RFA Financial Inc.

Good afternoon. My name is Joelle, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the RFA Financial's first quarter 2026 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Thank you. Ms. Heather Nichol, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join the call. We are excited to walk you through our first quarter highlights and provide an overview of RFA Financial, a diversified financial services organization formed on February 1st of this year. For this call, we will walk you through an executive summary, an operational overview, including a post-merger integration update, and discuss our Q1 financial results. The Q1 presentation can be seen in real time on the webcast version of this conference call and is also available on the RFA Financial website in the Investor Relations section. Please note that our Q1 results can also be found on the RFA website at rfafinancial.ca. Please note that today's call will include forward-looking statements and information. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including the risks described under the headings Risk Factors in ARDIS's Annual Information Form for the Year Ended December 31, 2024, risk factors relating to the resulting issuer in the management information circular of ARDIS dated November 10, 2025, and risks and uncertainties in RFA's Q126 and DNA, all of which can be accessed on RFA's website. Forward-looking statements reflect management's views only as of today's date. We do not undertake to revise them or reflect subsequent events or circumstances, and participants should not place undue reliance on these statements. In addition, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures and ratios during this call, including origination, net interest margin, write-offs, mortgage arrears rate, and payout ratio. These do not have standardized meanings under GAAP, may differ from those used by other issuers, and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the measures and ratios prepared in accordance with GAAP. They are intended to provide supplemental information regarding the performance of RFA. For further details on these, please see our Q1-26 MD&A Press Release and Investor Presentation deck for today's session. You should also be aware that certain statements presented today, including those relating to credit scores, mortgage arrears rates, and dividend yields, are based on information obtained from reputable third-party sources. While RFA has not independently verified such information, we have no reason to believe it is inaccurate in any material respect. Unless otherwise noted, all dollar amounts referenced on this call are in Canadian currency. Before we get into the detail, I'd like to introduce the leadership team joining me on the call today. With me are Ben Rodney, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Jacqueline Koenig, our Chief Financial Officer, and Melody Lowe, our Chief Operating Officer. Together, Ben, Jacqueline, and Melody, along with the broader leadership teams across our subsidiaries, bring decades of experience across banking, real estate, capital markets, and asset management. From underwriting billions of dollars in mortgages to leading public companies, This is a team that's done it before and is well-positioned to lead RFA Financial through its next phase of growth. With that, I'll turn things over to Ben.

Thanks, Heather, and thank you, everyone, for joining today. I'm looking forward to walking through our strategy for RFA Financial and why we believe this platform is well-positioned to create long-term value for our shareholders. To understand RFA Financial today, it's worth looking at our history and stepping back to where we began. RFA Capital was founded in 1996 as a private Canadian real estate investment and asset management firm, operating across both debt and equity real estate platforms. While that foundation spans nearly three decades, transformation of our platform into what it is today has largely occurred over the past eight years. Our entry into financial services began in 2018 with the launch of RFA Mortgage Corporation, an innovative and entrepreneurial prime mortgage lender. Just one year later, we formed RFA Bank of Canada through the acquisition of Street Capital Group, which significantly strengthened our position in alternative and commercial real estate lending. In 2024, we expanded our footprint globally, acquiring an interest in Five Continents Financial, a leading wealth and investment manager located in the Cayman Islands. Most recently, we completed the merger of RFA Capital and Artis Reed, creating RFA Financial, a diversified financial services organization that is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Together, these milestones reflect the significant build-out of our platform and the disciplined execution that has defined our evolution over a relatively short period of time. The merger of RFA Capital and ArtistReit brought together two highly complementary businesses, a growing bank-led financial services platform and a high-quality, diversified real estate portfolio and asset manager. The strategic rationale is simple. To unlock value from the real estate portfolio through monetizing assets at attractive valuations, and to rotate this capital into higher return growth opportunities from the financial services platform. The real estate portfolio is currently valued at approximately $2.2 billion and provides stable cash flow, embedded intrinsic value, and significant capital optionality. RFA Bank currently has approximately $2.8 billion in total assets, and RFA Mortgage Corporation completed roughly $3.65 billion of originations in 2025. Our lending platform offers scalable growth and attractive risk-adjusted returns. This combination creates a structurally advantaged platform that pairs growth opportunities with capital and positions us to generate significant long-term value for our shareholders. At its core, RFA Financial is built around three primary subsidiaries. First, RFA Bank of Canada, a federally regulated Schedule 1 bank. focused on alternative and commercial real estate lending, and a provider of CDIC-insured deposits to the public through our distribution network. Second, RFA Mortgage Corporation, a leading prime mortgage originator that complements the bank, offering brokers a comprehensive suite of residential mortgage products. And third, RFA Asset Management, which owns and manages a high-quality commercial real estate portfolio across Canada and the U.S., generating stable cash flow and supporting our capital recycling strategy. Together, these businesses give us scale, diversification, and multiple levers for growth. This slide outlines the key organic and inorganic opportunities we see across the platform. Organically, RFA has a strong track record of growth. With capital unlocked from real estate dispositions, we see clear potential to accelerate that momentum. We've invested heavily in our financial services platforms in anticipation of generating the capital necessary to support growth and they are highly scalable with the capacity to support increased volumes. Inorganically, we're disciplined and selective. We evaluate opportunities both within and outside the platform and deploy capital where we see the most attractive risk-adjusted returns. Our pipeline is active, but our approach remains measured and consistent. When it comes to capital allocation, our strategy is simple and disciplined. Number one, maintaining balance sheet strength and financial flexibility, characterized by a disciplined capital framework and targeted capital deployment. Two, prioritizing organic lending growth by recycling real estate asset sale proceeds into higher return opportunities. Number three, executing on disciplined and organic growth opportunities, such as opportunistic M&A, loan acquisition opportunities, and using our banking license to develop complementary banking products, to our mortgage lending capabilities. And lastly, number four, selective return of capital supporting a sustainable dividend as earnings scale and accretive share repurchases. What we're building is the foundation for the future. In three to five years, we set the following targets for our team to achieve. We're targeting total lending assets of $8 to $12 billion, driven by what we expect to be a sharp increase in annual originations. This is a platform built for scale, and we're ready to deploy capital into high return opportunities with a targeted bank return on equity in the low to mid-teens range. To support that growth, we're planning $1.3 to $1.5 billion in cumulative asset sales, unlocking significant capital that we can reinvest into our core banking and mortgage operations, where returns are strongest. As a result, we expect RFA banks' net income to grow at a CAGR of 40% to 50%, fueled by capital reallocation and discipline execution. This isn't just growth, it's controlled acceleration. And importantly, we expect to be doing all this while maintaining a targeted payout ratio below 65%, allowing us to reinvest in the business and support a sustainable dividend that we intend to grow over time as the platform scales. No dividends are an important consideration for many of our investors. We're proud to offer an annual dividend of $1.32 per common share, paid quarterly during this initial phase of growth. This reflects a thoughtful balance between providing income today and retaining flexibility to reinvest capital into growth opportunities. As we execute our capital redeployment strategy, we expect dividends to be fully covered by the earnings of RFA. We believe dividends will be backed by real and recurring capital generation opportunities at our financial services platform, reinforcing confidence in their sustainability. Our payout ratio has declined significantly relative to recent levels observed at Artistry prior to the merger. This reflects our commitment to disciplined capital management and value creation. At this point, I'll turn things over to Melody for an operational overview and integration update.