New Residential Investment Corp. Announces First Quarter 2021 Results

New Residential Investment Corp. (NYSE: NRZ; “New Residential” or the “Company”) today reported the following information for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021:

FIRST QUARTER 2021 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS:

• GAAP Net Income of $277.6 million, or $0.65 per diluted common share⁽¹⁾
  • $222.8 million Pre-Tax Income from Origination and Servicing⁽²⁾
• Core Earnings of $144.8 million, or $0.34 per diluted common share⁽¹⁾⁽³⁾
• Common Dividend of $82.9 million, or $0.20 per common share⁽¹⁾
• Book Value per common share of $11.35⁽¹⁾
• $1.0 billion of cash as of March 31, 2021

“We delivered strong results across all of our business lines and operating companies in the first quarter of 2021,” said Michael Nierenberg, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of New Residential. “Our results to start the year were driven by an improvement in our MSR portfolio as rates moved higher, and the expansion of our operating platform, particularly as it related to producing record funding volume and growing our recapture performance. As mortgage speeds continue to slow and MSR cash flows extend, we anticipate additional benefit to our MSR portfolio. Looking forward, while we anticipate that origination margins will continue to normalize, we see additional room to grow origination market share and see compelling opportunities for earnings growth in our investment portfolio, specifically in the MSR portfolio, call business and loan strategy.”

“We also believe that once we close our acquisition of Caliber Home Loans, Inc., we will be able to utilize Caliber’s robust technology, outstanding purchase platform and strong recapture performance to further enhance our Company’s earnings power and overall strategy,” added Mr. Nierenberg.

FIRST QUARTER 2021 COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS:

• Origination
  • Segment pre-tax income of $191.2 million (down 23% QoQ and up 218% YoY)⁽²⁾
  • Record quarterly origination funded production of $27.2 billion in unpaid principal balance (“UPB”) (up 14% QoQ and up 138% YoY)
  • Total gain on sale margin of 1.43% for the first quarter 2021 compared to 1.57% for the fourth quarter 2020

• Servicing
  • Quarterly segment pre-tax net income of $31.6 million (down 34% QoQ and up 4% YoY)⁽²⁾
  • Servicing portfolio grew to $304.6 billion in UPB (up 2% QoQ and up 10% YoY)

• Mortgage Servicing Rights (“MSRs”) and Servicer Advances
  • MSR portfolio totaled approximately $515 billion UPB as of March 31, 2021 compared to $537 billion UPB as of December 31, 2020⁽⁴⁾
  • Servicer advance balances of $3.4 billion as of March 31, 2021, compared to $3.6 billion as of December 31, 2020

• Residential Securities and Call Rights
  • Purchased $1.6 billion (net face value) of agency securities
  • Sold $186 million (face value) of non-agency securities
  • Called non-agency collateral of $636 million UPB⁽⁵⁾

• Residential Loans
  • Sold $750 million (face value) of residential loans
  • Securitized $263 million (face value) of residential loans
  • Bought $333 million of early buyout (“EBO”) loans

• Financing and Leverage
  • Overall leverage of 3.5x compared to 3.6x as of December 31, 2020⁽⁶⁾
    • Leverage excluding agency securities of 1.1x at March 31, 2021 compared to 1.2x as of December 31, 2020

• Second Quarter 2021 Commentary⁽⁷⁾
  • Announced entering into a definitive agreement to acquire Caliber Home Loans, Inc.
  • Raised $522.4 million of gross proceeds in a 51.7 million share common stock offering on April 19, 2021⁽⁸⁾
  • Estimated Q2’21 Funded Origination Volume of approximately $22 billion to $24 billion UPB
  • Estimated Q2’21 Servicing Portfolio UPB of approximately $305 billion UPB
  • Through April 28, 2021, called non-agency collateral of $100 million UPB⁽⁵⁾⁽⁹⁾

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For additional information that management believes to be useful for investors, please refer to the latest presentation posted on the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website, www.newresi.com. For consolidated investment portfolio information, please refer to the Company’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or Annual Report on Form 10-K, which are available on the Company’s website, www.newresi.com.

EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL

New Residential’s management will host a conference call on Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 8:00 A.M. Eastern Time. A copy of the earnings release will be posted to the Investor Relations section of New Residential’s website, www.newresi.com.

All interested parties are welcome to participate on the live call. The conference call may be accessed by dialing 1-866-777-2509 (from within the U.S.) or 1-412-317-5413 (from outside of the U.S.) ten minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call; please reference “New Residential First Quarter 2021 Earnings Call.” In addition, participants are encouraged to pre-register for the conference call at https://dpregister.com/sreg/10155614/e789b6695e.

A simultaneous webcast of the conference call will be available to the public on a listen-only basis at www.newresi.com. Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the website and download any necessary software required to listen to the internet broadcast.

A telephonic replay of the conference call will also be available two hours following the call’s completion through 11:59 P.M. Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 by dialing 1-877-344-7529 (from within the U.S.) or 1-412-317-0088 (from outside of the U.S.); please reference access code “10155614.”

NON-GAAP MEASURES AND RECONCILIATION TO GAAP NET INCOME

New Residential has five primary variables that impact its operating performance: (i) the current yield earned on the Company’s investments, (ii) the interest expense under the debt incurred to finance the Company’s investments, (iii) the Company’s operating expenses and taxes, (iv) the Company’s realized and unrealized gains or losses on investments, including any impairment or reserve for expected credit losses and (v) income from the Company’s origination and servicing businesses. “Core earnings” is a non-GAAP measure of the Company’s operating performance, excluding the fourth variable above and adjusts the earnings from the consumer loan investment to a level yield basis. Core earnings is used by management to evaluate the Company’s performance without taking into account: (i) realized and unrealized gains and losses, which although they represent a part of the Company’s recurring operations, are subject to significant variability and are generally limited to a potential indicator of future economic performance; (ii) incentive compensation paid to the Company’s manager; (iii) non-capitalized transaction-related expenses; and (iv) deferred taxes, which are not representative of current operations.

The Company’s definition of core earnings includes accretion on held-for-sale loans as if they continued to be held-for-investment. Although the Company intends to sell such loans, there is no guarantee that such loans will be sold or that they will be sold within any expected timeframe. During the period prior to sale, the Company continues to receive cash flows from such loans and believes that it is appropriate to record a yield thereon. In addition, the Company’s definition of core earnings excludes all deferred taxes, rather than just deferred taxes related to unrealized gains or losses, because the Company believes deferred taxes are not representative of current operations. The Company’s definition of core earnings also limits accreted interest income on RMBS where the Company receives par upon the exercise of associated call rights based on the estimated value of the underlying collateral, net of related costs including advances. The Company created this limit in order to be able to accrete to the lower of par or the net value of the underlying collateral, in instances where the net value of the underlying collateral is lower than par. The Company believes this amount represents the amount of accretion the Company would have expected to earn on such bonds had the call rights not been exercised.

Beginning January 1, 2020, the Company’s investments in consumer loans are accounted for under the fair value option. Core earnings adjusts earnings on consumer loans to a level yield to present income recognition across the consumer loan portfolio in the manner in which it is economically earned, to avoid potential delays in loss recognition, and align it with the Company’s overall portfolio of mortgage-related assets which generally record income on a level yield basis. With respect to consumer loans classified as held-for-sale, the level yield is computed through the expected sale date. With respect to the gains recorded under GAAP in 2014 and 2016 as a result of a refinancing of, and the consolidation of, the debt related to the Company’s investments in consumer loans, and the consolidation of entities that own the Company’s investments in consumer loans, respectively, the Company continues to record a level yield on those assets based on their original purchase price.

While incentive compensation paid to the Company’s manager may be a material operating expense, the Company excludes it from core earnings because (i) from time to time, a component of the computation of this expense will relate to items (such as gains or losses) that are excluded from core earnings, and (ii) it is impractical to determine the portion of the expense related to core earnings and non-core earnings, and the type of earnings (loss) that created an excess (deficit) above or below, as applicable, the incentive compensation threshold. To illustrate why it is impractical to determine the portion of incentive compensation expense that should be allocated to core earnings, the Company notes that, as an example, in a given period, it may have core earnings in excess of the incentive compensation threshold but incur losses (which are excluded from core earnings) that reduce total earnings below the incentive compensation threshold. In such case, the Company would either need to (a) allocate zero incentive compensation expense to core earnings, even though core earnings exceeded the incentive compensation threshold, or (b) assign a “pro forma” amount of incentive compensation expense to core earnings, even though no incentive compensation was actually incurred. The Company believes that neither of these allocation methodologies achieves a logical result. Accordingly, the exclusion of incentive compensation facilitates comparability between periods and avoids the distortion to the Company’s non-GAAP operating measure that would result from the inclusion of incentive compensation that relates to non-core earnings.

With regard to non-capitalized transaction-related expenses, management does not view these costs as part of the Company’s core operations, as they are considered by management to be similar to realized losses incurred at acquisition. Non-capitalized transaction-related expenses are generally legal and valuation service costs, as well as other professional service fees, incurred when the Company acquires certain investments, as well as costs associated with the acquisition and integration of acquired businesses.

Since the third quarter of 2018, as a result of the Shellpoint Partners LLC (“Shellpoint”) acquisition, the Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, NewRez, originates conventional, government-insured and nonconforming residential mortgage loans for sale and securitization. In connection with the transfer of loans to the GSEs or mortgage investors, the Company reports realized gains or losses on the sale of originated residential mortgage loans and retention of mortgage servicing rights, which the Company believes is an indicator of performance for the Servicing and Origination segments and therefore included in core earnings. Realized gains or losses on the sale of originated residential mortgage loans had no impact on core earnings in any prior period, but may impact core earnings in future periods.

Beginning with the third quarter of 2019, as a result of the continued evaluation of how Shellpoint operates its business and its impact on the Company’s operating performance, core earnings includes Shellpoint’s GAAP net income with the exception of the unrealized gains or losses due to changes in valuation inputs and assumptions on MSRs owned by NewRez, and non-capitalized transaction-related expenses. This change was not material to core earnings for the quarter ended September 30, 2019.

Management believes that the adjustments to compute “core earnings” specified above allow investors and analysts to readily identify and track the operating performance of the assets that form the core of the Company’s activity, assist in comparing the core operating results between periods, and enable investors to evaluate the Company’s current core performance using the same measure that management uses to operate the business. Management also utilizes core earnings as a measure in its decision-making process relating to improvements to the underlying fundamental operations of the Company’s investments, as well as the allocation of resources between those investments, and management also relies on core earnings as an indicator of the results of such decisions. Core earnings excludes certain recurring items, such as gains and losses (including impairment and reserves as well as derivative activities) and non-capitalized transaction-related expenses, because they are not considered by management to be part of the Company’s core operations for the reasons described herein. As such, core earnings is not intended to reflect all of the Company’s activity and should be considered as only one of the factors used by management in assessing the Company’s performance, along with GAAP net income which is inclusive of all of the Company’s activities.

The primary differences between core earnings and the measure the Company uses to calculate incentive compensation relate to (i) realized gains and losses (including impairments and reserves for expected credit losses), (ii) non-capitalized transaction-related expenses and (iii) deferred taxes (other than those related to unrealized gains and losses). Each are excluded from core earnings and included in the Company’s incentive compensation measure (either immediately or through amortization). In addition, the Company’s incentive compensation measure does not include accretion on held-for-sale loans and the timing of recognition of income from consumer loans is different. Unlike core earnings, the Company’s incentive compensation measure is intended to reflect all realized results of operations.

Core earnings does not represent and should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, net income or as a substitute for, or superior to, cash flows from operating activities, each as determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and the Company’s calculation of this measure may not be comparable to similarly entitled measures reported by other companies. Set forth below is a reconciliation of core earnings to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure (dollars in thousands, except share and per share data):

NET INCOME BY SEGMENT

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain information in this press release constitutes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, our ability to capture additional market share and increase borrower retention, the ability of our MSR portfolio to benefit from anticipated market conditions, continued normalization of origination margins, ability to capitalize on opportunities for earnings growth, ability to complete the acquisition of Caliber Home Loans, Inc. on a timely basis, ability to successfully integrate the businesses and realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of Caliber Home Loans, Inc., our estimated second quarter 2021 Funded Origination Value and Servicing Portfolio UPB, and ability to generate earnings for our shareholders. These statements are not historical facts. They represent management’s current expectations regarding future events and are subject to a number of trends and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements contained herein. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect such forward-looking statements, see the sections entitled “Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Statements,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the Company’s most recent annual and quarterly reports and other filings filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on the Company’s website (www.newresi.com). New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for New Residential to predict or assess the impact of every factor that may cause its actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this press release, and New Residential expressly disclaims any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in New Residential's expectations with regard thereto or change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based.

ABOUT NEW RESIDENTIAL

New Residential is a leading provider of capital and services to the mortgage and financial services industry. The Company’s mission is to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns in all interest rate environments through a portfolio of investments and operating businesses. New Residential has built a diversified, hard-to-replicate portfolio with high-quality investment strategies that have generated returns across different interest rate environments over time. New Residential’s portfolio is composed of mortgage servicing related assets (including investments in operating entities consisting of servicing, origination, and affiliated businesses), residential securities (and associated called rights) and loans, and consumer loans. New Residential’s investments in operating entities include its mortgage origination and servicing subsidiary, NewRez, and its special servicing division, Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, as well as investments in affiliated businesses that provide services that are complementary to the origination and servicing businesses and other portfolios of mortgage related assets. Since inception in 2013, New Residential has a proven track record of performance, growing and protecting the value of its assets while generating attractive risk-adjusted returns and delivering over $3.6 billion in dividends to shareholders. New Residential is organized and conducts its operations to qualify as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) for federal income tax purposes. New Residential is managed by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC, a global investment management firm, and headquartered in New York City.

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