Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Shankh Mitra: Yes. So I’ll take the second part. Think about we have independent living at a standalone, for example, Holiday Atria portfolio as well as our Canada portfolio. That’s roughly, I would say, 2/3 to 3/4 of the independent living that we own that obviously qualifies. How this relates to, when independent living is a part of the continuum, we will figure that out. Most importantly, I want to focus on what I said before that you will see with our forward thinking select operators who have density, you will see that we will — building out the platform, right? John has mentioned very clearly that he is building out the platform with our best operators, right? This is not a question of what part will do in-house versus in what part we’ll do with operator.

We have also another 15,000, 20,000 units in the wellness housing sector there, which obviously we always could have done in-house, right? So, this is finding the right balance of retail density with all the products that are out there region, and bringing in-house where we have the density versus — or keeping it outside when our partners have density. So, the game is not to who does what. This is not a fight of just because we do something, we’ll do it better. The main goal is with our operating partners build this operating platform to the highest quality technology and systems and processes and data to deliver the best outcome for our residents as well as frankly, employee experience. John, do you want to add anything to that?

John Burkart: Yes. I mean, that’s said perfectly. And I would just add in a sense of the speed, you can only imagine we’re moving and we have been moving extremely fast to address the opportunities that we see. We’ll definitely build on success. It’s not exactly — what Shankh’s saying, it’s not about going out and trying to control everything, it’s about creating success that drives value to all the various stakeholders. So, that’s where our heads are at. And in the end, there’ll be a little bit of the lag in the sense of where we spend money on G&A versus where we start to offset that because of reduced fees because we’re just moving it like the multifamily, moving the property management services on to the book. So, a little bit of a lag there, but ultimately, it will offset and the improvement will be in margins.

Operator: We’ll go next to Juan Sanabria at BMO.

Juan Sanabria: Just wanted to hit on the SHO — same-store NOI growth guidance Shankh, I think you mentioned in your opening remarks about the exit run rate and focusing on that. So maybe hoping you can provide a little color there? And should we assume that there’s any incremental transitions in ’23? You mentioned RUI having growing — going forward through transitions as well. So just curious if you could maybe just comment on those two moving pieces.

Shankh Mitra: Yes. Thanks, Juan. So the transition piece, we’ll start with that. There is not a contemplation of further transitions in our guidance. So, our first quarter has about 85% of our open and operating buildings as of 12/31. Our first quarter has 85% of that same-store and that grows to mid-90s. So on average, kind of 90% of the open and operating assets in that pool. What was the first question?

Juan Sanabria: The cadence of the exit run rate.