Gladstone Commercial Corporation (NASDAQ:GOOD) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 2 of 2

Buzz Cooper: Obviously, with the market and with our company history, we’ve always been focused on credit of our tenancy. I’ll let EJ take that specific to market from the standpoint of what the market is also providing to us in the way of tenancies. EJ?

EJ Wislar: Yeah. And, Dave, when we say high-quality tenants, it doesn’t necessarily mean a rated investment grade tenants. What we mean is when we look to acquire mission-critical industrial assets where the underlying tenancy has strong fixed coverage ratios, moderate to low leverage, strong EBITDA margins, and operates in a counter-cyclical or defensible industry with a strong moat. And so what we like to do is acquire those mission-critical assets that are generating an outsized portion of corporate revenue and EBITDA and free cash flow at the asset level. And so we certainly do like to acquire assets leased to rated investment grade tenants, but there’s also something to be said for acquiring an asset that is very important to the underlying tenants. So when we say credit tenants, it’s not just investment grade, but also those kind of upper middle market tenants that we get additional granular information into their operations that helps us underwrite them.

Dave Storms: Understood. That’s very helpful. And then just one more for me. Do you have a sense of what your geographic focus is going to be in 2024, one way or another?

Buzz Cooper: We have obviously seen as it relates to the health of the country from the standpoint of growth has been Southeast, South Central in nature. So we have had good success there and certainly at the concentration the more we do the more that also comes our way. I’ll let EJ get more specific on those markets, but that’s where we are — as well as the Midwest, seeing a focus. It’s not on the West, and it’s not certainly in the Northeast at this point in time. And we’ve had good success.

EJ Wislar: Yeah, obviously, Dave, when we look at our markets, what we like to see is business-friendly environments with strong demographic inflows as well as business formation. And so that leads us to be focusing on places like the Sunbelt as well as some select Midwest markets. We like those markets as well. They’ve got a strong manufacturing base, and we like the light manufacturing space, and that the tenants are very sticky, meaning they’ve got significant capital invested into the assets, which increases the renewal probability. So I would expect you’ll see us continue to focus on those markets over the next few years.

Dave Storms: That’s all very helpful. Thank you for taking my questions.

Buzz Cooper: Thanks, Dave.

David Gladstone: Okay. Rob, any more questions?

Operator: There are no additional questions at this time, Mr. Gladstone.

David Gladstone: That’s terrible. We need more questions. We like it when you ask questions. So now you’re going to have to hold your question until next quarter. So we’ll see you next quarter. That’s the end of this conference call.

Operator: Thank you. This will conclude today’s call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.

Follow Gladstone Commercial Corp (NASDAQ:GOOD)

Page 2 of 2