Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:ACRE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Rick Shane: Got it. Okay. That’s — obviously there’s — there are a lot of moving parts there. There’s discussion with the accountants. There’s potential resolutions potential visibility to outcome that impacts all that. That said, if we were to assume that they were placed on nonaccrual $150 million, assuming roughly an 8% yield. That works out to about $3 million, a quarter in contribution from an interest income perspective. Is that the right way to think about it?

Tae-Sik Yoon: Yes. I mean, each loan, I think you can tell on our sheet, we’ll have its own interest rate. But, yes, that sounds roughly about the right calculation. And again, as you mentioned, I think we will be scrutinizing and certainly, paying a lot of attention to all four rated loans, right? And certainly, those three included. And I think you outlined the considerations that we will take into account particularly, what we believe is the ultimate outcome of these loans. I think, one thing that Bryan mentioned in his opening remarks, is that each one of these particularly four rated loans, is a very sort of individual situation. A four rating doesn’t indicate a loss, doesn’t indicate nonaccrual, but it does indicate a loan that deserves and warrants higher scrutiny and attention.

So, I think we should leave it up there at this moment, just given that it’s sort of mid-quarter. But suffice to say that, these loans are getting very, very strong attention from our asset management team, very strong attention from our finance and accounting team, and we believe we will make the appropriate decision closer to quarter end about, what is the appropriate classification of these loans going forward.

Rick Shane: Fair enough. I appreciate the fact that with all of the different interests involved negotiating with the sell-side analysts, on the resolution out of call probably not your intent.

Tae-Sik Yoon: Thank you, Rick.

Rick Shane: Thanks, guys

Bryan Donohoe: Thanks, Rick.

Operator: Thank you. My next question today comes from the line of Stephen Laws from Raymond James. Please go ahead, your line is now open.

Stephen Laws: Hi, good morning, uh its afternoon. Good. To follow up quickly, on Rick’s comments. How much — are we going to — is this already reserved for as far as the Q1 events in general, that will move to be reallocated as a specific reserve in Q1, or do you expect material increases in the reserve? How should we see that flow through in Q1?

Bryan Donohoe: Yes. Tae-Sik, why don’t you get started here, if that’s all right.

Tae-Sik Yoon: Sure. Absolutely. Great question, Stephen. I think one thing that is important to recognize is that when we look at our CECL reserve, close to $50 million of that $71 million balance that we carry at year-end, is related to four or five level four or five rated loans. We did resolve the five rate alone as we mentioned, the residential loan out in California, that was resolved and that it was $5.6 million of the total reserve. But overall, at year-end, just under $50 million or about 70% of the reserve was tied to the four or five rated loans. It doesn’t mean obviously, that that reserve isn’t going to change up or down. But we do believe that certainly, a strong majority of our reserve is focused on and is allocated to derive from the four or five-rated loans.