Veris Residential, Inc. (NYSE:VRE) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call July 25, 2024 8:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Taryn Fielder - General Counsel & Secretary
Mahbod Nia - Chief Executive Officer
Amanda Lombard - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Steven Song - Bank of America
Eric Wolfe - Citi
Tom Catherwood - BTIG
David Segall - Green Street
Michael Lewis - Truist Securities
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Veris Residential Inc. Second Quarter 2024 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 second quarter 2024 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 laws.
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. The second quarter marked another period of strong operational and financial results for Veris, reflecting continued progress across a number of initiatives aligned with our three-pronged value creation plan. This is reflected in our decision to raise guidance once again, which Amanda will discuss in further detail.
As of June 30th, the portfolio was 95.1% occupied and continues to perform well, with 5% blended net rental growth and 5.9% NOI growth in the first half of this year. In an effort to further optimize our balance sheet we secured a new $500 million credit facility and term loan in April and reduced our overall debt outstanding by $168 million during the quarter, primarily utilizing proceeds from nonstrategic asset sales.
Looking more closely at our operational performance, same-store occupancy was 100 basis points above March 31 at 95.1% as we continue to seek the optimal balance between occupancy and revenue growth.