Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated (NYSE:HR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Michael Griffin : Maybe not to harp too much on the interest expense side of the equation. But just from that run rate number, that $0.41 you gave heading into 2023. I just want to clarify, does that include the effects of the swap burn-offs from January? And I know you talked about the interest rate sensitivity scenario. But what impact potentially the shares could see of that swap burning off from an interest expense perspective?

Kris Douglas: Yes. No, it doesn’t because that was a 12/31 run rate number where that swap expiration occurred in late January. So that swap expiring and kind of converting to what our new swap rate is, it ends up being about a little under $0.005 per share per quarter impact related to that expiration.

Michael Griffin : Got you. That’s a helpful clarification. And then just on the targeted dispositions and guidance. I’m curious, obviously, the expectation for the beginning of the year is probably a more muted capital markets environment. But just any sense of buyer pool or pricing expectations? And I did want to clarify, are any of these related to that $500 million of incremental dispositions you had initially targeted with the merger? Or are they legacy assets? Is there — maybe they’re lower performing assets, tougher to lease, but any clarity around that would be helpful?

Rob Hull : Yes. I think if you look at — we finished the merger-related dispositions, and we now are looking ahead. And I think the way we think about the $200 million to $300 million is continued and pruning of the portfolio, really taking a look at properties that — where we see an opportunity to get out of them. They don’t — maybe they’re not in a cluster that we think that we can build up over time or a market that we think we can build up the time or the expectations for growth are lower than what we’re looking for. So I think in terms of what’s in there and what we’re expecting to sell, it’s really trying to optimize the portfolio going forward and looking at getting out of possibly some smaller markets that we don’t want to be in the long term.

As far as pricing, I mean, I think right now, we’ve seen some swings in interest rates over the past couple of quarters. I think we’ve seen the debt market is really driving pricing on MOBs. And if you go back to the fall, debt costs were kind of gone up to the mid to high 6s probably, and we’ve seen about a 100 basis point swing back down; and then now probably from there, about another 50 basis points up. So we think that that’s driving the cap rates. And right now, we’re sort of looking at cap rates that are moving towards around 6%. So I think that’s for us and what we’re trying to sell, we’re sort of looking at that as the baseline. Certainly, properties that we’re targeting for sale could be above that gave you below that. It just depends on what the asset is and the appetite out there.

Operator: We now have Steven of Barclays.

Steven Valiquette : It’s Steve Valiquette from Barclays. All the questions, I think, around both the market for acquisitions and divestitures were kind of covered at this point. So maybe just to shift topics a little bit. The — just on the same-store operating expenses, I think there was some improvement there a little bit. Anything worth calling out as far as just areas where you’re seeing better ability to control costs, et cetera? I just want to hear more about kind of the trends there, would be helpful.

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