NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.

and welcome to the NextPoint Real Estate Finance first quarter conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jackie Graham, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good day, everyone, and welcome to NextPoint Real Estate Finance's conference call to review the company's results for the first quarter ended March 31st. On the call today are Brian Mitz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Matt McGrainer, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Matt Goetz, Senior Vice President, Investments and Asset Management, and Paul Richards, Vice President, Originations and Investments. As a reminder, this call is being webcast through the company's website at nref.nextpoint.com. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the private securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on the management's current expectations, assumptions, and beliefs. Listeners should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements and are encouraged to review the company's annual report on Form 10-K and the company's other filings with the SEC for a more complete discussion of risks and other factors that can affect forward-looking statements. except as required by law, and REF does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. This conference call also contains an analysis of non-GAAP financial measures. For a more complete discussion of these non-GAAP financial measures, see the company's presentation that was filed earlier today. I would now like to turn the call over to Brian Mitz. Please go ahead, Brian.

Thank you, Jackie. Welcome to everyone joining us today. Today we'll cover the first quarter of 2021 for NREF. I'll begin with an overview of the quarter, discuss our results and guidance, and then turn it over to Matt Goetz and Paul Richards to discuss the portfolio, pipeline, and general market conditions. And then we'll wrap up our prepared commentary with some closing comments from Matt McGrainer before going to Q&A. So starting with an overview of the quarter, it's a pretty quiet quarter. We originated one loan, it was actually two separate loans, but same deal, mezzanine loans, but a multifamily redevelopment property for approximately 26 million as an unlevered IRR in the mid-teens. Net income was $1.26 per diluted share for Q1 compared to net income of $1.32 per diluted share for Q4. Core earnings were 53 cents per diluted share The quarter is compared to $0.55 for diluted share in the prior quarter. But value for share increased 4.4% quarter over quarter to $20.33. We ended the quarter with 63 investments, totaling approximately $1.47 billion. In subsequent quarter end, we added another investment, a $76 million frame-out BP with a 6.8% unloaded IRR, which Matt Getz and Paul will cover in detail in their commentary. As of March 31st, our capital stack consisted of 780 million senior secured facility on the SFR loans, 60 million senior secured facility on the multifamily mezzanine pool, 162 million of repurchase agreements, 36.5 million of unsecured notes, 37.5 million of preferred equity, 97 million of common equity, and 286 million of redeemable non-controlling interests. Subsequent to quarter end, we issued $75 million of unsecured 5.75% notes, insuring in 2026. Our debt has a weighted average remaining term of six years and a weighted average rate of 2.49%. As of March 31st, only 15.6% of our financing is subject to mark to market, and we continue to be low levered at 2.47 times debt to equity. We have $15 million of unrestricted cash on the balance sheet as of March 31st. As of April 28th, through our ATM, we've issued 260,000 shares of common stock, an average price per share of $20.27 for gross proceeds of $5.2 million. Also, as of April 28th, we're trading at a 1.7% premium to our March 31st book value and had an implied yield of 9.2 percent. Let me quickly go through the results for the quarter. High-level net income attributable to common shareholders is $8.4 million, or $1.26 per share, which compared to a $6.4 million loss in the first quarter of 2020, or a loss of $1.22 per share. Core earnings for this quarter was $2.9 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, as compared to $1.2 million and $0.23 per diluted share, Q1 of 2020. Our cash available for distribution was $2.8 million for Q1 of this year, or $0.52 per share, as compared to $1.5 million or $0.28 per diluted share last year. Book value on a consolidated basis was $20.33 versus $17.72 this time last year. First quarter recorded a loan loss provision of $124,000 as compared to a provision of $212,000 in the first quarter of 2020, reflecting the improved credit conditions now that we're a year plus into COVID. We paid a dividend of 47 cents per share on the first quarter, and the board has declared a dividend of 47.5 cents per share payable on June 30th to shareholder's record as of June 15th. Let me touch on our guidance here before we turn it over to the rest of the team. We are issuing core guidance for the second quarter 2021 as follows. 62 cents per diluted share on the low end, 60 cents sorry, 66 cents per diluted share on the high end for a midpoint of 64 cents per diluted share. Our CAD per diluted share, 57 cents per share on the low end, 61 cents per share on the high end for midpoint, 59 cents per share at midpoint. That's a dividend coverage ratio of 1.24 times. So with that, let me turn it over to Matt Goetz and then Paul Richards to discuss some of the details.