ACRES Commercial Realty Corp.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q4 2018 Exantus Capital Corp. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star then zero on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Andy Carr, Head of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Haley. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made in the course of this call are based on historical information and may constitute forward-looking statements. When using this conference call, the words believes, anticipates, expects, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, Such statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of trends, risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in the company's reports, followed with the SEC, including its reports on Forms 8K, 10Q, and 10K, and in particular, the risk factors section of our Form 10K. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The company undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements. Furthermore, certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed on this conference call. Our presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute to the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable measures prepared in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles are contained in our earnings release for the past quarter. I will now turn it over to the Chairman of Exantus Capital Corp., Andrew Farkas, for opening remarks.

Thank you, Andy. Good morning, all. Thanks for joining the call. With me today are Bob Lieber, our Chief Executive Officer, Matt Stern, our President, Dave Bryant, our CFO, Paul Hewson, Head of Commercial Real Estate Lending, and Andy Carr, who just spoke to you, Head of Investor Relations, from whom, of course, you've already heard. I wanted to take a moment to review our progress in 2018 before handing the call back to management for a normal quarterly review. We had a great 2018. Last night, we reported $1.1 billion in new transitional commercial real estate loan origination and CMBS investment activity in 2018, which will drive core earnings growth for 2019. 2018 adjusted core earnings increased to 71 cents per share from negative 37 cents per share in 2017. The net growth of the company's core investment portfolio through 2018 caused core earnings to accelerate, which supported three consecutive quarterly dividend increases in 2018, from $0.05 per share at the beginning of the year to $0.175 per share paid for the fourth quarter. We're anticipating another increase in our dividend to $0.20 per share for the first quarter of 2019, which we will recommend to the Board for approval. We've largely completed the strategic plan that we first announced in November 2016. In May of 2018, we announced the rebranding of the company and presented the investment community with a company that is less complicated and has much more predictable earnings. I'm very pleased with the results of 2018 and the prospects for additional net investment portfolio growth and, in turn, core earnings growth. We look forward to reporting those results to you on future calls. With that, Bob, I'd like to turn it off to you. Bob is our CEO.