CT Real Estate Investment Trust

Good morning. My name is Lateef, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to CT REIT's Q4 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 that time, simply press star one one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1. The speakers on the call today are Kevin Salzberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of CTREIT, Jody Spiegel, Senior Vice President, Real Estate, and Leslie Gibson, Chief Financial Officer. Today's discussion may include forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management's assumptions and beliefs. These forward-looking statements are subject to uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. Please see CTREIT's public filings for a discussion of these risk factors, which are included in their 2024 Management Discussions and Analysis and 2024 Annual Information Form, which can be found on CTREIT's website and on CEDAR+. I will now turn the call over to Kevin Salzberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of CTREIT. Kevin.

Thank you, Lateef. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to CTREIT's fourth quarter investor conference call. In a world of heightened volatility and uncertainty, CTREIT continues to be a beacon of stability and resilience. Our relationship with Canadian Tire Corporation, Our near fully occupied portfolio of properties with its long weighted average lease term and embedded rent growth and our strong balance sheet form the bedrock upon which our durability, reliability, and growth are based. This solid foundation has once again this quarter allowed us to deliver growth in our key operating metrics and source new strategic investments, all while prudently managing risk. and ensuring we retain flexibility to capitalize on new opportunities in the future. In Q4, we achieved a 3.6% increase in net operating, 1.5% growth in same-store NOI, 2% growth in same-property NOI, and 1.7% growth in ASFO per unit. For the full year, we achieved a 4.3% increase in net operating income, 1.6% growth in same-store NOI, 2.4% growth in same property NOI, and an impressive 3% growth in AFFO per unit. This growth contributed to our ability to, yet again, increase our distributions last year, our 11th increase since our initial public offering in 2013. These increases represent over 42% in the amount paid to our unit holders since that time. In 2024, despite a challenging investment backdrop, we were pleased to be able to source and deliver just shy of 500,000 square feet of new gross leaseable area through our development and acquisition program at a total investment of just over $156 million. With respect to our balance sheet, we continue to maintain our leverage and coverage ratios at the more conservative end of our peer group. This strategy has allowed us to generate increasing free cash flow over time, as well as currently provides us with a great deal of flexibility to fund current, and potential future investment opportunities as they arise. Through the course of 2024, we also repurchased over 875,000 CT REIT units through our normal course issuer bid program at a weighted average purchase price of $13.50 per unit for a total cost of just under $12 million. As I reflect on the past year and the unpredictable nature of the world around us today, I am proud of our achievements. and hopeful and optimistic about what CTREIT can accomplish going forward. We have a robust development pipeline that is anticipated to add over 600,000 square feet of gross leaseable area to the portfolio in 2025 alone. We have ample liquidity and a balance sheet that will allow us to execute not only on this development program, but to also fund additional future investment opportunities as they arise. And we have a proven strategy that fits these times and allows us to continue to leverage our relationship with Canadian Tire. our largest tenant and majority unit holder, in order to surface value for all of our units. I'll now turn it over to Jody and Leslie to provide some additional details on the quarter, our results, and our investment leasing and development activities.

Jody? Thanks, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. As highlighted in our press release yesterday, we are pleased to announce three new investments this quarter. These new investments relate to the development of a new 186,000 square foot Canadian tire store in Kelowna, British Columbia, the expansion of a Canadian tire store located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as the redevelopment of a vacant property in Lloydminster, Alberta. These new investments total $59 million, are expected to earn a going-in yield of 8.11%, and will add approximately 284,000 square feet of incremental GLA to our pipeline of projects and our high-quality portfolio. The fourth quarter was a busy period for CTREIT as we completed several previously disclosed projects, including the vending of a Canadian tire store in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the vending of a property containing Canadian tire marks and Dollarama stores in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. Additionally, CTREIT completed two Canadian tire store expansions in Kirkland, Quebec, and Martinsville, Saskatchewan. These investments totaled $103 million and added 322,000 square feet of incremental GLA to the portfolio. In the fourth quarter, C.T. Reid also sold a portion of a property in Orillia, Ontario for $4 million. Our development pipeline remains strong with 19 projects at various stages of development with approximately half of these expected to be completed this year and the remainder expected to be completed in 2026 and beyond. These developments represent a total committed investment of approximately $328 million on completion, $107 million of which has already been spent, and $156 million of which we anticipate will be spent in the next 12 months. Once built, these projects will add a total incremental GOA of approximately 881,000 square feet to the portfolio, approximately 90% of which has been pre-leased at quarter end. At the end of the quarter, CTREIT maintained its 99.4% occupancy rate, representing a portfolio that is substantially fully leased, a true indication of the quality and strength of our properties. For the full year, CTREIT completed four Canadian Tire store lease extensions, as well as a lease extension with Canadian Tire for its head office at Canada Square. For the full year, we also extended over 400,000 square feet of non-Canadian Tire store or head office leases at a blended 10.3% spread over expiring rents. As at the end of Q4, the weighted average lease term for our portfolio was 7.7 years, which remains one of the longest in the sector. With that, I will turn it over to Leslie to discuss our financial results. Leslie?