Blackstone Mortgage Trust became the latest REIT to slash dividends, reducing the sum paid to shareholders by 24% on Wednesday.
The measure from the mortgage REIT was a response to an increase in defaults and borrowers facing difficulty repaying or refinancing loans.
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The $3.4B Blackstone REIT, which trades under the stock symbol BXMT, is reducing its dividend to 47 cents from 62 cents, saving roughly $100M annually, Bloomberg reports. The company's board also greenlighted a $150M stock buyback program.
“We believe stockholder return is well served by balancing current return with optimization of book value and long-term earnings potential through our strategic capital allocation decisions,” BXMT CEO Katie Keenan said in a release.
Keenan said the new dividend “reflects a sustainable level relative to long-term earnings power.” The move will allow BXMT to deploy capital and pursue growth in the current market, she added.
A quarter of the trust's outstanding loans were on U.S. office buildings, which account for most of its troubled debt, Bloomberg reported. As of June, 7.4% of nationwide office CMBS debt was delinquent, up 60 basis points since March, according to a second-quarter JLL U.S. office outlook.
REIT leaders said on its Wednesday earnings call that it has reduced its net exposure to office properties by $1.4B over the past two years.
BXMT is the third CRE mortgage REIT to pare dividends this year, following February cuts from KKR Real Estate Finance Trust, which reduced dividends by 42%, and Ares Commercial Real Estate Corp., which cut them by 24%.
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