Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust

Good morning and welcome to Primaris Right's second quarter 2023 results conference call. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute. After the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Claire Mahaney, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Carla. During this call, management of Primaris may make statements containing forward-looking information. within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Primaris REITs control that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Additional information about these assumptions, risks, and uncertainties are contained in Primaris REITs filings with securities regulators. These filings are also available on Primaris REIT's website at www.primarisreit.com. I'll now turn the call over to Alex Avery, Primaris' Chief Executive Officer.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Primaris REIT's second quarter 2023 results. On the call with me today are Patrick Sullivan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Rags DeVleur, Chief Financial Officer, Leslie Bust, Senior Vice President Finance and Graham Proctor, Senior Vice President Asset Management and Mordecai Bobrowski, Legal. Our year to date financial and operating results continue to demonstrate the resiliency and enduring value proposition of our business and show a clear trend of growth. Same property cash NOI rose 6.4% in the first half of the year with rising occupancy and strong leasing spreads. A few quarters ago, we told you one of our four goals for 2023 was to demonstrate our ability to transact on acquisitions and dispositions that are consistent with the REITs strategy and that enhance the value of Primaris REIT units. We are thrilled to have closed on the acquisition of Conestoga Mall on July 12th, further validating and proving support for Primaris' platform strategy and value proposition. This was a very important transaction for Primaris for a few reasons. Firstly, the mall is illustrative of the type of acquisitions Primaris is focused on being a market leading mall with mass rapid transit connectivity in a medium sized high growth market. Secondly, it demonstrates our ability to transact on these types of highly attractive properties. And finally, it highlights to prospective vendors that Primaris is uniquely positioned to partner with the institutions that are the primary owners of market-leading Canadian malls and offer liquidity solutions including immediate partial liquidity with the opportunity to continue to participate in the recovery of the Canadian mall sector. Since the inception of Primaris REIT, we have been very clear about the significant opportunity to acquire leading mall properties. This continues to be the case and we feel our ability to capture this opportunity is enhanced with each quarter we report and each transaction we execute. Another very significant development during Q2 2023 was the launch of our unit purchase loan program. In a nutshell, under the loan program, Primaris extends loans to full-time employees of the REIT of up to $100,000 each to purchase Primaris units. with a fixed interest rate and a fixed 15-year full amortization. This unique and innovative supplemental savings program is available to all full-time employees of the REIT other than senior management and board members for the obvious governance reasons. In the first window that the loans were offered in June, 25 Primaris employees borrowed $1.8 million to buy Primaris units. I'm thrilled that we're able to offer this program to help our team members build personal wealth. In aggregate, there are approximately 350 eligible employees that in theory could borrow as much as $25 million if every employee borrowed their maximum on the same day. As we launched this program, one of the common questions we received from many of our staff was, what's in it for Primaris? My response was generally something along the lines of, Our team and our culture are highly valuable assets to the REIT, and this is an investment in our team. I also noted that it incentivizes our team members to make the connections between their day-to-day job activities and the REIT's broader organizational goals. In a sense, we now have 25 highly aligned and incentivized Primaris fans spread throughout the entire organization. I hope this program grows to represent more than 100 team members. Looking to the future, there continues to be substantial NOI growth potential across our portfolio through raising occupancy to stabilized levels and converting leases back to standard terms. We have made material progress over the last 18 months, but the vast majority of this opportunity remains to be captured over the next few years, an amount we estimate to be more than $30 million. This opportunity is supported by tenant sales in our portfolio that have more than recovered from the recent operating challenges of the last few years, while the rent that we are collecting remains depressed, subject to temporary lease amendments due to be renegotiated over the next few years. Indeed, with our Q2 results, we have once again raised our same property NOI growth guidance because our business is accelerating faster than we had previously forecast. Lastly, before I turn it over to Pat, I have a few comments on capital allocation. As you all know, we spend a lot of time thinking about capital allocation and value creation. At our board meeting yesterday, this was a topic of a great deal of discussion. Our normal course issuer bid has been a very effective tool to drive growth in per unit FFO and NAV for Primaris unit holders. The two governing factors that have limited the volume of our buyback activity have been, number one, a desire not to reduce the equity base of our business, and number two, a desire not to increase financial leverage. Having completed the Conestoga transaction, we have significantly expanded the asset and equity bases of the REIT, and with this milestone behind us, we plan to accelerate the pace of capital recycling including both non-core dispositions and higher volumes of buyback activity under the REITs normal course issuer bid. Disposing of our open air strip centers and excess lands provides access to capital from assets with low or even negative NOI contribution to fund highly accretive unit buybacks without shrinking the business or raising leverage outside of our target range. I'll now turn the call over to Pat to discuss operating and leasing results, followed by Rags, who will discuss our financial results. Pat?