NEW YORK, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. (Nasdaq: NYMT) announced the following updates with respect to its business.

“The Company continues to navigate the difficult financial and economic environment resulting from the global pandemic of the COVID-19 virus,” said Steven R. Mumma, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Since March 30, 2020, the date of the Company’s last market update, the Company has made significant progress in strengthening its liquidity position. Due to this progress and certain of the portfolio management decisions noted below, the Company is current with its repurchase agreement payment obligations, including margin requirements, and is no longer in a position to need forbearance agreements from its repurchase agreement financing counterparties.”

The Company announced the following updates as of the close of business on April 7, 2020:

• The Company has reduced its outstanding repurchase agreement financing with respect to mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”) to approximately $150 million with one counterparty.
• The continued reduction in the Company’s MBS repurchase agreement financing exposure was achieved through a combination of the sale of $291 million in MBS since March 27, 2020 and a $250 million increase in repurchase agreement financing with respect to the Company’s residential mortgage loan portfolio. The increased financing is collateralized by previously unencumbered residential mortgage loans. The reduction in the Company’s repurchase agreement financing for MBS significantly lowers the Company’s MBS mark-to-market financing exposure, which was a primary factor in the reduction of liquidity to mortgage REITs in recent weeks.
• In addition to the $150 million of outstanding repurchase agreement financing collateralized by non-Agency RMBS noted above, the Company has approximately $962 million of outstanding repurchase agreement financing secured by residential mortgage loans, resulting in total outstanding repurchase agreement financing of approximately $1.1 billion.
• The Company is current with all of its repurchase agreement financing payment obligations including margin requirements.
• The Company has a total investment portfolio of approximately $3.0 billion, including approximately $1.1 billion of unencumbered assets comprised primarily of $554 million of non-Agency RMBS, $276 million of CMBS and $272 million of residential mortgage loans, and approximately $200 million in cash.
• The Company estimates that its total debt leverage ratio is 0.7 to 1.

“The Company also continues to explore term financing options for the approximately $859 million of unencumbered securities in its investment portfolio,” added Mr. Mumma. “To the extent we are successful in obtaining term financing for this portfolio, we believe such financing could enhance our liquidity position and provide opportunities to invest in this new operating landscape.”

About New York Mortgage Trust

New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. is a Maryland corporation that has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes (“REIT”). NYMT is an internally managed REIT in the business of acquiring, investing in, financing and managing mortgage-related and residential housing-related assets and targets structured multi-family property investments such as multi-family CMBS and preferred equity in, and mezzanine loans to, owners of multi-family properties, residential mortgage loans (including distressed residential mortgage loans, non-QM loans, second mortgage loans and other residential mortgage loans), non-Agency RMBS, Agency RMBS, Agency CMBS and other mortgage-related, residential housing-related and credit-related assets.