Global Medical REIT Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Global Medical Read First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Instructions will be given at that time. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Evelyn Inferna. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Global Medical Read first quarter conference call. On the call today, we have Jeff Bush, Chief Executive Officer, Bob Kiernan, Chief Financial Officer, and Alfonso Leon, Chief Investment Officer. Please note the use of forward-looking statements by the company on this conference call. Statements made on this call may include statements which are not historical facts, and are considered forward-looking, including statements relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our and our tenants' businesses. The company intends these forward-looking statements to be covered by safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is making this statement for the purpose of complying with those safe harbor provisions. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond the company's control, including without limitation those contained in the company's 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, and its other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, on this conference call, the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as funds from operations and adjusted funds from operations. you can find a tabular reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most currently comparable GAAP numbers in the company's earnings release and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional information may be found on the investor relations page of the company's website at www.globalmedicalreit.com. Please keep in mind that we are doing this call remotely given the circumstances. So bear with us if we have any technical difficulties. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Bush, Chief Executive Officer of Global Medical REIT.

Thank you, Evelyn, and welcome to our first quarter 2020 conference call. Joining me today are Bob Kernan, our Chief Financial Officer, and Alfonso Leone, our Chief Investment Officer. On behalf of our company, I would like to recognize our healthcare and essential workers for their dedication during this challenging time and to extend well wishes for the health and safety of all GMRE stakeholders. At the time of our fourth quarter call in early March, the frequency of headlines featuring the spread of the coronavirus were accelerating. Within only a few days after the call, we recognized that it was likely just a matter of time before the virus would be a disruptive factor in running our day-to-day operations and that we needed to implement our business continuity and contingency plan. As precautionary measure, we began to test work from home protocols to ensure that our systems were capable of handling remote workloads. As shelter-in-place and social distancing directives were implemented by local authorities, we were confident that the team could function seamlessly in safe remote locations to ensure business continuity. Additionally, we began to limit travel of our acquisition teams to keep them safe and to comply with non-essential travel recommendations. By mid-March, various states and the CMS recommended limiting medical services to emergency or urgent services in order to conserve healthcare resources such as PPE and to limit the spread of the virus. This development obviously affected our tenants' business as many of our tenants rely on elective procedures for a large part of their business. Since healthcare is critical infrastructure and our tenants primarily perform non-discretionary medical services, we expect them to quickly rebound with substantial pent-up demand. In early April, we shifted our focus from growing our business to assisting our tenants during this unprecedented time in healthcare industry. As a result of our efforts, we collected 96% of our April rents and 76% of our May rents as of yesterday. At the same time, we were working with tenants who are under financial distress, and we entered into a rent deferral agreement with certain tenants whom we believe need short-term relief to weather this pandemic. These agreements provide near-term rent relief with full repayment of deferred rents by the end of 2020 in most cases. Bob will provide more details on the rent deferrals. The situation around COVID-19 is still unfolding, and it is difficult to assess the ultimate potential impact on our operations. but we believe the work we completed to date will minimize the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on our portfolio and our company. Relative to our acquisition activity, I am very pleased with the $87 million of acquisitions we completed to date in 2020 and the additional $45 million that we have under contract. Looking ahead, given the uncertainties associated with the acquisition environment and the physical nature of many diligence tasks, we will be measured in our approach to acquisition growth. As always, we will prioritize the satisfactory completion of our due diligence process over the desire to grow the company's balance sheet. To reiterate, In these uncertain times, our focus remains on our employees, tenants, and minimizing the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on our business. We believe that GMRE is well positioned to withstand the challenges of the current environment and that we are well positioned to execute on our business plan as the country begins to reopening process. Prior to turning the call over to Bob, I'd like to provide a brief update on the company's internalization process. The special committee met with the board on March 3rd and recommended that the company pursue an internalization transaction with our advisor. The board agreed with the recommendation, and since then, the special committee has been negotiating terms with the advisor. If an agreement is reached, that will be approved by the board and potentially by their stockholders. At this time, we cannot provide an update on the timing or if a transaction will be completed. Unfortunately, given the nature of the situation, there is little more than we could share on this call. Bob will now discuss our results in more detail.