Bimini Capital Management Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Buying TJIM and Shrinking RMBS: a Clear Pivot Toward Advisory Revenue
Summary
Bimini used a strong 2025 fixed-income backdrop and a dramatic surge at Orchid Island to fund a strategic pivot. Management announced an agreement for a subsidiary to buy 80% of Tom Johnson Investment Management, a $1.6 billion AUM RIA, financed with cash and Royal Palm capital and no external borrowing. To pay for the deal the company expects to liquidate the majority of its agency RMBS portfolio and run with a lower leverage profile going forward.
The quarter was otherwise marked by calm rates through 2025, strong RMBS returns and record-tight corporate spreads, then a sharp change in tone as the Iran war raised inflation and growth uncertainty. Bimini reported modest GAAP earnings for the quarter and year, reinstated a $2.5 million buyback, and flagged that it will provide transaction details and management introductions on the Q1 call after close.
Key Takeaways
- Bimini announced an agreement for a subsidiary to acquire 80% of Tom Johnson Investment Management, LLC, an RIA with approximately $1.6 billion in AUM, expected to close early Q2 2026.
- The acquisition will be funded with cash on hand and Royal Palm capital; management said no borrowings will be used to close the deal.
- To finance the purchase, Bimini plans to liquidate the majority of its agency RMBS portfolio, meaning the company will significantly shrink that business line and reduce leverage going forward.
- Orchid Island Capital delivered net income of $103.4 million in Q4 2025 and increased stockholders' equity from $1.086 billion to $3.72 billion by year-end.
- Orchid shareholders' equity rose about 105% for the year, driving Bimini advisory services revenue up to $4.7 million in Q4 and $16.6 million for 2025, a 30% year-over-year increase.
- Bimini’s investment portfolio declined roughly 27% over the year, but net interest and dividend income rose from $1.52 million in 2024 to $2.45 million in 2025.
- Net realized and unrealized gains on the RMBS portfolio, Orchid shares, and hedges were positive for both the quarter and full year, supporting results despite a smaller portfolio.
- Bimini reported Q4 net income of $1.52 million and, with a $1.87 million tax benefit, net income after tax of $3.38 million. For the year, pre-tax income was $4.49 million, a $1.31 million tax benefit, and after-tax net income of $5.8 million, implying an 85% return on beginning shareholders' equity.
- The company reinstated a share buyback program authorizing up to $2.5 million of repurchases and is operating under a 10b5-1 plan with Ladenburg Thalmann as the agent.
- Market context: 2025 saw unusually calm rates for most of the year, implied interest-rate volatility declining since April 2025, agency RMBS returns of 1.7% in Q4 and 8.58% for the year, and investment-grade corporate spreads tightening to levels not seen since 1998.
- Management called out a sharp change in the macro outlook after the outbreak of war in Iran, warning of supply interruptions in oil and chemicals, higher inflation risk, and increased economic uncertainty as 2026 began.
- The acquired RIA, TJIM, will initially operate as a standalone firm under the same umbrella as Bimini Advisors, with existing TJIM managers retaining ownership stakes and staying on post-close.
- Management referenced a 30% EBITDA bonus pool target in the acquisition documents but would not confirm current EBITDA margins or whether that target is comfortably exceeded.
- Bimini signaled discretionary use of future cash flows: redeploy into Royal Palm to scale, or potentially pay down trust-preferred debt if attractive, while keeping leverage lower than pre-acquisition levels.
- Management committed to providing more transaction detail, the operating plan going forward, and introductions to TJIM leadership on the Q1 2026 earnings call after the deal closes.
Full Transcript
Liz, Conference Call Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Bimini Capital’s fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you’ll need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I’d now like to hand the conference over to Melissa Alfonso. Please go ahead.
Melissa Alfonso, Investor Relations / Legal Compliance Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Thank you, Liz. Good morning and welcome to the fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call for Bimini Capital Management. This call is being recorded today, March 13, 2026. At this time, the company would like to remind the listeners that statements made during today’s conference call relating to matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Listeners are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are based on information currently available on the management’s good faith, belief with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from these expressed in such forward-looking statements.
Important factors that could cause such differences are described in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K. The company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions, or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements. Now, I would like to turn the conference over to the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Robert E. Cauley. Please go ahead, sir.
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Thanks, Melissa, and good morning. The fixed-income markets experienced a period of calm as 2025 came to a close and we entered 2026. In fact, the rates market was calm for most of 2025, absent the turbulence surrounding the announcement of tariffs, reciprocal tariffs announced by President Trump in April. Interest rates remained in a very tight range for all of 2025, especially during the fourth quarter. Implied interest rate vol continued its steady decline that began in April of 2025, and Agency RMBS performed well during the fourth quarter of 2025 and for the year, generating returns of 1.7% and 8.58% for the quarter and year respectively. Other sectors of the fixed-income markets performed well during the fourth quarter as well, and spreads on investment-grade corporate bonds reached levels not seen since 1998.
Risk sentiment generally was quite strong during the quarter, and all major sectors of the fixed income market generated positive returns for the quarter and for all of 2025 as well. As 2026 began, economic activity remained resilient, including the labor market. The outlook has since changed after the war broke out in Iran. The world’s most critical oil and chemical supplier region has suffered intense military attacks, leading to supply interruptions. Inflation was already sticky, may move even higher, and the economic outlook has become very uncertain. Turning to our results, benefiting from the favorable market conditions during the fourth quarter of 2025, Orchid Island Capital reported net income of $103.4 million for the quarter, and its stockholders’ equity increased from $1.086 billion to $3.72 billion.
As a result, Bimini’s advisory services revenue also increased to $4.7 million, compared to $4.5 million for the third quarter of 2025. For the year, Orchid shareholders’ equity increased by approximately 105%, which led to advisory services revenue increasing from $12.8 million in 2024 to $16.6 million in 2025, a 30% year-over-year increase. Orchid has been able to continue to grow its stockholders’ equity further so far in 2026 per Orchid’s public disclosures. Our investment portfolio segment also benefited from the favorable market conditions for both the 2025 fourth quarter and full year.
The investment portfolio shrank slightly over the course of the year by approximately 27%, yet net interest and dividend income increased from $1.52 million in 2024 to $2.45 million in 2025. Net realized and unrealized gains and losses on our RMBS portfolio, Orchid shares, and derivative positions used for hedging were also positive for the fourth quarter of 2025 and the full year. For the quarter, Bimini generated net income of $1.52 million and with a $1.87 million tax benefit, net income after tax of $3.38 million.
For the year, Bimini generated pre-tax income of $4.49 million, a tax benefit of $1.31 million, and after-tax net income of $5.8 million, which represents a return on beginning of the year shareholders’ equity of 85%. The company also reinstituted a share buyback plan to enable us to invest in our stock to the extent we believe it is undervalued. The plan permits us to purchase up to $2.5 million of our stock. On January 13, 2026, the company announced that a subsidiary of Royal Palm Capital, LLC, Bimini Advisors Holdings, LLC, had entered into an agreement to purchase 80% of the fully diluted equity interest of Tom Johnson Investment Management, LLC, a privately held registered investment adviser. The transaction is expected to close at the beginning of the second quarter of 2026.
As of the announcement date, TJIM had approximately $1.6 billion of assets under management across equity and fixed income markets. TJIM’s management agreements are diverse, covering individual accounts, sub-advisory agreements, and wrap programs. The existing owners of TJIM will remain an ownership interest in TJIM, and Bimini intends to retain its current staff and investment management team following the closing of the transaction. The purpose of the transaction is to both expand and diversify the advisory services segment of the company. If the transaction closes as anticipated, the company will continue to operate an agency RMBS portfolio, although the portfolio will initially be much smaller as the capital to fund the acquisition of TJIM will come from available cash and the liquidation of the majority of the agency RMBS portfolio in place at year-end 2025.
Going forward, to the extent the company is able to generate both positive cash flows from operations, such funds will be deployed in the portfolio, although the leverage employed will be lower than was typically the case prior to the acquisition should it occur. Assuming the transaction closes as anticipated, we will use the first quarter of 2026 earnings call to expand on the details of the transaction, how we plan to operate the business going forward, and introduce the management of TJIM. Operator, that concludes my prepared remarks, and we can open the call up to questions.
Liz, Conference Call Operator: As a reminder, if you’d like to ask a question at this time, please press star one one on your touchtone phone. Again, that is star one one to ask a question. We have a question from the line of Gary Ribe with Accretive Wealth Partners. Your line is open.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Hey, Bob. Hi, Hunter. How are you guys doing?
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Hey, Gary. How are you?
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Congrats on your deal. I was just. It looks like it’s a relatively attractive price. I was just kinda curious if you can help me understand how you guys sourced the deal. Were you part of a competitive bidding process, or was this sort of an off-market deal you guys found?
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Yeah, we have been working with the banker at Westmere Capital, Richard Jin, and we worked to do a search. This was not a competitive bid process. Basically, we were looking for relatively small private asset managers. We had a profile in place, and I’ll probably go into more detail on this, in this regard, in the first quarter once the deal closes, and there’s more information I can disclose publicly. It was a search on our part, and we just had a profile in place, what we’re looking for, and came upon them. They appeared to be a very attractive acquisition target for us in many respects. Diversification, obviously. They have a nice mix, as we mentioned, of assets under management, including actually, fixed income and some REITs, from time to time.
A very nice, long track record of performance and profitability. As I mentioned, I’ll go into it in greater detail, but that’s kinda how it came about.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Okay. Got it. That’s helpful. From your remarks, it seems like the money, the cash that you’re gonna need to close the deal is gonna come from cash on hand and Royal Palm, so you guys won’t be borrowing or anything like that from anybody to do the deal?
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: No, no borrowing to close the deal. As I mentioned, the portfolio will shrink substantially. I don’t think it’s gonna quite go to zero, but there’ll be no borrowed funds whatsoever to fund the acquisition.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Okay. Well, that’s interesting. Good. Interesting. I think in the agreement that you guys had put out there, it said something about a 30% EBITDA margin target. Is that business operating comfortably above that today?
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: I can’t say yet, but there’s a reference to a, you know, bonus pool. Yeah, that’s. We don’t envision that being a challenge, but I really can’t say much beyond that.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Okay. No, I understand that. These things, it’s a very interesting deal. Do you view this as something that you can bolt advisors onto, advisory firms onto, or is this sort of a standalone for you?
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Initially, it’ll be standalone. May or may not going forward, but initially they’ll be standalone. They’re obviously an RIA. Bimini Advisors, LLC is our RIA, which manages Orchid. Initially they will be two RIAs underneath the same roof.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Okay. That’s good. I just sort of had a question on the buyback. It’s nice to see that you put one in place. The stock doesn’t trade a ton. You know, if somebody had a decent sized block of shares, is there a banker that we should call to see if you guys are interested in taking that from us?
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Yeah, we have a 10b5-1 plan, so it’s kind of a hands-off, but the agent that we use is Ladenburg Thalmann.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Okay. Okay. Got it. Okay. Well, that’s certainly helpful. As you guys sort of start to generate more and more cash, is it a fair assumption that that’s just gonna be redeployed to scale Royal Palm back up?
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Yeah, I would think so. That’s our official plan.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Okay.
Hunter, Unknown, Bimini Capital Management: Yeah.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Okay.
Hunter, Unknown, Bimini Capital Management: The portfolio and we could potentially pay down some of the trust preferred debt at some point if we deem it to be attractive to do so.
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Yeah.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Yeah. That seems like pretty cheap capital with not a lot of strings attached to it, so I can’t imagine you guys are too keen to do that, but.
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Nope.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: Okay. Well, very good. Congratulations on everything. It seems like, you know, you kinda have the wind at your back a little bit, which is nice to see.
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Yep. Indeed. Had a good year.
Gary Ribe, Analyst, Accretive Wealth Partners: All right. Thank you, guys.
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: All right. Thanks, Gary.
Liz, Conference Call Operator: I’m showing no further questions in queue at this time. I’d like to turn the call back to Mr. Cauley for closing remarks.
Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bimini Capital Management: Thank you, operator, and thanks, everybody. To the extent that you weren’t able to listen to the call and do have a call, feel free to call the office. The number is 772-231-1400. And if anybody that did listen to the call has a follow-up or has a question that they didn’t get a chance to ask also, you can feel free to call us. Otherwise, we will speak with you probably late April, early May. Thank you.
Liz, Conference Call Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.