Welltower Inc. (WELL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2021 Welltower Inc. Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I would now like to introduce the first presenter, Ken Bacon, Chairman of the Board of Welltower.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Ken Bacon, Chairman of the Board of Welltower. I would like to welcome you to the annual meeting of Welltower shareholders. I now formally call the meeting to order. First and foremost, I hope all of you and your families are safe, healthy and in good spirits, appreciating that this is, by far, the most important consideration during this extraordinary period. Our agenda this afternoon includes introductions of our members of the Board of Directors and Director nominees and important guests. We will then conduct the formal business of the meeting. Now as you are aware, today's virtual-only meeting is a live webcast. We believe it is important to engage with our shareholders. And in light of the ongoing developments related to COVID-19, we hope that this virtual meeting will maximize participation, regardless of location, while safeguarding the health of you, our shareholders, as well as our directors and management team. Thank you very much to those who are participating in our meeting today and to those who submitted questions in advance. Now I would like to introduce our Board of Directors who are attending our meeting today. First and foremost, Shankh Mitra, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer; Karen DeSalvo, Jeff Donahue, Philip Hawkins, Sharon Oster, Diana Reid, Serge Rivera, Johnese Spisso and Kathryn Sullivan. In addition, Director nominees Dennis Lopez and Ade Patton are also in attendance today. I would like to recognize Sharon Oster, who will be retiring from the Board following the conclusion of this meeting. On behalf of the Board and the management team, I thank Sharon for her extraordinary service and wise guidance to the company over the past 2 decades. I would also like to introduce Tim McHugh, Chief Financial Officer; and Matt McQueen, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, who will join me today along with several other members of the management team who are listening in. Frank Maselli is a representative of Welltower's independent registered public accounting firm, Ernst & Young, and is also present. Finally, I would like to introduce Mr. Peter Descovich from Broadridge, who has been appointed by the company to act as the inspector of election. Before we move to the formal business of today's meeting, I would like to call your attention to the Rules of Conduct, which are in place to ensure a fair and orderly meeting for all shareholders. You can access the Rules of Conduct in the Meeting Materials section of the meeting website. We appreciate your cooperation and observing the rules throughout the meeting. Thank you all for joining us today. Now on to the formal business of today's meeting. Inspector of elections. The Board has appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions to act as the independent inspector of elections for today's meeting. The inspector has taken and signed the inspector's oath, which will be incorporated into the minutes of today's meeting. We also have a proof of notice of the meeting, determination form that the Board of Directors set March 30th as the record date for the shareholders' meeting, and the inspector of elections has provided an affidavit attesting to the fact that the proxy materials were mailed to all shareholders of record on or about April 16, 2021. The notice of meeting and the affidavit will be incorporated into the minutes of the meeting. We were informed by the inspector elections that a majority of the company's voting shares are represented here today, a quorum is present and the meeting may proceed. It is now 1:35 Eastern Time and the polls are now open. At this meeting, shareholders are being asked to vote on 3 matters. The Board recommends that you vote for the election of each director and vote for each of the other two proposals. You can find more information about these proposals in the proxy statement, which you can access along with our annual report in the Meeting Materials section of the meeting website. We will close the polls on all matters shortly. Many shareholders have already submitted their proxies. If you have not voted or wish to change your vote, please do so now by clicking on the Vote Here link on the meeting website. If you have already voted and do not wish to change your vote, you need not take further action. Now the first item of business today is the election of 11 directors to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders. The Board of Directors has proposed Mr. Bacon, Dr. DeSalvo; Mr. Donahue, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Lopez, Mr. Mitra, Mr. Patton, Ms. Reid, Mr. Rivera, Ms. Spisso and Ms. Sullivan be so elected. The second item of business today is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2021. And the third and final item of business today is the approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of our named executive offices. It is now 1:37 p.m. Eastern Time and the polls are now closed. I will now call upon our inspector of elections for his preliminary report as to the voting results. And based on the preliminary review of the votes, the inspector of elections has informed me that each director has been elected and each of the other proposals has been approved. This concludes the formal business of the meeting. We plan to publicly announce the official voting results after all the verifications have been completed by our inspector of elections. Following this meeting, our inspector of elections will furnish a written report with the final vote count with respect to the matters voted on today, which will be included in the minutes of the meeting. Responses to shareholder questions that were submitted prior to the meeting will be posted to the company's 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting website, under Meeting Materials, shortly after this meeting. Now at this time, the legal portion of the shareholder meeting is now adjourned. I will now open the meeting to questions for our Rules of Conduct. Please note that responses to questions asked during the meeting will also be posted to the company's 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting website, under Meeting Materials. This concludes today's meeting. Thank you, everyone, for attending Welltower's annual meeting. And as always, thank you for your continued support.

Thank you for attending today's meeting. You may now disconnect.