EPR Properties

Welcome to the Q1 2022 EPR Properties Earnings Call. My name is Richard, and I'll be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. During the question-and-answer session, if you have a question, please press 01 on your touchtone phone. As a reminder, the conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Brian Mortiarty, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Mr. Moriarty, you may begin.

Okay. Thank you, Richard. Thanks for joining us today for our first quarter 2022 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 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 operations may vary materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Discussion of these factors that could cause the 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 reference 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 first quarter 2022 earnings call and webcast. With our first quarter results, we delivered consistent progress as our portfolio continued to recover. Rent collections have normalized, and we realized strong collections under our rent deferral agreements, broadly supported by healthy tenant performance. These collections add to our strong liquidity position. We were also pleased that Fitch recognized our stabilization and disciplined leverage by upgrading both the company and our unsecured debt in March. In reviewing our experiential portfolio, we are excited about the sustained demand we are seeing, highlighted by our eat and play, experiential lodging, and ski properties. This may be best illustrated by our newest Topgolf locations, which have opened at some of the top performing locations across the Topgolf network, and our other properties, other than theaters, performing at or above 2019 volumes. Fundamentally, these results continue to reinforce the long-term durability for out-of-home leisure, recreation, and social experiences while supporting our focus on experiential real estate. Turning to our theater portfolio, as box office continues to regain momentum and studios are reassured of the economic benefit of theatrical exhibition, we believe the debate around the impact of streaming will continue to moderate. it is becoming increasingly clear that theater exhibition has regained its distinction as the platform which maximizes revenues for studios. With the recent Netflix news, the streaming environment appears to be entering a period of rationalization. A recent study from Deloitte highlighted the intense competitive challenge faced by streaming services and noted that social media has become a direct competitor for at-home viewing time. We continue to believe that in the end, theater exhibition and at-home streaming services should and will successfully coexist as they have for many years. We are also excited to be executing on our investment pipeline on transactions with solid economics. In 2022, we are uniquely well-positioned to execute on a defined set of opportunities armed with a strong balance sheet. We are confident in the acceleration of our investment spending based upon the substantial progress we have made on a number of transactions that we expect to close in the second half of the year. We are reaffirming our investment guidance, noting that this year's deployment will have most of its impact on next year's earnings. Lastly, as we consider the strength of our portfolio performance, results to date, and expectations for the remainder of the year, We are pleased to be raising our earnings guidance for the year. Now, I'll turn the call over to Greg Zimmerman, who will discuss the business in more detail.