Camden Property Trust (CPT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your Camden Property Trust Annual Meeting. I'm pleased at this time to introduce Ric Campo. Please go ahead, sir.

Well, thank you. This is the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Camden Property Trust. I'm Ric Campo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Thank you for joining the 2020 Virtual Annual Shareholders' Meeting. For the first time ever, Camden is holding its annual shareholders' meeting as a virtual meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as permitted by the state of Texas and our bylaws. Before we begin, I'd like to advise you that during the closing remarks portion of the meeting, we will make -- we may make forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and beliefs. The statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Further information about these risks can be found in our filings with the SEC and we encourage you to review them. So that everyone will know what to expect this morning, let me summarize the procedures for this meeting. First, we are recording this meeting, and a replay will be available on our website later this week. Second, shareholders may use the question box in the lower left-hand corner of the screen to submit questions at any time during the meeting. We cannot guarantee we'll answer all the questions. If we do get -- do not get to your questions during the meeting, Kim Callahan, our Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, will contact you via e-mail or phone to discuss your inquiries. Third, shareholders can vote during this meeting at any time from the beginning of the meeting through the presentation of the proposals until we close the polls, by using the voting box in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. However, if you've already voted in advance by using an online ballot or a physical proxy card, a vote at this meeting will be superseded by your earlier vote. If you've already voted, you don't need to vote again. Lastly, in the event of any technical difficulties before the official adjournment of this meeting, we may temporarily adjourn and reconvene in accordance with our bylaws. I want to thank each of you for participating in our virtual meeting today. I would first like to announce the officers and trust managers who are with us on the call today. We have Keith Oden, Executive Vice Chairman; Alex Jessett, Executive Vice President and CFO; Kim Callahan, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations; Josh Lebar, Senior Vice President and General Counsel. We also have our trust managers on the call. We have Kelvin Westbrook, our lead independent trust manager; Scott Ingraham; Bill McGuire; Bill Paulsen; Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa; Steve Webster; Heather Brunner; Renu Khator; and Mark Gibson. I would also like to acknowledge Tony Torres from Deloitte & Touche LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm; and Toni Weinstein from Dentons, our outside legal counsel, who are also on the call as well. I would now like to proceed with the formal business of the annual meeting. Josh Lebar is the secretary of the trust and will act as secretary of this meeting.

An alphabetical list of shareholders of record of the trust at close of business on March 16, 2020, the record date for this meeting, is available to shareholders at this meeting by clicking the link in the box located at the bottom of your screen.

The list of shareholders is open for inspection by any shareholder participating in this virtual meeting, and will remain open for inspection during this meeting. Each shareholder of record entitled to vote at this meeting has received a copy of the Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders and the proxy statement dated March 24, 2020, as supplemented by the supplement dated April 9, 2020, as evidenced by the affidavit of distribution made by an authorized agent of Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., the designee of distribution of our -- for our common shares. The first order of business today is to determine the presence of a quorum. Holders of record of common shares at the close of business on March 16 are entitled to vote at this meeting. Mr. Secretary, do you have -- have you examined the list of shareholders?

Mr. Chairman, I have examined the list of shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting, and determined that as of the record date of March 16, 2020, there were 97,379,145 common shares outstanding and entitled to vote. I have also determined that more than 50% of those shares are represented at this meeting, and therefore a quorum is present. Accordingly, the meeting is legally convened.

Based on the report of the Secretary, a quorum is in attendance. Alex Jessett has been appointed as inspector of election and has sworn to the oath of inspector of the election. The next order of business is the election of trust managers. The Board has selected each of the following persons as a nominee for elections. They are: Richard J. Campo, D. Keith Oden, Kelvin R. Westbrook, Heather J. Brunner, Mark D. Gibson, Scott S. Ingraham, Renu Khator, William F. Paulsen, Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa and Steven A. Webster. I'll now enter a motion to elect each of these nominees as trust managers.

I so move.

Thank you. Is there a second?

I second the motion.

Polls are now open for voting on the election of trust managers. Everyone who is entitled to vote and who desires to vote should do so now using the voting box. [Voting]

Okay. The votes are in, and I declare the polls closed. Mr. Secretary, do you have the preliminary results?

Mr. Chairman, I have received the report of the inspector of election. And based on the proxies granted in advance of the meeting and those votes that were cast today, if any, it appears Mark D. Gibson as new nominee has received more than 2/3 of the common shares outstanding and entitled to vote as is required by our bylaws. And each of the other nominees have received at least 50% of the votes cast, and each is therefore reelected.

The next order of business is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm for 2020. I will now entertain a motion for such ratification.

I so move.

Thank you. Is there a second?

I second the motion.

The polls are now open for voting on the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm. Everyone who is entitled to vote and who desires to vote should do so using the voting box. Apparently, the votes are in, and I declare the polls closed. Mr. Secretary, do you have the preliminary results?

Mr. Chairman, I have received the report of the inspector of election. And based on the proxies granted in advance of this meeting, and any meeting -- and any votes cast at this meeting, there are none, it appears the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2020 has received at least 50% of the votes cast, and therefore is approved.

The next order of business is the approval on an advisory basis of the following resolution to approve on an advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive officers. Resolved that the trust shareholders approve on an advisory basis, the compensation of the named executives as disclosed in the trust's proxy statement for the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I will now entertain a motion to approve this resolution.

I so move.

Thank you. Is there a second?

I second the motion.

The polls are now open for voting on approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of our named executive officers. Everyone who's entitled to vote and who desires to vote should do so now using the voting box. [Voting]

The votes are in, and I declare the polls closed. Mr. Secretary, do you have preliminary results?

Mr. Chairman, I received the report of inspector of election. And based on the proxy granted in advance of this meeting and [Audio Gap] today, it appears the resolution has been approved by a majority of the votes cast.

Thank you. We appreciate that vote of confidence. The next order is -- the Secretary is directed to file with the records of the trust, for the purpose of reference, the following: the list of shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting, the Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders, proxy statement and affidavit of distribution, the ballots cast online during this meeting, the investor -- the inspector's oath, the report of the inspector of the election. Okay. What I'll do now is just give you a few brief remarks. What I want to do to start with though, is to -- I know Mr. McGuire is on the phone, and Mr. McGuire is now formally retired as a Camden trust manager. And I just wanted to say directly to you, Bill, with everybody at the meeting that we really appreciate your service since 2005. And I will tell you personally from my perspective, I know this is shared by our entire management team and the Board, we really appreciate your support, your sage wisdom, your advice. You were one of the stalwart Board members through thick and thin. We think that -- I personally think that the merger we did together with Summit in -- that started in 2004 and was completed in 2005, definitely positioned Camden to be a national player in multifamily. The integration of the companies was absolutely seamless because of the hard work that you and Bill Paulsen and your team did, and the commitment that you made to create a great culture with the combined companies, and to send us on our way to be a nationally recognized company and to be in a really good position with a very diversified portfolio. I will credit our strength today and our resolve today to get through this coronavirus to you and to Bill Paulsen for that merger. I think it was very, very important for us at the time. So thank you, and I know that you're not going to go into the night. You will still be with us as a shareholder and as an informal adviser, and I really appreciate that. In terms of sort of talking about 2019, it doesn't seem very appropriate to spend a lot of time talking about 2019, even though we did lead the sector in same-store revenue and net operating income, again did that in the first quarter of 2020. What I want to do is give a big shout-out to Team Camden for their resilience; for their commitment to improve the lives of their teammates, customers and shareholders one experience a time. Our on-site property teams have really stepped up to help our residents during this unprecedented time to make their homes a true place of refuge. Our corporate and regional support teams have continued to be highly productive, adapting to telecommuting without meeting a beat -- without missing a beat. During times like this, it brings the importance of our homes to the forefront. I am proud of Team Camden. Thank you. As I said, I won't spend a lot of time talking about the distant first quarter and the distant 2019 in this uncertain environment. But I will tell you this, we are more prepared for this recession than any other. Thanks to the lessons that we learned in the financial crisis, we know how to come out of this recession in a great position with great financial strength and having a focused and motivated team. Someday, someone will write a novel titled A Tale of Two Quarters, which will begin like this, "It was the best of quarters. It was the worst of quarters." Camden just arguably had the best quarter in our 28-year history. We had the highest FFO per share at $1.35. We had the biggest quarterly outperformance relative to our established guidance. We had sector-leading same-store net operating income growth of 5.7%. And in the last 2 weeks of the quarter, everything changed. Fortunately, our leadership team had been together for decades, and we've dealt with our share of disasters and disruptions. Our experience with previous dislocations provided us with a road map for navigating this pandemic: first, take care of Camden's team, make sure that we are operating in the safest possible environment. Also, we also make sure that we address their financial with -- well-being. Employees that are under personal financial distress will never be able to do their best work. To accomplish this, we did 2 things. First, we added $1 million to our long-standing Employee Emergency Relief Fund. $750,000 came from Camden and $250,000 came from Camden executives. We provided grants of up to $3,000 that were made available to our employees whose family income have been impaired by and living expenses increased due to the COVID-19 impact. To date, we've provided 350 employees with total grants exceeding $1 million. Second, we announced -- last week, we announced a bonus exclusively for our frontline employees, both on-site operations and our on-site construction teams, of $2,000 per full-time employee, totaling $3 million. The best way for us to ensure that our residents are afforded living excellence is to ensure that our Camden team members remain physically, mentally and financially healthy. Our next priority was to assist our residents who had lost their jobs or had substantial income reductions from the COVID-19 impact. In April, we announced a $5 million resident relief fund for Camden's residents that were experiencing financial losses caused by the COVID pandemic. The demand was so high for this $5 million fund, we actually expanded it to $10.4 million and provided assistance to over 8,200 Camden residents. We're very proud of the way we've been able to support our residents as well as our Camden team members during these complicated times. As I said before, Camden is strong. We'll come out of this financial crisis just as strong as we went in. We've been to these kinds of situations before, whether it had been hurricanes or financial crises or whatever in our 27-year history. And we're prepared to come out of this on the other side in a very strong and positive position. We appreciate all of your support, all of our shareholders. And at this time, I will entertain questions, if we have any questions from our shareholders.

There are no questions to be answered at this time.

Okay. I appreciate your attendance today. As there appears to be no other business to come before this meeting, I will make a motion to adjourn.

I so move.

I second the motion.

All those in favor, say aye. [Voting]

Any opposed? It doesn't sound like we have any opposition. So I declare this meeting adjourned. We really appreciate your support, and we look forward to visiting with you in the future. Thank you.

And that does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a great day.