KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. (NYSE:KREF) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 24, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jack Switala - Investor Relations
Matt Salem - Chief Executive Officer
Patrick Mattson - President and Chief Operating Officer

Conference Call Participants

Rick Shane - JPMorgan
Stephen Laws - Raymond James
Sarah Barcomb - BTIG
Steve Delaney - JMP Securities
Jade Rahmani - KBW
Don Fandetti - Wells Fargo

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. First Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Jack Switala. Please go ahead.

Jack Switala

Great. Thanks, operator, and welcome to the KKR Real Estate Finance Trust earnings call for the first quarter of 2024.

As the operator mentioned, this is Jack Switala. Today, I'm joined on the call by our CEO, Matt Salem; our President and COO, Patrick Mattson; and our CFO, Kendra Decious.

I'd like to remind everyone that we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures on the call, which are reconciled to GAAP figures in our earnings release and in the supplementary presentation, both of which are available on the Investor Relations portion of our website.

This call will also contain certain forward-looking statements, which do not guarantee future events or performance. Please refer to our most recently filed 10-Q for cautionary factors related to these statements.

Before I turn the call over to Matt, I'll provide a brief recap of our results.

For the first quarter of 2024, we reported a GAAP net loss of $8.7 million or negative $0.13 per share. Distributable earnings this quarter were $26.7 million or $0.39 per share. Book value per share as of March 31, 2024 was $15.18, a decline of approximately 2% quarter-over-quarter. Our CECL allowance increased to $3.54 per share from $3.06 per share last quarter. In mid-April, we paid a cash dividend of $0.25 per common share with respect to the first quarter.

With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Matt.

Matt Salem

Thank you, Jack. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.

I'd like to begin with a brief update on the state of the market. Despite the latest higher-than-expected CPI print, resulting in muted expectations for near-term interest rate cuts, the commercial real estate market continues to heal with increased transaction volume, price transparency and liquidity across most property types. Given narrowing views around interest rates and sustained economic growth, combined with valuation stability, we are beginning to see encouraging green shoots.