Earnings Labs

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (BXMT)

Q2 2011 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 4, 2011

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Capital Trust Second Quarter 2011 Results Conference Call. Before we begin, please be advised that the forward-looking statements contained on this conference call are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, the continued credit performance of the Company’s loan and CMBS investments, its assets/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 Form 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 this presentation. At that time, I will provide instructions by submitting your question to management. I will now turn the call over to Steve Plavin, CEO of Capital Trust. Please go ahead.

Stephen D. Plavin

Analyst

Thanks, Megan. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us and for your interest in Capital Trust. With me are Geff Jervis, our Chief Financial Officer; and Tom Ruffing, our Chief Credit Officer and Head of Asset Management. Last night, we filed our 10-Q and announced our results for the second quarter, our first full quarter of operating CT Legacy REIT, the entity formed March 31, 2011 to hold our legacy assets. Geff will take you through our quarterly results and also discuss our adjusted balance sheet and operating results. I will focus my remarks on Capital Trust and the commercial mortgage market. Post-restructure, the financial condition of Capital Trust is greatly improved. We have isolated the downside risk associated with our peak of the market balance sheet assets while maintaining management control and a significant ownership interest in the portfolio. By having established the necessary time to work and collect our legacy assets in a market that should improve over time, we will maximize the recovery for all legacy-REIT stakeholders, the largest of which are the CT shareholders. CT Investor Management Company or CTIMCO, our wholly-owned management subsidiary, maintained strong capabilities at lending, investing, asset management, and capital raising. The CTIMCO manages its public company parent, the Legacy asset REIT, four CT-sponsored private equity funds, five CDOs, and loan workouts and restructuring for the CMBS special servicer. This past quarter the growth for CT Legacy REIT exemplify the asset management strength of our platform. During the quarter, CT Legacy REIT collected $207 million on 11 loans, representing 99% of our recovery. Although there is still significant credit challenges within the Legacy REIT portfolio, particularly with the 2006, 2007 originations, we are confidant that Tom and his team will maximize recoveries. As for the market in general, volatility in global…

Geoffrey G. Jervis

Analyst

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. As Steve mentioned, last night we reported our earnings for the second quarter and filed our Form 10-Q. Consolidated net loss for the second quarter was $1.8 million or $0.08 per share. Total consolidated assets in the balance sheet at quarter end were $2.4 billion and total consolidated liabilities were $2.5 billion, resulting in shareholders equity of negative $111 million. As these GAAP number show, despite our successful restructuring in March, it returned significant value to the equity owners of the company and despite managing an operationally cash flow positive business, we continue to be subject to the distortions of GAAP required consolidation regimes. In order to address these presentational issues, last quarter we began reporting an adjusted income statement and balance sheet. We believe that these adjusted statements will allow investors to better understand the economic condition of the company. These financials can be found in the earnings press release we filed last night, and also in the MD&A section of our Form 10-Q, also filed last night. The adjustments to our GAAP financials are four. First, we eliminate the consolidation of securitization vehicles under FAS 167, showing only our net investment in such vehicles. And since the liabilities in these vehicles are non-recourse, we only record a net investment to the extent that it has a positive value. Second, we eliminate the assets and liabilities on our GAAP financials associated with loans that we sold, but where the sales did not meet GAAP criteria for sale accounting and remain consolidated on our financials. We refer these as participation sold. Third, non-cash interest expense related to interest rate swap, no longer designated as cash flow added has been eliminated. And finally, the fourth adjustment is that we divide the resulting financial statements…

Stephen D. Plavin

Analyst

Thanks, Geof. Magan, please open the call to any questions.

Operator

Operator

Chris Mittleman – Mittleman Brothers: Hi, guys. I was just curious about CTIMCO’s profitability. I don’t think it’s currently running profitably, is that true?

Stephen D. Plavin

Analyst

It is, although it’s difficult to see again through the GAAP financials. I think that the best way to look at it would be the numbers that I mentioned in my remarks, which were the Capital Trust when you boil it down have $1.5 million with positive net income. And so that would be the management fees associated with CTIMCO, G&A of the company and also picking up income from our co-invest in CT Opportunity Partners. Chris Mittleman – Mittleman Brothers: Okay. That makes sense.

Stephen D. Plavin

Analyst

And one thing I would mention is that typically we have higher levels of special servicing revenue in a quarter. This quarter however it was low, they are lumpy payments, and so even those results would be depressed by a lack of special servicing fees, which our expectations for special servicing fees for the year remained robust. Chris Mittleman – Mittleman Brothers: In terms of the AUM of CTIMCO is about $5 billion I think you said now, do you have a sense of where – I actually forget where it was at its peak and where do you think you might be able to get back to it at some point? Do you have like kind of a scale target in line for CTIMCO?

Geoffrey G. Jervis

Analyst

Our answer is that – because we’re at over $6 billion at the hike and from a target standpoint we do not have a target AUMs. What we have I think is more a desire to grow revenues and to do that in the most accretive manner. And so again, we’re very happy to focus more on the profitability of the business as opposed to the top line number. I think that as Legacy REIT repays over time that number will have some downward pressure on it going forward. But I don’t think that that’s going to necessarily have a linear impact on the profitability as a platform. And going forward in the businesses that we look to grow the High Grade, Opportunity Partners business and then sort of our bread and butter mezzanine business, I think those would put pressure on the number going back up.

Stephen D. Plavin

Analyst

We have some large transactions in our portfolio, so as those get resolved, the number becomes volatile. It can move by large increments just based upon on a single asset being resolved. And as Geff mentioned, we do expect the core business to provide growth with new asset. Chris Mittleman – Mittleman Brothers: And the last thing I would ask and then I’ll step out of the line is I'm just wondering about the on-balance sheet, the possibilities, I know that’s substantial tax assets. But the question is what’s the best way to utilize them? And I was thinking about the possibilities, Rights offering and some other capital raised. But to do the on-balance sheet thing again, as you’ve done in the past, would it be better to convert out of the REIT status and go into the C Corporation because I'm just trying to think how to best utilize those assets. Have you guys been giving any thought to that possibility or is it something that’s not on the near-term horizon.

Stephen D. Plavin

Analyst

We consider all possibilities in all tax regimes. The business that we thought of as a balance sheet business has really been our traditional floating rate origination and investment business, home loans and mezzanine loans, moderate LTV. And as we look at that business for the future that shouldn’t be part of the Capital Trust line up. But we haven’t determined whether that would be an on-balance sheet business like it was in the past or whether it will be another off-balance sheet business like the hybrid business and the opportunity that business offer us today. Chris Mittleman – Mittleman Brothers: Let’s say that alternative was your ultimate decision, would it be possible, will it make sense to change the corporate structure of CT, the holding company from a REIT to just a regular C corp to try to better maybe more quickly utilize the tax losses? Maybe is that something that’s even a remote consideration?

Geoffrey G. Jervis

Analyst

Chris Mittleman – Mittleman Brothers: Okay. That makes sense. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And it appears that there are no other questions at this time.

Stephen D. Plavin

Analyst

Thank you, everyone, for joining us. We look forward to reporting to you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.