Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

The interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of the Company have been prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Certain information and note disclosures normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, have been condensed or omitted according to such SEC rules and regulations. However, management believes that the disclosures included in these interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements are adequate to make the information presented not misleading. The accompanying interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. In the opinion of management, all normal and recurring adjustments necessary to present fairly the financial condition of the Company at September 30, 2020 and results of operations for all periods presented have been made. The results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 should not be construed as indicative of the results to be expected for future periods or the full year.

The interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of the Company include the accounts of all subsidiaries; inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated. Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation.

All entities in which the Company holds investments that are considered VIEs for financial reporting purposes were reviewed for consolidation under the applicable consolidation guidance. Whenever the Company has both the power to direct the activities of an entity that most significantly impact the entity’s performance, and the obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits of the entity that could be significant, the Company consolidates the entity.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make a number of significant estimates. These include estimates of amount and timing of allowances for credit losses, fair value of certain assets and liabilities, and other estimates that affect the reported amounts of certain assets and liabilities as of the date of the condensed consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of certain revenues and expenses during the reported period. It is likely that changes in these estimates (e.g., valuation changes to the underlying collateral of loans due to changes in market capitalization rates, leasing, credit worthiness of major tenants, occupancy rates, availability of financing, exit plan, loan sponsorship, actions of other lenders, overall economic and capital markets conditions, the broader commercial real estate market, local geographic sub-markets or other factors) will occur in the near term. As of September 30, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic remains ongoing, and as a result, numerous countries, including the United States, have declared national emergencies. Such actions have resulted in significant macroeconomic disruptions and have adversely impacted many industries. The ongoing pandemic may continue to adversely impact macroeconomic and market conditions, resulting in a period of global economic slowdown. The rapidly evolving and fluid nature 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 its interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements are reasonable and supportable based on the information available as of September 30, 2020. However, the significant degree of 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 September 30, 2020 inherently less certain than they would be absent the current and potential impacts of

COVID-19. The Company’s actual results could ultimately differ from its estimates and such differences may be material.

Loans Held-for-Sale

The Company classifies certain loans as held-for-sale based on management’s intent to sell or otherwise dispose of them. Loans held-for-sale are reported at the lower of amortized cost or fair value. Fair value is determined under the guidance of ASC 820. Interest income on loans held-for-sale is recognized at the loan coupon rate and recorded on the consolidated statements of comprehensive income.

Restructuring Charges

Subsequent to September 30, 2020, the Company entered into an internalization agreement with the Manager pursuant to which the Company’s management agreement with the Manager, or the Management Agreement, will terminate effective as of, 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2020, and the Company will no longer pay base management fees or incentive fees with respect to any period thereafter. The termination of the Management Agreement will be a material change in the management structure of the business, and is accounted for under ASC 420, Exit or disposal cost obligations. The one-time payment to be made to the Manager under the internalization agreement, and other associated costs incurred as part of the internalization of the Company’s management function, are recorded within restructuring charges with a corresponding liability recorded within other liabilities. See Note 17 – Restructuring Charges for additional discussion of the restructuring charges related to the Company’s internalization and Note 21 – Subsequent Events for additional discussion of the Company’s internalization.

Senior Secured Term Loan Facilities

The Company records senior secured term loan facilities as liabilities on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. Where applicable, any issue discount or transaction expenses are deferred and amortized over the term of the loan using the effective interest method, and is included within interest expense in the Company’s consolidated statements of comprehensive (loss) income, while the unamortized balance is included as a reduction to the carrying amount on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets.

Recently Issued and/or Adopted Accounting Standards

Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments

On January 1, 2020, the Company adopted Accounting Standard Update, or ASU, 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, or ASU 2016-13. ASU 2016-13 significantly changes how entities measure credit losses for most financial assets and certain other instruments that are not measured at fair value through net income. ASU 2016-13 replaces the incurred loss model under existing guidance with a Current Expected Credit Loss, or CECL, model for instruments measured at amortized cost, and also require entities to record allowances for available-for-sale, or AFS, debt securities rather than reduce the amortized cost, as they did under the other-than-temporary impairment model. It also simplifies the accounting model for purchased credit-impaired debt securities and loans. In addition, the new model applies to off-balance sheet credit exposures, such as unfunded loan commitments. ASU 2016-13 was adopted by the Company through a cumulative-effect adjustment to cumulative earnings of $18.5 million as of January 1, 2020.

The allowance for credit losses required under ASU 2016-13 is a valuation account that is deducted from the amortized cost basis of related loans and debt securities on the Company’s condensed consolidated balance sheets, and which reduces the Company’s total stockholders’ equity. The initial allowance for credit losses recorded on January 1, 2020 is reflected as a direct charge to cumulative earnings; however, going forward, changes to the allowance for credit losses are recognized through net income on the Company’s condensed consolidated statements of comprehensive (loss) income. While ASU 2016-13 does not require any particular method for determining the allowance for credit losses, it does specify the allowance should be based on relevant information about past events, including historical loss experience, current portfolio, market conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts for the duration of each respective loan. In addition, other than a few narrow exceptions, ASU 2016-13 requires that all financial instruments subject to the CECL model have some amount of expected loss to reflect the GAAP principal underlying the CECL model that all loans, debt securities, and similar assets have some inherent risk of loss, regardless of credit quality, subordinate capital or other mitigating factors.

The Company’s loans typically include commitments to fund incremental proceeds to its borrowers over the life of the loan. Those future funding commitments are also subject to an allowance for credit losses. The allowance for credit losses related to future loan fundings is recorded as a component of other liabilities on the Company’s condensed consolidated balance sheets,

and not as an offset to the related loan balance. This allowance for credit losses is estimated using the same process outlined below for the Company’s outstanding loan balances, and changes in this component of the allowance for credit losses similarly flow through the Company’s condensed consolidated statements of comprehensive (loss) income.

The Company elected not to measure an allowance for credit losses on accrued interest receivable when the accrued interest is due within 90 days. The Company generally writes off accrued interest receivable balance when interest is 90 days or more past due unless the loan is both well secured and in the process of collection. Write-offs of accrued interest receivable are recognized within provision for credit losses in the condensed consolidated statements of comprehensive (loss) income. Accrued interest receivable includes deferred interest that may be collected at the loan maturity or past 90 days, and an allowance for credit losses has been included as part of the loan’s amortized cost. The Company did not write-off any accrued interest receivable during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020.

The Company’s implementation process included a selection of a credit loss analytical model, completion and documentation of policies and procedures, changes to internal reporting processes and related internal controls and additional disclosures. A control framework for governance, data, forecast and model controls was developed to support the CECL process. The allowance for credit losses is estimated on a quarterly basis and represents management’s estimates of current expected credit losses in the Company’s investment portfolio. Pools of loans with similar risk characteristics are collectively evaluated while loans that no longer share risk characteristics with loan pools are evaluated individually. Estimating an allowance for credit losses is inherently subjective, as it requires management to exercise significant judgment in establishing appropriate factors used to determine the allowance and a variety of subjective assumptions, including (i) determination of relevant historical loan loss data sets, (ii) the expected timing and amount of future loan fundings and repayments, (iii) the current credit quality of loans and operating performance of loan collateral and the Company’s expectations of performance, (iv) selecting the forecast for macroeconomic conditions and (v) determining the reasonable and supportable forecast period.

Considering the lack of historical Company data related to any realized loan losses since its inception, the Company elected to estimate its allowance for credit losses by using a probability-weighted analytical model that considers the likelihood of default and loss-given-default for each individual loan. The analytical model incorporates a third-party licensed database with historical loan losses from 1998 to 2019 for over 100,000 commercial real estate loans. The Company’s allowance for credit losses reflects its estimates of the current and future economic conditions that impact the performance of the commercial real estate properties serving as collateral for the Company’s loan investments. These estimates include unemployment rates, interest rates, price indices for commercial property and other macroeconomic factors impacting the likelihood and magnitude of potential credit losses for the Company’s loans during their anticipated term. The Company licenses certain macroeconomic financial forecasts from a third-party to inform its view of the potential future impact that broader macroeconomic conditions may have on the performance of its loan portfolio. The forecasts are embedded in the licensed analytical model that the Company uses to estimate its allowance for credit losses. The Company may use one or more of these forecasts in the process of estimating its allowance for credit losses. Selection of these economic forecasts requires significant judgment about future events that, while based on the information available to the Company as of the balance sheet date, are ultimately unknowable with certainty, and the actual economic conditions impacting the Company’s portfolio could vary significantly from the estimates the Company made for the periods presented. At the time of adoption of ASU No. 2016-13, in determining its initial allowance for credit losses estimate, the Company employed a macroeconomic forecast that largely reflected management’s views at the time and projected a stable overall economic scenario over the reasonable projection period. Significant inputs to the Company’s estimate of the allowance for credit losses include the reasonable and supportable forecast period and loan specific factors such as debt service coverage ratio, or DSCR, loan-to-value, or LTV, remaining contractual loan term, property type and others. In addition, the Company also considers relevant loan-specific qualitative factors to estimate its allowance for credit losses. In certain instances, for loans with unique risk characteristics, the Company may instead elect to employ different methods to estimate loan losses that also conform to ASU 2016-13 and related guidance.

Upon adoption of ASU No. 2016-13 on January 1, 2020, based on the Company’s loan portfolio, pre-COVID-19 economic environment and management’s expectations for future economic and market conditions at the time, the Company recorded an initial allowance for credit losses, as a cumulative-effective adjustment to the cumulative earnings in its consolidated statements of stockholders’ equity, of approximately $18.5 million, or approximately $0.34 per share.

The following table illustrates the day-one financial statement impact of the adoption of ASU 2016-13 on January 1, 2020:


(in thousands)
ASSETS	Pre-ASU 2016-13 Adoption		Cumulative Effect of Adoption		As Reported Under ASU 2016-13
Loans and securities	$	4,257,086	$	—	$	4,257,086
Allowance for credit losses	—		(16,692)		(16,692)
Loans and securities, net	$	4,257,086	$	(16,692)	$	4,240,394

LIABILITIES
Liability for off-balance sheet credit losses (1)	$	—	$	1,780	$	1,780

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Cumulative earnings	$	162,076	$	(18,472)	$	143,604

____________________

(1)Represents expected loss on unfunded commitments.

Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting

In March 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, issued ASU No. 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting, which provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying GAAP to contracts, hedging relationships and other transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met. The amendments apply only to contracts, hedging relationships and other transactions that reference the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, or another reference rate expected to be discontinued because of reference rate reform. ASU No. 2020-04 is effective for all entities as of March 12, 2020 through December 31, 2022. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting this ASU on its consolidated financial statements.

Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity

In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt – Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging – Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity. The intention of ASU 2020-06 is to address the complexities in accounting for certain financial instruments with a debt and equity component. Under ASU 2020-06, the number of accounting models for convertible notes will be reduced and entities that issue convertible debt will be required to use the if-converted method for the computation of diluted "Earnings per share" under ASC 260. ASC 2020-06 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2021 and may be adopted through either a modified retrospective method of transition or a fully retrospective method of transition. The Company is currently assessing the impact this guidance will have on its condensed consolidated financial statements.