Transcript: Creative Media Q4 2025 Earnings Conference Call
Creative Media (NASDAQ:CMCT) released fourth-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Monday. Read the complete transcript below.
This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.
Access the full call at https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=DwFoXdzV
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good afternoon and welcome to the Creative Media and Community Trust fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the Star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press Star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steve Altebrando, Portfolio Oversight. Please go ahead.
Steve Altobrando
Hello everyone and thank you for joining us. My name is Steve Altebrando, the Portfolio Oversight for CMCT. Also on the call today are David Thompson, our Chief Executive Officer and Brandon Hill, our Chief Financial Officer. This call is being webcast and will be temporarily archived on the Investor Relations section of our website where you can also find our earnings release. Our earnings release includes a reconciliation of non GAAP financial measures discussed during today's call. During this call we will make forward looking statements. These forward looking statements are based on the beliefs of assumptions made by and information currently available to us. Our actual results will be affected by known and unknown risks, trends, uncertainties and other factors that are beyond our control or ability to predict. Although we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future performance and some will prove to be incorrect. Therefore, actual future results can be expected to differ from our expectations and those differences may be material. For a more detailed description of potential risks, please refer to our SEC filings which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to David Thompson.
David Thompson
Thanks Steve Good afternoon and thanks everyone for joining us today. We continue to execute on the strategic plan we have discussed on previous calls. We are making significant progress in accelerating our focus towards premier multifamily assets, strengthening our balance sheet and improving liquidity. At the same time, operating trends within the portfolio are moving in the right direction. Across our multifamily portfolio, we are focusing on our Los Angeles and Austin office assets and the Company's hotel asset in Sacramento. Since announcing our strategic plan in September 2024, we've taken actions to significantly improve our balance sheet. We completed financing on nine assets since September 2024 and fully retired our recourse credit facility in April 2025. We completed the sale of our lending division in January 2026 and we redeemed approximately $153.3 million of preferred stock into common stock since Sept. Building on that progress, the Company announced today that it is redeeming approximately 2 million shares of Series A Preferred Stock, approximately 7.8 million shares of Series A1 Preferred Stock and approximately 22,000 shares of the Series D Preferred Stock with a redemption price to be paid in shares of common stock. This redemption is expected to improve CMCT's annual funds from operations by approximately $16 million per year and returns the Company's capital structure back to our long term target approximately 38% common equity, 7% preferred equity and 55% debt on a fair value basis adjusted for the redemption. Importantly, given the Company's significantly improved financial position, we do not currently intend to initiate at our election additional preferred stock redemptions into common Stock. However, we will continue to evaluate redemption requests submitted by holders of our Preferred Stock as they are received and may elect to redeem those shares in common stock or cash at the Company's discretion. With respect to asset sales, as we mentioned, we completed the sale of our lending Division in January for a purchase price of approximately $44.9 million net of the outstanding debt related to the 2023 securitization of certain loan receivables and subject to customary post closing adjustments after giving effect to the repayment of other debt transaction expenses and related items, the transaction generated approximately $31.2 million of net cash proceeds to the Company. We continue to actively evaluate additional asset sales as part of our broader effort to enhance liquidity and optimize our balance sheet in terms of operating trends. Looking ahead, we see opportunities to improve cash flow in 2026 supported by several key drivers across the portfolio. First, net operating income continues to improve across all segments in our office portfolio. Leased occupancy reached 88.5% at the end of 2025 excluding our Oakland asset, representing a 190 basis point increase from the third quarter of 2025 and a 680 basis point improvement over year end 2024 and multifamily. Excluding our building in Echo park in Los Angeles which just began lease up during Q4, our occupancy increased to 88.5% at the end of 2025, up 320 basis points from the third quarter of 2025 and then 680 basis points year over year. At our hotel property, we substantially completed the upgrades to the public spaces in the first quarter of 2026 following the renovation to all 505 guest rooms a year ago. With these improvements largely complete, the property is well positioned to drive strong performance in 2026 and beyond. We also anticipate lower interest expense supported by a potentially more favorable rate environment and the opportunity to refinance the hotel following the completion of its renovation. Finally, as mentioned earlier, the conversion of preferred equity into common stock is expected to improve annual FFO by approximately $16 million. Turning to our fourth quarter results, our core FFO was negative $5.9 million. Our overall net operating income was $10.9 million compared to $7 million in the prior quarter. Within our office segment, NOI increased by approximately $1.4 million from the third quarter largely due to higher appraised value of one of our JVs. NOI also modestly increased at our wholly owned properties. Hotel NOI was $2.1 million in the quarter compared to $850,000 in the third quarter, primarily reflecting a greater disruption from a renovation of the public space in the prior quarter. Our multifamily NOI decreased by approximately $1.7 million from the prior quarter. The decrease was primarily due to a lower appraisal at two of our JVs in the current quarter. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve to give more color on our refinancing activities and property level performance.
Steve Altobrando
Thanks David. As David mentioned, we continue to make progress on improving our balance sheet and liquidity while also investing in key growth initiatives across the portfolio. Since we announced this plan, we have completed nine refinancings, fully retired our $169 million recourse credit facility and retired our lending warehouse facility upon sale of that business. We are currently working on the extension of 2 more assets that we expect to complete in the second quarter of 2026. We are also planning to refinance our Sheridan Grand Hotel now that we have substantially completed its renovation. These steps have been critical to the company as they have provided proceeds to first significantly reduce our recourse debt through the retirement of our credit facility. Second, fund important growth initiatives including lease up activity in our multifamily and office portfolios as well as the renovation of our hotel. Third, continue to fund loan originations within our lending business allowing us to maximize the value of that business prior to its sale and fourth, continue to meet our preferred dividend obligations. Turning to our operations, we remain focused on improving property level performance across all segments and growing our premier newer vintage multi family portfolio including our joint ventures. We now have five operating multi family assets, 1150 Clay and Channel House in the Bay Area and 701 S. Hudson, 1902 Park Avenue and 1915 Park Avenue in Los Angeles. Starting in Los Angeles, we are making progress on the lease up of 701South Hudson the residential portion of our partial office to residential conversion completed late last year. Multifamily occupancy at the Property was approximately 83.8% at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 80.9% at the end of the third quarter. As a reminder, the top two floors of the building were converted into 68 high end residential units while the ground floor creative office component known as 4750 Wilshire remains 100% leased. We mentioned on prior calls that we believe there's an opportunity to develop additional units on the back surface lot of the property. Given recent zoning changes, we are pleased that we received entitlements in the first quarter of 2026 to build an additional 50 units on this space. We are currently working on pre development and anticipate having the option to start the project later this year. Also in LA, we completed 1915 park in the fourth quarter. This 36 unit ground up multifamily development is a joint venture with an international pension fund and is located adjacent to our office building at 1910 West Sunset in Echo Park, a highly desirable walkable submarket with attractive dining and entertainment options. The building was 52% leased at the end of February 2026, so it's off to a very strong start. In Oakland, we saw another pickup in occupancy during the quarter and the market appears to be starting to recover. In adjacent downtown San Francisco, Multifamily had a significant rebound in 2025. Rent growth was 7.6% which was the highest growth rate in over 25 years. While a vacancy rate has declined to its lowest levels in 15 years, Oakland's vacancy rate has declined to 8% from a high of 18% in 2001 and rent growth has turned positive in 2025 after three straight years of declines. CMCT owns 621 units in Oakland across its two assets, 1150 Clay and Channel House. Occupancy improved to 88.4% at year end 2025, a 370 basis point increase from the end of the third quarter. Turning to the office segment, we executed approximately 182,000 square feet of leases during 2025, excluding the company's One Oakland office building. The lease percentage was 88.5% at the end of 2025, which is 190 basis point improvement from the third quarter and a 680 basis point improvement from the prior year period at 11:30. Howard occupancy increased to 100% during the fourth quarter from 38.9% in the third quarter of 2025 and at 11600 Wilshire Blvd. We recently commenced the renovation program on several small office suites which we anticipate fueling leasing activity at our one office asset in Oakland. We continue to see soft demand. The mortgage of the asset matures in the third quarter of 2026 and the company is currently seeking an extension of the maturity but cannot guarantee it will reach an agreement with the lender. In the fourth quarter of 2025. The Oakland asset generated approximately half a million dollars of cash flow after debt service and finally hotel as David mentioned, we substantially completed our $11 million renovation of the public space at the Sheridan Grand Sacramento in the first quarter. This project includes upgrades to the ballroom, banquet space, public space and food and beverage areas and this follows the renovation of all 505 guest rooms from last year, which we believe together sets the property up well for 2026 and beyond. The renovation was the first large scale renovation of the property since we acquired it in 2008, so we anticipate a big impact on profitability. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brandon who will provide an update on our financial
Brandon Hill
thank you Steve. Good afternoon. I'm going to spend a few minutes going over the comparative financial highlights for the fourth quarter of 2025 versus the fourth quarter of 2024, starting with our segment NOI, which was $10.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to $9.2 million in the prior year. Comparable period broken down by segment, the increase of $1.7 million was driven by increases of $2.3 million from our lending business and $1.2 million for our office properties, offset by a decrease of $1.7 million from our multi family properties. Our office Segment NOI for Q4 2025 was $6.4 million versus $5.2 million during Q4 2024. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in NOI at an office property in Austin, Texas due to an increase in occupancy and at an office property in Beverly Hills, California attributable to an increase in occupancy and rental rates as well as a decrease in property taxes. These were partially offset by a decrease in rental revenues at an office property in Los Angeles, California due to a decrease in occupancy and at an office property in San Francisco, California due to a decrease in rental rates, our lending division NOI increased to $3.3 million compared to NOI of $980,000 in the prior year, comparable period primarily due to the reversal of CECL in connection with the reclassification of the assets and liabilities of First Western to held for sale. This was partially offset by a decrease in interest income as a result of loan payoffs and lower interest rates. Our lending segment was sold in January 2026. Our hotel segment NOI for Q4 2025 was $2.1 million which was consistent with the prior year comparable period. Our multifamily segment NOI decreased to A loss of $870,000 during Q4 2025 compared to income of $855,000 from the prior year comparable period. The decrease was primarily driven by an increase in the unrealized loss on investments in real estate at our unconsolidated joint ventures. Below the segment NOI line. We had an increase in impairment of real estate of $3.5 million due to an impairment charge on a multi family development site in Oakland, California and an increase in interest expense of $941,000 driven by higher aggregate debt outstanding. These were partially offset by an increase in segment net operating income of $1.7 million and a decrease in loss on early extinguishment of debt of $1.4 million which was incurred in connection with the partial payoff of our revolving credit facility during the fourth quarter of 2024. Our FFO was negative $7.1 million or negative $4.49 per diluted share compared to negative $8.7 million or negative $23.21 per diluted share in the prior year comparable period. The increase in RFFO was primarily driven by an increase of 1.7 million in total segment NOI, a decrease in loss on early extinguishment of debt of 1.4 million, and a decrease of 923,000 in redeemable preferred stock dividends. These were partially offset by an increase in interest expense not allocated to our operating segments of $941,000, an increase in preferred stock redemptions of $883,000, and an increase in general and administrative expenses of $617,000. Our core FFO is negative $5.9 million or negative $3.74 per diluted share compared to negative $7 million or negative $18.64 per diluted share in the prior year comparable period. This increase in core FFO is attributable to the previously discussed changes in ffo. While not impacted by the decrease in loss on early extinguishment of debt or the increase in redeemable preferred stock redemptions, as these are excluded from our core FFO calculation. With that, we can open the line for questions.
OPERATOR
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster, Showing no questions. This concludes our question and answer session, and the conference is also now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Summary
Creative Media made significant progress in strategic initiatives, focusing on premier multifamily assets, strengthening its balance sheet, and improving liquidity.
The company completed financing on nine assets and fully retired its recourse credit facility, enhancing its financial position.
Creative Media redeemed a substantial amount of preferred stock, which is expected to improve annual funds from operations by approximately $16 million.
The sale of the lending division generated approximately $31.2 million in net cash proceeds.
The company reported a negative core FFO of $5.9 million, with net operating income increasing to $10.9 million compared to $7 million in the previous quarter.
Operational highlights include a significant improvement in occupancy rates across its portfolio and the completion of hotel renovations, positioning assets for better performance in 2026.
Management expressed optimism about future cash flow improvements and a potential favorable interest rate environment.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.