenant-based across the country, including our single-family residential investments and operations, as well as our other existing sectors. Bridge's portfolio currently includes over 47,000 multifamily units, with another almost 20,000 under construction in the Opportunity Zone platform. Adding a growing portfolio of single-family for rent and the almost 12,000 seniors housing allows us to leverage our relationship with our renter base throughout the life cycle of every household. Our procurement capabilities, our insurance services, our community service, and other resident programs allow us to deliver better value to our residents and to our shareholders. With that, let me turn the call to Dean to give you the highlights of a very successful year of capital raising at Bridge.