Blackstone Mortgage Trust's $8.2 billion portfolio of office loans leaves it exposed to the sector.Blackstone said it had performed strongly and was insulated from office tumult., but Blackstone, one of the world's largest real-estate investors, says it has been a step ahead of the carnage.
But as Blackstone has dramatically reduced its exposure to office assets, a closely related company's appetite for the sector has remained strong. The mortgage trust's concentration of office debt is greater than that of some of its peers. Office loans, for instance, are 28.5% of TPG Real Estate Finance Trust's portfolio, 23% of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust's, 17.5% of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance's, and 15% of Claros Mortgage Trust's.
In the first quarter, it classified 16.5% of its portfolio as either loans with a"high risk" of losses or ones that were already"impaired." That was up from 14.2% at the end of 2022.by $9.8 million during the quarter to $352.3 million, cash it must keep on hand to cover any write-offs. Last year, the company added $211.5 million to those reserves.