Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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John Caulfield: Sure. Todd, I would say that, yes, the only thing with your 325 basis point increases that if you’re comparing where it is to where kind of spot SOFR is, but if you were to actually turn that out over a longer duration, that rate does come down, but I think as a going in, yes, you would see that in September. Look, we continue to assess and repay different opportunities whether it be in the bank of the bond market. You’re correct, the maturity in ’24, the $100 million is in May, and then the remaining 375 is basically September 30 of 2024. And we’d be looking to extend those maturities to refinance those maturities in the middle part of this year could be Q2, it could be any time really, but we are watching and once we actively push that out, I would say, no later than — I’d prefer it to be earlier, but we have the ability to be patient in the line and the relationships to give us that flexibility and timely.

But if I were to model, I would say, the middle to the end of this year would be the right way to think about it.

Todd Thomas: Okay. And then is there any additional capital raising activity embedded in guidance for 2023? And how should we think about funding acquisition, net investment activity during the year?

Jeffrey Edison: John, do you want to take that?

John Caulfield: So our guidance — yes. So our guidance does not have included any equity raise. I think that is something that as we evaluate our cost of capital, it is something that we are balancing both on the equity side and the debt side. And so when we look at our ability to fund our acquisition plans for the year, we feel very comfortable and confident that we can do that. And then in terms of the debt capacity, I think, again, we have great relationships with our lenders, but also we look at the unsecured market. We looked at the private placement market. We look to the bank market. We really are focused on cost of capital. And as we’ve discussed internally, it may need to be — it could be a mix of anything. It could be a mix of all.

So — but specifically, we don’t have that. But I also think that when you give the liquidity position in that, we’re at 5.3 times on the debt to EBITDA and you look at the growth that we have planned, we feel very good that we can manage our funding activities and keep to the guidance range that we’ve stated.

Devin Murphy: Todd, it’s Devin. Just adding on to what John just said, given the amount of free cash flow after dividend that we generate, we can acquire $250 million a year in acquisitions without ever having to go back to the equity market. So given the fact that $250 million is the midpoint of our range for the year, we have not assumed any additional equity given the amount of free cash that the business generates.

Todd Thomas: Okay. Yes, that’s helpful then. All right. And then I just had one follow-up. I guess, going back to the bad debt expense commentary. I hear the comments about the forecast for ’23, the assumption there and guidance being a more historical average of 60 to 80 basis points, but it did increase a little bit in the fourth quarter. The run rate there is above the full year ’23 forecast. Can you just touch on that on collectible revenue in the fourth quarter? Sort of what impacted that what you saw in the portfolio.

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