Blackstone Mortgage Trust to Close Over $7B in New Investments This Year

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (BXMT) underscored what a strong year it’s having during its third-quarter earnings call Wednesday by noting that the real estate finance company expects to close over $7 billion in new investments in 2025 across originations, loan acquisitions and the firm’s net lease strategy.

The company reported net income for the quarter of $63.4 million, with third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of 37 cents. Distributable EPS was 24 cents, distributable EPS prior to charge-offs was 48 cents, and dividends paid per basic share was 47 cents. 

Katie Keenan, the company’s outgoing CEO, made note of the company’s considerable strengths throughout the quarter. Keenan will be leaving BXMT to replace Wesley LePatner, who was killed in the July shooting at 345 Park Avenue, as CEO of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) and global head of Blackstone’s Core+ Real Estate business. Keenan has already assumed the Core+ Real Estate role. The rest will take effect on November 10, according to previous reporting by CO.

“BXMT’s 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,” said Keenan. “We continued our robust investment activity, looking across channels, originations, portfolio, acquisitions and net lease, and across geographies to find compelling relative value. We also 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.”

Keenan positioned the company’s strong third-quarter results as a reflection of BXMT’s ability to capitalize on “the continuing recovery and market conditions,” citing an investment pipeline with “$1.7 billion of total originations closed or closing post-quarter end, building on the $1 billion of investment activity in the third quarter.”

And while BXMT’s stock price has been counterintuitive relative to the company’s other successes, Keenen noted how the company converted that into opportunity.

“The forward trajectory of our business is embedded in this quarter’s results, though BXMT’s stock price has yet to catch up,” said Keenan. “Notwithstanding the tremendous progress we have made in the last several years, our stock today trades within 10 percent of the lows through this period, and continues to provide a highly attractive 10.4 percent dividend yield. 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.”

The firm also cited the strength of its balance sheet, with $1.3 billion in liquidity at the end of the quarter, and total credit facility capability of $18.5 billion across 13 bank counterparts, including $7.5 billion of availability.

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com.