Greg Zimmerman
Analyst · BofA. Joshua, go ahead with your question
Thanks, Greg. At the end of the second quarter, our total investments were approximately $6.6 billion with 356 properties in service and 97% leased. During the quarter our investment spending was $82 million, 100% of the spending was an experiential portfolio, and included the acquisition of a project for redevelopment and additional financing for an existing asset. Our experiential portfolio comprises 282 properties with 47 operators and accounts for 91% of our total investments, or approximately $6 billion and at the end of the quarter was 97% occupied. Our education portfolio comprises 74 properties with eight operators and at the end of the quarter was 100% occupied. Well, broadly, there is increasing macro uncertainty and concern around inflation and the possibility of a recession, we believe our value oriented drive to destinations will prove to be resilient because they provide a compelling value proposition for families. To date, we have not seen meaningful impact on our operators from inflation or gas prices, and our expectation is that this will be the case in the event of continuing challenging economic conditions. As noted last quarter, with a stabilization of our portfolio after COVID, we are reinstituting coverage disclosure, we thought it would be helpful to compare our most recent coverage data. The most recent data is based on a June trailing 12-month period except for attractions which is August and ski which is April as noted on the slide. Importantly, overall portfolio coverage exceeded 2019. overall portfolio coverage for the trailing 12 months is two times compared to 1.9 times for 2019. For theatres, trailing-12 month coverage is 1.3 times with Box Office at $7.1 billion for the same period. In 2019, theater coverage was 1.7 times with $11.4 billion in box office. For the non-theater portion of our portfolio, trailing 12 month coverage is 2.8 times compared to 2.2 times for 2019. Now I'll update you on the operating status of our tenants. Q3 Total box office was $1.9 billion total North American box office for the first three quarters was $5.6 billion. Our high-quality theater portfolio continues to outperform the industry. As mentioned on our second quarter call, at $1.13 billion July was the highest grossing month since December 2019, led by Minions - The Rise of Gru, Thor - Love and Thunder, Top Gun Maverick, Elvis and Dope [ph]. As expected due to lack of tentpole product, August and September results were muted, with no releases generating $100 million. Q4 is anchored by three major releases, Black Adam with Dwayne Johnson, which has grossed over $115 million since opening on October 21. The Marvel Universe film Black Panther - Wakanda Forever, filming November 11, and Avatar - The Way of Water opening December 16. The 2023 slate is beginning to take shape. The top five announced titles, each of which could exceed $200 million in North American box office include Ant Man and the Wasp, Guardians of the Galaxy III, Little Mermaid, Captain Marvel II and Aquaman II. As this year's results demonstrate when there are movies to see consumers of all ages are returning to the theater, they still want to see good films on the big screen. With studios recognizing the economic benefit of a theatrical run, and more films beginning production post-COVID, we are confident supply will improve. Finally, as previously disclosed on September 7, 2022, Cineworld file for bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. While we did not receive September rent, or September deferred rent, we did receive our entire October and November rent payments along with the October and November deferred rent payments. This week, there have been headlines in the press suggesting that Cineworld reached a bankruptcy settlement with its landlords and lenders. Without mentioning EPR specifically, this appears to have created the impression that we and Cineworld's other landlords have resolved any discussions about leases with Cineworld. While we can't speak for other landlords, we are in the early phase of discussions with Cineworld and have not reached any agreements of any kind. The settlement referred to by the media was limited to the approval of a modified and improved $1.9 billion debtor in possession or DIP financing, which included several protections sought by Cineworld's landlords. In addition, Cineworld agreed to pay its landlords a portion of the unpaid post-petition September stub rent over four months. This settlement did not address issues regarding assumption or rejection of leases, future rent or the future management and operation of properties. Because the bankruptcy process is ongoing, beyond those updates, we will not comment about Cineworld Turning now to an update on our other major customer groups. We continue to see good results and ongoing consumer demand across all segments of our drive to value oriented destinations are eaten play assets continue their strong post-pandemic performance with portfolio revenue up 15% And EBITDAre up 9% over Q3 2021. Through much through much of our attractions and cultural portfolio attendance and EBITDAre up over Q3 2021. We are particularly pleased with the performance of our recently acquired Canadian Parks, Villages Vacances Valcartier and Calypso Waterpark. Construction of the hotel that Glace Ice Hotel will begin in the coming weeks with openings scheduled for January 4. We continue to see extremely strong occupancy and continued ADR growth at the Springs Resort. Based on reported solid season past sales, we are anticipating a good ski season. During the offseason lift replacements were completed at five of our assets. Revenue growth continued across our experiential lodging portfolio with continued ADR growth. We are seeing uplift from our renovations at the Beachcomber and Bellwether Beach Resort in St. Beach. We prepared for the impact of Hurricane Ian's at both properties, but when the past shift itself we avoided any significant damage. We celebrated the grand opening of the second phase of our successful camp Margaritaville RV Resort in lodge in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and are making progress with the planned enhancements at our Jellystone Park Warrens and Cajun Palms RV Resort. Our education portfolio continues to perform well with year-over-year increases of 17% in revenue 28% In EBITDAre and 24% in enrollment across the portfolio. After the close of the quarter, our early childhood education tenant, Crendal Crumm [ph], which operates 21 of our early childhood education assets, was acquired by Kinder Care. We view this as a positive credit enhancement. Turning to a quick update on capital recycling. During the quarter, we sold two vacant theatres and a vacant land parcel for total net proceeds of $9.9 million and recognized a combined gain of $300,000. We have executed contracts of sale for two of our three remaining vacant theaters and expect them to close in 2022 or 2023. We continue discussions with multiple parties on the third theater. During the quarter our investment spending was $82 million. We closed on the acquisition of a former conference center in Marietta, California for approximately $43.6 million in a sale leaseback transaction. Marietta is in Riverside County midway between Los Angeles and San Diego. The asset has natural hot springs, and was originally developed in 1902 as a Hot Springs Resort and operated for many years as a Wellness Center. In partnership with the operator of our very successful Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. EPR will invest another approximately $50 million over the next two years to redevelop the existing buildings into a brand new Hot Springs Resort. As discussed on last quarter's call in Q3, we also closed on an additional approximately $26 million in financing for our premiere four-season Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska. After the end of the quarter, we closed on the acquisition of additional land in Pagosa Springs for the expansion of the Springs Resort for approximately $5.6 million. EPR is committed to invest an additional approximately $58 million over the next two years for the expansion. And finally, again, after quarter end, we closed on a commitment with a new partner to provide up to $68 million in long-term mortgage financing to fund the addition of an indoor waterpark, as part of the expansion of an existing project. We are excited about the opportunity. And we'll share more details after our new partner has publicly announced the project. We've made substantial progress on investment pipeline coming out of the COVID pandemic. Cap rates are around 8% and should create compelling long term value. We're pleased with the investment cadence and diversity we will achieve through 2022 and beyond. We are seeing a lot of high quality opportunities to fund build to suit redevelopment and expansion projects in many of our experiential categories. By their nature, redevelopment and expansion projects tend to stretch over several years. And as a result, there is a timing lag for capital deployment after commitment. We're updating our investment spending guidance for funds deployed in 2022 to a range of $375 million to $425 million. Through the end of Q3, we have funded over $321 million for acquisition, refinancings and new development projects and eaten play attractions, ski, health and wellness and experiential lodging. In addition, with transactions that have closed through October 31, that are not yet funded. We have committed an additional approximately $250 million for experiential development and redevelopment projects to be deployed over the next two years. Finally, given our cost of capital and the current inflationary economic environment, we have consciously decided to reduce our near term investment spending, and to fund those investments primarily from cash from operations and with our borrowing availability under our unsecured revolving credit facility. We are being more judicious with future investments and acquisitions to shepherd capital until economic conditions improve, and our cost of capital returns to historical levels. Among the positives of our focus on development, redevelopment investments as we restarted our investment pipeline in 2022, is increased revenue in 2023 and 2024, as they fully come online. I now turn it over to Mark for a discussion of the financials.