Thornburg Reveals $300M in Margin Calls

Thornburg Mortgage, a jumbo lending real estate investment trust, revealed Thursday that it has been hit with $300 million in margin calls from its lenders since Feb. 14. The margin calls were sparked by a reduction in value on $2.9 billion in holdings of alternative-A adjustable-rate mortgages. A spokeswoman for the REIT told MortgageWire that "We have met all margin calls to date, and expect to continue to do so." In trading, Thornburg's stock was down almost 18% to $9.47 a share. The lender/servicer has an on-balance-sheet portfolio of about $35.4 billion, 97% of which is triple-A or double-A rated. Thornburg, a nondepository, is one of the largest jumbo lenders in the United States, according to the Quarterly Data Report. At year's end, its portfolio was yielding 5.75% with a cost of funds of 5.04%. The 60-day-plus delinquency rate on its ARM holdings stood at 0.44% as of Dec. 31, up from 0.27% in the previous quarter.