Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to our second quarter 2021 conference call for Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. Earlier this morning, we issued our earnings release, which is available on the investor relations section of our website, along with the slide presentation intended to supplement our prepared remarks. Please visit ir.jll.com. During the call, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide useful information for investors. We include reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP in our earnings release and presentation. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast live and recorded. A transcript of this conference call will also be posted on our website. Any statements made about future results and performance, plans, expectations, and objectives are forward-looking statements. Actual results and performance may differ from those forward-looking statements as a result of factors discussed in the annual report on Form 10-K of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, and in other reports filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any undertaking to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Christian Ulbrich, our President and Chief Executive Officer, for opening remarks.

Thank you, Chris. Hello and welcome to all of you joining us for our second quarter on its call. Our exceptional performance this quarter amongst the broader market recovery demonstrates the strengths of our global platform, resilient business model, and continued operational and strategic execution of our long-term plan. Further, we continue to advance our sustainability agenda and development of our related market-leading product capabilities. Our most recent responsible real estate survey reaffirmed that reducing the environmental impact is a key priority across the industry for both real estate occupiers and investors. We take pride in our 2020 JLL Global Sustainability Report, which highlights our latest initiatives, including our commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2040 across all areas of operation, including client-side management globally, as well as our need to be fully equipped to help clients in their own journeys. We changed the name of our corporate solutions group to WorkDynamics to more clearly reflect that our technology-enabled and wide-ranging services help our clients enhance the productivity of their people as employees are increasingly empowered to make the decisions on how and where they work. Our suite of solutions also benefits the performance of their portfolios and help them realize their sustainability and broader ESG goals. I'd like to express my gratitude for our employees who continue to work diligently and provide outstanding service to our clients and community. The pace of activity increased sharply throughout the first half of the year, leaving many of our teams overextended. that Tyler's efforts and its ongoing challenges and uncertainties embody the strong culture of teamwork and collaboration at JLL. Let me briefly touch on the future of office, a subject being closely analyzed by our best-in-class research team. While the actual long-lasting effects of the pandemic remain unclear, there are a couple of key points I would like to highlight. The first is that the office will remain the center of the work ecosystem. We believe that the pandemic has reinforced the important role that the office can play in fostering and cultivating each company's unique culture and innovation. The second point is that employees are increasingly expecting, if not demanding, additional flexibility and the ability to choose where and how they work, leading to the durable presence of hybrid work. These demands have also been coupled with health, wellness, and safety becoming top of mind for employees. As a result, employers are now increasingly evaluating holistic approaches to address these demands, which often require considerable investment into existing and new office space. We imagine workspaces which serve to not only attract and retain employees, but also enhance their sense of safety and well-being are becoming a new currency in the war for talent. This leads me to conclude that the initial net impact on future space demand and footprints for investment-grade office buildings will be relatively minor. We believe that the combination of growth from job creation, de-densification, and the addition of collaboration space will broadly offset any anticipated reductions in workspace as companies continue to embrace hybrid work models. Furthermore, we believe that given the world-class capabilities of our project management business, We are well positioned to benefit from accelerated demand for these services as we assist our clients as they embark upon these transformations. The increasing complexity required to create these global integrated workplace transformation will in turn demand more technology across not only the operations of the building, but the entire ecosystem. We are encouraged that our significant investment in technology and our desire to provide client access to leading-edge technology results in a significant competitive advantage. The power of data leading to better decision-making will allow JLL to be in the center of this ecosystem. We continue to work diligently with our clients as a strategic advisor as they transition to the new post-pandemic normal and assist in the development of hybrid work models centered around employee satisfaction and productivity. Turning to the market environment, transactional activity saw sharp recoveries across the world. Del-El's research reports that the tentative signs of improvement in global office leasing activity witnessed in the first quarter have solidified and continued throughout the second quarter. Quarterly global leasing volumes were 44% higher than a year ago. However, they are still 36% below Q2 2019. Across all the three regions, quarterly leasing volumes are below where they were in 2019 with the U.S. the hardest hit at a 44% decline, while Japan and Asia-Pacific recorded declines of 32% and 21% respectively. While tenant-friendly conditions persist in most markets, we are seeing a noticeable stabilization in headline rates. The recovery across capital markets broadened in the second quarter, with global transaction volumes marking a 103% increase on the trust a year ago and a 2% increase from Q2 2019. Each region posted significant year-on-year gains in transaction volumes, with activity particularly robust in markets with sectorial diversity and opportunities of scale. Allocations to the real estate sector are strengthening as lender diversity and risk appetite trend towards pre-pandemic normalcy. Assuming no major setback in the global fight against COVID-19, the positive trends recorded in the second quarter are anticipated to carry on in the second half, fueling continued recovery across the commercial real estate industry and global macroeconomy. For that backdrop, I'm pleased to turn the attention toward our second quarter performance. Our exceptional results reflect the continued momentum across our business that we have witnessed since the depths of the pandemic. We delivered excellent second quarter top and bottom line performance, expanded operating margins, and continued to execute on our long-term strategies. Consolidated revenue rose 18% to $4.5 billion, and fee revenue increased 41% to $1.8 billion in local currency. Adjusted EBITDA of $332 million represented an increase of over 200% from the prior year, with adjusted EBITDA margin increasing to 18.5% from 8.3% in local currency. driven by the significant recovery of our transaction-based service lines, cost mitigation actions taken in 2020, realization of growth initiatives, and select discrete items. Adjusted net income totaled $220.1 million for the quarter, and adjusted diluted earnings per share totaled $4.20. Our transaction-based service lines recorded significant growth across all three regions. Leasing benefited from strong demand in the industrial and life sciences sector, while industrial and multifamily debt origination were key drivers for capital markets' outperformance. We recently passed the two-year anniversary of our acquisition of HFF and are pleased that the acquisition has delivered on both our strategic and financial ambitions despite the pandemic. One of the key secular trends driving growth in our industry is increasing capital flows to real estate. The addition of the HFF platform with its market-leading position in the U.S. allowed us to not only become a top two player in the U.S. capital markets business, but also cements the strengths of our global platform to forge greater ties for the world's largest investors. I also would like to provide an update on the financial synergies we projected when the HFF acquisition transaction was announced in 2019. A year ago, we achieved our first 12-month synergy target of $28 million, despite unforeseen pandemic headwinds. Having just passed the two-year anniversary of the acquisition, I'm pleased to say that we have achieved our target $60 million of synergies on a run rate basis, which we had originally predicted within a two to three-year timeframe. The strong recovery in our transaction-based service lines were complemented by solid growth in our property and facility management and advisory consulting and other businesses. The resilience of these service lines continues to benefit JLL throughout the course of this pandemic, and we are encouraged by the overall trend supporting their growth. Over the course of a quarter, we continue to invest to drive future growth, focusing on investments that strengthen and differentiate our market leadership, positioning JLL for long-term growth. For example, we announced the launch of sustainable operations. For now, the real estate industry's only end-to-end sustainability product offering developed to help companies configure, launch, and manage portfolio-wide sustainability programs. During the quarter, we invested approximately $84 million in JLL Technologies investments, bringing the year-to-date amount to $109 million. The continued investment through our JLL Technologies business furthers our strategic objectives to be an industry leader in technology innovation. We also have resumed share repurchases, returning approximately $100 million to shareholders through July. Looking ahead, given the strong momentum in the business, successful integration of HFS and increased visibility into a post-COVID future, we're increasing our 2021 adjusted EBITDA margin target to 16% to 19%, up from 14% to 16% previously. I will now turn the call over to Karen Brennan, who will provide further detail on the results for the quarter and our outlook for the rest of the year.

Thank you, Christian. Our strong results reflect continued disciplined execution, as well as the impact of our investments and strategic initiatives over the past several years. We are encouraged by the broad recovery in our industry and business, particularly capital markets and leasing. and the fact that fee revenue and profitability surpass 2019 levels in certain service lines by region. The recovery has exceeded our expectations to date, and we are optimistic about the second half of the year, though significant uncertainty remains around the evolution of the pandemic and global economy. Our balance sheet provides a strong footing to confidently execute our path forward and build upon our operating momentum. Prior to providing a detailed review of our operating performance, I remind everyone that variances are against the prior year period in local currency, unless otherwise noted. Our overall real estate services fee revenue increased 43% in the second quarter, with all regions generating double digit growth, due in part to lapping COVID impacted results from the prior year. Of note, capital markets fee revenue increased 110% inclusive of investment sales advisory up 105%, debt advisory up 157%, and loan servicing revenue up 26%, reflecting the market recovery as well as the strength and breadth of our global platform. Our leasing fee revenue grew 69% and was only down 3% from second quarter 2019. The real estate services adjusted EBITDA margin of 17.2% compares with 6.6% a year earlier. The benefits from our cost reduction actions taken in 2020 and the strong execution recovery within our transaction-based revenue streams were key drivers of our strong margin performance. Approximately $16 million of non-cash valuation increases to investments by JLL Technologies in early-stage prop tech companies and a $6 million multifamily loan loss reserve release contributed approximately 130 basis points to the real estate services adjusted EBITDA margin. It is important to note that second quarter margins clearly benefited from an expense base that is not yet fully normalized, particularly the variable components such as T&E, but also fixed compensation costs. In the near term, we intend to accelerate hiring for critical positions to execute on growth opportunities that we see ahead. Turning to the Americas, fee revenue grew year over year across all service lines, most markedly in capital markets and leasing. Within America's capital markets, fee revenue from U.S. investment advisory sales grew 146% and U.S. debt advisory increased 153%. The U.S. capital markets service line witnessed a pronounced rebound with optimism broadening from high growth areas such as industrial to other segments of the market, including retail, office, and hotels. Our multifamily debt origination and loan servicing businesses continue to demonstrate strong momentum, highlighted by 26% growth in our loan servicing fee revenue. Our America's capital markets pipeline has increased from the prior quarter. Now to America's Leasing. Our growth meaningfully outperformed the market, driven by continued gains in the industrial sector, as well as strength in retail, office, and life sciences. Transaction velocity has increased meaningfully, though average deal size has declined. Our full year 2021 America's Leasing growth pipeline is up 38% from 2020 and 7% from 2019. supporting our optimism for continued strong growth in the second half of 2021, though the evolution of the pandemic will continue to be the critical factor in the recovery rate. The America's office sector remains below pre-pandemic levels, though we are encouraged by a multitude of factors indicating an improving market environment. According to JLL research, there was a 5% increase from the first quarter in net effective rents in Class A offices across major U.S. cities, bringing the rents to approximately 15% below pre-pandemic levels. Also, average lease terms increased for the second consecutive quarter to 7.4 years from the fourth quarter 2020 trough of 6.7 years. though it remains below the full-year 2019 average of 8.6 years. Renewals as a percent of the transaction mix, however, remain about two times the historical average mix at about 56% in the second quarter. From a profitability standpoint for the quarter, the Americas adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 22.2% from 10.8%. driven primarily by strong growth in transactional businesses, as well as the benefit from cost mitigation actions taken in 2020 and an unsustainably low headcount and cost base. Non-cash evaluation increases within our JLL technologies investments and release of a portion of the multifamily loan loss reserve contributed approximately 180 basis points to the expansion. In EMEA, Fee revenues grew year over year across all service lines and much of the region, in part due to reducing pandemic headwinds. Fee revenue within each of the EMEA capital markets, leasing, and valuation advisory within the advisory consulting and other service line was ahead of 2019 levels as vaccinations and a return to the office trend has led to improved market sentiment. EMEA leasing growth was broad-based across sectors, but most pronounced in office and industrial. EMEA's second quarter profitability was the highest it has been in several years, driven by the higher fee revenue, particularly in the transactional businesses, as well as the cost savings, especially in fixed compensation, from actions taken over the past year. Asia Pacific fee revenue growth accelerated to 26% from 12% in the first quarter as activity picked up across most service lines, most notably in capital markets and leasing. However, performance was mixed across the region due to varying pandemic recoveries. Asia Pacific capital markets fee revenue exceeded the 2019 level, and its particularly strong year-over-year growth was driven largely by several large transactions in Australia. Asia Pacific leasing activity continues to pick up across most countries, but the pandemic resurgence is weighing on momentum across the region. Asia Pacific advisory and consulting fee revenue materially exceeded the second quarter 2019 level, with strong growth driven largely by our valuation advisory service. On a global basis, property and facility management service-lined fee revenue growth was steady, much like it has been throughout the pandemic. Growth of more annuity-like business is more than offsetting non-recurring revenues from quick response tasks like supporting pop-up medical sites we saw in 2020. Additionally, our UK mobile engineering business has benefited from some easing and lockdowns compared to the prior year quarter. Corporate occupiers and investors seek our services not only for higher building management standards, but also JLL's broad views regarding best practices in reopening the workplace. Our global work dynamics business fee revenue growth improved to 8%, driven by sustained good growth in the Americas and EMEA starting to recover from the pandemic impact. We are encouraged by the number of new client wins and contract expansions that are fueling the growth, which is further buoyed by the secular outsourcing trend. Corporations are increasingly seeking our extensive knowledge and the breadth of our services, including sustainability, delivered seamlessly under our one JLL philosophy. Turning to LaSalle, fee revenue increased 10%, driven largely by advisory fee growth within its core open-end funds. Incentive fees of $15 million were driven by strong performance in our public securities mandates. We now anticipate full year 2021 incentive fees of approximately $45 million, with approximately $10 million coming in the third quarter. LaSalle's assets under management grew approximately 6% from the prior quarter to $73 billion, driven by valuations and continued capital raising and investment. LaSalle's $23 million of equity earnings primarily reflect non-cash fair value increases across our co-investment portfolio, including our JREIT. Shifting now to an update on our balance sheet and capital allocation. Our balance sheet remains strong, with reported leverage of 0.6 times and liquidity of $2.9 billion, inclusive of cash on hand and undrawn credit facility capacity, providing us a solid foundation to execute on our strategic priorities. We are continuously evaluating growth opportunities, both organic and inorganic, and plan to continue to invest in both LaSalle co-investments and in our JLL Technologies initiatives, which comprise two buckets, One, investments in early-stage prop tech companies that are transforming the real estate industry, and two, investments in technology companies that accompany strategic partnerships to drive revenue growth, such as our investment in Rootstock earlier this year. Overall, we have not completed any significant M&A year-to-date, but are constantly reviewing potential opportunities, holding to our underwriting standards and return thresholds comfortably above our cost of capital. Importantly, we are committed to returning capital to shareholders while also investing in our business. Through the end of July, we've repurchased $100 million of stock year to date and have $500 million remaining on our authorization. The repurchases to date are roughly equivalent to full year 2020 and more than double the annual dividends distributed in the years preceding 2020. The level of capital returned to shareholders in any particular year will be dependent on a variety of factors, including debt levels, investment opportunities, and return expectations, amongst others. As we move through the balance of 2021 and next year, we will evaluate the use of capital in the context of the current and anticipated opportunities and the broader economic environment. We will continue to focus on maintaining flexibility to invest for growth, both organic and inorganic, while maintaining our investment-grade balance sheet and returning cash to shareholders. Looking ahead to the second half of 2021, the market environment is quite dynamic and we are mindful of tightening labor markets globally and an uneven recovery across markets and business lines. Our improving underlying business fundamentals, strengthening pipelines, global diversified platform, and added visibility on the macroeconomic recovery give us confidence that the momentum in the first half of the year is likely to continue. As Christian mentioned, we are now targeting to operate within an adjusted EBITDA margin range of 16 to 19% for the full year 2021. This is due to the strong momentum in the business and increased visibility into a post-COVID operating environment as well as the number of steps we've taken to strengthen our business and operate more efficiently over the past several years, including the successful integration of HSS and the cost reduction actions in 2020. We do expect our cost base to increase in the second half of this year as we continue to invest in our strategic priorities and growth initiatives across business lines, such as our technology capabilities and people, which will drive long-term value. While we maintain strong cost discipline, we continue to expect certain variable costs, such as T&E, to gradually return. I also reiterate the first half of 2021 included $89 million of equity earnings and $14 million of loan loss reserve releases. Considering these factors, our earnings mix between the first half and the second half of the year will be different versus prior years in that we will still expect the majority of our earnings to be generated in the second half of the year, but not to the same extent as in prior years. We will target to run the company in the near term within the adjusted EBITDA margin range of 16% to 19%. and we will be undertaking a holistic analysis of our long-term financial targets, and we'll have more to share with you next year on this topic. In closing, I would like to thank my JLL colleagues for their outstanding efforts and collaboration to deliver best-in-class service to our clients, which is clearly reflected in our financial results. Christian, back to you.