CaliberCos Inc. (CWD) Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. This is Roy, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Caliber Q2 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw a question, please press star one again. I will now like to turn the conference over to Ilya Grosovsky, Vice President of Investor Relations, Corporation Development. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Caliber's second quarter 2026 financial results conference call. With me today are Chris Loeffler, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, and Michael Rosales, Acting Chief Financial Officer of Caliber. Thank you. Please note that we have a quarterly earnings presentation, which will serve as a supplement to today's prepared remarks. can access the presentation in the investor relations section of our website at www.paliburco.com. After management's commentary, we will open the call for questions. As a reminder, the information discussed today may include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Words like believe, expect, and anticipate refer to our best estimates as of this call, and there can be no assurances. that these will actually take place. So, our actual future results could differ significantly from these statements. Further information on the company's risk factors is contained in the company's quarterly and annual reports and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Chris. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Elia. Good afternoon, everyone. Today, my comments will address an update to our strategic expansion into digital assets and blockchain, a discussion of Caliber's financial position, and our private equity real estate platform and related activity. Before walking through these topics, I'll briefly frame the quarter. Our second quarter results were in line with our 2026 plan. While platform revenue declined approximately 10% year-over-year, driven by the timing of revenue-generating activities between the periods, our platform-adjusted EBITDA turned positive, an improvement of approximately $0.4 million, and we executed across both sides of the revenue plan we laid out at year-end, generating new capital formation and project-level financings. We are reaffirming our full year 2026 guidance today, and Michael will walk you through the financial details later in the call. I'll start my update with our digital asset strategy. I'm happy to announce that this morning, Calibre completed its first fund tokenization. investors in pure pickleball and paddle can now elect to hold their investment as a digital token. This is the first tokenization for us, but we are already working on our second, our Steamboat Springs Hyatt Studios offering. This is a moment in time in Caliber's 17-year history worth pausing to enjoy. It is the start of a tokenization program we expect to expand across additional offerings over time. beginning with an initial slate of approximately 100 million in managed assets. Let me put our tokenization work in a market context. According to rwa.xyz, the registry that tracks tokenized real-world assets, the total market stood at approximately 25.4 billion at the end of 2025. And as of this week, it stands at approximately $38.4 billion. That's roughly 51% growth, approximately $13 billion of new tokenized assets in the first seven and a half months of 2026. Within that $38.4 billion, only about $200 million is associated with real estate. roughly half of 1 percent of the market. When we read those two numbers together, we see a market that is growing fast and a real estate category inside of it that has barely been touched. Real estate is one of the largest asset classes in the world, and almost none of it has been tokenized. We believe that that gap is the opportunity, and with our first fund tokenization complete, and an initial slate of approximately 100 million of managed assets behind it, tend to position Caliber as an early leader in the tokenization of private real estate funds. Why tokenize? Applying tokenization to our existing real estate funds platform enhances capital formation, simplifies investment valuation, adds liquidity features for investors in our funds, and reduces operating costs for Caliber through a more efficient investment management platform. We brought together top-tier partners for this tokenization with Chainlink's automated compliance engine automating investor verification, KYC and AML review, sanction screening and transfer controls, integrated with leading identity, custody and fund infrastructure providers. Turning to the Treasury itself, at the end of the second quarter, we held 229,204 linked tokens with a fair value of 1.7 million. During the quarter, we sold approximately 278,357 linked tokens for proceeds of 2.5 million. We redeploy that capital into our real estate platform, generating a corresponding increase in cash and other assets. We continue to allocate capital where it generates the highest return for shareholders. Our real estate platform is where we're seeing the most immediate revenue growth opportunity in 2026, and the Treasury supported that execution. As the real estate platform releases cash, we plan to maintain our linked treasury and strategically grow our position according to the company's capital allocation strategy. Working side-by-side with the team at Chainlink has only strengthened our conviction on the value they bring to tokenization. and the use case for LINK to power the infrastructure layer of decentralized finance. Turning to financial visibility, our focus in 2026 is on executing financings and converting our existing pipeline into realized revenue. We have updated our platform performance supplement through the end of the second quarter, which provides investors with a clear view of our operating business. This supplement excludes consolidated assets and focuses on the portion of our platform that directly drives shareholder value. At the end of the second quarter, our estimated performance allocations totaled $96 million, down from $99 million in the prior quarter and up from $85 million in the prior year quarter. Turning to fundraising, managed capital at the end of the second quarter was $495 million, compared to $489 million in the previous quarter and $498 million in the year-ago quarter. The increase relative to the previous quarter was primarily driven by increased investments in our residential and commercial properties. including new capital raised in DePere Pickleball and Paddle, and our Canyon Residential Project. and contributions from our diversified funds. Our underlying capital formation activity in the second quarter remain consistent with our plan, and we expect managed capital to grow over the balance of 2026 as new fund offerings come onto the market. Our wholesale channels advisor production is continuing to broaden, and the selling group base continued to grow. During the second quarter, we added four new producing advisors across three different firms, including one firm that began producing for the first time this quarter, a signal that production is moving beyond our founding relationships. In parallel, we continue to roadshow the Hiatt Studios platform to the wholesale channel and to build a real pipeline of advisor and firm level interest. Third party due diligence is underway now. Standard practice before any strategy reaches advisors' desks, and we expect it to clear in time for a full launch into the channel in mid Q3. From there, the work is converting the pipeline into funded capital. I'm also pleased to share that our direct fundraising from high net worth individuals improved in the second quarter and drove overall fundraising results. This is a healthy signal as Calibre saw improved lead generation from its in-house marketing engine and conversion from to form valuable new relationships. The direct investment client base of over 2,000 individuals continues to expand, and interest in real estate investment appears to be approving in 2026. Now, we'll turn to updates on assets we manage and the performance of our managed real estate funds. We remain focused on investing in hospitality, multifamily, and multi-tenant industrial real estate, which we believe offers Calibers investor clients the best opportunities in the current market environment. In the interest of your time each quarter, I touch on what I believe are the most important changes that occurred during and after the quarter's end, but I will not attempt to comprehensively discuss every movement in every fund. Our Hyatt Studios developments continue to progress as planned. In July, we broke ground on the Hyatt Studios Steamboat Springs project and purchased a 2.5 acre site for our Hyatt Studios TSMC project in Phoenix, Arizona. We now control a hotel development site minutes away from TSMC, which is a $265 billion investment in U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing. We've now launched three of the four investor offerings supporting our Hyatt Studios development platform, and expect to launch the fourth as it completes drafting and legal review. All of these assets are designed to transition into long-term ownership within Caliber Hospitality Trust, Inc., or CHT, which we expect would exercise an option agreement to acquire the assets once built and stabilized, offering Hyatt Studios investors a defined exit either through cash or shares in CHT, THT Investor is a proprietary pipeline of new income-producing hotels. Turning to CHT itself, the fund is currently focused on acquiring high quality hotel properties at an attractive entry point. taking advantage of a meaningful pricing dislocation in the hotel space, where we are seeing opportunities to buy good quality cash flowing assets at a discount to both their inherent construction cost and to longer term market values. We are pursuing these acquisitions through direct cash transactions and tax deferred contributions using CHT's upgrade structure, which gives existing hotel owners a tax-efficient path to roll their assets into a diversified portfolio. This quarter, CHT grew its active acquisition pipeline to eight hotel assets in various states of underwriting, with one of those eight moving to a fully executed letter of intent for purchase. We've also made a significant change in CHD's hotel management approach. In 2025, Caliber took action to change management on one hotel asset, the Hampton Inn Suites in Scottsdale, Arizona. which has since delivered improvements in gross operating profit against a relatively soft hotel revenue environment. In 2026, an additional five hotels exited our legacy manager, and our team, along with our new management partner, stepped into place an owner-centric model, as we did with the Hampton Inn. We expect similar profitability improvements across the portfolio as the playbook is implemented, and we look forward to reporting our results. Finally, we are actively working on refinancing several existing CHC assets. These financings are expected to fund property-level improvements, decrease overall financing costs, improve property-level liquidity, and contribute to Caliber's financing-related revenue in the third and fourth quarters of 2020. Our Pure Piccolo Wall and Paddel Project in Scruffville, Arizona, will deliver a world-class pickleball and paddle facility featuring 48 courts, a 1,200-seat pro arena, a full-service clubhouse, sports facilities, Performance and Recovery Center, sponsored and managed by Honor Health. Food and beverage services will be managed by Wolfgang Puck Catering, which includes an on-site restaurant, grab-and-go market, special events space, teaching kitchen, VIP space, arena confessions, and a rooftop patio. Peer's building permits were approved and it continues to advance towards shovel-ready status, with the focus now on finalizing construction financing and rounding out the overall capital structure, which is actively in progress. We are also excited that Pure is our first tokenized offering. With pickleball and paddle being the fastest growing sports in the United States and the globe, respectively, the tokenization of the fund now offers accredited investors worldwide the opportunity to invest in the growth of both sports in the U.S. via this offering. Turning to Canyon Village, our large scale conversion of office to multifamily in North Phoenix, serving the TSMC and Apple Fab Development Corridor, the HUD construction loan application was approved during the quarter, and we are filing our firm commitment application shortly to move to a final close. Demolition is now completed and drawings for the building and garage are close to complete as well. At Encore, our land development in northern Colorado, we continue to advance site development planning and commercial leasing activity. We have an active LOI with 7-Eleven, an LOI on the apartment site, United Properties remains in escrow on the industrial site, and we are seeing activity from two national big box users. On project financing, we are making continued progress with our selected financing partner and expect to close in the financing in the near term. Project execution remains tied to financing and infrastructure milestones, which we expect to advance over the coming quarters. Caliber continues to advance its differentiated 1031 exchange offering, which provides investors seeking to place $1 million or more in 1031 exchange capital in a direct path to invest alongside Caliper in the same real estate acquisitions we are pursuing through our funds. The program uses a tenant in common or TIC structure that partners one investor with Caliber and in some cases with a small number of other Caliber-aligned investors. Caliber serves as the administrator of the asset and related TIC interest, and the investors who enter through a TIC interest can ultimately complete a tax-deferred 721 exchange into our Core Plus real estate fund. converting their interest into a diversified, professionally managed fund position. The program is distinctive in the 1031 marketplace for several reasons. First, investors come in at CalVER's cost basis on the underlying acquisition, rather than on a marked-up basis typical of larger DFT sponsors. Second, the program's cost structure compares favorably to other 1031 offerings in the market. And third, the eventual 721 exchange path into our Core Plus Real Estate Fund provides a long-term liquidity solution that very few 1031 sponsors can offer. We are now pursuing our second asset in this program, the Tonto Oaks apartment offering. is a 46-unit value-add multifamily property in Payson, Arizona, where we plan to complete a light renovation while maintaining occupancy at 90% or greater throughout the renovation cycle. The strategy is to improve the asset's value and continue generating cash flow during the hold period. Value-add multifamily is a category Caliber has historically executed against well, and we are seeing opportunities to acquire multifamily assets at more attractive prices today than we have seen in years. In summary, Calibre's second quarter was executed according to our plan, and we expect the remainder of 2026 to be driven by the closing of project level financings across our existing portfolio, continued capital formation through wholesale and direct fundraising, and opportunities for new lines of revenue and cost savings. to the tokenization of our real estate assets. Today, we are reaffirming our 2026 guidance. We continue to believe that our 2026 revenues should be in a range of 18 to 22 million, producing positive adjusted EBITDA. With that, I will turn it over to Michael to review our financial results. Thank you, Chris. Good afternoon everyone. I'll start with an update on our efforts to address our corporate note maturities to improve our corporate liquidity position. As of the end of the second quarter, we had 148 individual unsecured notes with an aggregate principal balance of approximately $26 million, of which $21 million is scheduled to mature within the next 12 months. Each note generally has a 12-month term with an option to extend. We continue to execute the strategies described in our filings to address these maturities, refinancing 12-month notes into our 36-month note program. converting notes into Class A common stock or Series AAA convertible preferred stock under our conversion program. and raising Series AA preferred stock under our regulation A-plus offering. Through August 13th, we have refinanced $6.4 million of notes into the 36-month program and converted approximately $5.3 million of notes into equity securities. We are also evaluating additional alternatives to retire nodes at Attractive Economics. These efforts are intended to reduce Caliber's near-term corporate debt, though the amount of the reduction remains to be seen. We believe this effort can reduce Caliber's leverage, improve stockholders equity and increase financial flexibility as we execute our plan towards profitability in 2026. Turning to our results for the second quarter of 2026, platform revenue for the second quarter was $3.7 million compared to $4.1 million in the prior year quarter. This decrease primarily reflects lower development and construction fees due to the timing of project financing partially offset by growth in fund management fees. Several financings that were expected to close in the second quarter have shifted to later periods, reflecting a change in timing rather than a reduction in underlying activity. We continue to expect these financing to contribute to revenue in 2026. Total platform expenses for the second quarter were $5.9 million compared to $5.3 million in the prior year quarter, an increase of approximately 11%. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in bad debt charges related to additional reserves on certain development and construction fees being done collectible, partially offset by lower professional fees incurred period over period. Platform adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was approximately $0.3 million compared to a loss of $0.1 million in the prior year quarter, an improvement of approximately $0.4 million as revenue strengthens and cost discipline continues across the business, we remain on a steady path toward our 2026 profitability targets. Managed capital totaled $495.6 million at the end of the second quarter, a decrease of six-tenths of one percent compared with the prior year. In terms of our outlook for 2026, we continue to expect total revenue in the range of $18 million to $22 million. We continue to expect approximately 60% of revenue growth to be driven by project-level financing across our existing portfolio, with the remaining 40% driven by capital formation and asset management activities. Based on our current visibility into the pipeline and financing activity, we believe we are positioned to achieve adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2026.

I'll now turn it back to the operator for your questions. Thank you. We will now be opening the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. Thank you. Again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. That concludes with our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Ilya Grubzovsky, Vice President of Investor Relations Corporate Development, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Please visit our website at www.caliberco.com and follow the path for public shareholders. There, you can download our financial supplement and presentation and sign up on the mailing list specifically focused for public investors. If you have any questions... please complete the contact us form so that we can get engaged with you directly. Thank you for joining today's call and have a great day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect. This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review. [Call has ended.]