Advanced Flower Capital Q4 2025 Earnings Call - BDC Conversion Expands Pipeline While Legacy Loans Still Drag

Operator: Good morning, welcome to Advanced Flower Capital’s fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct the question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Gabriel Katz, Chief Legal Officer. Please go ahead.

Gabriel Katz, Chief Legal Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Good morning, thank you all for joining AFC’s earnings call for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. I’m joined this morning by Robyn Tannenbaum, our President and Chief Investment Officer, Daniel Neville, our Chief Executive Officer, and Brandon Hetzel, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to note that this call is being recorded. Replay information is included in our February 10, 2026 press release and is posted on the investor relations portion of AFC’s website at advancedflowercapital.com, along with our fourth quarter and full year earnings release and investor presentation.

Today’s conference call includes forward-looking statements and projections that reflect the company’s current views with respect to, among other things, anticipated market developments, portfolio yield and financial performance in 2026 and beyond. These statements are subject to inherent uncertainties in predicting future results.

Please refer to AFC’s most recent periodic filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K filed earlier this morning for certain conditions and significant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements and projections. During this call, we will refer to Distributable Earnings, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Reconciliations to net income, the most comparable GAAP measure to Distributable Earnings, can be found in AFC’s earnings release and investor presentation available on AFC’s website.

Today’s call will begin with Robyn providing a high-level recap of our 2025 fiscal year, including the conversion to a BDC. Dan will provide an overview of our portfolio. Finally, Brandon will conclude with a summary of our financial results before we open the lines for Q&A. With that, I will now turn the call over to our President and CIO, Robyn Tannenbaum.

Robyn Tannenbaum, President and Chief Investment Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Thanks, Gabe, good morning to all our investors and analysts that have joined us today. Looking back on 2025, AFC was focused on, one, reducing our exposure to underperforming credits through active portfolio management. Two, converting from a REIT to a BDC to expand the universe of transactions AFC could invest in. We continue to focus our portfolio management efforts on underperforming credits in order to preserve capital. We believe that as we begin to get repaid on some of these underperforming assets and reinvest that capital into performing credits, we may unlock future earnings potential. I am pleased to announce that we received $117 million of paydowns from performing and underperforming credits from the start of 2025 through today.

During fiscal year 2025, AFC originated $53 million of new commitments, and subsequent to year-end, we have closed on $89.7 million of new commitments in the lower middle market, which Dan will describe in further detail. Turning to our conversion to a BDC, as of January 1, 2026, we completed our previously announced conversion from a REIT to a BDC. Our conversion expands AFC’s investment flexibility to pursue opportunities beyond real estate-backed loans, including a broader universe of operating businesses aimed at enhancing long-term shareholder value. Before turning the call over to Dan, I want to touch upon our earnings for the quarter and fiscal year. For the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2025, AFC generated distributable earnings per basic weighted average share of -$0.12 and $0.39, respectively.

Primarily due to realized losses from two underperforming credits recognized during the year, our 2025 dividends were characterized as a return of capital, making the 2025 distributions to our shareholders tax-free. Future dividends may receive similar treatment if AFC recognizes additional losses in 2026. Looking ahead, the board of directors has declared a first quarter dividend of $0.05 per share, which will be paid on April 15th, 2026 to shareholders of record on March 31st, 2026.

With that, I’ll turn it over to Dan, who will discuss our portfolio management efforts, strategy expansion, and new deals we have recently invested in.

Daniel Neville, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Thanks, Robyn. Good morning, everyone. I’ll begin with an update on our portfolio, then turn to our expanded strategy and deals we recently completed. Looking at our existing portfolio from the beginning of 2025 through today, we received $117 million back in paydowns. This includes the repayment of two loans subsequent to year-end at par plus accrued, with an additional $1.8 million in prepayment and exit fees from those two loans.

We currently have three loans on non-accrual and are focused on receiving paydowns on those loans to redeploy that capital into performing credits that should contribute to current income. We have continued the liquidation process for Private Company A. From the beginning of 2025 through today, we have received $6.3 million of paydowns.

Borrower is still in receivership and the distribution of proceeds needs to be approved by the court. We currently have a pending motion for an additional distribution of $6.4 million in proceeds. While we are frustrated by the pace of distribution to date, I am happy to report that all of the operating assets of the estate are under agreement, and we expect distributions will continue to flow in over the course of 2026 as regulatory approvals and other milestones are met.

Regarding Private Company K, two of the three Massachusetts dispensaries have signed purchase agreements approved by the court and are awaiting regulatory approval to effectuate the sale. We expect the sale of all of the collateral of Private Company K to be completed sometime in 2026. Lastly, we wanted to take a minute to touch on Justice Grown.

In February, one of Justice Grown’s claims was dismissed in the New Jersey action, and we also had oral arguments on the appeal of the preliminary injunction. We expect a ruling on the appeal in the coming months, and the Justice Grown loan matures on May 1st, 2026. We continue to actively manage these positions to preserve shareholder capital and maximize recovery value.

Our earnings may continue to be affected by the underperformance of some of these legacy loans and any realized losses we take on assets. However, as we begin to get repaid on some of these loans on non-accrual and reinvest that capital into performing credits, we may unlock future earnings potential. Since expanding our investable universe, our active pipeline remains strong with over $1.4 billion of deals as of today.

We are focused on sourcing deals and backing companies in the lower middle market across a variety of industries. We are primarily focused on providing loans to cash flowing borrowers with $5 million-$50 million of EBITDA. These financings are often used for expansion capital, acquisitions, refinancings, and recapitalizations. Since converting to a BDC, I would like to discuss two loans that we closed in Q1, 2026.

In January, AFC closed a $60 million senior secured credit facility to support the combination of Stat and The Moresby Group, which is backed by Cambridge Capital. Stat is a leading revenue recovery specialist servicing the Walmart, Target, and Amazon ecosystems. Moresby is a procurement specialist that focuses on long-tail supplier negotiations and savings for Fortune 1000 clients. AFC provided the $60 million to finance the acquisition of Moresby and refinance existing indebtedness.

In February, AFC committed $30 million to a $60 million senior secured term loan to support the acquisition and growth of a leading healthcare benefits platform tailored toward hourly and sub $50,000 salaried employees, which is a large and underserved segment of the workforce.

At closing, AFC funded $20 million of this commitment, supporting a top-tier sponsor. In closing, we remain focused on unlocking value from underperforming loans and are excited about the new lending opportunities that we are seeing. Now, I’ll turn it over to Brandon to discuss our financial results in more detail.

Brandon Hetzel, Chief Financial Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Thank you, Dan. For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, we generated net interest income of $5.2 million and Distributable Earnings of -$2.8 million, or -$0.12 per basic weighted average common share, and had GAAP net income of $900,000 or $0.04 per basic weighted average common share.

For the full year ended December 31, 2025, we generated net interest income of $24.6 million and Distributable Earnings of $8.7 million, or $0.39 per basic weighted average common share, and had a GAAP net loss of $20.7 million, or $0.95 per basic weighted average common share. As previously mentioned, we believe providing Distributable Earnings is helpful to shareholders in assessing the overall performance of AFC’s business.

Distributable Earnings represents the net income computed in accordance with GAAP, excluding non-cash items such as stock compensation expense, any unrealized gains or losses, provision for current expected credit losses, also known as CECL, taxable REIT subsidiary income or loss net of dividends, and other non-cash items recorded in net income or loss for the period. We ended the fourth quarter of 2025 with $317.4 million of principal outstanding spread across 15 loans.

As of February 25th, 2026, our portfolio consisted of $366.4 million of principal outstanding across 15 loans. During the quarter, we repurchased $13 million of our unsecured bonds. Currently, $77 million of our unsecured bonds remain outstanding with a maturity in May of 2027. We continue to evaluate and explore options to refinance that bond prior to maturity.

As of December 31st, 2025, the CECL reserve was $46.1 million, or approximately 18.2% of our loans at carrying value, and we had a total unrealized loss included on the balance sheet of $27.7 million for our loans held at fair value.

Daniel Neville, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: As of December 31st, 2025, we had total assets of $275.6 million, total shareholder equity of $175.6 million, and our book value per share was $7.46. Lastly, on March 2nd, 2026, the board of directors declared a first quarter dividend of $0.05 per share, which will be paid on April 15th, 2026 to shareholders of record on March 31st, 2026. With that, I will now turn it back over to the operator to start the Q&A.

Operator: To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Aaron Grey with Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open.

John (on behalf of Aaron Grey), Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Good morning. Thank you for the question. This is John on for Aaron. The active pipeline increased meaningfully with $1.4 billion, you know, up from last quarter’s $400 million. Could you provide some color on the key factors that led to this increase and, you know, how quickly you believe this could potentially translate to closed originations?

Daniel Neville, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Sure. Thanks for the question. The pipeline increased meaningfully. That’s primarily a function of our conversion from a REIT to a BDC. As you know, and as we’ve discussed, the investable universe within a REIT-only framework, and the associated restrictions on real estate coverage, was limiting to the loans that we could do within our portfolio.

Upon converting to a BDC, that investment universe has been expanded beyond cannabis, which happened in August of last year, but also allows us to invest in cash flow loans that are not fully covered by real estate as they were under the REIT framework.

John (on behalf of Aaron Grey), Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Great. Thanks. Then is there a split you could provide between the cannabis and non-cannabis pipeline? You know, what the expected yields for the non-cannabis, how those would compare to the legacy portfolio?

Robyn Tannenbaum, President and Chief Investment Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Sure. This is Robyn. We view the active pipeline as an active pipeline for lower middle market companies, regardless of industry, and spreads across a few industries. We’re not going to break out what industries those are associated with, including cannabis. As for yields, I would point you to page 14 in our deck. Yields that we’ve invested in are obviously not indicative of future yields, but Private Company X and Private Company Y were the last two loans that we did, which were in the lower middle market. One loan’s yield to maturity per the deck is 14% and one is 19%.

John (on behalf of Aaron Grey), Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Great. Thanks. I’ll jump back in the queue.

Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. Again, that is star one one to ask a question. Our next question comes from Pablo Zuanic with Zuanic & Associates. Your line is open.

Pablo Zuanic, Analyst, Zuanic & Associates: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Dan, can I just follow up on, you gave good color there about the loans in non-accrual. In the case of Private Company A, what’s left then is $4.4 million. There’s nothing else to recover, right? If you can confirm that. In the case of Private Company K, you said two dispensaries are in the process of being sold. A third one, I guess, is still pending.

The principal is over $12 million. You know, can we assume that when you’re talking about, you know, proceeds that you will recover and redeploy, that for Private Company K, you will be getting the $12 million? Then any further color you can give on Justice Grown. You know, from our study, it seems unlikely that you will be paid the $78 million or $79 million principal in May.

If you can just give color there or correct me if I’m wrong in my assumptions. Thank you.

Robyn Tannenbaum, President and Chief Investment Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: This is Robyn. I’ll let Dan answer a few. On Private Company A, I believe what Dan was referring to is the amount that’s currently pending in front of the receiver, not the total amount that we expect to get over time. Then I’ll let Dan take Private Company K. Then in terms of Justice Grown, we’ve commented all that we’re going to comment, and that’s we really don’t have anything to expand upon there aside from the loan is due in May.

Daniel Neville, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Just to elaborate on Company A, we commented on the amount that was distributed in 2025, which was, I believe, $6.8 million. We have a pending motion for $6.4 million that we expect to be distributed in the coming months. There were various other assets within the estate, both, operating assets and financial assets that will be monetized over time. As those proceeds come in, we’d expect additional distributions.

We didn’t make a commentary on what the expected amount of the proceeds from the balance of the assets would be relative to relative to what you see in our disclosure. Regarding Private Company K, which is the Massachusetts operator, as I discussed, two of the dispensaries are under APA and have court approval to effectuate those sales. Both are pending regulatory approval in front of the CCC, which typically is a 3-4 month process, although can be longer, can be shorter. The third dispensary is we’re receiving final LOIs in the coming weeks and expect that sale to also be effectuated in the 2026 timeframe. We don’t break out reserves with respect to individual loans, but I would say that we believe that we’re appropriately reserved on, our portfolio as everything stands today.

Pablo Zuanic, Analyst, Zuanic & Associates: Thank you. That’s good color, Dan. Just, I know you’re not going to guide for future loans, but is the first quarter pace based on the two facilities you extended to, you know, lower middle market companies, is that, is that cadence, call it $100 million per quarter, is that something that you think can be sustained for the rest of the year? Just remind us how that would be funded in terms of your credit facilities and of course, the proceeds you may receive?

Daniel Neville, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Pablo, I, you know, I think you can look at cash on the balance sheet, the capacity of our credit facilities as it stands today, the $100 million per quarter pace is not something that we currently have capacity to sustain outside of obviously there are some loans that are on non-accrual today, and we could receive proceeds from those loans over time, but it’s very difficult to predict. I would say that we’re pleased to come out of the gate and start the year on a strong footing with two solid loans in the lower middle market to sponsors that we like and companies that we like at attractive yields.

I think, I would again, as Robyn said, point folks to page 14 of the deck, and some of the terms associated with those loans. That’s the kind of deal that we’d like to do going forward as we deploy capital over the course of 2026.

Pablo Zuanic, Analyst, Zuanic & Associates: Thank you. Then just two more, if I may. One, again, I know you’re not going to give guidance in terms of pipeline between cannabis and non-cannabis, but given everything that’s happening on the regulatory landscape, do you foresee making any new loans in cannabis this year?

I mean, I think the fourth Q activity in terms of new loans was minimal in cannabis, right? Just, you know, your macro outlook in cannabis and whether that indicates that there will be opportunities to make loans in cannabis or not. Then the second question, which is unrelated, but does the whole Blue Owl Capital situation, you know, how does that Obviously, it doesn’t affect your performance directly, but it does affect sentiment.

Do you wanna make any comments on that, in terms of how investors should think about that situation relative to Advanced Flower Capital? Thank you.

Daniel Neville, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: In terms of the cannabis loans and the question regarding that, I think it is something that is in our pipeline that we continue to evaluate. As we’ve said previously, the bar is very, very high for making any new loans into cannabis. Unfortunately, the regulatory approval that everyone is talking about first happened in August of 2023, and there really hasn’t been a ton of incremental progress since then. While we are hopeful and optimistic that there is regulatory approval, I think the lack of equity capital in the industry over the last three years, combined with the burgeoning tax liabilities that some of these companies are carrying, make it a very difficult sector for us to deploy fresh capital into.

Robyn Tannenbaum, President and Chief Investment Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: In terms of the BDC question, I think that each BDC speaks on its own credit performance and credit portfolio, just as we have. The middle market loans that we’ve made are new vintage, and we feel good about those loans and where we invest it. I’m not going to speak on the industry or any other companies. They know their book a lot better than we do, so I’ll leave it to them to discuss on their earnings call.

Pablo Zuanic, Analyst, Zuanic & Associates: All right. Thank you. That’s all for me.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Dan Neville, CEO, for closing remarks.

Daniel Neville, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Flower Capital: Thank you for joining us today, and we look forward to talking to you on future earnings calls.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.