Operator

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation's First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on Thursday, May 7, 2026.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. John Stilmar, Partner of Public Markets Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

John Stilmar
Managing Director of Public Investor Relations & Corporate Communications Group

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call. In addition to our press release and the 10-Q that we filed with the SEC, we have posted an earnings presentation under the Investor Resources section of our website at www.arescre.com.

Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that comments made during the course of this conference call and webcast as well as the accompanying documents contain forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many of these forward-looking statements can be identified by the words such as anticipates, believes, expects, intends, will, should, may and similar such expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations of market conditions and management's judgment. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The company's actual results could differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of risk factors, including those listed in its SEC filings. Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation assumes no