Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc., which provides financing for commercial real estate, is cutting its dividend by 24% as defaults increase and borrowers struggle to make payments or refinance their loans.
The board of the $3.4 billion real estate investment trust known as BXMT authorized the repurchase of up to $150 million of shares to lift the value of the stock, it reported Wednesday.
BXMT shares fell 6.1% to $18.43 at 8 a.m. in pre-market trading Wednesday in New York after earnings were announced. The shares had dropped 7.7% so far this year through Tuesday’s close.
Commercial real estate mortgage REITs have been under mounting stress since higher interest rates and falling property values have triggered new waves of defaults, particularly for owners and lenders to buildings such as offices. Earlier this year KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. and Ares Commercial Real Estate Corp. cut their dividends by 42% and 24% respectively.
The Blackstone trust is reducing its dividend to 47 cents from 62 cents, a level in place since 2015. Cutting the dividend will save about $100 million a year that can be reallocated to new loans or other investments.
“We believe stockholder return is well served by balancing current return with optimization of book value and long-term earnings potential through our strategic capital allocation decisions,” BXMT Chief Executive Officer Katie Keenan said in a statement.
Most of the Blackstone trust’s troubled loans were on U.S. office buildings, which make up about a quarter of its outstanding loans. U.S. office values have fallen 37% from their early 2022 peak compared with a 20% drop for all commercial property, according to the Green Street Commercial Property Price Index.
BXMT said Wednesday that it’s cut its net exposure to offices by $1.4 billion over the past two years. About 13% of the office portfolio was given a risk rating of “3” by the firm, with loans in that category largely tied to European properties. Roughly 7% of the portfolio had the worst risk rating, where BXMT considers the loans impaired.
Carson Block, head of short-selling firm Muddy Waters, predicted in December that BXMT may face a liquidity crisis and have to default on its loans, a situation he said would come to a head in the second half of this year. He reaffirmed his short position earlier this month during an interview with Bloomberg Television.
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BXMT last month modified three loans in California and Texas to provide extensions, analysts at Keefe Bruyette & Woods said in a July 17 note. It put an additional three California loans on its watch list in July, likely driven by near-term maturities, according to KBW, which rates BXMT a “market perform.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.