Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Bridge Investment Group's third quarter 2022 earnings call-in webcast. All lines have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions and comments following the presentation. If you should require assistance throughout the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad to reach a live operator. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Bonnie Rosen, Head of Shareholder Relations. Bonnie, the floor is yours.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Bridge Investment Group's third quarter 2022 financial results conference call. Our prepared remarks include comments from our Executive Chairman, Robert Morse, Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Slager and Chief Financial Officer Katie Elsmab. We will hold a Q&A session following the prepared remarks. I'd like to remind you that today's call may include forward-looking statements which are uncertain and outside of the firm's control and may differ from actual results materially. We do not undertake any duty to update these statements. For a discussion of some of the risks that could affect results, please see the risk factors section of our 10-K. During the call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial metrics. The reconciliation of the non-GAAP metrics are provided in the appendix of our supplemental slide. The supplemental materials are accessible on our IR website at ir.bridgeig.com. These slides can be found under the presentation portion of the site along with the third quarter earnings call event link. They are also available live during the webcast. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Bob.

Thank you, Bonnie, and good morning to all. We are pleased to share Bridge's third quarter results with you and our strategy to navigate our investment activities in the current turbulent market conditions. Bridge reported strong results for the third quarter. Distributable earnings per share increased 12% year-over-year to 29 cents, driven by the consistent growth in fee-earning AUM and management fee revenue. Fee-related earnings to the operating company increased 39% year-over-year to $41.6 million. Gross AUM ended the quarter at $43.8 billion, and fee-earning AUM of $16.6 billion at quarter end represents an increase of 37% year-over-year. Katie will provide additional detail on our income statement and balance sheet progression over the quarter. We achieved strong fundraising results in the third quarter of $1.3 billion and record results of $3.9 billion year-to-date, led by the 2Q final closing of debt strategies for at $2.9 billion, which for Bridge is a record fundraise for a specialized strategy. Notwithstanding that record fund raise, Debt Strategies 4 is now 80% called and we continue to find attractive investment opportunities amidst the turbulence of the markets. In addition, in 3Q, we had the final closing of Workforce and Affordable Housing Fund 2 at $1.74 billion, almost three times the size of the predecessor fund, and we expect to hold the penultimate closing of Multifamily Fund 5 in 4Q, which to date is already at a record amount for our Multifamily Fund series. We also had momentum in 3Q from our announced $100 million office joint venture with Grosvenor, as well as meaningful flows into net lease income and the third tranche from our inaugural logistics fund from our relationship with Townsend. Many of our funds continue to be ranked in the top quartile by Prequin, which has contributed to our fundraising success. We recognize that in a turbulent market environment, investors are more cautious and have less capital capacity, whether due to the so-called denominator effect or simply a wait-and-see attitude prior to committing capital. That said, the appeal of our investment focus and performance track record provides some insolations. In 3Q, we welcomed seven new institutional investors into our roster, meaningfully furthered our relationships with key consultants, and broadened the global network of investors with which we have a strong and consistent dialogue. My colleagues and I just completed a global capital raising and investor relations trip that included visits to many of our largest international investors and culminated in the announcement of a strategic relationship with KB Asset Management, Korea's largest financial group. The interest in U.S. real estate and the confidence in Bridge as a trusted steward remains high. Diversity of fundraising sources is a meaningful strength for our company. We have a healthy mix of both retail and institutional investors, with 35% of new commitments in 3Q from individual investors and 65% from institutions. The high net worth retail segment has always been a strong component for Bridge, and per recent Morgan Stanley research, is one of the largest growth opportunities for our industry, with allocations to alternatives from high net worth investors estimated to double in five years. Additionally, our expansion of offices in Luxembourg and South Korea, as well as our AIFM license approval in Europe in July, further position us to continue growing capital raising internationally. 43% of commitments in the quarter came from international clients, and we expect more to follow. I would like to share our firm perspective on current market conditions. High inflation and rising interest rates domestically and a softening economic condition globally have prompted a retrenchment of public equity markets and a difficult environment in which to determine values. In addition, increased geopolitical risks, including the expanded conflict between Russia and Ukraine and economic slowdown in China, economic turbulence in the UK and other developments are weighing on the markets. In this global context, the strength of the US economy, the health of the US consumer across multiple metrics, the reshoring of manufacturing to the U.S., and continued government stimulus in the form of student loan forgiveness, incentives related to the CHIPS Act, and Inflation Reduction Act, position the U.S. as the preeminent investment destination for many investors globally. In the near term, however, some investors have taken either a risk-off approach, have stopped investment activity until the end of the year, or seem to be waiting for expected distress to materialize. We have seen the impact of these factors in our markets with low transaction volumes, even in real estate sectors whose fundamentals remain strong. Longer term, we believe U.S. real estate alternatives offer investors resilient, recession-resistant downside protection, durable inflation-protected yield, and the potential for meaningful capital appreciation. We believe that Bridge is well positioned in the current higher interest rate environment due to enhanced capabilities of our specialized investment teams and high touch forward integration into asset and property management. Going forward, we expect the value of our vertically integrated business model to amplify our outperformance. In the last decade, the levers to generating value in real estate were several. One, finding the right asset in the right location. Two, paying a disciplined price. Three, leveraging the asset with low-cost cash flow enhancing debt. And four, optimizing asset performance through efficient property management. Our national footprint, data-driven and differentiated knowledge of markets and focused investment approach generates enormous deal flow, price discipline, and allows Bridge to buy well. Leverage has diminished considerably as a value driver and in many cases is now neutral to negative. Well-run property management, which has always been a focus at Bridge, allows us to add alpha at the asset level. We've built the Bridge property management function, specialized across asset classes since the inception of our company, and we keep getting better and more efficient every year. We have also built other pillars for long-term growth within our organization. We've stood up an experienced logistics team and have deployed over $1.2 billion of gross capital from a standing start acquired an integrated single-family rental program, which has built a strong portfolio of over 3,300 homes, have built a strong opportunity zone development business, which is one of the largest in the industry, and have a growing net lease income vehicle. This is all in addition to our new initiatives announced during the quarter, solar infrastructure and prop tech. While there are clearly challenges ahead, we are in a strong position from a capital and balance sheet perspective with $191 million of cash liquidity and an expanded credit facility of $125 million, along with significant dry powder. With that, let me turn the call over to Jonathan to further detail our results and strategy.