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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2020
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. The condensed consolidated financial statements, including the condensed notes thereto, are unaudited and exclude some of the disclosures required in audited financial statements. Management believes it has made all necessary adjustments, consisting of only normal recurring items, so that the condensed consolidated financial statements are presented fairly and that estimates made in preparing its condensed consolidated financial statements are reasonable and prudent. The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the SEC.

The preparation of the financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the balance sheet. During the first quarter of 2020, there was a global outbreak of a novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, which has spread to over 200 countries and territories, including the United States, has spread to every state in the United States, and continues to spread. The World Health Organization has designated COVID-19 as a pandemic, and numerous countries, including the United States, have declared national emergencies with respect to COVID-19. The global impact of the outbreak has been rapidly evolving, and as cases of COVID-19 have continued to be identified in additional countries, many countries have reacted by instituting quarantines and restrictions on travel, closing financial markets and/or restricting trading and limiting operations of non-essential offices, retail centers, hotels and other businesses. Such actions have created disruption in global supply chains, increased rates of unemployment, and adversely impacted many industries. The outbreak could have a continued adverse impact on economic and market conditions and has triggered a period of global economic slowdown. The rapid development and fluidity of this situation precludes any prediction as to the ultimate adverse impact of COVID-19 on economic and market conditions. The Company believes the estimates and assumptions underlying the GAAP condensed consolidated financial statements are reasonable and supportable based on the information available as of June 30, 2020, however uncertainty over the ultimate impact COVID-19 will have on the global economy generally, and the Company’s business in particular, makes any estimates and assumptions as of June 30, 2020 inherently less certain than they would be absent the current and potential impacts of COVID-19. Actual results may ultimately differ materially from those estimates.

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company, the Company’s subsidiaries and joint ventures in which the Company has a controlling interest. For consolidated joint ventures, the non-controlling partner’s share of the assets, liabilities and operations of the joint ventures is included in non-controlling interests as equity of the Company. The non-controlling partner’s interest is generally computed as the joint venture partner’s ownership percentage. Certain of the joint ventures formed by the Company provide the other partner a profits interest based on certain internal rate of return hurdles being achieved. Any profits interest due to the other partner is reported within non-controlling interests. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

The Company consolidates partially owned entities in which it has a controlling financial interest. In determining whether the Company has a controlling financial interest in a partially owned entity and the requirement to consolidate the accounts of that entity, the Company considers whether the entity is a variable interest entity (“VIE”) and whether it is the primary beneficiary. The Company is the primary beneficiary of a VIE when it has (i) the power to direct the most significant activities impacting the economic performance of the VIE and (ii) the obligation to absorb losses or receive benefits significant to the VIE. BREIT OP and each of the Company’s joint ventures are considered to be a VIE. The Company consolidates these entities, excluding its equity method investment, because it has the ability to direct the most significant activities of the entities such as purchases, dispositions, financings, budgets, and overall operating plans.

As of June 30, 2020, the total assets and liabilities of the Company’s consolidated VIEs, excluding BREIT OP, were $11.3 billion and $8.0 billion, respectively, compared to $9.5 billion and $6.6 billion as of December 31, 2019. Such amounts are included on the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Certain of the Company’s joint ventures are accounted for under the equity method of accounting as the requirements for consolidation are not met. Investments in unconsolidated entities are initially recorded at cost and subsequently adjusted for the Company’s pro-rata share of net income, contributions, and distributions. The Company’s investments in unconsolidated entities are periodically assessed for impairment and an impairment loss is recorded when the fair value of the investment falls below the carrying value and such decline is determined to be other-than-temporary.

As of June 30, 2020, the Company’s investment in the joint venture which owns the real estate of the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay is not consolidated. Refer to Note 4 for additional details on the Company’s investments in unconsolidated entities.

The Company reclassified dead deal costs, which primarily consisted of a forfeited investment deposit, during the three months ended March 31, 2020, from General and Administrative Expenses to Other Income (Expense) on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations.  Such reclassification had no effect on Total Revenues or Net Loss on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations or classification in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

Fair Value Measurements

Under normal market conditions, the fair value of an investment is the amount that would be received to sell an asset or transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date (i.e., the exit price). Additionally, there is a hierarchal framework that prioritizes and ranks the level of market price observability used in measuring investments at fair value. Market price observability is impacted by a number of factors, including the type of investment and the characteristics specific to the investment and the state of the marketplace, including the existence and transparency of transactions between market participants. Investments with readily available actively quoted prices or for which fair value can be measured from actively quoted prices generally will have a higher degree of market price observability and a lesser degree of judgment used in measuring fair value.

Investments measured and reported at fair value are classified and disclosed in one of the following levels within the fair value hierarchy:

Level 1 — quoted prices are available in active markets for identical investments as of the measurement date. The Company does not adjust the quoted price for these investments.

Level 2 — quoted prices are available in markets that are not active or model inputs are based on inputs that are either directly or indirectly observable as of the measurement date.

Level 3 — pricing inputs are unobservable and include instances where there is minimal, if any, market activity for the investment. These inputs require significant judgment or estimation by management or third parties when determining fair value and generally represent anything that does not meet the criteria of Levels 1 and 2. Due to the inherent uncertainty of these estimates, these values may differ materially from the values that would have been used had a ready market for these investments existed.

Valuation of assets measured at fair value

The Company’s investments in real estate debt are reported at fair value. As of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the Company’s investments in real estate debt consisted of commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”), residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”), which are mortgage-related fixed income securities, corporate bonds, and term private mezzanine loans of real estate-related companies. The Company determines the fair value of its investments in real estate debt by generally utilizing third-party pricing service providers and broker-dealer quotations on the basis of last available bid price. 

In determining the fair value of a particular investment, pricing service providers may use broker-dealer quotations, reported trades or valuation estimates from their internal pricing models to determine the reported price. The pricing service providers’ internal models for securities such as real estate debt generally consider the attributes applicable to a particular class of the security (e.g., credit rating, seniority), current market data, and estimated cash flows for each class and incorporate deal collateral performance such as prepayment speeds and default rates, as available.

Certain of the Company’s investments in real estate debt, such as mortgages or mezzanine loans, are unlikely to have readily available market quotations. In such cases, the Company will generally determine the initial value based on the acquisition price of such investment if acquired by the Company or the par value of such investment if originated by the Company. Following the initial measurement, the Company will determine fair value by utilizing or reviewing certain of the following (i) market yield data, (ii) discounted cash flow modeling, (iii) collateral asset performance, (iv) local or macro real estate performance, (v) capital market conditions, (vi) debt yield or loan-to-value ratios and (vii) borrower financial condition and performance.

As of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the Company’s $4.6 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively, of investments in real estate debt were classified as Level 2.

The Company’s investments in equity securities of public real estate-related companies are classified as trading securities and reported at fair value. As such, the resulting unrealized gains and losses are recorded as a component of Other Income (Expense) on the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. In determining the fair value of public equity securities, the Company utilizes the closing price of such securities in the principal market in which the security trades. As of June 30, 2020 the Company’s $348.3 million of equity securities were classified as Level 1 and recorded as a component of Other Assets on the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Company did not own equity securities as of December 31, 2019.

Valuation of assets measured at fair value on a nonrecurring basis

Certain of the Company’s assets are not measured at fair value on an ongoing basis but are subject to fair value adjustments, such as when there is evidence of impairment, and therefore measured at fair value on a nonrecurring basis. The Company reviews its real estate properties for impairment each quarter or when there is an event of change in circumstances that could indicate the carrying amount of the real estate value may not be recoverable.

As part of the Company’s quarterly impairment review procedures, one of the Company’s hotel assets was deemed to be impaired, resulting in a $6.1 million impairment charge during the three months ended June 30, 2020. Refer to Note 3 for additional details of the impairment.

The Company estimated the fair value of the impaired property using a discounted cash flow analysis that utilized Level 3 inputs. The key assumptions were the discount rate (8.7%) and the exit capitalization rate (5.7%). There are inherent uncertainties in making these estimates such as macroeconomic conditions.

Valuation of liabilities not measured at fair value

As of June 30, 2020, the fair value of the Company’s mortgage notes, term loans, and secured revolving credit facilities, repurchase agreements, and unsecured revolving credit facilities was approximately $89.6 million below carrying value. As of December 31, 2019, the fair value of the Company’s mortgage notes, term loans, and secured revolving credit facilities, repurchase agreements, and unsecured revolving credit facilities was approximately $54.9 million above carrying value. Fair value of the Company’s indebtedness is estimated by modeling the cash flows required by the Company’s debt agreements and discounting them back to the present value using the appropriate discount rate. Additionally, the Company considers current market rates and conditions by evaluating similar borrowing agreements with comparable loan-to-value ratios and credit profiles. The inputs used in determining the fair value of the Company’s indebtedness are considered Level 3.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In April 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) staff issued a question and answer document (the “Lease Modification Q&A”) focused on the application of lease accounting guidance to lease concessions provided as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance with the Lease Modification Q&A, the Company has made a policy election to not account for concessions as a lease modification if the total cash flows after the lease concessions are substantially the same, or less than, the cash flows in the original lease. The Company has granted concessions to certain tenants to defer rental payments until a later date. The Company continued to recognize rental revenue for such tenants during the period, while also considering any necessary bad debt reserves. As of July 31, 2020, the Company has granted $6.1 million of rental deferral requests. However, if in the future, a concession is granted that modifies the terms and significantly alters the cash flows of the original lease, the Company will account for the changes as a lease modification.

In March 2020, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2020-04 “Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting”. ASU 2020-04 provides optional expedients and exceptions to GAAP requirements for modifications on debt instruments, leases, derivatives, and other contracts, related to the expected market transition from LIBOR, and certain other floating rate benchmark indices, or collectively, IBORs, to alternative reference rates. ASU 2020-04 generally considers contract modifications related to reference rate reform to be an event that does not require contract remeasurement at the modification date nor a reassessment of a previous accounting determination. The guidance in ASU 2020-04 is optional and may be elected over time, through December 31, 2022, as reference rate reform activities occur. Once ASU 2020-04 is elected, the guidance must be applied prospectively for all eligible contract modifications. The Company has not adopted any of the optional expedients or exceptions as of June 30, 2020, but will continue to evaluate the possible adoption of any such expedients or exceptions during the effective period as circumstances evolve.