Franklin BSP Realty Trust Inc (FBRT) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Franklin BSP Realty Trust Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lindsey Crabbe, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎參加富蘭克林 BSP 房地產信託 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。我現在想將會議交給投資者關係總監林賽·克拉布 (Lindsey Crabbe)。請繼續。

Thank you so much. Good morning. Welcome to the Franklin BSP Realty Trust Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. As the operator already mentioned, I'm Lindsey Crabbe. With me on the call today are Richard Byrne, Chairman and CEO of FBRT, Jerome Baglien, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of FBRT and Michael Comparato, President of FBRT. Before we begin, I want to mention that some of today's comments are forward-looking statements and are based on certain assumptions. Those comments and assumptions are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties as described in our most recently filed SEC periodic report and actual future results may differ materially. The information contained on this call is current only as of the date of this call, August 1, 2023.

太感謝了。早上好。歡迎參加富蘭克林 BSP 房地產信託第二季度收益電話會議。正如接線員已經提到的，我是 Lindsey Crabbe。今天與我一起參加電話會議的有 FBRT 董事長兼首席執行官 Richard Byrne、FBRT 首席財務官兼首席運營官 Jerome Baglien 以及 FBRT 總裁 Michael Comparato。在開始之前，我想提一下，今天的一些評論是前瞻性陳述，並且基於某些假設。這些評論和假設受到我們最近提交的 SEC 定期報告中所述的固有風險和不確定性的影響，未來的實際結果可能會存在重大差異。本次電話會議中包含的信息僅截至本次電話會議日期（2023 年 8 月 1 日）為止。

The company assumes no obligation to update any statements made during this call, including any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Additionally, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to GAAP figures in our earnings release and supplementary slide deck, each of which are available on our website. We will refer to the supplementary slide deck on today's call. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rich Byrne.

除非法律要求，否則公司不承擔更新本次電話會議期間所做的任何聲明的義務，包括任何前瞻性聲明，無論是由於新信息、未來事件還是其他原因。此外，我們將參考某些非 GAAP 財務指標，這些指標與我們的收益發布和補充幻燈片中的 GAAP 數據一致，每項都可以在我們的網站上找到。我們將在今天的電話會議上參考補充幻燈片。這樣，我會將電話轉給 Rich Byrne。

Great. Thanks, Lindsey, and good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us today. As Lindsey said, I'm Rich Byrne. I'm the Chairman and CEO of FBRT. Also, as Lindsey mentioned, our earnings release and supplemental deck were just published to our website yesterday, so you can look at them there. We're going to begin today's call by reviewing our second quarter results. And then, of course, as always, we'll open the call up for your questions.

偉大的。謝謝，林賽，大家早上好。感謝大家今天加入我們。正如林賽所說，我是里奇·伯恩。我是 FBRT 的董事長兼首席執行官。此外，正如 Lindsey 提到的，我們的收益發布和補充資料昨天剛剛發佈到我們的網站上，因此您可以在那裡查看它們。我們將通過回顧第二季度的業績來開始今天的電話會議。當然，我們會像往常一樣開始電話詢問您的問題。

I'm going to start on Slide 4. FBRT delivered very strong earnings in the second quarter. In particular, our distributable earnings per share increased 50% this quarter, with the company generating $0.66 per fully converted share compared to $0.44 in the prior quarter. Our quarterly dividend of $0.355 remains well covered by our distributable earnings that also is well covered by our GAAP earnings. This dividend level represents a yield of approximately 9% on our June 30 book value of $15.85 per fully converted share. The large increase in distributable earnings this quarter was largely attributable to the gain from our resolution of Williamsburg -- our Williamsburg hotel loan.

我將從幻燈片 4 開始。FBRT 在第二季度實現了非常強勁的收益。特別是，本季度我們的每股可分配收益增長了 50%，公司每股完全轉換的每股收益為 0.66 美元，而上一季度為 0.44 美元。我們的季度股息為 0.355 美元，但我們的可分配收益仍然充分涵蓋了我們的 GAAP 收益。這一股息水平代表我們 6 月 30 日每股完全轉換股票賬面價值 15.85 美元的收益率約為 9%。本季度可分配收益的大幅增長主要歸功於我們威廉斯堡酒店貸款決議的收益。

In April, the hotels sold for $96 million. We recovered 100% of the principal on the loan and approximately $20 million of additional proceeds. Jerry, when I turn it over to him, we'll provide more explanation about the sale and the accounting treatment of the gain later in this call. Excluding the impact of the Williamsburg loan, our portfolio performed as expected this quarter, with earnings modestly improving due to the benefit of higher base rates on our floating rate portfolio. Our book value increased by $0.07 in the quarter to $15.85. The retention of excess earnings over our dividend more than offset the increase in our general CECL provisions and our one asset-specific CECL provision. And speaking of reserves, we took a proactive approach to risk management as evidenced by the increases this quarter and every quarter that we've taken on our portfolio.

4 月份，這些酒店以 9600 萬美元的價格售出。我們收回了 100% 的貸款本金以及約 2000 萬美元的額外收益。傑里，當我把它交給他時，我們將在本次電話會議稍後提供有關銷售和收益會計處理的更多解釋。排除威廉斯堡貸款的影響，我們的投資組合本季度的表現符合預期，由於我們的浮動利率投資組合的基本利率較高，盈利略有改善。本季度我們的賬面價值增加了​​ 0.07 美元，達到 15.85 美元。保留超過股息的超額收益遠遠抵消了我們一般 CECL 撥備和一項特定資產 CECL 撥備的增加。說到準備金，我們採取了積極主動的風險管理方法，本季度和每個季度我們投資組合的增加就證明了這一點。

Notably, four assets were moved on to watch list in the second quarter with a risk rating of 4. And of those two were office loans and two were multifamily loans. And one loan on our Portland office complex, that was previously on watch list was moved to a 5 and is now on nonaccrual status. We also took an asset-specific reserve on that loan. In its entirety, our watch list consists of five loans, which are four 4-rated loans and one 5-rated loan. And that aggregates to approximately $145 million in value, which represents 2.9% of our $5.1 billion portfolio. We believe these watch list ads and the reserves attached to them are appropriate for our portfolio. Mike will go into greater detail about our watch list loans and our approach to our credit quality assessments, hence, our ratings later in the call.

值得注意的是，第二季度有四項資產被移至觀察名單，風險評級為 4。其中兩項是辦公貸款，兩項是多戶貸款。我們波特蘭辦公樓的一筆貸款之前在觀察名單上，現在已轉移到 5，現在處於非應計狀態。我們還對該貸款提取了特定資產準備金。總的來說，我們的觀察名單包括五筆貸款，其中四筆為 4 級貸款，一筆為 5 級貸款。總價值約為 1.45 億美元，占我們 51 億美元投資組合的 2.9%。我們相信這些觀察名單廣告及其附帶的儲備適合我們的投資組合。邁克將在稍後的電話會議中更詳細地介紹我們的觀察名單貸款以及我們的信用質量評估方法，因此我們的評級。

Turning to our REO properties. We have a few updates on those as well. Our total REO loan positions decreased this quarter with the sale of our multifamily asset in New Rochelle, which closed in the second quarter. The assets sold for our marked value on the position, so no additional write-down was required. Regarding our Walgreens portfolio, as of quarter end, we now own all 24 Walgreens properties underlying this loan. The leases on all 24 stores currently have 15-year lease terms. We intend to focus on liquidating the portfolio beginning in the third quarter. The 24 stores make up an asset value of approximately $100 million, which is the vast majority of our foreclosure REO balance at quarter end.

轉向我們的 REO 屬性。我們也有一些相關的更新。隨著我們在新羅謝爾的多戶住宅資產的出售（該資產已於第二季度完成），本季度我們的 REO 貸款頭寸總額有所減少。資產以我們對該頭寸的標記價值出售，因此不需要額外的減記。關於我們的沃爾格林投資組合，截至季度末，我們現在擁有這筆貸款所涉及的全部 24 處沃爾格林房產。目前所有24家商店的租約均為15年。我們打算從第三季度開始集中清算投資組合。這 24 家商店的資產價值約為 1 億美元，這是我們季度末止贖 REO 餘額的絕大多數。

I would now like to cover a few more points before I turn things over to Jerry. One, despite the subdued transaction environment during the quarter, we originated $230 million in new loan commitments, maintaining our portfolio size of $5.1 billion. Our portfolio is well diversified across 156 loans with an average loan size of $33 million. Multifamily represents 77% of our portfolio. And as we have said before, multifamily lending will remain our focus. Mike will provide more detail on our recent investments and our pipeline in his commentary. We had $1.2 billion in total liquidity as of June 30. Of that, $225 million was our cash balances. This gives us maximum flexibility to take advantage of opportunities while also maintaining a strong liquidity cushion to protect our portfolio from any unforeseen credit events.

在將事情交給傑里之前，我現在想再談幾點。第一，儘管本季度交易環境低迷，我們仍發放了 2.3 億美元的新貸款承諾，將我們的投資組合規模維持在 51 億美元。我們的投資組合十分多元化，涵蓋 156 項貸款，平均貸款規模為 3,300 萬美元。多戶型住宅占我們投資組合的 77%。正如我們之前所說，多戶家庭貸款仍將是我們的重點。邁克將在他的評論中提供有關我們最近的投資和管道的更多詳細信息。截至 6 月 30 日，我們的流動資金總額為 12 億美元。其中，我們的現金餘額為 2.25 億美元。這使我們能夠最大限度地靈活地利用機會，同時保持強大的流動性緩衝，以保護我們的投資組合免受任何不可預見的信貸事件的影響。

We repurchased $5.5 million of common stock during the quarter. In aggregate, over the past 2 years, we purchased more than $60 million of our stock. We still have $39 million remaining on the company's buyback authorization, and we will not hesitate to repurchase our shares when we determine it to be the best use of our capital. To conclude, while we continue to see a challenging environment for commercial real estate and the market overall, we believe our portfolio is well positioned. We are focused on maintaining a strong capital position, which will allow us to continue to invest in our portfolio but also play offense when we see good opportunities to originate. We are confident we can navigate through the challenging market conditions while delivering long-term value to our shareholders.

我們在本季度回購了 550 萬美元的普通股。過去 2 年裡，我們總共購買了超過 6000 萬美元的股票。我們公司的回購授權還剩 3900 萬美元，當我們確定這是對我們資本的最佳利用時，我們會毫不猶豫地回購我們的股票。總而言之，雖然我們仍然看到商業房地產和整個市場面臨充滿挑戰的環境，但我們相信我們的投資組合處於有利位置。我們專注於保持強大的資本狀況，這將使我們能夠繼續投資我們的投資組合，但當我們看到良好的創始機會時也會採取進攻。我們有信心能夠應對充滿挑戰的市場環境，同時為股東創造長期價值。

With that, I'll let Jerry discuss our financial performance. Over to you, Jerry.

接下來，我將讓傑里討論我們的財務業績。交給你了，傑瑞。

Great. Thanks, Rich. I'm Jerry Baglien, the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of FBRT. It's great to have everyone on the call today. Moving on to our results. Let's start on Slide 5. FBRT generated GAAP earnings of $39.6 million or $0.39 per diluted common share, representing a 9.8% return on common equity. GAAP net income was down quarter-over-quarter as the first quarter had onetime contributions from security sales and gain on debt extinguishment. And in the second quarter, the large gain on the Williamsburg resolution was mostly offset by CECL reserves. Our distributable earnings in the second quarter were $63.5 million or $0.66 per fully converted share, representing a 16.5% ROE.

偉大的。謝謝，里奇。我是 Jerry Baglien，FBRT 的首席財務官兼首席運營官。很高興今天大家都來參加電話會議。繼續我們的結果。讓我們從幻燈片 5 開始。FBRT 產生的 GAAP 收益為 3,960 萬美元，即稀釋後普通股每股 0.39 美元，相當於 9.8% 的普通股回報率。由於第一季度有來自證券銷售和債務清償收益的一次性貢獻，公認會計原則淨利潤環比下降。第二季度，威廉斯堡決議帶來的巨大收益大部分被 CECL 儲備金所抵消。第二季度我們的可分配收益為 6350 萬美元，即每股完全轉換股 0.66 美元，相當於 16.5% 的股本回報率。

Our walk through of our distributable earnings to GAAP net income can be found in the earnings release. As Rich discussed, the sale of the Williamsburg Hotel was the biggest driver of our distributable earnings beat. The $20 million in additional proceeds consisted of accrued interest that we received on the loan. We originated $230 million in new loans during the quarter while also receiving paydowns to $232 million which kept our portfolio flat to first quarter at $5.1 billion. Our portfolio size was flat in the quarter, and we maintained a large liquidity position. The cash flow on our portfolio currently generates comfortably enough to cover our dividend. As a result of this, we can continue to be deliberate in our originations and wait for the right opportunities.

我們將可分配收益與 GAAP 淨利潤的比較可以在收益發布中找到。正如里奇所說，威廉斯堡酒店的出售是我們可分配收益增長的最大推動力。 2000 萬美元的額外收益包括我們收到的貸款應計利息。我們在本季度發放了 2.3 億美元的新貸款，同時還收到了 2.32 億美元的還款，這使我們的投資組合與第一季度持平，為 51 億美元。本季度我們的投資組合規模持平，並且保持大量流動性頭寸。我們投資組合的現金流目前足以支付我們的股息。因此，我們可以繼續深思熟慮，等待合適的機會。

Our net leverage position remained modest at roughly 2.4x this quarter. We are deliberate in our use of leverage and view it as a structural highlight. Moving to Slide 6. You can see the layout of our distributable earnings growth. The portfolio performed well, and distributable earnings would have been similar to the first quarter without the onetime benefit from the sale of Williamsburg. As I mentioned, our GAAP net income reflects the increase we took as part of our CECL provision. We endeavor to use conservative CECL assumptions for both, general and specific reserves. Our total reserve increased by $21.6 million this quarter to $52.1 million, with 59% of the total reserves on multifamily.

本季度我們的淨槓桿頭寸保持在約 2.4 倍的適度水平。我們謹慎使用槓桿，並將其視為結構性亮點。轉到幻燈片 6。您可以看到我們的可分配盈利增長的佈局。該投資組合表現良好，如果沒有出售威廉斯堡的一次性收益，可分配收益將與第一季度相似。正如我所提到的，我們的 GAAP 淨利潤反映了我們作為 CECL 撥備一部分的增長。我們盡力對一般準備金和特定準備金使用保守的 CECL 假設。本季度我們的總準備金增加了 2160 萬美元，達到 5210 萬美元，其中多戶住宅總準備金的 59%。

Office assets accounted for 25% of the reserve despite representing only 6% of our portfolio. Our specific reserve this quarter was attributable to our Portland office property. It was downgraded to a risk rating of 5. We engaged a third-party valuation firm to determine the market value of the property. And after reviewing and agreeing with their change in value, we took an asset-specific reserve of $11.9 million, which is included in the total reserve amount discussed previously. Our carrying value of the asset was approximately $33 million and is now $20.4 million post the adjustment. Mike will share more details on the watch list in his comments.

儘管辦公室資產僅占我們投資組合的 6%，但其卻佔儲備的 25%。本季度我們的具體儲備歸因於我們的波特蘭辦公物業。它的風險評級被下調至5。我們聘請了第三方評估公司來確定該房產的市場價值。在審查並同意其價值變化後，我們提取了 1190 萬美元的資產專用儲備金，該儲備金已包含在之前討論的儲備金總額中。我們的資產賬面價值約為 3,300 萬美元，調整後現為 2,040 萬美元。邁克將在評論中分享有關觀察名單的更多詳細信息。

Moving to Slide 7, you can see a walk of our portfolio. I've discussed new originations, but I also want to provide similar details to last quarter on our repayments. The majority of repayments were from hospitality and multifamily loans, contributing 50% and 37% of the balance, respectively. The other item to note is the $38 million decrease in our core loan portfolio, which was moved into REO. This was due to us taking the title to the remainder of the Walgreens portfolio. The Walgreens position comprises the majority of the balance in foreclosure REO with the other property being an office building that we foreclosed in St. Louis. As we have discussed, while never our outcome of choice, we are comfortable holding positions in REO. Our team has expertise in owning and operating assets.

轉到幻燈片 7，您可以看到我們的作品集。我已經討論了新的起源，但我也想提供與上季度類似的還款細節。大部分還款來自酒店貸款和多戶家庭貸款，分別佔餘額的 50% 和 37%。另一件值得注意的事情是我們的核心貸款組合減少了 3800 萬美元，已轉移至 REO。這是因為我們獲得了沃爾格林投資組合其餘部分的所有權。沃爾格林的頭寸佔止贖 REO 餘額的大部分，另一處財產是我們在聖路易斯止贖的辦公樓。正如我們所討論的，雖然這不是我們選擇的結果，但我們很樂意持有 REO 頭寸。我們的團隊擁有擁有和運營資產的專業知識。

This comfort affords this time to execute sales at the best levels. I will also note our entire foreclosure REO position represents approximately 1.8% of our total assets. We can move on to Slide 8 and discuss our capitalization. Our average cost of debt during the quarter was 7.3%. The increase in our cost of debt has trended up with the increases in SOFR and LIBOR as our debt primarily floats. 7% of our financing sources on our core portfolio are nonrecourse, non-mark-to-market. As of quarter end, we have reinvested available to us on four of our CLOs. We will continue to actively manage our CLO book. We did observe some CLO issuance activity during the quarter from other issuers. We participated as an active buyer of these bonds, and we find them to be attractive additions to our portfolio on a levered yield basis.

這種舒適感讓我們有時間以最佳水平執行銷售。我還要指出的是，我們整個止贖 REO 頭寸約占我們總資產的 1.8%。我們可以轉到幻燈片 8 並討論我們的大小寫。本季度我們的平均債務成本為 7.3%。由於我們的債務主要是浮動的，我們的債務成本隨著 SOFR 和 LIBOR 的增加而呈上升趨勢。我們核心投資組合中 7% 的融資來源是無追索權、非按市價計價的。截至季度末，我們已對四份 CLO 進行了再投資。我們將繼續積極管理我們的 CLO 書籍。我們確實觀察到其他發行人在本季度進行了一些 CLO 發行活動。我們作為這些債券的積極買家參與其中，我們發現它們在槓桿收益率的基礎上對我們的投資組合來說是有吸引力的補充。

While CLOs remain our preferred financing mechanism over the long term, we have seen attractive rates on our warehouse lines. We are constantly watching CLO markets and will engage in new issuance should the opportunity present itself at levels we believe to be attractive. Subsequent to quarter end, our FL 5 CLO was redeemed. This was relevered at an advance rate of 67% and freed up approximately $52 million of cash. On Slide 10, and Rich touched on this, the importance of our liquidity position going into the second half of the year, we have $1.2 billion in available liquidity. Our CLO reinvest balance tends to be relatively low because of how closely we manage to reinvest on our deals.

雖然從長遠來看，CLO 仍然是我們首選的融資機制，但我們已經看到我們的倉庫產品線具有有吸引力的利率。我們一直在關注 CLO 市場，如果機會出現在我們認為有吸引力的水平上，我們將進行新的發行。季度末後，我們的 FL 5 CLO 被贖回。預付款率為 67%，釋放了約 5200 萬美元的現金。在幻燈片 10 中，Rich 談到了下半年流動性狀況的重要性，我們有 12 億美元的可用流動性。由於我們對交易進行再投資的緊密程度，我們的 CLO 再投資餘額往往相對較低。

When a loan repays in a CLO, we look to fill it quickly, which keeps this cash balance at 0 or close to it. Our goal is to minimize any cash drag that may occur from the repayment on our loans in the CLOs and backfill with loans we have financed on our warehouse lines. This, paired with our cash position and available capacity on our warehouse lines and revolver, stabilizes our balance sheet and positions us to transact in the coming quarters. With that, I'll turn it over to Mike to give you an update on our portfolio.

當貸款以 CLO 形式償還時，我們希望快速填補它，從而使現金餘額保持在 0 或接近 0。我們的目標是最大限度地減少因償還 CLO 貸款而可能產生的現金拖累，並用我們在倉庫中融資的貸款進行回填。這與我們的現金狀況以及倉庫線和左輪手槍的可用容量相結合，穩定了我們的資產負債表，並使我們能夠在未來幾個季度進行交易。接下來，我會將其轉交給邁克，讓他向您介紹我們產品組合的最新情況。

Thanks, Jerry. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Mike Comparato, President of FBRT. I'm going to start on Slide 12. I'll focus today on key attributes of our commercial loan portfolio, current market opportunities and will provide an update on our watch list assets. Similar to prior quarters, our collateral remains focused on multifamily, with 77% of our exposure in this sector. It was also our largest addition this quarter. We continue to barbell the portfolio with multifamily being our mainstay asset class and sprinkle in some hospitality, industrial and retail. Hospitality was our second largest ad in the second quarter. We have not seen improvement in the Office sector. We have discussed for several quarters that Office has an identity crisis, and that crisis only appears to be worsening.

謝謝，傑瑞。大家早上好，感謝您加入我們。我是 FBRT 總裁 Mike Comparato。我將從幻燈片 12 開始。今天我將重點介紹我們商業貸款投資組合的關鍵屬性、當前的市場機會，並將提供我們觀察名單資產的最新情況。與前幾個季度類似，我們的抵押品仍然集中在多戶住宅上，我們 77% 的投資都集中在該領域。這也是我們本季度最大的新增項目。我們繼續以多戶住宅作為我們的主要資產類別來完善投資組合，並在一些酒店、工業和零售業中進行投資。酒店業是我們第二季度第二大廣告。我們沒有看到辦公部門的改善。我們幾個季度以來一直在討論 Office 存在身份危機，而且這種危機似乎只會進一步惡化。

We anticipate tens of billions of dollars of Office loan defaults in the coming years as we are already witnessing countless owners merely walking away from assets at loan maturity. During the quarter, we downgraded two of our Office loans to a 4 risk rating, and our reserves were appropriately increased to reflect further weakness. Thankfully, our Office exposure is only 6% of our total portfolio and overall, is performing very well at the asset level. Geographically, our focus continues to be across the Southeast and Southwest. You'll note we added a breakout by state this quarter in our presentation to provide more transparency into the portfolio, and we'll continue to provide more clarity in future quarters.

我們預計未來幾年將出現數百億美元的辦公貸款違約，因為我們已經見證了無數業主在貸款到期時放棄資產。本季度，我們將兩筆 Office 貸款的風險評級下調至 4 級，並適當增加準備金以反映進一步的疲軟。值得慶幸的是，我們的辦公室敞口僅佔總投資組合的 6%，總體而言，在資產層面表現非常良好。從地理位置上看，我們的重點仍然是東南部和西南部。您會注意到，我們在本季度的演示中添加了按州劃分的細分，以提高投資組合的透明度，並且我們將在未來幾個季度繼續提供更多的清晰度。

We have no intention of adding international exposure to our portfolio in the near future. We can move to Slide 13 for specifics on our quarterly originations and current market quality. 7 loans were originated this quarter at a weighted average spread of 432 basis points. The credits we are writing today are some of the highest credit qualities we have seen in years. Market conditions are creating opportunities and deals are becoming more attractive. Banks are clearly on the sidelines for new direct origination. And a meaningful subset of our competitors in the mortgage REIT and debt fund space are focused on legacy portfolio concerns versus adding new additional risk. With approximately $1.5 trillion of commercial mortgage real estate loans maturing in the next 3 years, we believe the environment to be right for well-capitalized alternative lenders with dry powder. FBRT clearly being one of them.

我們無意在不久的將來在我們的投資組合中增加國際敞口。我們可以轉到幻燈片 13，了解有關我們的季度起源和當前市場質量的詳細信息。本季度發放了 7 筆貸款，加權平均利差為 432 個基點。我們今天所寫的信用是我們多年來所見過的最高信用質量之一。市場條件正在創造機會，交易也變得更具吸引力。銀行顯然對新的直接發起持觀望態度。我們在抵押房地產投資信託基金和債務基金領域的競爭對手中，有一部分主要關注遺留投資組合問題，而不是增加新的額外風險。隨著約 1.5 萬億美元的商業抵押房地產貸款將在未來 3 年內到期，我們相信環境適合資本充足的另類貸款機構。 FBRT 顯然就是其中之一。

Acquisitions overall are quite slow, although improving as the bid-ask spread between buyers and sellers and (inaudible). Multifamily transactional volume for the first half of 2023 was the lowest since 2011. That said, we are starting to see more acquisitions and getting some price discovery within the stabilized multifamily market. For several quarters, we have discussed negative leverage (inaudible) to leave the system prior to transactional volume returning to historical norms. In the stabilized multifamily sector, we are seeing buyers accept 1 to 2 years of negative leverage via 10-year low leverage interest-only fixed-rate agency debt with the expectation that they can grow NOI to positive leverage in year 3 and beyond.

儘管隨著買賣雙方之間的買賣價差有所改善（聽不清），但總體收購速度相當緩慢。 2023 年上半年的多戶住宅交易量是 2011 年以來的最低水平。也就是說，我們開始看到更多的收購，並在穩定的多戶住宅市場中發現了一些價格。幾個季度以來，我們一直在討論在交易量恢復到歷史正常水平之前退出系統的負槓桿（聽不清）。在穩定的多戶住宅領域，我們看到買家通過10 年期低杠桿只付息固定利率機構債務接受1 至2 年的負槓桿，並期望他們可以在第3 年及以後將NOI 提高到正槓桿。

However, transitional multifamily transactions continue to have meaningful negative leverage. And the deals we are seeing in the space appear to be more force sellers versus willing sellers. Office remains the clear industry [Albatross.] Debt is more difficult to obtain than any time in history, perhaps other than 2009. Passive tenant retention is hitting all-time highs in many cases, noneconomically logical levels, uncertainty abounds. Will Office become an opportunity in the future? Absolutely, but we will be very selective. It is uninteresting at the pricing levels of the past few years. But when it is priced appropriate to other risks in the market, we may be interested. As Jerry mentioned, we have been an active buyer of CRE CLO bonds, buying AAA-rated bonds with 7 to 8 handle coupons that produce leverage returns in excess of 20%.

然而，過渡性多戶住宅交易仍然具有顯著的負槓桿作用。我們在該領域看到的交易似乎更多是強制賣家而不是自願賣家。寫字樓仍然是明顯的行業[信天翁]。債務比歷史上任何時候都更難獲得，也許除了2009年之外。被動租戶保留率在許多情況下都創下歷史新高，不符合經濟邏輯的水平，不確定性比比皆是。 Office會成為未來的機會嗎？絕對可以，但我們會非常有選擇性。以過去幾年的定價水平來看，這是無趣的。但當它的定價適合市場上的其他風險時，我們可能會感興趣。正如 Jerry 提到的，我們一直是 CRE CLO 債券的積極買家，購買 AAA 級債券，購買 7 到 8 手票券，產生超過 20% 的槓桿回報。

It's hard to consider writing a loan on an office building when a AAA bond can make you equity-like returns. The last thing I'll review today is our watch list loans. Let's look at Slide 14. As Rich mentioned, we have 5 loans on watch list as of June 30. Two loans were removed from our watch list in the second quarter. The Walgreens loan was moved entirely to REO, and the Williamsburg Hotel came to a positive resolution in April. One loan that was moved on our watch list -- one loan that was moved on to our watch list in the first quarter and office complex in Portland was downgraded to a 5. Jerry provided information on our mark and the asset-specific reserve in place on this loan.

當 AAA 債券可以為您帶來類似股票的回報時，您很難考慮為辦公樓提供貸款。我今天要回顧的最後一件事是我們的觀察名單貸款。讓我們看一下幻燈片 14。正如 Rich 提到的，截至 6 月 30 日，我們的觀察名單上有 5 筆貸款。第二季度有兩筆貸款從我們的觀察名單中刪除。沃爾格林的貸款完全轉移給 REO，威廉斯堡酒店在四月份達成了積極的解決方案。一筆貸款被移至我們的觀察名單上——一筆貸款在第一季度被移至我們的觀察名單上，波特蘭的辦公大樓被降級至5。傑里提供了有關我們的標記和到位的特定資產儲備的信息在這筆貸款上。

We are in active dialogue with the borrower and would expect to take the property as REO in the third quarter via (inaudible) foreclosure. The new loans added to watch list this quarter include a CBD high-rise office building in Denver, Colorado, a suburban Class A office building in Alpharetta, Georgia, a garden-style apartment community in Arlington, Texas, and a garden-style apartment complex in Lubbock, Texas. In aggregate, the 4 new watch list names totaled $113 million in principal balance. Our reserves have been increased this quarter to reflect the change in credit quality. We are in close communication with the borrowers on each loan and will determine the appropriate path forward to each resolution.

我們正在與借款人積極對話，並預計在第三季度通過（聽不清）取消抵押品贖回權將該房產作為 REO。本季度新增貸款觀察名單包括科羅拉多州丹佛市CBD高層寫字樓、佐治亞州阿爾法利塔郊區甲級寫字樓、德克薩斯州阿靈頓花園式公寓社區、花園式公寓等。位於德克薩斯州拉伯克的綜合大樓。 4 個新觀察名單名稱的本金餘額總計為 1.13 億美元。本季度我們的準備金有所增加，以反映信貸質量的變化。我們就每筆貸款與借款人保持密切溝通，並將確定每項解決方案的適當路徑。

The team has a history of cleaning up watch list loans quickly, and our asset management group is actively engaged across the board. I want to take a moment on the methodology of our risk ratings. A loan that is risk rated for is the loan we identify as not meeting its business plan at initial origination. It is not necessarily a reflection of the loan we expect to take a future loss. Those loans, we risk rate 5. Take, for example, the loan I mentioned in Arlington, Texas, that we added this quarter to our watch list as a 4. This property is underperforming on its original business plan. However, the loan will receive a pay down this week and is currently under nonrefundable contract to be sold, resulting in a full repayment of our loans, assuming the sale closes.

該團隊有快速清理觀察名單貸款的歷史，我們的資產管理團隊正在全面積極參與。我想花點時間談談我們的風險評級方法。經過風險評級的貸款是我們在最初發起時發現不符合其業務計劃的貸款。它不一定反映我們預計未來會遭受損失的貸款。這些貸款的風險評級為5。以我提到的德克薩斯州阿靈頓的貸款為例，我們本季度將其添加到我們的觀察名單中，評級為4。該物業的原始業務計劃表現不佳。然而，該貸款將於本週收到首付，目前正在根據不可退還的合同出售，假設銷售結束，我們的貸款將全額償還。

We perform a thorough review each quarter of all assets and have a disciplined approach to increasing our general and asset-specific reserves as we deem appropriate. We are proactive in managing any potential risk in our portfolio and have made incremental improvements to our credit positions with loan modifications made during this quarter. Our goal is to identify issues and resolve them quickly, allowing asset management and senior management to have as few balls in the air at the same time as possible. We believe the company's existing portfolio composition will continue to position us as an industry leader and give us the opportunity to play offense while a substantial portion of our competitive set cannot.

我們每個季度都會對所有資產進行徹底審查，並採取嚴格的方法來增加我們認為適當的一般儲備和特定資產儲備。我們積極主動地管理投資組合中的任何潛在風險，並通過本季度的貸款調整逐步改善了我們的信用狀況。我們的目標是快速發現問題並解決它們，讓資產管理和高級管理層同時處理的問題盡可能少。我們相信，公司現有的投資組合將繼續使我們成為行業領導者，並為我們提供進攻的機會，而我們的大部分競爭對手卻無法做到這一點。

With that, I would like to turn it back to the operator to begin the Q&A session.

這樣，我想將其轉回操作員以開始問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Sarah Barcomb with BTIG.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Sarah Barcomb。

So we saw some multifamily assets go on watch list. One of them will see a near-term repayment for us. So that's good to hear. But could you talk about the potential for future watch list migration as additional multifamily loans that were originated during that low rate 2021 period reached their initial maturities next year? How should we think about the debt yield on those assets, particularly maybe those in Florida where we keep hearing about higher expenses and rent growth softening, themes that we've talked about before? If you could speak to that, that would be great.

所以我們看到一些多戶資產被列入觀察名單。其中之一將為我們帶來短期回報。很高興聽到這個消息。但您能否談談未來觀察名單遷移的潛力，因為在 2021 年低利率期間發放的額外多戶貸款明年將達到初始到期日？我們應該如何看待這些資產的債務收益率，尤其是佛羅里達州的資產，我們不斷聽到費用上漲和租金增長疲軟的消息，這些都是我們之前討論過的主題？如果你能談到這一點，那就太好了。

Sarah, it's Mike. I'll take that. So I'm going to start with the back half of your question first. I think the expense growth that we're seeing is not necessarily specific to Florida, but we're kind of seeing it across the portfolio. I think the expense side of the income statement is catching up with the rent growth that we saw in 2021. And most notably, Texas and real estate taxes, most notably in any kind of coastal markets in property insurance, where we're seeing insurance double, in some cases, triple. As we've mentioned previously, I think for the several next quarters, we're going to continue to see new additions to watch list loans, resolution to watch list loans and then dealing with a new subset of watch list loans.

莎拉，是邁克。我會接受的。所以我首先從你問題的後半部分開始。我認為我們看到的費用增長不一定是佛羅里達州特有的，但我們在整個投資組合中都看到了這種增長。我認為損益表的費用方面正在趕上我們在2021 年看到的租金增長。最值得注意的是德克薩斯州和房地產稅，尤其是在財產保險的任何沿海市場，我們在這些市場中看到保險雙倍，在某些情況下，三倍。正如我們之前提到的，我認為在接下來的幾個季度中，我們將繼續看到觀察名單貸款的新增加、觀察名單貸款的決議，然後處理觀察名單貸款的新子集。

So I think it's just the reality of the environment that we're in. When rates go from sub-3% coupons to 8% or 9% coupons, there's just going to be a fairly consistent stream of loans that we're going to be working through over the coming quarters. I think we're overall pretty positive about our position within the multifamily sector, certainly with 77% of the portfolio exposed there. We think overall, the multifamily market has probably witnessed a 20% to 30% correction in valuations. 20% likely more for newer vintage assets in larger markets, probably closer to 30% for some older vintage assets in secondary and tertiary markets. But we think that we're positioned very well based on our basis.

所以我認為這就是我們所處環境的現實。當利率從低於 3% 的息票升至 8% 或 9% 的息票時，我們將獲得相當穩定的貸款流在接下來的幾個季度裡努力工作。我認為我們總體上對我們在多戶住宅領域的地位相當樂觀，當然，77% 的投資組合都暴露在該領域。我們認為總體而言，多戶住宅市場的估值可能出現 20% 至 30% 的調整。對於較大市場中的較新的老式資產，可能會增加 20%，而對於二級和三級市場中的一些較舊的老式資產，可能會接近 30%。但我們認為，基於我們的基礎，我們的定位非常好。

We've seen hundreds of millions of loans pay off. We're seeing some assets trade, Arlington being an example, above our debt basis. And so overall, I think we are generally positive on our portfolio. It doesn't mean we don't have a lot of work to do every quarter in working through these positions. But as it stands today, we are not concerned that losses within the multifamily sector on a macro basis have carried over into the debt portion of the capital stack for FBRT.

我們已經看到數億筆貸款得到償還。我們看到一些資產交易（阿靈頓就是一個例子）高於我們的債務基礎。總的來說，我認為我們對我們的投資組合總體持樂觀態度。這並不意味著我們每個季度都不需要做很多工作來處理這些職位。但就目前情況而言，我們並不擔心多戶住宅部門的宏觀損失已轉入 FBRT 資本堆棧的債務部分。

Okay. And maybe just switching over to the debt side. You touched on CLO capacity as well as seeing some more attractive rates on the warehouse lines. Could you also just talk about your levers for more defensive liquidity, just given the potential for taking the keys back on some of these assets? And in that context, how do you think about how we should measure the amount of real estate owned that can come on to the balance sheet at once? Maybe with some further commentary on the broader Benefit Street platform and the capabilities there. Curious for your thoughts there.

好的。也許只是轉向債務方面。您談到了 CLO 容量，並看到了倉庫線上一些更具吸引力的價格。考慮到有可能收回其中一些資產的鑰匙，您能否談談您提高防禦性流動性的槓桿？在這種情況下，您如何看待我們應該如何衡量可以立即計入資產負債表的擁有的房地產數量？也許會對更廣泛的 Benefit Street 平台及其功能進行一些進一步的評論。很好奇你的想法。

So I'm going to let Jerry handle the first part of that question with levers and liquidity and leverage. But let me just address quickly the second half of the question with respect to REO. Watch list assets and REO, we have the same view, fix them fast and move them fast. And unless we see some sort of meaningful upside in holding an REO asset, as Jerry mentioned. We have an equity practice within the real estate group at Benefit Street. We're very comfortable owning commercial real estate assets, and we believe we can add value on commercial real estate assets.

因此，我將讓傑里通過槓桿、流動性和槓桿來處理該問題的第一部分。但讓我快速解決有關 REO 的問題的後半部分。觀察名單資產和REO，我們有相同的觀點，快速修復它們并快速移動它們。除非我們看到持有 REO 資產有某種有意義的好處，正如傑里提到的那樣。我們在 Benefit Street 的房地產集團內擁有股權業務。我們非常樂意擁有商業地產資產，並且我們相信我們可以為商業地產資產增值。

So if we take something REO, it's either a quick liquidation at a price that we think is acceptable to us. But if we believe that we can get better execution in the future, whether that's from market improvement or improvement that we can make at the asset level, we will certainly explore that. But we have very, very little interest in owning REO long term within the vehicle.

因此，如果我們採取某種REO，要么以我們認為可以接受的價格快速清算。但如果我們相信未來我們能夠獲得更好的執行力，無論是來自市場的改善還是我們可以在資產層面做出的改善，我們肯定會對此進行探索。但我們對在車內長期擁有 REO 的興趣非常非常小。

Yes. And then just in terms of our ability to finance things. I think we've spoken tons about our ability to reinvest into our CLOs. And we're going to have that capacity for some time to come across the 4 that still have reinvest. The next one burns off in mid-September, but then you've got December, February into July of next year. So there's a decent amount of relatively short-term capacity that we can take things off warehouse lines and free up space there. And we can use those warehouse lines to, in some cases, take back assets if we need to. We can hold a decent amount on levered too. I mean if you look at our leverage point relative to a lot of the peer set, I think we run at a pretty low leverage, which gives us a little more flexibility too, if we want add debt in other ways.

是的。然後就我們的融資能力而言。我認為我們已經多次談論過我們對 CLO 進行再投資的能力。我們將在一段時間內擁有這種能力來遇到仍然有再投資的 4 家公司。下一次燃燒會在九月中旬結束，但接下來就是十二月、二月到明年七月。因此，我們可以將大量相對短期的產能從倉庫中取出並釋放空間。在某些情況下，如果需要，我們可以使用這些倉庫線來收回資產。我們也可以持有相當數量的槓桿。我的意思是，如果你看看我們相對於許多同行的槓桿點，我認為我們的槓桿率相當低，如果我們想以其他方式增加債務，這也給了我們更多的靈活性。

There's other debt options that we haven't tapped in terms of unsecured or other similar options. We haven't chosen to go down that path, because we don't need it, and we'd rather run with less leverage right now. But we certainly have that ability to flex it if we ever really want to in the future. But right now, I think we're pretty comfortable with our position. We have tons of capacity across our different options, and we'll flex those as needed as we need to work through things. But I think Mike kind of hit the most important part which is really trying to cycle through whatever may come up.

在無擔保或其他類似選擇方面，我們還沒有利用其他債務選擇。我們沒有選擇走這條路，因為我們不需要它，而且我們現在寧願以更少的槓桿運行。但如果我們將來真的想要的話，我們當然有能力改變它。但現在，我認為我們對自己的立場感到非常滿意。我們在不同的選項上擁有大量的能力，並且我們將根據需要解決問題時靈活使用這些選項。但我認為邁克擊中了最重要的部分，即真正嘗試循環處理可能出現的任何情況。

I think we're very proactive on monitoring our portfolio and trying to work through things in advance of them becoming issues that end up on the balance sheet directly as REO or unlevered loan positions. And so I think that's probably the most productive way to sort of stem off the secondary part of your question, which is how would you deal with the liability side. So I think proactive asset management involvement is probably the key part of that.

我認為我們非常積極主動地監控我們的投資組合，並努力在問題成為最終作為 REO 或無槓桿貸款頭寸直接出現在資產負債表上的問題之前解決問題。因此，我認為這可能是解決您問題的次要部分（即您將如何處理責任方面）的最有效方法。所以我認為積極的資產管理參與可能是其中的關鍵部分。

The next question comes from Matthew Erdner with JonesTrading.

下一個問題來自 JonesTrading 的 Matthew Erdner。

Mike, you mentioned in the earnings release about AI. How much are you looking to invest here both dollars and attention? And I guess what kind of business lines are you going to use, whether it be underwriting portfolio monitoring. Could you just expand on that a little bit, please?

邁克，你在財報中提到了人工智能。您希望在這裡投入多少資金和注意力？我猜你會使用什麼樣的業務線，是否是承保投資組合監控。您能稍微擴展一下嗎？

Sure. I don't think we have a dollar amount circled at this point. Our co-CEO, David Manlowe of overall BSP has made it a very front burner big-picture initiative for the firm. So it's across the entire platform where we're turning attention to AI, how it can add alpha to every aspect of our business. We are already utilizing it in some capacity within our origination platform. And we're looking to see how it can add value, whether it's a second or third set of eyes. We're not sure exactly what role it plays, but how does it -- how can it help us through our legal processing. How can it help us through our underwriting process? How can it help us through asset management?

當然。我認為目前我們還沒有圈出美元金額。我們 BSP 的聯席首席執行官 David Manlowe 已將其視為公司的一項非常重要的重大舉措。因此，在整個平台上，我們正在將注意力轉向人工智能，以及它如何為我們業務的各個方面增加阿爾法。我們已經在我們的創始平台中以某種方式利用它。我們正在研究它如何增加價值，無論是第二雙眼睛還是第三雙眼睛。我們不確定它到底扮演什麼角色，但它是如何發揮作用的——它如何幫助我們完成法律程序。它如何幫助我們完成承保流程？它如何幫助我們進行資產管理？

I think we're clearly in the very, very early days of AI, but we want to be on the forefront of technology and using it for the best of our ability to just be a leader in the space. So any way we can find an advantage, we want to do that, and we're exploring it kind of across the board.

我認為我們顯然正處於人工智能的非常非常早期的階段，但我們希望走在技術的最前沿，並儘我們最大的能力利用它，成為該領域的領導者。因此，我們希望以任何方式找到優勢，並且正在全面探索。

Awesome. That's helpful. And then going to REO and other expenses, would that be where the REO expenses were for the quarter?

驚人的。這很有幫助。然後是 REO 和其他費用，這就是本季度 REO 費用嗎？

Yes. That's generally where they're going to flow through.

是的。這通常是他們要流經的地方。

Okay. And then you know the percentage of what that was for the quarter for REO?

好的。然後您知道 REO 本季度的百分比嗎？

I don't have that number in front of me right now. It's relatively small if you think about what we hold. The Walgreens assets are triple net. So there's very limited expense in terms of what's occurring there. What you're going to pick up is some residual from the New Rochelle asset, which moved off in the second quarter. And then the balance is going to be from the St. Louis office, which is a pretty small position. So once the multi assets gone, it's going to be a very small contribution to expense in terms of what REO is generating on the balance sheet, because the $100 million of that number is triple net. So it has virtually no bearing on expense.

我現在面前沒有這個號碼。如果你考慮一下我們所持有的東西，它相對較小。沃爾格林的資產為三重淨資產。因此，就那裡發生的事情而言，費用非常有限。您將獲得新羅謝爾資產的一些剩餘資產，該資產已於第二季度移走。然後餘額將來自聖路易斯辦事處，這是一個相當小的職位。因此，一旦多種資產消失，就 REO 在資產負債表上產生的支出而言，這對支出的貢獻將非常小，因為該數字中的 1 億美元是三重淨值。所以它對費用幾乎沒有影響。

The next question comes from Steve Delaney with JMP Securities.

下一個問題來自 JMP 證券公司的 Steve Delaney。

Congratulations on resolving Williamsburg and the net lease portfolio. Just to be clear, in case we get this question, with respect to the Williamsburg resolution, did you have to provide any financing to the new owner of the property or was that all -- they got their own financing?

祝賀解決威廉斯堡和淨租賃組合問題。需要明確的是，如果我們得到這個問題，關於威廉斯堡決議，您是否必須向該財產的新所有者提供任何融資，或者這就是他們自己獲得融資的全部？

Thanks, Steve. It's Mike. We had a lender in the original -- a subordinate lender in the original loan that we had mentioned to the borrowers. That lender provided an acquisition loan for the new buyer. And then we provided note-on-note financing to that lender. So we have an incredibly low leverage exposure to the hotel through kind of a leveraging of the mortgage asset.

謝謝，史蒂夫。是邁克。我們在原始貸款中有一個貸款人——我們向借款人提到過的原始貸款中的次級貸款人。該貸款人為新買家提供了收購貸款。然後我們向該貸方提供票據融資。因此，通過抵押資產的槓桿作用，我們對酒店的槓桿敞口極低。

It sounds like good teamwork with your original mezz lender just to get the first eat off your books. So good work out there, no questions. And as you reported, you had a nice gain and you -- it sounds like you received all your accrued interest and fees as well.

這聽起來像是與你原來的夾層貸款人的良好團隊合作，只是為了讓你的賬本上的第一筆錢。那裡的工作做得很好，沒有問題。正如您所報告的，您獲得了不錯的收益，而且聽起來您也收到了所有應計利息和費用。

So good work out on that. Mike, I'm still sticking with you. Talk a little bit about the conduit outlook in the second half of this year, just sort of the overall market. How do you see liquidity and new issuance? And you guys have just kind of quietly been putting up a couple of million dollars here and there in fees. So what's your expectation over the next few quarters for FBRT's activity level? And for modeling purpose as analysts, should we expect some fee income gains continuing to come in the near term?

好好努力吧。邁克，我仍然和你在一起。談談今年下半年的管道前景，只是整體市場。您如何看待流動性和新發行？你們只是悄悄地到處投入了幾百萬美元的費用。那麼您對 ​​FBRT 未來幾個季度的活動水平有何預期？作為分析師，出於建模目的，我們是否應該期望短期內繼續出現一些費用收入增長？

Yes. It's been a really difficult business line to model on a go-forward basis. It's really been schizophrenic. As I've been describing to a lot of people, I feel like this rate increases, we're finally kind of through the 5 stages of death, and we're finally at acceptance. Borrowers are accepting the fact that they just can't borrow at 3% and 4% anymore. And rates are where they are. So I can't directly answer the question in what do I expect for the second half? I will say we find it to be an incredibly important part of our business. When it's working well, it's a very high ROE business.

是的。在未來的基礎上建立模型確實是一個非常困難的業務線。真的是精神分裂了。正如我向很多人描述的那樣，我覺得這個速度在增加，我們終於經歷了死亡的 5 個階段，我們終於接受了。借款人正在接受這樣一個事實：他們不能再以 3% 和 4% 的利率借錢了。利率就在那裡。所以我無法直接回答我對下半年有何期望的問題？我想說的是，我們發現它是我們業務中極其重要的一部分。當運作良好時，這是一項淨資產收益率非常高的業務。

I will say we are investing in the space. We're actually actively hiring new origination within our conduit group. So we're really hoping that volume picks up. It'd be hard for it to get much worse than it's been. So we're hoping that it's moving in the right direction, but we're really investing around the product going forward in hopes that we do see more volume going forward.

我想說我們正在投資這個領域。實際上，我們正在管道團隊內積極招聘新員工。所以我們真的希望銷量有所增加。情況很難變得比以前更糟。因此，我們希望它朝著正確的方向發展，但我們確實在圍繞產品進行投資，希望我們確實能看到更多的銷量。

Yes. I think that's helpful. And I think what I would do in a situation like that is probably plug in something over the next year but not put too much on the table for the next quarter, because you never know whether the next quarter is going to come up with anything. But that's helpful, and I appreciate the comments this morning.

是的。我認為這很有幫助。我認為在這種情況下我會做的可能是在明年插入一些東西，但不會在下個季度放太多東西，因為你永遠不知道下個季度是否會提出任何東西。但這很有幫助，我很欣賞今天早上的評論。

The next question comes from Stephen Laws with Raymond James.

下一個問題來自斯蒂芬·勞斯和雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

I want to start -- solid quarters, so congrats on that. But I want to start with the originations. You guys are one of the few companies doing new originations. Can you talk about what the current lending market looks like? Who are your main competitors since a lot of other commercial mortgage REITs are not active on the new origination side? And kind of what's the difference in spread you're seeing across various property types as you do the due diligence on deals in the pipeline?

我想開始——堅實的季度，所以恭喜你。但我想從起源開始。你們是為數不多的進行新創意的公司之一。您能談談目前的借貸市場是什麼樣的嗎？由於許多其他商業抵押房地產投資信託基金在新發起方面並不活躍，因此誰是您的主要競爭對手？當您對正在進行的交易進行盡職調查時，您看到的各種房產類型的價差有何差異？

Steve, it's Mike. Thanks for the question. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, I mean, I think banks have largely exited the direct origination business. I also think a lot of the mortgage REIT and debt fund space is concerned with legacy issues and really aren't looking to add new risk at the time. Keep in mind, we probably originate as wide a swath of loans as anyone out there from every single asset class, but we're also doing bridge financing, construction financing and permanent financing. So the competitive set is different in virtually everything we do, right? So in the construction loan space, we're seeing more debt funds play there in the bridge lending space.

史蒂夫，是邁克。謝謝你的提問。正如我在準備好的發言中提到的，我的意思是，我認為銀行基本上已經退出了直接發起業務。我還認為，許多抵押房地產投資信託基金和債務基金空間都與遺留問題有關，並且當時確實不打算增加新的風險。請記住，我們可能會像任何人一樣從每種資產類別中發放大量貸款，但我們也進行過橋融資、建設融資和永久融資。因此，我們所做的幾乎所有事情的競爭環境都不同，對吧？因此，在建築貸款領域，我們看到更多的債務基金在過橋貸款領域發揮作用。

We are seeing, you have new vintage debt funds, maybe XYZ company Fund 2, 3 and 4 and do anything, but they've got Fund 5, and they're trying to actively lend out of Fund 5. So it's really case by case. What I can say fairly definitively is over the past few months, spreads have continued to tighten. And as I mentioned last quarter, I don't necessarily think that's a reflection of credit quality as much as it is a scarcity of product. We all know what a good credit looks like. And when the guys with dry powder see it, we're seemingly all competing for that strong credit quality loans. So I would say today, multifamily generically is probably $325 million to $350 million over as transactions get over $20 million, probably gravitating closer to that $325 million mark.

我們看到，你有新的老式債務基金，也許 XYZ 公司的基金 2、3 和 4 可以做任何事情，但他們有基金 5，他們正試圖從基金 5 中積極放貸。案件。我可以相當肯定地說，在過去的幾個月裡，利差持續收緊。正如我上個季度提到的，我認為這不一定反映了信用質量，而是反映了產品的稀缺性。我們都知道良好的信用是什麼樣的。當那些有乾粉的人看到它時，我們似乎都在爭奪高信用質量的貸款。所以我今天想說，隨著交易額超過 2000 萬美元，多戶住宅的價格一般可能會超過 3.25 億至 3.5 億美元，可能會接近 3.25 億美元的大關。

Hospitality -- and I would say industrial is largely on top of the spreads. Hospitality, I would say, is probably $450 million to $500 million for kind of the highest leverage hospitality loan that we'll consider today. retail, probably the same spot. We're not seeing much on the retail side today, to be honest. And then Office, I mean that's just as opaque as it's ever been. I don't think anyone could tell you what the straight face would it cost to borrow money today on an Office portfolio or an office loan.

酒店業——我想說，工業業在很大程度上是在價差之上的。我想說，我們今天考慮的最高槓桿酒店貸款可能需要 4.5 億至 5 億美元的酒店貸款。零售，可能是同一個地方。老實說，我們今天在零售方面並沒有看到太多。然後是 Office，我的意思是它和以前一樣不透明。我認為沒有人能直接告訴你今天通過辦公室投資組合或辦公室貸款借錢會花費多少錢。

I appreciate the color on that and certainly understand the last point. And as a follow-up, I'd love to shift over to the security side. You guys added some in 2Q. I think that was often a new issue CLO. Can you talk about your appetite for more securities? Will those be kind of new issue CLOs or secondary market purchases? What type of deals or collateral are you looking for? And as you think about bigger picture in the CLO markets, Mike, I think everything has been static deals so far, as a AAA buyer would you be receptive to deals with reinvestment period starting to reemerge? Or how do you think about the reopening and improving liquidity on the CLO market?

我很欣賞它的顏色，並且當然理解最後一點。作為後續行動，我很樂意轉向安全方面。你們在第二季度添加了一些。我認為這通常是 CLO 的一個新問題。您能談談您對更多證券的興趣嗎？這些是新發行的 CLO 還是二級市場購買？您正在尋找什麼類型的交易或抵押品？當你考慮 CLO 市場的更大前景時，邁克，我認為到目前為止一切都是靜態交易，作為 AAA 買家，你會接受再投資期開始重新出現的交易嗎？或者您如何看待 CLO 市場的重新開放和流動性改善？

I mean the rally that we've seen, I think, throughout the stack has been pretty impressive in just a matter of weeks. Tightening within the AAA is probably 50 basis points at this point. Look, I think the market, unlike 2021 is finally getting to a point where it's tiering issuers. And I think we would be open to reinvest with issuers that we think highly of. On the flip side, we hope the market thinks highly of us. And if we issue, they'll be buying our bonds on a reinvest basis as well. We, as a firm, don't really believe static CRE CLOs are the greatest structure for us as an issuer. We love buying the bonds, but we just don't like issuing that. We really like the flexibility and the duration of managed deals.

我的意思是，我認為，我們在短短幾週內看到的整個堆棧的反彈令人印象深刻。目前 AAA 內部的緊縮幅度可能為 50 個基點。看，我認為與 2021 年不同，市場終於達到了對發行人進行分級的階段。我認為我們願意與我們高度評價的發行人進行再投資。另一方面，我們希望市場對我們給予高度評價。如果我們發行，他們也會在再投資的基礎上購買我們的債券。作為一家公司，我們並不真正相信靜態 CRE CLO 對於我們作為發行人來說是最好的結構。我們喜歡購買債券，但我們只是不喜歡發行債券。我們非常喜歡託管交易的靈活性和持續時間。

In terms of overall exposure, I would say we're probably getting closer. We like the relative value. We like the returns we're generating today. Obviously, the flip side of that is these are mark-to-market assets. And if you're using leverage, that leverage can go away relatively quickly. So I don't see us getting significantly larger on our bond book today. If anything, we might sell into this strength a little bit. When all said and done, I would love to just have a portfolio of great mortgage loan credits. And we'll probably, again, look to sell into the strength if we think we can originate loans to offset kind of that NIM that would be coming off through bond sales.

就整體曝光度而言，我想說我們可能正在接近。我們喜歡相對價值。我們喜歡今天產生的回報。顯然，另一方面是這些資產是按市值計價的。如果您使用槓桿，那麼該槓桿可能會相對較快地消失。因此，我認為我們今天的債券規模不會大幅增加。如果有的話，我們可能會稍微賣出這種優勢。總而言之，我很想擁有一個優質抵押貸款信貸的投資組合。如果我們認為我們可以發放貸款來抵消通過債券銷售產生的淨息差，我們可能會再次尋求趁勢賣出。

Steven, it's Rich. Just to tag on there. I assume underlying your question is the same head scratch we've been doing is that most of our commercial mortgage REIT public comps, at least really aren't doing any -- much of any origination at all. And the head scratching is because, as Mike said, I mean, the vintage of deals that we're seeing now, I mean, they're just really high quality, and it's also great to have you pick up the litter as well without a lot of competition. Why is that? I don't know. I mean from our perspective, we have a lot of cash, well in excess of anything we think we need to keep around to fix any unforeseen credit problems. And in our case, we have -- you heard us talk about Walgreens.

史蒂文，我是里奇。只是為了在那裡標記。我認為你的問題的根本原因是我們一直在做的同樣令人頭疼的事情是，我們的大多數商業抵押房地產投資信託公共公司，至少實際上沒有做任何事情——大部分根本沒有做任何事情。令人頭疼的是，正如邁克所說，我的意思是，我們現在看到的交易的年份，我的意思是，它們的質量非常高，而且讓你在沒有垃圾的情況下撿起垃圾也很棒。很多競爭。這是為什麼？我不知道。我的意思是，從我們的角度來看，我們擁有大量現金，遠遠超出了我們認為需要保留的現金來解決任何不可預見的信貸問題。就我們而言，您聽到我們談論沃爾格林。

Those are pretty attractive investment-grade, triple-net assets appealing [10 31] world, et cetera. That's the $100 million more potentially of liquidity that may come our way sometime soon. As our multi portfolio continues to pay down, so I mean, if you don't spend money, what's the alternative? And does it get cheaper later? Maybe, I don't know. But certainly, it's hard to see sort of not being a relatively active participant in the market today. And as Mike described, they're just the conventional competition banks included, just aren't out there. I assume that's going to change. And I assume other people are maybe pulling in their wings, their horns, whatever the expression is because maybe they're just concerned about future credit problems.

這些都是相當有吸引力的投資級、三重淨資產，對世界有吸引力[10 31]等等。這意味著我們可能很快就會獲得額外 1 億美元的潛在流動性。隨著我們的多元投資組合的回報持續下降，所以我的意思是，如果你不花錢，還有什麼選擇呢？而且以後會便宜嗎？也許吧，我不知道。但當然，很難看出今天的市場不是一個相對活躍的參與者。正如邁克所描述的，它們只是傳統的競爭銀行，只是不存在。我認為這種情況將會改變。我認為其他人可能會收縮他們的翅膀，他們的角，無論表達是什麼，因為也許他們只是擔心未來的信用問題。

The truth of our world is everybody -- we provided this quarter a debt maturity schedule in the appendix of our earnings supplement. But the reality is for us and every other commercial mortgage REIT, we generally make 3-year loans, rates started going up last year. So guess what? In this year, next year and the following year, you're going to see, hopefully, the entire books mature, which means whether it's -- if you have a high degree of Office exposure or whatnot, it's just something you're going to have to deal with. So we assume that most commercial mortgage REITs are really primarily focused on that and secondarily focused on everything else. Our -- just the way we look at the world, we have a lot of liquidity. The market feels pretty cheap.

我們世界的真相是每個人——我們在本季度的收益補充附錄中提供了債務到期時間表。但現實情況是，對於我們和其他所有商業抵押房地產投資信託基金來說，我們通常提供三年期貸款，利率從去年開始上升。那麼你猜怎麼著？今年、明年和後年，你會希望看到整本書都成熟，這意味著無論是——如果你有很高程度的 Office 接觸或其他什麼，這只是你要去的東西必須處理。因此，我們假設大多數商業抵押房地產投資信託基金實際上主要關注這一點，其次關注其他一切。正如我們看待世界的方式一樣，我們擁有大量的流動性。市場感覺很便宜。

Sure we can buy securities, but we can do our core business of making loans, that feels like a pretty good bet right now, especially since companies like ours are benefiting from a tailwind of higher rates, and we're already covering our dividend. So what you're investing is indeed truly opportunistic.

當然，我們可以購買證券，但我們可以做我們的核心業務——發放貸款，這現在感覺是一個相當不錯的賭注，特別是因為像我們這樣的公司正受益於更高利率的推動，而且我們已經支付了股息。所以你的投資確實是真正的機會主義。

(Operator Instructions) The next question comes from Matthew Howlett with B. Riley.

（操作員說明）下一個問題來自 Matthew Howlett 和 B. Riley。

Rich, just to follow on, I mean, in the past, you've sort of given out a target loan portfolio, and I think you sort of said in your prepared remarks that you're going to be opportunistic. I mean is there a target, can you give us that by the end of the year? Or is it just sort of too early to tell? And you have these -- all these options. You can buy back stock, you can buy securities, you can do other things with your excess capital. Just -- is there a target on the core loan portfolio by the end of the year or next year?

Rich，接下來，我的意思是，在過去，您已經給出了目標貸款組合，我認為您在準備好的發言中表示您將採取機會主義態度。我的意思是有一個目標嗎？你能在年底前給我們這個目標嗎？或者現在說還為時過早？你有這些——所有這些選擇。你可以回購股票，你可以購買證券，你可以用你的多餘資金做其他事情。只是——到年底或明年核心貸款組合是否有目標？

Let me start -- let me give you an initial answer and then maybe Jerry or Mike might want to elaborate. First of all, I think all of the above always applies to us. We're going to use our capital to where we think we can create the most shareholder value. For a while, that was buying back our stock. We were extremely active in the market buying our shares when it was really cheap. We even bought back some of our bonds. We bought those at a nice discount. So all accretive, and I think great returns. We've also been using our cash to make loans. And as I said, as Mike has talked about, the vintage of loans that we've seen more recently has been some of the best we've seen maybe in forever.

讓我開始——讓我給你一個初步的答案，然後傑里或邁克可能想詳細說明。首先，我認為上述所有內容始終適用於我們。我們將把我們的資本用在我們認為可以創造最大股東價值的地方。有一段時間，這就是回購我們的股票。當股票價格非常便宜時，我們在市場上非常活躍地購買股票。我們甚至回購了一些債券。我們以很大的折扣買了那些。所以一切都是增值的，我認為回報很大。我們還一直用現金來發放貸款。正如我所說，正如邁克所說，我們最近看到的貸款期限可能是我們有史以來見過的最好的貸款期限之一。

So we're going to be actively deploying our cash. Jerry can speak maybe more specifically how we're thinking about leverage and whatnot, but we have $225 million of cash. We have well over $1 billion of liquidity. And as I mentioned, we have some cash sources heading our way. And we have loans repaying if everything goes the way it's supposed to. It's a bit of a hamster wheel. We're just on a treadmill. So I think there's some minimum amount just to maintain the portfolio size. And if we can grow it we're just going to do it opportunistically. As I said, we're covering the dividend already. But Jerry or Mike, if there's any specific guidance you want to share, please do.

因此，我們將積極部署我們的現金。傑里也許可以更具體地說明我們如何考慮槓桿等問題，但我們有 2.25 億美元的現金。我們擁有超過 10 億美元的流動資金。正如我所提到的，我們有一些現金來源。如果一切按預期進行，我們就可以償還貸款。這有點像倉鼠輪。我們只是在跑步機上。所以我認為有一些最低金額只是為了維持投資組合規模。如果我們能夠增長它，我們就會抓住機會去做。正如我所說，我們已經支付了股息。但是傑里或邁克，如果您想分享任何具體指導，請分享。

Yes. Maybe I'll start, Mike, and let you chime in. But I think the target portfolio size concept for me is more of a target ROE concept overall, not necessarily a given number on AUM of loans outstanding, because the yield that we're generating today is so much higher because of base rates having moved up so substantially. So we sit here today with a $5 billion loan portfolio that's covering our dividend fairly comfortably. Right now, it just gives us flexibility. And that flexibility can go -- like Mike said, can go into securities in the short term, it can go into loans. I think we even have a little room to let it go down slightly if we want and still cover the dividend.

是的。也許我會開始，邁克，讓你插話。但我認為對我來說，目標投資組合規模概念更多的是總體目標股本回報率概念，不一定是未償還貸款資產管理規模的給定數字，因為我們的收益率由於基本費率大幅上升，今天的可再生能源發電量要高得多。因此，我們今天坐在這裡，擁有 50 億美元的貸款組合，相當輕鬆地支付了我們的股息。現在，它只是給了我們靈活性。正如邁克所說，這種靈活性可以在短期內進入證券領域，也可以進入貸款領域。我認為，如果我們願意的話，我們甚至還有一點空間可以讓它稍微下降，並且仍然支付股息。

So for us, it's really just a great opportunity to be opportunistic, I think, with how we originate and really take credits that we like. And if we see really good opportunities, it's a chance for us to grow that ROE overall. So I think the downside is making sure we maintain the yields that we set for investors in the form of our dividend. And then beyond that, when we do see those things in bonds or loans, we add them on, and hopefully, we can grow our earnings overall as we go forward. So that's kind of high level how I think about it.

所以對我們來說，我認為這確實是一個機會主義的好機會，我們如何起源並真正獲得我們喜歡的學分。如果我們看到真正好的機會，這對我們來說就是整體提高股本回報率的機會。因此，我認為不利的一面是確保我們維持以股息形式為投資者設定的收益率。除此之外，當我們確實在債券或貸款中看到這些東西時，我們會將它們添加進去，希望隨著我們的前進，我們能夠整體增加我們的收益。這就是我的想法。

Yes. And I don't want to add too much. I think those guys answered it all appropriately. I will say, I think the company is phenomenally positioned right now. Our asset allocation, I think, is the darling of the sector. We have ample cash. Everybody in the market knows that we are active. We're getting looks that are outstanding. And I think there's a lot of dislocation that's coming over the course of the next 12 to 18 months. Sarah alluded to it in her question, but all of these loans are maturing in the next 18 months. And I think we're going to be one of the groups with a lot of dry powder to pick up the pieces, at what I will say are probably the highest coupons we've seen in 3 decades. So to have that backdrop with our balance sheet and the condition it's in, the cash position and the condition it's in, this is a very, very exciting time, I think, for the group at FBR.

是的。而且我不想添加太多。我認為那些人的回答都很恰當。我想說的是，我認為該公司目前的定位非常出色。我認為我們的資產配置是該行業的寵兒。我們有充足的現金。市場上的每個人都知道我們很活躍。我們得到了出色的外觀。我認為未來 12 到 18 個月內將會出現很多混亂。 Sarah 在她的問題中提到了這一點，但所有這些貸款都將在未來 18 個月內到期。我認為我們將成為擁有大量乾粉來收拾殘局的團體之一，我會說這可能是我們 3 年來見過的最高優惠券。因此，在我們的資產負債表及其狀況、現金狀況及其狀況的背景下，我認為對於 FBR 團隊來說，這是一個非常非常激動人心的時刻。

Yes, I'll certainly commend you on buying back stock too, the few REITs doing it here now in this environment. I appreciate those comments. And just -- I know you said on the multifamily is going to be the predominant asset class. You did a hotel loan. I'd love to hear what your philosophy is on that asset class? Is it a certain geography you're targeting, a certain type of hotel? Just curious, the spreads must be terrific on it.

是的，我當然會讚揚你也回購股票，在這種環境下，很少有房地產投資信託基金這樣做。我很欣賞這些評論。我知道您說過多戶住宅將成為主要的資產類別。你辦理了酒店貸款。我很想听聽您對該資產類別的看法是什麼？您的目標是特定地理位置、特定類型的酒店嗎？只是好奇，其點差一定很棒。

Yes. I would say overall, hospitality is performing exceptionally well, certainly within the leisure aspect of that space. I think we've seen across the board, a lot of leisure-oriented hotels surpassing their performance of 2019, which was all-time highs. And I think as you look across kind of all travel segments, whether it's TSA checkpoints, whether it's airlines that are recording record revenue, everybody on this call has probably stayed in a hotel in the U.S. in the past 6 to 12 months. The rates are mind blowing. So the hotels really have pricing power right now and are doing exceptionally well, again, specific to the leisure-oriented space. I think the business traveler and certainly the convention center hotel is an area that we will continue to avoid.

是的。我想說，總體而言，酒店業的表現非常出色，尤其是在該空間的休閒方面。我認為我們已經全面看到，許多休閒酒店的業績超過了 2019 年的業績，創下了歷史新高。我認為，當你縱觀所有旅遊領域時，無論是 TSA 檢查站，還是創紀錄收入的航空公司，參加這次電話會議的每個人都可能在過去 6 到 12 個月裡住過美國的酒店。費率令人興奮。因此，酒店現在確實擁有定價權，並且在休閒空間方面表現得非常好。我認為商務旅客，當然還有會議中心酒店，是我們將繼續避開的區域。

It's recovering, it's moving the right direction post COVID, but it is not anywhere close to recovering to full COVID levels. And I'm not sure that we will ever see that take place. If you were the generic salesmen that went to see your client 4 times a year, you're probably not seeing them 4 times a year anymore. You're probably seeing them once or twice and the other once or twice are going to be, by some means of virtual conference. So I just think that COVID, Zoom, Teams, all of these video conferencing innovations that we've had have probably forever changed the business traveler and the office industry overall.

它正在恢復，正在朝著新冠疫情后的正確方向發展，但距離完全恢復到新冠疫情水平還差得很遠。我不確定我們是否會看到這種情況發生。如果您是每年拜訪客戶 4 次的普通推銷員，那麼您可能不會再每年見到他們 4 次了。您可能會通過某種虛擬會議的方式見到他們一兩次，另外一次或兩次也會見到他們。因此，我認為 COVID、Zoom、Teams 以及我們所擁有的所有這些視頻會議創新可能永遠改變了商務旅行者和整個辦公行業。

So our focus has really been on leisure-oriented and nonbusiness traveler hotels, and they've done really, really well.

因此，我們的重點實際上是休閒型和非商務旅行者酒店，它們做得非常非常好。

Makes a lot of sense. And I'll sneak one more question in, if you don't mind. The modifications you did in the quarter, you said it clearly improved the quality. So assuming there's an equity contribution and just go over again what are the terms for gaining modification?

很有道理。如果你不介意的話，我會再偷偷問一個問題。您在本季度所做的修改，您說它明顯提高了質量。那麼，假設有股權出資，然後再回顧一下，獲得修改的條件是什麼？

Yes, no problem. I think we've long held going back to the beginning days of COVID that we're going to try to be an accommodative lender through what we all acknowledge is difficult times, but that starts with a conversation reminding borrowers that we are their lender and they're not -- we're not their partner, right? When equity investors, 2x and 3x their equity in the good times, I've yet to get the call from the borrower saying, "Hey, we want to pay you a little extra, because we did so well." The same thing works on the way down. We just have to say it gently. But our expectation is, if you're looking for accommodations from us, that usually involves showing up the discussion with your checkbook.

是沒有問題。我認為，早在新冠疫情爆發之初，我們就一直堅持，我們將努力成為一個寬鬆的貸款人，度過我們都承認的困難時期，但首先要進行一次對話，提醒借款人我們是他們的貸款人，他們不是——我們不是他們的合作夥伴，對吧？當股權投資者在景氣時期將其股本翻倍至三倍時，我還沒有接到借款人的電話，說：“嘿，我們想多付一點錢給你，因為我們做得很好。”同樣的事情也適用於下降的過程。我們只需要輕輕地說出來。但我們的期望是，如果您正在向我們尋求住宿，通常需要在您的支票簿上顯示討論內容。

We want to be problem solvers. We want to fix assets, but it's not going to be a one-way street where it just fixes things for the borrower, we want to improve our credit position and our credit quality. So that's the mindset that we have throughout the organization as we walk into a modification is, be reasonable, be respectful, understand the other side's situation. But at the end of the day, our duty is our -- to our shareholders, and we need to make our credits incrementally better than they were before that conversation started. And that can mean a myriad of things from paydowns to getting recourse to getting better covenants like there's many different tools in that toolbox.

我們想成為問題解決者。我們想要修復資產，但這不會是一條單行道，只為藉款人修復問題，我們希望改善我們的信用狀況和信用質量。因此，當我們進行修改時，我們整個組織的心態就是：合理、尊重、理解對方的情況。但歸根結底，我們的責任是我們的——對我們的股東，我們需要使我們的信用逐漸好於對話開始之前。這可能意味著很多事情，從付款到獲得更好的契約，就像工具箱中有許多不同的工具一樣。

As we have no further questions, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Lindsey Crabbe for any closing remarks.

由於我們沒有其他問題，我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給林賽·克拉布（Lindsey Crabbe）發表閉幕詞。

Thank you for joining our call today. Please reach out if you have any further questions. Thanks again.

感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。如果您還有任何疑問，請聯繫我們。再次感謝。

This concludes our presentation. Thank you for joining. You may all now disconnect.

我們的演講到此結束。感謝您的加入。你們現在可以斷開連接了。