Bimini Capital Management, Inc. ($BMNM)

Hello, and welcome to Bimini Capital Management First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Melissa Alfonso. You may begin.

Thank you, Towanda. Good morning, and welcome to the First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call for Bimini Capital Management. This call is being recorded today, May 8, 2026. At this time, the company would like to remind the listeners that statements made during today's conference call relating to matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Listeners are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are based on information currently available on the management's good faith, belief with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause such differences are described in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K. The company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements. Now I'd like to turn the conference over to the company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Robert Cauley. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks, Melissa, and good morning, and thank you for joining us today. Hopefully, we've had a chance to look at the short deck that we've put out on our website. We will be referring to that later on the call. Today, we are joined on our call by Richard Parry, the President and CIO of Tom Johnson Investment Management, or TJIM as we refer to it. Recall, we closed on our purchase of an 80% ownership stake on April 1, 2026. After we discuss our results for the quarter and provide a brief overview of our outlook on the market and our existing business, we will have Richard provide an introduction to our shareholders and tell us a little more about TJIM. Regarding our results for the quarter, uneven market conditions for the Agency RMBS market caused Orchid Island Capital or Orchid and Bimini's investment portfolio segment to report modest losses for the quarter. As we know, the war in Iran, which broke out on February 28, caused severe market disruptions -- caused severe disruption to the market in its immediate aftermath. Markets have calmed down considerably since but the initial market reactions were very -- were sufficient to cause our results for the quarter to be slightly negative. Orchid reported a net loss of $20.2 million or $0.11 per share for the first quarter of 2026. In Bimini's investment portfolio segment generated a net loss of $0.7 million for the quarter. Orchid was able to continue to expand its quarterly equity base, however, and its stockholders' equity increased from $1.372 billion at December 31, 2025, to $1.392 billion at March 31, 2026. As a result, Bimini's advisory service revenue also increased to $5.1 million in Q1 compared to $4.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. The Advisory Service segment generated net income for the first quarter of $2.25 million and Bimini's consolidated income for the first quarter was $0.8 million or $0.08 per share. So far in the second quarter of 2026, market conditions for levered Agency RMBS investing have improved, reversing some but not all the losses we sustained during the first quarter. Regarding market conditions during the first quarter of 2026, the fixed income markets experienced a period of calm as 2025 came to a close and we entered 2026. Interest rates were in a very tight range. Implied interest rate volatility had continued the steady decline that began in April of 2025 and Agency RMBS performed well during the first 2 months of the first quarter of 2026. Other sectors of the fixed income markets performed well over this period as well, and spreads on investment-grade corporate bonds reached levels not seen since 1998. As 2026 began, economic activity remained resilient including the labor market. However, the outlook has since changed after the war broke out in the Middle East, the world's most critical oil and chemical supply region has suffered intense military attacks leading to supply interruptions. Inflation, which is already sticky, may move even higher and the economic outlook has become very uncertain as a result of the war causing growth both in the U.S. and globally to deteriorate. The ultimate outcome of the war remains uncertain. Today, the economy in U.S. has remained resilient, but there is still uncertainty. If we can continue to do so, we will see where we stand when we speak again at the end of the second quarter. Now I would like to formally introduce Richard Parry, President and CIO of TJIM and provide Richard an opportunity to tell us more about TJIM's history, provide an overview of their investment products and their investor base and finally, give us an update on business so far. Thank you. And with that, I'll turn it over to Richard. Richard, go ahead.

Yes. My name is Richard Parry, and thank you for this opportunity. Bob wanted to have me give you a little background on myself and then the organization and then more about the organization structure. I grew up in Oklahoma City, went to the University of Colorado, received a Bachelor Science degree in business with an emphasis on International Finance. And I came back to Oklahoma City to work at First National Bank, where I did a brief spin at credit and then audit, external and internal auditing, did some strategic planning for the bank and then went over to work for the trust investment department where I worked with Tom Johnson Investment Management. Tom spun off from First National Bank back in 1983. A number of trust investment companies did that due to the oil crisis. We did that as well as a lot of other organizations in Texas because of the oil situation. And I became a minority owner with Tom Johnson Investment Management. We sold out to United Asset Management which was buying up a number of independent organizations like ourselves. They sold the Old Mutual, and I bought the firm back in 2003. Our current assets are approximately a little over $1.6 billion, and there's some charts here on the website, but we're diversified in terms of structure. About 65% of our assets under management are through consultant platforms and brokerage consultants. And then 35%, we have a direct relationship with clientele where we're offering investment management services as well as financial planning exercises. We believe that's a healthy degree of diversification. And then in terms of our product lines, we have 2 separate account management equity portfolios, a relative core value style and then a diversified stock income or yield kind of focused style. And then we have 4 fixed income products, a fixed income product and intermediate fixed income, both are single A or better quality issues at purchase. And then we have tax exempt and then we have a short-term investment fund. And then our last one is kind of a very small ETF allocation model that we do for our direct clientele that have very small portfolios like ROFs or very small IRAs. And -- anyway, I think that's kind of the exposure or the comments I'd like to make and welcome any questions.

Thank you, Richard. Finally, we look forward to discussing TJIM's results for the second quarter of 2026 as part of our quarterly earnings discussion next quarter. I think that's it, operator, we can open up the call to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of David Atlas.

Yes. Just wanted to ask a question, this is a little historical at this point goes back a few months. Your shareholder rights plan. I'm not an expert in these things, so my question may be a bit ignorant, but I was kind of curious about how you came to decide on the price to set the shareholder rights plan. It didn't seem to match what I understood from my extensive readings on the Internet as how one sets the prices for these. So I must be confused about something. So please help me understand.

Sure. So just first to review the history, we had put a rights plan in place in 2015. It expired in late 2025, and we're putting in place another one which is on our proxy, so up for shareholder approval this year. Our annual meeting is on June 9, I believe I could be wrong. The price that we set is slightly different than the approach that we might have taken in the past or would be consistent with what you've probably read in the past when we were basically traded as a real estate investment trust, the price of the stock would typically be kind of pin to book value. And when we looked at the price, we try to pick a value around then book and maybe what our expectations for what book could be evolved over time and then take a slight discount to that. As the company has transitioned, especially with respect to this transaction and the acquisition of TJIM, the company is much more of a pure money manager and money managers just trade fundamentally differently than REITs. They're not pegged to book value. They typically trade at a multiple of either EBITDA or sometimes revenue. And so therefore, when we take that different approach and we kind of look out and see how granted, we have some caveats with respect to Bimini. It's a microcap stock company. It's not paying a dividend. So it's not likely to trade at the same multiples let's say, a large public liquid asset manager would trade at, but we still try to form an opinion in terms of where we thought a reasonable level was and then again, to try to pick a slight discount to that. Typically, those prices that we set are far above where the stock is trading at the time that was the case here. As I'm sure you know, the stock has been trading between $2.50 and $3 or $3.25 for quite a while. So that price is far above that. But it's -- that's the process we go through and take it from there if you have any further questions.

Sure. One follow-up and you kind of opened the door to my follow-up, which is, do you see yourself remaining a legal REIT in the future? Or do you maybe going to take a look at that?

Well, no, actually, we -- when we did the original plan, we were a REIT, but we've since given up the status. We are no longer REIT.

[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no further questions in the queue. I would like to turn the call back over to Robert for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone. To the extent that a question comes up after the call or if you have to listen to the replay and didn't get a chance to listen to us live, and you have a question, please feel free to reach out the number at the office is 772-231-1400. Otherwise, we look forward to speaking with you at the end of the second quarter. Thank you, and have a good day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.