Blackstone Mortgage Trust Posts $1.1B of Loan Resolutions 

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (BXMT) reported loan resolutions of $1.1 billion during the fourth quarter and ended 2024 resolving $1.6 billion of impaired debt across 16 deals.

BXMT said in its fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday that it resolved 49 percent of its impaired loans during the final three months of 2024. The mortgage real estate investment trust (REIT) posted a net loss of $37.1 million for the quarter and $204 million for 2024. 

Katie Keenan, CEO of BXMT, said the fourth quarter “marked a meaningful positive inflection point” with  $1.6 billion of loan repayments bringing the total to $5.2 billion for all of 2024, which included $2 billion of office debt. 

The mortgage REIT’s office exposure was reduced 28 percent at year-end 2024 compared to 2023, and an additional $1.5 billion of office repayments have been collected so far in the first quarter of 2025, according to Keenan.

“We enter 2025 poised for portfolio and earnings growth with $2 billion a pipeline closed or in closing today, ” Keenan. “While not V-shaped, we are squarely amidst a real estate recovery.” 

BXMT closed $186 million of new originations in the fourth quarter largely in the industrial and multifamily sectors, with $2 billion of loans closed or near closing so far in the first quarter. Keenan said the $2 billion loan pipeline, which is heavily concentrated in industrial, multifamily and self-storage, is seeing leveraged yields averaging more than 900 basis points over base rates. 

In addition to nine U.S deals slated to price soon, BXMT’s pipeline is more than 60 percent focused on assets in Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe, according to Keenan. 

The mortgage REIT’s $17 billion portfolio of 130 loans had a weighted average loan-to-value ratio of 63 percent as of the end of 2024.  BXMT boosted its performing loan percentage to 93 percent for the quarter, up from 88 percent in the third quarter. 

Anthony Marone, chief financial officer at BXMT, said that while the overall outlook for the office market has improved, there aren’t immediate plans to expand significantly into the sector. 

“The bar for us is high for new investment in office, but we are seeing opportunities to lend on really high-quality, well-leased assets at a very low basis,” Marone said. “We are going to pursue opportunities that we think make sense and generate attractive returns on high-quality assets.”

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com