Ventas, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Gail and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Ventus fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings results conference 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, kindly press star one again. Thank you very much. I will now turn the call over to BJ Grant, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Gail. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Ventos fourth quarter and full year 2024 results conference call. Yesterday, we issued our full year and fourth quarter 2024 earnings release. presentation materials, and supplemental information package, which are available on the Ventas website at ir.ventasreit.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 reconciliation of these measures to the most closely comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our supplemental information package posted on the Investor Relations website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Deborah A. Cafaro, Chairman and CEO of Ventas.

Thank you, BJ. I want to welcome all of our shareholders and other participants to the Ventas fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings call. Ventas really delivered in 2024. Today, I'm happy to discuss our strong results, investment activity, and growth powered by our increasing participation in the unprecedented multi-year growth opportunity in senior housing. With our momentum, I'm also pleased to introduce our favorable expectations for 2025. Building on our strong results and positive outlook, we've also increased our quarterly dividend to stockholders by 7%. We continue to focus on creating value for our stakeholders from our advantage position within the longevity economy as we enable exceptional environments that benefit a large and growing aging population. The company effectively executed on its 1-2-3 strategy in 2024, and I'd like to thank my colleagues for their commitment and excellence. During the year, we took advantage of the unprecedented multi-year growth opportunity in senior housing. We delivered significant senior housing NOI growth from our portfolio, made value-creating investments focused on senior housing, and drove cash flow throughout our portfolio. Let's discuss 2024 results Dent House delivered full-year normalized FFO per share of $3.19, above the high end of our guidance range. Shop Same Store Cash NOI grew nearly 16%, the third year in a row of double-digit growth. As Justin forecast at the beginning of the year, 2024 was a year of occupancy outperformance, with year-over-year occupancy increasing 300 basis points in our Same Store communities. compelling secular demand, de minimis supply, well-positioned communities in favorable markets, and Ventas' Advantage platform came together to deliver results. I also want to recognize the care providers for their outstanding service to residents and their families, including their extraordinary actions during the recent California fires. In 2024, we also completed over $2 billion in accretive investments focused on senior housing. These investments met our well-defined operational and financial criteria and were selected from a much bigger pipeline of opportunities using our competitive advantages in senior housing, which include data analytics, operator relationships, and our experienced, knowledgeable team. These investments, funded with equity, increased our participation in the multi-year growth opportunity through expansion of our senior housing portfolio. They added accretion, improved our FFO per share growth rate, accelerated deleveraging, and created value. As a result of both organic and external growth in SHOP in 2024, our scale grew significantly to $2.2 billion in annualized EBITDA, SHOP reached 43% of our NOI, and our leverage improved to enter our long-term targeted range, all by year-end. With nearly 8% total company same-store cash NOI growth in 2024, we also achieved the third prong of our strategy, driving cash flow growth throughout the portfolio. Compounding NOI growth from outpatient medical research and our triple net lease portfolios supplemented our strong shop performance. We also increased our Ventas Investment Management Platform, or VIM, during the year. Started in 2020, VIM has over $5 billion in assets under management. Looking forward, we are excited about the opportunities ahead. To create value for stockholders, we intend to continue to drive shop growth and expand our shop footprint with accretive investments focused on senior housing. As a result, we expect our shop business to represent over 50% of our NOI by year end. Our 2025 guidance anticipates normalized FFO per share growth of 7% at the midpoint led by shop. If achieved, this profile would put us in the upper echelon of REITs. And even as we focus on growth, we also expect to further enhance our financial strength and flexibility during the year. All the while, we'll maintain our commitment to enabling exceptional environments that benefit a large and growing aging population. So, our value proposition for investors in 2025 is clear. Deliver top-tier 2025 FFO per share growth, property NOI growth, and investment growth, further improve our balance sheet, and top it off with a 7% increase in our quarterly dividend. We are optimistic about 2025 and beyond. Conditions remain favorable for our continued success, and the company continues to build its competitive advantages. We are in it to win it. We are still in the early innings of this multi-year growth opportunity in senior housing. As the over-80 population is surging, construction starts have fallen to historic lows, and new developments generally are not feasible. We also expect to continue to benefit from compelling secular demand, a favorable pricing environment, robust, attractive investment opportunities, positive operating leverage as occupancies rise, and a terrific experienced team whose ranks continue to grow with top talent. With that, I'll turn it over to Justin.