Rayonier Inc. REIT

first quarter 2024 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. During the question and answer session, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now I will turn the meeting over to Mr. Colin Ming, Vice President, Capital Markets and Strategic Planning.

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Rainier's Investor Teleconference, covering first quarter earnings. Our earnings statements and financial supplement were released yesterday afternoon and are available on our website at rainier.com. I would like to remind you that in these presentations, we include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of federal securities laws. Our earnings release and forms 10-K and 10-Q, followed by the SEC, list some of the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we may make. They're also referenced on page two of our financial supplement. Throughout these presentations, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures which are defined and reconciled to the nearest gap measures in our earnings release and supplemental materials. With that, let's start our teleconference with opening comments from Mark McHugh, our President and CEO. Mark?

Thanks, Colin. Good morning, everyone. First, I'll make some high-level comments before turning it over to April Tice, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, to review our consolidated financial results. Then we'll ask Doug Long, Executive Vice President and Chief Resource Officer, to comment on our U.S. and New Zealand timber results. And following the review of our timber segments, April will discuss our real estate results and our outlook for the balance of the year. As this is my first earnings call since officially stepping into the CEO role, I want to reiterate how honored I feel that our board has entrusted me to lead Rainier at this exciting time for our company. I'm fortunate to be partnering with an experienced and dedicated team of senior leaders, all of whom are incredibly energized by the refreshed vision that we've laid out for Rainier and eager to execute on our future growth opportunities. On that note, I'd like to also formally welcome April to her earnings call this quarter in her new role as CFO. April has held multiple positions of increasing responsibility within the finance and accounting department since she joined Rainier in 2010, most recently serving as our chief accounting officer for the last three years before she assumed the CFO role last month. April has been instrumental in building out our finance and accounting department, as well as implementing a transparent financial reporting framework for the company. I'm confident that her transition into the CFO role will continue to be seamless. Now I'll switch gears and discuss our first quarter results, which were modestly improved relative to the prior year quarter and in line with our expectations at the start of the year. Specifically, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $56 million and pro forma net income of $7 million, or 5 cents per share. The 3% increase in adjusted EBITDA versus the prior year period was driven by stronger results from our southern timber and New Zealand timber segments partially offset by lower results in our Pacific Northwest timber and real estate segments. Drilling down further on our operating segment results, our southern timber segment generated first quarter of 45 million dollars, up two million dollars from the prior year period, as a six percent increase in harvest volumes, more than offset a four percent decline in net stumpage realizations. In our Pacific Northwest timber segment, first quarter of five million dollars was down two million dollars from the prior year quarter, driven by a 17 percent reduction in harvest volumes due to the Oregon sale completed late last year, as well as an 11 percent decline in weighted average log prices. Turning to our New Zealand timber segment, first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $11 million increased $5 million versus the prior year quarter. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was driven by higher carbon credit sales and favorable foreign exchange impacts, partially offset by a 4 percent decrease in export saw timber prices. In our real estate segment, we generated first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $5 million, down $2 million from the prior year period. Consistent with our prior guidance, real estate closings were relatively light to start the year. However, our full-year real estate pipeline remains strong, and we expect a significant increase in closing activity during the second quarter. As April will discuss in greater detail later in the call, we are on track to deliver on our full-year 2024 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $290 to $325 million. As we indicated at the beginning of the year, our full year 2024 financial guidance excludes the potential impact of any additional asset sales as part of our $1 billion disposition target that we announced in November. As it relates to the disposition target, we are continuing to make progress and are actively evaluating several large-scale transactions. Specifically, we are currently marketing approximately 115,000 acres in Washington State and we have further identified approximately 100,000 acres in the U.S. South that may be suitable for disposition. In addition to these opportunities in the U.S., we are evaluating strategic alternatives for our New Zealand joint venture interest and have engaged a financial advisor to assist us with this process. We look forward to sharing additional progress on our disposition program in the coming quarters as we continue to advance our efforts to reduce leverage in a higher interest rate environment and capitalize on the continued disconnect between public and private values for Timberland assets. With that, let me turn it over to April for more details on our first quarter financial results.