Granite Point Mortgage Trust Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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November 8, 2023

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Diego, and I will be your conference facilitator. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Granite Point Mortgage Trust Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be on a listen only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer period.

Operator

Please note, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn over the call to Chris Petta with Investor Relations for Granite Point.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. To Thank you for joining our call to discuss Granite Point's 3rd quarter 2023 financial results. With me on the call this morning are Jack Taylor, our President and Chief Executive Officer Marcin Urbasek, our Chief Financial Officer Steve Alport, our Chief Investment Officer and Co Head of Originations Peter Moreau, our Chief Development Officer and Co Head of Originations Steve Pluss, our Chief Operating Officer. After my introductory comments, Jack will provide a brief recap of market conditions review our current business activities. Steve Alpart will discuss our portfolio and Marcin will highlight key items from our financial results and capitalization.

Speaker 1

The press release, financial tables and earnings supplemental associated with today's call were filed yesterday with the SEC and are available in the Investor Relations section of our website, Along with our Form 10 Q, I would like to remind you that remarks made by management during this call and the supporting slides may include forward looking statements, which are uncertain and outside of the company's control. Forward looking statements reflect our views regarding future events and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Please see our filings with the SEC for a discussion of some of the risks that could affect results. We do not undertake any obligation to update any forward looking statements. We also refer to certain non GAAP measures on this call.

Speaker 1

This information is not intended to be considered in isolation or a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these non GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and slides, which are available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Jack.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. We would like to welcome you And thank you for joining us for Banner Point's Q3 2023 earnings call. We are happy to report ongoing progress on our business objectives As we continue to proactively manage our assets and liabilities in light of the uncertain market environment, the continued strength of the U. S. Economy supported by the strong labor market and consumer spending that surpassed many expectations, notwithstanding the dramatic rise in interest rates.

Speaker 2

Despite this positive economic backdrop, there remains a high degree of uncertainty about the macro economy And the commercial real estate market remains challenged. High interest rates and uneven fundamental performance across property types contribute to limited market liquidity and a greatly reduced overall volume of property sales and refinancing transactions. Accordingly, we intend to maintain our conservative position, emphasizing the maintenance of higher liquidity and one of the lowest leverage ratios in the sector. As we believe that property values and liquidity will continue to be under pressure. Our granular and over 99 percent senior floating rate loan portfolio, in general, continues to produce attractive returns benefiting from higher rates and diversification Greece and continue to protect their investments.

Speaker 2

Although transaction volumes are down across the commercial real estate market, reflecting higher cost of capital and associated reset property values. Our portfolio continues to experience repayments across various property types and asset resolutions. Since the beginning of the year, we have realized over $500,000,000 in repayments, pay downs and sales, many of which were from loans that were previously modified to give borrowers more time to progress on their business plans. The pace of repayments remains volatile and uncertain, We have been pleased with the trends and will continue to manage our business accordingly. The run rate operating results generated by our portfolio over the last few quarters have generally been around our dividend level, including the 3rd quarter pre loss attributable earnings of $0.18 per share, Which was reduced by a couple of pennies per share of one time items, which Marcin will discuss later.

Speaker 2

Our GAAP results include additional CECL reserves Mainly related to the 5 rated loans and reflect the ongoing market challenges, especially for office properties in certain markets It has been particularly affected by work from home trends and other factors. Ivalbard will discuss the progress we are making on our 5 rated loans. Our overall CECL reserve increased in the 3rd quarter to about 4.9% of total commitments from about 4.1% last quarter. As we discussed on prior calls, our defensively positioned balance sheet with a diversified funding mix, low leverage and higher liquidity provides optionality in an uncertain market. As planned, we redeemed the $132,000,000 convertible note that matured in early October with cash, leaving no corporate debt maturities remaining.

Speaker 2

In less than a year, we have repaid over 2 $75,000,000 of corporate debt. We are very pleased to have accomplished that without needing to access the capital markets during this time of elevated volatility and uncertainty. We believe this outcome further illustrates the liquidity embedded in our portfolio as shown by the level of repayments and the effectiveness of our strategy of proactively lowering our leverage during times of market dislocations, which creates opportunities to increase financing levels uncertain assets later. Since quarter end, we are happy to report that consistent with this strategy, we have successfully upsized our borrowings on our JPMorgan facility in October, generating an additional $75,000,000 in proceeds with the potential to increase them up to $100,000,000 illustrating our lending partners' continued support of our business and desire to expand those relationships as we navigate this challenging environment. Our priorities in the near to medium term remain centered around maintaining higher liquidity, working with borrowers to facilitate repayments And resolving our non accrual loans, given their meaningful impact on our profitability, which is estimated to be an over $6,000,000 drag on interest income during the Q3.

Speaker 2

We are actively pursuing a range of resolutions for these loans, Each of which may have a different strategy depending on individual circumstances as we determine the best course of action to maximize the economic outcome for our shareholders over the long term. We believe that these actions over time will help improve our run rate profitability and close the gap between our stock price And our book value. They will also provide us with great opportunities to redeploy our capital into attractive investments to discuss our portfolio activities in more detail.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Jack, and thank you all for joining our call this afternoon. I'll discuss our portfolio activity and will provide updates on our risk rated 5 loans and 1 REO property. We ended the Q3 with total portfolio commitments of about $3,100,000,000 and an outstanding principal balance of about $2,900,000,000 With $142,000,000 of future fundings, accounting for only about 5% of the total commitments. Our portfolio remains well diversified across regions Property Types and include 77 loan investments with an average size of approximately $38,000,000 Our loans continue to benefit from higher interest rates And deliver an attractive income stream with a favorable overall credit profile with a weighted average stabilized LTV at origination of 63%. Our realized portfolio yield for the Q3 was about 8.4% accounting for the impact of the non accrual loans, which we estimate to be about 85 basis Points.

Speaker 3

During the Q3, we funded $20,000,000 of existing loan commitments and upsized one loan by about $500,000 So far in the Q4, we have funded approximately an additional $5,500,000 on existing commitments. We continue to see liquidity in our conservatively underwritten middle market loans with over $177,000,000 of repayments and pay downs realized during the Q3. So far in the Q4, we have realized an additional $79,000,000 of repayments, including one loan sale. For the year, we have realized over $500,000,000 of loan repayments, pay downs and sales, which we view positively considering that overall real estate transaction volume is down dramatically over the last year or more. We anticipate receiving additional repayments in the coming months and quarters, though the exact timing And volume remain difficult to predict.

Speaker 3

Turning to credit, the office market remains challenged, but it is not uniform and loan performance depends on specific market fundamentals and the particulars of each property. Work from home trends impact different markets and specific properties to varying degrees. While high interest rates and the pullback in commercial real estate lending from the banking sector continues to pressure available liquidity in the market, likely extending the recovery timeframe. These market trends and individual property challenges are reflected in our quarter end risk Ratings. As of September 30, our portfolio weighted average risk rating remained stable at 2.7.

Speaker 3

During the Q3, We downgraded the risk rating of a $37,000,000 senior loan collateralized by a mixed use office and retail property Located in Downtown Los Angeles from a 4 to a 5. This downgrade resulted from the ongoing office leasing challenges and other dynamics in this local market. We are in active discussions with the borrower as we consider potential next steps with respect to this loan. We continue to work collaboratively with our borrowers on the 3 other risk rated 5 loans on a variety of potential resolutions. As Jack mentioned earlier, we have made progress on our 5 rated loans.

Speaker 3

During the Q3, a $31,800,000 risk rated 5 senior loan collateralized by an office property located in Dallas, Texas was transferred to held for sale, which resulted in a write off of 16,800,000 Subsequent to quarter end, the loan was resolved through a cash sale with no additional loss recognized. The borrower on the San Diego office loan has reached an agreement to sell the property and we anticipate the resolution of this asset in the near term. The borrower on the Minneapolis Hotel is continuing with their process to potentially sell the property, though the ultimate result and timing remains uncertain. The 4 loans that are risk rated 5 total about $250,000,000 in principal balance And have established an $85,000,000 specific CECL reserve against them, implying an impairment of about 34% On Average. Regarding our 1 REO asset and office building in Phoenix, we are actively engaged with our property manager The building continues to generate modestly positive operating income.

Speaker 3

We are in the process of responding to various reverse inquiries about a potential sale of the property, Which we believe may be a good candidate for alternative use as multifamily. We continue to believe that the optimal resolution path for this investment is to a future sale, though it is difficult to predict the ultimate timing. I will now turn the call over to Marcin for a more detailed review of our financial results and capitalization.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Steve. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Yesterday afternoon, we reported our 3rd quarter GAAP net loss of $24,500,000 or $0.48 per basic share, which includes a provision for credit losses of $31,000,000 or $0.60 per basic share, Mainly related to certain risk rated 5 loans. 3 losses attributable to earnings for 3Q were $9,500,000 or $0.18 per basic share Included about $1,000,000 or $0.02 per share of one time items related to one of our repayments and 1 new non accrual loan. Adjusting for those items, Preloz DE for 3Q was largely in line with prior quarter and around our $0.20 common dividend as the portfolio runoff Mostly offset by higher interest rates and lower expenses.

Speaker 4

Our distributable loss to common stockholders was $7,300,000 or $0.14 per basic share and includes a write off of $16,800,000 or $0.32 per share Related to the transfer to held for sale of our risk rated 5 Dallas office loan, which was subsequently sold in October at our carrying value as September 30. 3Q was the 1st full quarter of operations for our Phoenix office REO asset, Resulting in modest operating income adjusted for depreciation and amortization, which is excluded from distributable earnings. Our Q3 book value declined by about $0.65 per common share or about 4.5 percent to $13.28 per share from $13.93 per share in 2Q and was mainly affected by the loan loss provision. Our CECL reserve at quarter end stood at about $148,900,000 or $2.89 per share, representing about 4.9% of our portfolio commitments as compared to 4.1% last quarter. The increase in our CECL reserve was mainly related to specific funds on one new risk rated 5 loan and a couple of other 5 rated loans driven by assumptions of further declines in estimated property values and additional information gained from the ongoing resolution processes related to certain of these loans.

Speaker 4

As Steve mentioned, more than half of our CECL reserve or about 85 the $1,000,000 is allocated to the foreign nonaccrual loans as of September 30. Turning to our liquidity and capitalization. We ended the quarter with over $257,000,000 of cash and our total leverage declined to 2.2 times in 3Q from 2.3 times in 2Q to due to loan repayments. Our low leverage provides us with more balance sheet flexibility as evidenced by our the recent upsizing of the borrowing capacity of 1 of our bank facilities by up to $100,000,000 of which we have so far realized $75,000,000 in proceeds. Our funding mix remains well diversified and stable with continued support from our lenders, highlighting the strength of our long standing relationships.

Speaker 4

As planned, we repaid with cash our $132,000,000 convertible notes that matured in early October. Following this repayment, we have no corporate debt maturities remaining. And as Jack mentioned earlier, we repaid both of our corporate bonds totaling $275,000,000 by proactively managing our liabilities and without needing to access the capital markets at an inopportune time. As of a few days ago, we carried about $178,000,000 of cash, which reflects the bond repayment. I would like to thank you again for joining us today, and we will now open the call for questions.

Operator

Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll conduct our question and answer session. And our first question comes from Steve DeLaney with JMP Securities. To please state your question.

Speaker 5

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. Look, in a challenging credit market, it's nice to see the the convert getting cleaned up and just further improves your balance sheet. So glad You're getting able to take care of those things from a financial condition knowing how much time you have to put into the credit. Flipping over to the comments that Steve made on the San Diego office loan.

Speaker 5

You mentioned, I believe, there was possibly a contract for sale. I didn't get all the details. Can you just clarify that please?

Speaker 3

Hey, Steve. Good morning. It's Steve Alpart. Thank you for joining the call. Yes, so we this is a resolution we've been working on.

Speaker 3

As we said on the call in the past, the building's physical and locational attributes make it well suited for conversion to other uses. We talked about hotel, residential, mixed use. And as we also mentioned on the call, the property is now under contract. We anticipate resolving it in the next couple of months. But just given market conditions and timing, it's hard to predict the exact timing.

Speaker 3

But We were pleased to see that there was good interest in this asset for alternative uses from a bunch of buyers. So it's under contract and hoping to resolve in the next few months.

Speaker 5

And it sounds like the buyer is a property operator, I mean a real estate professional and not just a debt In other words, they're working with you looking at this property because they have a vision of what it might become. Is that accurate way to

Speaker 3

track that? Yes, that is accurate. It's a buyer who would like to own the property and convert it into another use. Okay.

Speaker 5

Will, in that transaction, maybe you can't comment on this right now, but let me put it hypothetical. When you sell a property that's a 5 and to work out. Is there a situation where you would write a new loan for the new buyer Or would you prefer that it be cleaner and let that individual find their own financing, just given the fact that it is on your books as a problem Now, curious how you guys would handle that if that was a requirement of the sale?

Speaker 3

Sure. It's a great question. It's always going to be case by case. So we have the ability, if we think it's beneficial to Granite Point to facilitate sale to provide stable financing as we refer to it. Whether we do that or not will be very case specific.

Speaker 3

We did not do that for example on the Dallas asset that was an all cash sale. In other cases, have provided stable financing. So I would say, Steve, it's something in the toolkit that we'll look at case by case.

Speaker 5

Got it. Okay. Well, thank you for the comments.

Speaker 3

Thank

Operator

you. Our next question comes from Jade Rahmani with KBW. Please state your question.

Speaker 6

Thank you very much. Wanted to ask you about multifamily. Just looking at the locations, it doesn't jump out at me as Granite Point having significant exposure to some of the markets that are under a lot of pressure With respect to where new leases are heading, in places like Phoenix and Austin, we've seen down 9%, down 10% new lease growth in October. So, just scanning the geographic exposure. I'm not seeing those markets, but overall, what are you seeing in the multifamily book?

Speaker 3

Hey, Jake. Good morning. It's Steve. Thanks for joining the call. So the multifamily properties in our portfolio, I would characterize as having generally healthy fundamentals.

Speaker 3

We feel good about these loans. We have a very diverse portfolio of multifamily properties, which I would generally classify as Class A and Class B properties. There were a lot of markets, as I think you've noted, with a concentration not only, but a concentration in the South East and Southwest. The business plans here typically involve a renovation, a CapEx plan, pushing rents to market where we're trying to get the rents up to the competitive set. It's well known and we've seen deceleration in rental growth rates that were not underwritten, but we were seeing double digit rank growth and we've seen that come down to single digits, mid single digits, low single digits.

Speaker 3

In a few cases, it's got a little bit negative. But we're seeing that even in this environment, our borrowers are still able to in many cases, most cases still able to get rent bumps, keeping occupancies pretty strong. And I would just point out that we did not originate a lot of loans at the peak of the market in 2021, 2022. We did not underwrite a lot of rent growth. We just mainly underwrote that a borrower could push rents to the level of the property next door.

Speaker 3

We are seeing some cases where it's a little bit harder to get the rent bump or at least get the full rent bump, but we're generally seeing that rents are still trending upward. We're seeing some pressure on operating expenses. I think that's been well reported. We're seeing it particularly on property taxes in a few markets and insurance in certain markets, particularly coastal markets. So that's just something to watch.

Speaker 3

And then there's elevated new supply in some markets, but it's not everywhere. And as we look out and talk excuse me, to our sponsors. It feels like when you get out beyond the next 12, 18 months that supply pipeline should come down. So we think the way we're thinking about it now is that it might take another 1 or 2 turns of the rent roll to get to stabilization. But generally we feel generally good about these loans.

Speaker 3

And we are seeing generally good demand just given to home affordability. So I guess overall, we're positive on the fundamentals in the sector as we look out the next 12 to 18 months. And we haven't seen any general signs of weakness so far.

Speaker 6

Okay. That's good to hear. Sounds like multifamily is not a cause of concern for you all right now. I wanted to ask about some of the older loans in the portfolio. When I scan the loan sheet and it doesn't show risk rating next to it.

Speaker 6

But for example, there's an origination date of December 2018, $96,000,000 is the maximum commitment. It's a New York mixed use loan. Can you give some color on what's going on there? And then I also see a few that are 2015, 2016, 2017 originations. Just making some assumptions for maximum term.

Speaker 6

These loans should have matured already. So it'd be helpful to get an update on at least a few of the larger ones.

Speaker 3

Okay. So in terms of some of the older loans, in many of those cases, those were loans that we made over 5 years ago. And at some point, a couple of years into the loan, things were going In a good direction, a borrower had an opportunity to potentially upsize the loan or get cheaper cost of capital and they would come to us, good sponsor. And we would do an offensive loan modification where we would intentionally want to keep the loan on longer or we might give more term. When we found those to be kind of win win loan mods what we refer to as offensive loan mod.

Speaker 3

So that's what a lot of those older loans are. You mentioned specifically about New York mixed use property. That one is ground floor retail, upper floor office, the retail fully leased, the sponsor is still working on the business plan. They put a lot of capital it. They have a lot of equity invested.

Speaker 3

And that particular loan is we moved that 1 to a 4, I believe late last year and that was mainly due to softness in the office market in New York.

Speaker 6

Are there any of the other larger ones that jump out at you of the older vintage?

Speaker 3

We have a property in Baton Rouge. High quality open air center, where the sponsor As we speak is working on a property sale.

Speaker 6

Okay. You might want to add a column for to an updated origination date or something because when investors scan this and they look at the term. They're just adding the numbers and making some assumptions that many of these might be past due. So it would be helpful to see that.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll hand the floor back to Jack Taylor for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you. And we want to extend our thanks and appreciation to our investors for supporting us And for all of you attending, I also would like to thank our team for all the great work they're doing in the process working through these assets and facilitating all the repayments that we've had. And I wish everybody a good day. Thank you very much.

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Granite Point Mortgage Trust Q3 2023
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