Ladder Capital Corp (0JSZ.L) Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Ladder Capital Corp delivered a first-quarter 2025 (QQ1 2025) revenue of $91.55 million with a robust gross margin of approximately 80.7%, underscoring the continued quality of its CRE-first mortgage loan originations and related securities activities. Despite topline expansion vs. prior-year, net income declined on a year-over-year basis due to a higher interest burden and non-operating headwinds, resulting in an annualized earnings per share (EPS) of $0.093 (diluted $0.0932). EBITDA stood at $59.12 million, with an EBITDAR of 0.646x, signaling solid operating profitability but rising financing costs pressuring bottom-line expansion. The company also reported a negative free cash flow for QQ1 2025, driven primarily by aggressive investing and financing activities that produced a net cash outflow of $812.7 million for the period, despite a healthy liquidity cushion at quarter-end (cash and cash equivalents of $479.8 million and total cash-related assets including short-term positions of roughly $1.65 billion). The balance sheet shows substantial leverage, with total debt of approximately $2.787 billion and net debt of about $2.307 billion, yielding a debt-to-capitalization of about 0.648 and a liquidity profile that supports near-term covenant headroom but requires monitoring of refinancing risk and cash generation going forward. Management commentary was not captured in the available transcript data, limiting the integration of call-reported guidance into the QQ1 2025 narrative. Investors should weigh Ladder’s CRE lending and securitized exposure against its leverage, funding costs, and near-term cash flow dynamics as the business navigates a higher-for-longer rate environment.Overall, the QQ1 2025 result presents a mixed picture: solid gross profitability and earnings power on the back of robust fee/interest income, tempered by elevated interest expense and capital deployment that driven negative free cash flow in the quarter.