Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust

Good morning and welcome to Primaris REIT's third quarter 2024 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. You may ask one question and a follow-up, at which point you may return to the queue. I will now turn the call over to Claire Mahaney, Vice President, Investor Relations and ESG. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. During this call, management of Primaris REITs may make statements containing forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. 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 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 REIT's 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.

Thank you, Claire. Good morning. Thanks for joining Primaris REIT's third quarter 2024 conference call. Joining me today are Pat Sullivan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Rags DeBloer, CFO, Leslie Bust, SVP Finance, Morty Bobrowski, SVP Legal, Graham Proctor, SVP Asset Management, and Claire Mahaney, VP IR and ESG. Firstly, let me apologize for releasing Q3 results after the close on Halloween. Somehow we missed that and I hope it didn't interfere with trick-or-treating. Fortunately, we made it a pretty clean quarter with a beat and raise headline and filled the details with continued growth across virtually all of our metrics. As we noted on our second quarter call, a key driver of the strength we are seeing in our business is the lagged effect of all of the lease conversions we have been executing that are driving our recovery ratios higher. We expect this trend could continue for several quarters. Year to date FFO per unit is up 5.6% when excluding adjustments related to the unsecured bond issuance in august committed occupancy is approaching 95 percent and you will note the continued and material improvement in our recovery ratios in addition to our strong financial and operating results q3 was very very busy in mid-september we completed our annual board outreach program connecting members of our board directly with the investment community in the absence of management The board gained valuable insight from these meetings and will continue to incorporate this feedback into their oversight of the REIT. On September 24th, we hosted a very well-attended Investor Day in Halifax, where we discussed our leasing and operations strategies, the ins and outs of mall merchandising, mall lease structures, capital plans, retailer trends, tenant performance, and announced three-year targets. We had third-party local and industry experts participate to provide their perspective, including insights from the Mayor of Halifax, the Economic Development Group of Halifax, Halifax Partnerships, and a representative from JLL who discussed JLL's mall valuation process and the current market dynamics for enclosed shopping centres. Our goal is to have our attendees walk away with a deeper knowledge of mall operations and a better understanding of the opportunities we have for growth. If you missed it, a video replay is available on our website. It is very comprehensive. We concluded that day with a tour of the Halifax Shopping Centre, our top performing mall at almost $270 million in annual CRU sales and $1,100 per square foot in sales productivity. The next day, we announced the acquisition of Le Galerie de la Capitale. This acquisition builds on Primaris' profile as an attractive buyer of large, high-quality assets. We have now transacted with five of Canada's 10 largest pensions. Consistent with prior acquisitions, this property enhances the REITs value proposition with retailers and offers a significant income growth opportunity consistent with the growth that we see ahead for our existing assets. And finally, subsequent to quarter end, we closed on a $74.7 million treasury and secondary offering enabled by the uniquely structured acquisition of Capitel. This offering enabled Primaris to increase its public float and enhance the trading liquidity of our units to the benefit of all unit holders. On a sad note, at least personally to me, because of the Treasury offering, we were obligated to halt repurchases under the normal course issuer bid on September 27th, ending the streak of 933 calendar days or 647 consecutive trading days of buying back stock. It was a hell of a run. When we come out of blackout, we expect to restart our very successful and accretive buyback activity. We continue to be very active in discussions on several acquisitions and dispositions. We have the capacity for well more than $1.5 billion of acquisitions and require no financial conditions on our deals. This profile, as a well-capitalized and credible counterparty, is a real differentiator in what is currently a challenging market for transactions for many participants. I'll now turn over the call to Pat to discuss operating and leasing results, followed by Rags, who will discuss our financial results.