Earnings Labs

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (BXMT)

Q1 2010 Earnings Call· Wed, May 5, 2010

$19.97

-0.75%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Hello and welcome to the Capital Trust first quarter 2010 results conference call. Before we begin, please be advised that the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are subject to certain risk and uncertainties, including but not limited to the success of the company's debt restructuring; the continued credit performance of the company's loan in CMBS investments; its asset liability mix; the effectiveness of the company's hedging strategy; the rate of repayment of the company's portfolio assets; and the impact of these events on the company's cash flow; as well as other risks indicated from time to time in the company's Forms 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events or circumstances. There will be a Q&A session following the conclusion of today's presentation. At that time, I will provide instructions for submitting a question to management. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Steve Plavin, CEO of Capital Trust. Please go ahead.

Steve Plavin

Management

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us and for your interest in Capital Trust. With me are Geoff Jervis, our Chief Financial Officer and Tom Ruffing, our Chief Credit officer and Head of Asset Management. Last night we reported our results for the first quarter and filed our 10-Q. CT reported a net loss of $63.5 million or $2.84 per share. The losses were largely the result of loan loss provisions and impairments totaling $72 million. Geoff will run you through the detailed numbers, but weak property level performance was the primary driver behind the increase in provisions and impairments. During the quarter, we also added five loans totaling $109 million and one security with a book value of $20 million to our loan and securities watch lists. We adopted new accounting guidance in the first quarter which required that we consolidate seven previously unconsolidated CMBS and CDO trusts. Securities that had a carrying value of $79 million at year-end are now accounted for as newly consolidated loans totaling $2.8 billion on our March 31, 2010 balance sheet. Our total assets were $4.6 billion at quarter end versus $1.9 billion at year-end, a $2.7 billion increase in total assets without any new balance sheet investments having been made during the quarter. As a result of our newly consolidated loans, the magnitude of our surveillance, quarterly asset review and compliance significantly increased. Our finance, accounting and asset management groups have risen to the challenge of the new accounting regime and again demonstrated why they are the best in class. Despite considerable uncertainty in the overall economy, lenders and investors are beginning to return to commercial real estate. Pricing for high quality buildings, loans and securities continue to trend upward. Investors are coming off the sidelines and reentering the…

Geoff Jervis

Management

Thank you, Steve and good morning to everyone. As Steve mentioned, last night we reported results for the first quarter, recording a net loss of $63 million or $2.84 per share. The net loss for the quarter was primarily the result of $72 million of reserves and impairments that we took against our loan and security portfolios offset in part by income from operations. Specifically, we recorded credit loss provisions of $52 million against fixed loans and net credit related impairments of $20 million on five securities. Exclusive of credit provisions and impairments, operating income was $8.6 million or $0.38 per share during the period. Primary component of this quarter's operating income was net interest margin of $8.7 million down $1.1 million from last quarter and $3.3 million from the first quarter of 2009 with the reduction due to asset level performance, loan and security repayments, lower LIBOR and impacts from our new consolidation regime as we're now consolidating additional variable interest entities or VIEs, an accounting change that I will discuss later. Other components of our operating income were other revenues of $4.5 million, up $1.4 million from the prior quarter as we continue to grow our fee revenue at CT Investment Management Co. or CTIMCO. Other expenses of $4.7 million up $1 million from the prior quarter due primarily to expenses related at newly consolidated VIEs; $370,000 of income from equity investments as we picked up changes primarily non-cash and the capital counts that are two private equity funds in which we have co-investments and a $293,000 provision for income taxes related to the operations of CTIMCO, a taxable subsidiary. It is important to note that CT's liabilities include required amortization provisions in addition to those related to principal repayments. In the first quarter, we redirected over $8…

Steve Plavin

Management

Thank you and we'd like at this point to open it up to any questions.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the side of Alan Adams [ph] with private investor.

Alan Adams

Analyst

I've taken an interest. Can you hear me?

Geoff Jervis

Management

Yeah.

Alan Adams

Analyst

Good morning. I've taken an interest in the company and I was wondering, one, who is responsible for the investor – responding to investor relations questions on the Internet or if there's a better way to communicate with the company? And two, if you're satisfied as management with the performance to-date and what adjustments are being made to maybe improve the stock price? I know there's been a bump recently.

Geoff Jervis

Management

I'll answer the first question. I'm responsible for – this is Geoff Jervis. I'm responsible for the investor inquiries and if you are having any issue getting responses from our website, my apologies and please, just email again. We'll make sure to be more diligent on those inquiries.

Steve Plavin

Management

Again in regard to your second question, we are disappointed with the performance that we have achieved, we are very actively and aggressively managing our existing portfolio of assets to try and maximize those recoveries, to do everything that we can do to improve the performance of the portfolio and the company going forward.

Alan Adams

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the side of J.F. Banger [ph] with DN [ph]. J.F. Banger – DN: Is there any stated reason for Hatkoff resigning from the Board? And what financial arrangements have you made with him with respect to his retirement?

Steve Plavin

Management

There are no financial arrangements made with him with respect to his resignation. And he resigned for personal reasons.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And at this time, it seems we have no additional questions.

Steve Plavin

Management

Thank you, everyone.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect at any time.