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Exantas Capital Corp (ACR 2.32%)
Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call
March 06, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
See all our earnings call transcripts.
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q4 2018 Exantas Capital Corp. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time.
(Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Andy Carr, Head of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Andrew Carr -- Head of Investor Relations
Thank you, Helen. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining our call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements made in the course of this call are based on historical information, and may constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this conference call, the words believes, anticipates, expects, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
Although the Company believes that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of trends, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
These risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's reports filed with the SEC, including its reports on Forms 8-K, 10-Q and 10-K and in particular the Risk Factor section of our Form 10-K. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements.
Furthermore, certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed on this conference call. Our presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute to the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable measures prepared in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles are contained in our earnings release for the past quarter.
I will now turn it over to the Chairman of Exantas Capital Corp, Andrew Farkas for opening remarks.
Andrew L. Farkas -- Chairman
Thank you, Andy. Good morning all. Thanks for joining the call. With me today are Bob Lieber, our Chief Executive Officer; Matt Stern, our President; Dave Bryant, our CFO; Paul Hughson, our Head of Commercial Real Estate Lending; and Andy Carr, who just spoke to you, Head of Investor Relations from whom of course you've already heard.
I want to take a moment to review our progress in 2018, before handing the call back to management for normal quarterly review. We had a great 2018. Last night, we reported $1.1 billion in new transitional commercial real estate loan originations and CMBS investment activity in 2018, which will drive core earnings growth for 2019.
2018 adjusted core earnings increased to $0.71 per share from negative $0.37 per share in 2017. With that growth in the Company's core investment portfolio for 2018 caused core earnings to accelerate which supported three consecutive quarterly dividend increases in 2018 from $0.05 per share at the beginning of the year to $0.175 per share paid for the fourth quarter. We're anticipating another increase in our dividend to $0.20 per share for the first quarter 2019, which we'll recommend to the Board for approval.
We've largely completed the strategic plan that we first announced in November 2016. In May of 2018, we announced the rebranding of the Company and presented to the investment community a company that is less complicated that has much more predictable earnings. I'm very pleased with results of 2018 and the prospects for additional net investment portfolio growth and in turn core earnings growth. We look forward to reporting those results to you on future calls.
With that, Bob, I'd like to turn it off to you. Bob is our CEO.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Andrew, and good morning everybody. As Andrew noted, 2018 was a great transition year for Exantas Capital and we're very optimistic about the momentum that we've developed. Gross originations at $1.1 billion, as importantly, net capital deployment was close to $475 million for the full year, in 2018, which is an increase of over 200% from 2017.
For the fourth quarter of 2018 -- for the fourth quarter, gross originations were over $355 million and net deployment for the quarter was over $125 million or 68% higher than the fourth quarter of 2017. So trend is very good. We've also significantly reduced the Company's cost of capital by redeeming preferred shares, improving the terms on our warehouse facilities and accessing the capital markets where appropriate.
Results of these and other efforts have produced adjusted core earnings of $0.24 per share for the fourth quarter of 2018 when compared to a net -- $0.01 loss in the fourth quarter of 2017. Net interest income has increased by 36% to $0.49 per share in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to $0.36 per common share in the fourth quarter of 2017.
We are still in the process of converting the proceeds from the strategic plan and loan payoffs into future income producing credit investments. Our available liquidity for the Company at year-end was $175 million. We believe that our ability to leverage the commercial real estate investment management and real estate services business of C-III Capital Partners will continue to be key value drivers for the growth of Exantas' investment portfolio in 2019, despite a competitive investing and lending environment.
Additionally, we believe we are well positioned in the current interest rate environment to compete, with LIBOR over -- when LIBOR rose in 2018, we benefited as a floating rate lender, and these spreads have compressed the market, but this has not meaningfully impacted our asset level weighted average yield because our reduced cost of funds and increases in LIBOR, which Matt will talk in more detail shortly.
We've continued to make attractive investments and in the same time use loan payoffs and proceeds from the strategic plan to de-risk our portfolio. For example, concentration of retail assets in our loan portfolio was down from over 16% at June 30th, 2018 to under 7% at the year end of 2018. While there are still attractive opportunities in retail lending, we continue to favor other asset categories like multi-family in this market.
Turning to a review of our balance sheet; like most participants, we were impacted by the fourth quarter market volatility. GAAP book value at year-end 2018 was $14.02 per share, down from $14.23 per share last quarter, resulting from a $0.28 reduction in the carrying values of our CMBS portfolio and the related swaps. The good news is, at the end of February, the CMBS positions have already recovered more than half of these decreases and we are still confident in the credit that we have underwritten. I'll provide more details on this in a moment.
We believe these marks is a result of the capital market's volatility and not a function of any deterioration in the underlying real estate credit fundamentals, which we believe are still strong. In comparison, and to highlight both sides of this volatility, during the third quarter of 2018, we've realized an $0.08 increase in book value per share due to the increased carrying values for mark-to-market our CMBS and swap portfolios; so went up in the third quarter, went little down in the fourth quarter.
And while market volatility can continue to lead to intra-quarter fluctuations in book value, we consider portfolio growth, originations and quality asset management to be the main benchmarks by which we track our operational effectiveness. To that end, the payment of our $0.175 per share dividend in the fourth quarter was supported by net income of $0.23 per share, thereby partially offsetting the impact to book value from the market volatility.
As mentioned on prior calls over the past year, we have been much more proactive in sharing our results and discussing Exantas with market participants. One of the topics frequently discussed has been book value and its components. And one item that has been come clear to us is that market participants were not all aware of how GAAP accounting treats convertible stock and preferred shares on the balance sheet and many adjustments have been made by the investment community in an attempt to control this.
Going forward, we will, of course, continue to report book value according to GAAP, but you will also hear us focus more on economic book value, which we believe provides a more accurate measure of the economic position of our common shareholders. Dave Bryant will give a little more detail about this in just a minute.
Finally, as I've mentioned on prior calls, we continue to evaluate our dividend policy as core earnings visibility improves. But as Andrew mentioned, we anticipate recommending a 20% dividend to the Board for the first quarter dividend. Given the 300% dividend growth the Company has experienced since strategic plan was announced and the prospects for the continued trajectory in core earnings from the deployment of capital into income producing transitional loans in CMBS, we believe Exantas continues to present a very compelling investment opportunity.
And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Matt to discuss the portfolio. Matt?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Thank you, Bob, and good morning everyone. I'd like to begin by taking a closer look at our fourth quarter origination activity. For the fourth quarter, the company originated 11 commercial real estate loans, totaling $275 million or an average commitment of $25 million, with a weighted average spread of 306 basis points over 30-day LIBOR.
At December 31, 2018, our commercial real estate loan portfolio was comprised of $1.5 billion of floating rate self-originated whole loans, a $19 million preferred equity position and a $5 million fixed rate mezzanine loan. Our portfolio grew by $55 million during the fourth quarter, as new loan originations exceeded pay-offs and pay-downs.
Our commercial real estate loan origination team continues to seek quality lending opportunities, resulting in a strong deal pipeline. New deal flow sourced as a result of our growing market presence, combined with repeat lending opportunities arising from existing borrower relationships contributed to a 40%-plus year-over-year increase in loan originations, with 2018 loan origination volume exceeding $860 million.
This is the highest annual origination volume in Exantas' history. We remain optimistic about the multifamily space, which accounted for approximately 63% of our loan portfolio collateral at December 31, 2018, while our exposure to retail has decreased to less than 10%.
Our lending strategy remains focused on seeking the best risk adjusted returns in markets around the United States that are experiencing growing demographics and the prospects for job creation. Despite the competitive lending environment in 2018, the weighted-average unlevered yield of new loan originations increased 13 basis points to 5.84% in 2018 from 5.71% in 2017. We also financed our loan portfolio more efficiently in 2018, thereby reducing the average spread on our asset level cost of funds by 52 basis points over the last 12 months.
And as LIBOR rose throughout the year, it helped to offset spread compression from market competition and our levered returns improved. During the fourth quarter, we continued to diversify the Company's asset base by investing in CMBS, where we see attractive investment opportunities that also offer duration. At December 31 2018, our $466 million CMBS portfolio at par was comprised of $301 million of floating rate bonds and $165 million of fixed rate bonds, which we have substantially hedged. The weighted average life of our CMBS portfolio has increased to over four years at year-end 2018, as compared to approximately one year at year-end 2016.
During the fourth quarter, we acquired $83 million in face amount of CMBS bonds. While we continue to selectively invest and remain focused on credit quality, we are also periodically presented with opportunities to sell positions and have done so opportunistically to realize gains on our CMBS investments and related swaps. We are very pleased with the $1.1 billion of total loan origination and CMBS acquisition volume in 2018, which exceeded our 2018 guidance of $1 billion provided in March 2018 during our fourth quarter of 2017 earnings call.
We expect to see continued positive momentum in 2019 and anticipate that our total origination and investment volume will range between $850 million and $1 billion for the calendar year 2019. We believe this investment goal, as well as our plans to grow sustainable core earnings are achievable, as our loan origination pipeline and loans currently in process are meaningfully more than where we were at this time last year. We look forward to discussing our progress with you in the quarters to come.
And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Dave Bryant, to discuss our financials. Dave?
David J. Bryant -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Matt. Good morning, everyone. Our GAAP net income allocable to common shares for the three months and year ended December 31, 2018 was $7.4 million or $0.23 and $7 million or $0.22 per share respectively. Core earnings were $6.5 million or $0.21 per common share and adjusted core earnings were $7.5 million or $0.24 per common share for Q4 of 2018.
For the calendar year 2018, core earnings were $9.4 million or $0.30 per common share and adjusted core earnings were $22.3 million or $0.71 per common share. GAAP net income for the three months ended December 31 includes several significant items. One, the most significant was the $1.4 million recovery of a corporate credit loan position previously held in a legacy Apidos CLO, which of course was a non-core activity.
Two, we also received $1.4 million in commercial real estate loan exit fees during the period, due to increased loan payoffs, which have, based on our experience, tended to be seasonally higher in the last calendar quarter. And three, we realized an impairment of $933,000 (ph) on legacy CMBS bonds, which was recognized in Q4.
The following adjustments were made to arrive at 2018 adjusted core earnings; a $7.5 million or $0.24 per share from our redemption of $115 million of Series B preferred stock; a $2.3 million or $0.07 per share from a loss on a CRE loan originated in 2013 and reserved for in 2016; another $0.9 million or $0.03 per share from the impairment on the CMBS bonds acquired in 2007, which again occurred in Q4 of 2018; and finally, we paid a $2.2 million or $0.03 per share legal charge, which was also accrued for in 2016.
We view these items as non-recurring and/or as out of period adjustments that affected our core earnings performance in 2018. When we view our adjusted core earnings in tandem with our dividend policy, the result supports our Q4 annualized dividend level.
We saw a growth of $13.5 million or approximately 32% in our reported year-over-year net interest income for 2018, as compared to 2017. Three items are driving the increase in net interest income. First, the incremental asset growth in our core investment platform. The net growth in the par value of the core earning assets was $475 million or 30% during 2018. Also, as of December 31st, 2018, it's worth noting that 91% of our $2 billion investment portfolio is comprised of floating rate commercial real estate debt investments.
The second factor driving the increase in interest income is a 55 basis point reduction in the cost of our funds on related -- asset related financing. And third is the net accretive benefit to our invested equity from rising LIBOR on our floating rate core real estate investments, a 94 basis point increase in LIBOR at December 31, 2018 over the same date in 2017 eclipsed the spread compression on all CRE assets of 84 basis points, resulting in a net 10 basis point improvement on the yield of our commercial real estate assets.
As Matt discussed, we had strong CRE loan production during the fourth quarter. The loan mix was 53% multifamily, 23% office and the balance from retail, self-storage and mixed-use properties. In addition, we acquired $83 million of CMBS bonds, all of which were floating rate at a spread of LIBOR plus 2.2%. Bond mix was 59% agency and 41% non-agency.
As is typical during the fourth quarter, we saw an uptick in CRE loan payoffs. Loan payoffs were $203 million with a spread of LIBOR plus 5.21% and an average life of 38 months. Notably, a strategic plan loan with a balance of $17 million paid off in full in Q4, with an exit fee of $510,000.
Our positive net loan production was achieved after increased loan payoff volume and is a credit to our CRE origination team. GAAP book value was $14.02 per common share and includes two items which we wish to highlight for our common shareholders and the analyst community. First, as Bob referenced, our GAAP book value includes the remaining aggregate value of the equity conversion options on our convertible notes of $11 million or $0.35 per share at December 31st, 2018. This amount will be amortized to interest expense, will increase the liability balance of our convertible notes and accordingly, reduced GAAP book value over time. But has nothing to do with the Company's operating performance. We believe the slow decline the book value is misleading.
Second, the carrying amount of our Series C preferred stock of $116 million does not reflect the full obligation of $120 million, which is the balance on which we pay the preferred distributions and would be the amount due should we ever redeem that preferred stock.
Adjusting for this $4 million difference, book value would be reduced by $0.13 per share at year-end 2018. We believe both of these accounting treatments mistake the economic position of the Company. This period, in order to provide greater transparency, we are introducing a non-GAAP metric, economic book value.
As a brief background, Exantas has been disclosing the adjustment related to the discount arising from the value of the equity option on our convertible note issuances in our quarterly earnings releases. In addition, some market participants have been taking into account the redemption price of our outstanding preferred stock for some time. We believe both items impact the economic value to common shareholders and decided to formally combine both adjustments into a single presentation in our earnings releases.
So our GAAP book value per share of $14.02, plus the two items discussed totaling $0.48 per share, yields economic book value of $13.54 per share at December 31st, 2018.
As a point of comparison, the economic book value at December 31st, 2017 was $13.63 per share, which reflects the relative book value stability we've managed for the Company. Our GAAP debt-to-equity ratio rose to 2.8 times at year end 2018, up from 1.7 times at December 31st of '17. The increase in leverage results from three factors. One, a net increase of $457 million in asset level borrowings, which reflects or having been under-levered in 2017; two, a decline in stockholders' equity of $118 million, a $115 million of which is from the preferred stock redemptions; and three, a decline in corporate debt, primarily from the redemption of $70 million or 6% convertible notes.
During 2018, we continued our efforts to improve our capital structure by redeeming $165 million of preferred stock that had a weighted average coupon of 8.25% and paying off the remaining $70 million of our 6% convertible notes that came due in 4Q 2018; and lastly, reducing our asset level financing costs by amending the terms of our existing warehouse line and through attractive terms and flexibility of new warehouse facilities.
With that, I'll turn the call back to Bob for some final comments.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Dave. As Andrew mentioned at the beginning of the call, we've made a lot of progress during 2018. Just to highlight, we substantially completed our strategic plan. We've reduced our cost of capital. We've grown adjusted core earnings from a negative $0.37 in 2017 to a positive $0.71 in 2018. We've increased the dividend by 300% from $0.20 a year to $0.20 a quarter expected in the first quarter of 2019.
Our net capital deployment is up over 200% year-over-year. We've continued to diversify and de-risk our portfolio and extend portfolio duration and economic book value has remained relatively stable.
We have over $175 million of available capital and we're optimistic about the opportunities in front of us. Thank you for your time here today and listening. I would happy to open the call -- phone to any questions. Operator?
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Steve DeLaney of JMP Securities. Your line is now open.
Steve DeLaney -- JMP Securities -- Analyst
Thanks. Good morning, everyone, and congratulations on a strong close to last year.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Thank you.
Steve DeLaney -- JMP Securities -- Analyst
Lot of -- lot of noise in December obviously, I wanted to start with asking about the legacy CMBS, the $0.03 impairment there, was that due -- also due to spread widening or was this more of a fundamental credit-driven type of a write down? Thanks.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
In that case, Steve, it was a legacy bond that we own, that -- one asset that remains, people responsible for the trust (ph) had provided guidance on what valuation was and that's what informs the mark and they sold that one last asset at less than what's anticipated, and that's what gave rise to it. Yes, so that's -- that was not a mark-to-market concept.
Steve DeLaney -- JMP Securities -- Analyst
So that's pretty much done and I'm guessing that's not included in the $0.28 general CMBS fair value decline in the estimated 50% recovery. This is completely separate from those numbers, is that correct?
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes, obviously. That's right.
Steve DeLaney -- JMP Securities -- Analyst
Okay, thanks. And we noticed you do -- you are carrying a general loan loss reserve $1.4 million. Was that something, I can't recall whether that was legacy backed from RSO or is that something that C-III put in place just as sort of a buffer or a cushion. And is that something that we should expect to see you grow as we move through 2019 ahead of the CECL accounting policy coming into effect in 2020. Thanks.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. The Company has always had a reserve policy, but you are correct that since C-III took over, the management agreement, we have altered that policy over time, but you will see that rise because it's largely correlated to a percentage of the portfolio itself. And so, as a result, as the aggregate investment portfolio rises, you would see that tick-up.
David J. Bryant -- Chief Financial Officer
And Steve, we have not finalized our analysis on the impact of CECL, but we would expect the number to grow as a result of that as it would in next year -- in 2020 and going forward. And of course any catch-up adjustment that would be made will be a balance sheet entry and not impacting earnings.
Steve DeLaney -- JMP Securities -- Analyst
Exactly, because non-cash obviously wouldn't fit with core; and is there -- that $1.4 million, I'm just curious if there's any kind of percentage of principle that you're trying to work toward?
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
So Steve, if you take a look at the, we haven't filed our K yet. But if you look at the third quarter Q, you'll notice that we have categories of risk ratings and when you look at risk rating 3 and risk rating 4, that's how we developed our general reserve risk rating 3 is a 1.5% reserve, meaning any loans in that bucket get 1.5% of their principal balance reserved for. An in category 4, it's 5% because it's gotten progressively worse. And then aside from that, we have a category 5, those are specifically impaired loans, so we look to establish the reserve on a loan-by-loan basis if anything falls into that category.
Steve DeLaney -- JMP Securities -- Analyst
Great. Well that's great detail. I appreciate the comments from all of you. Thanks.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Steve.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ben Zucker of BTIG. Your line is now open.
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
Good morning and thanks for taking my questions, and I'd like to echo congrats on a very successful 2018.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Ben.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Thank you.
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
I just wanted to talk about actually repayments quickly, looking at your earnings release, 2018 originations are like half of your year-end '18 loan portfolio. So I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it really feels like repayment should be slowing down here in 2019. Is that a fair characterization?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
I just wanted to make sure we understand your first comment meaning around -- meaning that originations for the year were about half?
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
Yes, is that? Am I seeing like originations around $850 million, $860 million, which is about half of the carrying value of the year end?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
That's correct.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Yes, that's correct. I do think -- I think we mentioned on the third quarter call that our 2018 repayments were a bit elevated. I think that's the product of the timing of the origination of some of the predecessor years when the origination volume for the Company had ticked up. Obviously, you can have people payoff a little bit sooner or extend. It's difficult to predict with precision. But we would expect the number to be a bit lower in in 2019.
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
Okay, that's definitely helpful. And I guess, following up on that -- on the production side, you gave guidance of I think $850 million to $1 billion for 2019, did that include CMBS as well or was that just CRE loan originations?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Yes, that was the combination of our loan investments as well as CMBS.
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
Okay. And from like a timing and deployment perspective, should we assume that the December volatility might exacerbate the normal seasonal 1Q slow down or would you still expect that you had pretty steady flow throughout that period?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
The loan pipeline still looks strong right now. It's difficult to predict with precision exactly what will close before the end of the month, relative to what will fall into the beginning of 2Q. But the pipeline is still in decent shape as we have mentioned.
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
That's helpful, Matt. And then just kind of turning to the expense side of things, you guys were running on that fixed-management fee agreement in 2018, correct?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
That's correct.
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
So, starting now, we go to the 1.5% on the equity, I'm assuming, is there anything that's going into that equity besides common and preferred stock?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
No, that's the calculation. So, you would see -- starting in the first quarter, you'll see that run as a percentage of equity as would typically be the case.
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
Great, well, I guess if my math looks right on the surface that should be a nice little drop in the management fees then. And did you guys have any kind of like G&A or operating expense targets for this year, for 2019? I can't remember when you were going through your Investor Day deck?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Sure. I would say that the -- our expectation following being done with the strategic plan and normal operational activity, which certainly we would hope to achieve this year, you'll see guidance in the investor presentation. We'll be updating that shortly. I would say in the coming weeks but I think the guidance that is provided in the existing deck is consistent.
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
That's very helpful. Thanks, Matt for taking all my questions, and congrats again, guys.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Thank you, Ben.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Ben.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Stephen Laws of Raymond James. Your line is now open.
Stephen Laws -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Hi good morning.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Good morning
Stephen Laws -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Following up on a couple of these topics from Ben and Steve, I guess CMBS growth little higher in the fourth quarter, was that opportunistic given wider spreads in December? If so, have you continued acquiring those assets here in January and February or have spreads tightened back up to shift your focus on a relative attractiveness back to loans here in the first quarter?
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
I think there was origination activity on the buying side or investment activity earlier in the quarter as well. You're correct that there were a few bonds wherein spreads moved out that we ended up committing on and ended up buying some. But I think it was relatively spread out across the quarter. I don't know that I can give specific guidance right now on 1Q activity, but as mentioned in our comments, spreads have come in maybe 50%, 60% since December and we continue to look at opportunities to invest.
Stephen Laws -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Great. Along those lines, new loans had a returns look today versus November, as the dislocation, lightened competition, kind of what type of impact did December or late 4Q volatility have on what you're seeing on competitive landscape for new CRE loans?
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
I mean I think the volatility was much more pronounced in bonds than it was in loans. There was I'd say fourth quarter, if anything, there was a pause in spread tightening as opposed to any real meaningful spread widening and I think spreads have kind of stabilized within a band over the course of last eight to 10 weeks.
Stephen Laws -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Great, that's helpful. And Dave, wanted to follow up, your comments talked about leverage at 2.8, where do you see that running? Where is the comfortable target? I know you mentioned there is still, you still have some capital available for investment that you guys highlighted in prepared remarks. But can you talk about your leverage targets and where you see that moving to over the year?
David J. Bryant -- Chief Financial Officer
So, we do have some more room to move leverage marginally higher. I think it's fair to say that we were under-levered in 2017. We're approaching a more reasonable level now and have some room in 2019. We're well within any leverage constraints that our warehouse facilities would call for. So we're not constrained by that. It's more of a question of being comfortable with the risk that we're taking, but we do have some room to move now. Obviously as we do more CLOs, they tend to get us a little bit higher leverage. So that is obviously something that we look to do as we want to match fund our assets with our debt.
Stephen Laws -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Great, appreciate the color there on leverage. And then lastly, you guys have accomplished quite a bit with the legacy assets. Looking at this table from $480 million identified to $30 million, can you talk about that remaining $30 million, what's the timeline of addressing that? Are these assets that are left going to be more difficult or can you maybe talk about the timeline of how the remaining legacy assets will wind down?
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Yeah, they are just a couple of assets that remain, a couple of commercial real estate loans and then some cash and legacy liabilities associated with one of the operating businesses, but we would anticipate that they'll play themselves out during 2019. It's a little challenging to speak with specifics there, but we would expect them to play themselves out this year.
Stephen Laws -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Well, that's helpful. So that will be addressed this year, most likely. So that's great. Well, I appreciate you taking my questions. Thank you very much.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Thanks Steve.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jade Rahmani of KBW. Your line is now open.
Ryan Tomasello -- KBW -- Analyst
Good morning. This is actually, Ryan Tomasello on for Jade. Thanks for taking for taking the questions.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Hey Ryan.
Ryan Tomasello -- KBW -- Analyst
Looking at -- hi, looking at the anticipated dividend of $0.20 for 1Q, it equates to about -- looks like 7.5% return on economic book value. So just wondering if you can remind us what stabilized post expense ROEs you're targeting, when you expect to hit those levels and perhaps how we should expect the dividend to trend throughout the year and in 2019.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
I guess it's difficult to give specific guidance on exactly where the dividend will go, but I think the earnings power of the business, we tried to depict that. I believe it's on Page 12 of our investor presentation, hopefully that'll provide some visibility. Obviously we'll update that when we put out our new investor deck. But we think core earnings will substantially inform directionally where we go with the dividend. And at least relative to book value, we would anticipate the Company, once fully deployed, to be able to be upwardly mobile.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
And just to add to Matt's comment, we do have capital availability to continue to grow our investment portfolio here in 2019.
Ryan Tomasello -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. And given the historical participation you've had in the CLO market, just wondering if you can give us some commentary on the current state of that execution, if it's still attractive and how competition for these CLO eligible loans has trended post year after this volatility is kind of played out?
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
I think CLO is -- it continues to be an efficient way to match in terms (ph) of our assets and liabilities. I mean, I think the spreads have moved around a little bit, I think spreads have widened more dramatically on managed deals and on static deals. I think that the dramatic tightening of CLO liabilities over the course of 2018 did lead to spread tightening on the origination side; that has largely dissipated. So I don't really think that CLO -- where CLO spreads are today meaningfully impacts where origination spreads are in today's market.
Ryan Tomasello -- KBW -- Analyst
Great, thanks for taking the questions.
Matthew J. Stern -- President
Thanks Ryan
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. At this time, I'm showing no further questions, I would like to turn the call back over to Bob Lieber for closing remarks.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you all for joining us today and learning more. We intend to be out talking more to the market as we go through the investor conference upcoming here. We appreciate your interest and your questions, don't hesitate to call. Andrew, would you like to have any closing comments?
Andrew L. Farkas -- Chairman
No, I think that's it. I want to congratulate management for yet another excellent performance. And I would like to thank our shareholders for your continued support.
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you everybody.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.
Duration: 39 minutes
Call participants:
Andrew Carr -- Head of Investor Relations
Andrew L. Farkas -- Chairman
Robert C. Lieber -- Chief Executive Officer
Matthew J. Stern -- President
David J. Bryant -- Chief Financial Officer
Steve DeLaney -- JMP Securities -- Analyst
Ben Zucker -- BTIG -- Analyst
Stephen Laws -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Ryan Tomasello -- KBW -- Analyst
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