EPR Properties

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q2 2021 EPR Properties Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star, then zero on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Brian Moriarty, VP of Corporate Communications.

Great. Thank you. Hi, everybody, and welcome. Thanks for joining us today for our second quarter 2021 earnings call and webcast. Participants on today's call are Greg Silvers, President and CEO, Greg Zimmerman, Executive Vice President and CIO, and Mark Peterson, Executive Vice President and CFO. I'll start the call by informing you that this call may include questions Forward-looking statements as defined by 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 the 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 GAAP 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 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 the company's president and CEO, Greg Silvers.

Thank you, Brian. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's second quarter 2021 earnings call and webcast. During the quarter, we continued to make significant strides as we announced that cash collection levels exceeded the high end of our guidance and that nearly all of our properties are open. Fueled by these strong fundamentals, we achieved a critical milestone as subsequent to quarter end, we announced the early termination of our covenant relief period. Importantly, this milestone is a turning point to allow us to return value to shareholders and pursue external growth. I'm also pleased to have announced the resumption of our monthly dividend to common shareholders, which we anticipate continuing to increase alongside earnings growth over time. I'm very thankful to our employees, partners, and shareholders who have supported our efforts in achieving this milestone and in navigating these unprecedented times. Throughout the U.S., we're seeing consumers driving the experiential recovery. Having been cloistered in their homes for months, consumers have an even greater appreciation for the experiences that our properties offer. As we've stated consistently, consumer demand has not been an issue. This has most recently been highlighted by the response of the movie-going public, as delayed releases have finally begun to come to theaters. Even with certain same-day in-home streaming alternatives, we continue to see new post-pandemic box office records. We've also seen strong performance across our non-theater portfolio, with several tenants outpacing 2019 levels. While we recognize that we're still in a fluid environment, we believe the experience economy has proven to be increasingly important to consumers, and we remain highly confident in our central thesis of investing in properties which support this economy. Additionally, we believe that high-performing properties will remain strong as lower-performing locations potentially close and customers are displaced. Upon achieving our goals of exiting the covenant relief and resuming our dividend, we are now focused on deploying our capital, increasing our earnings, and growing our dividend. Lastly, we are restarting our annual earnings guidance, which will provide greater clarity of our conviction for the year. Now, I'll turn the call over to Greg Zimmerman to discuss the business in greater detail.