Phillips Edison & Co Inc

NASDAQ:PECO

Earnings Call Transcript 2019-Q4

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to the Phillips Edison & Company Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Results Presentation. My name is Sarah, and I will be your conference call operator today.

Before we begin, I would like to remind our listeners that this live conference call is being recorded and simultaneously webcast. [Operator Instructions] The webcast and slide presentation containing financial information can be accessed by visiting the Events and Presentations page in the Investors section of the Phillips Edison & Company website at www.phillipsedison.com or at phillipsedison.com/investors. A replay of this morning's call will be available later today on the same website.

I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Koehler with Phillips Edison & Company. Sir, please proceed.

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Michael Koehler, Vice President of Investor Relations with Phillips Edison & Company. Joining me on today's call are our Chairman and CEO Jeff Edison; our President Devin Murphy; and our CFO John Caulfield. During today's presentation, Jeff will review our strategic initiatives and provide an update on our portfolio. John will then discuss our financial results. And finally, Jeff will discuss our 2020 initiatives and provide commentary on liquidity. Upon the conclusion of our prepared remarks, Jeff, Devin and John will address your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I would like to remind our audience that statements made during today's call may contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Please refer to Slide 3 for additional disclosure and direction on where you can find information regarding potential risks.

In addition, we will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information regarding our use of these measures and reconciliations of these measures to our GAAP results are available in our earnings release issued earlier this week as well as in the slide presentation for this webinar which is available for download on our website.

I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Edison, our Chief Executive Officer. Jeff?

[Jeffrey Edison, executive]

Thank you, Michael. Good morning, everyone. Before we get into our results, I would like to review our initiatives for 2019 as outlined on Slide 4. As we've stated in the past, we believe these initiatives will improve our future earnings and strengthen the portfolio for a full cycle liquidity event, which is a top priority for the company.

Across our organization, we are first and foremost committed to delivering solid operating results and growing our net operating income. We do this by increasing occupancy at our centers, growing revenues through rent increases and driving foot traffic at our properties by focusing on the centers' merchandising mix.

Our second initiative was to execute our disposition plan to fortify the quality of our portfolio. We do this by selling assets that no longer meet our growth objectives or standards for quality. We then deploy our disposition proceeds in 1 of the 3 ways. We recycle the proceeds into better quality, lower risk and higher growth assets; or we invest in redevelopment projects with attractive yields at our existing centers; or we repay debt. We speak regularly with investment banks and institutional investors, and we watch the publicly traded shopping center companies closely. Generally, shopping center REITs have reduced their leverage over the past 3 years, which is why we are focused on paying down debt in order to align with market expectations. Although we are very comfortable with the leverage we have, deleveraging will improve our options and potentially the outcome for a full cycle liquidity event.

Our third initiative was to grow our investment management business, which provides recurring income streams and allows us to grow without the need for additional capital investment. This business can also provide meaningful proceeds through portfolio-level transactions, which will help us to delever more quickly and efficiently than selling it at any one time. It also allows us to maintain ownership interest in these assets to generate income to support our operating platform and to build relationships with world-class institutional investors.

Now turning to Slide 5. I would like to share highlights and progress on these strategic initiatives.

On our first strategic initiative, we delivered outstanding operating results and NOI growth. Our best-in-class, fully integrated operating platform delivered same-center NOI growth of 7.1% for the fourth quarter and 3.7% for the full year of 2019.

Our FFO for the fourth quarter of 2019 fully covered our gross distributions totaling 101% of total distributions made. Our in-house leasing team had both a record quarter and a record year, which resulted in a meaningful improvement in our occupancy to 95.4% at December 31, 2019. That was from 93.2% a year ago. We leased 4.6 million square feet in 2019 compared to 3.5 million square feet in 2018.

Further driving our results were comparable new lease spreads of 11.3% and comparable renewal lease spreads of 9.1% for the fourth quarter of 2019. We also had comparable new lease spreads of 13.3% and comparable renewal spreads of 8.5% for the full year of 2019. Importantly, we were able to drive these strong results with a strict commitment to managing expenses. This is illustrated by a 3.7% decrease in general and administrative expenses for the full year of 2019 compared to the full year of 2018.

Now turning to Slide 6. In 2019, we sold 21 properties and 1 outparcel for $223.1 million in proceeds. We reinvested $71.7 million into 2 properties and 2 outparcels. And separately, we acquired 3 shopping centers and an ownership interest in the joint venture through our merger with Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT III.

Additionally, we invested $37.5 million into development and redevelopment projects at our existing centers, which we believe will produce average yields between 8% and 11% annually once they're stabilized. Our current project returns are expected to yield 15%.

And lastly, we reduced our leverage as we paid down $89.1 million in debt. As a result of this activity net debt to total enterprise value improved to 39.5% from 41.1% at December 31, 2018, and to 42.3 % at September 30, 2018. This is a major improvement.

With regards to our Investment Management business, we had many discussions with potential partners in 2019 and are continuing discussions in 2020. Due to the complexity and size of these complex transactions and our personal relations, these initiatives often take time to materialize.

As of December 31, 2019, our Investment Management business provide asset and real estate management services for properties owned by several different real estate funds, including 3 joint ventures in which PECO has an ownership stake. At year-end, we had approximately $585 million of third-party assets under management. Altogether, these strong operating results continue the momentum we have seen over the past 3 years and reflect sustained healthy tenant demand for our well-located, grocery-anchored shopping centers.

Slide 7 provides some detail on our national portfolio of grocery-anchored shopping centers. As of December 31, 2019, our portfolio consisted of 287 wholly owned properties, 97% of those were grocery anchored located in 31, states totaling 32.1 million square feet of GLA. This compares to 303 properties as of December 31, 2018, located in 32 states, totaling 34.4 million square feet. As of December 31, 2019, our lease portfolio occupancy was 95.4%, which increased from 93.2% at the beginning of the year. And our in-line occupancy was 90.2% which increased from 84.9% at the beginning of the year. These increases were the result of outstanding work by our in-house leasing team and the healthy demand for space by our grocery-anchored shopping centers.

77% of our annualized base rent came from grocers, national and regional tenants representing a strong credit-worthy tenant base. And looking at tenants another way 76.5% of our total rent came from service and necessity-based tenants. The average remaining lease term for our portfolio was 4.7 years. Our top 5 markets in terms of property count on Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Tampa St Pete and Minneapolis St Paul; all 5 markets fall within the top 20 MSAs in the United States.

Slide 8 provides an overview of our leading grocery anchors. Kroger and its brands are collectively our largest tenant marking 6.9% of our ABR across 58 centers. Today we are Kroger's largest landlord, Publix and a whole Delhaize which owns giant Stop & Shop and food line among others our second and third largest tenants, making up 5.5% and 4.5% of our ABR across 47 and 25 centers respectively. We are pulp today Publix is second largest landlord. Albertsons Safeway and Walmart round out our top five, we strive to own centers anchored by the top 1 or 2 gross or any given market. And our portfolio has excellent tenant diversification. The scale of our relationships with our grocery anchors provides us unique advantages that we believe generate better property level performance. As we look at our leading grocery-anchored tenants, we continue to see brick and mortar as a cornerstone of our business strategies. And we remain very positive about the long-term prospects of owning and operating grocery-anchored real estate.

Slide 9 outlines our occupancy metrics and in-place rents or ABR and provides an overview of our necessity-based tenant base. As of December 31, 2019, our leased wholly owned portfolio occupancy as we stated earlier totaled 95.4%, an increase from 93.2% as of December 31st. Anchor occupancy increased to 98% and in-line occupancy increased 90.2% due to our record leasing activity. Our overall ABR was $12.58 per square feet, which was an increase of 4.9% from a year ago. Our inline tenant ABR was $19.94 per square feet, which was an increase of 4.7% year-over-year. When we look at the makeup of our ABR 76.5% comes from convenience and service-based businesses. Like grocers, restaurants, hair salon, favorite based barber shops, healthcare and fitness centers, which we believe offer good services and experiences that are internet resistant and we'll continue to drive repeat foot traffic to our centers on a regular basis.

Slide 10 provides some examples of leases that are first class leasing team executed during the quarter. We remain focused on leasing our vacant space, the tenants that offer necessity-based products, services and experience as well as a high level of convenience, which we believe are and will be Internet resilient. Two examples of new anchor leases include Marshalls and NAPA Auto Parts, discount apparel continues to be a growing use and shopping centers. Auto parts companies continue to be in demand as more cars are staying on the road longer which calls for increased maintenance and service.

Domino's, Starbucks and McAlister's Deli are few examples of food and beverage national tenants that are expanding in our portfolio. Medical and health and wellness tenants continue to lease up space America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Anytime Fitness, The Joint Chiropractor, Workout Anytime and Advanced Urgent Care are among the tenants that are expanding their growing businesses and our national accounts team is offering them leasing opportunities across our portfolio. Our leasing activity was at an all-time high for the quarter as we executed a record 251 leases, including new leases, renewals and options this totaled 1.1 million square feet. 2019 was also a record-setting year for the company as we underwrote 1,026 leases, including new leases, renewals and options totaling 4.6 million square feet. Our current leasing pipeline remains robust and we are very positive about the future.

With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO John Caulfield to review our financial results. John?

[John Caulfield, executive]

Thank you, Jeff and good morning everyone. Slide 11 reviews our year to date. Pro forma same-center NOI. For the purpose of evaluating same-center NOI on a comparative basis, we are presenting pro forma same-center NOI as if the merger with REIT II in late 2018 had occurred on January 1, 2018. As such, our pro forma, same-center NOI includes 276 properties that were owned and operational since January 2018.

During 2019, same-center NOI increased 3.7% when compared to 2018. Driving our NOI growth was a $6.3 million increase in base rent which primarily resulted from a $0.23, or 1.9% increase in average base rent per square foot and a 40 basis point increase in average same-center occupancy. This increase is in the rental income line on this slide, offset in 2019 by uncollectible tenant expense which is presented in property operating expense in the 2018 column.

In addition to this base rent increase our same-center NOI growth was driven by a higher recovery of operating cost and capital and lower operating expenses versus 2018. This change in presentation of uncollectible tenant income was driven by a change in GAAP presentation rules. Tenant paid real estate taxes are also now excluded from tenant recovery income and real estate tax expense. This went into effect January 1, 2019. So going forward in 2020 we will have improved comparability.

Slide 12 outlines our net income and FFO financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019. The company recorded a net loss of 72.8 million compared to net income of $47 million for the same period in 2018. Our net loss was primarily the result of $87.4 million of non-cash real estate impairment charges as non-cash impairment charges of $9.7 million of intangible and other assets related to Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT III. As real estate companies recycle assets both the recognition of impairment charges and gains on asset sales, our regular occurrences. As we have been selling non-core assets to improve the quality of our portfolio we have recorded these charges.

We are targeting to complete this phase of our disposition program in the first half of 2020 but impairments may occur in the future as we expect core dispositions to continue as we adjust our balance sheet. Also contributing to the loss was $45.6 million of additional depreciation expense primarily due to the additional properties owned after our merger with REIT II when compared to the year-ago period. When we add back these non-cash impairments and other items, the company generated funds from operations of $217 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, which was a 38.9% increase from $156.2 million for the same period in 2018.

On a per share basis, FFO increased 1.5% to $0.66 per diluted share. This increase in total FFO is attributable to NOI growth from rent increases and higher recoveries, lower amortization of the corporate intangibles and lower general and administrative expenses. For the year ended December 31, 2019, the company generated core FFO of $230.9 million which is a 31.1% increase from core FFO of $176.1 million for the same period in 2018. We are now reporting core FFO instead of Modified Funds from Operations or MFFO for a more appropriate comparison to our publicly traded peers. The primary difference between core FFO and MFFO is including a straight-line rent and lease revenue amortization. A full reconciliation of core FFO to net income can be found in our earnings release and in the appendix of this presentation.

Then Moving to FFO, the improvement in total core FFO was driven by the assets acquired from the merger with REIT II. The year-over-year NOI growth and expense management, net of the impact of our asset sales to reduce our leverage. On a per share basis, core FFO decreased by 4.1% to $0.70 per diluted share during 2019 as a result of the delevering and disposition activity in late 2018 and 2019.

Slide 13 outlines our debt profile as of December 31, 2019. Our net debt to total enterprise value was 39.5% as of December 31, 2019. Our debt had a weighted average interest rate of 3.4% in a weighted average maturity of 5 years.

Approximately 89.4% of our debt was fixed rate. This compares to a debt to total enterprise value of 41.1% a year ago with a weighted average interest rate of 3.5%. A weighted average maturity of 4.9 years and approximately 90.1% fixed rate debt. In October 2019, we repriced a $175 million term loan, lowering the interest rate spread by 50 basis points while maintaining the current maturity of October 2024 and in December 2019 we closed on a 10-year $200 million secured debt facility with a 3.35% fixed interest rate.

The proceeds from this financing in combination with our disposition proceeds allowed us to repay our term loans that would have matured in 2020 and 2021. As we look to add our liquidity, we had $489.8 million of borrowing capacity available on our $500 million revolving credit facility.

Slide 14 illustrates PECO's long history of consistent monthly distributions. The first PECO common share purchased in our initial offering has received monthly distributions totaling $6.04 per share. And the last PECO common share purchased in our initial offering has received monthly distributions totaling $3.89 per share. Further, together with 3Q, we have made distributions of over $1.2 billion to our stockholders and our distribution on February 1, 2019, marked our 110th consecutive month of distributions.

Slide 15 outlines the history of our common stock. From the initial public offering price of $10 for PECO, we have increased our estimated value per share 4 times, including most recently in May of 2019 when we increased the estimated value per share to $11.10. The current distribution rate is $0.67 per share per year, which represents a 6.7% distribution rate on the original offering price of $10 per share, and on the current share price of $11.10, the distribution rate is 6%. Our distribution rate is above the current 5.6% average dividend yield of our publicly traded peers.

Depending on the timing of your investment and treatment in your distributions, Phillips Edison & Company common stock has returned between 52% and 106%, which equates to between 7.5% and 8.5% compounded annual performance. For our former REIT II stockholders, your investment has returned between 18% and 37%, which equates to a compounded annual performance between 4.4% and 5.2% per year.

I would now like to turn the call back over to Jeff for a closing summary and some commentary on liquidity. Jeff?

[Jeffrey Edison, executive]

Thank you, John. As we stated on past calls, one of the possible ways we can achieve a full cycle liquidity event is through the listing of our shares on a national exchange like the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ. I discussed 3 important strategies at the beginning of this call that we feel will position the company for a successful liquidity outcome and long-term growth. We executed on these strategies during 2019, but we need to continue to execute on these initiatives and reduce our debt to optimize a successful liquidity event.

Retail shopping center REIT equities performed well in 2019 overcoming the decrease in share price they experienced in the fourth quarter of 2018. That said, we are not completely in the clear yet as our peers still trade at an average discount to their net asset value of about 19%.

To be clear, we are encouraged with the improvement in the retail shopping center environment, and we continue to evaluate the market. We've taken meaningful steps towards a liquidity event, including the 2017 acquisition of our external manager, the 2018 acquisition of REIT II and the sale of $220 million of real estate during 2019.

We are making progress and maintain our belief that a patient approach to liquidity is prudent and that executing on our strategic initiatives will position us to achieve a full cycle liquidity event at a more attractive valuation.

For 2020, our initiatives are threefold. We will continue to be focused on driving our NOI growth. We will be focused on completing our quality improvement disposition program, and we'll continue our opportunistic deleveraging. And third, we will be focused on growing our investment management business.

In closing, we are pleased with our results for 2019. But know we must be laser focused on execution in order to achieve our goals and successfully provide liquidity for our investors.

With that, I would now like to turn the call back over to Michael Koehler, our Vice President of Investor Relations. Michael?

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Thank you, Jeff. This concludes our prepared remarks. [Operator Instructions]

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Our first question comes from [ Rita Landers and Jay Purday ]. Both are individual shareholders. They asked, "At the last meeting, you discussed going public. What is your liquidity timing? You mentioned that you wanted to lower debt to improve some of your stats." John, do you want to take that one?

[John Caulfield, executive]

Sure. Thank you for your questions, and good morning. We continue to discuss our liquidity options internally, and you're right that we want to lower our leverage which will increase our flexibility and potential valuation as we look at those liquidity options. We're reviewing the option of raising money through an IPO, raising money through dispositions, through joint ventures or other investments. As Jeff mentioned, our shopping center peers continue to trade at a discount to their net asset values, which makes the IPO capital expensive when you consider that discount plus an IPO discount plus underwriters' fees. Dispositions in joint ventures, we think, at this time may represent our best form and best cost of capital, but they take time to efficiently execute. So that's where we're focused currently to improve our leverage. And as Jeff just said, these are -- continue to be our key initiatives in 2020, and we hope to update you on that progress as we continue to move through the year.

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Thanks, John. Our next question comes from [ Theodore Miller ], an individual investor. He asks, "Are the dividends paid from operations or from new acquired investor capital?" John?

[John Caulfield, executive]

Thank you again for that question. So we are not actually raising current investor capital through our common shares. We are paying everything through operation. So actually the disposition proceeds that we have, we're using that to delever, as we talked about. And this is shown through the FFO and core FFO coverage to our total distribution. So in the quarter, it was FFO covered 101% of distributions, core FFO covered 110% of distributions, and for the full year, core FFO was 105% of total distributions. As we mentioned in the prepared remarks, we returned over $1.2 billion in distributions to shareholders. That's between the $3.89 and $6.04 per share. And at the same time, our net asset value per share has grown to $11.10. So we understand the importance of that distribution, and that's a key thing that we've been able to do with our grocery-anchored investments. It is delivering solid cash flow over a long period of time.

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Thanks, John. Next question is as follows. When will you reprice the NAV and any indication on where it will go? I'll answer that one.

As we have in the past few years, we will reprice our NAV based on our March 31st financials, and that updated NAV will come out in the first or second week of May when we report our first quarter financial results. In terms of where it will go, we can't comment on that. It's -- we do a third-party valuation and ultimately, the Board selects what the NAV will be. So we look forward to updating you on that in the first or second week of May later this year.

Next question is on the share repurchase program as it relates to standard requests. Jeff, do you want to provide some commentary on that?

[Jeffrey Edison, executive]

Sure, Michael. Thanks. Before I answer that question, I just want to make sure that we remind all of our investors that when we put these products -- these 2 weeks together, our focus was a strong yield, preserving principal, growth and then providing liquidity at the right time for our investors. And today, we're in a market where our public peers are trading at 20% discount to the net asset value. And as we look at it, the SRP would be buying shares back at a premium to what we could get in the public markets, which is our most likely liquidity event at this time. And as we, as management, look at the long-term value of the company, we're focused on not just the shareholders getting out but all of the shareholders. And from our perspective, that's why the -- we closed the SRP because we believe it to be dilutive to the shareholders who are staying in the current environment and we will -- that our plan is to keep the SRP closed at this time.

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Thanks, Jeff. We've gotten a handful of questions regarding coronavirus and how that may impact our results and our tenants. Jeff, would you like to provide some commentary on that?

[Jeffrey Edison, executive]

Sure. There are sort of 2 impacts for us, one sort of a macro and one's a micro. The macro is just the general concern that the market has and as we see in the market reaction over the last couple of days, last few days. So that affects a lot of different things, whether it's our lenders or the equity investors. That will continue to be an uncertainty and create volatility in the market until we have a better handle on what the real risk is there.

In -- on a more micro perspective, it is affecting specific retailers in our shopping centers who source a lot of their goods from China where they are, I would say, they are okay right now, but they're going to be under inventory while the engine is trying to get re-started. And until that happens, there is a lot of uncertainty with those particular tenants who have a strong dependence on China. Now they are doing a lot of things to try and find alternative sources and other options for them, but it is something that we continue to watch for select retailers.

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Thanks, Jeff. Our next question is related to an investment management fee. I believe there is a misunderstanding from our advisers and investors that the REIT is paying a third party to manage its assets. John, would you provide some commentary on the investment management fee?

[John Caulfield, executive]

Sure. I think it mean the asset management fees. So originally when PECO launch it was externally managed and there were different fees that were paid to the manager. In 2017 that manager was acquired. So at this time PECO does not pay fees to management to a third party on in terms of managing the fund our investments. We are completely and fully aligned with all of our investors. In fact, we're actually on the other side now where that's where we're trying to get fees on our Investment Management business where we're raising institutional capital in joint ventures or other investments so that we can generate fees for PECO in for our investors in the opposite direction. So the idea that there were fees being paid has not been true for over 2 years now.

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Great. Thanks, John. Our final question for the day is about Berkshire Hathaway, we saw that they purchased some stock during the fourth quarter up Kroger our biggest tenant, what are our thoughts on that? And any other macro indicators on the grocery-anchored real estate sector? Jeff, would you like to take that one?

[Jeffrey Edison, executive]

Sure. We've done this for a long time, you're looking at different environments over a 25-30 year period of time that we've been operating and one of the things you're always looking for those [ green shoots ] that the early indicators that there might be some change in the market. And there are probably 3 or 4 of those that have happened now over the last 3 years and we anticipate happening over the next few months that we think are very positive for the grocery-anchored shopping center business.

You raised one in the question which is when Warren Buffet comes in and decides to invest in the bricks and mortar grocery business like a Kroger, that's a hugely positive sign for us, and we're very encouraged by that. Obviously, that's a piece, but it does show that there is a belief by a historically very strong investor that what Kroger is doing is a long-time survivor, which -- obviously, we are corporate's largest landlord. That's a huge positive for us. The second sort of sprout coming through is the rumors that Albertsons and Safeway will become public this year. We believe that will happen in the first half of the year. If that happens, again, that's another backing for the grocery business, and particularly the bricks and mortar grocery business.

Two other routes that I think have come up recently. One is Peapod, and for those of you who don't know Peapod, they were one of the original grocery delivery companies, and that's all they did, and they did it in major urban areas and had spread across the country, but primarily in the Midwest and on the East Coast. And they, within the last 2 weeks, announced that they were closing their operation in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Again, the positive sign for us is that one of our competitors would be an online only grocery delivery system, and the fact that sort of the veteran of the business, the ones who actually have made money at it over time, are closing those because they can't make them profitable. Is it is a very large indicator that the delivery system, the grocery delivery business, has got a long way to go before it will become something that will be sustainable in the business. So that for us is another indicator.

And the last one, and maybe the most important, is that, as well, Amazon for 10 years, has been trying to get into the grocery business. And then several years ago, they basically gave up on the internet only delivery system to a bricks-and-mortar when they bought Whole Foods. And that was a huge plus for us, probably one of the original sprouts that were coming through of potential green grounds. So they admitted that they couldn't do a delivery only online system, and for us, that was probably the biggest risk to our business.

So they step in, they buy Whole Foods, honestly have done a fairly mediocre job of running it. Whole Foods' sales last year were down by 1%, even with the new stores that came in. So it was a very -- they have not been able to do with the bricks and mortar side a substantial improvement. And then maybe 2 years ago, we started to get -- and maybe a year ago, but we started to get inclinations that they were going to try a non-Whole Foods grocery bricks and mortar business. And the first store that they are going to open is in Los Angeles. It is supposed to open, I think, within the next couple of months, and the early sort of subterfuge of photos that have come out of the store are -- as some of the experts have said, it just looks like a Kroger. A newer Kroger because it's all new and all that stuff, but there is nothing revolutionary there. And if that is the case, we can mark another one of the Amazon potential attack areas off of the list.

And again, a sprout that I think is going to be very important because you're always thinking that Amazon is going to come in with something really spectacular. Well, if it is as small of a change from our existing grocers, as we understand it to be, that will be a tremendous relief for the rest of the industry, and probably a very positive sign for the public markets, as they look at the grocery-anchored shopping center business and grocery in particular. So those are the early sprouts. You whether they're going to survive and thrive or they're just early hints. But it's nice to have a few of them out there, and we're hopeful that those will help us going forward. You get things like the coronavirus, and you get the market reaction to that and the other things going on politically and inside the industry, and you're just trying to balance those as we look at the opportunities.

But the one thing that I think is important is I'm personally the largest shareholder in the company. I couldn't be more aligned with the shareholders. I am -- it would be wonderful for me to have liquidity, and we as a management team have that focus. But the -- I think the thing you'll find and have found for a long time with us is we're not going to be in a hurry to do something until we get the right deal at the right timing. And in the interim, we're going to continue to grow the properties and the cash flow for the properties. We're going to continue to pay a very strong dividend, and we're going to keep ourselves very alert to when there is an opportunity to create liquidity. But we're not going to compromise our existing shareholders for that. It will be at the time that we think that is right for all the shareholders, and that is our promise to you guys, and what we will continue to focus on. Michael?

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Thank you, Jeff. This now concludes our question-and-answer session. Jeff, I'll turn it back to you for some closing comments.

[Jeffrey Edison, executive]

I just want to thank all of you for being on the call, and we continue to work very hard to try and create value in this portfolio that we've built. We built it from a very small company to where we're $6.5 billion today. That is not -- for us, that's the beginning. We have strong expectations, and we will continue to be very focused on maximizing the return to the shareholders with a very strong operating platform, and then realizing for you when the time is right. And we don't want to sound like a broken record. We just are not in a hurry to get liquidity until the timing is right for all of our shareholders. So thanks for being on the call today. And obviously, if you have questions, please call us. We appreciate your being on the call. We also appreciate the support you've given to the company over the years. So thank you very much.

[Michael Koehler, executive]

Thank you for joining us. We look forward to updating you with our first quarter 2020 results in May of this year. You may now disconnect.