W. P. Carey Inc. (WPC) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

April 28, 2023 10:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Hello and welcome to W. P. Carey's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Jesse and I will be your operator today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Please note that today's event is being recorded. After today's prepared remarks, we will be taking questions via the phone lines. Instructions on how to do so will be given at the appropriate time.

I will now turn today’s program over to Peter Sands, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Sands, please go ahead.

Peter Sands

Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning for our 2023 first quarter earnings call. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements made on this call are not historic facts and maybe deemed forward-looking statements.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from W. P. Carey’s expectations are provided in our SEC filings. An online replay of this conference call will be made available in the Investor Relations section of our website at wpcarey.com, where it will be archived for approximately one year and where you can also find copies of our investor presentations and other related materials.

And with that, I will pass the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Jason Fox.

Jason Fox

Thanks Peter and good morning everyone. I'm pleased to say we've made a strong start to the year through our investment activity. We've also continued to generate the highest contractual rent growth in the net lease sector. We expect to average around 4% for 2023, even with inflation coming off its peak and to remain elevated in 2024.

This morning, I'll briefly review our recent investment in capital raising activities and Toni Sanzone, our CFO, will cover the details of our results, guidance and balance sheet positioning. John Park, our President; Brooks Gordon, our Head of Asset Management, are also on the call to take questions.

Starting with external growth. Investment volume year-to-date totaled $743 million, comprising $178 million closed during the first quarter, $566 million so far in the second quarter. Our investments year-to-date were completed at a weighted average cap rate of 7.2% and a weighted average lease term of 21 years.

In line with our core focus, virtually all were industrial sale leasebacks including three industrial portfolios, each over $50 million, in addition, of course, to the Apotex transaction as the single largest driver at $468 million.