Veris Residential, Inc. (NYSE:VRE) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 22, 2024 8:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Taryn Fielder – General Counsel
Mahbod Nia – Chief Executive Officer
Amanda Lombard – Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Steve Sakwa – Evercore ISI
Anthony Paolone – JPMorgan
Josh Dennerlein – Bank of America
Eric Wolfe – Citi
Tom Catherwood – BTIG
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the Veris Residential, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Taryn Fielder, General Counsel. Thank you, Ms. Fielder. You may begin.
Taryn Fielder
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Veris Residential's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. I would like to remind everyone that certain information discussed on this call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities law. Although we believe the estimates reflected in these statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we cannot give assurance that the anticipated results will be achieved. We refer you to the company's press release and annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC for risk factors that impact the company.
With that, I would like to hand the call over to Mahbod Nia, Veris Residential's Chief Executive Officer, who is joined by Amanda Lombard, Chief Financial Officer. Mahbod?
Mahbod Nia
Thank you, Taryn, and good morning, everyone. Over the past three years at Veris Residential, we've accomplished a number of key strategic objectives, including $2.5 billion of non-strategic asset sales and the repayment of approximately $1 billion in net debt, delevering, derisking and strengthening our balance sheet. We also negotiated the early redemption of Rockpoint's preferred interest, strategically grew our multifamily portfolio by nearly 2,000 units through the development and stabilization of our four new properties and one acquisition, reinstated the dividend and built a best-in-class vertically integrated platform encompassing new personnel, processes and technologies.
As a result, we have successfully transformed the company from what was once a complex, predominantly office REIT to a pure-play multifamily REIT. Our focus now turns to the significant opportunities available to us for continued value creation that I'd broadly categorize into three areas. First, continued operational outperformance through a number of platform and portfolio optimization strategies; second, capital allocation initiatives focused on generating earnings and value accretion to further boost the positive baseline performance from our multifamily portfolio; and third, further strengthening of our balance sheet.