Ventas, Inc.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Ventus, Inc. Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to BJ Grant, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. BJ, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chase. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Ventas third quarter 2026 results conference call. Yesterday, we issued our third quarter 2026 earnings release, presentation materials, and supplemental information package, which are available on the Ventas website at ir.ventasreek.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 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 information package posted on the Investor Relations website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Debra A. Cafaro, Chairman and CEO of Ventas.

Thank you, BJ. I also want to welcome all of our shareholders and other participants. including our newest Ventas colleague, Yandy Watula, to the Ventas Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Ventas delivered strong enterprise results and growth in the quarter as we execute our 1-2-3 strategy. Our Senior Housing Operating Portfolio, now in its fifth year of double-digit organic growth, powered our results, and our significant shop investment activity enhanced our outlook. In an environment of rapid change, the Ventas investment thesis remains consistent and clear. Our $60 billion enterprise generates performance from nearly 1,500 physical assets serving the need-based secular demand of a large and growing aging population. Ventas is one of the rare growthy businesses that is neither AI-focused nor AI-correlated. In addition, our strong and improving financial profile provides stability and opportunity amid volatile capital market conditions. As a result, we are well positioned to thrive in a variety of economic environments. Within that context, our team remains focused on using our high-quality portfolio, differentiated platform, operating expertise, Deep industry relationships and data advantages to fuel our momentum and deliver outperformance at scale. Our excellent results demonstrate the power of our enterprise and our position as the world's second largest owner of senior housing. U.S. shop same-store cash NOI grew 17% in the quarter, contributing to our 11% total company same-store cash NOI growth. The first prong of our 1-2-3 strategy is capturing organic shop growth through rate and occupancy. Strong rate growth was coupled with shop occupancy outperformance in the quarter. Same store average occupancy grew 120 basis points sequentially, driven by Ventas OI. This continues a multi-year trend of materially outpacing industry benchmarks. In fact, our shop portfolio has grown occupancy at twice the pace of the NIC average since 2023, generating nearly 600 basis points of incremental outperformance during that period. And yet, our U.S. shop properties remain only 89% occupied, supporting a multi-year runway ahead for durable occupancy rate and NOI growth. I want to thank our Ventas colleagues and operators for their strong execution and commitment to outstanding senior care and services in our communities. Our third quarter normalized FFO per share of 99 cents represents 10% growth year-over-year, and our credit profile continued its significant multi-year improvement trend as we ended the quarter with net debt to EBITDA in the low four times. We are pleased to again increase our full-year FFO per share guidance to $3.89, primarily because of our 2026 investment activity. The VENTUS strategy is built to capture unprecedented, durable demographic demand. Now more than ever, individuals and their families are attracted by the benefits of safety, socialization, and support provided in our senior housing communities. at a cost comparable to aging at home. The baby boomer generation, a cohort of nearly 70 million individuals and the wealthiest generation in history, began turning 80 this year. And we are just now stepping into the period of enormous growth in our customer base as the U.S. senior population is expected to expand 28% over the next five years and remain elevated for over a decade. Yet construction starts of new senior housing units hover at record lows with a paltry 1,000 units being started in the quarter. With at least a three-year start-to-finish development cycle and increased construction costs, we should enjoy these powerful tailwinds supporting our growth for the foreseeable future. Our business and team at Ventas are built to meet this moment, capitalize on these trends, and continue to outperform the industry at scale. The second prong of our strategy, of course, is to aggressively expand our shop footprint through attractive acquisitions designed to enhance our enterprise growth rate. Our investment momentum is strong, and year to date, we've closed more than $5 billion of shop investments. which are expected to produce double-digit to mid-teens, unlevered IRRs, and year one average yields in the mid-sixes. Our pipeline remains robust and we are actively advancing actionable shop investment opportunities to build on our success and expand our shop business. As a long-term industry participant with nearly 1,000 senior housing communities, we have built a significant competitive moat including our relationships, platform, data, team, financial strength, and operating experiences. These advantages coupled with our right market, right asset, right operator framework drive our investment decisions, keep our win rate high, and help our acquired communities and operators outperform after closing. With the recent global move in interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty, Our competitive position has strengthened even further. To close, the entire Ventas team is unified and excited about the opportunities for multi-year growth and value creation ahead. We remain focused on winning together and delivering outperformance at scale as we help people live longer, healthier, and happier lives. And now I'm pleased to turn the call over to Justin.