Basis of Presentation

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2021

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation

Basis of Presentation

The RMR Group Inc., or RMR Inc., is a holding company and substantially all of its business is conducted by its majority owned subsidiary, The RMR Group LLC, or RMR LLC. RMR Inc. is a Maryland corporation and RMR LLC is a Maryland limited liability company. RMR Inc. serves as the sole managing member of RMR LLC and, in that capacity, operates and controls the business and affairs of RMR LLC. In these financial statements, unless otherwise indicated, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to RMR Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries, including RMR LLC.

As of March 31, 2021, RMR Inc. owned 15,413,191 class A membership units of RMR LLC, or Class A Units, and 1,000,000 class B membership units of RMR LLC, or Class B Units. The aggregate RMR LLC membership units RMR Inc. owns represented 52.2% of the economic interest of RMR LLC as of March 31, 2021. We refer to economic interest as the right of a holder of a Class A Unit or Class B Unit to share in distributions made by RMR LLC and, upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up of RMR LLC, to share in the assets of RMR LLC after payments to creditors. A wholly owned subsidiary of ABP Trust, a Maryland statutory trust, owns 15,000,000 redeemable Class A Units, representing 47.8% of the economic interest of RMR LLC as of March 31, 2021, which is presented as a noncontrolling interest within the condensed consolidated financial statements. Adam D. Portnoy, one of our Managing Directors, is the sole trustee of ABP Trust, and owns all of ABP Trust’s voting securities.

RMR LLC was founded in 1986 to manage public investments in real estate and, as of March 31, 2021, managed a diverse portfolio of real estate and real estate related businesses. RMR LLC provides management services to four publicly traded equity real estate investment trusts, or REITs: Diversified Healthcare Trust, or DHC, which owns medical office and life science properties, senior living communities and wellness centers; Industrial Logistics Properties Trust, or ILPT, which owns and leases industrial and logistics properties; Office Properties Income Trust, or OPI, which owns office properties primarily leased to single tenants and those with high quality credit characteristics, including the government; and Service Properties Trust, or SVC, which owns a diverse portfolio of hotels and net lease service and necessity-based retail properties. DHC, ILPT, OPI and SVC are collectively referred to as the Managed Equity REITs.

RMR LLC also provides management services to three real estate operating companies: Five Star Senior Living Inc., or Five Star, a publicly traded operator of senior living communities, many of which are owned by DHC; Sonesta International Hotels Corporation, or Sonesta, a privately owned franchisor and operator of hotels, resorts and cruise ships in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East, and many of whose U.S. hotels are owned by SVC; and TravelCenters of America Inc., or TA, an operator and franchisor of travel centers primarily along the U.S. interstate highway system, many of which are owned by SVC, and standalone truck service facilities and standalone restaurants. Hereinafter, Five Star, Sonesta and TA are collectively referred to as the Managed Operating Companies.

In addition, RMR LLC provides management services to private capital vehicles, including ABP Trust and its subsidiaries, or collectively ABP Trust, and other private entities that own commercial real estate, of which certain of our Managed Equity REITs own minority equity interests. In these financial statements we refer to these clients as the Managed Private Real Estate Capital clients.

As of December 31, 2020, RMR LLC had two wholly owned subsidiaries, each an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC: Tremont Realty Advisors LLC, or Tremont Advisors, and RMR Advisors LLC, or RMR Advisors.

Tremont Advisors provides advisory services for two publicly traded mortgage REITs: RMR Mortgage Trust, or RMRM, and Tremont Mortgage Trust, or TRMT. RMRM, TRMT and the Managed Equity REITs are collectively referred to as the Managed REITs or the Managed Public Real Estate Capital clients. RMRM and TRMT focus primarily on originating and investing in first mortgage whole loans secured by middle market and transitional commercial real estate. Tremont Advisors has in the past and may in the future manage additional accounts that invest in commercial real estate debt, including secured mortgage debt. Employees of Tremont Advisors also act as a transaction broker for non-investment advisory clients for negotiated fees, which we refer to as the Tremont business.

On January 5, 2021, RMRM received its requested order from the SEC deregistering RMRM as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Effective as of that time, RMRM’s investment advisory agreement with RMR Advisors was terminated and RMRM entered into a new management agreement with Tremont Advisors.

On January 6, 2021, RMR Advisors merged with and into Tremont Advisors with Tremont Advisors as the surviving entity.

On April 26, 2021, RMRM and TRMT announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which TRMT will merge with and into RMRM, with RMRM continuing as the surviving company. Tremont Advisors will continue to manage the combined company and has waived any termination fee that would otherwise be payable by TRMT as a result of the merger. The merger is expected to close during the third calendar quarter of 2021, subject to the requisite approvals by RMRM and TRMT shareholders and other customary closing conditions.

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements are unaudited. Certain information and disclosures required by U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, for complete financial statements have been condensed or omitted. We believe the disclosures made are adequate to make the information presented not misleading. However, the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020, or our 2020 Annual Report. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair statement of results for the interim period have been included. All intercompany transactions and balances with or among our consolidated subsidiaries have been eliminated. Our operating results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year.

Preparation of these financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires our management to make certain estimates and assumptions that may affect the amounts reported in these financial statements and related notes. The actual results could differ from these estimates.