Andy Richardson
Analyst · Raymond James. Please go ahead
Thanks Jay and good afternoon everyone. My remarks today will refer to the slides from the earnings presentation that we posted on our website earlier this afternoon. Before I begin, I would like to point out that certain balance sheet metrics throughout the presentation are pro forma for the $273 million partial redemption of our 5% senior notes due July 2019. These notes were repaid after the end of the quarter using the excess cash proceeds from the new term loan transactions completed in the second quarter. With that let’s turn to Slide 4 to review some of the highlights from the second quarter. Net income was $43 million or $0.54 per share on an adjusted basis we earned $44 million $0.55 per share. Combined with our first quarter results, we have earned $0.89 per share of GAAP net income year to date and $2.16 of adjusted income per share. Performance over the period was driven by earnings from our core business and continued execution of our legacy asset monetization strategy. As Jay noted, we have initiated a quarterly common dividend of $0.09 per share was $0.36 on an annualized basis. The dividend will be paid on August 31st, to shareholders of record on August 15th. Turning to Slide 5, we can take a deeper dive into our investment activity. During the quarter, we originated $269 million of new investments largely driven by new loan commitments. This brought total new originations in our core business over the past four quarters to $1.2 billion. Meanwhile we had $378 million of loan repayments of the quarter, including 46 million from the resolution of our largest nonperforming loan. We also sold two net leased properties in Miami, Florida for $36 million and generated a $24 million gain. These properties were sold at ground leases to safety incoming growth and the lease hold were sold to a third-party. Sales of legacy operating properties and land total $190 million this quarter, reflecting our success to date in repositioning and then monetizing these assets. Moving to Slide 6, we provide a detailed explanation of the changes in our net lease portfolio. In 2014 we reformed net lease Venture one with TIC which is the U.S. real estate investment arm of the government of Singapore and on June 30th of this year investment period for the fund ended. On that day we gained control the Venture through our unilateral rights of management and disposition of the assets thereby requiring consolidation of the Venture on the iStar financial statements. This event is treated as an acquisition by iStar for accounting purposes. The Venture's assets and liabilities were consolidated at their fair market value, including $845 million of real estate related value attributable to the Venture's assets and $465 million of non-recourse mortgage debt. Based upon the excess of the fair market value of the Venture’s net assets over its the book value, we recognize a $68 million gain for the second quarter, we also recorded $188 million of minority interest on our balance sheet. Lastly, after the end of the quarter, iStar and TIC formed net lease Venture II under a similar structure, at Venture I which like the first fund will be unconsolidated during this investment period. The Venture’s $526 million total equity commitment provides buying power for more than 1.5 billion of assets assuming two to one leverage. Turning to Slide 7. We continue to make significant progress reducing our legacy asset portfolio during the second quarter, you will recall from the last earnings call, that iStar has a two-part legacy asset strategy. First, we are monetizing the assets that we have ready for sale in the near-term and second, we are accelerating the strategic development of our longer duration asset for further development is the best course given the current state of the asset. With respect to our shorter-term monetization strategy, this quarter we generated $190 million of proceeds for iStar from the sales of legacy assets and reduce NPL by a $146 million or 84% by completing the restructuring of our largest NPL. The quarters activity resulted in an over $300 million decrease to the legacy portfolio, partially offset by $47 million of additional investment in legacy assets such as Asbury Park. Let me provide some additional context and color on some of the larger legacy assets we have resolved this quarter. First, along with our partners, we sold our mixed-use investment in Westgate Entertainment District in the Greater Phoenix area. This was a project we radically transformed during our ownership taking a largely vacant retail center surrounded by undeveloped land and empty parking lot and executing over 50 retail and office leases totaling in excess of 260,000 square foot and converting two floors of vacant office space in the luxury residential units. In order to turn Westgate into a sought-out destination, we formed a strategic partner with a mall operator to generate more foot traffic and provide a more attractive experience to the local community. Total proceeds after closing costs were a $130 million, of which our share was $89 million and we recorded a $21 million gain. During the second quarter we also substantially monetized Spring Mountain Ranch a 785 acre master plan community entitled for 1,458 single-family lots in Riverside County, California. In late 2013, we partnered with a national homebuilder to jointly develop the first of three planned phases of the project and it subsequently became one of the top-selling master plan in the Inland Empire. Through the initial phase the joint venture completed much of the necessary infrastructure work with most of the capital expenditure requirements already invested, Phase 2/a containing 315 lots, but put under contract as a series of lot takedowns with the homebuilder beginning in 2017. Our initial plan was to continue to develop and sell finished lots over an estimated two year period. However, given our project assessment that the downside risk with executing a multi-year develop and sell business plan in this area exceeded the potential upside and we decided to bring the assets to market. During the quarter, we sold the remainder of the NPC to our partner for $63 million in proceeds and recorded a net loss of $4 million. In addition, we agreed to accelerate the Phase 2 lots already under contract in two quarterly takedowns through the end of this year, after which we will have completely exited this investment. We recorded a $1 million impairment during the quarter associated with the 2A sales acceleration. In addition, we sold our interest in the Hawaii beach resort in Hawaii for 19 million in proceeds and a $1 million gain. To summarize, year-to-date we have sold legacy asset for proceeds of $476 million and for a net gain of $90 million in our GAAP earnings and $77 million of adjusted income while reducing the size of legacy portfolio from $1.74 billion at the end of 2017 to $1.26 billion today. Elsewhere in the legacy asset portfolio, this quarter we resolved our $146 million non-performing [indiscernible] which has been the subject of a long-standing and complex bankruptcy. We received a $46 million cash pay-down and a new 100 million preferred equity investments in an entity which required a portfolio of hotel and other assets from the Hammond's Estate. We recorded the investment at a discounted value of $77 million, resulting in a 21 million provision and a 34 million charge-off to adjusted income though we currently expect to recover the full 100 million face value over the next four years. Lastly, during the quarter we also wrote off a $10 million investment that we had made in 2007 in an overseas venture. This represents the last material non-U.S. exposure remaining on our books. Building along to this quarters activity on the right side of the balance sheet on Slide 8. In the second quarter, we closed on an innovative modification to our term financing that reduced our cost of capital, while providing additional flexibility by boarding permitted collateral type and providing for reinvestment of collateral repayments and sales proceeds rather than immediate amortization. We also up side the loan to $650 million from its than $377 million outstanding balance reduced the coupon by 25 basis points to LIBOR plus 275 and extend its maturity by nearly two years. During July we used $273 million of excess cash proceeds from the term loan up size, to partially redeem as par the 5% senior notes, maturing in July next year. Looking ahead, we have approximately 500 million of debt maturing in 2019, and are evaluating alternatives for further refinancing ahead of maturity. Our total debt at the end of the quarter, adjusted for last month cash redemption $3.6 billion. Our debt balance includes 455 million of non-recourse mortgage debt from the consolidated net venture in which we have 51.9% ownership stake. Total leverage calculated as net debt divided by adjusted total equity was two times at the end of the quarter which is at the low-end of our target range. On Slide 9, I would like to highlight performance in each of the businesses in our portfolio. Our total portfolio had a gross book value of $5.2 billion at the end of the second quarter. Within our loan business, we made 267 million of new loan commitments. Loans we originated this quarter were predominantly with existing client relationship, or in capital structures in which we were already involved. The performing loan portfolio generated 9.7% yield during the quarter. And is previously discussed, we were pleased to have reduced our NTL balance by 84%. In the net lease business as I mentioned before, we sold two adjacent properties located next to the Miami international Airport generating a $24 million gain. We also recorded a $4 million impairment on a net leased facility in which the tenant exercised its below-market renewal options. Over the quarter, our holy unmet lease assets is a properties we owned outside of the net lease venture at a weighted average yield of 9.5% while asset from the venture portfolio had a weighted average yield of 8.2%. Venture yield is computed using the fair market value stepped up basis associated with this quarters consolidation. Also included on the net lease business is our nearly 40% ownership of safety incoming and growth. Safe continue to gain traction as both new and returning customers understand the accretive market friendly capital that state ground lease provides. During the second quarter safe close four new ground leases increasing the portfolio to $631 million. We believe safe offers a unique and innovative solution for its customers by lowering upfront capital requirements and significantly increasing their potential return. Safe call is to fundamentally transform the way institutional real estate investors and operators think about owning and capitalizing their properties. Our operating properties totaled 559 million of gross book value at the end of the quarter which was comprised of 472 million of legacy commercial properties, 37 million of legacy residential properties and 50 million of strategic non-legacy investment. The last category represents new investments in areas relevant to some of the strategic things we are exploring with partners in other areas of real estate. We reduced the size of our land and development portfolio to 726 million and it now represents 14% of the total portfolio. So to sum up the quarter strong earnings, good origination volume and meaningful progress in legacy assets. With that, I will turn it back to Jay.