Starwood (STWD) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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Date

Friday, May 8, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET

Call participants

• Chief Financial Officer — Rina Paniry
• President — Jeffrey F. DiModica
• Chairman & Chief Executive Officer — Barry Stuart Sternlicht
• Director of Investor Relations — Zachary H. Tanenbaum

Takeaways

• Distributable earnings -- $147 million, or $0.39 per share; higher cash balances, nonperforming asset resolutions, and net lease ramp-up accounted for an $0.08 per share headwind to distributable earnings.
• Capital deployment -- $2.5 billion deployed across segments, including $1.5 billion in commercial lending, $597 million in infrastructure lending, and $128 million in net lease; total undepreciated assets reached a record $31.7 billion.
• Commercial lending funded portfolio -- Funded loan portfolio rose to $16.7 billion after $894 million in new funding, $278 million in commitments, and $835 million in repayments; excludes an additional $1 billion in new originations post-quarter.
• Weighted average loan portfolio risk rating -- Improved to 2.9 from 3.0 sequentially, reflecting identified upgrades and downgrades.
• Nonaccrual and REO balances -- Over $300 million in legacy assets resolved to date, combining REO sales and upgrades, with management targeting $900 million in additional resolutions by year-end and $500 million more in 2027.
• Infrastructure lending portfolio -- Portfolio increased to a record $3.2 billion following $597 million of new commitments and $320 million in repayments; 70% of commitments were self-originated.
• Infrastructure CLO financing -- Seventh infrastructure CLO completed, $600 million at SOFR plus 1.68% (a record low spread for the platform); CLOs now finance 75% of infrastructure debt.
• Property segment and Woodstar update -- Recognized $29 million in distributable earnings and confirmed recoupment of 100% original Woodstar equity plus $540 million incremental returns; $416 million of Woodstar debt maturing in Q4 expected to result in another cash-out refinancing.
• Net lease platform -- Net lease portfolio reached $2.5 billion, with a weighted average remaining lease term of 17.4 years and no defaults; $0.03 per share of distributable earnings dilution from this segment recognized this quarter.
• Net lease and ABS transaction -- Completed $466 million ABS financing at a weighted average fixed rate of 5.06%, replacing $324 million at 0.65% and reducing the master trust cost to 5.29%; recognized a $0.01 nonrecurring DE loss from unwind of interest rate hedges.
• Investing and servicing segment -- Reported $57 million in distributable earnings, with LNR servicing fees rising to $52 million; active servicing portfolio totaled $9.9 billion, while named portfolio reached $95 billion.
• Liquidity and capitalization -- Current liquidity stands at $1 billion, with $9.4 billion available on bank lines and conservative leverage at 2.59x debt to undepreciated equity.
• Share repurchase activity -- $400 million authorization, with $20 million deployed in March to repurchase 1.1 million shares at a weighted average price of $17.67 per share.
• Dividend coverage timeline -- Management expects recurring distributable earnings to cover the $0.48 dividend late next year as nonaccruals are resolved and the net lease segment becomes accretive.

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Risks

• Net lease platform remained dilutive, causing $0.03 per share headwind to earnings, with management stating, "We made a decision to take on negative DE for up to six quarters. I think when we did it, we told people it would become accretive in ’27. And so it is not often that a company like us takes six quarters of negative DE at a time where we are not earning the dividend. But we did that because we wanted to own this platform."
• Higher-than-normal cash balances resulted in ongoing distributable earnings pressure, with $1 billion of cash contributing to cash drag and delayed deployment benefits.
• Nonaccrual loans and REO positions continued to act as an overhang, with management emphasizing, "It takes time to actually get them back to stabilization, and then you sell them," delaying accretive impact.
• Ongoing noise and dilution from underperforming segments and legacy assets leading to less predictable quarterly results, prompting CEO Sternlicht to say, "The data is not bad. It is just not very clean."

Summary

Starwood Property Trust (NYSE:STWD) reported record undepreciated assets and continued to shift its portfolio towards property and infrastructure lending, leveraging strong origination volumes and self-originated transactions. Management detailed the resolution of substantial nonaccrual exposures and ongoing REO asset sales, setting explicit targets for further reduction through 2027. Risk-weighted asset quality improved, supporting long-term earnings power and limiting office sector exposure to 7.6% of assets. Shareholder returns were highlighted by an active $400 million repurchase program, while embedded gains in multifamily and progress in refinancing bolster future distributable earnings. Strategic refinancing in infrastructure and net lease segments reduced funding costs and increased advance rates, aiming to convert current dilution into accretive returns by 2027. The company maintained ample liquidity and leverage discipline while pursuing opportunities to accelerate dividend coverage through asset redeployment and further portfolio optimization.

• Management said achieving distributable earnings that "would be in excess of the dividend at some point, probably late next year," pending net lease accretion and nonaccrual resolution.
• President DiModica cited, "over half of our CRE lending commitments have been originated since 2024 at a lower basis and with better loan coverage metrics."
• CEO Sternlicht stressed sustained confidence in dividend payments, referencing "75%—something like that—of our asset base" currently contributing earnings, with full asset base contribution expected after resolutions complete.
• Infrastructure CLO financing improvements and nonrecourse funding now drive 75% of segment debt, fortifying interest expense management.
• LNR’s countercyclical servicing revenues provide a positive-carry credit hedge, with active and named portfolios reaching $9.9 billion and $95 billion, respectively.

Industry glossary

• CECL (Current Expected Credit Loss): An accounting methodology requiring recognition of expected loan losses over the life of a financial asset, not just incurred losses.
• DE (Distributable Earnings): A non-GAAP financial measure used by mortgage REITs to represent cash earnings available for dividend payments, excluding certain non-cash and nonrecurring items.
• REO (Real Estate Owned): Properties acquired through foreclosure or other means, held on the balance sheet pending disposition or repositioning.
• ABS (Asset-Backed Securities): Bonds or notes backed by pools of assets such as loans or leases, commonly used to finance real estate assets at attractive fixed rates.
• SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate): A benchmark interest rate for dollar-denominated derivatives and loans, replacing LIBOR in many markets.
• LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit): A federal program incentivizing investments in affordable housing developments, often referenced in multifamily asset underwriting.
• CLO (Collateralized Loan Obligation): A structured security backed by a pool of loans, providing nonrecourse, non-mark-to-market financing for underlying assets.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Rina Paniry: Thank you, Zach, and good morning, everyone. Today, we reported distributable earnings of $147 million, or $0.39 per share, for the first quarter. Our results were impacted by continued higher-than-normal cash balances, the resolution of nonperforming assets, and the ongoing optimization of our new net lease cylinder, adjusted for which DE would have been $0.47. I will provide more detail for these items within my business segment discussion. As we continue on our stated task to grow our investment base, resolve our nonperforming assets, and optimize our new net lease platform, our underlying earnings power continues to build.

In the quarter, we deployed $2.5 billion of capital across our businesses, including $1.5 billion in commercial lending, $597 million in infrastructure lending, and $128 million in net lease, bringing total undepreciated assets to a record $31.7 billion at quarter end. We deployed another $1.5 billion after the quarter, 70% of which was in commercial lending. Our company is diverse, with commercial lending comprising just 52% of our investment base and owned property increasing to 25% this quarter. We are really not a typical mortgage REIT. I will now take you through our individual segment results, beginning with commercial and residential lending, which contributed DE of $172 million to the quarter, or $0.45 per share.

In commercial lending, we funded $894 million of our $1.5 billion in loan originations along with another $278 million of preexisting loan commitments. After factoring in repayments of $835 million, our funded loan portfolio grew to $16.7 billion. This does not include $1 billion of new originations after quarter end, which brings our loan portfolio to its highest level since inception, or $2.3 billion of unfunded commitments on previously closed loans that will generate future earnings when funded. I mentioned earlier that our run-rate earnings were impacted by our resolution of nonperforming assets. During the quarter, we sold a multifamily asset in Conyers, Georgia that was foreclosed in February.

We repositioned the asset during our one-year hold period, cutting delinquency in half from 16% to 8% and increasing occupancy from 86% to 91%. After a broad marketing campaign and over 20 qualified bids, we sold the asset for a $5 million DE loss and a small GAAP gain, reflecting the adequacy of the GAAP reserves we previously recorded on this asset. We foreclosed on three five-rated nonaccrual loans in the quarter, the first of which was a $248 million mixed-use property in Dallas, consisting equally of multifamily and hospitality. The second was a $71 million multifamily in Phoenix and the third was a $28 million multifamily in Dallas.

We obtained independent third-party appraisals for all three assets, with the mixed-use property that represented two-thirds of this quarter's foreclosures appraising 10% above our basis. The other two assets carried a combined $25 million of specific CECL reserves. The weighted average risk rating on our loan portfolio improved to 2.9 this quarter versus last quarter’s 3.0. This improvement is net of two small multifamily loans that were downgraded from a 3 to a 4 in the quarter, which Jeff will discuss. We ended the quarter with $676 million of reserves, $455 million in CECL, and $221 million in REO. Together, these translate to $1.82 per share of book value, which is reflected in today’s undepreciated book value of $18.97.

Turning to residential lending, our on-balance sheet loan portfolio ended the quarter at $2.2 billion, down from $2.3 billion last quarter due to repayments of $38 million and a $21 million negative mark-to-market adjustment on the portfolio that was offset by the $31 million positive mark-to-market we recorded last quarter. Our retained RMBS portfolio remained relatively steady at $400 million. Next is infrastructure lending, which contributed DE of $22 million, or $0.06 per share, to the quarter. Our strong investing pace continued with $597 million of new loan commitments, of which $567 million was funded. After factoring in repayments of $320 million, our portfolio increased to a record $3.2 billion.

Nearly 70% of this quarter’s commitments were self-originated, bringing our total self-origination volume to $950 million. Also in the quarter, we completed our seventh actively managed infrastructure CLO, a $600 million transaction at a record-low spread of SOFR plus 1.68%. We used a portion of the proceeds to repay CLO 3 for $330 million. CLOs now represent 75% of our infrastructure debt, providing a durable, nonrecourse, non-mark-to-market financing. Turning to our property segment, we recognized $29 million of DE, or $0.08 per share, across all three major portfolios. I will start with a brief comment on our Florida affordable multifamily portfolio, Woodstar. Last week, HUD released new maximum allowable LIHTC rent levels which were set 8.9% higher than last year.

Certain properties were in geographies where the rent increases were once again capped by HUD, with the incremental rent growth being deferred to next year. To date, we have recouped 100% of our original equity investment in this portfolio plus an incremental $540 million that we have been able to reinvest across our business line. We have $416 million of Woodstar debt maturing in Q4 and anticipate another cash-out refinancing, again affirming our valuation on these assets. In net lease, as I mentioned earlier, we are still in the ramp-up phase of this business, which has been quite dilutive following our acquisition eight months ago, a dynamic we anticipated and disclosed at the time.

If optimized and at scale, this business would have contributed $0.03 of incremental DE to the quarter. The quarter's acquisition volume was in line with our original underwriting, with $128 million of purchases containing a weighted average lease term of 19.5 years and weighted average rent escalations of 2.5%, bringing our total portfolio at quarter end to $2.5 billion with a weighted average remaining lease term of 17.4 years and zero defaults. As you are aware, we adjust DE for the straight-line rental income reflected in our GAAP numbers. If we were to include straight-line rent in DE, it would add another $0.01 to the quarter.

We continue to optimize this platform’s capital structure, completing two notable refinancings since our last earnings call. The first is a new ABS transaction, which was used to replace a more costly issuance that we assumed in connection with the acquisition. The ABS financing totaled $466 million at a weighted average fixed rate of 5.06%, a record-tight spread for this platform. This allowed us to replace $324 million of existing ABS financing, which carried a weighted average fixed rate of 0.65%. The impact on our master trust was a reduction of 44 basis points from 5.73% to 5.29%, a benefit that we will realize in DE over time.

However, during the quarter, we recognized a $0.01 nonrecurring DE loss as a result of unwinding the interest rate hedges we had put in place in anticipation of this securitization. The second refinancing was completed after quarter end with the closing of a new five-year $1 billion warehouse facility. It has a 40% lower spread and is nearly twice the size of the in-place financing we assumed at acquisition. These accretive financings combined with the ramp in transaction volume build the foundation for the earnings power embedded in this platform and pave the way to overcoming the $0.03 of dilution that we recognized this quarter. Concluding my business segment discussion is our investing and servicing segment.

Collectively, the cylinders in this segment contributed a robust DE of $57 million, or $0.05 per share, to the quarter. Our special servicer, LNR, continues to perform as the positive-carry credit hedge we have long described, with servicing fees increasing to $52 million this quarter. Our active servicing portfolio totaled $9.9 billion while our named servicing portfolio was $95 billion. LNR continues to be the highest-rated special servicer in the country, with a rating of CSS1, the highest rating possible. Our conduit, Starwood Mortgage Capital, securitized or priced $153 million of conduit loans in three transactions at profit margins that were at or above historic levels.

We typically see lower securitization volume in Q1 and expect to see volumes increase in the near term. Turning to liquidity and capitalization, our current liquidity stands at $1 billion, which does not include liquidity that could be generated from cash-out refinancings, sales of assets in our property segment, direct leveraging or issuing corporate unsecured debt backed by our unencumbered assets, or issuing Term Loan B where we have nearly $1 billion of capacity today. In addition, we have $9.4 billion of availability across our bank financing lines. We continue to operate at conservative leverage levels, ending the quarter with a debt to undepreciated equity ratio of 2.59x.

Also notable this quarter, our board authorized a $400 million share repurchase program on February 26. In March, we deployed the first $20 million of that program, purchasing 1.1 million shares at a weighted average price of $17.67, a discount to both our current stock price and undepreciated book value per share. And one final note, during the quarter, we are proud to have been awarded the 2025 Mortgage REIT of the Year by PERE Credit. The award reflects the breadth and resilience of our diversified platform across market cycles. With that, I will now turn the call over to Jeff.

Jeffrey F. DiModica: Thanks, Rina, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with a broader backdrop because it is important context for the quarter. Capital markets have been volatile to start the year, driven largely by geopolitical developments in the Middle East. Treasury yields and credit spreads have moved with each headline, and while volatility has increased, the overall environment remains relatively stable. Refinancing volumes are significantly elevated, with loans originated before the 2022 rate rise facing their final extensions and newer-vintage loans coming out of call protection and taking advantage of spreads that are today at the tight end of their long-term ranges.

This backdrop is constructive for our legacy investments and leaves us well positioned to capitalize on new origination opportunities at scale. Starwood Property Trust, Inc. is a differentiated multi-cylinder platform built to outperform in volatile market environments, spanning commercial, residential, and infrastructure lending, owned real estate, and special servicing. This diversification gives us the earnings profile of a credit business with the upside from our large owned property portfolio, our countercyclical special servicer, early prepayment income, and further resolutions in our lending book. We have invested in every quarter of our 17-year history, and when we see outsized opportunities like we have over the past year, we have the firepower to lean in.

We have done just that, with nearly $4 billion of investments closed year to date. We are expecting a very robust finish to the first half of the year with an equally strong pipeline extending into the second half. From a portfolio standpoint, we continue to see the benefit of repositioning we began several years ago. Multifamily and industrial continue to dominate our pipeline, and we continue to grow our non-U.S. loan portfolio, where our manager, Starwood Capital, has large originations teams spanning the globe with decades of lending experience.

Starwood Capital is also one of the largest private data center owners in the world, with over 150 dedicated people in the sector, giving us the expertise to also make loans on data centers with confidence. Their footprint also allowed us to be a first mover lending in this space, taking advantage of wider spreads on loans that generally have 15 to 20 year leases to investment-grade tenants and fully amortize over the initial lease term. U.S. office represents 7.6% of our assets today, which is well below our peers and represents the bulk of our reserves.

Additionally, we only have one life science loan for $56 million, and together, these sectors are less than 8% of our assets, which is extremely low in our industry and allows us to have more certainty regarding potential portfolio outcomes. As Rina mentioned, our overall risk rating fell from 3.0 to 2.9 in the quarter. I will note that nearly half of the over 50 loans in our history that have been risk-rated 4 or 5 have now been resolved or returned to a 3 or lower rating. Also, over half of our CRE lending commitments have been originated since 2024 at a lower basis and with better loan coverage metrics.

We still have work to do, but we have meaningfully repositioned the portfolio in this cycle, leaving us in a good position relative to where the market is today. Our approach to credit remains consistent. We lean into situations where we have conviction and control, and we are willing to use our balance sheet and large internal asset management resources to actively manage outcomes rather than fire sale assets at a worse outcome to shareholders. We have a proven track record of successfully stepping in when sponsors stop supporting and investing in assets. Along with our manager, we have the willingness and proven operational capability in house to improve performance and protect and potentially grow value.

We continue to make steady progress resolving legacy assets. Nonaccrual and REO balances declined again this quarter, and we have now resolved over $300 million of assets that were previously a drag on earnings. We have additional REO sales in process and expect further reductions in the remainder of the year and in 2027. We did see some ratings migration in this quarter, which is consistent with where we are in the cycle. Two loans moved into the 4-rated category, both in multifamily. The first is an $81 million multifamily asset in Georgia where the current debt yield is tracking below the extension threshold required at the upcoming maturity.

Second is a $40 million multifamily asset in Texas where the sponsor had signaled an unwillingness to continue supporting the asset. Both situations are ones we have navigated many times. We have defined action plans, both are being actively monitored, and we are prepared to step in and execute these plans should we need to. Our 5-rated loan category declined by over $200 million, including the $347 million Rina mentioned, offset by our purchase of the $114 million senior position on a large industrial asset proximate to Manhattan. We are working to resolve this asset, and the sponsor has leases under negotiation for almost all of the available space.

Successful resolution of this loan, our largest in the 5-risk category, would decrease our 5-rated bucket by over 50%. That progress, along with continued growth in our investment balance, represents the core pillars of management’s plan to grow earnings and dividend coverage as we have outlined in prior quarters. In Infrastructure, a business we are in our ninth year investing in, we committed $597 million at above-trend returns in the quarter. A majority of that activity was self-originated, which allows us to dictate credit and structure while continuing to grow our portfolio and earn excess return.

Given our ability to finance this business accretively, these loans are also supported by durable long-term demand drivers from the energy transition and AI-driven power infrastructure build-out, leaving us with a pristine low-LTV portfolio. Our financing is diverse, low spread, and benefits from nonrecourse, non-mark-to-market provisions in our CLOs, which, as Rina said, account for 75% of this segment’s debt. Our net lease platform, Fundamental Income, continues to ramp as per our acquisition plan. We expect volumes to increase throughout the year as the team completes their first year under Starwood Property Trust, Inc. As Rina mentioned, we again made meaningful progress on the financing side in the quarter.

The combination of a lower cost of funds and a higher advance rate, which we underwrote and have now executed on, is directly accretive to the ROE of this cylinder and demonstrates what Starwood’s capital markets relationships help bring to this platform. These improvements should help turn this business accretive in 2027, in line with our underwriting, supporting our thesis of creating long-term shareholder value at the expense of short-term earnings dilution we have experienced to date. Our I&S segment again performed very well. The servicing platform continues to act as a positive-carry credit hedge, generating higher earnings during periods of stress.

Since the rate rise, we feel the equity market has undervalued the countercyclical nature of this business on our stock, but it proved again this quarter it is a real differentiated earnings contributor with our highest ROE. I would now like to spend a few minutes discussing our low-leverage balance sheet. We have been and plan to continue to tactically increase our unsecured debt as a percentage of our company’s capital structure. Unencumbered assets to move to more stable non-mark-to-market financing is supportive of our corporate credit ratings, which we hope to improve as we execute on this plan.

Our unsecured debt continues to trade very well, which we view as a reflection of the debt market’s confidence in our balance sheet and the value of the diversity of our platform. Our next corporate unsecured maturity is $400 million in July, and we have multiple options to address it. We have ample liquidity to repay it with cash or refinance it to take advantage of the strong current credit market backdrop I started today’s call describing. Our access to the debt capital markets is genuinely differentiated. There is no other company in our space with the same footprint across secured, unsecured, and securitized funding channels.

Wrapping up, we are the oldest and largest mortgage REIT with an equity base that is larger than our next four peers combined, and as much trading volume as those peers combined, giving shareholders unparalleled liquidity. In our 17 years, we have built a unique diversified business, invested almost $120 billion of capital while successfully navigating multiple cycles, leaving us as the only mortgage REIT to have never cut our dividend. We have a clear path forward: continue to resolve legacy assets while scaling our investment platforms. Progress across each of these areas is tangible, which we expect to improve earnings and dividend coverage. With that, I will turn the call to Barry.

Barry Stuart Sternlicht: Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Rina. Thanks, Zach. And morning, everyone. I apologize up front. I am not feeling well, so I am doing this with a half stomach. Wow. It is an interesting world. I think we would like to say that there has never been so excited and so terrified at the same time. And it is not just the war, obviously. It is what is the impact of AI long-term on the markets, the office markets, the employment base, what will politicians do in the face of potentially job losses, what will happen with Taiwan, which the markets obviously think is a zero risk given the S&P’s daily highs.

And I tend to think the real estate sector in general, coming out of the frozen tundra the last three years, we are still recovering the 500 basis point increase in rates most anyone no one saw coming and then the slow descent even though ex-rents inflation had clearly descended. If you think about the world, it is sort of an odd concept. I was in a room with a lot of people out West recently, and I asked people to raise their hand, if you would have expected what is going on in the world—war, oil prices, deglobalization, trade wars—how many people would expect the stock market to be at all-time highs?

And it is sort of a strange thing. But in the middle of this, the real estate markets are curing themselves, although it is slow. It is not quarter to quarter. Supply is dropping dramatically in multifamily. Supply is dropping in industrial. Supply is stagnant, almost nonexistent in the office market. Same in retail. Senior housing. All these sectors are benefiting from capital being sucked into other things, including data centers, which is an asset class we play on both the equity and the debt side, which is the moon and beyond, of course with the risk of Taiwan shutting it all down and the party. I am sure the Chinese know.

So when it comes to us, we are sitting here as a unique company with these diversified asset business lines. We keep adding new business lines. We have quite a few assets that are not earning a fair return, whether REO or they are nonaccrual loans. When you look at our stock, you are earning from about 75%—something like that—of our asset base. It is not our full asset base. It is almost like valuing a company that has a major tower under construction, and on the balance sheet, it shows up in the work in progress, not as an asset, but when it is completed, it will produce earnings. I think it is the same story today here.

We earned $0.39 for the quarter, not a number we are happy with. But if you backed up the dilution, which will go away over time in fundamentals and the triple net lease business, it would be $0.41–$0.42. About a point and a half drag of what we took in the quarter just hits to our earnings from the REOs. And some of those REOs, when fixed up, we expect to actually make money on, but it takes time. We have a property that the developer will lose several hundred million dollars. We will take it back, and we expect to be able to lease the whole thing and hopefully sell it at a gain.

And those are the kinds of opportunities, but they are not quarter to quarter. But with that confidence, we stepped up and bought stock in the quarter. We actually cannot buy stock when we go into blackout period, so that stops several weeks before earnings. We will continue to repurchase stock because it is a pretty good investment for us. Some of our businesses are really spectacular at the moment, and they are masking some of the noise—the less than spectacular parts. The special servicer is cranking. Amazing this far along in the cycle. We still have $100 billion in named servicing and almost $8.5 billion active in the servicing book, and it is not going to be going down.

There is still a lot of distress. Rates are still higher. I should have mentioned when I talked to you about what would you think of the world, the 10-year—well, hovering around 4.40%, 4.36%, 4.32%, 4.42%. I mean, that is materially higher than I think most people would think. We are pressing on. We are creating unprecedented deficits, but equity markets do not seem to care very much. Again, I am finishing the thought. This is all good for real estate. The tide had gone out and the tide is turning. We are going from headwinds to tailwinds. And there are really three things behind the tailwinds: one, the reshoring in the United States.

We have been bringing back all of these plants, equipment, creating demand for industrial. That is a real trend. It is starting. It is not a massive tidal wave, but you are beginning to see the impact a little bit. Two, supply, which we talked about, and three, interest rates, because the forward curve is still lower. And the markets are very confused, as most executives are, about a world of, I think, post–World War II record low consumer confidence, but retail spending continues up. And I tend to think the posted GDP numbers are sort of illusory. You can talk about them as being great, and they are what they are.

But they are really driven by two things: AI spending, which is not felt by the average American, and by productivity gains. And that kind of GDP is not the kind of GDP that normally would send U.S. consumers to the store. And as you know, consumption is 70% of GDP. So it is a miraculous economy, but it is not your grandma’s economy, and it is creating all kinds of odd things. I know. And investors chasing multiples of revenues in the equity markets. So I think we will catch a bid—meaning the entire real estate sector.

And I can say that we have recently completed or are about to complete our thirteenth fundraiser of a fund on the equity side, and robust investor demand where a year ago, they would not talk to us. That is really a reflection of the turn in the market, and several of my peers in the asset management business have harped on their recent earnings calls, and we tend to agree things will be getting better. Our pace of our originations is solid. We are all looking for the earnings to come out of the book. We are confident in our ability to pay the dividend. We sit on $1.5 billion of gains in our multifamily book.

We actually made $0.05 selling one asset—just one asset—last quarter. So quarter to quarter, we are sequentially up $0.37 to $0.39, but chose not to take any of those gains. We are playing long ball, not short ball. And we are confident in our ability to create a dynamic company that is capable of producing superior earnings and therefore dividends. And I want to thank the team that continues to work really hard to continue to lead the market in our field. Thank you. I will take questions.

Operator: We will now open the call for questions. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press 2 to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Jade Joseph Rahmani with KBW. Please proceed with your question.

Analyst: Hi. This is [inaudible] on for Jade. Thanks for taking the question. It would be helpful to hear your thoughts on the outlook for resolving nonaccruals and foreclosed assets. Maybe comment on the time horizon and, if possible, give a percentage range for resolutions in 2026 and 2027. Thank you.

Jeffrey F. DiModica: Yeah. Thanks so much. Appreciate the question. I think we have told you we have resolved over $300 million. We have a resolution that you will see as an upgrade on a lease that was signed for about $100 million in the quarter in Brooklyn that will take an asset that now through three large leases has completely moved from a troubled risk rating of 4 or 5 back into something lower. We are expecting potentially a lease, as I spoke about, on another asset just outside Manhattan, where should we sign that lease, that will go from a 5 or 4.

I think I mentioned in my script that 25 of the 53 loans we have ever had at the 4 or 5 have now been either worked out or moved back down. Our strategy is just different than other people’s a bit on these. A lot of people are willing to fire sale to a higher-cost-of-capital buyer potentially with financing when they have a difficult asset. We look at every loan on a present value of the likely outcome to us, and given our access to liquidity, we have chosen to lean in. Rina gave you some examples in the quarter.

Even the multifamily that we lost $5 million or so on, we increased occupancy significantly, decreased the delinquencies significantly in the six months or so that we managed that property. Being managed by Starwood Capital, we have people with expertise in these. So we are not afraid to take something back. We are not afraid to stay in. We do not stay in for the sake of staying in, but if the present value of getting the money back today versus investing in the asset—if the present value is higher on the latter, we will do the latter. So we have a few that you will see play out.

It will put us over $500 million or so, I think, in the very near future. We are expecting $900 million by the end of the year in our plan, and then another $500 or so million next year in our base plan. That will work most of the way through it. But it is very difficult to judge when you will sign a lease and when something will play out and when the present value calculus for us will turn positive versus negative on making that decision.

Analyst: Great. Thank you. That is very helpful. And then separately, it would be helpful to touch on the outlook for net lease and when you would expect it to become accretive. I know you cited $0.03 of dilution, but you also issued ABS and entered into a new credit facility. So any commentary there would be helpful.

Jeffrey F. DiModica: Yeah. Thanks so much. You know, this is an interesting one. You all know we were not earning the core dividend at the time we closed this deal in July. We made a decision knowing this business is running exactly at what we expected it to run in the short run. We knew we had to optimize the financing. We knew we would get originations up. We made a decision to take on negative DE for up to six quarters. I think when we did it, we told people it would become accretive in ’27.

And so it is not often that a company like us takes six quarters of negative DE at a time where we are not earning the dividend. But we did that because we wanted to own this platform. We were buying a platform that we knew would be short-term dilutive, and as you look at the rent bumps over a number of years, it becomes very accretive down the line. So as large shareholders with management and our board, we looked at the long term here.

We are obviously paying a penalty for it in the market today because missing a number, as you see in today’s stock price, is not something that bots like very much, but we set this up for the long term. We think the business will perform. As you said, we have now optimized the financing, which should start kicking in and help it turn to be accretive in 2027. It becomes very accretive beyond that. But I will turn it to Barry for any other comments that he might have.

Barry Stuart Sternlicht: Well, a couple things. One, the fundamental business, if it traded separately, would probably trade at a 5% or 6% dividend yield, and it is tucked into us, and, obviously, it is hurting us when in fact it has probably got significant value as a stand-alone business, which is not lost on us. So one way or another, we are going to get this thing to scale or spin it out or do something that will create the value that is in the business. We are not using straight-line accounting on their leases. Some of our peers do that. With that, I mean, our yields would be significantly higher even this year.

So zero defaults, percent-occupied portfolio, growing at about the pace—I would say it is growing at the pace we underwrote, but not nearly as fast as I would have hoped. So and that is one of the reasons you see the dilution. I think you have to look at us—just answering the former question—we are going to work as fast as we can to repair these nonaccrual assets and the REO assets. But, as Jeff mentioned, we do not have the need to give them away. At the end of the day, we are real estate guys.

And so what you see in most of these assets, especially the ones that get in trouble, is the borrower just stopped taking care of them. Right? So you have a portfolio of multifamily that has rooms out of service because he just did not care because he is going to lose the asset, or you have tenants that will not take on an office asset because the borrower has no desire or any need to put in tenant improvement dollars. He is just flushing his cash. You get these, in some cases, really good assets that have been abandoned by the borrowers. It takes time to actually get them back to stabilization, and then you sell them.

It is not—sadly, it is—you know, it would be easier if this was a closed-end fund kind of thing. And it is not done to optimize earnings quarter to quarter. It is done really to maximize return on the capital that we invested behind these properties. So and we are blessed with the fortress balance sheet, so we can put the money into convert—as we are—1201 K Street in D.C., which is being converted from an office building to a rental. And in the time that we have taken, the underwriting rents have gone up, so our yields on cost would be even better than we thought and expect they will be. Did not seem to fire half of D.C.

So when we complete that—but that is not going to get done for another year, or year and a half. And so that is the kind of situation. We are confident. We are major shareholders of our stock. As you saw, we repurchased stock. So we are confident in our ability to weather the storm and continue to pay the dividend. And wait for cleaner numbers, frankly. The data is not bad. It is just not very clean. So we know all that.

Operator: Thank you. And as a reminder, if anyone has any questions, you may press 1 on your telephone keypad to join the question and answer queue. Our next question comes from the line of Gabe Poggi with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Analyst: Hey. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Kind of a piggyback on the last question, $0.48 of the dividend coverage is the goal. Help us—or me—shape kind of where we are in that timeline based on these first quarter results. I know, Barry, you said there is a lot of noise in it and the dilution from net lease, etcetera. But how should we think about kind of the timetable to get to $0.48 as you are working through nonaccruals, as you are taking time with REO and being patient, etcetera, etcetera? That is question one.

Rina Paniry: Thanks for the question. So as I mentioned in my remarks, I think we are there on a recurring basis today. Right? We are not there on a reported basis. So we need to work through—we talked about Fundamental, and we think that becomes breakeven, call it, early next year and then accretive thereafter. We think on a recurring basis we would be in excess of the dividend at some point, probably late next year. We had higher-than-normal cash balances that we talked about last quarter. We raised excess financing on our Woodstar refi. We had two debt raises. So we are still fighting the cash drag from having over a billion dollars of cash for the quarter.

So we need to get the money deployed, and I think that will help. But I would say you are not going to see kind of above on a recurring basis until next year, some point. And we still have to work through the REO assets.

Jeffrey F. DiModica: That is right. We have been saying that consistently, though, for a while—that the back half of ’26 gets to get into ’27. That is when we hope. And, you know, there are little nuances along the way. Let us talk about cash drag. We do not tend to whine about the timing of cash flow. But in this quarter, of the $1 billion of sub-CRE loans, 57% of them were funded, which means 43% were not. On average, they were only funded for 27 days on that 57%. So we are getting very little credit there versus, in the quarter, our repayments are outstanding for 64 days. That probably cost us a penny or two as well.

There are just small nuances, but I think if you normalize Fundamental, you go into the upside that Rina talked about and the other businesses, we start to get down—as per the plan I just told you—on nonaccruals, etcetera, and we continue to originate at this very elevated pace with great quality originations. We are really proud of the book that we are building over the last couple of years, half of which is 2024 and beyond originations. It will all come together as we turn the year to getting to that $0.48 that actually is reported in the box more than today’s.

Barry Stuart Sternlicht: I am going to be more optimistic than Rina and Jeff because I know about some situations that we will trigger. And if we have to sell some assets to be able to redeploy the capital at the 12%–13% ROEs, then we will do it. I think there are some loans that are toggling to becoming accrual again. They are material. And I would expect at least one of them to have resolution certainly by the end of this year. And with that, there might be a material—it is a material earnings mover for us. So I do think it is unacceptable to have $0.11 or so or $0.12 of dilution from Fundamental. So that is not a stable situation.

If it does not get better, we are going to put it in the rightful home, which may not be here. So it is not acceptable. Even though the businesses are performing well, the noise is too much for shareholders to comb through. We could invite you into the house and show you our assets, and you would see the values are all there. And our ability to earn the dividend and exceed it is certainly in the house. It is just—we told you about this last quarter—it is going to be a rocky road to get there. It is a puzzle. And we have to manage it in the best way to maximize returns to the shareholders.

We are, as I said, large shareholders, so we are very motivated to do the right thing. Getting back to the $0.48, obviously, would be the holy grail. It is the only thing that we did with CRE lending—that is 52% of our business. We have $1.4 billion of gains, Gabe, away from this. We have always had recurring, nonrecurring gains that come from things. The servicer had a good quarter this quarter. SMC often has a good quarter. It was light this quarter. We used to get a lot of prepaid penalties. Those are coming back in this tighter spread environment. We are going to start getting prepaid again.

All these recurring, nonrecurring things will get us over that number, never mind the fact we have $1.4 billion of gains sitting outside of it. I think the construct to hold somebody to earning it all in the core—where you take the stock down significantly—does not really apply as much to a well-diversified company that has always had recurring, nonrecurring gains. And we will have recurring, nonrecurring gains through the rest of this year.

Analyst: Thank you for that. That is all very helpful color, especially on the timing stuff, Jeff, and I fully appreciate that it takes time to work through this. Follow-up: Jeff, you had mentioned that there were some REO kind of potentially in the sales process or beginning to kind of kick that ball down the road. Is there any more color you can give on that as it pertains to—you took some keys this past quarter—kind of what we are looking like potentially, and Barry just alluded that where some of those sales, if those sales could be pulled forward to reallocate capital?

Jeffrey F. DiModica: Yeah. We prefer to let you know when they happen because the markets move pretty quickly. There are two or three that we think happen fairly soon. There are a couple of leases that could move some nonaccruals away from nonaccrual. I think you will see that and then with some potential upgrades. But I do not want to signal any of the sales quite yet, but you know, I gave you the sense that we hope to get through $900 million this year and $500 million next year off that list. And that will be a combination of a number of things. But nothing imminent that we are going to report here.

Analyst: Got it. Thank you for the comments.

Zachary H. Tanenbaum: Thank you everyone for joining us, and we will see you again next quarter.

Operator: Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.

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