Douglas Emmett, Inc. (NYSE:DEI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jordan Kaplan: So the demand side is driven by the — it’s our quarterly leasing. And I think as I — I mean we’re always guessing a little bit about demand. But I think as we warned you guys going into the fourth quarter, during that call, we said, hey, while we’re seeing a real change in the pipeline in terms of leasing — it’s never nothing. I mean, there’s always a lot of activity, but we’re not a company that tracks individual leases, everything we do around this issue has to do with flow more than to do with an individual deal. And so as we saw the flow slow down, and as you saw, moderated about 25%, that is noticeable to us. Now we’re looking at the activity and we’re going, okay, well, we seem to be at that level at the moment and we’re looking at that and that’s the information we’re giving you in this guidance.

Unidentified Analyst: And more specifically, thank you for the update on Warner Bros. Are you able to provide any comment or indication on the UCLA lease that’s coming due and their likelihood to renew there?

Stuart McElhinney: So I think UCLA has like 25 or 26 leases with us. They’re all different departments at the university, different functions, they don’t act in a coordinated manner. So we’ll literally have quarters where they’ll sign a new lease with us and then give back some other space. So those are a bunch of smaller leases. We don’t have specific guidance on any of them, but they’re not — it doesn’t act like a large tenant.

Operator: The next question is from Nick Yulico with Scotiabank.

Nick Yulico: First question is just in terms of various reports, everything we hear about the downtown LA office market being very weak and firms considering moving out of that area. I guess I’m just wondering if you’re seeing any impact to your portfolio, realizing that’s maybe more of a larger tenant issue, but law firms or others looking to, let’s say, move back to Century City, Beverly Hills, or any benefit you’re seeing from a leasing demand standpoint from that?

Jordan Kaplan: Well, Nick, I mean, you know the issue incredibly well for a guy in New York. So yes, people seem to be kind of finishing moving out, it’s larger tenants and they’re finishing moving out or they’re moving out of downtown. I think the primary beneficiary of that move to date has been Century City. There might be a little bit of activity in Beverly Hills. But the hope would be that we could pick some of that also up in — Westwood and Century City have been the two markets that have like catered to those larger institutional type tenants. But Century City, I mean, has been an overwhelmingly happy beneficiary of that move. I can’t — we don’t — I mean, I don’t even know that we have space in the portfolio that could accommodate some of those more high profile moves that have been in the press recently.

Nick Yulico: And then I guess just a second question is going back to the buyback, Jordan, maybe just talk a little bit about how the Board is thinking about deploying that? I mean, it doesn’t look like there’s anything assumed in the guidance or really anything that was done so far unless I’m missing something. But how you’re thinking about that? Are you waiting to find a JV sale or some source of funds that would go towards that buyback? And presumably, you think the stock is cheap because you put the buyback in place. So any thoughts on that would be helpful.

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