Tony Marone
Analyst · Deutsche Bank
Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. As we review BXMT’s performance this quarter, we will see positive results in terms of core earnings, liquidity and balance sheet stability, notwithstanding the isolated valuation impacts that Steve mentioned earlier. Let’s start with earnings, where we reported GAAP net income of $0.13 per share in core earnings of $0.62 per share, both of which benefited significantly from interest rate floors embedded in our loan agreements, as LIBOR and other benchmark rates declined to near zero levels during the quarter. Looking specifically at USD LIBOR, our most common floating rate index by far, we had $8.8 billion of loans with active floors as of 6/30 at an average rate of 1.47%, which we expect will continue generating incremental earnings going into 3Q as well. The primary difference between this quarter’s GAAP net income and core earnings is $57 million or $0.41 per share increase in our Current Expected Credit Loss or CECL reserve, which was driven by the two loans, Steve referenced in his remarks. Similar to our treatment of the general CECL reserve, we recorded last quarter, these loan-specific provisions are excluded from core earnings until they are realized. And at this point, we may still see a future recovery above the current mark. Further, as a result of the CECL provisions we recorded in 2Q. These loans will be accounted for under the cost recovery method going forward, which essentially defers all income recognition and reflects any cash interest received as a reduction to the assets’ carrying value on our balance sheet. Overall, our portfolio continues to be strong with 100% interest collection through July, including the two loans where we took reserve. We had an active quarter on the asset management front completing 13 loan modifications that generally required additional borrow equity or contained other lender or favorable terms, reflecting the collaborative nature of these conversations with our borrowers and their continued support of their assets. As always, we draw on the deep experience and resources of Blackstone’s broader real estate platform, as we re-underwrite these loans and evaluate our borrowers’ positions. Our $18 billion portfolio size was roughly flat quarter-over-quarter, as $386 million of repayments, slightly outpaced $317 million of loan fundings. Our weighted average risk rating remained at 3.0 on our five-point scale, the same level as 3/31 with no new four-rated loans this quarter. Our portfolio continues to benefit [Audio Dip] LTV of 64% reflecting the significant equity, our well-capitalized institutional borrowers have invested in these assets. One of our key focus areas during the quarter has been to build on our strong liquidity position, providing us the resources to address future cash needs as well as originate new loans. We ended the quarter with $1.3 billion of liquidity, almost entirely held in cash. We increased liquidity this quarter by nearly $0.5 billion driven by our successful term loan being common stock issuance during the quarter. Our New Term Loan B raised the net of $315 million, is coterminous with our existing term loan in 2026, and priced at LIBOR plus 4.75% with 1% floor. We raised the net $278 million from our common stock offering during the quarter, which priced slightly above book and added $0.06 to our 2Q book value per share. We also continue to focus on the stability of the right hand side of our balance sheet, which has no corporate debt maturing until 2022, with 96% of our asset level financing term match to the underlying collateral. Further 30% of our asset level financing is through non-debt structures, either syndications or securitizations. And we have reached agreements with our seven largest credit facility lenders covering 84% of our outstanding borrowings to temporarily suspend credit mark provisions for the loans and those collateral pools that have been more heavily impacted by COVID-19. As part of these credit facility modifications, we pledged $414 million of previously unencumbered assets, which modestly reduce the advance rate under these facilities. We closed the quarter with a debt to equity ratio of only 2.6 times down from 2.8 times at 3/31, as we further de-levered our balance sheet during the quarter. As we move into the second half of 2020, we will continue to benefit from the key pillars we have in place with incremental earnings power through our LIBOR floors, market-leading asset management capabilities and a stable balance sheet with ample liquidity. Thank you for your support. And with that, I will ask the operator to open the call to questions. [Operator Instructions]