Q4 2023 Sonida Senior Living Inc Earnings Call
Participants
Brandon Ribar; President & CEO; Sonida Senior Living Inc
Kevin Detz; Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President; Sonida Senior Living Inc
Presentation
Operator
Good day and welcome to the Sensata Senior Living Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. All statements today, which are not historical facts may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meeting of the federal security laws. These statements are made as of today's date, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update these statements in the future. Actual results and performance may differ materially from forward-looking statements as certain of these factors could cause actual results to differ are detailed in the earnings release. The Company issued earlier today as well as the report and the Company files with the SEC from time to time, including the risk factors contained in the annual report on Form 10 K and quarterly reports on Form 10 Q. Please see, please see today's press release for the full Safe Harbor statement, which may be found at w. w. w. St. Nita Senior Living.com forward slash Investor Hyphen RELATIONS and was furnished in an eight K filing this morning. Also, please note that during this call, the company will present non-GAAP financial measures for the reconciliations of each non-GAAP measure from the most comparable GAAP measure. Please also see today's press release. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Cindy to Senior Living CEO. brand and Rio. Thank you. You may begin.
Brandon Ribar
Thank you, Rob. Hello and welcome to our 2023 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings Call. I'm joined today by Kevin Dotts, our Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, we posted our 2023 earnings and investor presentation, which will be referenced throughout this call as we discuss our strategic priorities and operating results for the year as well as our focus on growth in 2024. You can find our latest presentation at Syneos Senior Living.com in the Investor Relations section if you would like to follow along. In addition, we have included supplemental earnings information within our investor presentation. Consistent with the prior quarter release. Our results in 2023 not only paved the way for growth in 2024 and beyond. They reinforce the strength of our synthetic culture and our collective leadership teams. Our strategic focus on building exceptional teams across each operating and support discipline, delivering value to our residents and our local team members and translating those efforts into real margin improvement through operational excellence resulted in the strongest year-over-year performance improvement in the Company's recent history. I could not be prouder of each team member across the Sydney to family. We had three achieved more than 10% revenue growth on a same-store basis and even more importantly, doubled our adjusted EBITDA year over year from $17 million in 2022 to $34 million in 2023, while delivering outstanding care and services to our residents across the country.
Additionally, the Company delivered cash flow from operations exceeding $10 million in 2023, a $13 million improvement from 2022. I'm incredibly thankful for the contributions from the entire local, regional and central support teams. The balance required to increase the recovery trajectory on revenue and margin complete significant restructuring of the balance sheet, raise additional growth capital and position the platform for long-term expansion is reflective of a high-performing management team ready to continue building something special. We emerged today, free from going concern language in our financials with capital available to invest in our portfolio and pursue external growth opportunities. I'll focus my comments today on a few of our 2023 company accomplishments and provide further detail on Sanitas goals for an exciting growth phase over the next 18 to 24 months. Kevin will provide greater detail on our operating results and key financial achievements in 2023, most important to our strategic plan. We continue to invest and develop leadership across across each of our disciplines. Over the past year and a half. We've changed the culture of the organization by empowering key regional and local leaders. This cultural transformation has resulted in 100% retention of our regional operations and sales leaders and improved our community leadership retention by nearly 10% year over year.
Our business only thrives with first and foremost for support and buy-in of our team. We completed significant investments in our real estate portfolio and expanded the number of units to meet an increasing demand for memory care services in two key markets. Additionally, we invested in multiple technology solutions to support ongoing improvement in resident safety and experience while enhancing our operational efficiency to manage the cost of operations moving forward. All of these efforts are foundational to our plan to build a differentiated operating platform that delivers value through operations, real estate ownership and meaningful investment opportunities in the senior living space.
Let's now look at the various levers for Cindy's organic and inorganic growth in 2024 and beyond. Detailed on pages 19 through 22 of the investor presentation within our existing portfolio, which remains our primary focus further margin expansion through rate and occupancy growth stand at the forefront. Our rate increases on existing rental contracts were effective for nearly 80% of our private pay residents on March first, of 2024 and thus far, attrition rates related to affordability remain in line with expectations. One of our 2024 goals centered around driving occupancy improvement in a handful of underperforming assets that account for 40% of all vacant units by combination of shifting sales focus, further capital investment where appropriate and heightened outbound marketing are being deployed to accelerate the recovery of these communities. Our team is not only focused on addressing lower-performing communities, but also enabling our strongest performing communities to reach their full potential.
During the fourth quarter, more than half of our portfolio averaged occupancy of 90% or greater. With these communities consistently achieving the highest marks in customer experience and employee engagement. We believe that over time, we can drive portfolio wide occupancy in excess of 90%. These expectations aligned well with current industry trends, new supply at a 10-year low high construction costs and the constrained availability of affordable financing. Continued investment on our clinical and resident programming will further support these growth efforts. Our clinical teams and residents have recognized immediate benefit with the arrival of our Chief Clinical Officer in Q4. The addition of a talented experienced leader will further expand our clinical offerings and tailor our services to the needs of our residents. Our clinical focus in 2024 is highlighted by retention and further development of our local clinical leadership and ensuring the effectiveness and consistency of our local processes to proactively identify changes in resident health requiring action we expect further margin expansion driven by continued operational improvements, specifically additional rate and occupancy growth combined with utilization of our labor management technology and protocols to contain cost inflation.
Additional capital investments in the $3 million to $4 million range will fund conversion or opening of approximately 100 additional units in 2024. We anticipate a 12 to 18-month payback on these investments based on our experience with similar capital projects over the last two years.
Shifting to external growth opportunities on slides 20, through 22 of our investor presentation, we highlight the profile of communities targeted for acquisition, various sourcing channels currently offering accretive investment opportunities and the versatility we bring as a balance sheet, investor JV partner and premier operator, we continue to focus on the midwest, southeast and the south as primary markets to further densify our existing footprint, targeting newer construction, multiproduct communities serving the upper middle and high-income resident base. Our programming created to bring joyful living to our independent and assisted living residents and our trademarked Magnolia Trails memory care program will support operational improvement in newly acquired communities in the current environment, we see opportunistic investments as most compelling and are focusing largely on underperforming, but quality assets at significant discounts to replacement costs. While these assets may be cash flow neutral or negative upfront. So need to identify situations where our systems and processes can structurally improve margin as well as quality of care and resident experience. And we anticipate stabilizing at double digit NOI yields on costs. We believe that the financial success of a community is first and foremost, dependent on having a strong local leadership team and key to our success is the hiring and retention of great talent that together with CDT's tools and programs are able to stabilize challenged assets. We expect to capitalize on three primary avenues of inorganic growth acquisitions, joint ventures and third party management. We will enter into third-party management agreements selectively and strategically and on acquisitions and joint ventures are focused on disciplined deployment, deployment of balance sheet capital at high rates of return and in assets that have strategic or qualitative benefits to our portfolio, we see a growing opportunity set to partner with lenders and existing asset owners who are seeking fresh capital and new operators to enhance recovery value on their portfolios. One core principle is focusing on regional dense densification, where we are able to benefit from our scale, implement our full suite of labor management tools and thus grow our portfolio without costly recruiting and without meaningful changes to G&A. Market volatility continues with owners, operators and capital providers reaching key decision points, and Sunita continues to engage in discussions to identify potential near term opportunities with approximately $18 billion in senior living debt maturing in 2024 and 2025 based on the latest Nick data and capital availability remaining tight, Suneet is positioned to provide value as an operator owner and investor in the current market. As of today, we have clear visibility on transactions, including more than 700 units with expected closing dates in the second quarter of 2020. For these potential transactions include outright purchase joint venture ownership and third party management, all in key markets targeted for expansion. We look forward to sharing additional details as the transactions are finalized in the coming weeks and months. This needed transformation driven by operational improvement and significant balance sheet restructuring and de-levering efforts can best be summarized on Slide 10 of our supplemental investor information. The pro forma capitalization table reflects a debt structure with attractive interest rates and minimal debt maturing until the end of 2026, combined with significant equity value in the business.
In summarizing our year end 2023 and performance in 2024 outlook. We remain optimistic about the industry as a whole and the syndicated platform, the ongoing retention and development of our leadership teams and the effective rollout of new resident programming and technology remain paramount to continuing the growth trend trends achieved in 2023. Our team is excited to continue building a best-in-class operating platform to achieve the full potential in each of our 71 communities while expanding our footprint through strategic and accretive growth opportunities.
I'll now turn it over to Kevin for a discussion of the financial results.
Kevin Detz
Thanks, Brandon. Expanding the discussion around the company's performance and balance sheet. Let's jump back to slide 6 of the investor presentation. Before I dive into the numbers, I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible work and commitment by the team. Over the last 18 months. In early '22, the company was at a critical inflection point and having just recapitalized and still working out a devastating impact from COVID-19. In less than two years the Company has carefully rebuilt its corporate support team and culture with the injection of new contributors and leaders to write the next chapter of the company. Company's finance and accounting functions have quickly evolved from a group of hired contractors to best in class professionals serving as business partners to our incredible operations team. I'm extremely proud of the collective success attained and look forward to continued evolution as the company executes on its strategic growth plans.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not thank our business partners and lenders, particularly Fannie Mae and Ally Bank for all their support, creativity and temporary flexibility as the company is poised to soon realize all in cash flow generation. Over the course of the last nine months, we have made incredible strides in addressing our debt and overall capitalization.
To summarize the company company temporarily modified its liquidity covenants under the Ally term loan to provide runway required to execute a material restructuring of the economic terms in its Fannie Mae mortgages during the fourth quarter, the Company entered into a purchase and sale agreement to acquire all remaining loans on its Protective Life portfolio. The purchase price represented a 48% discount of the total indebtedness of $77.4 million in February 2024. The Company closed on this transaction and concurrently finance $24.8 million of the loan purchase price as part of its existing term loan with Ally Bank.
As a result of the modifications made to 56 of the company's 60 community loans management has meaningfully improved cash flow leverage ratios and term across its debt portfolio. Specifically, the company extended its average remaining loan term to 3.7 years and delevered the Company by $55 million since January of '23, including a $5 million paydown in connection with the Fannie Mae modification. Foundational work on the Company's debt, which is further highlighted on Slides 10 through 12 instilled confidence in Sanitas largest investors, leading to the offense of private placement raise executed last month, which large part has been earmarked for earmarked for growth in 2024 from a financial reporting perspective, the debt and equity transactions have allowed the Company to address any risk associated with its end-of-year cash balance and its ability to continue as a going concern, as further discussed disclosed in today's 10 K and accompanying auditor opinion on the financial statements. Despite continued macro inflationary pressures, management reduced G&A as a percentage of revenue and adjusted to exclude stock comp and onetime transaction costs from 11.8% to 10.5% on a year-over-year basis.
Rounding out slide 6 and addressing some of our performance highlights on slide eight nine. I'm pleased to report continued occupancy and rate growth beyond the year-over-year occupancy increase of 160 basis points and with an eye towards 2024. We are encouraged by achieving an average occupancy of nearly 86% for the last quarter of the year. On the rate side, we realized the benefit of aggressive but responsible rate optimization RevPAR increased 10% year over year and should further expand in 2024 with the Company having successfully migrated to a resident wide March first rate renewal anniversary. Comparing year over year margins, the Company expanded its NOI margin by 520 basis points or 460 basis points on an adjusted NOI margin basis, which excludes the one-time impact from state grant receipts. For the fourth quarter of '23, annualized NOI and margin were $66.8 million and 27.4%, respectively. These figures include nonrecurring credits recognized in connection with one-time real estate tax settlements and Workers' Comp true-ups as a result of the most recent actuarial reports. Excluding these nonrecurring credits. Effective NOI margin for the quarter was 25.7%.
Diving deeper into revenue growth drivers, we move to Slide 14. The Company identified two primary initiatives as part of its revamped revenue management process aimed at better aligning our revenue model with the increasing cost of care for our residents. First, we successfully raised base resident rates by 8.3% year over year. Second, through the simplification and formalization of our assisted living level of care program, we were able to capture an additional $1.9 million and care revenue expansion of tech based clinical labor productivity pilots in '23 will set up the company to further capture the true clinical cost of resident care and related revenue in 2024.
Diving into more of the margin drivers.
We'll move ahead to Slide 15 to discuss year-over-year labor trends. We are extremely pleased that in this tight labor market and hyper inflationary period, we have been able to control our labor costs. Total labor, excluding benefits, moved from a '22 high mark of 47.5% of revenues to just under 46% in '23. Contract labor, which decreased nearly $6 million year over year, continues to be limited to a handful of communities where market-specific labor constraints persist in 2024. The Company is focused on optimizing labor hours to meet the real-time needs of our residents amidst higher occupancy levels, which should support a lower incremental cost per resident through our technology partnerships and internally developed LABOR dashboards. We are also focused on addressing the premium labor cost base, which remains an industry headwind coming out of COVID, premium labor was $9.5 million for the year and includes the cost of ship bonuses overtime and spot bonuses that would otherwise be replacements for lower rated employee salaries and wages
Moving ahead to all other expenses on Slide 16. As a percentage of revenue, our non-labor expenses have decreased 300 basis points from 30.5% in '22 to 27.5% in '23 despite the headwinds of elevated inflation over the same period, management implemented various strategic and tactical initiatives discussed on previous calls to create a non labor base that should provide for incremental margin on both expanded occupancy for same-store communities as well as inorganic community acquisitions.
Moving on to slide 17, you'll see some presentation changes from prior earnings calls to reflect the favorable pro forma impact on our leverage profile as a result of the Protective Life loan purchase completed last month as a result of the February second transaction, our debt is comprised of 72% fixed rate debt with the remaining variable rate debt fully hedged, yielding a weighted average interest rate of 5% for the portfolio. Most importantly, the Company continues to execute on its long term strategy of delevering the balance sheet. Finally, as of today, the Company is in compliance with all financial covenants.
Required under its mortgages.
In summary, the Company continues to be encouraged by the consistent improvement across all significant KPIs. Over the last 12 months, the expected continuation of revenue and margin growth, combined with the Company's modified debt structure, has Sunita firmly positioned to take advantage of both organic and inorganic opportunities in the marketplace to drive shareholder value in 2024 as Brendan detailed in his comments. Back to you, Brendan.
Brandon Ribar
Thanks, Kevin. 2023 was a transformational year for Sensata. We achieved significant performance milestones while accomplishing key strategic objectives and delivering industry-leading care and services to our residents. These achievements included balance sheet optimization through the comprehensive restructuring and modification of our debt and culminating in the $47.75 million equity private placement that closed in the first quarter of 2024. The operational developments and greatly strengthened balance sheet established Anita as a differentiated operator owner and investor in senior living and position the Company to capitalize on near term dislocation, which will drive the next chapter of value creation for our shareholders. Rob, please open the line for questions.
Question and Answer Session
Brandon Ribar
Thank you. (Operator Instructions)
Steve Monroe with 11.
Hey, guys, some good go and great progress. I might have missed it, but did you say what your current occupancy is as of today as opposed to end of fourth quarter?
Brandon Ribar
We did not Steve.
So you can you disclose that or?
Brandon Ribar
No, we can't at this time.
Okay. All right.
And any kind of a forecast of where you think it might be at the end of the year, which you're hoping to get to the?
Kevin Detz
As Steve said, we're not providing guidance at this time. I think we our goal is to continue to see progress similar to as we did in 2023. And so we think that as we referenced, the March increases came through without any material concerns around attrition on that front so I think we'll be in a position to provide additional numbers here in the near future, just around how Q1 is playing out as well, we could.
And then the Q2 acquisitions or joint ventures or whatever you're expecting the closing Q2's or anything in the pipeline for the rest of the year after that.
Kevin Detz
And there's a significant pipeline at this point in time, Steve, we're excited about all the opportunities that we're taking a look at. So those units represent just things that we have under LOI currently. And that excludes all the other things in the pipeline that we're looking at for the remainder of the year as well as the second quarter.
And then for any acquisitions, you have any lenders in mind that you're working with or not that far yet?
Brandon Ribar
I think there we have a couple of different options. And so there are cases where the lenders want to continue to stay in the transaction and are offering financing from the that's based on the existing structure. And then we also have relationships with our existing banking partners and others interested in in the need has been been accomplishing that are building a relationship with us and that also are offering opportunities to finance deals moving forward. So it's both seller financing and existing bank. Staying in and then new opportunities as well.
And how did you get real estate taxes to go down by a million. It doesn't have it with me.
Brandon Ribar
Yes, I think that was all part of the tactical, the tactical initiatives that we rolled out on when the new management team got here. And so that was just kind of a hard scrubbing of all the accounts and part of what we did was consolidate our vendor relationships and look for favorable pricing that way. And so I think it was a really aggressive monitoring and even litigation at some point that ultimately got us all those one-time credits that will effectively run rate in the form of lower taxes moving forward in the out years for us because that's all I got.
Thank you.
Brandon Ribar
Thank you, Steve.
Kevin Detz
Thanks, Steve.
Operator
There are no further questions at this.
And this concludes today's conference and thank you all for participating.
