Thomas Durkin
Analyst · KBW
Thank you, Jenny. Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to report another strong quarter for MITT, highlighted by second quarter earnings and the announcement of our definitive agreement to acquire Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment Corporation. We believe this transaction represents a transformational step forward for MITT. The combined scale will benefit from significantly enhanced scale, meaningful G&A synergies and a highly complementary portfolio mix that remains firmly centered on our core focus, the residential mortgage ecosystem. As a reminder, MITT has a proven track record of executing and creating value through strategic acquisitions, including the WMC transaction that closed in December 2023. Since that acquisition, MITT has dramatically outperformed its peers, increasing our dividend 5x for a cumulative growth of 33%, while delivering approximately 140% growth in our quarterly EAD. With the addition of Cherry Hill, the combined company's market capitalization will increase by approximately 36%, materially improving stock liquidity and trading volumes while creating an equity capital base of approximately $750 million. This greater scale will position us to compete more effectively, operate more efficiently and create stronger long-term earnings power for our shareholders. We are also pleased that MITT's manager, TPG, is making a direct cash contribution of approximately $20 million alongside approximately $15 million from MITT's balance sheet, creating an attractive cash to stock consideration mix of approximately 30%. We believe this differentiates the transaction from a traditional REIT acquisition and meaningfully enhances the value proposition for both Cherry Hill and MITT shareholders. Cherry Hill shareholders will also gain access to the full breadth of TPG's platform, capabilities, relationships and operating expertise. In addition, we believe the combination will generate substantial G&A efficiencies with expected annual cost synergies in the range of approximately $7 million to $9 million, further supporting earnings growth and returns over time. We expect to close the strategic acquisition in the fourth quarter. Turning back to the second quarter. The market navigated a challenging interest rate environment driven by renewed inflation concerns and continued uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy. Despite this backdrop, MITT delivered another quarter of stable performance and disciplined execution. Book value increased from $9.97 to $10 per share during the quarter as we maintained a disciplined leverage profile and continued rotating capital into higher returning residential credit strategies. At the same time, Arc Home continued to scale meaningfully with funding volumes reaching multiyear highs. These initiatives helped generate EAD of $0.24 per share for the quarter, fully covering our recently declared dividend of $0.24. Notably, our company has continued to demonstrate earnings growth over the past year despite the ongoing headwind of having a legacy commercial loan exposure on nonaccrual status, which leaves room for significant upside as we continue to wind down this exposure. On the topic of our legacy commercial loans, as we discussed last quarter, the sale process for our retail exposure is progressing well. A buyer has been selected, and we currently expect the transaction to close by year-end. Within the hospitality portfolio, we remain on track to resolve 2 of our remaining exposures by the end of the third quarter. More importantly, we expect all 3 of these resolutions to occur in line with our current carrying values. These resolutions are important catalysts for MITT. As capital from these legacy positions is redeployed into our core residential strategies, we expect it to contribute approximately $0.05 of incremental EAD in the short term. Looking ahead, the remaining 2 hospitality assets are actively being repositioned under new management, and we expect to begin remarketing those assets next year. The eventual recycling of that capital is expected to provide an additional annual EAD benefit in excess of $0.15 per share. So combined, that's $0.20 in aggregate incremental EAD per annum. All in all, we believe MITT is entering a new phase for growth. We have consistently executed on the objectives we laid out over the last several years, strengthening the platform, improving earnings power and positioning the company for higher and more durable returns. As we look towards closing out 2026, we believe we have a clear line of sight to stronger ROEs, higher EAD and continued dividend growth. We have already raised the dividend in 4 of the last 7 quarters, reflecting the momentum we are building and the confidence we have in the trajectory of the business. We remain excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to continuing to share our progress in the quarters to come. With that, I'll turn the call over to Nick.