Business Description

We are a specialty finance company that invests in and finances residential mortgage assets. Our targeted investments include principally the following: • Residential whole loans, including Non-QM loans, Business purpose loans, and Legacy RPL/NPL loans, which we acquire and hold through certain trusts that are consolidated on our balance sheet for financial reporting purposes. Through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Lima One Capital, LLC (together with its parent company, Lima One Holdings, LLC, “Lima One”), a leading nationwide originator and servicer of Business purpose loans (or BPLs), which we acquired on July 1, 2021, we originate and service BPLs for real estate investors. We also own real estate (or REO), which is typically acquired as a result of the foreclosure or other liquidation of delinquent whole loans in connection with our loan investment activities. • Residential mortgage securities, including Agency MBS, Non-Agency MBS and CRT securities. Our principal business objective is to deliver shareholder value through the generation of distributable income and through asset performance linked to residential mortgage credit fundamentals. We selectively invest in residential mortgage assets with a focus on credit analysis, projected prepayment rates, interest rate sensitivity and expected return. We are an internally-managed real estate investment trust (or REIT). 2025 delivered strong fixed income returns as markets benefited from a shift in monetary policy and continued macroeconomic resilience. Credit spreads tightened and the yield curve steepened over the year, with yields on two-year Treasuries declining by 78 basis points while ten-year Treasuries declined by 43 basis points. The Bloomberg US Aggregate Index returned 7.3% for the year, marking its strongest annual performance in five years. We capitalized on these constructive market conditions by accelerating the pace of capital deployment, benefiting from increased price stability and a favorable lending environment. While market conditions have improved and recession risks have moderated, we have maintained our emphasis on preserving sufficient liquidity, prudently managing our interest rate exposure, and using loan securitizations to minimize our exposure to margin risk. We were incorporated in Maryland on July 24, 1997 and began operations on April 10, 1998. We have elected to be treated as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes. In order to maintain our qualification as a REIT, we must comply with a number of requirements under federal tax law, including that we must distribute at least 90% of our annual REIT taxable income to our stockholders. We have elected to treat certain of our subsidiaries as taxable REIT subsidiaries (or TRS). In general, a TRS may hold assets and engage in activities that a REIT or qualified REIT subsidiary (or QRS) cannot hold or engage in directly, and a TRS may generally engage in any real estate or non-real estate related business. We are a holding company and conduct our real estate finance businesses primarily through wholly-owned subsidiaries, so as to maintain an exemption from registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (or the Investment Company Act) by ensuring that less than 40% of the value of our total assets, exclusive of U.S. Government securities and cash items (which we refer to as our adjusted total assets for Investment Company Act purposes), on an unconsolidated basis, consist of “investment securities” as defined by the Investment Company Act. We refer to this test as the “40% Test.” INVESTMENT STRATEGY We primarily invest in and finance, through our various subsidiaries, residential mortgage assets. During 2025, we acquired approximately $2.7 billion of residential whole loans. This includes $0.9 billion of loans originated by our wholly-owned subsidiary, Lima One, which has funded more than $7.3 billion of loans since July 2021, when we fully acquired Lima One. At the end of 2025, residential whole loan investments comprised approximately 68% of our assets and 59% of our allocated net equity. During 2026, assuming economic conditions continue to support markets for residential mortgage assets, we expect to continue pursuing investment opportunities, focused primarily on residential whole loans and Agency MBS as market opportunities arise.…