Blackstone Mortgage Trust Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
October 29, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Distributable earnings prior to charge-offs of $0.48 per share covered the $0.47 dividend this quarter (GAAP EPS $0.37) and book value was essentially flat at $20.99 per share.
  • Positive Sentiment: The firm closed $1.0B of investments in 3Q, has $1.7B in closings post-quarter and targets >$7B of new investments this year across originations, net-lease and loan acquisitions with levered spreads >9% (low‑teens all‑in returns).
  • Positive Sentiment: Credit metrics meaningfully improved — $1.6B of repayments in 3Q, no new impaired loans, the portfolio is ~96% performing and impaired balances are ~71% below last year’s peak, with multiple resolutions above carrying value.
  • Positive Sentiment: Balance-sheet and funding costs improved, with debt/equity ~3.5x, ~$1.3B liquidity and >$7B financing capacity, plus a repriced $400M term loan (‑100 bps) and tighter asset-level funding (~15 bps improvement in Q3).
  • Neutral Sentiment: Management and market signals are mixed — CEO transition to Tim Johnson, shares trade at a steep discount (yield ~10.4%), prompting ~ $140M of buybacks and a replenished $150M repurchase capacity but leaving some execution and valuation uncertainty.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Blackstone Mortgage Trust Q3 2025
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

Skip to Participants
Operator

Good day and welcome to Blackstone Mortgage Trust third quarter 2025 investor call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you require operator assistance at any time, please press star zero. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Tim Hayes, Vice President, Shareholder Relations. Please go ahead.

Tim Hayes
Tim Hayes
VP of Shareholder Relations at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Good morning and welcome, everyone, to Blackstone Mortgage Trust's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. I am joined today by Katie Keenan, Chief Executive Officer, Tim Johnson, Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS, Tony Marone, Chief Financial Officer, Austin Peña, Executive Vice President of Investments, and Marcin Urbasic, Deputy Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we filed our 10-Q and issued a press release with a presentation of our results, which are available on our website and have been filed with the SEC. I'd like to remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors outside of the company's control. Actual results may differ materially. For discussion of some of the risks that could affect results, please see the Risk Factors section of our most recent 10-K. We do not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements.

Tim Hayes
Tim Hayes
VP of Shareholder Relations at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

We will also refer to certain non-GAAP measures on this call, and for reconciliations, you should refer to the press release and 10-Q. This audio cast is copyrighted material of Blackstone Mortgage Trust and may not be duplicated without our consent. For the third quarter, we reported GAAP net income of $0.37 per share and distributable earnings of $0.24 per share. Distributable earnings prior to charge-offs were $0.48 per share. A few weeks ago, we paid a dividend of $0.47 per share with respect to the third quarter. Please let me know if you have any questions following today's call. With that, I'll now turn it over to Katie.

Katie Keenan
Katie Keenan
CEO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Thanks, Tim. The excellent strong third quarter results underscore the continued forward momentum across all aspects of our business, including earnings power, credit, investment activity, and balance sheet optimization. We reported distributable earnings prior to charge-offs of $0.48 per share, covering the $0.47 dividend and continuing this year's positive trajectory. Book value was essentially flat, reflecting a stable credit backdrop with no new impaired loans. We continued our robust investment activity, looking across channels, originations, portfolio acquisitions, and net lease, and across geographies to find compelling relative value. We continued to drive a more attractive cost of capital to enhance our competitiveness, improving terms on both corporate and asset-level financing to reflect the strong positioning and track record of our business through this period. The excellent 3Q performance also reflects our ability to capitalize on the continuing recovery in market conditions.

Katie Keenan
Katie Keenan
CEO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Real estate fundamentals remain strong, with demand stable or improving and new supply constrained. Liquidity and transaction activity are increasing, with SASB CMBS on track for a record issuance year. This dynamic continues to generate robust repayment levels in our pre-rate hike portfolio, $1.6 billion this quarter, and affords us a strong investment pipeline, with $1.7 billion of total originations closed or in closing post-quarter end, building on the $1 billion of investment activity in 3Q. While spreads have normalized as liquidity has returned to the market, the diversity and reach of our platform's vast sourcing engine are crucial differentiating factors. With a market-leading capital markets team, we've continued to drive down our cost of borrowing. These advantages on both sides of our business allow the excellent to produce compelling returns on both an absolute and relative basis.

Katie Keenan
Katie Keenan
CEO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

I'll turn it over to Austin to speak in more detail about our investments, portfolio, and balance sheet. Before I do, I'd like to spend a minute on the excellent opportune positioning today. Our portfolio is turning over, unlocking earnings from more challenged legacy deals and steadily increasing the proportion of our capital invested in high-quality current vintage assets. Our balance sheet is in fantastic shape, and we remain at the forefront of both structural and cost of capital innovation. All of this has translated to healthy earnings generation supporting our dividend. The forward trajectory of our business is embedded in this quarter's results, though the excellent stock price has yet to catch up. Notwithstanding the tremendous progress we have made in the last several years, our stock today trades within 10% of the lows through this period and continues to provide a highly attractive 10.4% dividend yield.

Katie Keenan
Katie Keenan
CEO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

This disconnect has created the opportunity for us to repurchase over $100 million of stock so far this year at a meaningful discount to book value. As my tenure as CEO comes to a close, I could not be more excited about the momentum of this business and our highly capable leadership team. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to the analyst and investor community for your support and attention to the excellent over the years. Congratulations to Tim and Austin on their new roles. Austin, over to you.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Thanks, Katie. The NST strong third quarter investment activity demonstrates the distinct advantages of our platform's differentiated scale and sourcing capabilities. As we closed $1 billion of total investments across loan originations, net lease assets, and a performing bank loan portfolio that we acquired at a discount, our loan originations remain concentrated in our highest conviction sectors, with 75% in multifamily and diversified industrial portfolios and over 60% in international markets, where we are capturing excess spread relative to comparable deals in the U.S. We continue to achieve attractive net interest margins, setting up investments to achieve a levered spread of more than 9% over base rates or low teens all-in returns. Importantly, credit characteristics remain very attractive, with strong cash flow profiles, light value-add business plans, and an average LTV of 67%.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Investments this quarter include a 90% leased, diversified U.K. industrial portfolio, and a well-amenitized, stabilized multifamily property near Miami. We also steadily grew our net lease portfolio, investing another $90 million across 60 properties in the third quarter, bringing the total portfolio to $222 million at the excellent share. Importantly, we've maintained a rigorous approach to credit, acquiring assets within durable industries and generating strong EBITDA coverage nearly three times on average and at significant discounts to replacement cost. With another $100 million in our closing pipeline, we continue to expand our presence in the net lease sector. To that end, this quarter, the excellent acquired a 50% interest in a $600 million portfolio of granular loans secured by fully occupied net lease retail assets, with a low weighted average origination LTV of 52% and an in-place debt yield over 12%.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

We were uniquely positioned to evaluate this portfolio, leveraging our experienced net lease and loan portfolio acquisition teams to underwrite and execute this transaction. Acquiring high-quality performing loans at discounts from banks remains one of our top investment themes across our platform. These transactions have a high barrier to entry, requiring bespoke sourcing capabilities, the capacity to underwrite granular portfolios quickly and accurately, and the operational wherewithal to onboard and manage hundreds of loans seamlessly. Here at Blackstone, we have invested in building market-leading capabilities to execute, leveraging the scale of our team and our data. The prize is quite compelling: high credit quality loans with convexity and duration in thematic sectors and with outsized risk-adjusted returns. With bank M&A accelerating, we see more opportunities like this on the horizon.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

In total, we expect to close over $7 billion of new investments this year across originations, loan acquisitions, and our net lease strategy, diversifying our portfolio and enhancing credit composition through deliberate rotation into the sectors and markets best positioned in the current environment. Turning to the portfolio, market tailwinds are driving increasing investor demand for assets, large and small, and supporting positive credit outcomes. We collected $1.6 billion of total repayments in the third quarter, including four loans greater than $200 million, two secured by Texas multifamily assets and two abroad, a European hotel portfolio and a London office building. We had no new impaired loans this quarter. We resolved two previously impaired loans at a premium to aggregate carrying values, and we upgraded eight loans, including six office loans, removing two from our watchlist.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Our loan portfolio is now 96% performing, and our impaired loan balance continues to decline, now at 71% below last year's peak. We expect to complete additional resolutions next quarter, with one impaired office asset sold last week and others in advanced stages. The real estate recovery, while uneven, is extending to some of the most acutely impacted markets and sectors. In San Francisco, fundamentals are improving, driven by the growth of AI. Multifamily rents are up 10%, office demand is growing, and convention hotel bookings are up 60%. Investors are taking note, with acquisition volumes picking up across sectors. Altogether, 25% of our REO portfolio today is in the Bay Area, including our largest asset, a fully renovated hotel held at nearly 60% below the prior owner's basis and more than 70% below replacement cost.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

San Francisco has long been amongst the most cyclical markets in the country, and today we are positioned to capitalize on the upswing. Amid a strong capital markets backdrop, the excellent team has taken advantage, refinancing and extending over $2 billion of corporate debt in the last 12 months. Debt markets have been resilient through recent market volatility, with spreads still sitting within 20 basis points of all-time tights. We continue to see strong demand from our bank lenders, providing opportunities to introduce new facilities, further optimize our financing structures, and reduce our marginal secured funding costs. We borrowed over 15 basis points tighter in the third quarter compared to the prior quarter, improving our cost of capital and advancing our overarching goal to generate an attractive, stable stream of current income for our investors. With that, I will pass it over to Tony to unpack our financial results.

Tony Marone
Tony Marone
CFO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Thank you, Austin, and good morning, everyone. In the third quarter, BXMT reported GAAP net income of $0.37 per share and distributable earnings, or DE, of $0.24 per share. DE prior to charge-offs, which excludes realized losses related to two loan resolutions, was $0.48 per share, an increase of $0.03 from the prior quarter and $0.01 above our $0.47 quarterly dividend. DE benefited from BXMT's continued execution on key initiatives, with investment activity, loan resolutions, and accretive capital markets executions all contributing to this quarter's strong results. We also recognized $0.02 of default interest from a multifamily loan that we paid in full. Looking forward, we expect our earnings will continue to benefit from capital redeployment and resolutions of impaired loans, including the two that closed on the last day of the quarter, as we unlock the earnings potential of that capital.

Tony Marone
Tony Marone
CFO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

For reference, we collected $0.06 of interest from impaired loans this quarter, which were excluded from earnings under cost recovery accounting. We ended the quarter with a book value of $20.99 per share, which was largely stable quarter over quarter, reflecting strong credit performance, loan resolutions executed above carrying values, and accretive share repurchases. When considering the $0.47 dividend, BXMT provided an 8% annualized economic return to stockholders this quarter. BXMT repurchased $16 million of common stock in Q3 at an average share price of $18.69, a significant discount to book value. So far in Q4, we've accelerated buybacks through recent market volatility, repurchasing another $61 million of stock at even lower levels. In total, we repurchased nearly $140 million of shares since establishing our program in 2024, and just last week received board approval to replenish our $150 million buyback capacity.

Tony Marone
Tony Marone
CFO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Our book value at 9/30 includes $712 million, $4.16 per share of CECL reserves, which declined from $755 million, $4.39 per share in the prior quarter, as we crystallized $42 million of specific CECL reserves in connection with two impaired loan resolutions. As Katie mentioned earlier, these resolutions were executed at a premium to aggregate carrying values, contributing to an $11 million net reversal in our specific CECL reserve and offsetting the modest $10 million increase in our general reserve. Turning to our balance sheet, the company remains well positioned to address today's attractive investment environment, with debt to equity down to 3.5x, strong liquidity of $1.3 billion, and over $7 billion of available financing capacity as of quarter end. In October, we closed a new $250 million non-mark-to-market credit facility with an international bank.

Tony Marone
Tony Marone
CFO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

They recently established their CRE loan warehousing business and targeted Blackstone as one of their first and largest relationships, another example of our strong position in the market and ability to drive differentiated results for stockholders. We continued to take advantage of the supportive capital markets backdrop to further optimize our cost of capital, as we repriced $400 million of corporate term loan during the quarter, reducing spread by 100 basis points and upsizing the deal by $50 million, reflecting strong demand from institutional investors. Just last week, we collapsed the company's 2020 FL3 CLO, which we replaced with balance sheet financing at a lower spread. The CLO market remains robust, with new issuance nearly tripling last year's total and tracking its strongest year since 2022.

Tony Marone
Tony Marone
CFO at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

We have been a consistent issuer in this market, completing our fifth transaction earlier this year, and we are well positioned to take advantage of the supportive market backdrop. Before opening the call to Q&A, I will turn it over to the company's Chairman and incoming CEO, Tim Johnson, for a few closing remarks.

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Thanks, Tony. First and foremost, I'd like to thank Katie for her dedicated service to the excellent team, the board, and our shareholders. Katie leaves the excellent team in a tremendous spot, with a global portfolio that's delivering for our investors and a team that's poised to capture this exciting investment environment. I've had the pleasure of working alongside Katie throughout her Blackstone tenure, and I'm extremely grateful for all of the hard work, strategic insight, and strong execution she's brought with her each and every day. She's been an inspiring partner and leader and will leave a lasting impression on our business. While we'll no doubt miss Katie, we wish her well in her next chapter, and our confidence in the team will step up in her place.

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Personally, I'm excited to have been appointed CEO of the excellent team and to work closely with Austin to continue to build on the momentum our business has today. Austin and I are fortunate to have the strength of the Blackstone franchise behind us, our dedicated team of over 160 real estate credit professionals, and the critically important connectivity with our global real estate team. This has always been the backbone of the excellent investment process. I'm looking forward to working more with all of you along the way. With that, I'll now ask the operator to open the call to questions.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, please press star one to ask a question. We ask you to limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question to allow as many callers to join the queue as possible. We'll take our first question from [Katharine] with BTIG.

Operator

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Katie, just first off, congratulations and best of luck in your new role. It has been an absolute pleasure having you in this position. Second, just wanted to follow up, Katie, on your prepared remarks where you mentioned a recovery in transaction activity and return of liquidity to the CRE markets. Two items around that. First off, can you provide a little bit more color on exactly where you're seeing that? Is that U.S. and Europe, or is it just pockets that you're seeing that recovery? Second, if that recovery in transactions is more here in the U.S., which is what it seems like to us, could we see a larger portion of your origination activity pivot back to U.S. loans instead of more Europe loans, which you've been doing so far this year?

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Thanks, Tom. This is Tim. I'll take that. I'd say liquidity certainly has returned to markets, I would say both in the U.S. and in Europe, as you pointed out, a bit stronger on a relative basis in the U.S. and mainly driven by a more established CMBS market here in the United States, as Katie referenced, tracking toward an all-time high in terms of liquidity. I would say it's a little bit further ahead, as you'd expect, in the U.S. versus Europe, but both places are continuing to see capital markets open up and be pretty strong. In terms of the U.S. versus Europe on an ongoing basis, what we love is being able to have a platform that can look across all of the regions and establish a view on relative value at any moment in time. That does shift over time. I think that the U.S.continues to be the biggest market for us, just a larger transaction market overall. I think you'll continue to see this be the largest share of our investment activity over a long period of time. We certainly look at both and play relative value across both.

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Appreciate that, Tim. Thank you. The second one for me, maybe Austin, in terms of the REO portfolio, first off, can you remind us of the potential earnings uplift as that capital comes back over time? Do you need to set aside incremental capital for the New York City hotel that you took on balance sheet during the quarter, or is that one in pretty good shape already?

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Yeah, thanks for the question. I would say generally we haven't given specific numbers in terms of the potential earnings uplift, but obviously the REO assets are not generating our target returns, and we certainly see the opportunity to, as we turn over the portfolio, exit these REO assets over time to drive additional earnings power as we do that. Specifically with regards to sort of CapEx and conditions, I would say firstly we have a tremendous amount of insight into kind of the needs across these assets. We really don't feel that there's a significant component of CapEx needed. To the extent it is needed, we certainly have the capability to do that with over $1.3 billion of liquidity. I'd say the condition of these assets across the board is pretty good, and we feel comfortable with our position today.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Got it. I appreciate the answers. Thanks, everyone.

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Harsh Hemnani with Green Street.

Harsh Hemnani
Harsh Hemnani
Senior Analyst and Head of CRE Debt Research at Green Street

Thank you. Maybe one on how you're thinking about originating new loans versus buying back into the capital structure. Is there a particular premium or discount to book at which you're thinking that buybacks are perhaps more accretive than new originations? It sounds like 4Q is stepping up on the origination front, but also on the buyback front. I'm just trying to understand the relative value match there.

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Yeah, I'd say we continue to look at both in terms of every day, just like we do across loans in the U.S. and Europe, we look at opportunities of where to invest capital, including share buybacks, which of course we've been quite active in. I'd say that's a pretty dynamic analysis. We've taken advantage of the opportunity to buy back when the stock is traded at levels that we think are quite attractive and provide very high return on investment. I think that's how we look at it. We continue to look at it dynamically over time.

Harsh Hemnani
Harsh Hemnani
Senior Analyst and Head of CRE Debt Research at Green Street

Got it. Maybe one on the makeup of the investment portfolio this quarter. It feels like roughly two-thirds of originations this quarter were in sort of the traditional floating rate loan portfolio, and roughly a third is in net lease and bank loan portfolio acquisitions. Should we be thinking about these fixed-rate loans as sort of being a lever for you to be able to reduce your floating rate exposure ahead of what most are expecting to see lower floating rates in the future?

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Yeah, Harsh, this is Austin. I can take that. I think you're correct in that we really are looking across different channels to deploy our capital right now. One of the things we like about net lease and these bank portfolios is that they do add some duration and create a natural hedge to our sort of traditional floating rate business. The bank portfolios in particular, as we noted earlier, we're buying those at a discount to par. That provides some upside convexity to the extent those loans repay more quickly than we underwrite. We like that as well from a risk-adjusted return basis. I think you'll continue to see us look across different types of investments across these channels to really think about the best relative value and really sort of diversify the composition of our earnings.

Harsh Hemnani
Harsh Hemnani
Senior Analyst and Head of CRE Debt Research at Green Street

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will take our next question from Jade Rahmani with KBW.

Jade Rahmani
Jade Rahmani
Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst of CRE Finance, Homebuilders, and Single-Family REITs at KBW

Thank you very much. Each earnings season brings its own unique developments, and it seems to me that this earnings season so far has been characterized by AI dominance, but also some pockets of weakness in the economy, whether it be in the consumer and jobs or discrete credit items in the financial space and the C&I lending and also a couple of CRE items. The commercial mortgage REIT sector also seems to have been caught in this downdraft. My main question is whether you've seen any spillover effects into the CRE market as yet, and if you're doing anything differently, perhaps more defensively to prepare for any weakness that may unfold.

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Thanks, Jade. I'd say we're not seeing it in real estate credit. We are in an environment with real estate credit where we've gone through a pretty significant downturn, and now we're quite clearly in recovery mode in terms of coming out of that downturn. I would say the real estate credit market has been somewhat uniquely tested already and has experienced its challenges. Not to say that there might not be other challenges around the corner, but it definitely is more battle-tested, I'd say, overall. That translates through to what we see on the new origination side of things in terms of credit quality. Generically, you're going to have a more tighter lending market coming out of a cycle like we've been through where credit standards are higher. We're not seeing that type of deterioration that's been referenced elsewhere.

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

We're seeing, much like what you're seeing in the BXMT portfolio itself, improved credit overall.

Jade Rahmani
Jade Rahmani
Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst of CRE Finance, Homebuilders, and Single-Family REITs at KBW

Thank you. In terms of the pace of 3Q investments and originations, notwithstanding the bank loan JV, which I believe would have higher ROEs than the traditional business, was there anything that drove a more muted pace of originations? Perhaps it was on the liability management side, putting in place the new repo line, the tighter spreads on the term loan, as well as calling the CLO. Was that in preparation of stronger originations and maybe weighed on volume in the quarter?

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Yeah, Jade, this is Austin. We obviously made $1 billion of total investments this quarter, which we think is a good amount. I would say that we have $1.7 billion in closing as well. Our pipeline of opportunities remains really robust. I'd say we're actively investing in the environment. There might have been a modest impact seasonally with some of the volatility we saw in the spring around some of the tariffs, which may have impacted certain timings of transactions overall. Across our channels, we really see a lot of interesting opportunities both in Europe and the U.S. We feel good about the level of transaction activity going forward.

Jade Rahmani
Jade Rahmani
Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst of CRE Finance, Homebuilders, and Single-Family REITs at KBW

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Doug Harter with UBS.

Doug Harter
Doug Harter
Equity Research Analyst at UBS

Thanks. Touching on that last point, how do you see the pace of kind of net deployment in the portfolio in the coming quarters, and how do you think about what is the right level of leverage that you guys are targeting?

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

I'd say I'll take the first. In terms of deployment, I think it's a pretty good indication of what you saw this past quarter, where we're having a healthy amount of repayment activity and then turning that directly into new investment activity. I think we're at a place where we feel pretty good about being kind of at a run rate in terms of repayments and deployment overall. I think that would remain consistent.

Doug Harter
Doug Harter
Equity Research Analyst at UBS

On the leverage side, how are you thinking about what is the right level of leverage to run this business at this part of the cycle?

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Yeah, Doug, on leverage, obviously we're at 3.5x today, which is right in the middle of the range that we target. I think we've always been sort of in that mid-threes over the last quite period. We certainly have liquidity and capacity to sort of go up a little bit from there. Again, we're seeing good opportunities. We feel very comfortable with the balance sheet today and where we are from that perspective.

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Rick Shane with JPMorgan.

Rick Shane
Rick Shane
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at JPMorgan

Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. I apologize, like everybody, we're bouncing around between calls. If this has been covered, I apologize. Look, when we look at the implied dividend yield as a function of book, it's about 9%. You guys aren't quite there yet. When you think about the path to covering that dividend, which is obviously not only your goal, but your indication by maintaining that dividend, can you walk us through sort of what the different levers in terms of higher yields, reducing non-approvals, reducing REO, what you think are sort of rank those opportunities, please, and perhaps give us some sense of what the contribution of each is?

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Yeah, thanks, Rick. I'd say obviously it was good to cover the dividend this quarter in terms of distributable earnings ex-charge-offs at $0.48 relative to the $0.47 dividend. As Tony noted, a couple of one-time small items in there, but pretty close to the dividend ex those. As you said, and as we've said for a while, we set the dividend with a long-term view in mind. Where we really still have earnings left to unlock is in the REO and the impaired loan portfolio, where we can turn those assets into higher returning investments. We're not particularly focused on quarter-to-quarter results, as there's always a little bit of variability in terms of the ins and outs of fundings and things like that. We continue to have confidence that we've set the dividend level at a long-term sustainable position.

Rick Shane
Rick Shane
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at JPMorgan

Got it. Okay. When you think about, for example, funding loss rate outlook, obviously you're modestly asset-sensitive, but there's so much opportunity in terms of recycling capital. I'm assuming that you guys are even in a sharply lower short-term rate environment confident that you can continue to achieve those hurdle rates given the scale.

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Yeah, I would say that's right. I think the opportunity to redeploy the capital within the REO portfolio and the impaired loan portfolio is a really strong offset to a lower rate environment.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

I would also add we only lose about 150 basis points of rate move, so it's not as drastic as you might be thinking.

Rick Shane
Rick Shane
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at JPMorgan

Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you, guys.

Operator

Thank you. We will take our last question from Don Fandetti with Wells Fargo.

Don Fandetti
Don Fandetti
Managing Director at Wells Fargo

Hi. Can you talk a bit more about what you're seeing in office market fundamentals? I mean, I think you had six upgrades. At this point, is it possible that you'll end up being a bit over-reserved in your office book?

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Yeah, thanks, Don. This is Austin. I definitely would say we are seeing stability and improvement across office. I think you see that, as you noted, in the movements in terms of our upgrades this quarter, six office loans upgraded. Two of them were removed from our watchlist. That is really driven by leasing that we're seeing at these assets. I definitely think we're starting to see more broad-based green shoots, liquidity coming back into the market. As I noted earlier, we sold one of our impaired office assets post-quarter end. We continue to see more transaction activity, more capital coming off the sidelines for the sector. I'd say in terms of reserves, we obviously go through those every quarter. We feel like our reserve levels are appropriate. We feel good about where we set those. It is obviously a detailed asset-by-asset analysis that we do.

Austin Peña
Austin Peña
EVP of Investments at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

We feel good about where those are.

Don Fandetti
Don Fandetti
Managing Director at Wells Fargo

Okay. On a follow-up, you've had another quarter here where there was fairly steady credit migration. How are you thinking about movement to four from three in the near term? Do you feel like you're in a steady state?

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

I'd say the direction of travel for credit is clearly positive in the portfolio with no new impairments. I'd say the direction is quite clear. Obviously, we're continuing to work through things. In terms of credit migration, we feel like we've basically resolved 70% of our impaired loans at this point and have a good line of sight to a significant amount more. We feel really good about the overall path here in terms of credit performance.

Don Fandetti
Don Fandetti
Managing Director at Wells Fargo

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. That will conclude our question-and-answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to Tim Hayes for any additional or closing remarks.

Tim Hayes
Tim Hayes
VP of Shareholder Relations at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Thank you, Katie. To everyone joining today's call, please reach out with any questions.

Operator

Goodbye.

Executives
    • Tim Johnson
      Tim Johnson
      Chair of the Expertise Board and Global Head of BREDS
    • Tony Marone
      Tony Marone
      CFO
    • Tim Hayes
      Tim Hayes
      VP of Shareholder Relations
    • Katie Keenan
      Katie Keenan
      CEO
    • Austin Peña
      Austin Peña
      EVP of Investments
Analysts
    • Harsh Hemnani
      Senior Analyst and Head of CRE Debt Research at Green Street
    • Doug Harter
      Equity Research Analyst at UBS
    • Jade Rahmani
      Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst of CRE Finance, Homebuilders, and Single-Family REITs at KBW
    • Rick Shane
      Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at JPMorgan
    • Don Fandetti
      Managing Director at Wells Fargo
    • Analyst at BTIG
Powered by Quartr