TPG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. (MITT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the TPG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to Jenny Neslin, General Counsel for the company. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call for TPG Mortgage Investment Trust. With me on the call today are T.J. Durkin, our CEO and President; Nick Smith, our Chief Investment Officer; and Anthony Rossiello, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, please note that the information discussed in today's call may contain forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements made during today's call are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which are outlined in our SEC filings, including under the headings Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements, Risk Factors and Management's Discussion and Analysis. The company's actual results may differ materially from these statements. We encourage you to read the disclosure regarding forward-looking statements contained in our SEC filings, including our most recently filed Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, and our subsequent reports filed from time to time with the SEC. Except as required by law, we are not obligated and do not intend to update or to review or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. During the call today, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our SEC filings for reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures. We will also reference the earnings presentation and the transaction presentation that were posted to our website this morning. To view the slide presentation, turn to our website, www.mitt.tpg.com, and click the link for the Q2 2026 earnings presentation or the transaction presentation as applicable on the home page. Again, welcome to the call, and thank you for joining us today. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to T.J.

Thank you, Jenny. Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to report another strong quarter for MITT, highlighted by second quarter earnings and the announcement of our definitive agreement to acquire Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment Corporation. We believe this transaction represents a transformational step forward for MITT. The combined scale will benefit from significantly enhanced scale, meaningful G&A synergies and a highly complementary portfolio mix that remains firmly centered on our core focus, the residential mortgage ecosystem. As a reminder, MITT has a proven track record of executing and creating value through strategic acquisitions, including the WMC transaction that closed in December 2023. Since that acquisition, MITT has dramatically outperformed its peers, increasing our dividend 5x for a cumulative growth of 33%, while delivering approximately 140% growth in our quarterly EAD. With the addition of Cherry Hill, the combined company's market capitalization will increase by approximately 36%, materially improving stock liquidity and trading volumes while creating an equity capital base of approximately $750 million. This greater scale will position us to compete more effectively, operate more efficiently and create stronger long-term earnings power for our shareholders. We are also pleased that MITT's manager, TPG, is making a direct cash contribution of approximately $20 million alongside approximately $15 million from MITT's balance sheet, creating an attractive cash to stock consideration mix of approximately 30%. We believe this differentiates the transaction from a traditional REIT acquisition and meaningfully enhances the value proposition for both Cherry Hill and MITT shareholders. Cherry Hill shareholders will also gain access to the full breadth of TPG's platform, capabilities, relationships and operating expertise. In addition, we believe the combination will generate substantial G&A efficiencies with expected annual cost synergies in the range of approximately $7 million to $9 million, further supporting earnings growth and returns over time. We expect to close the strategic acquisition in the fourth quarter. Turning back to the second quarter. The market navigated a challenging interest rate environment driven by renewed inflation concerns and continued uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy. Despite this backdrop, MITT delivered another quarter of stable performance and disciplined execution. Book value increased from $9.97 to $10 per share during the quarter as we maintained a disciplined leverage profile and continued rotating capital into higher returning residential credit strategies. At the same time, Arc Home continued to scale meaningfully with funding volumes reaching multiyear highs. These initiatives helped generate EAD of $0.24 per share for the quarter, fully covering our recently declared dividend of $0.24. Notably, our company has continued to demonstrate earnings growth over the past year despite the ongoing headwind of having a legacy commercial loan exposure on nonaccrual status, which leaves room for significant upside as we continue to wind down this exposure. On the topic of our legacy commercial loans, as we discussed last quarter, the sale process for our retail exposure is progressing well. A buyer has been selected, and we currently expect the transaction to close by year-end. Within the hospitality portfolio, we remain on track to resolve 2 of our remaining exposures by the end of the third quarter. More importantly, we expect all 3 of these resolutions to occur in line with our current carrying values. These resolutions are important catalysts for MITT. As capital from these legacy positions is redeployed into our core residential strategies, we expect it to contribute approximately $0.05 of incremental EAD in the short term. Looking ahead, the remaining 2 hospitality assets are actively being repositioned under new management, and we expect to begin remarketing those assets next year. The eventual recycling of that capital is expected to provide an additional annual EAD benefit in excess of $0.15 per share. So combined, that's $0.20 in aggregate incremental EAD per annum. All in all, we believe MITT is entering a new phase for growth. We have consistently executed on the objectives we laid out over the last several years, strengthening the platform, improving earnings power and positioning the company for higher and more durable returns. As we look towards closing out 2026, we believe we have a clear line of sight to stronger ROEs, higher EAD and continued dividend growth. We have already raised the dividend in 4 of the last 7 quarters, reflecting the momentum we are building and the confidence we have in the trajectory of the business. We remain excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to continuing to share our progress in the quarters to come. With that, I'll turn the call over to Nick.

Thanks, T.J., and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. The company remains active, rotating excess capital into home equity and non-agency credit, where we continue to see attractive risk-adjusted returns and strong demand across the capital stack. MITT is well positioned to continue to benefit from the growth of the non-agency residential mortgage market. As stated previously, home equity remains core to our strategy, and we believe this segment will provide the company with compelling opportunities as this residential housing segment's growth accelerates. It is worth noting that while year-over-year non-agency issuance has increased nearly 50%, the home equity segment has seen annualized growth of almost 150%. We expect our early mover advantage and continued market leadership to pay dividends well into the future as our partnerships deepen with the growth of the overall market. This quarter, the company successfully issued 2 securitizations with an aggregate balance of over $750 million. In the third quarter, we expect to issue over $1.25 billion across 3 home equity securitizations, building on partnerships with leading home equity originators. We expect to be able to continue this growth while maintaining a disciplined leverage profile as demonstrated by the modest increase in leverage quarter-over-quarter of just 0.1 turns, bringing the company's economic leverage to just 1.8 turns. Importantly, at these current levels, we have plenty of dry powder to continue to grow our asset base by using a combination of liquidity on hand or untapped financing, which we expect to be an important driver of additional earnings power. On Page 6, we highlight the second quarter's performance. This quarter, there were modest net mark-to-market gains on our investment and hedge portfolio despite the bear flattener and meaningfully higher nominal yields. Despite a challenging origination backdrop at Arc Home was able to distribute $6.6 million in excess capital to MITT during the quarter while growing origination volumes and making early progress on newly launched home equity offerings. This, combined with the previously mentioned capital rotation, drove the company's earnings power. Following T.J.'s remarks regarding the status of resolving the legacy commercial portfolio, we look forward to quickly rotating that capital into attractive opportunities within our core strategy to drive meaningfully accretion to EAD. To reiterate T.J.'s remarks, we see approximately $0.20 annual EAD pickup in aggregate with this improvement beginning in the third quarter and accelerating through 2027. Before handing off the call to Anthony, I'd like to comment briefly on MITT's strategic acquisition of Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment Corporation. As T.J. noted, this is a highly complementary portfolio. Cherry Hill's mortgage servicing rights will provide MITT with a new revenue stream that delivers additional diversification to the existing portfolio. We are confident that this is another segment of the broader residential mortgage ecosystem that MITT is well suited to leverage in the future to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns and importantly, will contribute to earnings immediately. Additionally, we believe that the combined balance sheet will provide opportunity to free additional capital through opportunistic sales and additional leverage capacity. Over to you, Anthony.

Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. During the second quarter, we continued rotating capital into home equity loans and non-agency securitizations, successfully executing 2 cosponsored deals. We also gained significant momentum toward resolving certain of our legacy WMC commercial loans and delivered continued strength in earnings available for distribution or EAD. During the quarter, book value increased 0.3% to $10 per share, generating 2.7% economic return, inclusive of our $0.24 dividend. GAAP net income was approximately $9.1 million or $0.29 per share. Net income during the quarter was driven by durable EAD across our investment portfolio and Arc Home, hedge adjusted gains on residential investments and unrealized gains on legacy W&C commercial loans, supported by $3.5 million of payments received, which reduced our cost basis and were used to continue delevering these investments. Our investment portfolio continued to generate high-teen ROEs while expenses remain controlled. We recognized EAD of $0.24 per share, fully covering our dividend. Net interest income, inclusive of our hedge portfolio was $0.65 per share, exceeding $0.45 of expenses and preferred dividends to generate net earnings of $0.20 per share. Arc Home contributed an additional $0.04 per share to EAD, consistent with last quarter and driven by origination volume growth. Our investment portfolio stood at $7.7 billion, primarily allocated across high-quality agency-eligible non-QM and home equity loans. While headline assets declined from $8.1 billion in Q1 due to securitized loan paydowns, our Q2 securitizations deployed capital into unconsolidated non-Agency RMBS rather than consolidated loans. During the quarter, we purchased an additional $70 million of HELOCs ahead of a planned Q3 securitization and acquired $38 million of non-Agency RMBS through executing 2 partnership deals without incurring warehouse financing risk. Looking ahead, resolving nonaccrual commercial loans unlocks roughly $30 million of capital for reinvestment into higher-yielding residential investments, further enhancing shareholder returns in 2027. Rounding out a strong quarter, we're excited to execute on our strategic acquisition of Cherry Hill, delivering immediate and long-term benefits to shareholders of both companies. The transaction is expected to drive EAD accretion in 2027 by acquiring a portfolio generating attractive equity returns while realizing significant operating synergies upon combining the platforms. Cherry Hill's Agency RMBS and low WACC MSR portfolios bring durable, predictable cash flows that complement our residential loan strategy, strengthen our net interest margin and provide strong support for our dividend. Importantly, this transaction achieved scale through permanent capital without adding unsecuritized debt, supported by a significant contribution from TPG and an amended manager incentive fee structure that aligns interest with shareholders and TPG's commitment to growth in MITT's pure-play residential strategy. Upon combination, pro forma economic leverage will settle at approximately 2.9 turns, derisking Cherry Hill's historical profile while maintaining our conservative balance sheet relative to peers. As we ended the quarter with $112 million of liquidity, funding this $15 million of cash consideration leaves us with ample post-close flexibility to capitalize on a larger, more liquid platform. I'll now turn the call back to T.J. for closing remarks.

Thank you, Anthony. I'd like to close by addressing Cherry Hill shareholders. We hope you agree that this pending transaction is compelling and should deliver long-term value for you. We look forward to welcoming you to our combined company, and we sincerely hope your ownership continues. And with that, we'll open up the line for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no questions at this time. I'll now turn the program back to our presenters. Apologies. We do have a question. We'll take our first question from Bose George with KBW.

Actually, first on the acquisition. Is the plan to maintain that portfolio, both the MSR and the agencies as is? Or any thoughts on how that might look as a combined company?