EPR Properties

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the EPR first quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants' lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session, and to ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded, and if you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to our speaker today, Brian Moriarty, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Thank you, and please go ahead, sir.

Okay, thanks for joining us today for our first quarter 2020 earnings call. I'll start the call today by informing you that this call may include forward-looking statements as identified in the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995, identified by such words as will be, intend, continue, believe, may expect, hope, anticipate, or other comparable terms. The company's actual financial condition and the results of operations may vary materially, from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Discussion of these factors that could cause results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are contained in the company's SEC filings, including the company's reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q. Additionally, this call will contain references to certain non-GAAP measures, which we believe are useful in evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable Gap measures are included in today's earnings release and supplemental information furnished to the SEC under Form 8-K. If you wish to follow along with today's earnings release, supplemental and earnings call presentation are all available on the Investor Center page of the company's website, www.eprkc.com. Now I'll turn the call over to company president and CEO, Greg Silvers.

Thank you, Brian. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on today's first quarter earnings call. Before we begin, on behalf of myself, the EPR Board of Directors, and our entire team, I want to express our wishes for everyone's health and safety. Clearly, we have entered unprecedented times, and our focus on experiential assets places us at the tip of the sphere. As the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, we recognized the need to proactively communicate and have provided several updates on the condition and status of the company. Through these updates, we have highlighted actions we've taken to ensure strong liquidity and provided context around our long-term viability, illustrated by a liquidity analysis. Beyond sharing our first quarter results, today we will discuss additional steps we are taking to fortify our balance sheet, including suspending our monthly cash dividend to common shareholders after the dividend payable May 15th, and the suspension of our share repurchase program following the execution of our proposed covenant waiver. Substantially, all of our properties are currently closed due to state and local government action. As a result, we reported that our tenants and borrowers paid approximately 15% of contractual base rent and mortgage payments in April, and we do not expect any significant changes until after operations resumed. Additionally, we reported that the company has agreed to defer rent and mortgage payments on a month-to-month basis for substantially all of the customers that did not pay rent for April. And today, we will provide further detail regarding future deferrals. We are proactively working with our customers to evaluate their deferral requests and to structure appropriate repayment plans as we gain more clarity into when they can reopen for business. In most cases, we believe deferral is appropriate. No one anticipated revenues going to zero in a matter of three short weeks and continuing for months, depending upon the business and the restrictions imposed by state and local authorities. We currently expect that most of these deferrals are recoverable. Our announcement regarding the temporary suspension of our monthly cash dividend to common shareholders and the planned suspension of our share repurchase program was made after careful consideration and a clear understanding of our cash collections relative to our monthly dividend. While we believe we have ample liquidity due to the actions we have taken, we are being prudent in our approach due to the uncertainty of the ultimate length and impact of the pandemic. It simply does not make sense to borrow from tomorrow given the uncertainty of this recovery. It is important to remember that these events, however, are transitory. We will be a strong company when we get to the other side, and we remain committed to reasonable leverage levels and a strong balance sheet. Our tenants enjoyed broad consumer success for decades before this tragedy, and they will return. The question is one of pace. How quickly will our tenants be able to regain momentum? Our current expectations are for our properties to begin reopening beginning in May. However, absent a therapeutic option or a vaccine, we believe social distancing will remain the norm and capacities will be limited. Against this backdrop of challenges, I want to reiterate our strong belief in the long-term macro trend of experiential properties. People will come back to our properties. With so many of us sheltering at home, we can anticipate incredible demand for us to once again come together with friends and colleagues to share an experience. And we own the properties where we will share those experiences. Now let me turn over to Greg, who will provide more detail on the portfolio.