Dave Bryant
Analyst · BTIG
Thank you, Matt. Good morning, everyone. Our GAAP net income allocable to common shares for the three months and year ended December 31, 2018 was 7.4 million or $0.23 and 7 million or $0.22 per share respectively. Core earnings were 6.5 million or $0.21 per common share and adjusted core earnings were 7.5 million or $0.24 per common share for Q4 2018. For calendar year 2018, core earnings were 9.4 million or $0.30 per common share and adjusted core earnings were 22.3 million or $0.71 per common share. GAAP net income for the three months ended December 31 includes several significant items. One, the most significant was the 1.4 million recovery of a corporate credit loan position previously held in a legacy [indiscernible] CLO, which of course was a non-core activity. Two, we also received 1.4 million in commercial real estate loan exit fees during a period due to increased loan payoffs, which have, based on our experience, tended to be seasonally higher in the last calendar quarter. And three, we realized an impairment of 932,000 on a legacy CMBS bond, which was recognized in Q4. The following adjustments were made to arrive at 2018 adjusted core earnings. A 7.5 million or $0.24 per share from our redemption of 115 million of Series B preferred stock; a 2.3 million or $0.07 per share from a loss on a CRE loan originated in 2013 and reserved for in 2016; another 0.9 million or $0.03 per share from the impairment on the CMBS bond acquired in 2007, which again occurred in Q4 of '18, and finally, we paid a 2.2 million or $0.03 per share legal charge, which was also accrued for in 2016. We view these items as non-recurring and/or as out of period adjustments that affected our core earnings performance in 2018. When we view our adjusted core earnings in tandem with our dividend policy, the result supports our Q4 annualized dividend level. We saw growth of 13.5 million or approximately 32% in our reported year-over-year net interest income for 2018 as compared to 2017. Three items are driving the increase in net interest income. First, the incremental asset growth in our core investment platform, the net growth in the par value of the core earning assets was 475 million or 30% during 2018. Also as of December 31, 2018, it's worth noting that 91% of our 2 billion investment portfolio was comprised of floating rate commercial real estate debt investments. The second factor driving the increase in interest income is a 55 basis point reduction in the cost of our funds on related - asset related financing. And third is a net accretive benefit to our invested equity from rising LIBOR on our floating rate core real estate investments. A 94 basis point increase in LIBOR at December 31, 2018 over the same date in 2017 eclipsed the spread compression on all CRE assets at 84 basis points, resulting in a net 10 basis point improvement on the yield of our commercial real estate assets. As Matt discussed, we had strong CRE loan production during the fourth quarter. The loan mix was 53% multifamily, 23% office and the balance from retail self-storage and mixed use properties. In addition, we acquired 83 million of CMBS funds, all of which were floating rate at a spread of LIBOR plus 2.29%. Bond mix was 59% agency and 41% non-agency. As is typical during the fourth quarter, we saw an uptick in CRE loan payoffs. Loan payoffs were 203 million with the spread of LIBOR plus 5.21% and an average life of 38 months. Notably, a strategic planned loan with a balance of 17 million paid off in full in Q4 with an exit fee of 510,000. Our positive net loan production was achieved after increased loan payoff volume and as a credit to our CRE origination team. GAAP book value was $14.02 per common share and includes two items, which we wish to highlight for our common shareholders and the analyst community. First, as Bob referenced, our GAAP book value includes the remaining aggregate value of the equity conversion options on our convertible notes of 11 million or $0.35 per share at December 31, 2018. This amount will be amortized to interest expense, will increase the liability balance of our convertible notes and accordingly reduce GAAP book value over time, but has nothing to do with the company's operating performance. We believe this slow decline in book value is misleading. Second, the carrying amount of our Series C preferred stock of 116 million does not reflect the full obligation of 120 million, which is the balance on which we pay the preferred distributions and would be the amount due, should we ever redeem that preferred stock. Adjusting for this $4 million difference, book value would be reduced by $0.13 per share at year end 2018. We believe both of these accounting treatments restate the economic position of the company. This period, in order to provide greater transparency, we are introducing a non-GAAP metric, economic book value. As a brief background, Exantas has been disclosing the adjustment related to the discount arising from the value of the equity option in our convertible note issuances and our quarterly earnings releases. In addition, some market participants have been taking into account the redemption price of our outstanding preferred stock for some time. We believe both items impact the economic value to common shareholders and decided to formally combine both adjustments into a single presentation in our earnings releases. So our GAAP book value per share of $14.02 vested [ph] two items discussed totaling $0.48 per share yields economic book value of $13.54 per share at December 31, 2018. As a point of comparison, the economic book value at December 31, 2017 was $13.63 per share, which reflects the relative book value stability we've managed for the company. Our GAAP debt to equity ratio rose to 2.8 times at year end 2018, up from 1.7 times at December 31 of '17. The increase in leverage results from three factors. One, a net increase of 457 million in asset level borrowings, which reflects or having been under levered in 2017; two, a decline in stockholders' equity of 118 million, 115 million of which is from the preferred stock redemptions, and three, a decline in corporate debt, primarily from the redemption of 70 million of 6% convertible notes. During 2018, we continued our efforts to improve our capital structure by redeeming 165 million of preferred stock that had a weighted average coupon of 8.25% and paying off the remaining 70 million of our 6% convertible notes that came due in 4Q 2018. And lastly, reducing our asset level financing costs by amending the terms of our existing warehouse line and through attractive terms and flexibility of new warehouse facilities. With that, I'll turn the call back to Bob for some final comments.