Ready Capital Corporation (NYSE:RC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Andrew Ahlborn: Well, the large — maybe you could touch on that, but just a comment on how the large percentage of the net equity invested in the business is a very stable and strong MSR portfolio.

Henry Coffey: And that you would sell? That has a nice value for it, okay?

Andrew Ahlborn: Yes. And plus it’s located, concentrated in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississipi area, which has a lower convexity risk than, let’s say, a California MSR portfolio. So they tend to trade cheaper than — the more demand, especially in the MSR market, what we’re seeing now, which you could best be described as orderly despite the obvious turmoil in the nonbank mortgage space. So we think we’re pretty comfortable with the ability to monetize the existing MSR book at or near its current value.

Henry Coffey: And then origination [indiscernible] sales or just moves to liquidates?

Adam Zausmer: Yes, Henry, that’s what I can say. I think we firmly believe there is platform value in the business beyond the MSR. When you look at how the market share that business has in Louisiana, when you look at how well it’s run, when you look at profitability outside of disservicing across cycles, certainly, we think there is demand and value for the business just beyond the MSR asset. So I do not suspect this is an exercise in selling MSRs and letting everything else unwinds and do believe we’ll be able to recapture some of the value that’s been created on the origination side as well.

Tom Capasse: Yes, just to add to that. This is a very — it’s a solid management team, 25 years’ experience, heavy retail and purchase percentage. And we believe the platform as a result will be a very attractive to the [indiscernible], especially given the linkage of recapture that they’ve been able to produce over the last 2 decades.

Henry Coffey: We’ve seen several acquisitions, mainly by one prominent public company of retail platform. Number two, completely unrelated in the construction, development, fixed and slip, whatever you want to call it, that whole subsection of the business. What are you seeing in terms of new demand? And how are both Mosaic and Broad fitting into that?

Tom Capasse: Yes, if you want to comment on kind of the rollout of the residential finance and small balance program in conjunction with the Broadmark acquisition and what you’re seeing there for demand?

Adam Zausmer: Yes. I mean, certainly, demand remained strong. Still the supply/demand is certainly in balance. Our team, since we announced the product, which is really a consolidation to a single high yield, what we call the residential construction finance product, the demand has been significant. I think folks have a similar view to us that building ground up today, specifically on projects such as multifamily and other components of the residential space. In a market — a challenging market like today, I think as these projects stabilize in 2 to 3 years, we think that the demand — and that the demand is going to be significant, especially in the multifamily side. We’re also able to lock in higher rates today, given pullback of banks, which is certainly attractive.

And lending in today’s market, we’re certainly going to come out, like I mentioned before, these projects are going to stabilize and what we think is going to be an improving — much improved market in 2 to 3 years.

Henry Coffey: If you look at that overall equation, is most of the demand per se the ground up building or fix and flip? Or how is it…

Adam Zausmer: Yes, I mean, it’s really a mixed bag. I mean, I think our focus is really going to be more on the multifamily side. We think there’s a real opportunity in the market to really — especially in the small balance space to really take a project from multifamily projects from ground up, then convert that debt into a bridge product and then convert it again into our agency product. So really capturing 3 different products and keeping that sponsor with the firm is something that we’re focused on. And we’ll certainly take a look at select build-to-rent projects. I think fix and flip definitely less so, but really more focused on the multifamily rental side.

Henry Coffey: And then is the pricing on those loans fixed or variable?

Adam Zausmer: The pricing on those loans is variable.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Matt Howlett of B. Riley Securities.