Welltower Inc.

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, again, press the star and one. I would now like to turn the call over to Matt McQueen, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. You may begin.

Thank you and good morning. As a reminder, certain statements made during this call may be deemed forward-looking statements in the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Although Welltower believes any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, the company can give no assurances that its projected results will be obtained. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in the company's filings with the SEC. And with that, I'll hand the call over to Sean for his remarks.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. I'll review business trends and our capital allocation priorities, and the team will follow the usual cadence. I'm pleased to report that we began the year on a positive note, delivering approximately 19% growth in FFO per share, driven by better than expected results from our seniors housing operating portfolio and significant acquisition activity. These results and our refreshed outlook for the remainder of the year have enabled us to raise the midpoint of our full year FFO guidance by 10 cents per share to 497. Before getting into some of the details, I first want to mention that our achievements this quarter extend well beyond operational execution and attractive capital deployment. Our years of unrelenting effort culminated into an announcement of several major achievements, which I believe will allow us to both augment our growth and extend its duration even farther into the future. These achievements include, one, the launch of our private funds management business, two, significant advancement in the World Tower business system, our proprietary end-to-end operating platform. Three, solidifying our leadership through several key promotions. Four, our successful rollout of a corporate rebranding that reflects World Tower's transformation from a healthcare real estate deal shop to a data science and technology-driven operating company in a real estate wrapper. And finally, and most recently, and upgrade to a credit rating by both S&P and Moody's to A- and A3, respectively. I'm humbled by this unwavering dedication of our team in achieving these major milestones. Turning to fundamentals, senior housing operating business remains strong. There is no diminution of the momentum which we carried into the year as reflected by our 10th consecutive quarter in which same-store net operating income growth has exceeded 20%. From an occupancy perspective, following a period of exceptional results in 2024, we reported 400 basis points of year over year growth in Q1, the highest level of growth we have witnessed in any quarter outside post-COVID recovery. Perhaps even more impressive is that despite seasonal headwinds that we typically encounter early in the year, the portfolio's sequential average occupancy growth of 60 basis points was the strongest we have reported in the first quarter of any year in our recorded history. Please look at our slide six of our business update to reflect on what kind of seasonal outlier Q1 was. The business also maintained strong pricing power with growth in rep or unit revenue of nearly 6%, with 90% occupancy cohort experiencing 7 plus percent growth. Excluding the impact of leap year, REVPOR growth was still strong at 5.1%, and export or unit expense would have been 1.3%, and same-store revenue growth of 9.9%. With the spread between REVPOR and export remaining at the historically wide level, we achieved another period of outsized margin expansion of nearly 300 basis points year-over-year, with a significant runway of farther growth, which John will touch on shortly. As we look ahead, the demand supply backdrop for senior living sector continues to strengthen, setting us up for a multi-year period of attractive growth. And we continue to augment that growth by taking market share with our best-in-class operating partners and with our business system execution. Nonetheless, we're acutely aware of the rise in macroeconomic uncertainty, particularly as we approach the summer leasing season. We're encouraged by the strong trends we have observed thus far in the year, but also need to see what market gives us during the all-important summer leasing season. The need-based private pay nature of our product provides optimism around our ability to outperform not only other forms of real estate, but also major asset classes. However, as you know, we have no delusion of certainty. Shifting to transaction environment, as we have discussed in recent quarters, the opportunity set for compelling investments have grown meaningfully, and our recent activity clearly reflects that momentum. In mid-February, we announced $2 billion of pro rata acquisitions. In March, we announced the $4.6 billion Canadian dollar acquisition of Amica Senior Living. Today, we're pleased to announce another billion dollars of additional acquisition, bringing our total pro rata acquisition activity to roughly $6.2 billion for the year. To put this into perspective, we have closed $6 billion of investments in all of 2024. As we reach the end of April, we have already invested more of our precious capital this year than in any previous years in the company's history. However, as you know, our focus is not volume of investment, but the value they deliver. Transactions that we completed this quarter were secured at significant discounted replacement costs and are expected to meaningfully enhance our growth in coming years. This includes 38 community AMICA portfolio, the highest quality senior housing portfolio in North America. This trophy portfolio of 38 communities is located in highly affluent neighborhoods of Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria, with an exceptional outlook for long-term growth. Nikhil will provide more details, but we are thrilled to form a long-term partnership with Robert, Jens, and their team who share our vision of delivering a killer value proposition for residents and a dynamic environment for site-level employees to grow and thrive. If you want to look at another example of what great management does to thriving communities, please look at another Canadian example. In fourth quarter of 2023, we bought the Zazz portfolio for 885 million Canadian dollars. While the portfolio was highly occupied at the time of acquisition, In last 18 months, Matthew, Frederick, and the team has taken the portfolio to 97% occupancy and 47% margin, well exceeding our high expectations. Another great example of similar win-win success story is taking place in the U.S., our partnership with Tim Buchanan and Legend. Through our idea conversions, acquisitions, and transition, we have collaboratively created a much bigger pie to share in together by expanding the portfolio to 53 communities. Legend has since grown the legacy portfolio cash flow to nearly 2.5x and also received long linear benefit as greater regional density drives higher management and incentive fees, higher real estate values, and improved employee retention across all Legend communities. Before turning it over to John, I wanted to quickly touch base on a balance sheet. As I mentioned earlier, our efforts in recent years to reduce leverage and Volstar liquidity profile was recognized by S&P and Moody's through an upgrade of our trade rating. And during the quarter, our net debt to adjusted EBITDA further declined to just 3.3 times, another record low for the company as a result of prudent funding of our acquisition activity and strong cash flow growth. Additionally, with nearly $9 billion of balance sheet liquidity We are not only in position to endure any further capital market facility, but also to deploy capital as opportunities arise. All in all, we're pleased with our execution so far in the year, but we have a long and busy year in front of us. With that, I'll pass it over to John.