Welltower Inc (WELL) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Welltower Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

女士們，先生們，感謝您的支持，歡迎參加 Welltower 2024 年第四季財報電話會議。（操作員指令）

I will now hand today's call over to Matt McQueen, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. Please go ahead, sir.

現在，我將今天的電話轉交給首席法律官兼總法律顧問 Matt McQueen。先生，請繼續。

Thank you, and good morning. As a reminder, certain statements made during this call may be deemed forward-looking statements in the meaning of the Private Securities litigation Reform Act. Although Welltower believes any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, the company can give no assurances that it's projected results will be attained. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in the company's filings with the SEC.

謝謝，早安。提醒一下，本次電話會議中所做的某些聲明可能被視為《私人證券訴訟改革法案》所定義的前瞻性聲明。儘管 Welltower 認為任何前瞻性陳述都是基於合理的假設，但該公司無法保證其預測的結果將會實現。可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述有重大差異的因素已在公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中詳細說明。

And with that, I'll hand the call over to Shankh for his remarks.

說完這些，我會把電話交給 Shankh，請他發表評論。

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. I'll review business trends and our capital allocation priorities and the team will follow the usual cadence.

謝謝你，馬特，大家早安。我將審查業務趨勢和我們的資本配置優先事項，團隊將遵循通常的節奏。

We ended 2024 on a high note, delivering strong Q4 results as the company continues to fire on all cylinders, whether be it business fundamentals, capital allocation, a further strengthening of our balance sheet, our progress on the operating platform buildout. The result was another quarter of solid bottom line growth with normalized FFO per share increasing 18% year-over-year, once again driven by our senior housing operating portfolio.

我們以高調結束了 2024 年，取得了強勁的第四季度業績，因為公司繼續全力以赴，無論是業務基本面、資本配置、資產負債表的進一步加強，還是營運平台建設的進展。結果是本季的利潤再一次穩健成長，每股標準化 FFO 年成長 18%，這再次得益於我們的老年住房營運組合。

Just as important, however, is that we carried significant momentum into 2025 and expect another year of exceptional growth, which I'll get into shortly. I'll also provide a brief update on the pillars of growth that I outlined 12 months ago that give us even greater confidence in our growth outlook for next few years, which we feel is positively spring loaded.

然而，同樣重要的是，我們將保持強勁勢頭進入 2025 年，並​​預計又將迎來異常增長的一年，我稍後會談到這一點。我還將簡要介紹我在 12 個月前提出的成長支柱，這些支柱讓我們對未來幾年的成長前景更加有信心，我們認為這些支柱具有積極的推動作用。

In our senior housing operating business, we continue to see strengthening tailwinds. The fourth quarter delivered impressive results with nearly 24% same-store NOI growth. This marks our ninth consecutive quarter of net operating income growth exceeding 20%.

在我們的老年住房營運業務中，我們繼續看到增強的順風勢頭。第四季業績令人矚目，同店淨營業利潤成長近24%。這是我們連續第九個季度淨營業收入增幅超過20%。

Notably, we experienced exceptionally strong sequential occupancy growth in Q4, defying typical seasonal trends. The sharp portfolio achieved average same-store occupancy growth of 120 basis points sequentially and 310 basis points year-over-year. This robust performance, particularly during a period when moving activity usually moderates, stands out as perhaps the quarter's most significant highlight. In fact, 120 basis points of growth in Q4 nearly matched the level of sequential growth we witnessed in third quarter, which is typically the strongest period of leasing during the year.

值得注意的是，我們第四季的入住率連續成長異常強勁，打破了典型的季節性趨勢。夏普旗下飯店的平均同店入住率比上一季成長了 120 個基點，比去年同期成長了 310 個基點。這種強勁的表現，尤其是在搬家活動通常會放緩的時期，或許是本季最顯著的亮點。事實上，第四季 120 個基點的成長幾乎與我們在第三季度看到的連續成長水平持平，而第三季度通常是一年中租賃業務最強勁的時期。

I would also note that on a spot basis, we gained 240 basis points of occupancy in the second half alone. This momentum persisted through fourth quarter even during the holiday season. In fact, we observed a pickup of occupancy growth during the week of Christmas, typically our slowest moving week of the year, something I've never seen in this business.

我還要指出的是，以現貨計算，光是下半年我們的入住率就上升了 240 個基點。即使在假期期間，這種勢頭仍持續到第四季度。事實上，我們注意到聖誕節那一周，飯店入住率有所回升，而這通常是我們一年中入住率最慢的一周，這是我在這個行業中從未見過的。

We also witnessed this momentum carry into January. A period which we almost invariably experienced a sequential decline in occupancy due to seasonality. The favorable end market environment, along with our team's superior execution has put us in an incredible favorable position to start the year. This is reflected in our optimism for occupancy growth acceleration in '25 over '24, which was already one of the strongest years in the company's history.

我們也見證了這股勢頭延續到一月。由於季節性因素的影響，這段期間我們幾乎無一例外地會經歷入住率的連續下降。良好的終端市場環境加上我們團隊的卓越執行力，讓我們在新的一年處於極為有利的地位。這反映出我們對 ​​2025 年入住率成長將比 2024 年加速的樂觀態度，而 2024 年已經是公司歷史上最強勁的年份之一。

At the same time, the trends related to RevPOR or unit revenue, or ExpPOR or unit expense, continues to move in our favor. We remain focused on the spread between the two metrics which during the quarter reached 460 basis points, our highest level in our recorded history. The outcome is another 320 basis points of operating margin expansion in our seniors housing operating portfolio. Going forward, we expect sustained improvement in margins given high operating leverage inherent in the business and the benefit of the build-out of the operating platform while John will get into momentarily.

與此同時，與 RevPOR 或單位收入、ExpPOR 或單位支出相關的趨勢繼續朝著有利於我們的方向發展。我們繼續關注兩個指標之間的差距，本季差距達到了 460 個基點，這是我們有記錄以來的最高水準。結果是我們的老年人住房營運組合的營業利潤率又擴大了 320 個基點。展望未來，考慮到業務固有的高營運槓桿率和營運平台建設帶來的好處（約翰很快就會加入），我們預計利潤率將持續改善。

Putting this all together, we expect 2025 to be another year of exceptional net operating income growth. Shifting to capital deployment. We capped off a tremendous year of investment activity with the closing of $2.2 billion of transactions in fourth quarter at attractive economics. Nikhil will provide more details, but as we described in the last quarter, the opportunity set for capital deployment continues to expand, given the widespread capital markets-related challenges in the sector.

綜合考慮這些因素，我們預計 2025 年將是淨營業收入另一個卓越成長的一年。轉向資本部署。我們以第四季 22 億美元的交易和頗具吸引力的經濟效益結束了投資活動豐碩的一年。尼基爾將提供更多細節，但正如我們在上個季度所描述的那樣，鑑於該行業普遍存在的與資本市場相關的挑戰，資本部署的機會將繼續擴大。

To be clear, the fundamentals of senior housing business are extraordinarily healthy. But for many owners, they continue to go overwhelmed by the impact of higher rates, persisted challenges in addressing upcoming debt maturities and other capital structure issues.

需要明確的是，老年住房業務的基本面非常健康。但對於許多業主來說，他們仍然難以承受利率上升的影響、即將到期的債務的持續解決挑戰以及其他資本結構問題。

I would also point out that not only will this acquisition be solidly accretive to our growth in coming years, but also come with two often overlooked strategic benefits. First, is the greater regional densification, which we described to you in the past, reflects our intention to go deep in our markets, not go broad. Second, is accumulation of data received from these properties, which will further enhance the network effect we have already created within our data science platform, resulting in a wider and deeper moat for Welltower.

我還要指出的是，此次收購不僅將在未來幾年穩步促進我們的成長，而且還帶來兩個經常被忽視的策略優勢。首先，我們過去曾向您描述過更大的區域密集度，這反映了我們深入市場而不是廣泛市場的意圖。其次，是從這些物業中獲得的數據的積累，這將進一步增強我們在數據科學平台內已經創建的網絡效應，從而為 Welltower 構建更寬更深的護城河。

Each additional building added to a local cluster enhances the customer and employee experience resulting in strong overall effectiveness and efficiency, hence, a strong network effect. These bolt-on acquisitions, in combination with our organic growth, drove 23% revenue growth, 26% EBITDA growth and nearly 20% FFO per share growth for the full year of 2024, and we achieved these results while meaningfully deleveraging our balance sheet.

在本地集群中新增的每棟建築都會提升客戶和員工的體驗，從而提高整體效率和效益，進而產生強大的網路效應。這些附加收購與我們的有機成長相結合，推動了 2024 年全年營收成長 23%，EBITDA 成長 26%，每股 FFO 成長近 20%，而且我們在實現這些業績的同時，也大幅降低了資產負債表中的槓桿率。

While we are extremely proud of our recent results, we believe we're just beginning our journey to deliver long-term compounding of our share growth for our existing shareholders. To illustrate this, let's revisit the five growth pillars that I introduced a year ago. These pillars remain firmly intact, both starting our confidence in our multiyear growth outlook. Moreover, we have since added a sixth pillar, which I'll also discuss shortly. This expanded framework further strengthens our growth strategy and potential for long-term value creation.

雖然我們對最近的業績感到非常自豪，但我們相信，我們才剛開始為現有股東實現長期複合的股份成長。為了說明這一點，讓我們重新回顧我一年前提出的五大成長支柱。這些支柱依然牢固完好，讓我們對多年成長前景充滿信心。此外，我們後來又增加了第六個支柱，我稍後也會討論這個支柱。這個擴展框架進一步加強了我們的成長策略和長期價值創造潛力。

First, the demand supply backdrop of senior living business. From a fundamental perspective, we're at the very beginning of an extended period of outsized demographic-driven growth in the sector. In fact, 2026 should be an inflection point in the end market demand. The tailwinds which have propelled our business that is the growth of 80-plus population age cohort will only accelerate in the back half of this decade.

第一，養老業務的需求供給背景。從基本面來看，我們正處於該產業由人口驅動的長期超大規模成長的開始階段。事實上，2026年應該是終端市場需求的一個轉捩點。推動我們業務發展的順風，即 80 歲以上人口年齡群體的成長，在本世紀後半葉只會加速。

And I will remind you that seniors housing products that we're focused on are almost entirely private pay and needs driven in nature. The fundamentals of our business are largely immune from geopolitical cross-currents, regulatory or policy changes and poised to weather any economic headwinds, better than most other sectors and industries.

我要提醒你們，我們關注的老年人住房產品幾乎完全是由私人支付和需求所驅動的。我們的業務基本面在很大程度上不受地緣政治逆流、監管或政策變化的影響，並且比大多數其他部門和行業更好地抵禦任何經濟逆風。

While the end market demand will continue to rise even at a faster clip in coming years, the new supply remains muted. The outlook for supply has gotten even worse in recent months as tariffs, immigration policy and higher rates will further dampen development economics, which remains nonexistent. The demand-supply outlook alone should drive outsized growth for many years to come.

儘管未來幾年終端市場需求將繼續成長甚至以更快的速度成長，但新的供應仍保持低迷。由於關稅、移民政策和更高的利率將進一步抑制目前仍不存在的發展經濟，近幾個月來供應前景變得更加糟糕。僅供需前景就足以推動未來許多年的超高速成長。

Number two, capital allocation. Even after a company record of $7 billion of capital deployed in 2020 and putting $20-plus billion of capital to work over the past four years, our investment teams have never been busier. The opportunity set is robust, actionable and visible, and we believe 2025 will be another year of above average capital deployment for Welltower.

第二，資本配置。即使公司在 2020 年部署了創紀錄的 70 億美元資本，並在過去四年中投入了 200 多億美元的資本，我們的投資團隊也從未如此忙碌。機會是強勁的、可操作的和可見的，我們相信 2025 年將是 Welltower 資本部署高於平均水平的又一年。

To that end, we started the year with a bang and already have $2 billion of investments under contract for our balance sheet. This is the strongest start of the year we ever had. Our phones are ringing off the hook as it is sinking into the real estate world that the Fed does not control the long end of the car and hence, is not coming to rescue broken capital structures. We continue to find attractive economics in our circle of competence where we can bet with house odds rather than gambler's odds, as we seek advantageous divergences in a specific niche amplified by our operating platform and our network of our best-in-class operating partners.

為此，我們在新的一年裡取得了良好的開端，並且已經在資產負債表中簽訂了 20 億美元的投資合約。這是我們今年以來最強勁的開局。我們的電話響個不停，因為聯準會無法控制汽車的長期走勢，因此無法拯救破碎的資本結構，這正在深入房地產領域。我們繼續在我們的能力圈內尋找具有吸引力的經濟學，我們可以用莊家的賠率而不是賭徒的賠率來下注，因為我們在特定的領域尋求有利的分歧，而這種分歧通過我們的運營平台和我們一流的運營合作夥伴網絡得到了擴大。

Number three, capital-light transactions. Over the past few years, we have transitioned hundreds of assets to our strongest operating partners. While these transitions can be challenging and occasionally near time dilutive. They have proven to be tremendously successful with new operators generating significantly more cash flow from the previous operator.

第三，輕資本交易。在過去幾年裡，我們已將數百項資產轉移給我們最強大的營運合作夥伴。儘管這些轉變可能具有挑戰性並且有時會縮短時間。事實證明，他們取得了巨大的成功，新營運商從之前的營運商那裡獲得了更多的現金流。

For example, the Canadian portfolio, which we transitioned from Revera to Cogir at the end of 2023, witnessed approximately 800 basis points of occupancy growth since we announced the transition. In 2024, we have also transitioned 68 properties from triple-net to RIDEA structures, allowing our shareholders to directly participate in the underlying cash flow growth of the communities. Since I spoke with you last quarter, we agreed to convert an additional 16 high-quality senior housing communities from triple-net to RIDEA. We'll continue to mine for opportunities for further capital light transactions.

例如，我們在 2023 年底從 Revera 過渡到 Cogir 的加拿大投資組合自我們宣布過渡以來，入住率增加了約 800 個基點。2024 年，我們也將 68 處房產從三重淨資產結構轉變為 RIDEA 結構，讓我們的股東直接參與社區的基礎現金流成長。自從我上個季度與您交談以來，我們同意將另外 16 個高品質老年住宅社區從三重淨社區轉變為 RIDEA。我們將繼續尋找進一步輕資本交易的機會。

Number four, digital transformation driving unprecedented structural change. John and his team continue to make extraordinary progress on the build-out of the first true end-to-end operating platform in the senior housing sector. And as we discussed on the last call, our efforts to digitally transform the business are beginning to bear fruit. As we went live with our tech platform in the first set of properties in third quarter and subsequently rolled it out to additional communities in Q4 and then in Q1 of this year. Implementation of tech stack is just one example of countless opportunities to improve virtually every element of senior housing business to enhance resident and employee experience.

第四，數位轉型推動前所未有的結構性變革。約翰和他的團隊在老年住房領域第一個真正的端到端營運平台的建設中繼續取得非凡的進展。正如我們在上次電話會議上討論的那樣，我們為業務數位轉型所做的努力已開始取得成果。我們於第三季在第一批房產中推出了我們的技術平台，並在第四季和今年第一季將其推廣到更多社區。技術堆疊的實施只是無數機會中的一個例子，可以改善老年住房業務的幾乎每個要素，以增強居民和員工的體驗。

Number five, our unleveraged balance sheet. 12 months ago, I mentioned that we will continue to experience further organic deleveraging of our balance sheet given our expectation for outsized cash flow growth. Higher-than-expected cash flow growth and tactical funding of our capital deployment activity has driven a further reduction of our net debt to adjusted EBITDA to just 3.5 times. Thus, we have created even greater debt capacity to tap into to fund external growth, further amplifying our out-year growth prospects.

第五，我們的無槓桿資產負債表。 12 個月前，我提到，鑑於我們對超額現金流成長的預期，我們將繼續經歷資產負債表的進一步有機去槓桿。高於預期的現金流量成長和我們資本配置活動的戰術融資推動我們的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 的比率進一步減少至僅 3.5 倍。因此，我們創造了更大的債務能力來資助外部成長，進一步擴大了我們未來的成長前景。

Due to this massive debt capacity, coupled with $9 billion of liquidity and our reputation for being a clean shot in an industry where retreading counterparties is the norm, we continue to get first call from market participants when they need liquidity. We can run our deal business in an old-fashioned Ben Franklin way because of our exceptional balance sheet strength.

由於我們擁有如此巨大的債務能力，再加上 90 億美元的流動性，以及我們在重複交易對手是常態的行業中一擊必殺的聲譽，當市場參與者需要流動性時，我們仍然會首先接到他們的電話。由於我們出色的資產負債表實力，我們可以按照傳統富蘭克林的方式開展交易業務。

A couple of weeks ago, we added a sixth pillar, and that's the launch of our private funds management business. While we cannot provide any more details until the conclusion of this process, we believe this new pillar will result in significant revenue opportunities for Welltower shareholders. The funds business also represents our first foray into creating a capital-light monetization of our data science platform.

幾週前，我們增加了第六個支柱，那就是推出私募基金管理業務。雖然我們無法在過程結束之前提供更多細節，但我們相信這一新支柱將為 Welltower 股東帶來巨大的收入機會。基金業務也代表我們首次嘗試實現數據科學平台的輕資本貨幣化。

To conclude, I'm pleased with our execution in 2024. We have an exciting and frankly, very busy year in front of us in every aspect of our business, rarely within an industry to cyclical, secular and structural growth drivers come together to deliver a positive net vector leaping emergent effect that is unfolding at Welltower. Our business is bustling with positive energy, ingenuity, vitality and new ideas to create per-share value for our existing investors. While the outlook for commercial real estate remains foggy, in some cases, gloomy, with ongoing malaise due to higher interest rate environment, it is a clear and bright morning at Welltower.

總而言之，我對我們 2024 年的執行感到滿意。坦白說，我們即將迎來激動人心且非常忙碌的一年，在業務的各個方面，在一個行業中，週期性、長期性和結構性增長動力很少會匯聚在一起，從而產生積極的淨矢量跳躍式湧現效應，而這種現象正在 Welltower 身上顯現。我們的業務充滿正能量、獨創性、活力和新想法，為現有投資者創造每股價值。儘管商業房地產的前景仍然不明朗，在某些情況下甚至令人沮喪，並且由於較高的利率環境而持續低迷，但 Welltower 的早晨卻晴朗明亮。

And with that, I'll hand the call over to John. John?

說完這些，我會把電話交給約翰。約翰？

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. 2024 was another fantastic year for Welltower. And based on our recent results and outlook, there appears to be no abatement in the momentum we're experiencing. For the fourth quarter, we posted total portfolio same-store NOI growth of 12.8%, driven by our senior housing operating portfolio growth of 23.9%.

謝謝大家，早安。 2024 年對 Welltower 來說又是輝煌的一年。根據我們最近的結果和展望，我們所經歷的勢頭似乎沒有減弱。第四季度，我們公佈的總投資組合同店淨營業利潤成長了 12.8%，這得益於老年住房營運投資組合成長了 23.9%。

I'll first comment on the outpatient medical business, which remained stable in the quarter with year-over-year same-store NOI growth of 2%, at some level, the business is boring. And yet at another level, it's incredibly stable, backed by top credit tenants with long-term leases delivering consistent returns. Occupancy during the period was consistent at an industry-leading 94.3% and tenant retention remained strong at 93.6%. As for 2025, we expect another year of stable same-store NOI growth of 2% to 3%.

我首先評論一下門診醫療業務，該業務本季保持穩定，同店淨營運收入年增 2%，從某種程度上來說，這項業務有些無趣。但從另一個層面來看，它非常穩定，有頂級信用租戶作為後盾，透過長期租約帶來持續的回報。本期間的入住率穩定在業界領先的 94.3%，租戶保留率仍維持在 93.6% 的強勁水準。展望 2025 年，我們預期同店淨營業利潤將穩定成長 2% 至 3%。

Turning to the senior housing operating portfolio, our streak of unprecedented growth continues, having now posted nine consecutive quarters in which same-store NOI growth has exceeded 20%. We are particularly pleased with the better-than-expected occupancy ramp during the quarter, which equated to 310 basis points of year-over-year growth.

談到老年住房營運組合，我們前所未有的成長動能仍在繼續，連續 9 個季度實現同店淨營業利潤成長率超過 20%。我們對本季入住率增幅好於預期感到特別高興，入住率年增 310 個基點。

I would also note that the 120 basis points of sequential occupancy growth, which Shankh mentioned, was one of the strongest we have witnessed in any quarter outside the post-COVID recovery. For this strength to be witnessed during a seasonally slow period of the year is a testament to not only to the tailwinds driven driving the business, but especially to our proactive and dedicated asset management initiatives, which I'll detail shortly.

我還要指出的是，Shankh 提到的連續入住率成長 120 個基點，是我們在新冠疫情復甦以外的任何季度中見證的最強勁增長之一。在一年中的季節性淡季能夠見證這種強勁勢頭，不僅證明了推動業務發展的順風，尤其證明了我們積極主動和專注的資產管理舉措，我將在稍後詳細介紹。

Revenue growth was strong across property types, but we witnessed particular strength at the two ends of the acuity spectrum between our assisted living and wellness housing portfolios. In terms of pricing power, as I noted last quarter, rate growth remains healthy, and we expect another year of favorable growth in 2025.

各類房地產的收入成長都很強勁，但我們在輔助生活和健康住房投資組合的敏銳度範圍的兩端看到了特別強勁的成長勢頭。在定價能力方面，正如我上個季度指出的那樣，利率成長仍然健康，我們預計 2025 年將再次實現有利的成長。

On the micro level, rate growth is clearly impacted by occupancy level by unit type at each community, amongst other factors. Therefore, as the assets in the portfolio lease up, their market rate will continue to rise to reflect the value proposition provided.

從微觀層面來看，房價成長顯然受到每個社區單位類型的入住率等因素的影響。因此，隨著投資組合中的資產租賃，其市場利率將繼續上升，以反映所提供的價值主張。

It's important to realize that the senior housing business is very different than the multifamily business when it comes to funding the payments. The payments are generally funded mostly by assets for the relatively short period of time residents are staying at our communities, on average, about two years compared to the multifamily industry, where rental rates are limited by earned income.

重要的是要認識到，在支付資金方面，老年住房業務與多戶住房業務有很大不同。這些付款通常主要由資產資助，因為居民在我們社區居住的時間相對較短，平均約為兩年，而多戶型行業的租金受勞動收入限制。

I'd also note that the exponential rise in the value of homes, equity and fixed income securities and other assets over the past 50 years has provided many seniors in our markets the ability to comfortably afford the cost of senior living, which is much more efficient than home care, not to mention other benefits of senior living, including safer, social and active lifestyles and peace of mind for families.

我還要指出的是，過去 50 年來，房屋、股票、固定收益證券和其他資產的價值呈指數級增長，使我們市場上的許多老年人能夠輕鬆負擔老年生活的費用，這比家庭護理效率高得多，更不用說老年生活的其他好處，包括更安全、更社交、更積極的生活方式以及家人的安心。

Moving to expenses. We remain encouraged by the trends which we are observing across all line items, but particularly with respect to labor. This is best reflected by ComPOR, or compensation per occupied room, which increased just 1.2% year-over-year, representing one of the lowest levels of growth in our recorded history. This is largely a function of the significant operating leverage inherent in the business, whereby most communities are now either fully staffed or approaching those levels. And as occupancy continues to grow, the need to add additional staff has moderated, leading to higher flow-through or incremental margin.

轉向費用。我們對所有項目中觀察到的趨勢感到鼓舞，特別是在勞動力方面。最能體現這一點的是 ComPOR，即每間客房報酬，它同比僅增長了 1.2%，是我們記錄歷史上最低的增長水平之一。這在很大程度上是由於業務中固有的巨大營運槓桿的作用，現在大多數社區都已配備齊全的人員或接近這一水平。隨著入住率不斷提高，新增員工的需求已經減緩，從而帶來了更高的流轉利潤或增量利潤。

The benefit of the building occupancy continues to be reflected in our operating margins, which expanded 320 basis points year-over-year, the second highest level achieved in our history. While we have witnessed a substantial recovery in margins over the past few years, we believe that the runway for further margin expansion remains long. Not only will we still -- not only are we still well below pre-COVID levels of profitability, but given our expectation for RevPOR growth to continue to outpace ExpPOR, we expect this margin expansion trend to persist well into the future.

大樓入住率帶來的好處持續反映在我們的營業利潤率上，營業利潤率年增 320 個基點，創下歷史第二高水準。儘管我們在過去幾年中見證了利潤率的大幅回升，但我們認為利潤率進一步擴大的道路仍然很長。我們不僅仍將——不僅我們的獲利水平仍遠低於新冠疫情之前的水平，而且鑑於我們預計 RevPOR 成長將繼續超過 ExpPOR，我們預計這種利潤率擴張趨勢將持續到未來。

Additionally, the operating platform initiatives, which are well underway to optimize our business should serve to further boost our margins while also improving the resident and employee experience. This is no different than what has been experienced over the last two to three decades in many other property types across the commercial real estate universe.

此外，我們正在順利實施的營運平台計劃旨在優化我們的業務，進一步提高我們的利潤率，同時改善居民和員工的體驗。這與過去二三十年商業房地產領域許多其他類型的房地產所經歷的情況沒有什麼不同。

On to our operating platform. We made great strides in 2024, building a capital team with internal expertise capable of directly executing and/or working hand-in-hand with our operators and vendors. The results has been fantastic. For example, in one case, our elevator experts stepped in and corrected the scope of work related to nine buildings, recognizing a reduction of 49% in the cost of the work.

進入我們的操作平台。我們在 2024 年取得了長足的進步，建立了一支擁有內部專業知識的資本團隊，能夠直接執行和/或與我們的營運商和供應商攜手合作。結果非常棒。例如，在一個案例中，我們的電梯專家介入並糾正了與九棟建築相關的工作範圍，並實現工作成本降低 49%。

It's critical as an owner of real estate to have internal expertise and not be forced to rely on vendors to effectively run the capital decisions on the properties often making short-term decisions. The team has been strategically taking advantage of the vacant units available as our occupancy continues to rapidly increase to renovate the units in advance of the increasing demand in the coming years.

作為房地產所有者，擁有內部專業知識至關重要，而不能被迫依賴供應商來有效地執行房地產的資本決策，而往往做出短期決策。由於我們的入住率持續快速增長，該團隊一直在策略性地利用可用的空置單元，以便在未來幾年需求不斷增長之前對這些單元進行翻新。

Additionally, they have been executing numerous exterior renovations at our communities and modernizing the amenities where appropriate, including creating wonderful employee break rooms delighting our critical team members. The positive impact on our site employees cannot be understated. In one case, on a property visit, the employees hosted a small surprise party for me, including a special song and dance they had created in appreciation of Welltower's work.

此外，他們還對我們的社區進行了大量外部裝修，並在適當的地方對設施進行了現代化改造，包括創建美妙的員工休息室，讓我們的重要團隊成員感到高興。對我們現場員工的正面影響不可小覷。有一次，在參觀飯店時，員工們為我舉辦了一個小型驚喜派對，包括他們為感謝 Welltower 的工作而創作的特別歌舞。

After having put $20 billion of capital to work over the last four years and converting over 100 triple net leases to RIDEA, the capital team is rapidly executing capital plans for the acquired and transitioned buildings, which is a combination of value-add as well as planned capital. Our value-add investment program, like all investments at Welltower is based on an unlevered IRR hurdle. As I've mentioned previously, we expect elevated capital spend for a period of ultimately period of time, ultimately lowering to the ongoing capital run rate, which should be consistent with other residential properties such as the multifamily REITs.

在過去四年中投入 200 億美元資本並將超過 100 份三重淨租約轉換為 RIDEA 之後，資本團隊正在迅速執行對所收購和轉型建築的資本計劃，這是增值和計劃資本的結合。我們的增值投資計劃與 Welltower 的所有投資一樣，都基於無槓桿 IRR 障礙。正如我之前提到的，我們預計在最終的一段時間內資本支出會增加，最終會降低到持續資本運作率，這應該與其他住宅物業（如多戶型房地產投資信託基金）保持一致。

On the technical front, we are in rollout phase with our main site level platform, and my team is hard at work with many other related workflows that will continue to improve the customer and employee experience and improve the margins of our business.

在技​​術方面，我們的主要站點級平台正處於推廣階段，我的團隊正在努力開展許多其他相關工作流程，以繼續改善客戶和員工體驗並提高我們業務的利潤率。

I'll reiterate what Shankh mentioned, 2025 should be another year of exceptional growth, and there's seemingly no end in sight. Fundamentals of the senior housing sector remain terrific, and our efforts to transform this business through the operating platform are having a profound impact on our residents, employees and operators with the true bottom-line impact soon to follow. As always, a huge thank you goes out to the Welltower team, including our operators for their tireless efforts to transform this business.

我重申 Shankh 提到的話，2025 年應該是另一個異常增長的一年，而且似乎看不到盡頭。老年住房產業的基本面仍然很好，我們透過營運平台轉變這項業務的努力正在對我們的居民、員工和營運商產生深遠的影響，真正的底線影響即將隨之而來。與往常一樣，我們衷心感謝 Welltower 團隊，包括我們的營運商，為改變這項業務所做的不懈努力。

Finally, I want to recognize the amazing efforts by our operators, site employees and Welltower employees responding to the recent disasters, including the Southern California wildfires where they evacuated, transported and relocated residents and provided furnished units to many seniors who lost their homes.

最後，我要讚揚我們的營運商、現場員工和 Welltower 員工在應對最近的災難方面所做的出色努力，包括南加州山火，他們疏散、運送和重新安置居民，並為許多失去家園的老年人提供帶家具的單元。

Thank you. With that, I'll turn the call over to Nikhil.

謝謝。說完這些，我會把電話轉給尼基爾。

Thanks, John. I'll start with a quick refresher on the market conditions, which continue to drive significant investment activity for us and then provide an overview of our 2024 transaction activity as well as color on our 2025 activity.

謝謝，約翰。我將首先快速回顧市場狀況，這些市場狀況將繼續推動我們的重大投資活動，然後概述我們的 2024 年交易活動以及 2025 年活動的前景。

The US commercial real estate debt market continues to face significant headwinds with substantial maturities in 2025 and in subsequent years. Total outstanding CRE debt stands at approximately $5.9 trillion with $1 trillion of loans coming due in 2025. This compares to maturities of $700 million in 2023 and $950 million in 2024, without coming maturities exceeding $1 trillion in each year through 2028.

美國商業房地產債務市場持續面臨重大阻力，2025 年及隨後幾年將有大量債務到期。目前未償還的商業房地產債務總額約為 5.9 兆美元，其中 1 兆美元的貸款將於 2025 年到期。相較之下，2023 年到期的債券金額為 7 億美元，2024 年到期的債券金額為 9.5 億美元，而且到 2028 年，每年到期的債券金額都不會超過 1 兆美元。

Banks hold just over 50% of this CRE debt with regional banks holding a disproportionate share of roughly 2/3 of these loans. These regional banks, which are some of the largest lenders to the seniors housing sector, continue to face significant challenges due to persistently high long-term interest rates hampering refinancing efforts. This is illustrated by the fact that regional banks with less than $100 billion in assets experienced 3 times as many loan modifications in the second half of 2024 compared to the first half. Higher long-term rates further compound issues for these lenders due to larger unrealized security losses on their balance sheet. This struggle is evident in the stock performance of regional banks.

銀行持有此類 CRE 債務的 50% 多一點，而地區性銀行持有的份額更大，約佔這些貸款的 2/3。這些地區性銀行是老年人住房領域最大的貸款機構之一，由於長期利率居高不下阻礙了再融資努力，它們繼續面臨重大挑戰。可以證明這一點的是，資產規模少於 1,000 億美元的地區性銀行在 2024 年下半年經歷的貸款修改次數是上半年的 3 倍。由於資產負債表上未實現的擔保損失較大，長期利率上升進一步加劇了這些貸款機構的問題。這種困境從地區銀行的股票表現可見一斑。

In 2024, the KBW Regional Banking Index underperformed the broader US Bank Index by 29% and the S&P 500 by 12%. Looking at other major lenders, GSEs hold the next highest share at 17% of total CRE debt. I have previously mentioned that over one-third of the seniors housing loans on Fannie Mae's book are criticized and their original -- origination volume is at historic lows. In addition, potential policy changes further complicate the situation with the GSEs going forward.

2024 年，KBW 區域銀行指數的表現比美國銀行指數低 29%，比標準普爾 500 指數低 12%。縱觀其他主要貸款機構，政府支援企業 (GSE) 的比例位居第二，為 CRE 債務總額的 17%。我之前提到過，房利美帳面上超過三分之一的老年人房屋貸款受到批評，其原始發放量處於歷史最低水平。此外，潛在的政策變化使政府支持企業未來的處境更加複雜。

The CMBS market, which accounts for the next highest concentration of CRE debt continues to be similarly fickle as evidenced by a consistent monthly increase in the percentage of loans subject to special servicing throughout 2024. Putting all of this together, the banks and other lenders have grown increasingly reluctant to extend loans and remain extremely selective in the limited instances in which they do.

CMBS 市場是 CRE 債務集中度第二高的市場，其波動性同樣巨大，2024 年全年需要特殊服務的貸款比例每月持續增加便是明證。綜合上述因素，銀行和其他貸款機構越來越不願意發放貸款，並且在有限的貸款發放情況下仍然極其謹慎。

Against this backdrop, we find ourselves in an extraordinary market environment, where many industry participants are compelled to divest assets, allowing us to acquire high-quality properties at attractive valuations.

在這樣的背景下，我們發現自己處於一個特殊的市場環境中，許多行業參與者被迫剝離資產，這使我們能夠以有吸引力的估值收購優質的資產。

Our competitive advantage stems from a powerful combination of three factors. First, our industry-leading data science platform efficiently identifies the most compelling opportunities from large data sets enabling rapid market response. Second, our team's expertise in swift and effective underwriting and due diligence. And third, the scalability of our operating partners efforts bolstered by John's robust operating platform.

我們的競爭優勢源自於三個因素的強大組合。首先，我們領先業界的數據科學平台能夠有效地從大型數據集中識別最引人注目的機會，從而實現快速的市場響應。第二，我們團隊擁有快速有效的核保和盡職調查的專業知識。第三，約翰強大的營運平台增強了我們營運合作夥伴努力的可擴展性。

This synergy creates an enviable flywheel effect for Welltower, positioning us to capitalize on market dislocations. While we don't have a crystal ball, due to the factors that I have mentioned, we anticipate these favorable conditions will persist for the foreseeable future, providing a sustained pipeline of attractive investment opportunities.

這種協同作用為 Welltower 創造了令人羨慕的飛輪效應，使我們能夠利用市場錯位。雖然我們沒有水晶球，但由於我提到的因素，我們預計這些有利條件將在可預見的未來持續存在，從而提供持續的具有吸引力的投資機會。

Moving on to our transaction activity. 2024 marked Welltower's most active year as we completed $7 billion of gross investment activity, comprising approximately of $900 million of development spend and just over $6 billion of acquisitions in loan funding. Our acquisition activity spanned 54 different transactions with a median transaction size of $48 million. Through these transactions, we acquired more than 12,000 units across 119 properties, with an average basis of $265,000 per unit for these properties at an average age of eight years, we acquired these assets at a substantial discount to replacement cost. In the fourth quarter, our acquisition and loan funding activity totaled $2.2 billion across 21 different transactions.

繼續我們的交易活動。 2024 年是 Welltower 最活躍的一年，我們完成了 70 億美元的總投資活動，其中包括約 9 億美元的開發支出和略高於 60 億美元的貸款融資收購。我們的收購活動涵蓋 54 筆不同的交易，平均交易規模為 4,800 萬美元。透過這些交易，我們在 119 處房產中收購了超過 12,000 個單元，這些房產的平均基礎價格為每單元 265,000 美元，平均使用年限為 8 年，我們以遠低於重置成本的價格收購了這些資產。第四季度，我們的收購和貸款融資活動總額達 22 億美元，涉及 21 筆不同的交易。

After a relatively muted international investment activity in 2022 and '23, roughly one-third of our acquisition activity in '24 was represented by our international business, including our expanded partnership with Care UK completed in the fourth quarter, which represented roughly half of our investment activity for the quarter. Our relationship with Care UK dates back to late 2021 when we transitioned 26 former Sunrise and Gracewell communities to Care UK. Since then, occupancy has improved by more than 10% under Care UK's management and monthly NOI has doubled.

在 2022 年和 2023 年國際投資活動相對低迷之後，2024 年我們約三分之一的收購活動來自國際業務，其中包括我們在第四季度完成的與 Care UK 的擴大合作夥伴關係，這約占我們本季投資活動的一半。我們與 Care UK 的關係可以追溯到 2021 年底，當時我們將 26 個前 Sunrise 和 Gracewell 社區過渡到 Care UK。自那時起，在 Care UK 的管理下，入住率提高了 10% 以上，每月 NOI 翻了一番。

Under Andrew and Matt's leadership, the Care UK team has achieved this success by delighting their customers and providing exceptional service as demonstrated by a good or outstanding CQC rating for each of the original 26 homes. Following our recent transaction in which the Care UK management team acquired the management platform from Bridgepoint, our partnership with Care UK now spans 72 communities across the UK.

在安德魯 (Andrew) 和馬特 (Matt) 的領導下，Care UK 團隊透過取悅客戶和提供卓越的服務取得了這一成功，最初的 26 家護理之家均獲得了良好或優秀的 CQC 評級。繼我們最近的交易中 Care UK 管理團隊從 Bridgepoint 收購了管理平台之後，我們與 Care UK 的合作現已覆蓋英國 72 個社區。

Moving on to 2025. The beginning of this year has been unprecedented in terms of acquisition activity. We have not seen such activity in my nearly decade-long career at Welltower. In less than 45 days, we have already closed on or have under contract an incremental $2 billion of acquisitions expected to be acquired on our balance sheet across 27 different transactions.

邁向 2025 年。今年年初的收購活動是前所未有的。在我近十年的 Welltower 職業生涯中，我們從未見過這樣的活動。在不到 45 天的時間裡，我們已經完成或簽訂了增量為 20 億美元的收購合同，預計將透過 27 筆不同的交易在我們的資產負債表上實現。

Thematically, these transactions continue our activity from last year, predominantly focused on our seniors and wellness housing businesses. One-third of this activity is across our international business in the UK and Canada, and approximately 85% of these $2 billion in transactions were negotiated on an off-market basis.

從主題上看，這些交易延續了我們去年的活動，主要集中在老年人和健康住房業務。其中三分之一的活動是在英國和加拿大的國際業務中進行的，這 20 億美元的交易中約有 85% 是在場外進行談判的。

This robust activity underscores our position as the preferred counterparty for those seeking certainty and rapid execution in the current challenging cat markets environment. Our ability to close such a significant volume of transactions in a short time frame demonstrates our strong market position and efficient deal-making capabilities.

這項強勁活動強調了我們作為在當前充滿挑戰的巨災市場環境中尋求確定性和快速執行的人士的首選交易對手的地位。我們能夠在短時間內完成如此大量的交易，證明了我們強大的市場地位和高效的交易能力。

Our transaction model is simple. Acquired communities in our targeted micro-markets, continue to build on our regional density with our aligned operating partners in those markets and treat our counterparties with fairness and respect. It's no surprise that as soon as we complete a transaction, the conversation with the counterparty often quickly moves on to engaging on a subsequent tranche. This is evidenced by the fact that more than two-thirds of our $2 billion in investment activity so far in 2025 is with counterparties with whom we have previously done business since the start of pandemic. This fair and win-win approach gives our platform immense duration and positions us for continued success in the years to come.

我們的交易模式很簡單。我們在目標微型市場中收購的社區，繼續與這些市場中一致的營運合作夥伴一起擴大我們的區域密度，並公平和尊重地對待我們的交易對手。毫不奇怪的是，一旦我們完成一筆交易，與交易對手的對話通常就會迅速轉向後續部分的討論。事實證明，到 2025 年為止，我們的 20 億美元投資活動中，超過三分之二是與自疫情開始以來就與我們有過業務往來的交易對手進行的。這種公平雙贏的方法使我們的平台具有極長的使用壽命，並使我們在未來幾年繼續取得成功。

I will now pass the call over to Tim to cover our operating results and guidance for 2025.

現在我將把電話轉給提姆，讓他介紹我們的 2025 年營運表現和預期。

Thank you, Nikhil. My comments today will focus on our fourth quarter and full year 2024 results. Performance of our triple net investment segments, our capital activity, a balance sheet and liquidity update and finally, the introduction of our full year 2025 outlook.

謝謝你，尼基爾。我今天的評論將集中於我們的第四季和 2024 年全年業績。我們的三重淨投資部門的表現、我們的資本活動、資產負債表和流動性更新，以及最後我們對 2025 年全年展望的介紹。

Welltower reported fourth quarter net income attributable to common stockholders of $0.19 per diluted share and normalized funds from operations of $1.13 per diluted share, representing 17.7% year-over-year growth. We also reported year-over-year total portfolio same-store NOI growth of 12.8%.

Welltower 公佈第四季歸屬於普通股股東的淨利為每股攤薄 0.19 美元，每股攤薄正常化營運資金為 1.13 美元，較去年同期成長 17.7%。我們也報告稱，總投資組合同店淨營業收入年增 12.8%。

Now turning to the performance of our triple net properties in the quarter. And as a reminder, our triple-net lease portfolio coverage stats reported a quarter in arrears. So these statistics reflect the trailing 12 months ending 9/30/2024. In our senior housing operating -- our senior housing triple net portfolio, same-store NOI increased 5.1% year-over-year and trailing 12-month EBITDA coverage was 1.12 times, marking a new post-COVID high in coverage. Coverage in this portfolio continues to strengthen, now well exceeding pre-pandemic levels, as fundamentals align with those of our operating portfolio, a trend we expect to persist in 2025.

現在來談談本季我們三重淨資產的表現。提醒一下，我們的三重淨租賃組合覆蓋率統計數據顯示，有一個季度的欠款。因此，這些統計數據反映的是截至 2024 年 9 月 30 日的過去 12 個月的情況。在我們的老年住房營運—我們的老年住房三重淨投資組合中，同店淨營業收入年增 5.1%，過去 12 個月的 EBITDA 覆蓋率為 1.12 倍，創下新冠疫情後覆蓋率新高。由於基本面與我們的營運組合基本面一致，該投資組合的覆蓋範圍持續增強，目前已遠遠超過疫情前的水平，我們預計這一趨勢將持續到 2025 年。

During the quarter, we finalized agreements to transition 16 [sigor]-operated properties from triple net to RIDEA, effective in the first quarter, bringing the total triple-net RIDEA transitions in 2024 to 68 properties. Consistent with our strategy over the past two years, these conversions are expected to be highly accretive over time as Welltower assumes an equity position and these assets continue to benefit from the recovering fundamentals and industry's long-term secular growth. For this operator specifically, the transition also unifies our entire relationship under RIDEA's structure, ensuring complete alignment across our relationship. Next, same-store NOI, our long-term post-acute portfolio grew 2.6% year-over-year and trailing 12-month EBITDA coverage was 1.58 times.

在本季度，我們最終達成協議，將 16 個 [sigor] 營運的物業從三重淨資產轉換為 RIDEA，該協議將於第一季生效，使 2024 年三重淨資產 RIDEA 轉換總數達到 68 處。與我們過去兩年的策略一致，隨著 Welltower 承擔股權地位並且這些資產繼續受益於基本面的復甦和行業的長期增長，這些轉換預計將隨著時間的推移而高度增值。具體來說，對於這家營運商而言，此次轉型也將我們的整個關係統一在 RIDEA 的架構下，確保我們的關係完全一致。接下來，同店 NOI，我們的長期急性後投資組合年增 2.6%，過去 12 個月的 EBITDA 覆蓋率為 1.58 倍。

Moving on to capital activity. We continue to equity finance our investment activity in the quarter, raising $2.2 billion of gross proceeds. This allowed us to fund $2.2 billion of investment activity and end the quarter with $3.7 billion of cash restricted cash on the balance sheet.

繼續進行資本活動。本季我們繼續為投資活動進行股權融資，籌集了 22 億美元的總收益。這使我們能夠為 22 億美元的投資活動提供資金，並在本季末資產負債表上擁有 37 億美元的現金受限現金。

Staying with the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 3.49 times, a 1.5 turn decrease from the end of 2023.

從資產負債表來看，本季末我們的淨負債與調整後 EBITDA 比率為 3.49 倍，比 2023 年底下降了 1.5 倍。

We intend to use cash on hand to fund both the additional $2 billion of net investment activity announced in last night's release and the $1.25 billion unsecured debt maturing in June. As a result, driven by accretive investment activity and continued cash flow growth from our in-place portfolio, we expect to finish the year with net debt to adjusted EBITDA at approximately 3.5 times.

我們打算使用手頭上的現金來資助昨晚宣布的額外 20 億美元淨投資活動以及 6 月到期的 12.5 億美元無擔保債務。因此，在不斷增值的投資活動和現有投資組合持續的現金流成長的推動下，我們預計今年年底的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 比率將達到約 3.5 倍。

Reflecting on 2024, the combination of organic cash flow recovery and disciplined financing of our external growth led to a historic strengthening of our balance sheet. The improving fundamentals of our business over the past two years have enabled us to deliver sector-leading per share cash flow growth to our shareholders while also harnessing the power of the early part of the cyclical recovery to build balance sheet capacity.

回顧 2024 年，有機現金流恢復與對外部成長的嚴格融資相結合，使我們的資產負債表實現了歷史性的加強。過去兩年來，我們業務基本面的不斷改善使我們能夠為股東實現行業領先的每股現金流增長，同時利用周期性復甦初期的力量來建立資產負債表能力。

Looking ahead, as the powerful demographic trends in the next two decades begin to unfold, we remain as confident as ever in our ability to capitalize on long-term high ROI investments in people, technology and both digital and physical infrastructure regardless of the capital market backdrop.

展望未來，隨著未來二十年強勁的人口趨勢開始顯現，無論資本市場背景如何，我們仍然一如既往地對自己的能力充滿信心，相信我們能夠從對人才、技術以及數位和實體基礎設施的長期高投資回報率投資中獲益。

Lastly, as I turn to our initial 2025 guidance, which was introduced last night, I want to remind you that we have not included any investment activity in our outlook beyond the $2 billion that has been closed or publicly announced to date. Last night, we introduced a full year 2025 outlook for net income attributable to common stockholders of $1.60 to $1.76 per share and normalized FFO of $4.79 to $4.95 per diluted share or $4.87 at the midpoint.

最後，當我談到昨晚發布的 2025 年初步指導時，我想提醒您，除了迄今為止已完成或公開宣布的 20 億美元之外，我們的展望中尚未包括任何投資活動。昨晚，我們發布了 2025 年全年預期，即歸屬於普通股股東的淨利潤為每股 1.60 美元至 1.76 美元，標準化 FFO 為每股攤薄收益 4.79 美元至 4.95 美元，中間值為 4.87 美元。

Our normalized FFO guidance represents a $0.55 increase at the midpoint from our 2024 full year results. This increase is composed of a $0.42 increase from higher year-over-year senior housing operating NOI, $0.03 increase from higher NOI in our outpatient medical and triple net lease portfolios, a $0.20 increase from investment and financing activity and the $0.65 of growth is netted against $0.10 of offsets, made up of $0.06 from increased G&A and other expenses and $0.04 from FX headwinds.

我們的標準化 FFO 指引比 2024 年全年業績中位數增加 0.55 美元。這一增長包括：老年住房營業淨運營收入年增 0.42 美元，門診醫療和三重淨租賃組合淨運營收入增加 0.03 美元，投資和融資活動增加 0.20 美元，以及 0.65 美元的增長與 0.10 美元的抵消額，其中包括 0.06 美元的 G&A 和其他費用增加以及 0.04 美元的外匯不利因素。

Underlying this FFO guidance is an estimate of total portfolio year-over-year same-store NOI growth of 9.25% to 13%, driven by subsegment growth of outpatient medical, 2% to 3%; long-term post-acute, 2% to 3%; senior housing triple net, 3% to 4%; and finally, senior housing operating growth of 15% to 21%. This is driven by the following midpoint of the respective ranges. Revenue growth of 8.5%, made up of RevPOR growth of 4.8% and year-over-year occupancy growth of 325 basis points and expense growth of 5%.

此 FFO 指引的基礎是預計總投資組合年比同店 NOI 成長將達到 9.25% 至 13%，這得益於門診醫療細分市場的成長（成長 2% 至 3%）；長期急性後，2% 至 3%；老年住房三重淨利率，3%至4%；最後，老年住房營運成長率將達到15%至21%。這是由以下各自範圍的中點驅動的。營收成長 8.5%，其中 RevPOR 成長 4.8%、入住率年增 325 個基點，費用成長 5%。

And with that, I'll hand the call back over to Shankh.

說完這些，我會把電話轉回給 Shankh。

Before we go to Q&A, I want to touch on three topics that appear to be unrelated on the surface. Number one, CapEx and capital team. As John mentioned on the last couple of calls, he has built a 100-or-so person capital team at Welltower, creating internal capital and value-add expertise as part of our build-out of our operating platform. This has helped us to become a real operating business focused on total life cycle cost over a long duration, not a deal shop that write checks.

在我們進入問答環節之前，我想先談談三個表面上看似不相關的話題。第一，資本支出和資本團隊。正如約翰在最近幾次通話中提到的，他在 Welltower 建立了一個約 100 人的資本團隊，作為我們營運平台建設的一部分，創造內部資本和增值專業知識。這幫助我們成為一家真正專注於長期總生命週期成本的營運企業，而不是一家開支票的交易商店。

We put a few pictures of the team's work towards the end of our business update. I want to draw your attention to those because I want you to see philosophically what are we trying to achieve. For example, look at our efforts to build what I call Costco breakrooms. The site level employees at our communities work really hard, and we're trying to give them a really inviting and rejuvenating experience when they take their break. In 2024, we finished more than 80 of these breakrooms. While some of you might legitimately see this as expenditure, we see this as an important step to hire and retain talent.

我們在業務更新的最後放了幾張團隊工作的照片。我想提請你們注意這些，因為我想讓你們從哲學上了解我們想要實現的目標。例如，看看我們為建造所謂的 Costco 休息室所做的努力。我們社區的現場員工工作非常努力，我們正努力為他們在休息時提供真正令人愉悅和精神煥發的體驗。2024年，我們完成了80多個這樣的休息室。雖然你們中的一些人可能合理地認為這是支出，但我們認為這是聘用和留住人才的重要一步。

I was recently reading a book on Walt Disney called Remembering Walt that talks about how Walt wanted to build a 120-feet tunnel of a railroad on a long S-curve as he liked mystery and love delighting his customers to joy and wonder. The foreman on the job suggested to him that it was way cheaper to build its straight. Walt said, it's cheaper not to build at all. The only way you make lots of money for your shareholders over a long period of time is having a killer customer value proposition.

我最近在讀一本關於華特迪士尼的書，名為《記住華特》，書中講述了華特如何想在一條長長的 S 形曲線上建造一條 120 英尺長的鐵路隧道，因為他喜歡神秘感並喜歡讓顧客感到快樂和驚奇。工頭向他建議，直接建一條路會便宜很多。沃特說，根本不要建，否則更便宜。長期內為股東賺取大量金錢的唯一方法就是擁有一個殺手級的客戶價值主張。

In our business, our residents first line of interaction, leading to that value proposition are site-level employees. We cannot delight our customers without delighting the site-level employees. If you don't believe me, please study the breakrooms at Costco and Jim Sinegal's philosophy: take care of your employees, and they will take care of your business. You will understand why that company is such a long-term compounding machine.

在我們的業務中，與居民互動的第一線，以及實現這項價值主張的是現場級員工。如果現場員工不滿意，我們就無法取悅我們的客戶。如果您不相信我，請研究一下 Costco 的休息室和 Jim Sinegal 的哲學：照顧好您的員工，他們就會照顧好您的業務。你將會理解為何那家公司是如此一台長期複合成長機器。

Number two, technology platform. When we talk about technology at Welltower, we mean two completely different things that sometimes get conflated. One is our data science platform and the other is our operational tech platform. Our data science efforts go back almost a decade that started with machine learning focused on structured data and then deep learning towards the end of last decade, focusing on unstructured data and finally, powered by AI in the last few years. While we'll perhaps never win a prize for coming up with a new frontier model, our goal is to harness the power of these incredible technology advances in human history to make the right capital allocation decisions. In other words, we're trying to disrupt how capital gets invested in world's largest asset class called real estate.

第二，技術平台。當我們在 Welltower 談論技術時，我們指的是兩種完全不同的東西，而且它們有時會混淆。一個是我們的數據科學平台，另一個是我們的營運技術平台。我們的數據科學工作可以追溯到近十年前，一開始是專注於結構化數據的機器學習，然後在上個十年末轉向深度學習，然後專注於非結構化數據，最後在過去幾年由人工智慧驅動。雖然我們可能永遠不會因為提出新前沿模型而獲獎，但我們的目標是利用人類歷史上這些令人難以置信的技術進步的力量來做出正確的資本配置決策。換句話說，我們正試圖顛覆資本對世界上最大的資產類別——房地產的投資方式。

On the other hand, our operational technology efforts, which goes back to John Burkart's arrival to digitize and professionalize the business is set to disrupt how senior living operates as an industry. When we are successful in the latter, it will make the former machine, our data science platform, even more powerful as it will feed every minute customer interaction data into our algorithms, not just transactional data and vice versa, creating a positive feedback loop.

另一方面，我們的營運技術努力可以追溯到約翰·伯卡特 (John Burkart) 上任以來為實現業務數位化和專業化而做出的努力，這將顛覆老年生活產業的運作方式。當我們在後者上取得成功時，它將使前者機器，即我們的數據科學平台更加強大，因為它會將每一分鐘的客戶交互數據（而不僅僅是交易數據）輸入到我們的演算法中，反之亦然，從而形成一個積極的反饋循環。

While the individual goal of both of these platforms is to set to challenge the status quo of two completely different industries, the philosophical underpinning is the same, and that stems from the second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics holds the greatest thermodynamic efficiencies achieved by working with the hottest possible source and the coldest possible sink. In other words, it is not about how fancy the underlying math or tech is, but the competitive niche where we're applying this where the contrast is the greatest. To put it simply, we found two easier games where the competitive dynamic is still focused on either labor beta financial engineering in case of real estate investing or fundamental assumptions that work in a low or declining interest rate environment or fly by site, not by instrument in case of senior living operations.

雖然這兩個平台各自的目標都是要挑戰兩個完全不同產業的現狀，但其哲學基礎是相同的，都源自於熱力學第二定律。熱力學第二定律認為，透過最熱的源和最冷的匯一起工作可以實現最大的熱力學效率。換句話說，重要的不是底層數學或技術有多麼花哨，而是我們應用它所處的競爭領域中對比最明顯的地方。簡而言之，我們發現了兩個比較簡單的遊戲，其中競爭動態仍然集中在房地產投資中的勞動力貝塔金融工程，或者在低利率或下降利率環境下起作用的基本假設，或者在老年生活運營中按地點而不是按工具飛行。

And finally, number three, people. I want to congratulate John Burkart, Nikhil, Tim, Matt, John Olympitis, Eddie and Patrick for their expanded role and promotions that we announced on January 2. It is perhaps the single most important release from this company in years.

最後，第三點，人。我要祝賀 John Burkart、Nikhil、Tim、Matt、John Olympitis、Eddie 和 Patrick，他們獲得了我們在 1 月 2 日宣布的擴大職位和晉升。這或許是該公司多年來發布的最重要的產品。

While I am not going to detail how their roles are expanding, which is described in the release, I would like to say I've never written something that I'm more proud of. I will not remember a bunch of deal offers I wrote during the Christmas break. I may even forget how freakishly good it felt seeing the occupancy growth during Christmas week, but I will never forget the pride I felt when I wrote that release during the holiday break. Many of these extraordinary leaders joined me as associates and analysts and today, they run this firm. Others have joined me later in to pursue this audacious dream to disrupt an industry or two. All these individuals have been instrumental in creating what is known as today as Welltower, buying laying one air tight break at a time with an outsider mindset.

雖然我不會詳細描述他們的角色是如何擴展的（這在新聞稿中有所描述），但我想說，我從未寫過如此令我感到自豪的東西。我不會記得我在聖誕假期期間寫的一大堆交易要約。我甚至可能忘記看到聖誕週入住率增長時那種異常愉快的感覺，但我永遠不會忘記假期期間寫這篇新聞稿時那種自豪感。許多傑出的領導者都曾經作為合夥人和分析師加入我的公司，現在他們管理著這家公司。後來其他人也加入了我，一起追尋這個大膽的夢想，顛覆一兩個產業。所有這些人都為創造如今的 Welltower 做出了重要貢獻，他們以局外人的心態，一步步打破障礙。

These exceptional leaders share two rare qualities that set them apart: the delayed gratification gene or an instinctive bias towards sacrificing immediate rewards for substantially larger future games; and two, fiduciary gene and innate desire to prioritize their owners' interest above their own. Their leadership has been instrumental in fostering an exceptional culture at our firm. The savvy leaders show up every day to win with quality such as a seamless way of deserve trust, shared sacrifices, unity of purpose, mirrored reciprocation. These seemingly mundaned qualities in the right combination create a Lollapalooza effect of a culture where everybody is fully committed. They go all in and they stay all in. You might be able to copy our deals, but you cannot copy our culture.

這些傑出的領導者都具有兩種罕見的特質：延遲滿足基因或本能地傾向於犧牲眼前的獎勵來換取未來更大的回報；二是受託基因和將所有者的利益置於自身利益之上的內在願望。他們的領導力對於培育我們公司的卓越文化起到了重要作用。精明的領導者每天都會以各種特質贏得勝利，例如無縫地贏得信任、共同犧牲、統一目標、鏡像回報。這些看似平凡的特質如果得到正確的組合，就會創造出一種 Lollapalooza 效應，即每個人都全心投入的文化。他們全力以赴，並堅持到底。你也許可以複製我們的交易，但你無法複製我們的文化。

So what do these seemingly disparate three items that I mentioned above, such as philosophy behind CapEx, technology, and people have in common? Two things. First, duration or otherwise known as longevity; and second, power law, otherwise known as exponential network effect. These two, duration and network effect, are the most foundational architectural principles of nature. And so they are the foundational backbone of our pursuit of target incremental, continuous progress of per-share growth for our existing investors for decades to come.

那麼，我上面提到的這三個看似不同的事物，例如資本支出背後的哲學、技術和人員，它們有什麼共同點？兩件事。第一，持續時間，或者說長壽；第二，冪律，又稱指數網路效應。持續時間和網路效應是大自然最基本的建築原理。因此，它們是我們在未來幾十年內追求現有投資者每股盈餘目標增量和持續成長的基礎支柱。

With that, I'll open the call up for questions.

現在，我將開始回答大家的提問。

(Operator Instructions) Vikram Malhotra, Mizuho.

(操作員指令) 維克拉姆‧馬洛特拉 (Vikram Malhotra)，瑞穗。

Congrats on the strong results. So I just had a two-parter just clarifying. Just one on fundamentals. Can you kind of give us a sense of the pricing power across occupancy bands within the SHO portfolio? And then related to the comments on the pipeline, do you mind sort of giving us a sense of the $2 billion in acquisitions and the pipeline itself? Like what are you acquiring -- what's the occupancy of what you're acquiring in that pipeline?

恭喜您取得如此優異的成績。所以我只想分成兩個部分來澄清一下。僅談基本面。您能否向我們介紹一下 SHO 投資組合中各個入住率區間的定價能力？然後有關管道的評論，您介意向我們介紹 20 億美元的收購和管道本身嗎？例如，您收購了什麼－您在該管道中收購的佔有率是多少？

Nikhil, do you want to start with the second?

尼基爾，你想從第二個開始嗎？

Yes, I'll start with the second one. Vikram, so as I said in the prepared remarks, it's really a continuation of what we've been buying. So it's similar metrics. The $2 billion we talked about it's low 80s occupancy generally newer vintage assets.

是的，我將從第二個開始。維克拉姆，正如我在準備好的發言中所說，這實際上是我們一直在購買的商品的延續。因此，這是類似的指標。我們談論的 20 億美元是 80 年代初期的入住率較低且一般較新的老式資產。

Vikram, on a second question, assets that are 90-plus percent occupied, the RevPOR growth has been well into the sixes. On the other hand, where the assets are below 70% occupied, they're roughly flat. So everything goes sort of in between. To give you a sense of gradients, I will say, maybe the 85% to 95% was closer to 6%. And as I said, below 70%, it was close to 5%, which would expect a different spectrum of occupancy.

Vikram，關於第二個問題，入住率超過 90% 的飯店，RevPOR 成長率已經達到 6%。另一方面，如果資產佔用率低於 70％，則基本上持平。所以所有事情都在中間進行。為了讓您對梯度有個概念，我想說，也許 85% 到 95% 更接近 6%。正如我所說的，低於 70%，接近 5%，這將導致不同的佔用率範圍。

I would just add that as of year-end, over a quarter of the portfolio is still sub-80% occupied.

我想補充一點，截至年底，超過四分之一的投資組合的佔用率仍低於 80%。

Jonathan Hughes, Raymond James.

喬納森·休斯、雷蒙·詹姆斯。

Thanks for the prepared remarks and commentary. The organic growth outlook, we know that remains strong, but I wanted to tie that into external growth in recent years. As we move through this development cycle and see increasing fewer deliveries, which is obviously a good thing for existing properties, does that make buying properties with lease-up more challenging? Is there fewer of them, which in turn would impact your growth as fewer get added to the same-store pool? So much of the outperformance in recent years has come from acquiring those newer vintage lease-up properties. And if we see less and less deliveries. Does it become more challenging to sustain growth?

感謝您準備好的發言和評論。我們知道有機成長前景依然強勁，但我想將其與近年來的外部成長聯繫起來。隨著我們進入這個開發週期，交付量不斷減少，這對現有房產來說顯然是件好事，但這是否會使購買租賃房產變得更具挑戰性？是不是數量變少了，從而影響你們的成長，因為同一家店池新增的客戶變少了？近年來的優異表現很大程度上來自於收購那些較新的老式租賃物業。如果我們看到交貨量越來越少。維持成長是否變得更具挑戰性？

Yes. I think Jonathan, if you look at the activity, that would suggest the answer is no because candidly, it's a complex operating business. And without the right toolkits, you don't get the same outcomes from every provider that's running the buildings. So we've had a long-term track record of success of finding under-operating buildings.

是的。我認為喬納森，如果你看一下這項活動，你會發現答案是否定的，因為坦白說，這是一項複雜的營運業務。如果沒有合適的工具包，您將無法從營運建築的每個供應商那裡獲得相同的結果。因此，我們在尋找營運不足的建築方面有著長期的成功記錄。

And the under operational element, A, is occupancy, because that's obvious today, but there are so many more layers, right? So it's not just occupancy. At the end of the day, what we care about is NOI and every single line item has room for optimization that we bring versus somebody else operating those buildings brings. So we see a long runway to keep doing more of this.

而下面的操作要素 A 是佔用率，因為這在今天很明顯，但還有更多的層次，對嗎？所以這不只是佔用率的問題。歸根結底，我們關心的是淨營運收入 (NOI)，而每一項都有優化的空間，這是我們自己帶來的，而不是其他人經營這些建築帶來的。因此，我們認為繼續進行此類工作還有很長的路要走。

Jonathan, I would just also add, don't forget the massive delivery cycle, oversupply cycle we have gone through post GFC sort of last decade, right? So -- there are plenty of people who need help on the liquidity side, and we'll see what the market gives us.

喬納森，我還要補充一點，不要忘記我們在過去十年中經歷的全球金融危機後的大規模交付週期和供應過剩週期，對吧？所以——有很多人在流動性方面需要幫助，我們會看看市場能給我們什麼幫助。

(Operator Instructions) Joshua Dennerlein, Bank of America.

（操作員指示）美國銀行的 Joshua Dennerlein。

Call it what you want, but I'm really focused on culture as a long-term driver of outcomes. And to me, a big picture of that culture is retaining talent I guess, Shankh, how do you think about retaining talent? And is there a retention problem at Well today?

隨便你怎麼稱呼它，但我真正關注的是文化作為長期成果的驅動力。對我來說，這種文化的重點就是留住人才，Shankh，您如何看待留住人才？那麼，Well 目前是否有留住人才的問題呢？

Okay. So let me answer both of those questions separately. So first is if you think about this is that, as I said, mentioned many times, retaining talent is my number 1 priority. It's hard to find really good people who do not think of what we do as work, but take that as their life's work. And there's a tremendous difference between the two.

好的。因此，讓我分別回答這兩個問題。所以首先，如果你考慮到這一點，正如我說過、多次提到的，留住人才是我的首要任務。很難找到真正優秀的人，他們不把我們所做的事情視為工作，而是將其視為畢生的事業。兩者之間存在巨大差異。

This is a hard business. It's a hand-to-hand combat on a 24/7 for all of us, right? So it is -- all these results that you guys are seeing today has been a function of this entire team working together and build this trust. And as I said, it's a seamless way of deserve trust, right?

這是一件很難的事。對我們所有人來說，這都是一場每天 24 小時不間斷的肉搏戰，對嗎？所以，你們今天看到的所有這些結果都是整個團隊共同努力和建立信任的結果。正如我所說，這是一種贏得信任的無縫方式，對嗎？

And definitely, there's a lot of shared sacrifice with the unity of purpose that I talked about our North Star and everybody has bought in. If they're all in, they stay all in. That's a very hard thing to pull off. So obviously, if you think about it, and that shows up on our -- clearly on our track record, being a public company, our track record is public. So anybody can see what my team is capable of.

毫無疑問，我們為了實現我所謂的「北極星」的共同目標而做出了許多共同的犧牲，而大家都認同這一點。如果他們全押了，就會一直全押。這是一件很難實現的事。所以很明顯，如果你仔細想想，這顯然體現在我們的業績記錄上，作為一家上市公司，我們的業績記錄是公開的。所以任何人都能看到我的團隊的能力。

And so obviously, if you think about the demographics of the industry, whether it's private or public, you will see in that microcosm, a huge retirement wave is unfolding as we speak. So obviously, there's a tremendous amount of demand for people who are really good at the job, right? And not everybody is very good at the job. There is a fundamental tectonic shift is happening in the real estate business, which last 40 years have been all about declining interest rates. That game is over.

顯然，如果你考慮一下這個行業的人口統計數據，無論是私營還是公共行業，你都會在這個縮影中看到，一股巨大的退休潮正在我們眼前展開。所以顯然，對於真正擅長這項工作的人才的需求非常大，對嗎？但並不是每個人都能勝任這份工作。房地產行業正在發生根本性的變化，過去 40 年來，該行業一直在經歷利率下降。那場比賽結束了。

So if you think about that in that context, there is just tremendous demand for our people. So let's just think about this. Is there a problem of retention at Welltower? The answer is a resounding no. But that does not mean that we should not be acting in my capacity, I should not be acting before there's a problem.

所以如果你從這個角度來考慮這個問題，你會發現我們的人才需求非常大。因此我們就思考一下這個問題。Welltower 的留任是否有問題？答案是肯定的「否」。但這並不意味著我們不應該盡我所能採取行動，我不應該在問題出現之前採取行動。

There's an interesting interview we can go and see of Lee Kuan Yew, who was founded Singapore, who was the leader, was asked -- once asked by a reporter about a famous Mao quote where he talked about a single spot can create a prairie fire. And Lee Kuan Yew said that only happens if the prairie -- the grass was actually dry. All we are trying to do at Welltower, what I'm trying to do every day is to keep that grass wet.

我們可以去看一個關於新加坡創始人李光耀的有趣採訪，他也是新加坡的領導人，有一次，一位記者問到毛澤東的一句名言，他說「一點就可以引發燎原之勢」。李光耀說，只有當草原上的草確實乾燥時，才會發生這種情況。我們在 Welltower 所做的一切，以及我每天所做的事情，就是保持草地濕潤。

Michael Griffin, Citi.

花旗銀行的麥可‧格里芬 (Michael Griffin)。

It's Nick Joseph here with Michael. Just on the private funds management business. I know you're targeting different stabilized versus non-stabilized assets. I was hoping you could discuss kind of what the targeted IRRs are for both and then just the size of opportunity you see in terms of those stabilized assets versus those that still have more of a growth opportunity.

這是尼克約瑟夫 (Nick Joseph)，和麥可在一起。僅談私募基金管理業務。我知道你的目標是不同的穩定資產和非穩定資產。我希望您能討論一下這兩種資產的目標 IRR 是多少，以及您認為穩定資產與仍有更多成長機會的資產相比的機會規模。

Nick, as we have -- I mentioned in my prepared remarks, that we have nothing more to add to the private capital business at this point, more than what we have said in the press release. So we will give you more updates when that process is over.

尼克，正如我們在準備好的發言中提到的，除了新聞稿中所說的內容外，我們目前沒有什麼可以補充的關於私募資本業務的內容。因此，當該過程結束時，我們將為您提供更多更新。

Now from the perspective of -- if you think about it, we are fundamental buyers, from the Welltower balance sheet perspective, of unstabilized assets. That's what we have always done. We're growth investors. We're not yield investors. And we believe that now, bringing this private capital business, significantly expand our TAM. That's all I can say at this point in time.

現在從這個角度來看——如果你仔細想想，從 Welltower 資產負債表的角度來看，我們是不穩定資產的基本買家。我們一直都是這麼做的。我們是成長型投資者。我們不是收益投資者。我們相信，現在引進這項私人資本業務將顯著擴大我們的 TAM。目前我只能說這麼多。

Nick Yulico, Scotiabank.

加拿大豐業銀行的 Nick Yulico。

So in terms of the Senior Housing operating segment, I was hoping you could just break out how big the same-store bucket of assets will be this year versus the total pool. And then for the non-same-store where I think there's often lower occupancy, how do you expect those assets to perform on NOI growth better -- is there better potential there versus same-store guidance you gave?

因此，就老年住房營運部門而言，我希望您能夠列出今年同店資產總額與總資產的比率。那麼對於非同店而言，我認為入住率通常較低，您預計這些資產在 NOI 增長方面會表現得更好嗎？

So why don't I start with the last part, and Tim will give you the first part. Given that our overall portfolio occupancy is, give or take, call it, 85% and our same-store is, what, 87% plus, right? That would suggest to you that non-same-store is very well occupied, right? And so as occupancy goes up, you would expect that there -- the flow-through incremental margin that falls to the bottom line obviously starts to pick up, right? So growth should be better. But obviously, you will see -- but when those properties stabilize, you will get more pricing power. So you're going to move hand over growth from occupancy to growth from rate.

那我先從最後一部分開始，然後提姆會給你第一部分。假設我們的整體投資組合入住率大約是 85%，而我們的同店入住率大約是 87% 以上，對嗎？這顯示非同店店舖的客流量很大，對嗎？因此，隨著入住率的上升，您會預期，流向底線的流轉增量利潤顯然會開始回升，對嗎？因此成長應該會更好。但顯然，你會看到——但是當這些屬性穩定下來時，你將獲得更多的定價權。因此，您要將成長從入住率轉移到成長率。

Tim?

提姆？

And then by the fourth quarter, we expect over 90% of the portfolio, current portfolio to be in the pool.

到第四季度，我們預計超過 90% 的投資組合（當前投資組合）將進入該池。

Austin Wurschmidt, KeyBanc.

奧斯汀·沃施密特（Austin Wurschmidt），KeyBanc。

Shankh, you mentioned in response to an earlier question that 90% plus occupancy RevPOR growth as well into the 6s. I think with the occupancy gains expected share over 300 basis points, you should kind of be ending the year approaching that 90% level. On top of the inflection in demographics next year and then the further rollout in the tech platform. I mean, should we take all that detail to point to a reacceleration in RevPOR growth in 2026?

Shankh，您在回答先前的問題時提到，入住率超過 90% 的 RevPOR 成長率也達到了 6%。我認為，由於預期入住率將成長 300 個基點以上，今年年底的入住率應該會接近 90% 的水平。除了明年人口結構的變化以及技術平台的進一步推廣之外。我的意思是，我們是否應該根據所有這些細節來預測 2026 年 RevPOR 成長的再次加速？

So Austin, just remember, we're also buying -- Tim, Nikhil just said that we're buying $2 billion of assets in the first six weeks at 80% or so occupancy, right? So reported metrics gets all sort of jumbled up because of this. But your idea of your question is the correct one.

所以奧斯汀，請記住，我們也在購買——蒂姆，尼基爾剛才說，我們將在前六週購買價值 20 億美元的資產，入住率約為 80%，對嗎？因此，報告的指標會因此變得混亂。但你對這個問題的想法是正確的。

I'll remind you of the comment I made, I think, last call, maybe the one before. But in the last couple of calls, which is post 2026 summer leasing season, we should start to see a better rip or environment than we have seen sort of call it prior to that. We shall see what the market will give us. It's hard to predict where things go. And so we are a fundamental believer. It's not about predicting. It's about positioning. And we're in the business of duration. If that takes one more year, we'll still be here, trying to push things forward.

我會提醒你我所做的評論，我想，最後一次，也許是更早一次。但在最近的幾次電話會議中，也就是 2026 年夏季租賃季節之後，我們應該開始看到比之前更好的環境。我們將看看市場會為我們帶來什麼。很難預測事情會如何發展。因此，我們是一個基本信徒。這與預測無關。這和定位有關。我們從事的是持續時間業務。如果這需要一年時間，我們仍會在這裡，努力推動事情向前發展。

John Kilichowski, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的約翰‧基利喬斯基 (John Kilichowski)。

I'm trying to understand the outsized occupancy gain that you experienced this quarter and then the guide that you're giving -- do you think it's more to do with the acceleration of retirement age individuals? Or do you think part of this occupancy gain is due to maybe a psychological effect where there's less and less opportunity now as you lease up to move into the facilities that you'd like to be in, and therefore, you're seeing sort of people being willing to move in a little bit earlier and therefore, maybe making the pace of occupancy gains that you're seeing sustainable into the future until you reach stabilization?

我想了解本季度入住率的大幅增長，然後您給出的指導——您認為這更多是與個人退休年齡的加速有關嗎？或者您是否認為入住率上升的部分原因可能是心理效應，即隨著您租賃理想的設施，現在機會越來越少，因此，您會看到人們願意稍早一些搬進來，因此，也許可以讓您看到的入住率增長速度持續到未來直至達到穩定？

John, why don't I offer you a third choice, which is our execution. You guys have data from sort of industry data. You guys see other companies in the sector, which reported, I think, some of the data, but regardless, just look at that and you realize this is -- a lot of that what you say is right, but it is -- that does not describe the operational sort of alpha that we have seen in the quarter. But we shall see what happens going forward.

約翰，我為什麼不給你第三個選擇，那就是我們的處決。你們有來自行業數據的數據。我認為，你們看到了該行業的其他公司報告了一些數據，但無論如何，只要看一下，你就會意識到 - 其中你說的很多都是正確的，但它 - 這並不能描述我們在本季度看到的運營阿爾法。但我們將拭目以待未來會發生什麼事。

Ronald Kamdem, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的羅納德‧坎登 (Ronald Kamdem)。

Just a quick one. Maybe touch on expenses a little bit in terms of an update on the labor market and any concern about sort of labor shortages and what you're seeing?

只需快速操作即可。也許您可以從勞動市場的最新情況以及對勞動力短缺的擔憂和您所看到的情況的角度稍微談一下費用問題？

Ron, we always have concerns in a business where 60% of our capital stack -- I mean, our expense stack is labor, we always have concerns. But as John mentioned, we are trying to see stabilization in that sort of the growth we have seen before.

羅恩，我們總是擔心，我們的業務中 60% 的資本組成——我的意思是，我們的支出組成是勞動力，我們總是擔心。但正如約翰所提到的，我們正試圖看到之前所見的那種增長趨於穩定。

We have tremendous amount of operational initiative, capital initiative and just in our communities to today to significantly bring down turnover. We mentioned some of that in the slides on our business update. You can see that we're seeing tangible impact. But as I've said, it's not an easy business. This is why you get outcomes in the tails, not a sort of industry beta, but we're super focused on it. We shall see what the market gives us.

我們擁有大量的營運舉措和資本舉措，並且僅在我們社區就顯著降低了人員流動率。我們在業務更新幻燈片中提到了其中的一些內容。您可以看到，我們看到了切實的影響。但正如我所說，這不是一件容易的事。這就是為什麼你會得到尾部結果，而不是某種行業測試版，但我們非常關注它。我們將會看到市場會為我們帶來什麼。

Rich Anderson, Wedbush.

里奇安德森，韋德布希。

Maybe a less exciting topic, but outside of senior housing, what do you feel like medical office and post-acute, what role do they play in the company today? And by that, I mean, obviously, there's a lot of excitement around the growth profile of senior housing going forward. But is it an out-of-sync sort of investment representing over 20% of the portfolio? Is it a view to the future to sort of be in the business longer term because who knows where things will go 15 years from now? Just curious your view on the stuff outside of the senior housing and what role it plays for investors today and in the future.

也許這是一個不那麼令人興奮的話題，但除了老年住房之外，您覺得醫療辦公室和急性後護理在當今公司中扮演著什麼角色？我的意思是，很明顯，人們對未來老年住房的成長前景感到非常興奮。但它是否是一種不同步的投資，卻佔了投資組合的20%以上？這是否是對未來的看法，以便長期從事該行業，因為誰知道 15 年後事情會如何發展？只是好奇您對老年住房之外的東西的看法以及它對現在和未來的投資者扮演什麼角色。

We're long-time investors and our OEM as well as our post-acute segment plays an extraordinarily important role as we think about portfolio construction. And different -- you guys get excited about different parts of different asset class and their cycles around them. We are thinking about how we create long-term sustainable earnings and cash flow growth on a per share basis over decades, and we're extraordinarily excited about those businesses.

我們是長期投資者，在考慮投資組合建構時，我們的 OEM 以及我們的急性後部門發揮著極其重要的作用。不同之處在於——你們對不同資產類別的不同部分及其周圍的周期感到興奮。我們正在思考如何在未來幾十年內創造長期可持續的每股盈餘和現金流成長，我們對這些業務感到非常興奮。

We allocate capital in different parts depending on where we think that we can make the best risk-adjusted return on a long-duration basis. And when the opportunities arise, we allocate capital. But at this point, as I've said, that we're a debt player, a credit player in the skilled nursing business.

我們將資本分配到不同的部分，這取決於我們認為在哪裡可以長期獲得最佳風險調整回報。當機會出現時，我們就會分配資本。但在這一點上，正如我所說的，我們是專業護理業務中的債務參與者和信貸參與者。

And obviously, on the OEM side, as I mentioned before, that I want to see where long-term inflation lands before I firm up my mind on how to allocate -- further allocate capital in a significant way or not. That's where we are, and we're watching these things very carefully. But there's no question, both of those strategies play a very important long-term role in our portfolio construction.

顯然，在 OEM 方面，正如我之前提到的，我想看看長期通膨的水平，然後我才能確定如何分配——是否進一步大幅分配資本。這就是我們所處的情況，我們正在密切關注這些事態。但毫無疑問，這兩種策略在我們的投資組合建構中都發揮著非常重要的長期作用。

Juan Sanabria, BMO Capital Markets.

Juan Sanabria，BMO資本市場。

John, I believe you mentioned kind of elevated CapEx for a period of time and then kind of normalizing back to below where you were pre-COVID levels. So I was hoping maybe you could provide a little bit more details or benchmarking of how you think long-term CapEx could trend once we get past this hump of kind of deferred or whatever type of spend that you want to execute on?

約翰，我記得你提到過資本支出在一段時間內有所增加，然後又恢復到新冠疫情之前的水平以下。所以我希望您能提供更多細節或基準，說明一旦我們度過這種延期或任何您想要執行的支出類型困難，您認為長期資本支出的趨勢如何？

Yeah, I mean as far as for long-term run rate, the capital to date or previously was done less efficiently. I've talked about that many times. People made short-term decisions. For example, you might replace a roof, but not do the skylights and the gutters, and then you come back and do both of those. And you've got cost for mobilization, cost for tearing up the roof again to replace those. And so what we've done when we've stepped in with the team and bringing in the internal expertise is to create the proper scopes and planning for capital to execute that. That -- in the end, that lowers the run rate of the capital.

是的，我的意思是就長期運行率而言，迄今為止或之前的資本使用效率較低。我已經談過這個很多次了。人們做出了短期決定。例如，您可能會更換屋頂，但不要更換天窗和排水溝，然後再回來更換這兩處。你還需要動員成本，需要重新拆除屋頂來更換它們。因此，當我們與團隊一起介入並引入內部專業知識時，我們所做的就是創建適當的範圍並規劃資本來執行該目標。這最終會降低資本的運作率。

And as I mentioned, people are looking for reference points. One reference point out there that's been out there for years is, for example, multifamily residential, what their run rate is on CapEx. There's no reason why our run rate for ongoing capital would not be similar to that. Our units are slightly smaller with less kitchen, a little bit more on the amenity side for sure. But balance, it puts it into a zone for context. On the value-add side, as I said, those are pure investments. We could turn it on and off at any point in time. And Nikhil and I are connected as far as what those investment hurdles are unlevered IRR investments.

正如我所提到的，人們正在尋找參考點。多年來一直存在的一個參考點是，例如多戶住宅，其資本支出的運作率是多少。我們的持續資本運作率沒有理由不與此相似。我們的單位稍微小一些，廚房較少，但便利設施方面肯定會更多。但平衡的是，它會將其放入一個背景區域。從增值方面來說，正如我所說，這些都是純粹的投資。我們可以在任何時間點打開或關閉它。尼基爾和我對這些投資障礙是無槓桿 IRR 投資的看法一致。

Michael Carroll, RBC Capital Markets.

加拿大皇家銀行資本市場 (RBC Capital Markets) 的 Michael Carroll。

John, I wanted to circle back on your comments regarding the tech platform rollout. Can you give us an idea of the timing of this? I mean, what percentage of the portfolio has this capability today? And should we think about the majority of your operators having this capability by the end of the year? Or is it a longer more thought-out process than that?

約翰，我想重新回顧你關於科技平台推出的評論。您能告訴我們這件事發生的時間嗎？我的意思是，目前投資組合中有多少比例具備這種能力？我們是否應該考慮讓大多數操作員在今年年底前具備這種能力？或者這是一個比這更長、更深思熟慮的過程？

That's a good question. Yes, we're rolling it out over the next couple of years. There's a lot of work that goes into doing that and doing it very well to make a seamless experience for our site associates. So very focused on that.

這是個好問題。是的，我們將在未來幾年內推出這項計劃。為了實現這一目標，我們投入了大量的工作，並努力將其做好，以便為我們的網站員工提供無縫的體驗。所以非常關注這一點。

And I am glad you asked because I've talked -- I spent a lot of time talking about the benefits of the platform as it relates to digitization and the improved customer and employee experience. I haven't much spoke about the aspects of providing real-time actionable data, insightful data to the site employees. So I'll give you just a little story on that.

我很高興您問這個問題，因為我花了很多時間談論該平台在數位化以及改善客戶和員工體驗方面帶來的好處。我還沒有過多談論向現場員工提供即時可操作數據和有見地的數據方面的問題。我就跟你講一個小故事吧。

When I was working my way through college, 1980s, I worked at a company called Price Club, which is the predecessor of Costco for those of you who remember. Every morning, about 3:00 AM, the store manager would come to me with a computer printout, which showed all of the sales for every item on my aisle as well as the aisle in total. So I could see if I place tide in the middle, if I place tide as an end cap, what the impact was on sales and then adjust my aisle accordingly to maximize my total sales for my aisle, very competitive process there at Costco. And today, what we're able to do, we're at the very cusp of providing our employees with real-time actionable data, enabling them to positively impact the business. So super, super excited. We're going as fast as possible, but we have to do it right. And so it does take a little bit of time.

20 世紀 80 年代，當我還在讀大學的時候，我在一家名為 Price Club 的公司工作，你們可能還記得，這家公司就是 Costco 的前身。每天早上 3 點左右，商店經理都會拿著一張電腦列印件來找我，上面顯示了我所在貨架上每件商品的銷售情況以及整個貨架的銷售情況。因此，我可以知道，如果我將潮汐放在中間，如果我將潮汐作為端蓋，會對銷售產生什麼影響，然後相應地調整我的過道，以最大化我過道的總銷售額，這是 Costco 非常有競爭力的流程。今天，我們能夠做到的是，為員工提供即時可操作的數據，使他們能夠對業務產生積極影響。太超超興奮了。我們會盡可能地快速前進，但我們必須正確地做事。所以這確實需要一點時間。

And Mike, just remember, Nikhil is not making this process particularly easy by adding 10,000, 12,000 units a year as well. So it's a running target.

麥克，請記住，尼基爾每年增加 10,000 到 12,000 個單位並沒有使這個過程變得特別容易。因此，這是一個持續的目標。

Jim Kammert, Evercore.

吉姆·卡默特（Jim Kammert），Evercore。

I was intrigued by Nikhil's comments regarding -- it sounds like an apparent uptick in European investing activity. Have you ever provided sort of the sense of scale of the opportunity set for Welltower in Europe? And does that extend beyond the UK?

我對尼基爾的評論很感興趣——這聽起來像是歐洲投資活動明顯回升。您是否曾對 Welltower 在歐洲所面臨的機會做出規模方面的描述？其範圍是否超出了英國？

I don't think you heard it correct. We are focused on in sort of, I guess, you can say in the European context is UK. We -- I've said many, many times, we have no desire to go outside our circle of competence, which is US, UK, Canada, and his comments is entirely focused on the UK.

我認為你聽錯了。我想，我們關注的是歐洲背景的英國。我已經說過很多次了，我們不想超出我們的能力範圍，也就是美國、英國、加拿大，而他的評論完全集中在英國身上。

Mike Mueller, J.P. Morgan.

摩根大通的麥克·穆勒。

You have about $2 billion of developments in process. Can you talk about how long to stabilize the properties upon completion. And is that trending faster or slower than a few years ago, pre-COVID?

目前正在進行的開發項目價值約為 20 億美元。能談談完工後需要多久才能穩定能嗎？與幾年前（新冠疫情之前）相比，這種趨勢是更快還是更慢？

Yes, thinking about that development pipeline, that has predominantly been focused in two areas. Active adult within our kind of residential portfolio. And the OM. OM as you know, is pretty much 100% leased for anything that we're developing. Active adult has a shorter lease-up time frame than seniors. So it's shorter, and that's kind of more like a 12-, 18-month type time frame.

是的，考慮開發流程，主要集中在兩個領域。我們的住宅組合內的活躍成年人。還有 OM。如您所知，OM 對我們開發的任何產品而言，租賃情況幾乎都是 100%。活躍的成年人的租賃時間比老年人短。所以它比較短，更像是 12 個月或 18 個月的時間範圍。

Emily Meckler, Green Street.

艾米麗·梅克勒 (Emily Meckler)，綠街。

Yes. How does 2025 expected expense growth for the US senior housing portfolio compared to the UK and Canada? And then have the increased employment taxes and increased minimum wage in the UK had any notable impact there?

是的。與英國和加拿大相比，2025 年美國老年住房投資組合的預期費用成長如何？那麼，英國增加就業稅和提高最低工資是否產生了顯著的影響？

Yes. So OpEx growth in the UK is greater than the US, and it's like to your question on the impact of the combined impact of the two is the right way to look at it, right, because you get the kind of headline cost of living adjustment and then you've got the insurance impact. So two of those are heightened, and that is causing higher OpEx growth there but we're also seeing great top line growth in the UK. So it's offsetting some of that flow through, but we're still seeing positive growth.

是的。因此，英國的營運支出成長高於美國，而對於您關於兩者綜合影響的問題，這是正確的看法，因為您將獲得整體生活成本調整，然後您將獲得保險的影響。其中兩個因素有所提升，這導致了那裡的營運支出成長更快，但我們也看到英國的營收實現了大幅成長。因此，它抵消了部分流入，但我們仍然看到正成長。

Jonathan Hughes, Raymond James.

喬納森·休斯、雷蒙·詹姆斯。

Can you talk in more detail about the outlook for senior housing development? The fundamentals are as good as they've ever been. There's a lot of visibility for demand in the next decade. And why haven't developers or private equity rushed in to get projects started to capture that inevitable upside? Is it lack of operators, financing? I guess, what changes this.

能否詳細談談老年住房發展的前景？基本面一直都很好。未來十年的需求前景十分明朗。那麼，為什麼開發商或私募股權公司沒有蜂擁進入，啟動項目，以獲取這必然的上升空間呢？是缺乏營運者、缺乏資金嗎？我猜，是什麼改變了這一切。

Yes. So Jonathan, I'm going to make my comments on average, there's always exception to average. So just think about as an average. I fundamentally believe that people do something an economic activity called development if there is development profit, right? So you sort of have to think about. So let's just dig into that. I'm going to -- so first, I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding of what development profit is.

是的。所以喬納森，我將對平均值做出評論，平均值總有例外。所以只要將其視為平均值即可。我從根本上認為，如果有開發利潤，人們就會去做一些叫做開發的經濟活動，對嗎？所以你必須考慮一下。因此讓我們深入研究一下。我要說的是──首先，我認為人們對發展利潤的意義有根本性的誤解。

I hear -- I've seen some very interesting performance of developments that say, just take an example. This is an example. I can make an 8% yield five years from now and isn't that 200 basis points above, say, prevailing cap rate of 6%. That is fundamentally -- people who say that have a fundamental misunderstanding of the most basic idea of finance called time value of money. We make decision, development decision based on untrended yield, not trended yield. Untrended yield as in what's today's cost, and what's today's market rents, right? You can always buy a 6% and trend that and get rent growth for five years, and we'll get to 8%. So that is sort of the fundamental sort of number 1 problem.

我聽說──我看到了一些非常有趣的發展表現，舉個例子。這是一個例子。五年後我可以獲得 8% 的收益率，這難道不比現行 6% 的資本化率高出 200 個基點嗎？從根本上來說——說這種話的人對金融最基本的理念——貨幣的時間價值——存在著根本性的誤解。我們根據非趨勢報酬率而非趨勢報酬率來做出決策、發展決策。非趨勢收益率就像今天的成本是多少，今天的市場租金是多少，對嗎？您可以購買 6% 的利率並按此趨勢增長五年，最終我們將達到 8%。所以，這是首要的基本問題。

Number 2 problem, which I described you as sort of a Underpants Gnomes reasoning, if you have seen that famous South Park episode, and it goes like this. You have a proposition 1, which is there is a lot of demand coming, right? That's step number one. Step number 3 is we should be able to make profit from that by developing more.

第二個問題，我把它描述成一種「內褲侏儒」的推理，如果你看過《南方公園》那一集著名的劇情，它是這樣的。您有一個命題 1，即有大量需求即將出現，對嗎？這是第一步。第三步是我們應該能夠透過更多開發來從中獲利。

The step number 2 in the middle is missing. And that missing middle is what we talk about. What happens to cost? What happens to your cost of construction, your cost of labor, your cost of sort of your rates, right? All of these things. Your exit cap rate, all of these things. So if you just think through that, senior housing development business reminds me of that South Park episode, which is Underpants Gnomes episode. If you haven't watched it, I will go and like you to watch that.

中間的2號階梯缺失了。我們所討論的就是那個缺少的中間部分。成本會怎樣？您的建築成本、勞動成本、費率成本會發生什麼變化？所有這些事情。你的退出資本化率，所有這些東西。所以，如果你仔細想想，老年住宅開發業務就會讓我想起《南方公園》那一集，也就是《內褲侏儒》那一集。如果你還沒看，我會去請你看。

Third one is what is just straight up preference falsification. I have talked to smart developers who understand that this idea of silver tsunami, they're trying to sell it to someone gave development capital, just what I call private truths and public lies, right? So all I tell them to do is if you truly believe in that, why don't you just put your 100% of your own money and develop? Why try to get other people's money to try to do that, which this business has two really, really bad episodes, one in the '90s, massive oversupply, lots of money lost, other people's money lost. And the second is what happened in the last decade.

第三個就是直接的偏好偽造。我曾與一些聰明的開發商交談過，他們明白「銀色海嘯」的想法，他們試圖將其賣給給予開發資本的人，這就是我所說的私人真相和公開謊言，對嗎？所以我告訴他們，如果你真的相信這一點，為什麼不投入 100% 的資金去開發呢？為什麼要用別人的錢來做這件事，這個行業有過兩次非常糟糕的經歷，一次是在 90 年代，供應嚴重過剩，大量資金損失，其他人的錢也損失了。第二個是過去十年發生的事。

So if you just put it all together, you will see, all I say, just if the economics doesn't exist, I fundamentally believe it will not happen. And if somebody is particularly excited about doing it, I recommend they do it on their own money, not get sort of an unassuming small bank who doesn't understand all the details and just get them and then obviously get them on the hook just like it happened in the last decade.

所以，如果你把所有這些綜合起來，你會看到，我所說的只是，如果經濟不存在，我從根本上相信它不會發生。如果有人特別想這樣做，我建議他們用自己的錢來做，而不是找一些不了解所有細節的不起眼的小銀行，然後顯然讓他們承擔責任，就像過去十年發生的那樣。

This does conclude today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。現在您可以斷開線路了。