NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NYSE:NREF) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Matt McGraner: Yes, I think you’re going to see us water some grass in the life science space. We’re underwriting about $400-ish million of preferred equity in mezz opportunities. When I say mezz, it’s not true kind of 60% to 80% of the stack, but more kind of 55% to 65% of the stack. There’s a number of opportunities both in the lab kind of redevelopment and in the CGMP space that we’re spending a lot of time on. That space historically, at least on the CGMP side, not well banked. So we’re defining a niche in that space, as we speak. So I would expect that portion, if you’re looking at a pie chart, to expand from where it is. I think it’s now roughly 2% to 3% to maybe 10%, 12%. So that’s probably the overwhelming majority of what we’re doing right now, but we still have a robust pipeline in the private multifamily preferred as well.

Stephen Laws: Great. Thanks. And Brian, maybe a quick answer, but any impact of CECL as far as implementation, any change to marks or book value reserve or anything we need to consider with our models?

Brian Mitts: Yes. So in the K, we’re going to have a range of what the impact is going to be. It will be a little bit of an impact. But the implementation is proceeding well, and we’re on target. So starting this quarter, we’ll be reporting under CECL.

Stephen Laws: Great, well, I’ll look for that K. And thanks for the comment this morning.

Brian Mitts: Thank you.

Operator: And we’ll take our next question from Jade Rahmani with KBW. Your line is open.

Jade Rahmani: Thank you very much. Just to follow-up to Stephen’s question. Is there any percentage impact to book value you could comment on, on this call from CECL?

Brian Mitts: Not as of 12/31, but there’ll be a little bit of an impact starting this quarter. So I think on a go-forward basis, the CECL amount is a little bit more than our loan loss provisions is calculated without CECL.

Jade Rahmani: Okay. Thanks very much. In terms of the credit outlook for commercial real estate broadly, since the NexPoint platform can be somewhat opportunistic. Do you expect to play in any of the buckets of distress or opportunistic investment that’s playing out, whether it be office repositioning, whether it be, I think you mentioned preferreds in multifamily? But how do you feel overall about that kind of segment of the market?

Matt McGraner: Hey Jade, it’s Matt McGraner. I’d say we’re pretty hands off. I do know folks and a lot of smart folks that are playing in office, SASBs are heavy weighted office condo in retail that are pretty significantly distressed. Since we don’t have a big operating platform in office or retail or any of the higher CapEx type of property types, we’re not €“ I wouldn’t put our investors’ money in those sides of transactions at this point.

Jade Rahmani: Okay. Wanted to ask about multifamily, I think five markets constitute about 25% of the 1 million units currently under construction, including €“ growth markets such as Phoenix and Austin. What are your thoughts about the market’s ability to absorb that supply and whether it creates any issues downstream?