Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Franklin BSP Realty Trust Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touchstone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference cover to Ms. Lindsey Crabbe. Ms. Crabbe, the floor is yours, ma'am.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to SBRT's second quarter earnings call. Thank you for joining us. As the operator mentioned, I'm Lindsey Crabbe. With me on the call today are Michael Comparato, Chief Executive Officer of FBRT, Jerry Baglien, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of FBRT, and Brian Buffone, President of FBRT. Before you begin, I want to mention that some of today's comments are forward-looking statements and are based on certain assumptions. Those comments and assumptions are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. As described in our most recently filed SEC periodic reports, and actual future results may differ materially. The information conveyed on this call is current only at the date of this call, July 30th, 2026. The company assumes no obligation to update any statements made during this call, including any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Additionally, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to GAAP figures in our earnings release and supplementary slide deck. each of which are available on our website at www.SBRTREIT.com. We will refer to the supplementary slide deck on today's call. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike Comparato.

Thank you, Lindsey, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with a few thoughts on the current market environment and our second quarter performance, then I'll hand it over to Jerry who will review our financial results, and Brian will provide an update on the portfolio and overall credit trends. The commercial real estate market remained unsettled during the second quarter. Ongoing geopolitical concerns and conflict continue to put uncertainty in the minds of investors. Higher oil prices have led to inflation concerns, which have in turn led to higher interest rates. At the moment, the higher for longer interest rate environment appears to be fairly sticky. The buy-sell transactional volume in the multifamily sector slowed as the bid-ask spread between buyers and sellers is very wide in the current rate environment. We have remained selective in deploying capital, focusing on our opportunities where our structuring expertise, longstanding relationships, and ability to navigate more complex transactions allows us to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns. At the same time, we've maintained discipline in our underwriting, made further progress resolving legacy assets, repurchased shares at a meaningful discount to book value, and maintained a strong liquidity position. We've continued to position the portfolio into newer vintage investments with more than three quarters of our loan book now originated following the interest rate hiking cycle. Against that backdrop, we were pleased with our second quarter results. We generated distributable earnings that covered our dividend for the second quarter in a row, and we've increased our book value per share. Our stock continues to trade at what we believe is a meaningful discount to the underlying value of the company. As Brian will discuss later, we have just 1% office exposure and approximately 77% of our portfolio has been originated since interest rates began moving higher. We have zero exposure to data centers, life sciences or lab space. We are still under-earning on our watch list and REO positions, but we are committed to resolving those as timely and efficiently as possible. With the repositioning of our dividend, we think we have the proper earnings level to work through the balance of legacy loans and work out assets. We continue to believe repurchasing our stock at these levels is one of the most attractive uses of capital available to us. Overall, we believe the company remains well-positioned with a high-quality, multifamily-focused portfolio Significant liquidity and a balance sheet that provides flexibility as opportunities emerge. We remain confident in the quality of the portfolio, the progress we've made through legacy assets, and our ability to continue creating long-term value for shareholders. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Jerry.