Sienna Senior Living Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Siena Senior Living Incorporated's Q2 2021 conference call. Today's call is hosted by Nitin Jain, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Karen Han, Chief Financial Officer of Siena Senior Living Incorporated. Please be aware that certain statements or information discussed today are forward-looking and actual results could differ materially. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement or information. Please refer to the forward-looking information and risk factor sections in the company's public filings, including its most recent MD&A and AIF for more information. You will also find a more fulsome discussion of the company's results in its MD&A and financial statements for the period, which are posted on CDAR and can be found on the company's website, dianaliving.ca. Today's call is being recorded, and a replay will be available. Instructions for accessing the call are posted on the company's website, and the details are provided in the company's news release. The company has posted slides, which accompany the host's remarks on the company website under events and presentations. With that, I will now turn the call to Mr. Jain. Please go ahead, Mr. Jain.

Thank you, Shalom. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our call today. At Ciena, we believe it is a privilege to care for and serve Canada's seniors, and we are continuing our relentless efforts to ensure they live with utmost comfort, dignity, and respect. Recent months have been marked with renewed optimism, a clearer view to the future, and some exciting developments at our company. Over the past year, we conducted an in-depth assessment of our retirement platform and identified opportunities that will set us apart in a competitive market. We believe that by repositioning our retirement operations, we can fill a current gap in Canadian seniors' living. As part of this repositioning initiative, our retirement operations will start operating under the brand name Aspira. At the center of a new brand is a conviction that seniors should be able to live the life they deserve with an increased emphasis on being a vital part of the local community. Initially, we'll enhance service offerings such as dining and resident programs. Our culinary experience will feature more choices, carefully curated ingredients, healthier options, vibrant presentations, and a greater emphasis on local products. With the help of technology and the addition of signature programming, our resident engagement programs will focus on motivating residents to explore more possibilities to get stronger and healthier and to be more engaged within their local communities. In addition, our wellness programs will be expanded and more clearly communicated, enabling our residents to discover more choices and create their own path. The SPRA name and enhanced product and service offerings will be launched later this year through the early 2022 and will be supported with a widespread communications and a marketing campaign with a designated website for the new retirement platform. We expect our Aspira brand and service offerings will support occupancy growth and contribute to improved financial performance as a result of better brand awareness and loyalty. We are creating a distinct online presence for our retirement portfolio. We can more effectively drive traffic to our residences. We also expect a new brand to support our talent attraction and retention efforts. It is our belief that a consistent and comprehensive set of standards under the new brand will allow us to continue to scale our platform and support our continued growth. Moving to development, our current joint venture retirement development with Reitman Senior Housing in Niagara Falls is progressing well. We started construction of the 150-suite Greenfield development in May and which is expected to achieve an approximate development yield of 7.5%. We also continue to make good progress on our 160-bed long-term care redevelopment in North Bay, where we expect to start construction later this year. The new long-term care community named Northern Heights Care Community will replace our Water's Edge Care Community and is designed to the newest industry standards. In early July, the Premier of Ontario and other senior members of the government participated in the site's ceremonial groundbreaking event. We are grateful to play an important role in building the future of seniors living in Canada. Through developments such as this, we are also contributing to the long-term economic growth in the region. We are also making immediate upgrades to the older C-class long-term care portfolio, independent of their timing of redevelopment. To elevate the experience of our residents and the work environment for our team members, we are investing $2 million this year for capital upgrades in the common areas such as lobbies, staff rooms, and recreation rooms. These investments are made on top of regular annual maintenance capital expenditures. Furthermore, we are proceeding with upgrading and installing 1,800 new air conditioning units in resident rooms at over 30 of our long-term care communities. We strongly believe that all residents' rooms should be air-conditioned and committed to this project prior to mandatory regulations coming into effect. Moving to slide eight, addressing vaccine hesitancy proved to be crucial. Our approach was focused on ensuring everyone is well-informed, which included a far-reaching communication and education plan and logistical support for our team members and residents to get the vaccine. We also have a vaccine contest to incentivize and thank our team members for getting vaccinated and have recently awarded cash prizes to three personal support workers. The most recent winner was Marcia Palmer, to whom I had the privilege to present a $10,000 check when her name was drawn after we reached our 85% vaccination targets across the company. Marseille was among the first team members to get vaccinated and has dedicated 19 years working as a PSW on night shifts at a St. George care community in central Toronto. According to our most recent vaccination data, 96% of our residents and 88% of our team members received their first dose of the vaccine, with 95% of our residents and 77% of our team members fully vaccinated. With many public health restrictions being lifted in our key markets in Ontario and British Columbia, we have been able to gradually reopen and welcome prospective residents and visitors to our residences. Together with our vigilant infection prevention and control measures, this contributed to the very low number of active COVID-19 cases across our portfolio in recent months. As of yesterday, none of our 83 owned or managed residences have any active COVID-19 cases. Our focus continues on improved quality of care and strengthening our ongoing review of quality of care based on quality indicators, clinical reviews, and inspection reports. We also continue our collaboration with the Senus Quality Leap Initiative. This is an initiative we joined last year to better understand quality outcomes and opportunities for improvements. Based on our initial report card from SQLI, our performance is in line with SQLI members and international benchmarks. Moving to occupancy, the improved operating environment resulted in the resumption of in-person tours and increased the number of residents moving into retirement and long-term care communities. The effort of our marketing and sales teams, who have been working on numerous initiatives, are also paying off. This quarter's online leads tripled year over year and resulted in a 147% increase in rent deposits and a 121% increase in move-ins compared to Q2 2020. These strong lead indicators are reflected in the occupancy improvements in our retirement portfolio. Same property retirement occupancy reached 80.6% at the end of second quarter and an increase of 200 basis points from the end of Q1. average occupancy continued to improve in July at 79.7%, an increase of 80 basis points from average occupancy of 78.9% in June. For the remainder of 2021, we forecast continued gradual occupancy improvements in our retirement portfolio based on the assumption that residences will remain open for in-person tours and continued pent-up demand. In a long-term care portfolio, we have made good progress with respect to new resident admissions. Q2 occupancy increased by 130 basis points from the previous quarter to 81.6%. This number is not adjusting for approximately 500 beds, which were unavailable, mainly as a result of capacity limitations in three- and four-bed ward rooms. A long-term care occupancy ended the quarter at 83.5%. and is expected to continue to improve in the second half of the year as admissions accelerate. As of now, the government has indicated that effective September 1st, 2021, occupancy targets required for full funding will be reinstated. This excludes unavailable beds. Given the long waiting list for long-term care beds in Ontario and the resumption of admissions of residents, we anticipate that we can achieve the necessary occupancy targets required for full funding at the majority of our residences. Excluding the impact of net pandemic expenses, we expect the financial performance of a long-term care portfolio in 2021 to be slightly below 2020. Our internal forecasts are based on the impact of earlier access restrictions on preferred accommodations and the possibility of not achieving the required occupancy targets at some of our residences. moving to a continued focus on diversity, inclusion, and fair compensation. With nearly 13,000 team members, our employees are Ciena's most important assets. Our commitment to corporate social responsibility in our team is highlighted in a mid-year update to our ESG report, which focuses on diversity in our approach to fair compensation and gender pay equity. At Ciena, over 95% of our workforce receives compensation above minimum wage, and approximately 80% of our frontline team members receive compensation that exceeds minimum wage by 50% or more. Furthermore, our predominantly female workforce is mirrored in our management teams, with approximately 80% of our top 380 leadership positions held by women. When it comes to gender pay equity, male and female frontline team members' compensation for similar position is comparable. Our strong and diverse team will support our effort to ensure that people live with utmost comfort, dignity, and respect. With that, I'll turn it over to Karen for an update on our financials.

Thank you, Nitin, and good morning, everyone. In recent months, in-person tours have resumed at our retirement residences, and resident admissions have accelerated across many of our long-term care residences. At the same time, Incremental pandemic-related expenses have started to moderate and we anticipate further improvement as the pandemic subsides. However, the timing of pandemic expenses versus the funding of such expenses continues to affect our financial results. While our operating improvement has improved significantly, our financial results remain below prior year levels. As shown on slide 13, Revenues decreased by 0.1% year-over-year to $162.7 million this quarter. Consolidated net operating income decreased by 2.8% to $31 million this quarter compared to last year. This was largely the result of lower occupancy in our retirement portfolio and lower preferred accommodation revenues in our long-term care portfolio, which was partially offset by lower net pandemic expenses, rental rate increases in retirement, and inflationary funding increases in long-term care. Retirement-stained property NOI decreased by 2.3 million to 12.8 million this quarter compared to last year. Excluding net pandemic expenses, retirement-stained property NOI for this quarter decreased by 2.8 million year-over-year to 13.7 million, mainly due to lower occupancy, partially offset by annual rental rate increases in line with market conditions. rent collection levels remain high at approximately 99%, consistent with pre-pandemic levels. Long-term care same-property NOI increased by $1.5 million year-over-year to $18.1 million, largely due to lower net pandemic expenses in this quarter. Excluding net pandemic expenses, long-term care's NOI for Q2 decreased by $2.4 million compared to last year to $20.5 million, mainly as a result of lower revenues from preferred accommodation. During Q2 2021, Hiena incurred 3.8 million of net pandemic expenses. This represents a decline of 1.6 million or 30% lower compared to Q1 2021, after adjusting for retroactive pandemic funding, which we received last quarter. Although we continue to incur extraordinary pandemic expenses, the quarter-over-quarter improvement was largely driven by the reduced reliance on agency staff. Compared to Q2 2020, net pandemic expenses decreased by $6.8 million, or a decrease of 64%, largely as a result of additional government funding and a moderation of pandemic-related costs related to additional staffing. Q2 OSFO per share was $0.226, a decrease of 2.3 cents compared to the prior year. Excluding net pandemic expenses for the quarter, OSFO per share would have decreased to 26.8 cents year over year. And Q2 ASFO per share was 21 cents, a decrease of 3.8 cents compared to the prior year. Excluding net pandemic expenses for the quarter, ASFO per share would have decreased to 24.9 cents year over year. Moving on to slide 15, looking at our debt metrics. Our debt to gross book value improved by 270 basis points to 45.5% as of June 30th compared to the end of 2020, mainly as a result of repaying our credit facilities. Debt to adjusted EBITDA improved to 7.4 years in 2021 compared to 9.4 years in 2020. Our weighted average cost of debt was 3.4% year-to-date 2021, a marginal increase from 3.2% in 2020, while our total debt decreased by $85 million as of June 30th compared to the end of last year. And our interest coverage ratio was 3.9 times year-to-date in 2021 compared to 3.1 times in 2020, effectively returning to pre-pandemic levels. In terms of our balance sheet on slide 16, Ciena maintains a strong financial position and an investment-grade credit rating. On June 3rd, we issued $125 million in unsecured debentures at an interest rate of 2.82% maturing in March 2027. With this financing, we further reduced near-term debt maturities and improved our long-term debt ladder. The debentures were issued at the lowest interest rate and longest maturity compared to any of our previous debenture offerings. We ended the second quarter with $235 million in liquidity, an increase of $34 million since Q1, and an unencumbered asset pool of nearly $1.1 billion, an increase of approximately $247 million compared to the end of Q1. Our debt is distributed between unsecured debentures conventional mortgages, and CMHC-insured mortgages. I will now turn the call back to Nitin for his closing remarks.

Thank you. We're in a very different place than we were a year ago. While we stay vigilant and are prepared for a possible fourth wave, recent months have been marked with renewed optimism at Ciena. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, at the center of our rebranding initiative is the conviction that seniors should be able to live the life they deserve with an increased emphasis on being a vital part of the local community. We also continue to work with stakeholders to improve the way we care for our seniors and stay focused on advancing our long-term care redevelopments. The strength of our balance sheet and our operations will support our ambitious $600 million redevelopment plan to modernize long-term care in Ontario. I want to finish by thanking our team members whose drive, compassion, and commitment will support this purpose by providing our residents with the highest level of care and services for years to come. Thank you for your participation on the call today. We are now pleased to answer any questions you may have.

As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Jonathan Kelcher from TD Securities.

Thank you. Good morning. First question just on Aspira. Is that something that you guys contemplated prior to COVID or does that come from some of the lessons that you've learned over the last 18 months?

So this is a new initiative. As you know, we have a brand-new executive team, and one of the things we contemplated is how can we position our retirement platform differently. Over the last five years since we branded the company to Sienna, at that time we had around 11 retirement homes, and today we have 27 retirement homes that we own, and we also manage the Canadian portfolio for Sabra Healthcare REIT of additional eight homes. And given our continued focus on growing this business, we thought it would make sense to have a separate platform, a common platform to really drive efficiency, drive programming, and obviously help us to grow as we go further.

Okay. Fair enough. And then just on the retirement occupancy, good to see that moving up. How is the trend so far in August?

I think it's too early to talk about August. You know, there's a bit of delay usually in getting the data. July numbers we just talked about that we are seeing continued occupancy increase in July versus June. You know, we continue to see some improvements. Usually summer months are a bit slower, so I think it's hard to predict at this point, but we do expect for the balance of the year to continue to have a gradual increase in our occupancy.

Okay. And then how would, just lastly, how would the leads and deposits compare to a similar time in 2019?

So I don't have the 2019 data just top of our head. You know, we have 2020, but I'm assuming, you know, the reason you're asking 2019 is because of how volatile 2020 was. So we don't really have the data readily available, but it's something we can provide at a later date, Jonathan.

Okay, thanks. I'll turn it back.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Frank Leo from BMO Capital Markets.

Good morning, Dan and Karen. How are you?

Very good, Frank.

Good morning. So my first question really comes to the net pandemic expenses. I see that, which is a sign. But I wonder, you know, what's your expectation for the remainder of this year? And, you know, beginning of 2022, do you expect, like, you know, keep training lower to a certain level? Because I heard from other people, like, you know, expected, like, you know, being like a CP or, you know, so I just want to hear about your opinion.

Hi, Frank. I'll start answering the first part of the question. I couldn't hear the second part clearly, so let me know what I can fill up afterwards. No, we are very encouraged to see the direct correlation with our high vaccination rates and our very low or no COVID case counts, which directly contributed to a reduction in pandemic expenses quarter over quarter. and that also helps us being able to rely less on agency staff. We expect that our pandemic expenses could further moderate some more as we continue to see a stable operating environment. However, we do continue to expect that our pandemic expenses could come in higher than pandemic funding, one part due to timing. But also, you know, our retirement business doesn't get the same amount of pandemic funding. So we do expect that for some time, you know, unfunded pandemic expenses. And looking ahead, it is still hard to predict, you know, what our net pandemic expenses would be because we are staying very vigilant as we have a fourth wave that is looming.

Okay. So my question, sorry, can you hear me better now? A bit. A bit. I'm sorry. So my second question really comes as, you know, what's your, you know, do you think, you know, the pandemic-related expenses will meet at a certain level? But I heard from operators, they are saying that, you know, some expenses of PPE are very natural, was not needed for COVID, but it's obvious in the future, moving forward, even after COVID. Okay.

Frank, so I think, again, the voice is a bit muffled. I think they all have found this working from different places at times. I think what your question is is the permanent aspect to pandemic expenses. Potentially, I would, you know, we continue to believe that, you know, that there might be a small impact but not really huge. You know, I mean, let's say if people continue to wear masks for a period of time, masks cannot come down significantly in price. They usually cost $0.05 to $0.10. They went up to nearly $1. Now they're back to that $0.05 pricing or so. So even if there's some limitations on wearing some PPE, I don't think that will have a significant impact on pandemic expenses and restrictions are coming off. And if there continues to be some vigilance in long-term care to a small amount, we do expect that part to be funded going forward as well.

Okay, thank you. That's great. Can you hear me better now? I just want to confirm.

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

Hello? Sorry, sorry. Can you hear me better now?

Yes, thank you.

Yeah, thank you. That's great, Connor. And my second question is, you know, regarding the long waiting list for LTC batch, I just wonder how things have been changing since Q1. And, you know, do you expect any spillovers, you know, from your LTC tenants, for tenants who are looking for LTC-backed retirement homes?

I mean, it's possible, but usually, you know, there's two very different kinds of residents in retirement and long-term care. So you might have residents in retirement who are looking to move into long-term care, so they might stay a few extra months while they're looking for a long-term care space. Usually, you know, residents who are looking for long-term care would not necessarily move really into retirement.

Got it. Got it. Okay. And then, last thing, I see you guys had an issuer. I'm secure with that. And, you know, I just wanted to have a conversation with a rating agency. And I just want to get some color from there.

I mean, I think color is pretty clear on their rating confirmation. That was really the extent of what we can talk about. You know, it was no different than going through getting a rating confirmation, which everyone has to go before you issue that debt.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I'll turn it back. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Frank.

Your next question comes from Hyman Sukumta from Scotiabank.

Thank you, and good morning. So on the long-term care, what could be your LTC occupancy by the end of August, and where do you need to be to achieve full funding?

Hi, Himanshu. We have been working very closely with the various LINs to move in residents on an expedited basis, and we do see that there's traction being gained. So it is hard to predict where we would be ending at the end of August. And we did end the quarter at 83.5% on an unadjusted basis, meaning without removing the unavailable beds, which we expect that would not be included in the occupancy target. We do expect that, you know, come September, that the majority of our homes would be meeting the occupancy target. And for a small portion of our homes, that it's really a matter of time to get to that target and that the impact would not be significant in our overall year's results.

Yeah. And, Karen, can you quantify the impact? I know you said it's going to be small in the context of, you know, full-year earnings, but... You know, what could be the September impact of not achieving full funding?

Yeah, I'd say that because it is hard to predict, you know, each month where our occupancy would be, it is equally hard to predict what that impact would be. We are working very hard to move in the residents very quickly. As we know, it is centrally controlled by the LHINs, and that administrative process does take some time.

Okay, that's fair enough. And then, you know, sticking to LTC, again, there was a funding shortfall in Q2. And do you expect a catch-up in the next few quarters?

I would say, Manjit, that we, you know, as a sector, we continue to advocate for those funding shortfalls to be made whole, but we don't really know if that will happen or not. So we are hopeful, but that's not something, you know, we can confirm or count on at this moment.

Okay, that's fair enough. And then just moving to the retirement home occupancy, I mean, you have seen some recovery in the last two months. Is the recovery consistent with the overall markets you operate in, overall markets you operate in?

No, you know, it is quite different for each market. You know, there are markets such as Ottawa, which continue to have because of supply. And when occupancy is even lower, the supply challenge becomes even bigger. So, no, it's not consistent across markets. But, you know, however, overall we're seeing an occupancy change across all markets that the amount of it would differ from market to market.

Okay. And then, you know, given that, you know, your occupancy moved – I mean, consistently in the last few months. Are you offering, like, more concessions? Are you aggressively marketing your product?

So, you know, usually when we say concessions, our approach is, you know, there might be a one-time incentive to move, you know, such as moving costs and others. We don't really reduce rates. That's not a good recipe for success because you have the residents with you, and if someone new coming in has a significantly lower price, rental rate that does not sit well with the current residents. So we do offer one-time incentives, and that really approach has not changed. So there's no significant incentive which is driving this. It's really working with our marketing team, you know, training, following up on leads, our centralized call center. So I think there are multiple reasons why we're seeing this growth, not incentives is not necessarily one of them.

Okay. And are you thinking like smaller operators or, you know, your competitors are offering more concessions today to lease out their product?

Maybe one off. We really haven't heard anything systematic, Himanshu.

Okay. Awesome. Okay. So maybe just last question from my side on development projects. I mean, two projects obviously underway. How many more you can take on at the same time? I mean, is there a limit or how much? you know, development dollars you're going to allocate to?

Yeah, we feel I think if he can go to $150 million of active projects in the development, I think that is pretty reasonable. And depending on the size of the project, that could be, you know, three to four projects because there could be one completely winding down where, you know, it's fully constructed. And the next one is just getting started where you just buy land. So, you know, I think you could have three or four projects in active development in very different stages. And the risk of development is also quite different. You know, in retirement, you have the risk of both. The construction or the development risk and the lease of risk. And in long-term care, the risk is more on the first part on construction cost and development cost. So, you know, we do feel given a big chunk of our development is going to be in long-term care that potentially it is less risky from a lease of perspective if we can ensure that we can have a control on cost and other things.

Awesome. Thank you, guys, and I'll turn it back.

Thank you.

Your next caller is Tal Woolley from National Bank.

Hey, good morning. Hi, good morning.

Good morning.

I wanted to start with something maybe a little less financial. I'm just wondering, like, if you can explain to us kind of the on-the-ground process of, you know, doing the redevelopment. Like, if I'm a resident in a facility... or sorry, if I'm a resident in one of your facilities in a market where you are going to be redeveloping that facility, you construct a new facility, I get moved over. Like, is there a de-leasing process at the old facility that we should be aware of? You know, how do you, how should we think about moving costs, things like that? Like who bears that kind of stuff? Can you just talk a little bit about the nuts and bolts of like that actual process?

Sure, so I think the way you described this, Tal, is exactly how it works. Any cost, there would be some moving cost as you're moving residents, and there is usually a provision by the ministry, and we definitely have included that as part of the development cost. It is not material because we're moving people across areas. the town. You know, it does take a bit of time because, you know, moving residents to another place, you cannot really just hire two buses and move everyone in one go. There is a slow, deliberate process. You know, you usually limit the number of people in each week. So, you know, for a 160-bed home, that process could take, you know, a couple of months to do it properly and staffing as, you know, you might have some staff in the new place and some in the old. You might be hiring some contract staff because there would be a bit of a double count for a period of time because you might have two kitchens running at the same time. But those costs are not material and are factored as part of our development yield.

And the older facility, like do you stop admissions like four months in advance? I don't know exactly when you would stop admissions in that market.

I mean, not really, you know, because everyone gets moved over to the new place unless you're going down in capacity, which we're not doing. So we're actually going from 148 beds using the North Bay example to actually 160. And in a couple of other places, other two projects which are approved for us, we are also going up in capacity. So we don't really limit admissions at any period of time.

And as we get closer to, you know, these projects getting completed, are you going to be able to disclose to us what the NOI was on the existing property so we have an idea of what the pickup will be?

Sure, I think we can start to provide some disclosure on it. Just to, you know, when we compare the NOI from an existing building and compare the NOI of a new building, and just to clarify, when we do talk about a development deal, we're talking the new NOI for the new home over the construction cost for the new home. And, you know, one could say that, you know, we're not factoring in the NOI from the current home. That would be true. However, it's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison because, you know, You have a seabed license, which is going to expire in the next five to seven years, you know, as these homes get redeveloped, versus a new A license, which is going to last for, you know, 30, 40, 50 years. So I do think there's a bit of the comparison issue, but you're right, just from a pure financial model perspective, you would need to know how much is coming out and how much is going in so you can factor the incremental, and we can start providing that visibility as we get closer to opening. Okay, that would be helpful.

And then my last question is, you know, this is like the redevelopment of the long term care facilities that you have to do. You know, you're sort of in control of the timing, I would say, like you're not entirely in control of the timing because the government's got to sign off and everything. But, you know, it feels like you're sort of in control of timing. How should we think about your ability to scale the retirement business when you're going to have uh you know this redevelopment process to work through because it's going to consume a fair bit of capital simultaneously

Yeah, that's a fair point. Usually when we have done material retirement transactions, I mean, we have a very robust balance sheet. We have a lot of availability to cash in without even going to capital markets at the moment. And our debt, which is at 45.5%, is debt to book value, so it's not even marked a fair amount of value. It will be in low 40s at the least. So we do have even room in our balance sheet to go up in debt during the time of active construction. So at this stage, you know, given a program of $150 to $200 million, because all the things we just talked about, you know, even if you wanted to develop all 12 long-term care homes, you cannot really do that. There's a ministry process. You have to get license approved. You have to buy land. So, you know, that process is going to take five to seven years. You know, call it $100 to $150 million of active construction at any given period of time. which we don't think is very material given the size of our balance sheet. And then we have done big acquisitions in the past for retirement growth. You know, we have accessed capital markets, and that's not something you can always rely on necessarily, but, you know, we have had good success over the past five, six years, and we do hope that continues to stay that way, which was recently confirmed when we accessed the unsecured market for our $125 million offering. So a strong way of saying that we don't feel constrained that by doing one, we would necessarily give up on the growth opportunity on another.

Okay. That's fair. Thanks, Nitin. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Our next question comes in the line of Yash Sankpal from Lauritian Bank.

Good morning. Hello?

Good morning, Yash.

Yeah. I just want to understand your – new realist Irish retirement home platform, what is the most distinguishing factor between your existing platform and this new platform?

Yeah, I think those are the details, yes, that we would be going through as we – so the official – we are naming it or we are showing the name of it today. All the programming that comes along with it, we provided some details – around food, around programming, around well-being. So we are sharing some of it. However, the majority of it will come out later this year or early next year because we're still in the early phases of it. I would say that there are a few reasons to rebrand. The first one is to just reflect how the company has changed from 11 retirement homes when we branded them all to Sienna and with a local name to currently today when it is nearly half of the part of the business, so that's one. Second, as we have grown through acquisitions, each one of the homes that we bought have their own platforms at times, their own way of doing things. So having a consistent way of doing things across the platform we believe is going to have significant impact on service delivery, on team member experience, and also how we sell those homes going forward. So those would be some of the things that we can share today, but I think the more detailed as we progress through the year.

So if I understand this correctly, this is a rebranding, not a new platform. Is that right?

I would say it's a combination of both. It's not just a name change because then it will be just rebranding. It is coming up with how we do service delivery. We talked about focus on a few different things, how we do food differently, how we do some of the programming differently, how we think of the well-being program. It would also have some impact on, the program for team members. So, no, it's just not a name change. It has other operational aspects to it.

Okay. And then moving on to the JV, you talked about your retirement home JV. Are you providing any mezzanine funding or anything to this project? And are you – do you have to be – like in the future, by the interest of your partner? Are there any of those conditions?

So there is no mezzanine financing in this. Reichman Senior Housing, they are very established operators and builders in the retirement space, very well respected. We will get our conventional construction financing on this project, and our intent going into this project is to eventually own all of it. So after a certain period of time, we will eventually own the whole retirement home.

Right. What I'm trying to understand is, are you signing up to buy that property at a certain cap rate or anything like that?

No, usually they are at fair market value at that point because it will be much further out. So there's no pre-negotiated cap rate in this situation. It will be bought at fair market value.

Got it. And just one last one. What... How many beds are you losing if the government says that there won't be more than two beds in any room in your LTC division?

Yeah, we've previously shared that we would have about 350 third and fourth beds in our portfolio that currently we are not moving in residence to based on the Ministry of Regulation.

Okay. That's it for me. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Our next question comes on the line of Tammy Beer from RBC Capital Markets.

Thanks, and good morning. Just maybe coming back to the Aspira platform, can you just comment on the costs associated with the launch? And I'm just curious if you anticipate maybe ultimately driving some new sources of revenue that you're currently not generating.

Sure. So the cost we expect for this is around $1 million in capital and maybe a couple of hundred thousand dollars in operating expenses. Most of it's really related to a new website, which would have a whole idea of creating more online leads and selling online. So we feel that that will further enhance our lead generation. And second, you know, others could be things such as signage, you know, and some physical changes to the building. So that's really the extent of it. You know, there are markets where there is quite a bit of competition. So, again, you know, going back to the two intents of this is, first, to have a common platform so we can have some competition. common programs across the portfolio. And second is to really rethink the service offerings that we have. So we do expect that to generate some additional revenue, whether it's through occupancy increases or whether it's through charging for additional programming. Again, I think it's too early for us to share those because we're still in the planning phase for that.

Got it. That's helpful. And just maybe one more for me. In light of some of the recent retirement transactions that we've seen in the market, any comments on what trends you're seeing in pricing in the retirement space and maybe any initial thoughts on the Blackstone selection transaction with Rivera?

I don't have any other information than what's disclosed about the transaction you just talked about. What we are seeing is that pricing is even tighter than pre-pandemic levels, and part of it is reflected in the financing cost that people are seeing. Whether it's CMHC financing, whether it's unsecured financing for a few of the borrowers who can do unsecured financing in senior housing, or whether it's conventional financing, rates continue to be quite attractive. And that obviously changes your, at the end of the day, your cash flow that is left behind after paying your interest expense. And also the quality of the assets that are coming and the amount of capital that has been changed in senior housing assets. So we are, in fact, seeing pricing even tighter than it was in pre-pandemic level. that's what we have seen from our perspective. And based on the valuation work that Karen led for our unsecured financing, you know, we have not seen any uprising cap rates for the properties that we have.

Got it. And maybe just coming back to that transaction, by chance, did you, I mean, did you look at those assets at all or are you familiar with them?

You know, we do look at transactions time to time. I don't think it would be right for me to comment on specific transactions.

Okay. Maybe just coming back to, I guess, the overall outlook for the retirement segment of your portfolio, is it fair to say then, you know, given where you are today and, you know, sort of still focused on emerging from the pandemic that, you know, retirement transactions are probably low priority at this stage?

You know, I wouldn't say so. I think, you know, part of a strong platform is to be able to do multiple things at the same time, and we have shown that, you know, while we were dealing with the first wave, second wave, third wave, you know, we were also working on a redevelopment program so we can actually have two development projects in the swing, and we're working one retirement, one long-term care, and we have two other development projects which are towards final stages. You know, we launched a new platform which had a lot of planning behind it. So we do feel quite confident about our team and about our ability to execute if we find the right transaction. But to your point, we have to be cautious. So it's not – growth is not the only thing that we are focused on. We are also focused on ensuring that we can come back to some of the pre-pandemic levels as it relates to occupancy and retirement division and long-term care. So we have to do all of those things, but I don't think that will preclude us from participating in any right transaction if it comes along.

Got it. Thanks very much, Nitin. I will turn it back. Thank you.

At this time, there are no further questions. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Jain for closing remarks.

Thank you, Shalom. Thank you, everyone, on behalf of our management team and our board of directors. We want to thank you for your continued support, and I hope you have a great rest of the summer.

This concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect.