Apple Hospitality REIT Inc Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Bryan Anthony Maher - B. Riley Securities, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Kind of circling back to the acquisition's discussion earlier. Justin, as you sit here today and based upon what you're seeing from brokers and others, do you guys anticipate, though, being a net acquirer net of dispositions this year? And if so, to kind of what level is measured in out of that tens or hundreds of millions of dollars?

Question: Bryan Anthony Maher - B. Riley Securities, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Great. And so you have a track record of kind of being to take out buyer on some newly developed hotels. Have you seen any existing relationships or new relationships you might have come across with hotel builders currently, who may be kind of desperately looking for a takeout when the property gets its CEO in the next couple of quarters?

Question: Bryan Anthony Maher - B. Riley Securities, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Right. And then just last for me. You guys put in place an ATM, I forget when exactly was it. I think it was maybe the third quarter. Was the thought process when you put that in place more to just be having it there as liquidity safety net or as a more aggressive acquisition opportunities, use later down the road? I mean what was your thought process when you put that in place? And that's all for me. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 24, 2021 / 3:00PM, APLE.N - Q4 2020 Apple Hospitality REIT Inc Earnings Call

Question: Neil Lawrence Malkin - Capital One Securities, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : First one, you talked about you're currently working on extending your covenant waivers. A lot of the other peers have called out the acquisition flexibility or increase thereof. I don't think I've seen that in yours, and I don't know you called it out this time or last time there. Do you guys have capacity to do acquisitions without some sort of capital event? That would be the first part. And then the second part would be, because you will come out from under the waivers first, would you be willing to get more aggressive as you see more visibility in the portfolio on existing deals, just kind of near-term levering up a little bit?

Question: Neil Lawrence Malkin - Capital One Securities, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Yes. No, I appreciate your comments. Second one is, do you have a -- I guess, can you quantify how much your transient demand was down 2019 level? Just trying to get a sense for like how that sort of pent-up demand from the leisure side comes back in this year as the vaccines or vaccine proliferation continues, herd immunity, people get more comfortable and you have the ridiculous amount of stimulus pumped into people's bank accounts, it just seems like there's going to be a extremely strong amount of transient business, especially close to your, I guess, water, adjacent or proximate assets. So can you just maybe talk -- frame that up in terms of if leisure was down like 50% from 2019 levels? And could it go to 75%? Or was it down like 70% from 2019? Just how do you think about that? And how do you expect that to play out? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 24, 2021 / 3:00PM, APLE.N - Q4 2020 Apple Hospitality REIT Inc Earnings Call

Question: Neil Lawrence Malkin - Capital One Securities, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Leisure, sorry.

Question: Neil Lawrence Malkin - Capital One Securities, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Sure. Yes, just curious how you guys thought. But the last one is -- I know, obviously, this happened, but the unfortunate passing of Arne. Do you guys -- any reads or is anything you might be concerned about risks, opportunities in terms of how you negotiate in terms of your strategy, how you look at your brand committees you're on, brand proliferation supply, brand standards, anything that you maybe are thinking about that would

Question: Floris Gerbrand Hendrik Van Dijkum - Compass Point Research & Trading, LLC, Research Division - Analyst : Just -- I might want to ask you a little bit more on capital allocation. I mean it's one of the key ways how you create value for your shareholders and as you think about deploying capital, maybe walk us through your thinking on whether to go for resort hotels versus your small metro versus your REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 24, 2021 / 3:00PM, APLE.N - Q4 2020 Apple Hospitality REIT Inc Earnings Call suburban, which is bulk of your portfolio today. And also, how you think about some of the government initiatives such as the minimum wage or the increased minimum wage, how that impacts your thinking on certain locales?

Question: Floris Gerbrand Hendrik Van Dijkum - Compass Point Research & Trading, LLC, Research Division - Analyst : Maybe if I can have one follow-up on that as well. As you think about deploying capital, I -- obviously, you have a number of different brands largely in the upscale and upper mid-scale segment. As you think about putting more capital to work, are there specific brands that you're targeting? Are you targeting the brands that you already have exposure to? Or are you thinking about maybe adding onto maybe some of your Embassy suite exposure as -- because of the increased ability to generate EBITDA per hotel relative to some of your other brands in your portfolio?