Leonard Tannenbaum
Analyst · EF Hutton. Your line is open
Thank you, Gabe and good morning, and welcome to AFC Gamma’s earnings call for the third quarter of 2022. I would like to thank our analysts and investors for joining us today to discuss our results. I’m pleased to have continued to execute on our business plan during the third quarter. AFC Gamma generated distributable earnings of $0.59 per weighted average share of common stock, which does not include the earnings from our taxable REIT subsidiary. We view the core earnings power of AFC Gamma to include the earnings of our taxable REIT subsidiary, although to-date none of the earnings have been recognized in our distributable earnings. The taxable REIT subsidiary earned $1 million in the September quarter and $1.6 million year-to-date, which are excluded from our distributable earnings until distributed up to AFC Gamma. As a reminder, distributable earnings is the primary metric that the Board considers when declaring AFC Gamma’s quarterly dividend. The Board of Directors declared a $0.56 dividend per share in the September quarter, which was paid on October 14, 2022, to shareholders of record as of September 30, 2022. Since going public, we have generated distributable earnings in excess of our dividend in each quarter. And since the IPO, we have paid out $2.98 in dividends per share. We currently have rollover income of approximately $6 million or $0.29 per share outstanding. We did not increased the dividend this quarter as we believe the quarterly dividend level of $0.56 is appropriate, based on the core earnings of AFC Gamma’s current portfolio. Given we are halfway through the quarter, we are making the statement that we are confident that our distributable earnings will meet or exceed the current dividend level in the fourth quarter of 2022. Next, I would like to turn to the broader cannabis market. From a macro perspective, as we discussed last quarter, the sector remains under pressure due to the uncertainty of regulatory change, pricing compression and longer lead times to raise equity. In certain states, the pricing environment for wholesale has declined below the marginal cost of production, which has caused undercapitalized operators to close or suspend their cultivation and production. We believe that as wholesalers exit the market, prices may rebound above the marginal cost of production in mid-2023 benefiting to better capitalized operators. In addition, as a result of the difficult capital markets environment, any cannabis operators, sir? Interesting. Alarm. Okay. We believe that wholesalers exit the market - In addition, as a result of a difficult capital market environment, many cannabis as operators are focused on existing operations and generating earnings versus deploying additional capital in new states. With public cannabis company stocks trading near lows, many are reluctant to raise equity capital, which may open additional opportunities for debt providers such as us, to fill the void and invest in deals with enhanced yields and strong risk adjusted returns. Given the market volatility, we are pleased with the quality of our portfolio. We believe that our focus on targeting operators in limited license states has set us up to mitigate risk and generate strong risk-adjusted returns. We actively manage our portfolio, having regular dialogue with many of our borrowers and we are comfortable with the coverage of our loans on an enterprise-value basis. Two loans are ranked as Category 4 under our CECL analysis with no new additions during the quarter, and no Category 5 loans in our portfolio. In addition, all of our borrowers are current with their payment obligations and no loans are on nonaccrual. Subsequent to quarter end, AFC Gamma, its affiliates and Viridescent increased their commitment to Acreage Holdings by providing access to an additional $50 million of which $13 million has been drawn. The amended credit facility now includes a floating interest rate equal to U.S. prime plus 5.57% per annum with prime floor of 5.5%, an increase from the initial fixed coupon rate of 9.75%. We have further enhanced our collateral under the facility with a cash escrow of $28.5 million by a Canopy subsidiary. Additionally, subsequent to quarter end, AFC gamma was refinanced out of our $86.6 million position in Verano Holdings. In this volatile cannabis environment, we believe it is important to the agent in order to have substantial control over our deals. As of November 1, 2022, we agent 95% of our deals based on outstanding commitments. AFC Gamma did not participate in Verano’s new financing, which was not fully real estate secured. Toronto was among our lowest yielding investments and we could potentially deploy the capital in higher yielding assets. As we have stated in the past, deals can take between three and nine months to close. Therefore, we may have a cash balance at the end of the year as we look to deploy capital into deals with strong risk adjusted returns. This cash balance may cause us to have an under leveraged balance sheet, the lower previously stated target of 0.5:1 debt-to-equity ratio, which may decrease return on equity in the medium-term. Turning to the macro lending environment. There has been a substantial rise in benchmark interest rates in the broader market as well as in the cannabis market. As of November 1st, approximately 56% of our portfolio had a floating interest rate, increasing from 29% at the end of the second quarter of 2022. The weighted average yield of the portfolio was approximately 20% on November 1st, up nicely from the 18% at the end of the second quarter of 2022. We are also excited to discuss that, we are exploring some attractive opportunities for the company. As John will describe, we are analyzing expanding our investment strategy using our core competencies - utilizing our core competencies. Management and the Board are also exploring potential corporate opportunities for the company, including an internalization of our external manager. As we consider what is best for the company and its shareholders, a special committee of independent and disinterested members of the Board has been formed to lead the company in thinking around a potential - lead the company’s thinking around a potential internalization. Looking ahead, I’m excited about our market positioning, portfolio composition, our opportunity set and our available liquidity. I will now turn the call over to John.