BrightSpire Capital, Inc.

Greetings, and welcome to the Brightspire Capital Incorporated second quarter 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants earn a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow a formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, David Palme, General Counsel. Thank you, sir.

You may begin. Good morning, and welcome to Brightspire Capital's second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. We will refer to Brightspire Capital as Brightspire, VRSP, or the company throughout this call. Speaking on the call today are the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Mazzei, Chief Operating Officer, Andy Witt, and Chief Financial Officer, Frank Saraceno. Before I hand the call over, please note that on this call, certain information presented contains forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Potential risks and uncertainties could cause the company's business and financial results to differ materially, including the potential adverse effect of and heightened risks associated with COVID-19. For a discussion of risks that could affect results, please see the risk factors section of our most recent 10Q and other risk factors and forward-looking statements in the company's current and periodic reports filed with the SEC from time to time. All information discussed on this call is as of today, August 4th, 2021, and the company does not intend and undertakes no duty to update for future events or circumstances. In addition, Certain financial information presented on this call represents non-GAAP financial measures. The company's earnings release and supplemental presentation, which was released this morning and is available on the company's website, presents reconciliations to the appropriate GAAP measures and an explanation of why the company believes such non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike Mazzei, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brightspire Capital. Mike.

Thank you, David. Welcome to our second quarter earnings call. I would like to start by wishing everyone well, and I thank you for joining us today. The company's momentum from last year has carried into 2021 and continues to build. We are rapidly deploying capital into our more focused investment strategy while we resolve specific assets and execute on key business objectives. And in doing so, we have grown earnings and our quarterly dividends. Today is our first earnings call as Brightspire Capital. On behalf of the Brightspire team, we are very excited about our company's rebranding following the internalization of our management and operating functions. Right out of the gates, we issued our first CLO under the Brightspire name in July. We announced the sale of five co-invest assets, and today, we announced an increase in our quarterly dividend to 16 cents. With respect to the internalization, Brightspire is rapidly becoming a fully operational standalone company and is on track to realize the anticipated cost savings from this transformative event. As previously stated, we believe being an internally managed company is simply a better structure for shareholders. As the company grows its equity base, Our shareholders will benefit from increased scale and operating efficiencies. The internally managed structure is a more transparent organizational model with improved alignment between the company and our shareholders. Turning now to some key financial highlights. For the second quarter, we had adjusted distributable earnings of 20 cents per share. Our liquidity as of August 2nd stands at 381 million dollars. our undepreciated book value per share for the second quarter is $12.66, down from $12.84. Our book value this quarter was negatively impacted by the transaction we entered into to sell certain assets that no longer fit our business model. However, when all aspects of this transaction are completed, the net result will be substantially in line with book value. Frank will provide greater detail in his remarks. With respect to our dividend, as I mentioned, our Board of Directors has approved an increase in our third quarter dividend to 16 cents a share. This is up from 14 cents in the prior quarter and is the second increase since reinstating our dividend earlier this year. The increase is supported by the cost of savings realized from the internalization, the continued successful execution of our overall business plan, as well as the improved return on equity we have achieved as a result of our recently issued CLO. During this last quarter, we have continued to steadily redeploy capital into floating rate first mortgage loans. Since commencing new originations in the fourth quarter of 2020, we have closed on or committed to 50 loans totaling over $1.5 billion. While much of our lending activity has been on multifamily properties, we are beginning to see increased loan demand in other property types as the pandemic continues to wind down and investment sales activities increase. This is especially the case in office properties where we are seeing good risk-reward opportunities given that the middle market suburban office sector has been less impacted from the pandemic than most CBD office. For the remainder of 2021, our plan is to continue to redeploy company cash into new loan originations and further rotate our asset portfolio and liability structure with an eye toward issuing our third CLO. We will also look to close our recently announced asset sale transaction and utilize those proceeds to pay off the preferred equity financing the company completed in June of 2020. Finally, we will continue to focus on resolving any remaining non-earning or underperforming assets. In closing, Brightspire is well on its way to evolving its asset base into a pure play portfolio of first mortgage bridge loans that can deliver current, and predictable earnings. We remain confident that the successful execution of our stated business plan throughout the remainder of 2021 will lead to additional growth and stability in both our earnings and our dividend. I would now like to turn the call over to our Chief Operating Officer, Andy Witt. Andy?