RAIT's 2007 Loss Climbs to $379M

PHILADELPHIA-Losses mount for RAIT Financial Trust, which saw its shares on the NYSE plummet from a high of $33.01 a share on March 1, 2007 to $7.79 a share this Feb. 28. The locally based specialty finance REIT posted a loss of $379 million for full-year 2007, with a loss of $183.5 million in the fourth quarter alone.

The fourth-quarter loss compares with a profit of $15.6 million for the same quarter a year ago. The most recent quarter was negatively impacted by asset impairment charges of $174.5 million related primarily to credit deterioration in the residential mortgage and homebuilder sectors. Meanwhile, however, the company’s revenue rose 25% to $35.7 million in the final quarter of 2007, up from $28.6 million in the final quarter of 2006.

During a conference call, Daniel Cohen, CEO, acknowledged, “while the fourth quarter continued to see credit deterioration in our TruPS borrowers in the residential mortgage and homebuilder sectors … our portfolio was able to generate cash flow to pay a $0.46 common dividend.” In response to a Wall Street analyst’s question, he said the company expected to continue to pay a similar dividend from cash flow going forward.