LTC Properties, Inc. (NYSE:LTC) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 29, 2022 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Wendy Simpson – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Pam Kessler – Co-President and Chief Financial Officer

Clint Malin – Co-President and Chief Investment Officer

Conference Call Participants

Steven Valiquette – Barclays

Arthur Porto – Key Capital Markets

Tayo Okusanya – Credit Suisse

Mike Carroll – RBC Capital Markets

Operator

Hello and welcome everyone. On today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Before management begin this presentation, please note that today's comments, including the question-and-answer session, may include forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and events differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in LTC Properties' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the company's most recent 10-K dated December 31, 2021. LTC undertakes no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this presentation. Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Wendy Simpson. Please go ahead.

Wendy Simpson

Thank you operator and welcome everybody to LTC's 2022 first quarter conference call. Joining me today are Pam Kessler, Co-President and Chief Financial Officer; and Clint Malin, Co-President and Chief Investment Officer. Our industry is seeing evidence of the recovery slowly coming together and we are hopeful about turning the corner on COVID. As a needs based industry, I believe the long-term picture for our industry remains positive based on solid demographics and fundamental needs for the care of our senior population.

For the large majority of our industry, however, there was some distress felt in the first quarter as operators continued to deal with hurdles such as labor pressures and inflation. More recently announcement of potential trimmed – skilled nursing Medicare reimbursement levels added another layer of complexity for the skilled nursing industry. However occupancy is increasing in several markets and health agency utilization appears to be dropping. Several of our private pay operators have implemented rent hikes to offset higher labor and supply costs. None have reported pushback from residents or their families. I believe that we are steadily moving toward a pre-pandemic environment.

LTC has operated successfully through decades of market and real estate cycles. And we have always supported our operators as we both surmounted industry challenges. This environment is no different. So far in 2022, we have successfully put capital to work for our shareholders and our opportunities are more robust than they recently have been. Clint will talk about our pipeline in more detail later, but to summarize we closed approximately $77 million in investments year-to-date and have identified several additional strategic investments that will advance our growth.