Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc.

And welcome to the Bridge Investment Group's second quarter 2023 earnings call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star and zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ms. Bonnie Rosen, Head of Shareholder Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Bridge Investment Group conference call to review our second quarter 2023 financial results. Prepared remarks include comments from our Executive Chairman, Robert Morse, Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Slager, and Chief Financial Officer, Katie Elsnab. 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, outside the firm's control, and may differ materially from actual results. 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 factor section of our Form 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 slides. The supplemental materials are accessible on our IR website at ir.bridgeig.com. These slides can be found under the presentations portion of the site along with the second quarter earnings call event link. They are also available live during the webcast. I will present our GAAP metrics and Katie will review and analyze our non-GAAP data. we reported a gap net loss to the company for the second quarter of 2023 of $2.8 million. On a basic and diluted basis, net loss attributable to bridge per share of Class A common stock was 24 cents, mostly due to changes in non-cash items. Distributable earnings of the operating company were $35 million, or 20 cents per share after tax, and our board of directors declared a dividend of 17 cents per share, which will be paid to shareholders of record as of September 1st. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Bob.

Thank you, Bonnie, and good morning to all. In the three months since our last earnings update, we have seen an improvement in the macroeconomic environment and activity levels beginning to recover at adjusted and attractive prices in the U.S. real estate markets. Bridges focus on selected sectors of U.S. real estate, residential rental, logistics, and credit, and our recent expansion into secondaries have served the company well. Strong underlying fundamentals in these sectors have helped to preserve values of existing portfolios through operational improvements, while some of our dry powder in existing investment vehicles has been deployed at attractive values recently. In addition, Several of our newer initiatives, including AMBS, Net Lease Industrial Income, and Renewable Energy, are gaining traction and momentum. We are optimistic about Bridge's positioning looking forward, raising capital globally and investing in selective, high-performing sectors of alternative assets with an attractive mix of mature investments and relatively new sectors with high potential. Our areas of investment focus benefit not only from secular tailwinds, but also from the resilience and relative strength of the US economy. While the global outlook has softened in many major economies, the US continues to demonstrate that it is the preeminent destination for investment. Regional banking turbulence from last quarter did not put an end to the economic expansion, nor did it signal the beginning of a systemic crisis. Though financial conditions have tightened over the past year, restrictive monetary policy has not yet resulted in a severe or rapid deceleration of growth, nor has it compromised a strong labor market. Consumer confidence remains high, and consumer activity continues to bolster the economy's momentum. As a result, we have seen stronger than expected domestic growth amid a meaningful deceleration of inflation, Perhaps the most meaningful measure is core CPI minus shelter, which stands at 2.7% year over year compared to the peak in February of last year at 7.6%. As of August 1st, equity markets have responded, with the S&P 500 up approximately 20% and the Equal Weight Index up 10%. as the market rally has become more broadly based, which has diminished the so-called denominator effect, which has challenged the investment capability of many institutions. Strong labor and wage growth is also helping to support residential fundamentals, as we've witnessed across many of our investment portfolios. This has especially been the case for the lower half of the income band, which are the cohort bridge serves in much of our leading residential rental investments. including our flagship workforce housing and multifamily series. In the aggregate, our largest overall investment theme is in residential rental, and we provide shelter and comprehensive services to thousands of families and individuals in some of the most attractive markets in the country. Through market cycles, forward integration and sector specialization is our vital differentiator. We've seen our operational focus driving results within our real estate portfolios over the years, and especially over this past year. Operationally, most of our residential rental and industrial properties are outperforming their underwritten pro formas, and we're seeing positive fundamentals with healthy occupancy and rent growth. On the capital raising front, our client solutions group is larger and more capable than at any time in Bridge's history. and we are busier than ever before in the institutional, wealth management, and direct high net worth channels. Investors in the second quarter of 2023 remained cautious, resulting in $320 million of new capital raised across our investment vehicles. Yet the high volume of constructive dialogue and interest support our optimism entering the second half of the year. Additionally, With a large workforce housing portfolio acquisition expected to close today, we have essentially reached the required deployment threshold in our latest workforce and affordable housing fund. Along with our leading debt strategies fund, this enables us to launch successor vehicles in both strategies to drive future fee-earning AUM in the coming quarters on the back of strong track records in these sectors. The immediate predecessor vehicles in each of these strategies were the largest in Bridge history. 2Q inflows included the additional Townsend joint venture previously announced at the end of June. Bridge's continued partnership with Townsend represents another milestone in expanding the progression of our value-add logistics strategy. We also had inflows into many of our newer verticals, including AMBS, net lease, prop tech, and secondaries, as well as our debt strategies and opportunity zone vehicles. Year-to-date, we've raised approximately $1 billion. From a sales channel perspective, we continue to maintain a good balance between individual investors and institutional clients. 46% of our investor base is retail-oriented, with 54% institutional. Historically, we've always had a strong retail component with qualified purchasers, ultra high net worth and high net worth investors. This has resulted from our highly differentiated platform and high touch approach. We are also exploring ways to expand our retail efforts by making certain products accessible to accredited investors, thereby broadening our potential investor base. As we look forward, Bridge has a number of growth vectors in our high conviction areas of investing. residential rental, logistics, credit, and secondaries in both mature and exciting new sectors. Our more established strategies, including multifamily workforce and affordable housing and debt strategies, have achieved significant profitability, yet have substantial runway to scale further in future vintages, especially with the strong performance track records that Bridge has established. In addition, Newberry Partners, our recent PE Secondaries acquisition, is contributing meaningful fee-earning AUM, further bolstered by the positive reception of its most recent vintage in the market. I'd like to elaborate a bit on the impact of Newberry on our overall business. We acquired the firm at an attractive valuation. We implemented a SWOT team of our best and brightest professionals to ensure seamless integration and cross-sell. and we have exceeded our already high internal expectations. We indicated at the time of our IPO that inorganic growth and consolidation was an important component of future growth, and we've delivered on that objective via the Gorelick Brothers and Newberry Partners acquisitions, even in challenging times. Longer term, we have a number of newer organic strategies that have yet to achieve positive FRE, but are well positioned to scale over time. AMBS and net lease industrial income are reaching critical mass in AUM and moving closer to profitability. As banks and other balance sheet lenders reduce commercial real estate exposure, we believe these opportunities will continue to multiply. In a world of corporate costs rising and uncertainty about capital availability, triple net lease looks like an attractive option for many corporate users. In addition, the fact that our net lease industrial income strategy is relatively new and unburdened with assets acquired at higher prices pre-fed tightening, along with a singular focus on logistics manufacturing and mission-critical assets, is a significant advantage in the market. We've stood up an experienced logistics team now totaling 31 professionals, and they have deployed over $1.5 billion of gross capital from a standing start. Logistics and manufacturing demand remains robust, particularly in infill locations, as onshoring, e-commerce, and supply chain resiliency are durable demand drivers with staying power. Within residential rental, our single-family rental team has built a high-quality portfolio of over 3,300 homes. Housing is critically undersupplied and tight conditions are expected to persist for years due to elevated cost and availability of debt for new construction. Renewable energy, which just had its first close, will benefit from the global shift to transition energy sources broadly coupled with an unmet need for renewable energy solutions on commercial real estate. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jonathan.