Muddy Waters is short Blackstone Mortgage Trust REIT (updated)
06/12/2023 17:53
(Updates with context and share price from paragraph 1)
By Nell Mackenzie
LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Blackstone's Mortgage Trust
BXMT.N shares fell more than 6% on Wednesday after
short-selling hedge fund Muddy Waters said that it had taken out
a short position in Blackstone's BX.N real estate investment
trust.
Carson Block, the CEO of Muddy Waters, told attendees at the
Sohn Conference in London that Blackstone's real estate
investment trust (REIT) faced issues of over supply,
under-funded loan commitments, expiring leases and that its net
operating income was compromised.
"It is at a good risk of a liquidity crisis," said Block.
"This is not a story where bad people have done bad things,
they are just unlucky," he said, talking about problems in the
property sector which has meant less income to service debt.
Block said that next year many of the underlying loans and
mortgages that comprised the trust would face liquidity problems
and even if Blackstone tried to modify them to make them weather
economic troubles, the company would not be successful.
"Blackstone may modify the loans but it's such a big number
of loans terminating next year that they will not be able to
be swept under the rug," said Block.
Blackstone did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Shares at 1733 GMT were down 4.4%.
(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe,
Alexandra Hudson)
((Nell.Mackenzie@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/nellmooney;))