Criimi Mae Hopes Successful 2003 Will Lead to More Successful 2004

ROCKVILLE, MD-Giving its books the once-over during its year-end conference call yesterday, Criimi Mae Inc. revealed that 2003 proved to be a successful period. The commercial mortgage company saw an overall net loss of just $4.1 million compared to $65.5 million in 2002. The net income for the last quarter of 2003 increased to $2.6 million, a large jump over 2002′s numbers, largely due to a reduction in impairment charges on particular subordinated commercial mortgage-backed securities.

The last quarter of 2003 was characterized by, as it had been in previous quarters, a focus on cash flow, net-interest margin and the status of loans in special servicing. “Our net interest margin continued to benefit from low-interest rates and from value-enhancing transactions such as the completed and planned refinancing of our non-core government ensured mortgage portfolios,” Criimi Mae chairman and CEO Barry Blattman explained during the call. “The economic environment and nature of the real estate portfolio securing our loans continued to make the exercise of projecting losses challenging, but we continue to take a realistic view based on current estimates of value and workout strategies, and work hard at achieving actual loss realization below the level of our projections.”