Thornburg Expects $1.1B Loss on Loan Sales

Jumbo lender Thornburg Mortgage, Santa Fe, N.M., says its loss on asset sales will total $1.1 billion in the third quarter, or $236 million more than it originally anticipated.The publicly traded real estate investment trust -- which is slated to report earnings on Oct. 16 -- said it has sold $22 billion worth of what it calls "high-quality" adjustable-rate mortgages since Aug. 10. Even though its delinquency ratio is among the lowest in the mortgage industry, it has been selling assets as a way to bolster its liquidity. At the end of September its seriously delinquent ratio was just 0.27%. Commenting on the revised loss estimate, company president Larry Goldstone noted that, "The global dislocation of the mortgage finance and credit markets this past summer has had a greater impact on our balance sheet than we initially estimated. However, we have begun to see a modest improvement in financing conditions since August. Despite the greater-than-previously-reported losses, we believe we have adequate liquidity to support our current borrowings portfolio and excess capital to continue to fund new loans." Thornburg can be found online at http://www.thornburg.com.