EPR Properties

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2023 EPR Properties Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your questions, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Brian Moriarty, Vice President of Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Okay, great. Thanks for joining us today for our second quarter 2023 earnings call and webcast. Participants on today's call are Greg Silvers, Chairman of TEO, 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, intends, 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. The discussion of these factors that could cause results to differ materially from those 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 continue 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 8K. 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 Greg Silvers.

Thank you, Brian. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's second quarter 2023 earnings call and webcast. During the quarter, our top line revenue grew approximately 8%, and our FFO as adjusted per share grew approximately 9% versus the same quarter prior year. These results were driven by both a continued strong recovery in our experiential properties and consistent deferral collections. As we announced on June 28, finalizing the Regal Restructuring Agreement was a significant step in strengthening our theater portfolio and enhancing our overall company profile. The agreement provides us with a significantly stronger tenant, a long-term master lease, and a percentage rent component, allowing us to participate in a recovering box office. This resolution, we also have more visibility into our earnings outlook, and we're pleased to provide earnings guidance for 2023. Also, as recently announced, Southern Theaters was acquired by Santicos Theaters. Southern was our fourth largest theater tenant, and as part of the acquisition, we were paid the remaining deferred rent. This transaction demonstrates renewed confidence in theatrical exhibition and strengthens our theater tenant base. Over the last few weeks, we've witnessed the power of theater exhibition and the validation of studios, Apple and Amazon, to commit to theatrical exhibition as the primary distribution platform for movie content. The combination of Barbie and Oppenheimer has become a societal event, which has transcended consumer demographics. Separately, the low budget sound of frequent blew away box office expectations generating over $150 million year to date. This type of outperformance is hard to predict for any single film, yet over time it has proven to be a consistent occurrence for select films. Through July 31st, Box Office is up 20% versus 2022 and is currently tracking towards $9 billion for 2023. The writer and actor strikes present a fluid dynamic and may impact Box Office depending on the length of time to resolution. In a bit of a positive sign, it has been reported that the Writers Guild and the studios have agreed to meet this Friday, which they have not done for three months. Regardless of this near-term dynamic, any impact is anticipated to be short-term as the participants understand that a robust theatrical business is a necessary part of the landscape, providing the primary path to economic viability for movies. Shifting to capital spending, we've completed approximately $100 million of investments to date and are selectively growing our experiential portfolio while being prudent in our capital allocation. Additionally, we've committed to approximately $224 million of additional experiential development and redevelopment projects over the next two years for which we already have the necessary capital. Now I'll turn it over to Greg Zimmerman for more details on the quarterly.