Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated

Ladies and gentlemen, hello and welcome to the Q3 2022 JLL Earnings Conference Call. My name is Maxine and I'll be coordinating today's call. If you would like to ask a question during the call, you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand over to your host, Scott Einberger, Investor Relations Officer at JLL to begin. Scott, please go ahead when you're ready.

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to the third quarter 2022 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 and in our slide presentation, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide useful information for investors. We will include reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP in our earnings release and slide 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 for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2021, and in other reports filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any undertaking to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. On November 16th, JLL will host an investor briefing in New York City. For additional information and to register for the event, please contact JLLInvestorRelations at JLL.com. I will now turn the call over to Christian Ulbrich, our President and Chief Executive Officer, for opening remarks.

Christian Ulbrich Thank you, Scott. Hello, and thank you all for joining our third quarter earnings call. Over the last couple of months, we have experienced a significant change in the economic environment and the overall outlook for the global economy in the coming quarters is not favorable. For real estate markets around the globe, fast rising interest rates and significantly widened spreads have created a notable imbalance between our overall financing costs and yields. Lenders are cautious and underwriting assumptions are becoming more restricted. According to JLL research, global commercial real estate investments totaled $234 billion, a year-over-year decline of 18%. Bid-ask spreads continue to widen, and the desire for greater price discovery is elongating the time to close deals. In addition, currency fluctuations are limiting cross-border capital flows. Leasing markets are typically slower to react to an economic decline, and this is highlighted by the leasing market's outperformance when compared to capital markets in the third quarter. In the global office leasing market, volume was up 10% year-over-year, according to JLL research. The flight to quality continued with rental growth increasing in prime office assets for the fifth consecutive quarter. On a year-over-year basis, office vacancy rates ticked up slightly in the third quarter to 14.5% globally. Corporate clients across many industries are also experiencing the impact of the changed economic environment and are focused on lowering their cost base. While some clients are delaying investments into their real estate footprint, most clients are also running strategic reviews and efficiency programs around their built environment, creating additional demand for our advisory and consulting services. CLL's financial results for the third quarter reflect the points I just discussed. Our capital markets business saw a sharp drop in profitability as volumes declined during the last months of the quarter. Our leasing business held up well, especially when you factor in the comparison to a record quarter last year. Contrasting the decline in capital markets, WorkDynamics was able to deliver a record quarter, showing the resiliency that makes this business so attractive, and we saw an equally strong performance in our JLLT business. Finally, Basal increased their assets under management and grew advisory fee revenue during the quarter, highlighting strengths in their underlying business. I will now turn the call over to Karen who will provide the detail on our results for the quarter.