Global Medical REIT Inc. (NYSE:GMRE) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Global Medical REIT Inc. (NYSE:GMRE) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 8, 2024

Global Medical REIT Inc. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Global Medical REIT First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steve Swett with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Stephen Swett: Thank you. Good morning everyone and welcome to Global Medical REIT’s first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. On the call today are Jeff Busch, Chief Executive Officer; Alfonzo Leon, Chief Investment Officer; and Bob Kiernan, Chief Financial Officer. Please note the use of forward-looking statements by the company on this conference call. Statements made on this call may include statements which are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking. The company intends these forward-looking statements to be covered by the Safe Harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is making the statement for purpose of complying with those Safe Harbor provisions.

Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond the company’s control, including, without limitation, those contained in the company’s 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2023, and its other SEC filings. The company assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, on this call, the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures such as funds from operations, adjusted funds from operations, EBITDAre, and adjusted EBITDAre. You can find a tabular reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most currently comparable GAAP numbers in the company’s earnings release and filings with the SEC.

Additional information may be found on the Investor Relations’ page of the company’s website at www.globalmedicalreit.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Busch, Chief Executive Officer of Global Medical REIT. Jeff?

Jeffery Busch: Thank you, Steve. Good morning and thank you for joining our first quarter 2024 earnings call. At the end of the first quarter, portfolio occupancy was 96.4%, with a weighted average lease term of 5.8 years and our portfolio average rent coverage ratio of 4.8 times. For the first quarter, our net income attributable to common shareholders was $794,000 or $0.01 per share compared to $673,000 or $0.01 per share in the first quarter of 2023. FFO in the first quarter was $0.21 per share and unit, down $0.01 from the prior year quarter and our AFFO was $0.23 per share in unit, unchanged from the prior year quarter. With regard to acquisitions, we are actively looking for properties that meet our investment criteria and underwriting standards.

I am pleased to announce that subsequent to the quarter end, we entered into a purchase agreement for a 15-property portfolio of outpatient medical real estate for an aggregate purchase price of $81.3 million. These properties are fully occupied and are leased under triple net or absolute triple net leases. This acquisition is subject to customer returns and conditions, including due diligence reviews, and we expect to close in two tranches, one tranche during each of the third and fourth quarter of 2024. This two tranche closing structure provides us with flexibility as we consider our options regarding the allocation of capital to fund this acquisition. For example, depending on market conditions, we may utilize net proceeds from strategic property dispositions or traditional equity and debt financing.

As always, we are mindful of our long-term leverage targets and we expect any potential leverage increase resulting from this transaction would be short-term in nature. We remain committed to our accretive growth strategy, while balancing the need to maintain prudent leverage. As we look to the balance of the year, we look forward to updating you on our progress. In terms of tenant-related items, on May 6th, 2024, one of our tenants, Steward Health Care announced that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. As of March 31st, Steward represented 2.8% of the company’s annualized base rent, primarily in one facility that is located in Beaumont, Texas. The company was actively pursuing re-leasing opportunities at this facility prior to the Steward bankruptcy announcement, and we are optimistic about our long-term prospects at this location.

Bob will provide more details regarding the financial aspects of our Steward relationship in his remarks. We are closely monitoring this situation and will update the market for any material events as this situation progresses. Overall, I am pleased with our first quarter results and want to thank the entire team for their hard work and contributions to our results. With that, I turn the call over to Alfonzo to discuss our investment activity and the current acquisition market conditions in more detail.

Alfonzo Leon: Thank you, Jeff. The transaction market for our target medical facilities, which align with our quality and return criteria has made promising progress. We continue to actively engage with a wide range of physician groups, brokers, and corporate sellers to identify acquisition opportunities. Our readiness to capitalize on existing opportunities, coupled with our strong capital position and platform, sets us apart from less liquid buyers in the market. Furthermore, the unattractive debt refinancing market can work to our advantage, compelling reluctant sellers to consider us as they navigate a difficult refinance market. To that end, as Jeff mentioned, in May, we entered into a purchase agreement to acquire a 15-property portfolio of outpatient medical real estate for an aggregate purchase price of $81.3 million.

These properties fit squarely within our investment criteria and are fully occupied and leased under triple net or absolute triple net leases. As Jeff explained, we expect to close this transaction in two tranches with the first tranche closing during the third quarter of 2024 and the second tranche closing during the fourth quarter of 2024, which will provide us with flexibility for prudent capital allocation. As a reminder, this deal is currently under contract and subject to customary terms and conditions, including due diligence review. Accordingly, there is no assurance that the company will close this acquisition on a timely basis. We believe this transaction is an example of where the acquisition market is trending with sellers accepting higher cap rate deals as the refinance market continues to struggle and real estate funds are forced to sell.

As always, we will continue to seek opportunities that meet our investment strategy and underwriting standards. We have the ability to unlock opportunities using the tools at our disposal, including our scale, access to capital, and the potential use of OP unit deal structures. I’d now like to turn the call over to Bob to discuss our financial results. Bob?

Robert Kiernan: Thank you, Alfonzo. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, our portfolio consisted of gross investments in real estate of $1.4 billion and included $4.8 million of total leasable square feet, 96.4% occupancy, 5.8 years of weighted average lease term, 4.8 times rent coverage, with 2.2% weighted average contractual rent escalations. In the first quarter, our total revenues decreased by 3% compared to last year to $35.1 million due to the impact of dispositions. Total expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were $32.8 million compared to $34.5 million in the prior year quarter. The decrease was primarily due to disposition transactions that were completed during 2023 and lower interest expense. Our interest expense in the first quarter was $6.9 million compared to $8.3 million in the comparable quarter of last year, reflecting lower borrowing rates due to lower leverage and the impact of our interest rate swaps and lower average borrowings compared to the prior year period.

Our operating expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were $7.4 million compared to $7.5 million in the prior year quarter, with the decrease due primarily to dispositions during 2023. Regarding this first quarter expenses, $5 million related to net leases where the company recognized the comparable amount of expense recovery revenue and $1.5 million related to gross leases. G&A expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were $4.4 million compared to $3.8 million in the first quarter of 2023. The increase primarily resulted from an increase in non-cash LTIP compensation expense, which was $1.2 million for the first quarter of 2024 compared to $700,000 for the same period in 2023. As mentioned last call, we expect our G&A expenses throughout 2024 to be in the range of $4.4 million to $4.6 million on a quarterly basis.

Net income attributable to common stockholders for the first quarter of 2024 was $794,000 or $0.01 per share compared to $673,000 or $0.01 per share in the first quarter of 2023. FFO in the first quarter of 2024 was $14.9 million or $0.21 per share in unit compared to $15.1 million or $0.22 per share in unit in the first quarter of 2023. AFFO in the first quarter of 2024 was $16.5 million or $0.23 per share in unit compared to $16 million or $0.23 per share in unit in the first quarter of 2023. Moving on to the balance sheet. As of March 31st, 2024, our gross investment in real estate was $1.4 billion. At March 31st, 2024, we had $624 million of total gross debt with a weighted average remaining term of 2.7 years. At quarter end, 84% of our total debt was fixed rate debt, our leverage ratio was 44.0%, and our weighted average interest rate was 3.85%.

Lastly, the current unutilized borrowing capacity under the credit facility is $290 million. We did not issue any common stock under our ATM program during the first quarter or to-date. With respect to our investment portfolio and 2024 lease expirations, we are pleased with our progress on renewals and based on activity to-date, we are currently trending towards a retention rate of 76% on this year’s expiring leasable square feet. Regarding capital expenditures on the portfolio. During the first quarter, our cash spend was approximately $2 million. Consistent with my remarks during our last call, we continue to project $10 million to $11 million related to building and site improvement and approximately $2 million to $3 million for tenant improvements, primarily associated with new leases and renewals and lease up to be completed this year.

Regarding the company’s financial exposure to Steward Health Care, — as Jeff mentioned, as of March 31st, Steward represented 2.8% or $3.1 million of the company’s annualized base rent, of which 86% related to our facility located in Beaumont, Texas. Additionally, as of March 31st, the company’s receivables from Steward totaled approximately $500,000, including $200,000 of deferred rent receivables. To conclude, we are encouraged by our acquisition opportunities and believe our portfolio and ample liquidity will enable us to navigate the current market conditions over the long term. We look forward to sharing our progress with you throughout the year. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the call for questions.

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Q&A Session

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And the first question will be from Austin Wurschmidt with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Austin Wurschmidt: Hi, good morning everybody.

Jeffery Busch: Good morning.

Austin Wurschmidt: Just want to hit on the acquisitions. So, you’ve lined up the acquisitions at this point and are now contemplating funding plans. But I guess, how willing are you to wait and sort of speculate on the capital markets and the transaction market just given the volatility that we’ve seen.

Jeffery Busch: You’re absolutely right. Right now, we’re really pleased with this acquisition. These fit exactly what we like in our portfolio, triple net, absolute net, MOB style acquisitions. We’re going to be patient. We do — we could sell assets. I wouldn’t do it today. I think we need to see a stabilization. We’re not doing any fire sale of assets. We’re basically — we could sell assets and be accretive. We’re going to see where the equity markets. As in the past, where you got really — we’re at least the last few rounds, we thought we had good Fed direction of three cuts. We — I’m not relying upon any of that. So, if the Fed doesn’t cut for a while, we have other opportunities to do that, short-term debt increase we do have something, but this portfolio was too good to pass up, and we felt we needed to continue our business progressing and getting good assets, and we’ll probably wean some assets that are not strategic also.

Austin Wurschmidt: So, as of now, just to understand, would you just put these on your line and fund it that way? And then sort of when these close, decide, kind of, what the ultimate funding plans is? Just trying to understand sort of the timeline of the acquisitions versus when you intend on funding?

Jeffery Busch: The acquisitions, it could go on our credit line temporarily, but we do have things that we’ve put up for sale, which should match some of this, at least the earlier ones. So, it’s a combination. You’re absolutely right, there’s a combination of sale and a combination of possibly increasing unless the equity markets improve substantially, but we’re just not counting.

Austin Wurschmidt: Okay. No, that’s really helpful. And then can you just share a little bit of detail about the portfolio? Are these — you had talked about single-tenant assets? I mean does it fit that profile? What’s sort of the vault here for the portfolio? And then can you just share some of the economics of the deal cap rate and so forth.

Jeffery Busch: Alfonzo?

Alfonzo Leon: Yes, sure. So, the vault is — it’s a 6.1-year vault with no role until 2016. It’s composed of 12 MOBs and three behavioral facilities. Most of these properties, 12 of them are located in the Sunbelt states with three properties located in states in the northern part of the country and one quarter is investment-grade. About 60% is physician credit with good rent coverage, and the balance is a BB rated and the price per square foot is about $320 per square foot.

Austin Wurschmidt: And what’s the cap rate on the deal?

Alfonzo Leon: It’s approximately 8%, and this is a portfolio that we sourced off market.

Austin Wurschmidt: That’s great. Very helpful. I’ll hop back in the queue. Thank you.

Operator: And the next question will be from Rob Stevenson from Janney. Please go ahead.

Rob Stevenson: Good morning guys. Just a follow-up on the acquisition. Are any of the tenants — existing tenants? Or are these going to wind up being new tenants for the firm?

Alfonzo Leon: It’s a mix, but — it’s a mix. And — but yes, it’s a mix of new existing and new.

Rob Stevenson: And anybody that’s going to be pushed up dramatically in the percentage of — into the top five or those in the top five that would be increased substantially at this point?

Alfonzo Leon: No, no, no meaningful change.

Rob Stevenson: Okay. And then the — I think, Bob, you said that 86% of the Steward rents were in the Beaumont asset. How many other assets are there in the portfolio? And what are those relative to the Beaumont asset?

Robert Kiernan: Sure, Rob. There’s five other leases, there’s six leases in total. And the total square feet on the non-Beaumont is right around 36,000 square feet. And the monthly rent on those other assets is around $69,000, $70,000 of monthly rent from those assets.

Rob Stevenson: Okay. And I guess, then in aggregate, $3.1 million, roughly $775,000 or a quarter, how much of that was in first quarter results was — did you basically have all of the $775,000 in first quarter results? Just trying to figure out as we go forward the year.

Robert Kiernan: We did.

Rob Stevenson: Okay. And then the sense of at this point is — are they going to try to basically just give back the Beaumont property? Or is that a situation where there’s going to be some sort of negotiations when they come out of Chapter 11? How are you guys strategically looking at that? Is that something that you guys are going to have to release or probably just something that winds up getting a reduction in rent when all is said and done?

Jeffery Busch: We’re in the process — Rob, we’re in the process of re-leasing it the facility. Actually, we’ve got ahead of it. We don’t believe Steward’s going to accept this facility. I mean they have a longer-term lease, but they moved out of the facility. And I don’t think they can accept it, but when we — months ago, we started a process and interesting enough, a lot of demand on this facility. We’re feeling really good about re-leasing it at good numbers. And the way the market works there is this two hospital — hospital as well as with Steward, we believe this is the much better hospital. When we underwrote it, it’s much better and everything and the physicians like to do, it’s a surgical hospital and physicians like to do surgery in there. So there’s a lot of demand on that, and we do expect to re-lease it, and we’re very optimistic on that.

Rob Stevenson: Okay. I guess then the — just from a financial standpoint, at this point, we should be planning on that being nonrevenue producing for some period of time until between Beaumont and when you’re able to release it to somebody else?

Robert Kiernan: I think that’s fair at this point.

Rob Stevenson: Okay. All right. I appreciate the time this morning, guys.

Robert Kiernan: Thank you.

Operator: And the next question will be from Bryan Maher from B. Riley FBR. Please go ahead.

Bryan Maher: Thanks. Most of my questions have been asked and answered. But just sticking with Steward for one second, I would say if they’ve moved out already, they’re probably not going to re-up. On the 15-property acquisition, can you talk about what the seller motivation was there?

Alfonzo Leon: It was strategic. These are assets that they’re — it’s not a factor that they want to continue investing in.