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

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Todd Meredith : The 90%, so we — this is something we’ve certainly talked about through the merger, through investor presentation. We’ve outlined some upside in NOI dollars and getting to 90% for — just for context. I think for us, it’s early stages. And as Jonathan Hughes just asked, sort of what does ’23 look like? Where is that occupancy upside? And we talked about — I talked about 150 basis points of gross absorption that we’re really optimistic about in the early part of ’23. On a net basis, we see that trend right now at 50 basis points of upside, but building towards the 100 level throughout the year. Our guidance is kind of for the average for the year. So it’s — obviously, the implication of that would be, oh, you’re sort of in the multi-tenant side, 85% going to 100% — or going to 90%.

Does that mean it’s 10 years were — and the short answer is no. We don’t think it’s that long. We think it’s the early stages of building that momentum. So it’s a multiyear process. We can’t say exactly what it is, but we’ll keep building that execution year-to-year. But I think it’s — we sort of think of it as a 3-, 4-year time frame, but we’ve obviously got to sort of put some successes here under our belt to really point to a more specific time frame.

John Pawlowski : Okay. Understood. And then, Kris, the $10.8 million in merger-related costs in the quarter, what additional costs are left to incur? And are there any other just integration risks that are still looming your minds?

Kris Douglas : To your second question, no, no big integration risk that we see. We do still have some work to be done. We’re still working through combining our — some of our systems, our accounting system. Fortunately, we were on the same system but on different versions. So we’re bringing those together. We do have some consultants that are helping us through that process. So that’s one of the merger-related costs that you will still see in the first quarter, and probably there will still be some moving into the second quarter. But a lot of that work is done. But yes, there is still some to be finalized.

John Pawlowski : Okay. Can you quantify the cost that will be incurred in ’23?

Kris Douglas : I don’t have it right at my fingertips, but it will certainly be coming down from $10 million, I think, in the quarter. So it’s going to be less than $20 million.

John Pawlowski : Okay. Last question for me. Can you just give some context on what drove the decline in the tenant retention in the quarter down to the 75%, 76%?

Kris Douglas : Yes. It bounces around from quarter-to-quarter. If you look at the annual, we’re just kind of just under 80%. There is a difference that we are seeing between the legacy HR, legacy HTA portfolio. We did see, as a result of, I think, some of the distraction that the HTA team was going through over the last few years with their sale and things that, frankly, we saw some kind of lower customer service scores that was playing through. So I think that that’s impacting some of that lower retention. But that’s also an opportunity that our team sees and that they’re very excited about of kind of going in and showing the positive customer service experience that we’re used to providing. So as we look forward, I would say we see that improving from that — the low end of that 75% to 90%, closer up to 80% or 80%-plus in terms of that retention ratio.

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