Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation ($AI)

Welcome to the Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation's Annual Shareholder Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] A reminder that this conference is being recorded, Friday, May 8, 2026. Certain statements will be made during this phone call that may be forward-looking statements. Although Atrium believes that such statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, actual results may differ materially. Forward-looking statements are based upon beliefs, estimates and opinions of Atrium's management on the date the statements are made. Atrium undertakes no obligations to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or other factors change. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Chris Anastasopoulos, CFO of Atrium. Chris, please go ahead.

Thank you. On behalf of the Board of Directors and management, I would like to welcome all shareholders to the 2026 Annual General Meeting of Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation. I will now turn the meeting over to Mark Silver, Chair of the Board of Directors of Atrium. Mark?

Thank you, Chris. Can everyone hear me?

Yes.

I'm good. The Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Atrium Investment Corporation will now come to order. I'm Mark Silver, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Atrium. Now I will preside as Chair of the meeting. Chris Anastasopoulos, CFO and Corporate Secretary of Atrium, will act as Secretary of this meeting. I would like to thank everyone for joining us today, whether in person or by dialing in or logging in online to listen to this meeting via the live audio webcast. I only remind -- I would remind everyone that this is a meeting of shareholders of Atrium and only shareholders or their proxies are entitled to participate in the business of the meeting. After the formal business of this meeting, there will be a presentation by management and an opportunity for questions and comments following the presentation. For purposes of this meeting, I appoint Anoop Das of Computershare, Atrium's transfer agent and registrar as scrutineer. He will report on the number of shareholders present in person, the number of securities represented by proxy and if required, compute the results of any ballots conducted at this meeting and to report to me on these matters. Prior to the commencement of this meeting, the scrutineer filed a preliminary report on attendance in person and by proxy. The Secretary has confirmed that there is a quorum of shareholders. I've asked the scrutineer to deliver a formal report to the Secretary as soon as possible. The notice calling this meeting and the accompanying meeting materials were mailed to all shareholders and the Secretary of the meeting has provided to me with proof of service of such material. Accordingly, the reading of the notice of meetings will be dispensed with. While the scrutineer is preparing a report on attendance, we will proceed with the business of the meeting. The audited financial statements of Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, together with the auditor's report thereon, have been posted on SEDAR and on the company's website and were mailed to those shareholders who requested same. I note that the Secretary has placed before the meeting a copy of the audited financial statements I just referred to. With the consent of the meeting, these audited financial statements shall be received. Our bylaws provide that any -- at any meeting of our shareholders, the holders present in person or represented by proxy of at least 5% of our outstanding shares entitled to be voted at the meeting constitutes a quorum. I will now ask the Secretary to read the scrutineer's report on attendance to the meeting.

So we have 31 shareholders holding 9,924,723 shares of the total issued and outstanding shares at the date of record of 48,129,646 shares. The percentage of the outstanding shares represented at the meeting is 20.62%.

Thank you. I declare that a quorum of shareholders is present and that this meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business. I direct that the scrutineer's report on attendance be attached to the minutes of this meeting. Each shareholder is entitled to 1 vote for each share held by them. In order to expedite voting, I propose to conduct all votes by a show of hands. Please note, however, that each proxy holder present in person at this meeting has the right to demand that a ballot be conducted on any resolution, either before the show of hands vote or following that vote. For a ballot conducted on any resolution, I will vote all proxies submitted. The first item of business is the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the corporation's independent auditors until the close of business of the next Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and that the directors be authorized to fix their remuneration. In order to be approved, the resolution must be passed by a majority of votes cast. May I have a motion for the approval of this resolution, please?

I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed as the independent auditors of the corporation to hold office until the close of the next Annual General Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are appointed, and the directors of the corporation be authorized to fix their remuneration.

I second the motion.

Thank you, Bram. All those in favor of the resolution, please raise your hands. Contrary, if any? All right. I declare the resolution as such carried. Now, the next order of business is the election of directors. We will now proceed. I now declare the meeting open for nominations for directors to hold office until the conclusion of Atrium's next Annual General Meeting or until their successors are elected or appointed. The 8 nominees were named in the management information circular and they include myself, Mark Silver, Mario Barrafato, Peter Cohos, Robert DeGasperis, Robert Goodall, Andrew Grant, Nancy Lockhart, Jennifer Scoffield. May I have a motion to nominate such individuals.

I nominate the 8 nominees as named in the management information circular and to serve as directors for the ensuing year as described by the Chair.

I second the motion.

Okay. Are there any further nominations?

Mr. Chair, I note there are no further nominations.

I declare the nominations closed. I'd like to remind you that the directors are to be voted on individually rather than as a slate in accordance with the majority voting policy adopted by Atrium, which is described in the management information circular. May I have a motion in favor of the election of each of the 8 persons nominated?

I move that each of the persons nominated be individually elected as directors of Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation until the conclusion of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until his or her successors is duly elected or appointed or he or she otherwise ceases to hold office, subject to the corporation's policy with respect to the election of directors.

I second the motion.

Very good. The meeting will now vote on the election of directors individually. Will those in favor of the election of a director, please signify by raising your hands after his or her name is called. In favor of Mario Barrafato. Contrary, if any? In favor of Peter Cohos. Contrary, if any? In favor of Robert DeGasperis. Contrary, if any? In favor of Andrew Grant. Contrary, if any. Robert Goodall and Nancy Lockhart; and last, Jennifer Scoffield.

Mr. Chair, you need to do yourself.

Thank you very much. And myself as well, Mark Silver.

Mr. Chair, all votes present are in favor of the election of the directors.

Thank you very much. I declare each motion carried with each individual nominee having been elected as a Director of Atrium for the term described until his or her successor is elected or appointed. Formal business of the meeting as set out in the notice of meeting has now been dealt with. I would ask if there are any -- is any further business. As there are no further business issues or matters, I declare the formal business of this meeting terminated. We will now continue with the presentation by management. All attendees are invited to stay in person to stay on the line for our business update. Rob?

Okay. Thank you very much, Mark. We'll get going on our management presentation at this point. I just remind the listeners that some of our statements are forward-looking. Much of it is historical information, but some of it is forward-looking. Okay. We're first going to talk about our underwriting team, and it has grown in size substantially over the last 5 to 10 years. First, myself, going from left to right, I've got 40 years of institutional and nonbank lending experience, including the last 25 years in nonbank lending. I founded Atrium 25 years ago and have been the CEO since that time. Next to me is Richard Munroe, who is the President and COO and a partner of the management company, Canadian Mortgage Capital Corporation, which manages Atrium's affairs. And Richard has over 20 years of nonbank lending experience. Next to Richard is Bram Rothman, who is the Managing Director for Ontario on all the commercial and multi-residential part of the business, which represents at least 80% of the business. And he is also a partner in Canadian Mortgage Capital, the private management company and has, I think, roughly 22 years of nonbank lending experience. And going to the far right to complete Ontario is Phil Fiuza, who has -- he says 25 years. He actually has over 30 years of lending experience, all of it in the single-family alternate lending space, and that's what he does for us. He looks after the single-family portfolio, which represents close to 20% of our total book at Atrium. Going back to Ian Jarvis. He is the first of 2 managing directors in Western Canada for us. Ian runs the BC operation. He also has over 20 years of lending experience, both in the institutional and nonbank lending area. And lastly, but not least, we just recently hired Mitchell Patrick, I think actually at the beginning of April. He has over 25 years of nonbank lending experience in Alberta and the Prairies and most recently was the Senior Director at another nonbank lender in the province. So it's a team with a lot of depth and a lot of experience.

Atrium continues to demonstrate its ability to deliver strong, stable returns despite a challenging lending environment. Our mortgage portfolio has remained relatively stable over the last couple of years, which is a testament to the origination team and continue to source high-quality loans despite the challenging market. Our mortgages receivable were $870.8 million at the end of March 2026, a decrease of 2.4% from $892.4 million at December 31, 2025, due to a modest decline in the mortgage portfolio as mortgage repayments exceeded advances during the quarter and an increase in our allowance for credit losses. The average loan-to-value of the portfolio remained flat compared to year-end at 61.4% and Atrium's percentage of first mortgages remained high at 95.3%, consistent with our strategy. We continue to maintain a strong liquid and well-capitalized balance sheet. As of March 31, 2026, total debt remained low at 38.4% of total assets, and we ended the quarter with $262.9 million drawn on our $380 million credit facility, leaving healthy available capacity. In terms of our earnings, Q1 was another strong and consistent quarter. We earned $12 million of net income in the first quarter of 2026, and we generated earnings per share of $0.25, consistent with the comparable quarter in 2025, and we outpaced our fixed dividend of $0.25 per share. Total revenue was $19.8 million for the first quarter, a decrease of 9.7% compared to the prior year due to portfolio turnover and a decline in interest rates over the year. Financing costs were $4.5 million in Q1, down from $5.4 million in the comparative quarter of 2025. This was due to the net impact of repayments of the convertible debt with our credit facility in 2025, mortgage repayments during the period and a decrease in the weighted average cost of borrowing on the credit facility, which declined from to 4.57% from 5.38% in the prior year. We remain disciplined with our operating expenses and prudent with our loan loss provisioning in order to continue to generate strong earnings for our shareholders. As we look at Atrium's historical earnings, we are pleased with the consistency and earnings growth we've been able to achieve. Our earnings have continued to outpace our fixed dividend, and we've declared a special dividend for each year since going public. Our regular dividend is currently at $0.93 per share, and we remain confident in our ability to generate strong earnings for our shareholders.

So this slide talks about the consistency of our returns. In the last 15 years, Atrium has delivered a return on equity, which is anywhere from 619 to 865 basis points above the 1-year bond. and which is really sort of a testament to the fact that our shareholders have got well rewarded for the increased risk that Atrium takes over the riskless asset being the 1-year or 5-year government of Canada bond. We've also tried to lend defensively to construct a low-risk and resilient portfolio. We always attempt to keep the loan-to-value at or below 65% loan-to-value. You can see it's 61.4% today and has consistently been on the low-end range since the start of the downturn in 2022. And that's obviously a deliberate intent to keep the portfolio as conservatively oriented as we can.

One of our key strategies is to maintain a high percentage of our mortgages in first mortgages. As at March 31, 2026, 95.3% of the mortgage portfolio was invested in first mortgages, which is consistent with year-end. In addition, most mortgage loans have LTVs below 75%. This is a conservative, well-protected mortgage portfolio.

The composition of the portfolio has changed quite a bit over the last 3 years, and we worked hard to make those [indiscernible]. We've shifted the portfolio, as you can tell, towards commercial real estate, apartments and single-family loans, which have in aggregate increased from 23% 3 years ago to 49% today. You'll also notice that high-rise exposure has dropped 25% over that same period. and that mid-rise exposure has dropped even more dramatically over that same period from 23% to less than 10% of the portfolio today. In this slide, we're talking really about where we are geographically today and where we think we'd like to be in the long term. The strength of our operation up till now has always been in the GTA in Ontario, where we have a large team of 12 underwriters. After 25 years of actively lending in this city, we know virtually all of the key real estate investors and all of the key real estate developers. As a result of our -- as a result, our lending record has been exceptionally strong in the province of Ontario, even under today's challenging real estate conditions. Over the next several years, though, we hope to have 30% to 40% of our portfolio in Western Canada. We feel that we're well positioned to accomplish that goal with our current underwriting group in BC and Alberta.

Atrium has credit capacity up to $400 million under our credit facility. This gives us flexibility to fund mortgages quickly and efficiently. At March 31, 2026, we have drawn $262.9 million on our $380 million facility with an additional $20 million accordion capacity to utilize the full $400 million available. During 2025, we also had 3 [indiscernible] join our syndicate showing the confidence in our program.

This slide talks about our earnings in market downturns. We've always separated ourselves from our peers in the past and current downturns. From 2022 to 2024, for instance, in other words, in the midst of the current downturn, we had 3 of the best years we've ever had as a public company. And we've never had even a single quarter where our earnings did not exceed our regular dividend. Another way of looking at it is our return on equity versus our 2 primary peers. In the last 6 years, we've had the highest return on equity every year. And despite that, we've had the lowest price-earnings ratio than our peers, something that has been a little bit irritating to us and which suggests that the stock has been consistently undervalued.

So Atrium is able to deliver strong returns to investors over time. On this slide, we show Atrium's cumulative return since 2001 when all dividends paid are reinvested in Atrium shares, it exceeds the TSX over that time period. This is driven by our stable dividends, moderate growth and lower volatility.

Thank you. We'd be pleased to take any questions listeners might have.

[Operator Instructions] It appears that there are no other questions at this time. I would now like to give the call back to Robert Goodall for closing statements.

Okay. I just wanted to thank you all for calling in and I hope you're pleased with results, both historically and the latest results for Q1. And thank you again for being shareholders of Atrium. Have a great day.

Thank you for participating. This conference call has now concluded. Please hang up.