Safehold Inc. (NYSE:SAFE) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 7, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Pearse Hoffmann – Senior Vice President-Capital Markets and Investor Relations
Jay Sugarman – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Brett Asnas – Chief Financial Officer
Tim Doherty – Chief Investment Officer

Conference Call Participants

Nate Crossett – BNP
Anthony Paolone – JPMorgan
Haendel St. Juste – Mizuho
Mitch Germain – Citizens
Rich Anderson – Wedbush
Kenneth Lee – RBC
Harsh Hemnani – Green Street
Stephen Laws – Raymond James
Kelly Kunath – Morgan Stanley
Matthew Howlett – B. Riley

Operator

Good morning and welcome to Safehold’s First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded.

At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the conference over to Pearse Hoffmann, Senior Vice President of Capital Markets and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Pearse Hoffmann

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Safehold’s earnings call. On the call, we have Jay Sugarman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Brett Asnas, Chief Financial Officer; and Tim Doherty, Chief Investment Officer. This morning, we plan to walk through a presentation that details our first quarter 2024 results. The presentation can be found on our website at safeholdinc.com by clicking on the Investors link. There will be a replay of this conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. The dial-in for the replay is 877-481-4010 with a confirmation code of 50475. In order to accommodate all those who want to ask questions, we ask that participants limit themselves to two questions during Q&A. If you’d like to ask additional questions, you may re-enter the queue.

Before I turn the call over to Jay, I’d like to remind everyone that statements in this earnings call which are not historical facts may be forward-looking. Our actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements and the risk factors that could cause these differences are detailed in our SEC reports. Safehold disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as expressly required by law.

Now, with that, I’d like to turn it over to Chairman and CEO, Jay Sugarman. Jay?

Jay Sugarman

Thanks, Pearse, and thank you to everyone joining us this morning. Safehold delivered solid earnings in the first quarter, highlighted by important progress on the right side of the balance sheet and continued efforts to run more efficiently and keep G&A under control. Deal activity in the first quarter was limited with higher interest rate headwinds slowing overall market activity though the pipeline has a good number of deals that should close in the second quarter. In terms of the overall market, CBRE continues to provide updated UCA value marks, reflecting higher cap rate assumptions and incorporating tougher office underwriting standards. The resulting lower building values are driving higher GLTV ratios, which makes sense given the current market environment.