Global Net Lease, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Global Net Lease third quarter 2020 earnings call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Luisa Cuarro, Executive Vice President. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for GNL's Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Call. This call is being webcast in the Investor Relations section of G&L's website at www.globalnetlease.com. Joining me today on the call to discuss the quarter's results are Jim Nelson, G&L's Chief Executive Officer, and Chris Masterson, G&L's Chief Financial Officer. The following information contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We refer all of you to our SEC filings, including Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed on February 28, 2020, and all other filings with the SEC after that date for a more detailed discussion of the risk factors that could cause these differences. Any forward-looking statements provided during this conference call are only made as of the date of this call. As stated in our SEC filings, GNL disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements except as required by law. Also, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating the company's financial performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is available in the earnings release and supplements, which are posted to our website at www.globalnetlease.com. Please also refer to our earnings release for more information about what we consider to be implied investment-grade tenants, a term we will use throughout today's call. I'll now turn the call over to our CEO, Jim Nelson. Jim?

Thank you, Louisa, and thanks again to everyone for joining us on today's call. In the third quarter, our high-quality global portfolio was of industrial and office net lease properties continued to demonstrate its strength, remaining largely unaffected by the ongoing pandemic. For the quarter, we collected over 97% of the original cash rent that was payable, including 99% of the cash rent payable from our top 20 tenants, which represents almost half of our total annual cash rent. Our historic emphasis on credit quality underwriting, asset selection and due diligence have all helped shape a portfolio that continues to perform well. On a geographic basis, GNL collected 99% of the rents of the cash rent payable from our UK-based assets, 99% from our other European tenants and 96% from our US-based assets. To be clear, when we give rent collection statistics, we are comparing to the total rent payable and not reducing the expected rent in the denominator by any negotiated deferrals or making any other adjustments. As our portfolio continues to perform well, I am also excited about the progress we made on other fronts this quarter. We closed on $88 million of loans at an interest rate of 3.45%, collateralized by our Whirlpool Corporation assets located in the U.S. We also completed a three-property sale leaseback with Johnson Controls. an investment-grade diversified technology and multi-industrial leader that specializes in products, technologies, software, and services for buildings. Johnson Controls was ranked number 399 on Fortune's Global 500 list in 2019. The office and industrial properties are located in the United Kingdom and Spain and were acquired for $23.4 million at a 7.98 weighted average cap rate. At closing, Johnson Control signed new 12-year leases that include annual rent escalators of 1.5%. Our total year-to-date acquisitions now exceed $168 million and a weighted average going-in cap rate of 7.1%, a weighted average cap rate of 8.5%, and a weighted average remaining lease term of 18.5 years. Thanks to the direct relationships we have built with developers, landlords, and tenants, We have amassed a forward acquisitions pipeline of over 158 million. The pipeline consists of primarily industrial acquisitions that we expect to close before the end of the year, and a weighted average going in cap rate of 6.5%, a weighted average cap rate of 7%, and a weighted average remaining lease term of more than nine years. These potential acquisitions are emblematic of the future growth and focus of the GNL portfolio. Our closed and pipeline acquisitions currently total over $325 million for 2020 at a weighted average going in cap rate of 6.9%, a weighted average cap rate of 8.1%, and with a weighted average lease term of 15.8 years. 89% of these acquisitions by purchase price fall under industrial and distribution property categories. The work we have done to grow the portfolio and collect rent during the pandemic contributed to recording a quarter-over-quarter increase in total and per share AFFO. For the third quarter, AFFO per share was up 4.5% to $0.46 per share from $0.44 per share last quarter. The company distributed $35.8 million in common dividends to shareholders in the quarter, or $0.40 per share. Our $4,299,000,000 property portfolio is nearly fully occupied at 99.6% leased with a weighted average remaining lease term of 8.7 years, up from eight years a year ago, thanks to our recent acquisitions where we have acquired attractive, long-dated industrial and distribution assets. We have no 2020 lease expirations, and contractual rent growth is embedded in over 93% of our leases. 231 of our properties are in the US and Canada and 68 are in the UK and Western Europe representing 63 and 37% of annualized rent revenue respectively. Our portfolio is well diversified with 127 tenants in 47 industries with no single industry representing more than 10% of the whole portfolio based on straight line rent. Our property mix continues to evolve and it's currently 48% office, 47% industrial and distribution, and 5% retail, compared to 52% office, 43% industrial and distribution, and 5% retail a year ago. Contributing to our success is our focus on tenant credit, industrial acquisitions, and retail dispositions over the last several years. Across the portfolio, over 65% of straight-line rent comes from investment-grade or implied investment-grade tenants. Industrial and distribution assets have been an increasingly significant segment of our portfolio, growing to 47% of our current assets when measured by straight-line rent. Our industrial acquisitions have included the sale-leaseback transactions we completed with Whirlpool Corporation in the U.S. and Italy, as well as other industrial acquisitions totaling over $100 million year-to-date. These properties are leased to tenants such as CSDK, Metal Technologies, Klausner Industrial, and NSA. Other significant tenants in this segment include Finnair, Auchan, and Grupo Antolin. We are always seeking accretive acquisitions that meet our investment criteria. While our primary focus has been and will continue to be on industrial and distribution assets, we will continue to evaluate adding single-tenant, mission-critical office properties leased to investment-grade tenants similar to those that currently populate our portfolio. With that, I'll turn the call over to Chris to walk through the operating results in more detail before I follow up with some closing remarks. Chris?