Criimi Mae's 3Q Loss Grows

Criimi Mae, Rockville, Md., has reported a net loss of $9.3 million ($0.60 per share) for the third quarter, a deterioration from the net loss of $7.4 million ($0.49 per share) for the third quarter of 2003.The real estate investment trust said the third-quarter results for this year include an impairment charge of $13.2 million, or about $0.86 per share. Barry Blattman, Criimi Mae's chairman and chief executive officer, said that "the more subordinated CMBS [in Criimi Mae's portfolio] continue to be impacted by higher loss expectations that we have estimated for the portion of our mortgage loan portfolio that is still struggling to improve." This produced the impairment charge, which resulted in the net loss for the quarter, he said. Criimi Mae also reported that its net interest margin increased 25% to $9.9 million in the third quarter. Specially serviced mortgage loans totaled 6.3% of the $13.8 billion in loans backing Criimi Mae's CMBS portfolio as of Sept. 30, with loans backed by hotel property accounting for $407.3 million, or almost half, of the specially serviced loans. The commercial mortgage REIT can be found online at http://www.criimimaeinc.com.