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Safehold Inc. (SAFE)

Q4 2010 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 24, 2011

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to iStar Financial’s Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2010 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the conference over to Jason Fooks of iStar Financial Investor Relations and Marketing. Please go ahead, sir.

Jason Fooks

Management

Thank you, John and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review iStar Financial’s fourth quarter and fiscal year 2010 earnings report. With me today are Jay Sugarman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and David DiStaso, our Chief Financial Officer. This morning’s call is being webcast on our website at istarfinancial.com in the Investor Relations section. There will be a replay of the call beginning at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. The dial-in for the replay is 1800-475-6701 with a confirmation code of 192269. Before I turn the call over to Jay, I’d like to remind everyone that statements in this earnings call, which are not historical facts, will be forward-looking. iStar Financial’s actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements, and the risk factors that could cause these differences are detailed in our SEC reports. In addition, as more fully stated in our SEC reports, iStar disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as expressly required by law. Now, I’d like to turn the call over to iStar’s Chairman and CEO, Jay Sugarman. Jay?

Jay Sugarman

Management

Thanks, Jason. Overall, the fourth quarter finished up the year in which iStar made good progress towards its goal of simplifying its capital structure, streamlining its portfolio and moving past many of the challenges of the real estate downturn by retiring large amounts of debt while protecting shareholder equity, we brought leverage down to a relatively comfortable level, enhanced our balance sheet strength and set ourselves up to refinance our 2011 and 2012 debt maturities prior to the end of the first quarter. And that process is now underway, and Dave and I will give an update later in this call. First, let me recap where the fourth quarter and full year results came in. The fourth quarter adjusted earnings were negative $0.42 per share, primarily due to provisions and the large number of assets that have no GAAP income associated with them yet. We continue to work hard to try to get those investments back in a position where they can contribute positively to earnings and have begun to see some success in this area, though much more work remains to be done. Full year earnings included gains and losses were positive, but adjusted earnings per share excluding the gains remained negative at a $2.33 per share loss. We expect the impact of gains and loss provisions to decline throughout 2011 relative to prior years but to remain a part of the story for the next several quarters. On the liquidity front, principal and proceeds inflows were steady and added to the significant repayment and monetizations completed earlier in the year. For the full year, we generated just under $5 billion in capital from the portfolio and used the bulk of that capital for debt reduction and a smaller amount to fund new and existing investments. This capped a 3.5 year period, in which iStar paid off almost $22 billion in obligations and demonstrated the strength and flexibility inherent in its diversified portfolio during the worst of the downturn. The $22 billion in obligations retired included some $6 billion related to the Fremont transaction, $8 billion in other secured and unsecured debt and over $8 billion in funding obligations related to the portfolio. On the credit front, we saw positive movements in the commercial real estate market reflected in a better trend in our risk ratings with the numbers modestly improving after an extended of generally worsening metrics. We also saw a number of watch-list loans become safer and exit the watch-list. One important note is that this quarter we will be giving risk ratings on both a gross basis and a net basis for those loans where we have taken a specific reserve. In many cases, net of the specific reserves already charged to the P&L and balance sheet, these loans represent attractive investments at significant discounts to their initial values and should enjoy increasing values as the markets recover. And with that update, let me turn it over to Dave for more of the details. Dave?

David DiStaso

Management

Thanks, Jay, and good morning, everyone. I’ll begin by discussing our financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year before moving to investment activity and credit quality, and I’ll end with an update on liquidity. For the quarter, we reported a net loss of $67 million or $0.73 per common share compared to a loss of $159 million or $1.65 per common share for the fourth quarter 2009. Adjusted earnings were a loss of $38 million for the quarter or $0.42 per common share compared to a loss of $142 million or $1.47 per common share for the fourth quarter 2009. Results included a significantly lower provision for loan losses and impairment of assets during the fourth quarter of $58 million versus $281 million for the same period last year. We also recorded a $9 million net loss on early extinguishment of debt this quarter versus a $100 million gain for the same period last year. The current quarter’s activity included a $5 million gain from the repurchase of our bonds offset by a $14 million loss due to the acceleration of deferred financing fees related to the prepayment of our $1 billion First Priority Credit Facility. Net investment income for the fourth quarter was $66 million compared to $79 million for the same period last year. The year-over-year decrease is primarily due to lower interest income from a smaller asset base, resulting from loan repayments and sales and also due to performing loans moving to non-performing status. This was partially offset by lower interest expense, resulting from significant debt reductions during the year. For the full year 2010, we reported net income of $36 million or $0.39 per common share compared to a loss of $789 million or $7.88 per common share in 2009. Adjusted earnings were a…

Jay Sugarman

Management

Thanks, Dave. Let me do a couple of follow-up comments here. One, the pro forma balance sheet is going to be a lot simpler, assuming the new senior credit facility is completed. We’ll have $3 billion in new senior secured that will mature in June ‘13 and June ‘14. We will have $200 million scattered in a number of individual mortgage debts. We’ll have $3.7 billion in unsecured debt maturing between 2011 and 2017. We’ll have $600 million of trust preferred and preferred equity, and we’ll have over $1.2 billion in common equity including the $100 million plus gain triggered by our repayment of the 2014 senior lien notes in early January that Dave mentioned. That pro forma tangible common equity number equates to around $13.50 per share and over $14.50 when general reserves are added back in. That is a strong cushion for our creditors and one of the markers of value that we are very focused on relative to our common stock. One other thing I alluded to before is the potential contribution to earnings embedded in our non-performing loan and assets we have previously taken ownership of. In our overall portfolio the $3. (missing audio) billion performing loans generate very solid earnings. The $2.2 billion sale/leasebacks also generate solid earnings, but the $2.9 billion of NPLs and OREO portfolio segments are still mostly in turnaround mode and are generating sizable losses as we reposition and upgrade this part of the portfolio. In 2010, we saw a number of these deals complete their turnaround and generate solid returns, but the majority of these will take a more extended timeframe to do the same. As we move through 2011, we’ll be working on getting these assets repositioned and providing some specific examples to highlight why we think there is upside in this segment of the portfolio, assuming the markets continue to recover. And with that, let’s open it up for questions. Operator?

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And first, with the line of Michael Kim with CRT. Please go ahead. Michael Kim – CRT: Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just curious, assuming you’re able to consummate the proposed $3 billion refinancing transaction, could you prioritize for us the allocation of capital by business line going forward? And with the proposed amort schedule on the proposed A-1 tranche, restrict your ability to originate new loans? And if you could maybe address anticipated REHI development spend and over what time period, and some of the more opportunities and timing of loan origination?

Jay Sugarman

Management

Hi, Michael. Thanks. A couple things in your question, I think, to start with, in terms of priorities, we are going to continue to simplify the balance sheet, continue to pay down some debt, continue to reduce leverage. Where we found the best opportunities and the most interesting things are still within our own portfolio. That $9 billion portfolio covers about 350 assets. There are lots of situations inside there where we see very attractive opportunities, where obviously we have 100% perfect knowledge and a very high win rate, where we see an opportunity to provide capital. But it will be the case, at least for the foreseeable future, that money coming in is going to exceed money going out. So we will see debt continue to come down, leverage continue to come down, with new investments made primarily within our own portfolio, within the – I think you called it the REHI and OREO segments. We have money scheduled and set aside to upgrade a lot of those positions. That number is probably less than $100 million next year. But, again, we look at every investment of capital kind of on a marginal basis and are trying to decide where best to deploy it. Right now, we’re seeing those opportunities almost entirely within our own portfolio. Michael Kim – CRT: Understood. Thanks. And just as a follow-up, I noticed the CTL assets showed sequential improvement in occupancy. Could you talk about the trends for the CTL portfolio, I guess, how these spreads trended over the past few quarters? And maybe if you could talk about or quantify the improvement in cap rates for office and industrial CTL assets, in particular, just kind of over the past few months or the past year?

Jay Sugarman

Management

I think that’s an interesting dynamic we’re seeing. Certain markets are recovering. We are seeing lease velocity picking up in markets that have been relatively dormant for the past couple of years. I wouldn’t make it a sweeping statement though. There are still pockets of weakness out there. But certainly, the tone is getting better. In our viewpoint, in terms of how we look at the lease portfolio, it’s a little bit idiosyncratic and we were able to sign some nice leases that had good term on them. But again, it’s kind of market-by-market, deal-by-deal, property-by-property. So I wouldn’t go so far as to say there’s a sweeping change in the underlying dynamics. Michael Kim – CRT: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from the line of Joshua Barber with Stifel Nicolaus. Please go ahead. Joshua Barber – Stifel Nicolaus: Hi, good morning. Maybe following up on Michael’s question a little bit, but talking about some opportunities that might exist outside of your portfolio, do you think that there’s an opportunity going forward to, at least assuming that you’re getting the bank refinancing done, to raise new capital either in the high-yield market combined with something in equity to sort of complement your strategy of fixing whatever is on the balance sheet going forward?

Jay Sugarman

Management

Again, we think and have, I think, pretty consistently said we have sufficient assets on this balance sheet to do whatever financing we needed, when we thought the pricing was appropriate and in a structure we thought was best suited for the profile of the assets and for the preservation of value for our shareholders. Right now, we think this secured facility meets our needs for an extended timeframe. Right now, we have plenty of capital for the things we envision doing over the next 4, 5, 6 quarters. Just thinking about the quality of the secured portfolio, it’s a very high-quality collateral rich secured facility. It’s got great credit metrics. Many of the assets in there, you couldn’t replicate today if you tried. So we’re quite confident that this will be a period of time in which the market will begin to see the quality of these portfolios. And until we get the kind of recognition we think the portfolio deserves, you won’t see us reaching for capital that we have no current need for. Joshua Barber – Stifel Nicolaus: Okay. You touched before on some amortization on the potential secured line. I know that, I guess, details are sort of murky at this point but would that be a fully amortizing line, just based on the credit portfolio, or would – there would be some amortization targets that were built in?

Jay Sugarman

Management

We’ve structured it to try to match the profile of the assets that are being contributed. The weighted average maturity of the loan portfolio that will be part of the secured facility is less than 3 years, so there’s a lot of natural amortization and natural repayments in there. The way we’ve structured it, the A-1 gets those repayments first, so it will have a relatively short duration. And then there will be some amortization targets that will shorten the duration of both pieces of paper, shorter than their final maturities. Joshua Barber – Stifel Nicolaus: Okay. You touched before also on the potential from the real estate held for investment/OREO portfolio. Is that portfolio actually generating any cash today, or is that still cash flow negative?

Jay Sugarman

Management

It’s cash flow negative. Individual assets are, as I mentioned, turning the corner and we’ve seen some nice turnaround stories with pretty eye-popping returns. But that’s still a small minority of the portfolio. We are going to continue to commit capital. We think there are upside as the market recovers in that segment, and that’s one of the places we’re devoting a lot of our asset management resources. Joshua Barber – Stifel Nicolaus: Great. Thanks very much.

David DiStaso

Management

Thanks, Josh.

Operator

Operator

And with no further questions, I’ll turn it back to you, Mr. Sugarman.

Jay Sugarman

Management

Thanks, John, and thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. If you have any additional questions on today’s earnings release, please feel free to contact me directly. John, would you please give the conference call replay instructions once again?

Operator

Operator

Certainly. And Ladies and gentlemen, again, this conference is available today starting at 12:30 PM Eastern and will last until March 10 at midnight. You may access the replay at any time by dialing 800-475-6701 and entering the access code 192269. That does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.