Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
There have been no material changes from the risk factors set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 other than as set forth below.
Major public health issues, including the current outbreak of COVID-19, and related disruptions in the U.S. and global economy and financial markets have adversely impacted us and could continue to adversely impact or disrupt our financial condition and results of operations.
The recent outbreak of COVID-19 in many countries continues to adversely impact global economic activity and has contributed to significant volatility in financial markets. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization publicly characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. On March 13, 2020, the President of the United States declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency. The global impact of the outbreak has been rapidly evolving, and as cases of the virus increased around the world, governments and organizations have implemented a variety of actions to mobilize efforts to mitigate the ongoing and expected impact. Many governments, including where real estate is located that secures or underlies a significant portion of our commercial real estate loans, have reacted by instituting quarantines, restrictions on travel, school closures, bans on public events and on public gatherings, “shelter in place” or “stay at home” rules, restrictions on types of business that may continue to operate, with exceptions, in certain cases, available for certain essential operations and businesses, and/or restrictions on types of construction projects that may continue. Further, such actions have created, and we expect will continue to create, disruption in real estate financing transactions and the commercial real estate market and adversely impacted a number of industries. The outbreak could have a continued adverse impact on economic and market conditions and continue to cause regional, national and global economic slowdowns and potentially trigger recessions in any or all of these areas.
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In the United States, there have been a number of federal, state and local government initiatives applicable to a significant number of mortgage loans, to manage the spread of the virus and its impact on the economy, financial markets and continuity of businesses of all sizes and industries. On March 27, 2020, the U.S. Congress approved, and President Trump signed into law, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”). The CARES Act provides approximately $2 trillion in financial assistance to individuals and businesses resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19. The CARES Act, among other things, provides certain measures to support individuals and businesses in maintaining solvency through monetary relief, including in the form of financing and loan forgiveness and/or forbearance. Although this action by the federal government, together with other actions taken at the federal, regional and local levels, are intended to support these economies, there is no guarantee that such measures will provide sufficient relief to avoid continued adverse effects on the economy and potentially a recession. Similar actions have been taken by governments around the globe but as is the case in the United States there is no assurance that such measures will prevent further economic disruptions, which may be significant, around the world.
We believe that our ability, as well as that of our Manager, to operate, our level of business activity and the profitability of our business, as well as the values of, and the cash flows from, the assets we own have been, and will continue to be, impacted by the effects of COVID-19 and could in the future be impacted by another pandemic or other major public health issues. While we have implemented risk management and contingency plans and taken preventive measures and other precautions, no predictions of specific scenarios can be made with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic and such measures may not adequately predict the impact on our business from such events.
The effects of COVID-19 have adversely impacted the value of our assets, our business, financial condition and results of operations and cash flows. Some of the factors that impacted us to date and may continue to affect us include the following:
• the decline in the value of commercial real estate, which negatively impacts the value of our loans, potentially materially;
• to the extent the value of commercial real estate declines, which would also likely negatively impact the value of the loans we own, we could become subject to additional margin calls under our master repurchase agreement with Goldman Sachs Bank USA, and if we fail to resolve such margin calls when due by payment of cash or delivery of additional collateral, the lenders may exercise remedies including demanding payment by us of our aggregate outstanding financing obligations and/or taking ownership of the loans or other assets securing the applicable obligations. We may not have the funds available to repay such financing obligations, and we may be unable to raise the funds from alternative sources on favorable terms or at all. Forced sales of the loans or other assets that secure our financing obligations in order to pay outstanding financing obligations may be on terms less favorable to us than might otherwise be available in a regularly functioning market and could result in deficiency judgments and other claims against us;
• difficulty accessing debt and equity capital on attractive terms, or at all;
• a severe disruption and instability in the financial markets or deteriorations in credit and financing conditions may affect our or our borrowers’ ability to make regular payments of principal and interest (whether due to an inability to make such payments, an unwillingness to make such payments, or a waiver of the requirement to make such payments on a timely basis or at all);
• government-mandated moratoriums on the construction, development or redevelopment of properties underlying our construction loans may prevent the completion, on a timely basis or at all, of such projects.
• unavailability of information, resulting in restricted access to key inputs used to derive certain estimates and assumptions made in connection with evaluating our loans for impairments and establishing allowances for loan losses;
• our ability to remain in compliance with the financial covenants under our borrowings, including in the event of impairments in the value of the loans we own;
• a general decline in business activity and demand for mortgage financing, servicing and other real estate and real estate-related transactions, which could adversely affect our ability to make new investments or to redeploy the proceeds from repayments of our existing investments;
• disruptions to the efficient function of our operations because of, among other factors, any inability to access short-term or long-term financing for the loans we make;
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• our need to sell assets, including at a loss;
• reductions in loan origination activities;
• inability of other third-party vendors we rely on to conduct our business to operate effectively and continue to support our business and operations, including vendors that provide IT services, legal and accounting services, or other operational support services;
• effects of legal and regulatory responses to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health issues, which could result in additional regulation or restrictions affecting the conduct of our business; and
• our ability to ensure operational continuity in the event our business continuity plan is not effective or ineffectually implemented or deployed during a disruption.
The rapid development and fluidity of the circumstances resulting from this pandemic precludes any prediction as to the ultimate adverse impact of COVID-19. There are no comparable recent events which provide guidance as to the effect of the spread of COVID-19 and a pandemic on our business. Nevertheless, COVID-19 and the current financial, economic and capital markets environment, and future developments in these and other areas present material uncertainty and risk with respect to our performance, financial condition, volume of business, results of operations and cash flows. Moreover, many risk factors set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 should be interpreted as heightened risks as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Holders of our common stock may receive distributions on a delayed basis or distributions may decrease over time. Changes in the amount and timing of distributions we pay or in the tax characterization of distributions we pay may adversely affect the fair value of our common stock or may result in holders of our common stock being taxed on distributions at a higher rate than initially expected.
Our distributions are driven by a variety of factors, including our minimum distribution requirements under the REIT tax laws and our REIT taxable income (including certain items of non-cash income) as calculated pursuant to the Internal Revenue Code. We are generally required to distribute to our stockholders at least 90% of our REIT taxable income, although our reported financial results for U.S. GAAP purposes may differ materially from our REIT taxable income.
For the year ended December 31, 2019, we paid $30.4 million of cash distributions on our common stock, representing total distributions of $2.03 per share. For the six months ended June 30, 2020, our board of directors declared total cash distributions of $0.76 per share that were paid monthly in the same period in which each was declared.
We continue to prudently evaluate our liquidity and review the rate of future distributions in light of our financial condition and the applicable minimum distribution requirements under applicable REIT tax laws and regulations. We may determine to pay distributions on a delayed basis or decrease distributions for a number of factors, including the risk factors described in this quarterly report on Form 10-Q and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.
To the extent we determine that future distributions would represent a return of capital to investors or would not be required under applicable REIT tax laws and regulations, rather than the distribution of income, we may determine to discontinue distribution payments until such time that distributions would again represent a distribution of income or be required under applicable REIT tax laws and regulations. Any reduction or elimination of our payment of distributions would not only reduce the amount of distributions you would receive as a holder of our common stock, but could also have the effect of reducing the fair value of our common stock and our ability to raise capital in future securities offerings.
In addition, the rate at which holders of our common stock are taxed on distributions we pay and the characterization of our distribution - be it ordinary income, capital gains, or a return of capital - could have an impact on the fair value of our common stock. After we announce the expected characterization of distributions we have paid, the actual characterization (and, therefore, the rate at which holders of our common stock are taxed on the distributions they have received) could vary from our expectations, including due to errors, changes made in the course of preparing our corporate tax returns, or changes made in response to an audit by the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”"), with the result that holders of our common stock could incur greater income tax liabilities than expected.
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