Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation Reports First Quarter 2021 Results

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (the “Company”) (NYSE:ACRE), a specialty finance company engaged in originating and investing in commercial real estate assets, reported generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) net income of $15.7 million or $0.45 per diluted common share and Distributable Earnings⁽¹⁾ of $13.9 million or $0.40 per diluted common share for the first quarter of 2021.

“Our first quarter results mark a strong start to 2021, with significant growth in earnings versus the same period in 2020, and Distributable Earnings well in excess of the regular and supplemental dividends,” said Bryan Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer of ACRE. “Our strong earnings and our accretive equity offering drove another quarter of growth in our book value per share. Our larger equity base enables us to further scale our business and execute on our building pipeline of high quality opportunities in an attractive market. Our future outlook for 2021 remains promising and we continue to believe that our Distributable Earnings will meet or exceed our dividends for the year, including the supplemental dividends.”

“We continue to strengthen our balance sheet by raising accretive forms of capital and further diversifying our sources of financing, resulting in a greater equity base, lower overall leverage and increased non-recourse term financing compared to the first quarter of 2020,” said Tae-Sik Yoon, Chief Financial Officer of ACRE. “Supported by improving real estate market fundamentals, our portfolio continues to perform well with no new loans on non-accrual status and 100% of contractual interest payments collected during the first quarter.”

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(1) Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2020, the non-GAAP financial measure of Core Earnings was renamed to Distributable Earnings. Refer to Schedule I for the definition and reconciliation of Distributable Earnings.

(2) Loans purchased from the Ares Warehouse must be purchased at fair value as determined by an independent third-party valuation expert, are dependent on liquidity and are subject to approval by a majority of ACRE’s independent directors. There can be no assurance that ACRE will acquire any loans from the Ares Warehouse.

COMMON STOCK DIVIDEND

On February 17, 2021, the Company declared a regular cash dividend of $0.33 per common share and a supplemental cash dividend of $0.02 per common share for the first quarter of 2021. The first quarter 2021 dividend and supplemental cash dividend were paid on April 15, 2021 to common stockholders of record as of March 31, 2021. On May 4, 2021, the Company declared a regular cash dividend of $0.33 per common share and a supplemental cash dividend of $0.02 per common share for the second quarter of 2021. The second quarter 2021 and supplemental cash dividends will be payable on July 15, 2021 to common stockholders of record as of June 30, 2021.