Ventas, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kathleen and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Vintes first quarter 2024 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Thank you. I would like to turn the call over to BJ Grant, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Kathleen. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Ventos First Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. Yesterday, we issued our first quarter earnings release, supplemental investor package, and presentation materials, which are available on the Ventos website at ir.ventosreit.com. As a reminder, remarks today may include forward-looking statements and other matters. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and a variety of topics may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such statements. For a more detailed discussion of those factors, please refer to our earnings release for this quarter and to our most recent SEC filings, all of which are available on the Ventas website. Certain non-GAAP financial measures will also be discussed on this call, and for a reconciliation of these measures to the most closely comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our supplemental investor package posted on the investor relations website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to the chairman and CEO of Ventas, Deborah A. Cafaro.

Thank you, BJ. On behalf of all of my colleagues, I want to welcome our shareholders and other participants to the Ventas first quarter 2024 earnings call. Today, I'll discuss our good start to the year, describe the actions we are taking to execute on our strategy and create value for our stakeholders, and share our improved outlook for 2024 as the multi-year growth opportunity in senior housing builds. As a reminder, our three-pronged Ventas strategy is composed of first, deliver organic growth in our senior housing portfolio, second, capture value through investments focused on senior housing, and third, drive cash flow throughout our portfolio. We entered this year with momentum. And in Q1, our enterprise delivered 78 cents of normalized FFO per share and over $2 billion in annualized NOI. Our strong results came from nearly 7% same-store property NOI growth led by shop at over 15%. Notably, demand-driven occupancy gains in our shop portfolio are accelerating, fueled by favorable supply-demand fundamentals in our markets and the actions we've taken in concert with our care providers. Move-ins across the portfolio were elevated as we gained 240 basis points of occupancy in our same store shop portfolio year over year. As the second largest owner of senior housing, we are benefiting from the multi-year senior housing growth opportunity that continues to gain traction from both demand-led occupancy and report growth. Accelerating demand for our senior housing community underscores the valuable benefits they provide to residents and their families. The over 80 population is expected to grow by 5 million individuals through 2030, yet new construction starts in senior housing are the lowest in over a decade, as is the percentage of inventory under construction. In our shop portfolio, 99% of Ventas' communities are free from competing construction starts. All of these trends combine to support a highly favorable long-term runway for growth in the biggest part of Ventas' business, senior housing. We also want to expand our footprint in senior housing by capturing value-creating investments in the space. On this second prong of our strategy, we are making good progress. Year-to-date, we have closed or placed under contract about $350 million of investments that meet our targets of going in yield, expected unlevered IRRs, occupancy growth potential, affordability, and pricing below replacement costs. Over my career, it has been rare to see such a compelling investment environment where we can acquire attractive assets in favorable markets at high going in yields and high growth. Due to market conditions, our efforts, and our team's relationship, our pipeline of investment opportunities continues to grow, and we expect to make further progress on our investment plan in the balance of the year. Across Ventas, we are also focused on the third element of our strategy, driving cash flow throughout our portfolio. In addition to SHOP, which is now generating over $800 million in annualized NOI, there are two other areas I'd like to cover. Kindred and our outpatient medical and research business. First, respecting the Kindred lease for 23 LTACs representing approximately 5% of our NOI. The trailing rent coverage remains stable and Kindred has projected improving revenue and expense performance trends for 2024. We continue to have active discussions with Kindred and other parties to optimize Ventus enterprise value and NOI from our properties following the April 2025 lease maturity. We and Kindred recently agreed to a one-month extension for the lease renewal notice date to the end of May. We know you are keenly interested in hearing the outcome of our discussions, and we look forward to providing you with more information as soon as we can. Our competitively advantaged outpatient medical and research business continues to shine and benefit from strong institutional demand. And it's delivering complimentary compounding contributions to our enterprise. As a leader in senior housing, whose portfolio is aligned around serving a large and growing aging population, Ventas is advantaged across commercial real estate because demand for our assets is strong and getting stronger. The Ventas team is focused on the opportunity for value creation right in front of us. On that point, we are pleased to improve our outlook for the full year. We are raising Ventas' 2024 normalized FFO guidance to between $3.10 and $3.18 per share and increasing our full year 2024 total company same-store cash NOI guidance to 7% at the midpoint. And with that, I'm happy to turn the call over to Justin.