Ares Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Partner of Public Markets Investor Relations - John Stilmar
• Chief Executive Officer - Bryan Donohoe
• Chief Financial Officer - Jeffrey Gonzales
• Chief Operating Officer - Tae-Sik Yoon

TAKEAWAYS

• GAAP Net Income -- $4.4 million or $0.08 per diluted common share, reflecting current portfolio performance and asset positioning.
• Distributable Earnings -- $6.9 million or $0.12 per diluted common share, excluding noncash items and realized gains or losses.
• Quarterly Dividend -- $0.15 per common share, representing an annualized dividend yield of approximately 14% based on the July 30, 2026 stock price.
• Total Loan Portfolio -- $1.8 billion in outstanding principal balance, representing a 36% increase year over year.
• Twelve-Month Loan Commitments -- $900 million in new loan commitments, accounting for more than 40% of the current loan portfolio balance.
• Second Quarter Loan Commitments -- $130 million across three new loan commitments, consisting of multifamily, self-storage, and hotel properties.
• Office Portfolio Exposure -- $442 million or less than 25% of the total loan portfolio, down from 39% as of June 30, 2025.
• Total CECL Reserve -- $139 million as of June 30, 2026, representing approximately 8% of the total outstanding principal balance.
• Risk Rated 4 and 5 Reserve -- $130 million, which represents 34% of the outstanding principal balance for those specific loans.
• Net Debt-to-Equity Ratio -- 2.0x as of June 30, 2026, excluding the current expected credit loss reserve.
• Available Capital -- $106 million as of June 30, 2026, maintained to support asset resolutions and new investment activity.
• Share Repurchase Program -- $50 million reauthorized by the Board of Directors, extending the program through July 31, 2027.
• Nonaccrual Loan Value -- $150 million in carrying value net of CECL reserves, representing the volume of loans currently not accruing interest.
• Nonaccrual Cash Interest -- $1.7 million or $0.03 per share collected during the second quarter, which was applied as a reduction in loan basis.
• Risk Rated 1 to 3 Stability -- 89% of the loan portfolio by number of loans, with zero migration of these loans into risk categories 4 or 5 for three consecutive quarters.
• Retail Loan Sale -- $69 million in loan principal sold during the quarter, corresponding to a larger $144 million retail loan originated as held for sale.
• California Industrial Loan Rating -- $13 million subordinate loan, adjusted from risk rated 4 to 5 due to its upcoming maturity in January 2027.
• Florida REO Income Yield -- 10% income yield, driven by consistent occupancy at the mixed-use property.
• Chicago Office Loan Status -- 90% occupancy and a weighted average lease term of over seven years, although the asset remains on nonaccrual status.
• Brooklyn Residential Condo Progress -- Construction is substantially complete, and the company has entered the presale marketing period for the units.
• New Loan Reserve Rate -- 100 basis points for a standard three-year floating rate loan, though one Q2 loan had a lower reserve due to a two-year initial term.

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RISKS

• Donohoe stated that the risk rating for a California industrial subordinate loan was adjusted to 5 because "with the maturity of the loan in January 2027, we adjusted the risk rating to reflect the higher probability of a near-term realized loss," despite growing tenant interest in the submarket.
• Donohoe noted that for the Chicago office loan, "the time line has extended beyond our original expectations" for the sales process, necessitating a three-month extension of the loan maturity to October 2026.
• Donohoe indicated that "the dispersion of outcomes on certain assets is candidly broader than it was in prior cycles," which has impacted the velocity of asset resolutions.

SUMMARY

Management reported a focus on resolving underperforming assets while strategically redeploying capital into high-quality new investments. The company stated that the portfolio has been repositioned to include a higher percentage of loans originated in the current interest rate environment. The company noted that liquidity remains a priority to support both new originations and the resolution of existing risk rated 4 and 5 loans. Management indicated that the reduction of office exposure and the stabilization of the CECL reserve reflect progress in the ongoing portfolio strategy.

• The company announced a leadership transition where Chief Operating Officer Tae-Sik Yoon will move to a senior adviser role after 14 years with the firm.
• Donohoe highlighted that the Chicago office market is showing a "nascent recovery" as the company continues to negotiate a sale for its largest risk rated 5 asset.
• Management confirmed that the Brooklyn residential condo construction is substantially complete, with remaining costs limited to settling payables and finishing punch list items.
• CEO Donohoe noted that in certain logistics submarkets, "the time line that one might be willing to wait to mark-to-market rents... is going to be shorter in nature than it would have been with lower rates."
• The company utilized a co-investment strategy for all three new Q2 loan commitments, allowing it to "reduce asset concentration risk while participating in institutional properties in major markets" alongside other Ares management vehicles.
• CFO Gonzales indicated that repayment activity in the second half of 2026 is expected to be driven by "natural portfolio turnover as well as further resolution" of existing assets.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• CECL (Current Expected Credit Losses): An accounting standard that requires companies to estimate and reserve for expected credit losses over the life of a loan at the time of origination.
• REO (Real Estate Owned): Properties that a lender has taken ownership of, typically through foreclosure or a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
• Nonaccrual: A status for a loan that is no longer accruing interest because the lender does not expect the borrower to make the payments.
• Distributable Earnings: A non-GAAP financial measure used by REITs to assess the ability to pay dividends by adjusting GAAP net income for non-cash items.
• WALT (Weighted Average Lease Term): A metric used in real estate to measure the average remaining time until leases in a property or portfolio expire.
• CMBS (Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities): Fixed-income investment products that are backed by mortgages on commercial properties rather than residential real estate.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation's Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. John Stilmar, Partner of Public Markets Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

John Stilmar: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call. In addition to our press release and the 10-Q that we filed with the SEC, we have posted an earnings presentation under the Investor Resources section of our website at www.arescre.com. Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that comments made during the course of this conference call and webcast and the accompanying documents contain forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many of these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as anticipates, believes, expects, intends, will, should, may and similar such expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectation of market conditions and management's judgment.

These statements are not guarantees of future performance, conditions or results and do involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The company's actual results could differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those listed in its SEC filings. Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. During this conference call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. We use these as measures of operating performance, and these measures should not be considered in isolation for or a substitute for measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. These measures may not be comparable to like-kind measures used by other companies.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Bryan Donohoe. Bryan?

Bryan Donohoe: Thank you, John. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm here today with Jeff Gonzales, our CFO; Tae-Sik Yoon, our COO; as well as other members of the management and Investor Relations teams. During the second quarter, we saw the commercial real estate market exhibit relative stability despite broader macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. Property prices appreciated modestly, financing markets remained open and liquidity continued to improve. While sales transaction activity did moderate somewhat during the second quarter, we see compelling opportunities driven by refinancing needs and a robust pipeline of floating rate lending opportunities, offering attractive risk-adjusted returns. Consistent with recent trends, private real estate capital continues to increase its role in the market.

Today, debt funds have become the second largest source of commercial real estate lending behind banks according to MSCI, reflecting both the continued evolution of the lending market and the growing importance of alternative asset managers. We continue to believe that the scale of the Ares Real Estate platform is a key differentiator in allowing us to access greater institutional quality assets in a diversified manner and efficiently deploying our available capital. The strength of the platform allowed ACRE to deploy over $900 million in new loan commitments in the past 12 months, which represents more than 40% of our current loan portfolio.

Supported by these platform benefits and the progress we have made in executing our business plan, we believe ACRE is well positioned to capitalize on market opportunities while continuing to advance our portfolio repositioning strategy. To this end, we have continued to make meaningful progress in addressing risk rated 4 and 5 loans while further reducing office loans and REO properties. At the same time, we are strategically redeploying capital into high-quality new investments, largely to support growth in earnings and achieve our long-term portfolio objectives. We believe our second quarter results reflect the continued execution against that strategy. Importantly, key portfolio and financial metrics remained consistent quarter-over-quarter as reflected by our relatively stable CECL reserve.

Additionally, for the third consecutive quarter, no risk rated 1 to 3 loans migrated to risk rated 4 or 5 loans. We also had no new REO properties and the operating performance across our existing REO assets remained stable. Supported by these metrics, the depth of the Ares platform and a supportive commercial real estate market, ACRE saw another quarter of steady portfolio growth. As of June 30, 2026, we increased the outstanding principal balance of the total portfolio by 36% year-over-year, while improving portfolio diversification and reducing the office loan portfolio. During the second quarter, we closed 3 new loan commitments totaling $130 million across multifamily, self-storage and hotel properties.

Consistent with last quarter, all 3 new loan commitments were part of co-investment opportunities alongside other Ares management affiliated vehicles. We believe ACRE's ability to selectively co-invest alongside Ares managed vehicles allows us to reduce asset concentration risk while participating in institutional properties in major markets, which would otherwise be beyond our stand-alone capital base. Loans originated over the past 12 months now account for 42% of the total portfolio of loans held for investment. These loans contribute to broader diversification across vintage, sector, geography and credit while providing gross levered returns in the low double digits. These loans also reinforce the solid foundation of the underlying portfolio.

By number of loans, 89% of the loan portfolio is risk rated 1 to 3 and primarily consists of loans collateralized by multifamily, industrial and self-storage loans. These loans continue to execute their business plan in line with expectations. In order to achieve the goals of the business, over the past several years, we proactively strengthened our balance sheet to address identified assets within our portfolio that were adversely affected by changing market dynamics or property-specific challenges. The progress we have made in repositioning the portfolio is a direct result of the continued focus in addressing risk rated 4 and 5 loans and REO properties and further reducing our office investments.

We believe that resolving these assets and redeploying that capital into yielding new investments remains an important driver of future earnings growth. Let me now dive a bit deeper into the specific investments we continue to focus on and provide an update on the progress we're making towards resolutions. Starting with our risk rated 4 and 5 loans, similar to last quarter, there are 4 loans outstanding. Looking at the largest risk rated 5 loan in the portfolio, the Chicago office loan remains on nonaccrual, but continues to make its contractual interest payments. Fundamentals at the property remain steady. Occupancy is above 90% with a weighted average lease term of over 7 years and positive net cash flow.

Further, while Chicago remains challenged, there have been positive signs of a nascent recovery in the market. As mentioned on our previous quarter's call, we remain engaged with the borrower on their ongoing sales process. Although the time line has extended beyond our original expectations, we remain encouraged by the negotiations, which continue to advance towards a resolution. We note that post quarter end, the loan was extended from July 2026 by 3 months to support the borrowers' business plan and continued efforts to reach a conclusion in the sales process. Turning to the second largest risk rated 4 and 5 loan. The Brooklyn Residential Condo remains on nonaccrual, but advancements in the business plan continued during the quarter.

Construction on this building is now substantially complete. Our CECL reserve takes into account estimated future costs with remaining costs largely limited to settling payables from completed work and completing punch list items. Early marketing and presales efforts remain ongoing, supporting a more visible path towards resolution. Next, I want to address the $13 million subordinate loan collateralized by a California industrial property adjusted to a risk rated 5 from a risk rated 4 during the quarter. As a reminder, this subordinate loan is part of a larger capital structure. We continue to receive sponsor support as well as growing interest from prospective tenants alongside positive trends in this submarket.

However, with the maturity of the loan in January 2027, we adjusted the risk rating to reflect the higher probability of a near-term realized loss. These updates underscore the highly asset-specific nature of our 4 remaining risk rated 4 and 5 loans. Throughout this cycle, we have proactively identified challenges, deleveraged the balance sheet and enhanced liquidity, enabling us to resolve underperforming assets while positioning the company to address these remaining investments. We believe that our work to date has narrowed the potential outcomes, in part reflected in the stability of CECL this quarter.

During the quarter and consistent with our goal to change the complexion of our investment portfolio, office loans decreased to $442 million or less than 25% of the total loan portfolio as compared to 39% of the total loan portfolio at the end of Q2 2025. As of June 30, 2026, there were 5 risk rated 1 to 3 office loans remaining. Further demonstrating the execution of our strategy to reduce our office investments, last quarter, we launched the sale of the North Carolina office REO asset. Market interest in this property has been strong, and we continue to work towards the sale of this asset.

With regard to our other remaining REO, the Florida mixed-use property continues to exhibit consistent occupancy with an income yield of 10%. While we do not intend to be long-term owners of this property, we believe the current yield of this investment is attractive while we evaluate the optimal path to exit this investment. In closing, we continue to execute the strategy we've outlined over the past several quarters. We are making steady progress resolving underperforming assets while selectively investing alongside the broader Ares platform in high-quality new originations. Although there is still work ahead, the portfolio today is materially different than it was a year ago.

It is larger, more diversified and increasingly comprised of newer investments originated in today's attractive lending environment. With more than $150 million in carrying value of loans net of CECL not accruing interest, we are squarely focused on resolving these assets and capturing the potential earnings power of our future balance sheet. Looking ahead, we expect repayments to continue advancing our portfolio repositioning efforts, while successful asset resolutions will provide additional capacity to support future growth. We are encouraged by the progress achieved thus far and remain confident that the actions we're taking today are building a high-quality portfolio, enhancing future earnings power and creating a clear path back to increased levels of profitability.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff, who will walk you through our second quarter financial results.

Jeffrey Gonzales: Thank you, Bryan. For the second quarter of 2026, we reported GAAP net income of approximately $4.4 million or $0.08 per diluted common share. Our distributable earnings for the second quarter of 2026 was approximately $6.9 million or $0.12 per diluted common share, and there were no realized gains or losses recognized in the quarter. Additionally, during the second quarter, we collected $1.7 million or $0.03 per diluted common share of cash interest on loans that were on nonaccrual and was accounted for as a reduction in our loan basis. We continue to maintain our strong balance sheet position with moderate leverage, which supports further resolution of underperforming loans and future growth.

We ended the second quarter with a net debt-to-equity ratio, excluding CECL, of 2.0x. Our portfolio of loans held for investment reached $1.8 billion as of June 30, 2026, an increase of $129 million quarter-over-quarter and $484 million year-over-year. During the quarter, we sold the $69 million loan that corresponds to a larger $144 million retail loan that was originated and classified as held for sale in Q1 2026. This short-term hold led to additional earnings from accrued interest and fee income during the second quarter. We anticipate utilizing this strategy opportunistically in the future in order for ACRE to selectively deploy its available liquidity on a short-term basis while capturing attractive economics on high conviction loans.

As we continue to reposition the portfolio, we remain focused on maintaining balance sheet flexibility through strong liquidity and disciplined liability management in the first half of 2026 repayments. While repayments in the second quarter slowed from the first quarter, we expect repayment activity in the second half to be driven by natural portfolio turnover as well as further resolution. In addition, we continue to maintain liquidity of over $100 million in order to support asset resolutions and new investing activity. As of June 30, 2026, our available capital was $106 million.

Supported by our strong liquidity position, deep lender relationships, access to financing and the resources of the Ares Real Estate platform, we believe we are well positioned to continue to execute on our portfolio objectives and future growth initiatives. Turning to our CECL reserve. The total CECL reserve increased marginally to $139 million as of June 30, 2026, an increase of approximately $900,000 from the CECL reserve as of March 31, 2026. This increase was primarily driven by a reserve increase of $1 million related to the new loans closed in the quarter, while the CECL reserve for our previously existing loan portfolio was largely flat quarter-over-quarter.

The total CECL reserve at the end of the second quarter of $139 million represents approximately 8% of the total outstanding principal balance of our loans held for investment. 94% of our total CECL reserve or $130 million relates to our risk rated 4 and 5 loans and nearly half of the total CECL reserve is attributed to the risk-rated 5 Chicago office loan. Overall, the $130 million of reserves attributable to our risk rated 4 and 5 loans represents approximately 34% of the outstanding principal balance of those risk rated 4 and 5 loans. Our book value remained relatively stable at $8.82 per share.

While we still have work to do, we believe that the relative stability of our book value and reserve levels reflects the progress we have made in repositioning the portfolio and underlines the strength of the overall portfolio. We believe this foundation, combined with our liquidity and financial flexibility, positions us well for the opportunities ahead. Subsequent to quarter end and as part of our ongoing capital allocation framework, our Board of Directors reauthorized our share repurchase program for an additional year through July 31, 2027, authorizing the repurchase of up to $50 million of our common stock. We will continue to assess share repurchases relative to other capital deployment opportunities.

To conclude, the Board declared a regular cash dividend of $0.15 per common share for the third quarter of 2026. The third quarter dividend will be payable on October 15, 2026, to common stockholders of record as of September 30, 2026. At our current stock price on July 30, 2026, the annualized dividend yield on our third quarter dividend is approximately 14%. With that, I will turn the call back over to Bryan for some closing remarks.

Bryan Donohoe: Thanks, Jeff. Before we begin Q&A, we'd like to take a moment to comment on the leadership transition that we announced this morning. Tae-Sik Yoon will be stepping down as our Chief Operating Officer and expect to transition from his day-to-day executive role to serve as a senior adviser to Ares management, including continuing to work with ACRE. We believe this transition will allow ACRE to continue benefiting from Tae-Sik's deep industry expertise and experience. He will remain a valued adviser to me and the rest of our team as we continue executing on our strategy.

On behalf of our Board of Directors and everyone at ACRE, I want to sincerely thank Tae-Sik for his 14 years of dedication, leadership and significant contributions to the company. One of Tae-Sik's strengths has been the active mentorship of the team around him, which has created a deep bench of talent, positioning us well for the future. We at ACRE look forward to his continued guidance and friendship as we move forward together. As always, we appreciate you joining our call today, and we'd be happy to open the line for questions. Operator?

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Jade Rahmani with KBW.

Jade Rahmani: We started the year with investors seeming optimistic around the commercial real estate cycle, yet something most people didn't expect has been the spike in interest rates and the shifting outlook. Can you comment on your thoughts as to where we are in the cycle, if you're seeing any new pressures emerge either in the existing risk 4 to 5 loan bucket or in the risk 3 area? And also, if you could share a broader perspective about how Ares is viewing the world from a real estate perspective and also within that from its own equity investing perspective.

Bryan Donohoe: Yes. Thanks for the question, Jade. I'll start with overall market view and then come back to your question on portfolio a little bit. I guess to start with it, in terms of where we are in the cycle and what we see out there, it feels like we're somewhere in the fourth, fifth inning, but probably in a bit of a rain delay, if that makes sense. With the idea being the digestion of the higher rates seems to be on the come. I think that people still have a viewpoint out there that there may be reason in the future for rates to either stabilize or come down some bit, but the inflationary pressures are real.

What that leads us to is to continue to avoid heavy CapEx-intensive assets. And while there's always something to do in the addressable universe of real estate, it isn't always the same thing, right? So whether it's equity or credit that we dig into more or less, I think humbly recognizing the cyclicality of our business is a really important attribute of what we've created at Ares in terms of our participation in real estate. So like I think there's still growth to create out there on the equity side of the ledger, but it is much more intensive at the actual asset level. So the operating expertise is more important than it was in prior cycles.

And I think we additionally humbly recognize that the disparity of outcomes on certain assets is candidly broader than it was in prior cycles. So I think there's still plenty to do as we reflect in the refinancing side. Acquisitions certainly slowed for the broader market as a whole in end of Q1 and into Q2. But we're still in a digestion phase for geopolitics and where rates are. And I was looking at the yen versus dollar chart last night. There's more questions out there that I think we as an industry and as an economy need to answer.

Jade Rahmani: And just the follow-up would be any pressure on the risk-free side. It didn't sound like you had seen anything. Maybe you could also comment on the industrial since we haven't really seen pressure in that space.

Bryan Donohoe: Yes. I think, look, we have consistently team around what we think is as of the moment going on in the market in our portfolio, and that is reflected in the risk ratings that you see today. That takes into account market rates, borrower behavior, loan structure and the like. And I think, as I said a minute ago, it does recognize or we position the balance sheet to be able to allow for changes in that, right? Because I think there has been a very dynamic marketplace for us to digest over the past 3 years.

So absolutely, the risk rated [ 1 to 5. ] I wouldn't say any loan is not impacted by the change in rates, but those impacts are part of the calculation for what goes into that risk rating. In terms of logistics, I think it is still asset to asset and market to market. We have been extremely active across the board, equity and debt in the sector.

But given the higher rates, which equates to higher carry costs, I would say that the time line that one might be willing to wait to mark-to-market rents, if you start with the premise that rents have gone up over the past 5 to 7 years, the capture of that mark-to-market is going to be shorter in nature than it would have been with lower rates, if that makes sense. There are pressures in [indiscernible] in certain submarkets. But largely speaking, we still feel very comfortable with the reduction in supply in that marketplace and the long-term viability of Class A industrial around the country.

Operator: Our next question will come from Rick Shane with JPMorgan.

Richard Shane: First of all, and I'm not big on compliments on earnings calls, but I will throw one out here. Finding a twist on Wall Street's favorite metaphor of what inning are we in. I got to give you credit for that one. So thank you for making a smile with that. In terms of real questions, a year ago, you guys had $120 million worth of reserves. In the last 12 months, I think you've realized about $5 million of actual losses. The reserve has gone up to about $140 million since then. Again, very conservative. But ultimately, the opportunity here is to recycle the capital that is tied up in the nonaccruing loans.

It sounds like Chicago, which represents about 30% of the reserve should be resolved fairly quickly. What is the cadence that we should expect for recycling of the remaining 4 and 5 rated loans over the next, call it, 12 to 18 months?

Bryan Donohoe: Yes, it's a great question. Rick, I'd say that, look, we -- I think we've said we have narrowed these -- we feel like we've narrowed these potential outcomes, but we've consistently over the past few years, positioned the balance sheet to allow for something unforeseen to occur because I feel like that has occurred in the broader real estate market over the past few years. So I'm going to start with that. You're right that the redeployment of -- if all goes to plan and you're able to resolve that loan, you reduce the office allocation by another 50% or thereabouts and free up capital to reinvest. That is the charge.

That's what we set forth to do years ago, and we addressed that in the prepared remarks. So I think in terms of the build back, Jeff, maybe you want to opine in terms of what that leads to. But the conditions precedent, and I think we did a good job framing Rick, in terms of getting through those assets over the period of time that they allow for.

Jeffrey Gonzales: Yes. I think we have significant earnings potential tied up in those 4 and 5 rate loans. I think we said in our prepared remarks, it was about $150-ish million. So I think it will happen in stages as we resolve these 4 or 5 rate loans that we will increase our earnings to -- up to the dividend level and eventually beyond it. So we are hyper focused on resolving those as efficiently as possible and getting that capital back to deploying and interest-earning loans.

Bryan Donohoe: Yes. And I think, Rick, here, right, is the -- if you had a much larger granular portfolio, you'd point to averages and kind of run things off over a period of time. We have isolated these loans and they are somewhat idiosyncratic. So what we've attempted to do is not count it until it's done, but work very hard to accelerate those resolutions. So it's tough to point to a regular cadence. Obviously, we wish it was faster, but a lot of what we're going to deal with over the coming quarters is how can we accelerate those resolutions and then how quickly can we redeploy.

But it's difficult to point to a consistent cadence given almost the idiosyncratic nature of each of them and the behaviors that sit behind those assets.

Richard Shane: Fair enough. And again, look, having them fully reserved is the foundation for being able to achieve that. And Bryan, you made a comment that I thought was interesting. You talked about sort of the dispersion in terms of valuations across the industry. When we think about loan types isn't the right word, but transaction types, whether it is a new development, a sort of traditional refi or a workout resolution, is that dispersion particularly pronounced? Is that one of the things that sort of drives the slower timeline on resolutions right now?

Bryan Donohoe: Well, it certainly drove our approach to the balance sheet, right? We felt like -- I think if I go back into history, the loss severity of certain assets in this cycle has been more broad than typical reserves would have provided for, right? We saw an orphaning of life science assets given what went on with the credits underlying the tenancy there as well as very heavy CapEx. We see massive dispersion from Park Ave to Third Avenue on office sector. And so based on that higher loss severity we wanted to position the balance sheet to allow for those outcomes. But certainly, to your specific question, absolutely, that dispersion will impact velocity.

Richard Shane: Got it. And then very last question. Implicitly, it looks like the new fundings in the quarter were put on with about a 75 basis point CECL reserve. Is that correct? And is that sort of what we should expect for new originations in this environment as you start to build the balance sheet again?

Jeffrey Gonzales: Typically, you should expect to see on a standard 3-year floating rate loan around 100 basis points reserve at closing. That's typically what we see. And that -- it usually is lower if it's not -- if it's below a 3-year term.

Richard Shane: Got it. And is that what drove it lower this quarter?

Jeffrey Gonzales: Correct. One of the loans had a 2-year initial term on it.

Operator: Our next question comes from Gabe Poggi with Raymond James.

Gabriel Poggi: I kind of want to piggyback on what Jade and Rick were asking about and just think about the go forward if you're successful with some of this capital recycling, how do you think about in conjunction with the world we live in and geopolitics and rate vol, et cetera, how should we think about today's kind of go-forward return on equity profile for the REIT, right? If I think about where the dividend is set today, where D/E is today, the ability to recycle capital and get above it, how do you think about what the right level is from a risk-adjusted return perspective in the here and now?

Bryan Donohoe: Let me -- it's a great question, Chris. Let me -- I'll have Jeff walk through the math of how we build back the book, if you will, and then I'll talk markets if that works for you.

Gabriel Poggi: Sure.

Jeffrey Gonzales: Yes. So I think -- yes, just going back, we did reset our dividend last year to more closely align with our strategic objective of building liquidity, reducing leverage. So we troughed at a D/E ratio of about 1.1 a year ago, and we positioned ourselves to start investing again over that time. As we mentioned in our prepared remarks, we've originated $900 million over the last 12 months of new loans. So I think we've built up to the earnings that to a higher amount, and we are working through those 4 and 5 rated loans. It will happen in stages.

It takes one, I would say, to probably get us to a point of hitting the dividend as soon as we have the capital deployed again. And then over a longer-term period, as we resolve the remaining 4 and 5 rated loans, we expect to get back to our historical ROE of about 9% to 10% on our book.

Bryan Donohoe: Yes. And maybe, Chris, I'll just pile on in terms of the market landscape. I think we've proven with the $900 million of deployment that Jeff references that we have found more than enough to originate to service the capital base of ACRE. We have a massive addressable universe of $7 trillion of transactions across the U.S. and Europe that our platform invests in. And therefore, the scale of this platform is very ably serviced by the team that we've created. In terms of the ROE, I think what we are seeking out is certainly those high single-digit net returns. I think that we've proven that is achievable.

And how you achieve that can ebb and flow to some degree with the use of back leverage and things like that. So there's a lot of ways to create that yield. But I believe what we are attempting to do is create a much more diversified company in terms of smaller portions of assets comprising that baseline and then creating a very stable and consistent income profile that the market provides for. I don't think that the market and investors will reward risk taking when it is not available and is not going to create that durable income profile. So hopefully, that's helpful from a partially macro view of how we're thinking about it.

Operator: Our next question will come from Chris Muller with Citizens Capital Markets.

Christopher Muller: Congrats on a solid quarter. It's nice to see the market rewarding your guys stock today. I guess on the Chicago 5-rated loan, so there's been a note in the slide deck for several quarters now about them engaging in a sales process, and you guys mentioned that in your prepared remarks as well. But I guess the question is, how patient are you guys willing to be on this asset versus just taking it back yourselves? Is that 3-month extension what we should be watching for more clarity on that path forward?

Bryan Donohoe: I think we mentioned it because it's the best indication, right? We remain the lender there. Obviously, the result is frustrating and the timeline has been frustrating, but we do feel encouraged by where it's gone. And that timeline, I think, is as reflective of the expected outcome as we can put forth today, right? As I mentioned, I think, in Jade's question around the risk rating, right? It's reflective of everything we know when we know it.

I do think, and we mentioned in the prepared remarks, a little bit around that nascent recovery, certainly a bifurcation of assets that either have leasing and are relevant assets to a potential tenant in the market versus those that have a very heavy CapEx cycle in front of them to make them relevant building us again. But when we combine what this building's leasing profile is, especially when you look at the yield versus our reserve hold position, I think we would like to exit.

But at the same time, the credit quality and that durable income profile with 7 years of WALT remaining gives us a good bit of comfort that if it doesn't come to fruition, we can still create an accretive asset for our position moving forward. So we are hopeful and encouraged, but we also like the relative position and the cash flow profile of the asset.

Christopher Muller: Got it. That's helpful. And then maybe changing gears a little bit. On the held-for-sale loan strategy, are these transactions pre-negotiated? Or are you guys taking on some risk if the market moves dramatically while those loans are on your balance sheet before you can sell it off?

Bryan Donohoe: Yes, it's a great question. So I don't want to say there is -- certainly, if we entered into a period of volatility, we would consider that. It is -- I think we generally have a view of the potential outcomes in the homes for those assets, but they are not fully baked, if that makes sense. So there is short duration risk. But obviously, since we end up holding that loan, we begin the day liking the underlying collateral and position as it relates to overall profile, and we feel like they are liquid positions on the other side.

Jeffrey Gonzales: And just to add to that, typical hold period ranges between 30 to 120 days. So it's not a significant period of time that we're holding these.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We do have a follow-up from Jade Rahmani with KBW.

Jade Rahmani: Can you give an update on the Brooklyn Condo and if there's presales marketing or anything of that nature, like any initial indications as to how it's going?

Bryan Donohoe: Yes, we have entered into the typical presale period for the condominium. It is -- obviously, the summer months are -- can be a little bit slower, but we have been -- I'd say we look forward to an acceleration, but we have entered that presale period and no issues as we sit here today in terms of velocity or price.

Operator: At this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the meeting back over to Bryan Donohoe for any closing remarks.

Bryan Donohoe: Thank you very much, and I want to just thank everybody for their time today. We appreciate your continued support of Ares Commercial Real Estate and look forward to speaking with you again on our next earnings call. Thank you, and have a good day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our conference call today. If you missed any part of today's call, an archived replay of this conference call will be available approximately 1 hour after the end of this call through September 4, 2026, to domestic callers by dialing + 1 (800) 723-0532 or to international callers by dialing 1 (402) 220-2655. An archived replay will also be available on the webcast link located on the homepage of the Investor Resources section of our website. Thank you. Have a great day.

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