RAIT Financial Trust Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2012 Financial Results

PHILADELPHIA, PA — February 13, 2013 — RAIT Financial Trust (“RAIT”) (NYSE: RAS) today announced fourth quarter and fiscal 2012 financial results.

Highlights

Scott Schaeffer, RAIT’s Chairman and CEO, said, “We continue executing on our multi-strategy approach of growing our core commercial real estate lending businesses and managing our property portfolio. During 2012, we funded more than $376 million of loans and sold $98 million CMBS loans. Net operating income, in our equity portfolio, increased 16% in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. This success has led to a 67% increase in the common dividend from the fourth quarter of 2011 and has improved our access to capital. We remain focused on lending against cash-flowing commercial real estate properties with the goal of delivering a consistent and steadily growing common dividend to our shareholders.”

Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2012 Results

RAIT reported AFFO, a non-GAAP financial measure, for the three-month period ended December 31, 2012 of $16.9 million, or $0.33 per share — diluted based on 51.0 million weighted-average shares outstanding – diluted, as compared to AFFO for the three-month period ended December 31, 2011 of $12.1 million, or $0.30 per share – diluted based on 40.5 million weighted-average shares outstanding – diluted. RAIT reported a net loss allocable to common shares for the three-month period ended December 31, 2012 of $50.4 million, or $0.99 total loss per share — diluted based on 51.0 million weighted-average shares outstanding – diluted, as compared to net loss allocable to common shares for the three-month period ended December 31, 2011 of $15.6 million, or $0.39 total loss per share – diluted based on 40.5 million weighted-average shares outstanding – diluted. The fourth quarter 2012 net loss includes $57.5 million of unrealized losses relating to non-cash mark-to-market adjustments in RAIT’s legacy Taberna portfolios and the associated hedges. Non-cash mark-to-market gains and losses are excluded from AFFO.

RAIT reported AFFO for the year ended December 31, 2012 of $53.5 million, or $1.10 per share - diluted based on 48.7 million weighted-average shares outstanding – diluted, as compared to AFFO for the year ended December 31, 2011 of $36.8 million, or $0.96 per share – diluted based on 38.5 million weighted-average shares outstanding – diluted. RAIT reported a net loss allocable to common shares for the year ended December 31, 2012 of $182.8 million, or $3.75 total loss per share - diluted based on 48.7 million weighted-average shares outstanding – diluted, as compared to net loss allocable to common shares for the year ended December 31, 2011 of $51.1 million, or $1.33 total loss per share – diluted based on 38.5 million weighted-average shares outstanding – diluted. The net loss for the year ended December 31, 2012 includes $201.8 million of unrealized losses relating to non-cash mark-to-market adjustments in RAIT’s legacy Taberna portfolios and the associated hedges. Non-cash mark-to-market gains and losses are excluded from AFFO.

A reconciliation of RAIT’s reported net income (loss) allocable to common shares to its AFFO is included as Schedule I to this release. A reconciliation of RAIT’s total shareholders’ equity to its adjusted book value, a non-GAAP financial measure, is included as Schedule II to this release. Schedule I and Schedule II also include management’s respective rationales for the usefulness of each of these non-GAAP financial measures.

RAIT also reported the following:

Key Statistics
(Unaudited and dollars in thousands, except per share information)

As of or For the Three-Month Periods Ended

Conference Call

All interested parties can listen to the live conference call webcast at 9:00 AM EST on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 from the home page of the RAIT Financial Trust website at www.raitft.com or by dialing 800.299.9086, access code 29186116. For those who are not available to listen to the live call, the replay will be available shortly following the live call on RAIT’s website and telephonically until Wednesday, February 20, 2013, by dialing 888.286.8010, access code 87397344.

About RAIT Financial Trust

RAIT Financial Trust is an internally-managed real estate investment trust that provides debt financing options to owners of commercial real estate and invests directly into commercial real estate properties located throughout the United States.  In addition, RAIT is an asset and property manager of real estate-related assets. For more information, please visit www.raitft.com or call Investor Relations at 215.243.9000.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements can generally be identified by our use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “continue,” “goal” or other similar words. Because such statements include risks, uncertainties and contingencies, actual results may differ materially from the expectations, intentions, beliefs, plans or predictions of the future expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include, but are not limited to, those disclosed in RAIT’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. RAIT undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as may be required by law.

RAIT Financial Trust Contact
Andres Viroslav
215-243-9000
aviroslav@raitft.com

1

RAIT Financial Trust
Consolidated Statements of Operations
(Dollars in thousands, except share and per share information)
(unaudited)

2

RAIT Financial Trust
Consolidated Balance Sheets
(Dollars in thousands, except share and per share information)
(unaudited)

Schedule I
RAIT Financial Trust
Reconciliation of Net income (loss) Allocable to Common Shares and
Funds From Operations (“FFO”) and
Adjusted Funds From Operations (“AFFO”) (1)
(Dollars in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
(unaudited)

We compute FFO in accordance with the standards established by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, or NAREIT, as net income or loss allocated to common shares (computed in accordance with GAAP), excluding real estate-related depreciation and amortization expense, gains or losses on sales of real estate and the cumulative effect of changes in accounting principles.

AFFO is a computation made by analysts and investors to measure a real estate company’s cash flow generated by operations. We calculate AFFO by adding to or subtracting from FFO: change in fair value of financial instruments; gains or losses on debt extinguishment; capital expenditures, net of any direct financing associated with those capital expenditures; straight-line rental effects; amortization of various deferred items and intangible assets; and share-based compensation.

Our calculation of AFFO differs from the methodology used for calculating AFFO by certain other REITs and, accordingly, our AFFO may not be comparable to AFFO reported by other REITs. Our management utilizes FFO and AFFO as measures of our operating performance, and believes they are also useful to investors, because they facilitate an understanding of our operating performance after adjustment for certain non-cash items, such as real estate depreciation, share-based compensation and various other items required by GAAP that may not necessarily be indicative of current operating performance and that may not accurately compare our operating performance between periods. Furthermore, although FFO, AFFO and other supplemental performance measures are defined in various ways throughout the REIT industry, we also believe that FFO and AFFO may provide us and our investors with an additional useful measure to compare our financial performance to certain other REITs.

Neither FFO nor AFFO is equivalent to net income or cash generated from operating activities determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Furthermore, FFO and AFFO do not represent amounts available for management’s discretionary use because of needed capital replacement or expansion, debt service obligations or other commitments or uncertainties. Neither FFO nor AFFO should be considered as an alternative to net income as an indicator of our operating performance or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. References to “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to RAIT Financial Trust and its subsidiaries.

3

Schedule II
RAIT Financial Trust
Reconciliation of Shareholders’ Equity to Adjusted Book Value (1)
(Dollars in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
(unaudited)

4