Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript May 4, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Scott Einberger - Investor Relations Officer

Christian Ulbrich - Chief Executive Officer and President

Karen Brennan - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan

Michael Griffin - Citigroup

Chandni Luthra - Goldman Sachs

Stephen Sheldon - William Blair & Co.

Jade Rahmani - KBW

Operator

Good morning. My Christy and I’ll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q1 2023 JLL Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Thank you. Scott Einberger, Investor Relations Officer, you may begin your conference.

Scott Einberger

Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to the first quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call for Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. Earlier this morning, we issued our earnings release, along with a slide presentation and Excel file intended to supplement our prepared remarks.

Please note that we are now providing an enhanced version of the supplemental Excel file that includes a historical view of JLL financial results by segment, including a view of fee base comp and benefits and total operating expenses. In addition, the Excel file now includes a full balance sheet, statement of cash flows and other relevant operating metrics. We hope this enhanced Excel file will make modeling our business easier.

These materials are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Please visit ir.jll.com. During the call and in our slide presentation and accompanying excel file, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide useful information for investors.

We will include reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP in our earnings release and slide presentation. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast live and recorded. A transcript and recording of this conference call will be posted to our website.

Any statements made about future results and performance, plans, expectations and objectives are forward-looking statements. Actual results and performance may differ from those forward-looking statements as a result of factors discussed in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2022, and in other reports filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any undertaking to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

I will now turn the call over to Christian Ulbrich, our President and Chief Executive Officer; for opening remarks.

Christian Ulbrich

Thank you, Scott. Hello, and thank you all for joining our first quarter 2023 earnings call. I am pleased with our first quarter as we were able to deliver results broadly in line with our plan despite the further deteriorating operating environment. At the beginning of the quarter, several green shoots emerged in the commercial real estate market, highlighting investors willingness to deploy capital when market conditions warrant. Rising interest rates and turmoil in the banking sector had a dampening effect on sentiment in the second half of the quarter. For real estate markets, elevated borrowing cost and a continuation of the tightening and lending standards, limited investment sales activity in the first quarter. According to JLL research, global commercial real estate investments totaled $128 billion in the first quarter, a year-over-year decline of 54%.