Global Medical REIT Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Global Medical REIT Forrest Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Steve Sweat, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Global Medical Reads' fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. On the call today are Jeff Bush, Chief Executive Officer, Alfonso Leon, Chief Investment Officer, and Bob Kiernan, Chief Financial Officer. Please note the use of forward-looking statements by the company on this conference call. Statements made on this call may include statements that are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking. The company intends these forward-looking statements to be covered by the Safe Harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is making this statement for purposes 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, 2022, and its other SEC filings. The company assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, on this call, the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as funds from operations, adjusted funds from operations, EBITRE, and adjusted EBITRE. 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 filings with the SEC. Additional information may be found on the Investor Relations page of the company's website at www.globalmedicalreit.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Bush, Chief Executive Officer of Global Medical REIT. Jeff?

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. Our high-quality medical real estate portfolio continues to produce steady results. At the end of the fourth quarter, portfolio occupancy was 96.5% with a weighted average lease term of 5.8 years, and the portfolio average rent coverage ratio of 4.2 times. For the fourth quarter, reflecting impact of a loss on extinguishment of debt, We had a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $840,000 or one cent per share compared to net income attributable to common shareholders of $369,000 or one cent per share in the fourth quarter of 2022. FFO in the fourth quarter was 19 cents per share and unit, down 3 cents from the prior year quarter. And our AFFO was 23 cents per share and unit, down 1 cent from the prior year quarter. In 2023, we patiently managed through continual difficult market conditions for acquisitions. and look to opportunistically dispose of assets to reduce our leverage and variable rate debt. We are pleased with the results of our dispositions activity in 2023 as we completed three dispositions at a weighted average cap rate of 6.3% that generated $80.5 million of gross proceeds. We use the net proceeds from these dispositions to pay down our variable rate debt, resulting in a leverage ratio at the end of the year of 43.6% to position the company for growth as accretive acquisition opportunities arise. I am proud of our team for efficiently executing these dispositions during the year. Looking ahead, to 2024, I'm excited to see the market for our target acquisitions has improved meaningfully compared to 2023. Significantly, we have a near-term acquisition pipeline of between 95 million and 110 million of medical properties that meet our investment criteria. As we look ahead, we continued our accretive growth strategy while maintaining or lowering our portfolio leverage. We believe the strategy of lower leverage growth is prudent in the current environment of sustained higher interest rates and will lead to long-term growth for our stockholders. Overall, I am pleased with the results of 2023 and want to thank the entire team for their hard work and contributions to our results. With that, I turn the call over to Alfonso to discuss our transaction activity and the current acquisition market conditions in more detail.