Global Net Lease, Inc.

And welcome to the Global Net Lease third quarter 2023 earning conference call. All participants will be in 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 a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question if needed, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jordan Schoenfeld, associate at GlobalNet Lease. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for GNL's third quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining me today on the call are Mike Weil and Jim Nelson, GNL's co-chief executive officers, and Chris Masterson, GNL's chief financial officer. The following information contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risk 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 the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed on February 23, 2023, 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, G&L disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements except as required by law. Any statements referring to the future value of an investment in G&L, including any adjustments giving effect to the recently completed merger with the necessity retail reincorporated defined as RTL and the subsequent internalization of both G&L and RTL's advisory and property management functions as well as any projections about any potential success following the merger and internalization are also forward-looking statements. There are a number of risks associated with the merger and internalization including, but not limited to, our ability to integrate the operations of RTL and the other entities acquired in the merger and internalization. We may not realize the anticipated synergies and other benefits of the merger or the internalization or do so within our anticipated timeframe. 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 our earnings release and supplement, which are posted to our website. 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 co-CEO, Mike Weil. Mike?

Thanks, Jordan, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our first earnings call following the merger with the necessity retail REIT and corresponding internalization transaction. We recognize how vital our shareholders are to our continued success and we appreciate the great conviction our investors demonstrated in support of the merger and internalization. The success of the merger and internalization has created the third largest publicly traded net lease REIT with a global presence based on gross asset value as well as corporate governance in line with our internalized peers. The foundation of our global presence is a diversified portfolio of high-quality tenants, which gives us the flexibility to focus on attractive opportunities in multiple markets that will contribute to long-term shareholder value. Our recently completed merger and internalization creates the path for GNL to trade up to our net lease peer multiples. We believe we are clearly undervalued on an AFFO multiple basis compared to the other internalized REITs even though the quality of our rental income and investment-grade worthy tenants are substantially higher than the average in our industry. We closed the merger and the internalization transaction on September 12th. Accordingly, the third quarter financial results reflect 73 days of standalone pre-merger GNL and only 19 days of post-merger internalized GNL and RTL results. The company is currently on track to achieve the $75 million of annualized cost savings we anticipated in conjunction with the merger and internalization. To this point, based on 19 days of lower than expected G&A expenses, G&L has exceeded the projected synergies by $2 million, capturing $56 million of annualized synergies, and we remain on track to capture the $75 million worth of total synergies with a projected 6% G&A operating expense by Q3 2024. In addition, GNL reduced its quarterly dividend per share from 40 cents pre-merger to 35.4 cents as part of the merger, reducing the amount of cash needed to fund the dividends by approximately $42 million on an annualized per share basis as of September 30, 2023. Together, without the assumption of any incremental acquisitions or external growth, GNL expects to reduce its payout ratio and continue to execute on its current business plan, including leasing, renewals, and strategic disposition initiatives. Our leading portfolio of over 1,300 properties spans nearly 67 million square feet, and we had a gross asset value of $9.2 billion at quarter end. The diverse makeup of our net lease portfolio is unmatched whether measured by geography, asset type, tenant, or industry. which positions GNL well to navigate external macro challenges as we move ahead. The portfolio is over 96% leased, with a weighted average remaining lease term of 6.9 years. Geographically, 81% of our straight-line rent is earned in North America, while 19% comes from Europe. Additionally, the portfolio includes contractual rent increases with an average annual rental increase of 1.3%. The portfolio also features a stable tenant base with an industry leading 58% receiving an investment grade or implied investment grade credit rating. I also want to highlight the strong asset management capabilities we demonstrated while continuing to succeed with leasing and renewal activity. In particular, our third quarter leasing and renewal activity included 1.8 million square feet across the entire portfolio. Leasing spreads on renewals were 5% higher than the expiring rent. Our largest segment is industrial and distribution with 218 properties that span over 33.6 million square feet and contributed $229 million to annualized straight line rent. 93% of the leases in this portfolio include favorable rent escalations with an average annual rental increase of 1.6%. positioning the portfolio to benefit from annual rental income while having eight-year weighted average lease term. Our single-tenant retail segment is the largest by property count with 886 properties that span over 7.9 million square feet and contributed $153 million to annualized straight-line rent. The single-tenant retail segment comprises 69% investment-grade or implied investment-grade rated tenants, and features an 8.4-year weighted average lease term. The multi-tenant suburban retail segment includes 109 properties that span over 16.4 million square feet and contribute $199 million in annualized straight-line rent. The portfolio has a weighted average remaining lease term of 5.1 years and includes 21% of grocery anchored centers, which are 91.3% leased. This segment is predominantly comprised of triple net leases with incremental lease-up potential and attractive leasing spreads, with 61% of the straight-line rent in this portfolio coming from the Sunbelt markets, which continue to grow and have favorable demographic tailwinds. Our smallest segment, single-tenant office, includes 91 properties that span 8.9 million square feet, contributed $146 million to annualized straight-line rent, and has a 5.1-year weighted average lease term. One of the metrics that differentiates the single tenant office portfolio is that it consists of 71% mission-critical facilities, which we define as headquarters, lab, or R&D facilities, and features 70% investment-grade or implied investment-grade tenants, which we believe provides rent stability and low level of default risk. Given GNL's successful track record of lease renewals, The single tenant office segment also includes limited near-term lease maturities, minimizing the risk of vacancy. An additional hallmark of our total portfolio strategy is the mitigation of concentration risk. Our top 10 tenants collectively account for only 21% of annual straight line rent, with our largest tenant accounting for only 3.1% of our total portfolio. This high quality tenant roster provides a highly predictable base of rental income on which to build our future as our tenants provide stability and durability to our business. Our leasing results continue to illustrate the quality of our assets, driving leasing rates higher even in the current environment. The single-tenant segment completed eight new leases and renewals and showcased a positive 7% renewal leasing spread, demonstrating the strong renewal demand for our mission-critical assets while adding $5 million to net straight-line rent The multi-tenant segment completed 92 new leases and renewals, resulting in a positive 4.1% renewal spread, consistent with the high demand we're experiencing at our suburban shopping centers, which increased net straight-line rent by $11.8 million. Our executed leases at the end of the third quarter 2023, combined with our leasing pipeline as of November 1, 2023, will raise occupancy in our multi-tenant portfolio to 92.9%, up from 89.5% of actual occupancy at the end of June 30, 2023 at RTL. Turning to the balance sheet, although only 18% of our debt is variable, the volatile interest rate environment we're currently experiencing does temporarily impact the portion of our debt that is not fixed or swapped. Prior to the 100 basis point increase in the 10-year Treasury rate since September, we secured a $500 million increase to our credit facility through our accordion, bringing the facility to $1.95 billion. Additionally, prior to the completion of the merger, RTL completed a $260 million commercial mortgage-backed security loan encumbered by 29 multi-tenant properties that we assumed as part of the merger. The loan has a 10-year term and is interest-only at an attractive rate of 6.45%. We're pleased to be able to achieve this by utilizing a SOFR swap lock of 3.54% that RTL put in place prior to closing the loan before the merger. This CMBS loan contributes to our increased weighted average debt maturity while lowering our cost of capital and further increasing the percentage of fixed rate to over 82%. These transactions have further enhanced our balance sheet flexibility. We'll continue to focus on opportunities that will help us achieve our financial goals, which include reducing net debt to adjusted EBITDA and organically increasing NOI through lease up and contractual embedded rent growth. This will also be accomplished in the near term through strategic dispositions and the continued success of our asset management platforms, leasing and renewal activity. The strategic dispositions will be intended to de-lever our balance sheets as we intend to use the proceeds to pay down additional variable rate debt that currently has a blended average rate of 7.2%. GNL will continue to evaluate the market for accretive acquisitions, but we believe current risk-adjusted returns need to improve for the company to be more active. We'll continue reviewing and monitoring our portfolio for strategic dispositions that can create incremental proceeds to help us accomplish our near-term financial goals. Our global portfolio will continue to deliver value, allowing us to take advantage of opportunities in the US or Europe and transact on assets that are mispriced or that require expertise in more than one asset class. We believe our global and increased diversification will prove to be a competitive advantage as we move ahead And our successful lease renewals speak to the mission-critical nature of the properties that we own, where the weighted average remaining lease term is seven years. Now that G&L is an internally managed REIT, we expect to trade more in line with our internalized net lease peers on an AFFO multiple basis, given the diversification, quality of income, and superior investment-grade-worthy tenants in our portfolio. I'll turn the call over to Chris to walk through the financial results in more detail. Chris?