Greetings. Welcome to Simon Property Group's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Tom Ward, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Sherry, and thank you for joining us this evening. Presenting on today's call are Eli Simon, Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Brian McDade, Chief Financial Officer. A quick reminder that statements made during this call may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and actual results may differ materially due to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors. Thank you to today's press release and our SEC files for a detailed discussion of the risk factors relating to those forward-looking statements. Please note that this call includes information that may be accurate only as of today's date. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included within the press release and the supplemental information in today's Form 8-K filing. Both the press release and the supplemental information are available on our IR website at investors.simon.com. Our conference call this evening will be limited to one hour. For those who would like to participate in the question and answer session, we ask that you please respect the request to limit yourself to one question. May I please introduce Eli Simon.

Good evening. We delivered excellent financial and operational results in the second quarter. Domestic property NOI and real estate FF growth accelerated in the quarter to 8.5% and 7.9% respectively. This was driven by continued leasing demand, disciplined execution across all platforms, and contributions from recent acquisitions. Shopper traffic accelerated in the quarter, and retailer sales volume again grew solidly year over year. Further evidence that our portfolio is well positioned and our properties are the places where shoppers and tenants want to be. With our recently declared dividend, we will have paid out over $50 billion to shareholders since becoming a public company. Tenant demand continues to be widespread with no slowdown, drawing from a broad mix of established and emerging retailers across categories, platforms, and geographies. During the second quarter, we signed more than 1,200 leases totaling over 4.8 million square feet. The number of new deals signed in the quarter increased more than 20% compared to last year, and new deals represented approximately 28% of total lease square fee. Year to date through the second quarter, initial base minimum rent per square foot on new deals is up 17% year-over-year, while tenant allowance per square foot on new deals is down 12% year-over-year. We have completed more than 87% of our 2026 expirations and are ahead of where we were at this time last year as we continue to negotiate 2027 and 2028 expirations with many tenants. The pipeline of prospective deals continues to build, remaining well ahead of last year's pace, reflecting continued broad-based tenant demand. Moving on to retailer sales. Malls and premium outlets were $838 per square foot, up 13.9%. Importantly, total sales volume increased 6.6% over the trailing 12 months and 7.6% in the quarter, with comparable sales growth of 5.7% for the second quarter. We continue to host unique activations that highlight the incredible value our portfolio offers. Our fifth annual National Outlet Shopping Day produced another year of shopper traffic and retailer sales growth, along with a more than 25% increase in retailer participation compared to last year, with Simon Plus members enjoying exclusive rewards tied to the event. We also built on the momentum around the World Cup, running a coordinated activation strategy across our portfolio that featured fan experiences, watch parties, retailer collaborations, and community programming. The shopper and retailer response to these types of events underscores Simon's offering, the ability to turn major developments into large-scale, real-world experiences that bring our consumers, brands, and communities together. Turning now to development and redevelopment activity, at the end of the quarter, we had development projects underway across all platforms, with our share of the net cost totaling Thank you for joining us today. FFO, and Dividends Per Share. This is consistent with the results we have achieved on similar recently completed projects such as Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, Brea Mall in Orange County, and Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over the last four years, we have also committed more than $400 million to center enhancements that are either completed, underway, or recently approved, including common area upgrades, landscaping, lighting, and other amenities creating a more elevated shopping experience. These enhancements are noticed and appreciated by our customers and particularly by our retailers who value a landlord committed to the long-term success of their stores and the communities we serve. We remain focused on these enhancements alongside our broader development activity and our balance sheet allows us to continue reinvesting in our portfolio for years to come. With that, I will turn it over to Brian, who will review our financial results from the second quarter in more detail and provide an update on our outlook for the remainder of the year.

Thank you, Eli. Real estate FFO was $1.25 billion, or $3.29 per share, in the second quarter compared to $1.15 billion, or $3.05 per share, in the prior year period, an increase of 7.9%. Domestic and international operations both performed well and contributed 29 cents of growth, driven by increased lease income, disciplined cost management, and contribution from acquisitions. As anticipated, higher interest expense and lower interest income combined were a six-cent drag year over year. Reported FFO was $3.12 per share in the second quarter compared to $3.15 per share in the prior year period. which included a 21 cent per share non-cash after-tax gain primarily due to Catalyst Brand's deconsolidation of Forever 21. Domestic property NOIs increased 8.5% year-over-year for the quarter and 7.6% for the first half of the year. Approximately 120 basis points of growth for both the second quarter and first half of the year were attributable to our acquisition of the remaining 12% interest in TRG. Portfolio NOI, which includes our international properties at constant currency, grew at 8.3% for the quarter and 7.5% for the first half of the year. Malls and premium outlets occupancy at the end of the second quarter was 96%, flat compared to the first quarter year over year. A result that reflects the depth of retail demand as we absorbed approximately 1 million square feet of retail and bankruptcy-related space returned during the quarter and successfully re-led. The mill's occupancy was 98.8%. Average base minimum rent for the malls and premium outlets increased 6.3% year-over-year, while ADR for the mills increased 12.3%. Occupancy cost at the end of the quarter was 12.5%. Shifting to return of capital, today we announced our dividend of $2.25 per share for the third quarter, an increase of 10 cents or 4.7% year over year. The dividend is payable on September 30th to shareholders as of the record date. During the second quarter, we purchased approximately 793,000 shares of common stock and approximately 238,000 limited partnership units for a $211 million investment at an average purchase price of $2.055 per share. On to the balance sheet. During the quarter, we completed eight secured loan transactions totaling $1.4 billion at a weighted average interest rate of 5.36%. We issued 500 million euros of senior notes at a 3.65% rate for five years, and we closed on a $460 million five-year term loan priced at SOFR plus 70 basis points, the proceeds of which were used to repay $460 million drawn under our revolving credit facility. We ended the quarter with approximately $9.3 billion in liquidity, and our balance sheet remained incredibly robust. with net debt to EBITDA below 5.0 times and fixed charge coverage of 4.7 times. This supports our strategy and our continued execution. Finally, on to 2026 guidance. Given our results for the first half of the year and our current view for the remainder of the year, we are increasing our full year 2026 real estate SSO guidance to a range of $13.20 to $13.30 per share. That compares to $12.73 last year and is an 8% increase at the midpoint compared to the range previously provided. Thank you, and we are now available for your questions.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. As a reminder, we ask that you please limit to one question. Our first question is from Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs.

Please proceed. Hi, everyone. Good evening. I guess I'm wondering if you can talk about TIs and cash flow growth. You did reference some of the pieces in the prepared remarks. So if you look over a long time period, Like the last 10 years, NOI and FO growth have outpaced FAD growth. Year-to-date, it looks like actually FAD growth has outpaced NOI and FO growth. So maybe that is a change in the trend, or maybe the numbers move around. But wondering, can you discuss the outlook for TIs and what they're a function of? If the demand and leasing environment is so strong, do you expect to pull back on TIs? And is reducing TIs a goal of yours? Thank you.

Sure. So thanks for the question, Caitlin. So I think... When I think about the, let's just talk about TIs first. That's a function of demand for the tenants and demand for the space and the supply of available space. Reality is we're having a ton of conversations with retailers. Our pipeline today is about 26%, I think it is, this time last year, which is over 100 more deals. And when we have those conversations, rent's a component of it and TA's a component of it. and there are certain times where it might be a tenant that we want to start a new relationship with but we're concerned potentially about the credit or about their long-term viability and so maybe we'll say yeah maybe it doesn't make sense to pay as much of the TA as what we might pay for someone else. We're more certain about what the performance could be. So I think it's really a function of of Mix over the long run, but the reality is supply and demand shows itself in two ways. It shows itself in rent growth, and it shows itself in TX. You know, stepping back, if you look at funds available for distribution more broadly, I think for the year, we're up 9% or over 9% year to date. You know, it's a focus of ours, right? Our focus is to grow cash flow growth, and part of the cash flow growth is from the FFO, and part of it is from the capital. We spent, but what I do want to highlight or reiterate, which I said on the call or in the prepared remarks, is we are reinvesting back into our centers in a big way. And that is noticeable from the consumers and really from the retailers. And I've been to, I don't know, I think I've been to 12 states in the last three weeks and seen a bunch of our properties where we have done these transformations. And what I've seen is new leases being signed there, new retailers coming to these centers. because they see a landlord that is reinvested into that space. And when you ask the general manager what's the customer perception been, they say, well, we've had people come up and realize, you know, this center was still here, this center was still thriving. So our job is to continue to reinvest back into our centers and to make them better from the customer's perspective and from our retailer's perspective. But our job overall is to grow cash flow growth, grow dividends per share, and make our centers better and sort of we throw it all into the calculus and I think the results have been obviously very impressive so far and we're looking forward to the future.

Thank you.

Our next question is from Michael Griffin with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.

Great, thanks. Eli, I appreciate your commentary around the leasing outlook. Just wondering as you kind of look ahead to really 27 and beyond, You've got rents on inline shops that call it $60 to $65. I realize you don't quote a mark-to-market on the portfolio, but can you give us a sense, as those leases are coming due, are you signing leases in the 70s, mid-70s? Just curious about the trajectory and opportunity there in rent growth, given all the demand that you've really highlighted. Thank you.

Sure. So if you look at year-to-date, I think we've signed new leases at $78 more or less. But what you have to focus on those leases coming due is a large number of them will renew. They're great tenants. We have great relations with them. They're important for the center. And our renewals, historically speaking, and that's holding true now, is sort of in the mid-single digits. And so we'll renew some and we'll replace some if we think that there are and more. So, it's not as simple as saying, you know, the 60-65 goes to 78, but clearly, if you look at the trajectory of where new leases have been signed, obviously, it's a positive story. The supply and demand story is positive, but it's not as simple as just saying take the 60-65 to 78. You know, but I think really the focus is what's the right retailer for each space. And, you know, there's no market rent really in our industry or how we think about it. It's what's the market rent for that tenant based on how they're going to perform and what they're going to do with the rest of the center. So we think it's a positive story. I don't think it's quite the 65 to 78 in a year, but, you know, we look forward to continuing to upgrade continue to upgrade the merchandise mix. In the pipeline, I think it's 483 deals, and a similar number of them are new deals or new tenants as we've done year-to-date, which is 28%. So we feel very good about the pipeline, and it's our job to continue to execute and continue to grow it over time.

Our next question is from Samir Kanal with KCBS. Bank of America. Please proceed.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Eli, given that occupancy is at 96% today, I guess where do you see the greatest opportunity to drive NOI and earnings growth, right? Clearly, there's a lot of momentum here. So help us think about the key drivers of growth, let's call it, over the next 12 to 18 months. Thanks.

Sure. So first off, on occupancy, I think, you know... It's important to realize that we are at 96% occupied on the malls and outlet portfolio. We got a million square feet space back in mid-May and are at the same occupancy level as we were at the end of the first quarter. I think that's pretty impressive. I think it speaks to the strength of the team and the strength of our portfolio. But when I think about the levers of growth, so to speak, occupancy does have a little bit more to go from here. I don't think we'd ever be at 100%. We want the ability to move around tenants, but there obviously is a little bit more from here. I think, honestly, above where we finished last year is the team's goal, and I think we'll achieve that. The other piece, obviously, is re-tenanting. taking out lower performers who obviously pay lower rent and replacing them with new, better tenants that pay more rent given their increased productivity is obviously a focus. And the last piece is our development pipeline. We have a billion dollars in the ground today. We have hopefully 600 million plus that will be approved and start By the end of the year, we're generating 9% of return on those investments, which is obviously a very healthy number. And again, when we quote those numbers, that is only on the capital we're spending on those developments. But if you look at what we've done at Southdale, look at what we've done at Berea, look at Briarwood, there's significant benefits to the rest of the center when we do those developments that are not reflecting those returns. That's another avenue of growth for us, but it's really continuing to do what we've been doing, which I think we've obviously done a good job so far, but we have more to go. We're going to continue to reinvest into our centers and continue to upgrade the merchandise mix, but there's a lot of factors that go into our growth, but we feel pretty good about where we sit today.

Our next question is from Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Please proceed.

Good afternoon. Thanks a lot for taking my question. I think Brian in his prepared remarks talked about 1 million square feet of bankruptcy-related space coming back during the quarter. Can you outline who has been giving you back space? And then also, can you just talk about, you know, we've talked a little bit about the occupancy and you've been able to keep that flat despite getting all that space back. also talked about how leasing economics are being strong but can you talk a little bit about you know the space that you got back you know what rent were they and are you seeing kind of similar to the overall new leasing on those boxes just trying to understand the economic uplift from replacing these replacing the space thanks sure so the so the the million square feet basically all that uh were the sacks off kids right obviously a pretty public uh bankruptcy process

that, again, we've leased, right? So we had, you know, effectively no skipping, you know, no excuses for lower occupancy, right? We got back where we are. And, again, at the end of July, we're at 96.3%. So we are above where we were. But if you look at that, not dissimilar to what we talked about earlier this year, if you look at the boxes in the outlets, they were paying $18 million in rent. The deals we have signed today are already, which about half the space are already well in excess of that, and the rest are under discussion in near final deals. But we'll basically take the $18 million and turn it into $44 million. The only thing that I'd say is not reflected in 26, or I guess will be reflected in 26, is that we got those boxes back, frankly, later than we thought we would. We didn't get them back until I want to say it was May 15th or May 16th. And so by the time, you know, again, we hustled, we got Lisa's sign and getting Lisa's sign now, but that's really going to be a 27 story when those rents start hitting. But, you know, again, it's a good news story for us, but that's really... That's really the vast, vast majority of that million square feet are the Saks office, which, again, not surprising that we got them back, and I think it's overall a good outcome. And the replacements have been, I don't want to use names that I know what's been publicly said or not, but great, great retailers, blue-chip retailers, a number of expansions, frankly, that might have been elsewhere in the center, wanted more space, some carve-ups, But overall, very, very good demand that, you know, a lot of them actually had options over who to replace them with, but turned out to be a good news story for us.

Our next question is from Greg McGinnis with Scotiabank. Please proceed.

Hey, good afternoon. Similarly, along the lines of tenants that you're putting into the centers, you mentioned this substantial retenanting. Could you please provide some details on which tenants or categories you're adding to centers that seem to be resonating with consumers today versus those where you're looking to potentially limit exposure and where you see the tenant watch list where that's expected?

Sure. So we are adding, frankly, across a variety of categories across all geographies, across all platforms. I would say what is most exciting to me is our new and emerging brands which are across a variety of sectors, includes technology companies, athleisure, home, jewelry, very big in the Gen Z, the teen consumer. We are adding a ton of new brands there that are, in many cases, unique to the market, unique to our center, and really differentiate one of our properties where we add these types of connectivity to other properties. And so these brands are coming from online, they're coming from Europe, they're coming from Asia in the beauty space. A number of deals in the beauty space from Asian retailers are coming in the collectible space. at Leisure Space obviously continues to grow with new entrants. And so that's very exciting. And when you walk one of our centers, you see something new, you see something that's differentiated. And I think it's resonating with customers. And when we add these types of retailers, we see increased traffic, and not just for the retailers we add, but for the retailers for the rest of the center. And what that's led to, frankly, is if you go and look at some of the legacy players in these spaces where we're adding the new emerging brands. They're reinvested into their stores. Their stores look so much better. Their merchandise looks better and it's really a great symbiotic relationship which we're very proud of. The other area of focus I would say would be in the restaurant space. We continue to upgrade the restaurants and continue to add restaurants If you look, we have a number of high-profile developments and redevelopments that have started and will start over the next, call it, year or so. We're going to add probably $400 to $500 million of incremental restaurant sales from some of the biggest names out there on a regional, on a national basis. And so, again, that's something that we can continue to do. to create a fresh environment, an exciting environment, an environment that customers want to go to. So that's really the focus, but the demand is from a variety of categories, variety of retailers. On the watch list, it's in very good shape. Nothing close to material. Our next question is from Alexander Goldfarb with Piper Sandler. Please proceed.

Hey, good evening out there. Eli, just wanted to go back on your Simon Brand Ventures. I think before you had said that I think it delivers like 200 million and maybe there's a goal of like 800 million, but also you have 2 billion people who go through your global portfolio. Just want to get a better sense of as you look to monetize this, you know, the visitor count, is this something that you think is like near term, like in the next Call it two years that we'll see a material shift in this revenue increase, or this is something more of a longer-term initiative? I'm just trying to get a handle on it. I mean, $2 billion is certainly a lot of people.

Thanks, Alex. So I don't know if you have access to my emails, I guess. I have a draft press release that I guess I can say now that will be launched in the next couple of weeks to launch Simon Media Network. to really, in a more broad way, take advantage of the first-party customer insights that we are getting. As you said, we have billions of visits a year. We're probably carrying over $100 billion in our domestic portfolio. And so there will be an announcement in the coming weeks. But, yeah, we think there is a real opportunity here to take sort of our whole ecosystem We have obviously our digital footprint with Simon Plus, with Shop Simon, with Simon Search, our in-house screen network. We have over 4,000 screens, the largest footprint of screens, I think, in the world that we continue to invest in. And then now to take the data we're going to get into Simon Media Network and create something that's really, really interesting both for our endemic brands, the retailers at our centers, but also for non-endemic brands who want access to our consumer who has a high intent to shop and to shop and shop a lot. And so it's something we are focused on. I don't know about the 200 to 800. I hope it's that. I hope it's more than that, frankly. But it's a business that's growing at double digits, mid-teens percent year over year. We're investing into it. We're adding screens. We're adding touch points at our centers. One is because we can make a really good return and have a one- to two-year payback period. But two is I think it looks good, frankly. I think when it's done right, I think it adds to our centers. We have our digital directory, allow it to search for real-time inventory through Simon Church at our center, which gets great usage. And so it's something that we are focused on. I'm focused on we think there's a really big opportunity here. Clearly, malls, retail centers at large are having a cultural moment. People realize that they're not going away. Young people want to hang out here. And there's an opportunity to, I think, really take advantage of that because we can provide to people who are looking to advertise something that Thank you.

Our next question is from Juan Zanabia with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Hi. Good afternoon. I'm hoping you could talk a little bit about your retention strategy. Are you looking to maybe pull that back, given the strength of demand and the ability to drive leasing spreads on new deals, particularly for inline tenants? And if you could talk about kind of the spread between lease versus occupancy and how that shifted with the $1 million in bankruptcies noted and the lease up of some of the space subsequently.

Sure. So on the retention side, it's a space-by-space decision that has so many different factors that go into it. It's a relationship with the tenant. What's the replacement? and not just rent, but are they adding to the center? It's a complicated, you know, complicated story, but it's something we focus on. The team is obviously very focused on, you know, downtime, right? We still are running. Yes, for long-term growth, we also obviously have to focus on cash flow in the intermediate term as well. So it's a... I wouldn't say it's materially changing, But to the extent that we think there's an opportunity to replace a tenant with someone who is going to perform better and add more to the center, add more traffic, and then obviously the rent would be higher as well, we'll look to do it. But it's not like we're going and making a blanket assumption or a blanket call on that. It's really space by space, tenant by tenant, center by center is how we think about that. On the snow, yes.

Juan, we're still trending around 300 basis points of signed but not open. And really, that got backfilled by the million square feet of leases. So at the open leases, we backfilled with some of the work we've been doing since we captured the SACs out of the business.

Thank you.

Our next question is from Flores Van Dykem. with Latterberg Thalman. Please proceed.

Hey, guys. Thanks. Maybe, you know, obviously, you know, very strong NOI growth, you know, even excluding the TRG, 7% plus, and sales growth, you know, through the roof with 13% plus. Maybe talk a little bit about the breadth of that sales growth and talk, I mean, is this just Your top 50 assets carrying the portfolio or how is the rest of the portfolio doing or what's the bifurcation between your top 50 or 100 assets versus the rest of the portfolio? Sure, Paul. It's definitely broader than the top 50. It's a pretty broad story. Frankly, the sales trends are pretty similar to what we talked about last quarter that Luxury remains very strong on the full price side for sure. On the outlet side too, but some of the strength of the luxury are tanks that just don't have outlets. Obviously, the jewelry side, the watch side, that remains very, very strong, continues to grow. No real sign of slowdown there. But if you look at the juniors brands, which is targeting sort of the Gen Z customer, we've had 16 straight months of positive comps there, which is pretty staggering, obviously, given all the macro noise out there. And if you think about a customer group that could be hit, it would be that group. And that's continued to grow both new retailers or new entrants in that space, but obviously the legacy retailers as well.

and so, you know, other trends are still holding.

Restaurants, again, are a little bit softer than the rest of the portfolio. I think maybe that's economic-based, but I think there's also other factors, right? Alcohol sales are down, you know, so that's obviously, you know, something we can't control. But the story remains positive. Florida remains Very, very strong from Jacksonville and St. John's. Obviously, the greater Miami area and Boca, over to Naples, Orlando has remained very strong. Even the Panhandle continues to grow. That's been a good sign. The border's growing now, but a little bit less than the rest of the portfolio, which impacts the outlets more. Right, just given that we have more outlets on the border, the borders, than full price. You know, a couple of the better outlets, again, are growing, but a little bit lower than the overall, primarily due to the international travel, which, yes, it came here for the World Cup, but if you look at our outlet portfolio, Vegas is a key component of that, Orlando is a key component of that, which both didn't have World Cup matches, but Orlando also coming off of 12 months of 10-15% comp growth, so that naturally slowed down a little, but the reality is it's a broad-based story that yes, the luxury is very strong, no doubt, but this is not 10-15 centers carrying, this is This is malls, this is outlets, this is mills. They're all positive comping. And traffic's up across all of them, too. So that's a good news story. It's obviously back to school, you know, has hit, I don't know, probably two-thirds of the country right now and the remaining part as we speak. And so that's a good news. And then, you know, we look to the holiday season from there. Thanks, Eli.

Our next question is from Rich Hightower with Barclays. Please proceed.

Good evening, guys. I was curious if you could give us an update on TRG. And I think, you know, last quarter, you know, you sort of talked about the level of excitement there and some of the upside. And maybe just give us an update on where we stand there. And, you know, when do you think that comp really starts to kind of normalize, you know, within the contribution to the whole, I guess?

Sure, so we were as excited, more excited, continue to be excited, all of the above on TRG. So the EBITDA margin, we've increased the EBITDA margin on those assets that we manage. And remember, there's a few of the assets that we don't manage as part of the portfolio. But the assets that we manage, we've increased the margin by 300% this year. and I would say there's probably another couple hundred basis points. Sorry, 300 basis points. There's another couple hundred basis points to go and that's everything from purchasing, contracts, janitorial, cleaning, it's parking, it's marketing and sort of you name it, we're focused on it. Every dollar, we're incredibly focused on it. From a comp perspective, the 120 basis points Brian talked about, surely we added 12% additional ownership. So that goes away in the next two quarters. That obviously goes away, because then we'll have the remaining interest for a year. Obviously, you get the deal at the end of October, so that narrows as the year goes on. We think there's a lot of upside over time. Again, we did not make that deal for the next year, for the next quarter. We made that deal for the long term to own really, really, really good assets and then to do what we do, which is upgrade the merchandise mix, reinvest into them. We have some really exciting stuff going on at Green Hills that hopefully we can announce sooner than later. You know, putting significant amount of money into that center, both on a renovation, you know, adding great, great tenants, really changing that center sort of like what we did with Southdale and Edina, but in, you know, one of the best, if not the best market in the country. You know, International Plaza putting, you know, significant renovation to start soon. and Jerry Creek. We just finalized our renovation plans there to continue to make the best asset in the market better. So it's a long-term story for us. The additional contribution from the 12% obviously goes away soon, but we look for those properties to have significant runway for growth into the future. We're very happy and we're very excited about about the opportunity with those assets.

Thank you.

Our next question is from Mike Muller with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed.

Yeah, thanks. Hi. You have about $4.5 billion of unsecured debt coming due in 2H and 27, I think about $1.5 billion of cash. Can you talk about how you're thinking about those maturities in the cash today? Hey, Mike, this is Brian. You know, where we're focused is always on our balance sheet and preserving our liquidity. You know, we're active across a variety of markets. You know, we've done two deals in Europe in the past quarter, certainly looking around the globe for interest opportunities. You know, we've not yet accessed Yen funding, but that certainly we're considering. There's a variety of other capital markets executions that are out there. So, you know, we have flexibility. Certainly, credit spreads are incredibly tight, obviously pricing off a higher base rate, Ultimately, there is plenty of capital in the world today to refinance our debt, but certainly we're still going to be up against a raising interest rate environment or a higher interest rate environment. At the beginning of the year, we guided towards 25 to 30 cents of negativity of interest expense on this year. We're about 10 cents into it, so we've got about 20 cents to go for the balance of the year. and that's like a current interest rate kind of market environment. And then we'd be headed to next year, to your point. So, you know, we certainly are being proactive about our interest expense and managing it appropriately. Thanks.

Our next question is from Craig Melman with Citi. Please proceed.

Hey, guys. Eli, it's always helpful going through the development pipeline and kind of what you guys, the opportunity you have there at $4 billion, I guess, but as you look at the size of your company, $4 billion is 2% to 4% of your total market cap. It's all very helpful and it's all value accretive, but is there a way to, I guess, create a step function in earnings growth from here? I know Brian was just talking about The liquidity you have and you guys are searching the globe. I mean, is there any type of opportunity above and beyond the, you know, continuing to fix the portfolio, drive earnings from there to kind of grow the platform further and drive maybe that incremental growth above and beyond what malls and retail generally can deliver on a year in and year out basis?

Sure. So there's definitely opportunity. It's something where We're always focused on, like the great thing about the balance sheet that Brian mentioned is that we can do and will do all of the above. We can do development and continue to reinvest into our properties. We'll continue to evaluate buying back stock. We still love to own more of what we own, I guess is the best way to say it. And we know the embedded growth profiles given that pipeline that you talked about. But we're also not going to do something just to do it. You know, I think I said this last quarter and it remains true is we'll buy stuff and look at acquisitions as creative that we think we can operate better on our platform. But it has to be at the right price. And so we're not going to do something just to add scale I don't think it's the right thing to do, but the reality is we have $9.3 billion of liquidity for a business or a balance sheet that's naturally deleveraging based upon our free cash flow generation. And so we'll continue to evaluate, and if there are opportunities, the great thing is we know we can execute. We have the team to execute it. You look at what we did with Brickell last year. Our year one yield there is over 100 basis points higher than our underwriting. And that's because we bought really, really, really good real estate at a good price and also because we're operating it, we're leasing it very well, and we're laser focused on it. So we'll continue to do transactions like that to the extent that they are out there. But we're not going to chase stuff. If others want to chase stuff, that's fine. But we love our portfolio. We love the assets we own. We'll continue to reinvest and then continue to make those assets better. And if there are opportunities or when there are opportunities, we're ready to go and we can move quick and then add value that way. But We look at it and we've grown NOI four plus percent for the last four or five years now, I guess. We have a billion dollars in the ground in development. We have four billion behind it and much, much more behind that that we're actively working on, sort of the shadow part two, I guess. So we're focused. We look to continue to grow cash flow. But we're going to do it smartly, and we're going to do it by adding great assets over time. And if nothing is out there that we can transact on, that's fine. We'll do what we do and grow the cash flow of the existing assets.

Great. Thank you.

Our next question is from Vince Timone with Green Street. Please proceed.

Hi, good afternoon.

Comparable tenant sales are up about 6% year-to-date, which is much stronger than the last few years.

How should we think about potential upside to 2026, NOI, and FFO growth from over-drenched? If these strong sales trends continue for the rest of the year, if you could also touch on just kind of what's baked into guidance right now in terms of sales growth for the portfolio, that'd be helpful.

Sure. So I would say we've seen no signs of a slowdown at all, frankly. In fact, traffic, which we have, traffic accelerated in July. and I don't think anybody asked about traffic, but traffic was up 2%, I think, in the quarter and 3.6% in July, a good number, so I felt like we should say it. So we have not seen any change in sales. I would say that sales are the one thing that we cannot control. Obviously, there's a lot of macro factors Geopolitical, political, political, right? With an election in a couple of months that are out of our control. And so I would say when we think about the guidance, I think it's fair to say that if the sales trends continue, we'll be above the range we guided. But the reality is it's very hard to know how sales are going to perform clearly overage and sales-based rent is back and weighted, obviously, as you go to the holiday season. And so the guidance effectively assumes a slowdown. If it stays like this, then we obviously will be above that range, but we don't really feel comfortable Guiding up at the same growth just because it's something we can't control. We can control leasing. We can control how we manage expenses, but we can't control sales. And so although there's nothing that we've seen that would suggest the slowdown is imminent, we thought it was prudent to die with some sort of sales moderation. But again, very strong numbers. You know, if you look at the, you know, six months, you know, 6.3% comp growth, that's obviously very good. And there are tougher comps in the back half of the year. The malls, you know, really started their, you know, more positive upward trajectory this time last year. So there is a bit tougher comps, too, that we will see. But we are... You know, hopeful that the consumer is shown to be resilient. Obviously, the stock market being at or near record highs is not insignificant, but that's sort of, I guess, the best way to summarize sales. I don't know, Brian, anything?

I think you covered it well, Eli. Ultimately, we would expect that if the current conditions continue that will be a further contribution beyond our guidance here.

Our next question is from Teo Opisanyu with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed. Yes, good afternoon.

Quick question. Eli, you mentioned comments before about jewelry being very strong. and I guess, you know, everything you seem to read in the news is that diamond prices are going down and the younger generation is not buying diamonds and things like that. So just trying to understand a little bit better, you know, why that particular category is doing well and if there are any categories in particular that you kind of worry about saturation as well.

Sure. So I would say that the jewelry space, frankly, for jewelry and watches, It's coming from a variety of price points. It's clearly the luxury, the uber luxury. That's just, you know, honestly more demand than supply of those types of items. So that allows prices to go up and the consumer is there. But also there's been a lot of new entrance into the space on sort of more of the, you know, the I guess more affordable price points. So there's a lot of new efforts in this space that we're doing business with that have great looking stores, track maybe that younger consumer. And so it's a category that's important for us. I think, again, these things go in cycles. They change over time. But for right now, that is a trend that we see, we're focused on. And so it's You know, can we continue and expand the relationship and expand the stores with some of the more established players, players in the luxury space that we have great relationships with and want to continue to do more and more business with? But also, there's this new entrance, again, at a different price point, but they're creating really great stores, great environments, you know, that they're focused on, you know, getting that younger consumer in an environment that is Instagramable, for lack of a better word. And so it's sort of how we view all of our leases is that we want to go where the consumer goes. And we have a great team. We have boots on the ground across the country. We have a great team that's focused on new and emerging brands. So we go where the customers are and want to give them more of what they want. And so That's really what we're doing in that space.

I think you also see, just given the outperformance of the U.S. relative to the rest of the globe, that you continue to see luxury retailers bringing their product here, their newest and greatest product, because this is where the action is. So as long as that continues, we think that the trend line will hold. Fair enough.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our last question is from Ronald Camden with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

Hey, great. I just have a quick one, just AI-related. We're a couple months into this journey now, and when you're thinking about sort of your business and as well as sort of the retailer business, where do you think we are in terms of the adoption of these tools to better understanding where the customer's coming from and starting to see some tangible benefits? Is it still too early to see tangible results? Just curious, like, how that's been sort of going, both for your business and the retailers that you partner with. Thanks.

It's obviously early days. I don't know if it's the first any, third any, but it's definitely early days. I would say from the SPG perspective, I think we've made leaps and bounds over the past several months and there's so much more we can do, so much more we can do with our data. We're seeing real efficiencies and insights from our Think about it, we have 29, 30,000 different leases, so many different REAs, so many different documents, joint venture documents, loan documents, etc. So we're seeing a lot we can do in that space to be quicker, to be more efficient, so much we can do on the marketing front. Again, we have hundreds of centers, so many different retailers, and so the ability to create imagery that's quicker, that looks better, is meaningful for us. It's early days, and I'd say the retailers, again, you know, same thing, right? From what we're hearing is that everyone's starting the journey, they're focused on it, but it's not a, I don't think there's been a sea change in how anybody's operating. I think it's, you know, just stepping back bigger picture, I think it makes us more bullish on physical real estate, physical retail. I think, you know, we've seen it, the younger cohorts, the most excited to come to the mall, the most excited to shop in the mall as, you know, individual websites potentially become harder to navigate to, you know, from individual retailers. The physical real estate, The ability to have their brand representation becomes more and more important. And so that leads to more money being reinvested into the stores, creating a better, more unique experience. So we think it's great for us long term. But as far as adoption and anything like that, it's obviously early days. And we do, as I mentioned earlier, with the Simon Media Network, AI will be a big component of that and our ability You know, to sort through our data better, right? Which is a lot, as you can imagine, you know, with, you know, billions of visits a year, hundreds of billions, a hundred plus billion dollars of sales, a lot of data, a lot of leases, a lot of tenants. And so there's a lot we can do there to be, you know, with our Simon Media Network and, you know, related entities that's really getting up and running. But Overall, we look at this as great for us long-term, and our job is to continue to make our properties where retailers want to be and where customers want to be, and that's really what we're focused on.

Great. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Eli for closing remarks.

Thank you everybody for your questions and have a great week.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time and thank you for your participation.