Safehold Inc

Good morning and welcome to Safehold's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. If you need assistance during today's call, please press star zero. If you'd like to ask a question, please press one zero. That's one zero to ask a question. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the conference over to Jason Fuchs, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Marketing. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Safehold's earnings call. On the call today, we have Jay Sugarman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Marcus Alvarado, President and Chief Investment Officer, and Brett Asness, Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we plan to walk through a presentation that details our second quarter results. The presentation can be found on our website at safeholdinc.com and by clicking on the Investors link. There will be a replay of this conference call beginning today at 2.30 p.m. Eastern Time, and the dial-in for the replay is 866-207-1041, with a confirmation code of 743-6202. Before I turn the call over to Jay, I'd like to remind everyone that statements in the centering call which are not historical facts may be forward-looking, or actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements, and the risk factors that could cause these differences are detailed in our SEC reports. Safehold disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as expressly required by law. Lastly, I want to highlight that yesterday, ISTAR filed an amended 13D disclosing that a special committee of the Board of Directors of ISTAR and a special committee of the Board of Directors of Safehold are in advanced discussions with respect to a potential strategic corporate transaction and that they are proceeding to negotiate definitive agreements. However, because no definitive agreements have yet been executed and there can be no assurance that definitive agreements will be executed, we won't be able to discuss the potential transaction on this call. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Chairman and CEO Jay Sugarman.

Jay? Thanks, Jason. Thanks to all of you for joining us today. The second quarter was a busy one for Safehold. Earnings and revenues continued to grow strongly, engagement with customers remained high, and conversations between I-Star and Safehold regarding the future progressed significantly. As Jason said, we won't be able to share details in those conversations until they are completed, but hope to be able to do so in the near future. For the quarter, year-over-year earnings were up over 30 percent, and new investment volumes remained strong at over $350 million. Pricing has moved up with interest rates, and inflation-adjusted yields still feel quite compelling to us. Transaction activity in commercial real estate has started to slow, so we'll need to watch how overall markets stabilize in the second half of the year. We also continue to explore ways to align our long-term contractual cash flows and long-term liability structures. And you'll hear from Brett about a recent stair-step coupon innovation that enabled us to access 30-year financing that more closely matches the growing cash flow streams of the company. As we approach $6 billion in ground leases and $10 billion in UCA, We remain focused on three things, expanding the use of modern ground leases by providing low-cost and attractive capital solutions for building owners and developers in top cities around the country, simplifying our corporate structure so more of the market can participate in our equity and debt offerings, and importantly, getting the full value of the company's portfolio reflected in the share price. Interest rates certainly play a part in that calculation, But so do inflation protection and CARAT's value. And when we use the back half of the year to continue highlighting the sizable value of CARAT inside Safehold's portfolio and the positive impact of inflation on our asset returns. The cost of capital we can provide to customers is tied to our success on these last two points. So, we'll be working hard to help the market see the full value of what Safehold has built and the value it can create as it continues to scale. And with that, let's turn it over to Brett and Marcos. Marcos?