In a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session for analysts. Analysts are asked to raise their hand to register for a question. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Blair Tamblyn. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us to discuss the fourth quarter financial results. I'm joined as usual by Scott Rowland, CIO, Tracy Johnston, CFO, and Geoff McTait, Head of Canadian Originations and Global Syndications. During 2024, we saw most commercial real estate asset classes emerging from a challenging post-pandemic environment, resulting in a significant improvement in the company's business fundamentals. In recent quarters, we've been anticipating that additional rate cuts will strengthen market conditions and drive increased financing opportunities, and we're seeing that play out. We ended the year with strong fourth quarter originations, allowing us to grow the portfolio materially over the prior year to roughly CAD 1.1 billion. The increased volume represents a return to normalized levels, and activity is robust in the current pipeline, as you will hear from Geoff shortly.
This contributed to a solid quarter across most key metrics, including net investment income of CAD 27.9 million. We generated distributable income of CAD 0.21 per share at a healthy payout ratio of 81%, continuing our long track record of stable monthly dividends, and we grew the portfolio by CAD 72 million from Q3. In light of our continued progress, you can expect to see us taking a more proactive approach to communicating to the market that our dividend today is yielding roughly 10%, a more than 7% premium over the short-term Canada bond yields currently, and at CAD 8.27 per share, which is net of our ECL provisions, of course, our current book value is roughly 19% above the weighted average trading price in Q4. At the same time, as the core business fundamentals are strengthening, we continue to leverage the firm's asset management experience to advance the remaining staged loans towards resolution.
We have been fully repaid on many of these files and made significant progress on others in recent quarters, with one recent transaction resulting in a meaningful CAD 3.4 million reversal when complete of an earlier reserve. While we are working our way through these remaining situations, we recorded a larger ECL reserve at year-end, which impacted our reported EPS. This reserve is primarily tied to two Calgary office loans. We believe that this is a cyclical low point in the Calgary market office market, and we expect market conditions and fundamentals to improve. Office, and Calgary office in particular, has been a challenge for owners and lenders. On a positive note, these two loans represent all of our Calgary office exposure. As we have demonstrated over our 15-year history in the public markets, our team is skilled at navigating these situations to achieve the best outcomes for our shareholders.
This ECL reserve does not impact our distributable income or dividend. Our team is confident in the company's ability to generate higher transaction volumes to support continued strong net investment income and distributable income in 2025, as noted below. As well as we resolve asset management files, this capital is redeployed into lower-risk, higher-yielding opportunities, which also supports the dividend. Our optimism is underpinned by an improved market environment driven by reduction in interest rates and the beginning of a new real estate cycle. I'll ask Scott to take over for the portfolio review. Scott?
Thanks, Blair, and good afternoon. I'll comment on portfolio metrics and provide an update on staged loans. I will ask Geoff to comment on the originations activity and lending environment. Looking at the portfolio KPIs, most were stable relative to recent periods and consistent with historical averages. At quarter end, 81.9% of our investments were in cash-flowing properties. Multi-residential real estate assets, apartment buildings, continue to comprise the largest portion of the portfolio at roughly 60%. First mortgages represented 89.6% of the portfolio. As expected, we have seen this percentage trend upward toward 90%. Our weighted average loan-to-value for Q4 was 63.3% and reflects conservative positioning over the last couple of years. On new originations, we expect LTVs to increase back to historical levels, but with the benefit of lower reset valuations as the denominator.
This will result in a gradual increase in LTV in the coming quarters, closer to historical norms. Geoff will also expand on this in a moment. The portfolio's weighted average interest rate was 8.9% in Q4 versus 9.3% in Q3 and 10% in Q4 last year. The decrease is reflective of higher interest rate loans repaying in the period, as well as Bank of Canada's policy rate cuts totaling 175 basis points in 2024. The WAIR is also reverting toward a longer-term average. For example, since 2016, which captures a few rate environments, the average WAIR for the business has an exit rate of 7.8%. While the WAIR is moderating towards that longer-term average, so is our interest expense with respect to the credit facility. This enables us to maintain a healthy net interest margin.
The portfolio WAIR is also protected by the high percentage of floating-rate loans with rate floors. North of 80% of the portfolio at year-end and more than 80% of the loans with floors are currently on their floors. In terms of the asset allocation by region, there were no major shifts to highlight, with approximately 92% of the capital invested in Ontario, BC, Quebec, and Alberta and focused on urban markets. From an asset management perspective, we continue to pursue resolution and monetization of our staged loans and real estate inventory. I will comment on the main developments in the period, and I would direct you to the MD&A for a further update. In the category of significant executions, we recently announced the firm sale of the Rosemont Retirement Asset to Chartwell REIT, with closing scheduled for early March.
This resulted in a recovery of CAD 1.5 million into Q4 net income, with a further CAD 1.9 million expected to be recognized at close, a total reserve recovery of CAD 3.4 million. Our team has also made meaningful progress on the second loan tied to Groupe Sélection of approximately CAD 18 million. The loan is performing. Construction of the apartment building is now more than 90% complete, and we expect to receive repayment of all principal and interest upon the near-term refinancing of the asset. Material progress was made on several Stage 2 and three files. We have roughly CAD 44 million of exposure on two loans related to an industrial developer in the GTA. One is in Stage 2, and one is in Stage 3. These loans are currently being consolidated into one facility that will seek commencement of construction on an industrial site, combined with security from a second land site.
Together, exposure will be approximately 70% loan-to-value, and we expect this loan will return to Stage 1 in late Q1 or early Q2 2025. We continue to expect full repayment upon construction completion. We have roughly CAD 22 million exposure on an Edmonton multifamily asset that is currently listed for sale, with the closing expected in Q2 2025. Subsequent to year-end, CAD 8.5 million was received and applied against the whole loan. This materially deleveraged the loan, and we continue to expect full repayment of principal and interest in 2025. Several other large assets are being carefully managed by the team. The previously reported Vancouver loan is stable, with no material updates at this time. However, material progress is expected by the end of 2025. The other larger balance is our Calgary office portfolio. As Blair mentioned, our year-end valuation update resulted in a CAD 11.1 million credit loss provision.
This reflects valuation challenges in Calgary office as a result of vacancy at this low point in the market cycle. I would reinforce that there has been no change to the strategy or operating performance of the assets. We continue to work with the borrower towards stabilization of the assets and eventual repayment when market conditions improve. We expect that over the remainder of 2025, this portion of the portfolio will decline toward historical averages, both through positive resolution of specific files and the growth of the portfolio. We look forward to redeploying the capital into new loans in our core asset types, such as multi-residential and industrial, where we see positive long-term market drivers. Importantly, the majority of the current portfolio was originated or renewed after Q1 2022, therefore taking into account the rising interest rate environment and, by extension, the general reset in commercial real estate valuations.
We expect these investments to perform well for the more typical level of asset management required in the range of 5%-7% of the portfolio. On that note, I'll ask Geoff to comment on the transaction activity in the market. Geoff?
Thanks, Scott. It was a great second half of the year for new investments. We've been successful in building back the portfolio toward historical levels following several quarters of high repayments. In Q4, we advanced nearly CAD 242 million in new mortgage investments and advances on existing mortgages, including 22 new loans, which were largely centered around low LTV multifamily investments. Total mortgage portfolio repayments in the quarter were CAD 171.3 million, resulting in a healthy turnover ratio of 16.7%. The net result is we grew the portfolio by about CAD 72 million over Q3. Significantly, the portfolio grew by more than CAD 140 million year-over-year. To put a finer point on these trends over the past several years, on this slide, you see the dip in originations during 2022 and 2023 as overall market activity slowed and our team was intentionally cautious.
The increased volume in 2024 represents a return to normalized levels, with current pipeline activity robust and Q1 2025 looking to be another strong quarter for originations. In addition to the improved market environment, we're poised to benefit from Timbercreek Capital's recent status as a CMHC-approved lender. We can now work with borrowers to provide third-party term takeout financing. This is a significant positive for our bridge loan business, as our team can deepen borrower relationships by providing a broader range of financing solutions towards capturing a larger share of wallet. While origination volumes are reverting to historical levels, portfolio LTV ratios remain below our historical average. This provides us with the ability to generate improved loan margins as we return to a more typical, higher loan-to-value environment with confidence of asset value growth in a strengthening market.
In short, we are well-positioned to deploy capital into high-quality loans this year. I will now pass the call over to Tracy to review the financial highlights. Tracy?
Thanks, Geoff, and good afternoon, everyone. As the team has highlighted, the portfolio is returning to a more typical size based on strong originations, and we are seeing this translate to top-line income (NDI). Q4 net investment income on financial assets measured at amortized cost was CAD 27.9 million, up from CAD 25.4 million in Q3. We reported strong distributable income of CAD 17.7 million, or CAD 0.21 per share, up from CAD 15.18 per share in Q3. The Q4 payout ratio on NDI was 80.8%. On a full-year basis, the payout ratio was 88%. As Blair mentioned, we recorded a reserve on net mortgage investments and other loans of CAD 15.1 million, reflective of the changes in Stage 2 and Stage 3 loans, predominantly in the Calgary office loans. As a result of these reserves, reported net income decreased to CAD 2.4 million this quarter.
Net income before ECL was $17.4 million versus $14.1 million in Q3 2023. Looking at quarterly EPS over the past three years, with and without ECLs, you will see it has been quite stable, as has DI per share. Going back even longer, you can see quarterly DI per share has been between $0.17 and $0.22, averaging just over $0.19 per share over this time period. In short, the monthly dividend remains well covered. Looking quickly at the balance sheet, the value of the net mortgage portfolio, excluding syndications, was just under $1.1 billion at the end of the quarter, an increase of about $140 million from the end of 2023. At quarter end, we had net real estate held for sale of $65.3 million, which is the three senior living facilities acquired in August 2023. As Scott touched on, this was sold with a March 2025 closing.
In Q4, the company recorded a gain of CAD 1.5 million, with another gain of CAD 1.9 million expected on closing. The balance on the credit facility was CAD 396 million at the end of Q4, up from CAD 324 million at the end of Q3 based on the increased portfolio. We continue to have capacity to deploy new capital as activity in the commercial real estate market accelerates. I will now turn the call back to Scott for closing comments.
Thanks, Tracy. As you hear in our tone today, we have a positive outlook for 2025. We're seeing a significant improvement in overall business fundamentals. Transaction activity is robust, and the manager's new CMHC lender status should act as a further tailwind for Timbercreek Financial's bridge loans business. Distributable income is strong, and we see this continuing. We believe these improved market conditions should accelerate the resolution of the remaining staged loans, and we look forward to recycling that capital into compelling investments that our pipeline is generating. As a final thought, I wanted to convey that we are actively monitoring developments in the Canada-U.S. trade relationship and the potential threat of tariffs. While it is too early to comment on what will happen, there are obvious risks to the Canadian economy that would affect various sectors and various markets differently.
There may also be opportunities as Canada refocuses on interprovincial trade and pursues other avenues for growth. Positively, the company is focused on multifamily lending, and we believe that this asset class will be relatively well protected from near-term implications. That said, I'd like to ensure investors that we are monitoring developments closely and are prepared to modify our investment parameters to ensure optimal results for our shareholders. That completes our prepared remarks. With that, we will open the call to questions.
We will now take any analyst questions. If you have a question, please click the raise hand button on the bottom right screen below. Our first question comes from Stephen Boland. Steven, your line is open. Feel free to go ahead.
Hi, can you hear me okay?
Hey, Steven. How's it going?
Good. So I understand when you say strong distributable income dividend, well covered, I get that point. But this quarter, your book value did go down. You do say that your covenants are fine. Can you just break that down a little bit? If you continue to have ECLs like this, how close are you to breaching your covenants? I think it was late 2023 when you had to get an extension. Maybe you can just talk about the gap or the buffer you have right now on some of the covenants.
Hi, Steve. It's Tracy. I mean, the covenants on the credit facility are largely cash flow covenants as well as leverage. So while we did take these ECLs, we continue to be well covered on our covenants. And these loans that were there have been staged for a while. So the only implication where we are is on the staging covenants effectively. And these have been in place since, what was it, Q3 or Q4 of 2023. So none of that is new news. But otherwise, on any of the cash flow covenants, we remain well covered. No concerns there.
And just the shareholders'. Sorry, go ahead.
No, go ahead, Steven.
Just the shareholders' equity covenant, I mean, is there a buffer there as well if the book value continues to go down? I mean, it shouldn't, but I'm just saying, worst case, is there a possibility of that being breached?
Yeah. I mean, well, sorry. No, we're well covered on that. And really, the shareholders' equity covenant is a test where the full principal of those loans is removed. So it's actually a harder test that we've already implemented five quarters ago, where the full principal value on our book of those loans is put into that test. So the ECLs don't really impact that. Does that make sense?
Yeah. Okay. And Steve, we can go through it with you offline if you want, but really there's no concern.
Okay. Just because I don't remember actually seeing the actual covenants listed, the actual metrics that you—I don't know if you've published them. So maybe you told me in the past, but maybe they're not published. Just the second thing, in terms of the Calgary offices, you're saying that Calgary has troughed. So when we look at some of the loans that are in Stage 2, Stage 3, some of them have been 18 months working through it. I mean, is that the kind of timeline we're looking at Calgary trying to recover? It probably seems like not 12 months, but is it 24 months that you think these are going to be on the books?
No, it's a good question. And I think probably most people on the call would want to hear an update here. So I'm happy to give a little bit more depth. When we look at Calgary, right, so we got into these loans in Calgary before COVID when we originally made these loans. And obviously, COVID comes into play. And you sort of have two major things happening in Calgary. The combination of there was a lot of new supply came into the market, and then you had work from home, and you sort of have, and this is happening in offices everywhere, the work-from-home issues, the demand-side issues. The supply-side issue was especially acute in Calgary. And so that was definitely what was happening over those last couple of years and why these loans went into staging in the first place. And our borrower was under some stress.
So, as we sit there and we look at the assets today, what's basically happened is in 2023, there was really no trades. In 2024, especially towards the second half of the year, some of the major sort of institutional owners of assets have been selling assets and selling them into sort of the one or two private hands that are buying and certainly selling at an extremely low price. So basically, if you were to take a DCF model, and I'll talk about this in a minute, sort of some of the potential positives to come in the future, that's not happening in the market today. Basically, if you're prepared to sell and you're prepared to liquidate, you're going to get a very low valuation.
So as we got into, and this is happening with anyone with exposure in Calgary right now, as we went through our sort of year-end valuation process, we were faced with some of those realities of some of those sales. And working with the valuation team, we concluded this ECL. Okay? So it's not that the occupancy went down. It's not that our borrower has changed. It's that the market has changed. That if you wanted to sell into this market, you're going to get hurt for it. And our ECL reflects that. If we look at Calgary now, some of the things that are happening is there are some green shoots where vacancy has started to turn around a bit. There are initiatives to take some over 1 million sq ft of office out of the market.
You're starting to see more emphasis sort of on that uptick on the oil and gas sector. I think if we look forward over the next couple of years with changing governments, you're going to have more and more sort of positive aspects to Calgary. You have more people coming to live and work into the downtown. It's still a very affordable place to be. Net migration numbers into Calgary and Alberta are the strongest in the country. We looked at those factors together, and our assets are attractive. One of the assets is over 80% occupied. It's just a question of when do you sell? Coming to your last part of your question is, what is that timeframe? We want to be pragmatic about it, but we're actively managing this project. We're working with our borrower.
But I could see these assets on the books for two years. I could see that for an additional two years. It's possible. But we will just continue to monitor the market, work with our borrower, and just try to make that sort of optimal decision on when we want to exit the loans. Hopefully, that's helpful for everyone on the call.
Yeah, that's great. I'll sneak one more in. Let's talk about something positive, the growth, the number of loans that are advances in the quarter. The volume was pretty good. Is that across the board, across certain segments, geography? Maybe you just get a little bit more color on that.
Yeah. Hi. It's Geoff. I'll answer that question. So yeah, so generally speaking, I'd say it's probably from a geographic diversity perspective, I'd say it's overweight to Ontario a little bit with the balance split between Quebec and the West, predominantly Alberta and BC. But again, pretty typical for us in terms of where we're focused and a little stronger in Ontario, which has kind of been a focus of our originations and portfolio management strategy over the last year or so. Asset classes remain, again, it's predominantly multifamily apartments with some industrial, but it's overweight multifamily, which is obviously very good for us and what we're focused on primarily.
Okay. That's all I had. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Steven.
Our next call will come from Graham Ryding. Graham, your line is open. Please go ahead. Graham, your line is open. Please go ahead. Okay. We'll move on to our next question for now. Our next question comes from Jamie. Jamie, please go ahead.
Hello. Can you guys hear me?
Yep. We can hear you.
Yeah. Hi. All right. So first question, just in terms of the weighted average interest rate and just trying to understand where it could go. I know you talked about it in the MD&A presentation about the long-run weighted interest rate around like 8%, give or take, maybe a little bit lower. And 80% of the book today has floors. So I just wanted to get an update as to where the average floor rate would be on the existing book. And then when you're these 22 new advances, are they all coming in with floors, and where are those floors being set today?
That's a good question. So let's take that in a couple of different parts. Let's maybe start with the new loans. So let me start with Geoff.
Yeah. So I mean, it's a great question. And it's definitely a hot topic as we're in the market negotiating with our borrowers day in and day out. Obviously, through the prior historical low-rate reality, our credit spreads grew substantially. And as rates rose, spreads did compress over that period of time. And obviously, as rates have continued to fall, our appetite to all of our loans have floors, maybe is the first comment to be clear. Our willingness to contemplate any relief on the floor rate relative to the prime rate at the time we've originated the loan is reducing as rates continue to fall. And we're at a point today where, again, it's sort of at a threshold where we are starting to look at and discuss and convey to the market the potential for increasing credit spreads with floors and limited floor rate relief.
And so fundamentally for us, it's a reality we've lived through in multiple prior cycles. And again, it is a function of our reality and understanding where the market is and obviously the dividend that we pay and the ability to change spreads. And again, we're at that point where spreads are starting to push up. And where there was any historical floor rate relief, given how high rates had gotten, we're now at a point where, again, all loans will have floors. And the ability to contemplate any further relief tied to future rate cuts will be a function of what the spread underlying that loan is, right? So for the tightest spreads, the reality is they'll be limited to no floor rate relief. And for juicier spreads, there may be an ability to contemplate.
Yeah. And I'll add to that. So current loans sort of have a lot of the floors. I want to say the weighted average is around 7.8%, the ones that are on their floors. One way to think of it is I actually try to think of it as coupons for a moment and think of it from the eyes of the borrower. So when we do these transitional bridge loans, there's really only so much income that properties generate, right? So when interest rates got up there, and I look at our normal sort of credit spread over prime, when rates were getting to sort of 9%-10% +, that does put that much extra strain on a property.
So if you're a borrower, right, you're going to look to potentially maybe instead of getting a higher leverage loan, I'll put in equity and take a really low-leverage bank loan, sort of an alternative to a bridge lender because it just gets too expensive for the property to carry. So as rates start to fall, that headline coupon, right, the mortgage coupon that the borrower has got to pay, it starts to fall sort of in tandem as we sort of see our WAIR coming down a bit. But then when it gets to sort of, I would say historically, when we talk to our customers, our borrowers, that 7%-8% and change window is a comfortable rate for people to pay. And we obviously have a dividend that we have to distribute.
So as WAIR continues to fall, but when it starts getting down into the sevens, that's where we start. Even if prime were to fall, we push back and continue to sort of be more like a fixed rate. It's not a fixed-rate structure per se, but we have more floors or higher credit spread that maintains that headline coupon for us. And in the eyes of our borrowers, that's still considered a fair rate because they know that we're taking on that bridge loan for them, that transitional aspect for them. So it is sort of like as that interest rate goes up, our credit spreads compress, but as interest rates come down, our credit spreads expand. We do that obviously to make sure we can maintain our business. And it also works. It's a mutually sort of beneficial relationship with the borrower, right?
It works for their business.
Yeah. Yeah. So if I kind of try to bring this back to the financial performance of the business, so the new loans coming on, I think we're 8.5% on average today. So if we say another 75 basis points, 100 basis points cut in the Bank of Canada rate, that's the point where we should start to think of your net interest spread widening out and being a tailwind for the investment income that you're generating. Is that otherwise kind of neutral until we get to that point, and then it's widening from then forward? Is that the right way to think about it?
That's exactly how I would look at it, and in the meantime, while that rate's coming down, our credit facility, right, which is a big part of our driver, that there's no floor on our credit facility, so every quarter point of prime decrease, our credit facility decreases, so there's a little bit of hedging there as it comes down, but then yes, then it starts to widen out as that overall coupon comes down, exactly as you described it.
Yeah. Okay. Good. And then just one more. Just, I believe there was this is a new loan in the, I guess, the impaired loan book, the Vancouver Multifamily Loan where you're taking a reserve on it. Can you just talk about the story there, what's driven that valuation to decline and then for a reserve to be required?
Yeah. So this is a smaller overall loan, and it's a mezz, sort of a second position for us. This is a multifamily rental complex and nearing completion. As we got to year-end, we got a sort of a valuation update. It included a couple of things. So one is sort of cap rates had moved out a little bit on it. But there was also some cost overruns in the project that were fed by the first mortgage contractually. And as that first mortgage got a little bigger than originally planned, that basically eats into the cushion of our position. And so when you put those two factors together, it resulted in the ECL impairment. I will say this is a full recourse loan, and we are negotiating with the borrower to not just we don't put recourse into our valuations.
We don't put recourse into our consideration of an ECL. But what we can do is structure with individual borrowers to receive additional hard security. And when we receive hard security, then that does get as part of our calculation. So we're actually in negotiations with this customer now with an awareness of that we believe there was this ECL required. We'd like to see hard security added to this position so that we can not have to just rely on the recourse down the road, is that we can basically rightsize the loan. That didn't happen before year-end, and therefore it's reflected as the ECL in our results. But we hope to get all of our files, right? We're hoping to improve that situation here in the coming months.
Okay. Good. Thank you.
Thanks very much. Maybe we have to circle back to Graham and see if we can get him on the line.
Graham, I can open your line again. Graham, your line is now open. Graham, your line is now open. Graham, feel free to call after or send a note, and we can do our best to answer.
Any further questions?
It doesn't look like there are any further questions at this time, so I'll turn the meeting back to Blair for closing remarks.
Great. Thank you very much, operator. Appreciate everyone taking the time to join us today. And we'll look forward to connecting again next quarter. Have a good afternoon.