Wendy Simpson
Analyst · Keybanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead
Thank you, operator and hello everybody. Welcome to LTC's 2017 third quarter investor call. Joining me today are Pam Kessler, our CFO; and Clint Malin, our Chief Investment Officer. I will begin with the few remarks including an update on Anthem and guidance. And then Pam will discuss our financial results. Following Pam, Clint will provide more in depth, commentary on our investment activity. Pipeline and operator partner performance. I will come back with the quick summary before the question-and-answer portion of the call begins. For our industry, the third quarter narrative seems to be dominated by challenged operator performance. While we also face some challenges, we remain highly focused on driving long-term value for partners and shareholders through a culture of trust, transparency and shared success. We are more confident now than ever in our strategy of partnering with regional operators. They are more nimble and thus able to successfully manage local portfolios. While we will continue to evaluate myriad opportunities. Our commitment to working with strong regional operators both current and future to meet their needs by offering creative solutions and financing structures to help them grow remains stead fast. I would like to recognize our operating partners' outstanding efforts during the recent hurricanes. Successful and intensive preplanning and preparedness allowed them to keep all residents safe and secure. Operating senior housing communities during a widespread emergency takes considerable amount of complex coordination, and we couldn't be prouder of the way our partners handle themselves continuing to provide residents with the round the clock care. By or none these operators went above and beyond working during a significant time is needed. In fact, we were told by several partners that selfless employees left their own homes, some of which were in jeopardy to care for resident. I'm happy to report only minimal damage to our portfolio and that all but one property has since been reoccupied. Given our presence in the communities hit hardest by the storms, primarily in Texas and in recognition of all of our partners who provided extraordinary care during hurricanes Harvey and Irma, we made charitable contributions to foundations set up by our operating partners to assist their employees adversely affected by the storms. Thank you to everyone who is playing a part in the recovery effort. Moving to our pipeline, we are a bit more optimistic than we have been over the last several quarters. Activity has picked up nicely. We are currently sourcing some attractive off market deals that are a good strategic fit for LTC and that meet our stringent underwriting standards. Clint will provide more details later. But I will say that the pipeline is very diverse with respect to deal structure, operator and geography and we are in a good position to act on some, if not all of these potential deals before year-end. As expected there are no significant investments in the third quarter, although we did complete an acquisition subsequent to the end of September. You will hear more about this later. I would now like to provide an update on our Anthem portfolio. First and foremost, the properties are making good progress. The community level staffing challenges, we told you about have abated. Corporate overhead is being reduced and occupancy at the three communities we detailed on our last call Tinley Park, Burr Ridge and Westminster continues to improve. At October 31, occupancy at Tinley Park was 42%. Burr Ridge was 64% and Westminster was 97% up from 29%, 47% and 88% respectively during the month of July. Regarding the two Kansas communities we have previously discussed, we are negotiating the transition of both from Anthem to another existing operating partner where we will be adding to an existed master lease. We hope to complete our negotiations by the end of November and with the process of securing licensor we expect to complete the transition in January or February of 2018. Of the properties currently under development with Anthem, we expect the Glenview, Illinois Memory Care community to open by early December. Construction of the 66th unit property is substantially complete and Anthem is moving toward licensor inspection and pre-leasing. The other construction projects located in Oak Lawn, Illinois is expected to open early in the second quarter of 2018. We recently signed a forbearance agreement with Anthem under which we have agreed not to pursue enforcement related to their defaults through the end of this year, with the stipulation that Anthem among other conditions, pay minimum rent of $4,000 per month through December 31, 2017. This was slightly higher than the $1 million per quarter we estimated earlier. Given the progress Anthem has made and after reviewing a variety of options for the portfolio, we have decided to continue with Anthem as our operating partner for now. As we continue to monitor and assess their operational improvements, corporate overhead reduction and ability to bring the two new development projects online in a timely and successful manner. We still need a few more months of operating history for Anthem before we can provide a cogent forecast for 2018 rent from them. But as I mentioned, in the few months since their default Anthem has made good progress. Finishing off with guidance, we are slightly increasing our 2017 forecast, assuming no additional investment activity, financing or equity issuances for the remainder of the year. We are forecasting FFO between $3.07 and $3.09 per share for 2017. We plan to provide 2018 guidance during our fourth quarter conference call. Now, I will turn things over to Pam, I will return after she and Clint complete their remarks. Pam.