Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and thank you all for joining us to discuss Equity Lifestyle Properties' fourth quarter and year-end 2020 results. Our featured speakers today are Marguerite Nader, our President and CEO, Paul Osewi, our Executive Vice President and CFO, and Patrick Wade, our Executive Vice President and COO. In advance of today's call, management release earnings. Today's call will consist of opening remarks and a question-and-answer session with management, relating to the company's earnings release. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Certain matters discussed during the conference call may contain forward-looking statements in the meaning of the federal securities law. All forward-looking statements are subject to certain economic risks and uncertainty. The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, our supplemental information, and our historical SEC filings. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Marguerite Nader, our President and CEO.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to report the final results for 2020. Our performance shows the resiliency of our business. In 2020, our teams met each challenge with confidence and conviction. Our teams focused on providing a safe experience for residents, customers, and employees. We were able to serve our residents and customers in a challenging operating environment while maintaining our impressive customer feedback scores. We continued our record of strong core operations and FFO growth, with a 10% growth in normalized FFO per share in the quarter. The fundamentals of our business remain strong, with demographic and economic trends creating tailwinds for future growth. In 2020, our MH portfolio increased occupancy by 293 sites. We experienced continued strength at our MH properties, with full-year rent revenue growth of 4.6%. We saw fewer move-outs this year, primarily due to shelter-in-place orders. We adjusted our sales and marketing efforts and were able to access new customers and efficiently showcase our homes in a virtual environment. Throughout the fourth quarter, there were over 100 virtual home tours on our website. Website visitors looking at our listings were three times more likely to express interest in the community and share their contact information for follow-up from our team after reviewing a virtual tour on our website. We see this as an opportunity to further grow our lead base. Turning to RVs, in 2020, the demand was strong for RV sites across the country. In the quarter, we saw an increase in core transient revenue of 15%. This growth was fueled by marketing campaigns for fall and winter camping opportunities. Our customers are interested in experiencing vacations in a safe environment. We also see an increased flexibility in customer schedules that will continue to benefit us. In 2020, our Thousand Trails membership portfolio performed in line with pre-pandemic expectations. our dues revenue increased over 4% to $53 million. We sold over 20,000 camping passes, an increase of over 6% from 2019. Our upgrade sales increased 15% over 2019 as we saw more customers interested in increasing their commitment to the Thousand Trails system. In 2020, to help support the safety of our guests and team members, we launched a new online check-in option for our RV guests. About one-third of guests completed the online check-in process, allowing them to get to their site more quickly and with less direct interaction. In addition, in 2020, we provided our guests an added way to communicate with our on-site teams during their visit by launching a text message program to reduce the number of in-person interactions. Our guests reported high satisfaction levels based on the experience provided by our teams at our properties. We send online surveys to our guests after they stay at our RV resorts and campgrounds. Based on the fourth quarter survey results, guests responded to customer experience questions with a rating of over 4.5 out of 5. Turning to 2021, we have issued guidance of $2.31 at the midpoint, which is a 6.4% growth in normalized FFO per share. The demand for our MH communities continues to increase. Over the last five years, we have sold more than 2,200 new homes in our communities. We finished the year strong with a 30% increase in new home sales year over year. We see heightened demand for our locations and believe our home sales volume will reflect that demand. We have noticed rent increases for approximately 60% of our residents and anticipate a 4.2% rate growth in MH revenue. Our RV business in 2020 showed resiliency as it rebounded from pandemic-related closures. As we head into 2021, we continue to have the backdrop of COVID-related travel issues in Canada and the U.S. hampering our results for the first quarter. As we have discussed, our Canadian traffic has been significantly impacted by the border closures. Our guidance for 2021 reflects the strength in our business. Our guidance is built based on the operating climate of each property, including a robust market survey process and continuous communication with our residents. Since our last call, we have closed on over $200 million of transactions. We added approximately 2,100 RV sites to the portfolio and approximately 500 MH sites with over 700 sites of adjacent expansion and 500 marina slips. The acquisitions were geographically diverse and complementary to our existing footprint. Additionally, we closed on four parcels of entitled land with 300 acres. We anticipate being able to build 1,000 sites on these acquired acres. In total, in 2020, we purchased eight parcels of land adjacent to our existing property. We will continue to pursue and execute on these value-add transactions. Next, I would like to update you on our 2021 dividend policy. The Board has approved setting the annual dividend rate at $1.45 per share, a 6% increase. The Board will determine the amount of each quarterly dividend in advance of payment. The stability and growth of our cash flow, our solid balance sheet, and the strong underlying trends in our business are the primary drivers of the decision to increase the dividend. Historically, we have been able to take advantage of opportunities due to the free cash flow generated by our operations. Consistent with the past, in 2021, we expect to have in excess of $90 million of discretionary capital after meeting our obligations for dividend payments, recurring capital expenditures, and principal payments. We have increased our dividends significantly over the last few years. Over the past five years, we have increased our dividends 71%. 2020 was a difficult year. We have over 4,000 team members dedicated to ensuring success in our organization, and for that I am grateful. We asked a lot of our team members this year. With each new regulation or change in operating climate, we saw increased dedication to our continued success. Our team members strive to perform their best each day, and the results of their efforts have been impressive. I will now turn it over to Paul to walk through the numbers in detail.

Thanks, Marguerite, and good morning, everyone. I will review our fourth quarter and full year 2020 results and provide an overview of our full year 2021 guidance. Fourth quarter normalized FFO was 57 cents per share. Strong performance in our core portfolio generated 3.6% NOI growth for the fourth quarter. Core NOI growth of 2.9% for the full year contributed to our normalized FFO per share growth of 3.9%. As Marguerite mentioned, full year core community-based rental income growth was 4.6%. Rate increases contributed 4.1% growth, while occupancy generated the additional 50 basis points. Our 2020 core occupancy increase included a gain of 345 homeowners. our rental homes continue to represent less than 6% of our MH occupancy. Full-year core resort base rental income growth from annuals was 5.6%, with 4.9% from rate increases and 70 basis points from occupancy gains. Core RV seasonal and transient revenues declined 3.7% and 8% respectively for the year. Fourth quarter seasonal RV revenues were approximately $2 million less than last year, mainly due to the travel-related restrictions impacting Canadian and U.S. domestic customers' decisions to spend the winter season in our southern resorts. For the full year, net contribution from our membership business was $2.9 million higher than 2019, an increase of 5.3%. Dues revenues increased 4%, mainly as a result of increased rate. Strong demand for our upgrade products is evidenced by the full year increase in sales volume of 16%. Full year growth in utility and other income is mainly the result of increases in real estate tax pass-throughs and utility income. The pass-through income represents recovery of 2019 tax increases, mainly in Florida, and the utility income increase reflects recovery of increased expense resulting from higher usage in our properties. Full-year core property operating maintenance and real estate taxes increased 5% compared to 2019. This increase includes approximately $5.1 million in unplanned expenses associated with cleanup following Hurricanes Hannah and Isaias, as well as expenses incurred as a result of cleaning and safety protocols and frontline employee compensation following the onset of COVID-19. Our non-core properties, including those acquired during the fourth quarter, contributed $4.4 million in the quarter and $14.4 million for the full year. Property management and corporate G&A were $97.2 million for the full year. Other income and expenses net, which includes our sales operations, joint venture income, as well as interest and other corporate income, was $10.5 million for the year. Interest in amortization expenses were $102.8 million for the full year. This includes the partial year impact of our refinancing activity in the first and third quarters, as well as the line credit borrowings used to fund our recent acquisitions. The press release provides an overview of 2021 full year earnings guidance. As I provide some context for the information we've provided, keep in mind my remarks are intended to provide our current estimate of future results. All growth rates and revenue and expense projections represent midpoints in our guidance range and are qualified by the risk factors included in our press release and supplemental package. Our guidance for 2021 normalized FFO is $445 million, or $2.31 per share, at the midpoint of our guidance range of $2.26 to $2.36 per share. We project a core NOI growth rate between 3.3% and 4.3%, with 3.8% at the midpoint. Full year guidance includes 4.2% weight growth for MH and 4.5% for annual RV rents. We assume flat occupancy in our MH properties for 2021. Our guidance assumes first quarter seasonal and transient RV revenues perform in line with our current reservation pacing. We estimate the first quarter decline in revenue from these line items compared to same period last year to be almost $10 million. Almost 50% of that shortfall is caused by our Canadian customers deciding not to visit for the season. Our customer reservation trends indicate a strong interest in returning to our properties for the 2021-22 winter season. Current reservations for seasonal stays in the first quarter of 2022 are four times higher than last time of this year. As a reminder, in years prior to 2020, the first quarter represented approximately 50% of our seasonal RV revenues for the year. Within our transient RV business, we have two lines of revenue. One services the customers who drive their RV to our property, and the other services the cottage rental customers. For the first quarter, we have seen an increase of 10% in the reservations from customers driving their RV to our resorts and a decline in our cottage rental business of almost 40%. This represents approximately $1 million less cottage rental income than 2020. While we have less visibility into the transient business for the remainder of the year, we have seen an increased reservation pace for the spring and summer seasons. We expect first quarter normalized FFO per share to represent approximately 24 to 25% of the full year normalized FFO per share. Our guidance model includes the impact of our recent acquisitions, including the RV property we acquired last week. The model also includes the financing activity I'll discuss shortly. The full year guidance model makes no assumptions regarding other capital events or the use of free cash flow we expect to generate in 2021. I'll now provide some comments on the financing market and our balance sheet. As noted in the earnings release, you have locked rate on the $270 million secured 10-year loan at a rate of 2.4%. The lender currently holds the mortgage on two of the properties to be financed. Those existing mortgages mature in 2022 and carry a weighted average rate of 5.1%. We intend to use the loan proceeds to repay a portion of our 2022 maturities and amounts outstanding on our line of credit. Please note, as this loan has not yet closed, we can make no assurance that it will close pursuant to these terms or at all. Current secured debt terms are 10 years at coupons between 2.5% and 3.5%, 60% to 75% loan-to-value and 1.4 to 1.6 times debt service coverage. We continue to see strong interest from like companies, GSEs, and CMBS lenders to lend at historically low rates for terms 10 years and longer. High-quality, age-qualified MH assets continue to command best financing terms. We have no secured debt maturing in 2021. Our $400 million line of credit currently has approximately $297 million outstanding. Our ATM program has $200 million of available liquidity. Our weighted average secured debt maturity is approximately 13 years. Our debt to adjusted EBITDA is around 5.2 times, and our interest coverage is 5.1 times. We continue to place high importance on balance sheet flexibility, and we believe we have multiple sources of capital available to us. Now we would like to open it up for questions.