NEW YORK, March 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Five Oaks Investment Corp. (NYSE: OAKS) ("we", "Five Oaks" or "the Company") today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and for the year ended December 31, 2015. For the fourth quarter, the Company reported GAAP net income of $2.6 million, or $0.18 per basic and diluted share, a comprehensive loss of $6.4 million, or $0.43 per basic and diluted share, and core earnings⁽¹⁾ of $4.1 million, or $0.28 per basic and diluted share. For the year, the Company reported GAAP net loss of $3.1 million, or $0.21 per basic and diluted share, a comprehensive loss of $10.7 million, or $0.73 per basic and diluted share, and core earnings⁽¹⁾ of $16.8 million, or $1.14 per basic and diluted share. The Company also reported a net book value of $9.58 per share on a basic and diluted basis at December 31, 2015.

2015 and Subsequent Events Summary

• Realized a negative economic return on our common stock of 8.4% for the year after accounting for dividends of $1.35.⁽²⁾

• Reflecting our continued concern with market volatility in general and credit market conditions in particular, we reduced our Non-Agency RMBS exposure from $303.4 million at December 31, 2014 to $121.5 million at December 31, 2015.  Consistent with our more defensive approach, we increased our overall Agency RMBS assets from $314.8 million at December 31, 2014 to $375.3 million at December 31, 2015, 96% of which is represented by Agency hybrid ARMS.

• Sponsored two securitizations off our proprietary program issuing securities backed by approximately $518.5 million in unpaid principal balance (UPB) of prime jumbo residential mortgage loans.

• On February 12, 2016, the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) adopted a final rule revising its regulations governing Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) membership.  The rule requires that our wholly owned captive insurance subsidiary wind down its transactions and terminate its membership with FHLB-Indianapolis on or before February 19, 2017.  We have repaid all of the $49.7 million of advances that were outstanding at December 31, 2015, via the use of regular repurchase agreements, and have initiated the redemption of our FHLB stock with a stated value of $2.4 million.

⁽¹⁾ Core Earnings is a non-GAAP measure that we define as GAAP net income, excluding impairment losses, realized and unrealized gains or losses on the aggregate portfolio and certain non-recurring upfront costs related to securitization transactions. As defined, Core Earnings includes interest income or expense and premium income or loss on derivative instruments.

⁽²⁾ Economic return is a non-GAAP measure that we define as the sum of the change in net book value per common share and dividends declared on our common stock during the period over the beginning net book value per common share.

Management Observations

David Carroll, Five Oaks' Chairman and CEO commented: "Most notably in the second half of the year, 2015 was marked by significant financial market volatility, including credit and interest rates. The Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates, and credit spreads widened, which negatively affected prices of credit-sensitive securities such as Non-Agency RMBS and Multi-Family MBS. This volatility continued into 2016. We implemented a more defensive investment approach commencing in the third quarter, seeking to build liquidity by selling legacy non-agency securities together with certain highly rated credit positions that may be susceptible to further spread widening and/or reduced liquidity. Notwithstanding spread volatility, the underlying credit metrics in our core portfolio of multi-family and prime jumbo loans and securities remain solid. Our disappointing book value decline 6.6% in the fourth quarter is attributable predominantly to unrealized losses on our investment securities due to the observed credit spread widening.

We also note that increasing bank and dealer capital and liquidity requirements and regulatory burdens continue to constrain dealers' willingness and ability to trade and finance fixed income securities, including MBS, which we believe continues to justify a more defensive posture. Reflecting this view, we have reduced our total Non-Agency RMBS exposure to $121.5 million at December 31, 2015, compared to $303.4 million a year earlier, while increasing our Agency RMBS to $375.3 million from $314.8 million over the same period.

Despite the challenging market conditions across most fixed income sectors, we successfully closed our second proprietary platform securitization of prime jumbo loans, creating an investment package of B-notes and interest only securities for our REIT. We also created and retained all of the excess servicing rights in our taxable REIT subsidiary.

On a negative note for us and our industry, the FHFA's February 2016 final rule excluding captives from the FHLB system was a disappointment for all those interested in improving the stability and flow of private capital to the US residential mortgage market. Given that the FHLB system has apparently never taken a loss on advances made since its inception in 1932, we are at a loss as to the FHFA's decision to exclude captive insurance companies from membership. We are exploring alternative insurance-based structures that we believe may allow us to regain membership in the system.

Going forward, and consistent with our continued caution, we intend to be opportunistic in our approach to aggregating and securitizing loans. We believe it is more important to minimize the risk associated with holding a significant amount of loans on our balance sheet than it is to conclude a targeted number of transactions. We will look to profitably sell aggregated loans to third party investors in order to maintain our Prime Jumbo loan platform. That said, we prefer to aggregate and securitize prime jumbo loans and create attractive investments for our company when conditions are conducive. Furthermore, given the adjustment in credit spreads resulting partially from regulatory capital disintermediation in the banking sector, we are optimistic that there will be many more non-dealer financed credit opportunities going forward for participants such as Five Oaks."

Investment Portfolio and Capital Allocation

The following table summarizes certain characteristics of our investment portfolio and the related allocation of our equity capital on a non-GAAP combined basis as of December 31, 2015:

Comparative Expenses

The following table provides a detailed breakdown of the composition of our expenses on a non-GAAP basis for the years ended December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014:

The increase in G&A, Other Operating, Reimbursable and Compensation Expenses as a percentage of Capital over the past year is primarily a function of expenses related to a full-year of operations for Five Oaks Acquisition Corp. and Five Oaks Insurance LLC.

Operating Performance

The following table summarizes the Company's GAAP and non-GAAP earnings measurements for the years ended December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014:

Stockholders' Equity and Book Value Per Share

As of December 31, 2015, our stockholders' equity was $177.5 million and our book value per common share was $9.58 on a basic and fully diluted basis.

Dividends

The Company declared a dividend of $0.06 per share of common stock for the months of April, May and June 2016. Based on the closing price of $5.46 at December 31, 2015, this equates to an annualized dividend yield of 13.2%.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. securities laws that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future results of the Company's business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations, plans and objectives. You can identify forward-looking statements by use of words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "continue," "intend," "should," "may" or similar expressions or other comparable terms, or by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions. Statements regarding the following subjects, among others, may be forward-looking: the return on equity; the yield on investments; the ability to borrow to finance assets; and risks associated with investing in real estate assets, including changes in business conditions and the general economy. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's beliefs, assumptions and expectations of its future performance, taking into account all information currently available to the Company. Actual results may differ from expectations, estimates and projections and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward looking statements as predictions of future events. Forward-looking statements are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond the Company's control. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors are contained in the Company's most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov.

All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements that the Company makes, or that are attributable to the Company, are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by law, the Company is not obligated to, and does not intend to, update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

For financial statement reporting purposes, prior to January 1, 2015, GAAP required us to account for certain of our Non-Agency RMBS and Multi-Family MBS and the associated repurchase agreement financing as Linked Transactions. However, in managing and evaluating the composition and performance of our MBS portfolio, we did not view the purchase of our Non-Agency RMBS or Multi-Family MBS and the associated repurchase agreement financing as transactions that were linked, GAAP also requires us to consolidate the assets and liabilities of the FREMF 2011-K13 Trust; FREMF 2012-KF01; JPMMT 2014-OAK4 and CSMC 2014-OAK1.However, our maximum exposure to loss from consolidation of the consolidated trusts is limited to the fair value of our net investment therein. We therefore have also presented certain information as of December 31, 2014 that includes Multi-Family MBS and Non-Agency RMBS underlying both Linked Transactions and our net investments in the consolidated trusts, and as of December 31, 2015 that includes our net investments in the consolidated trusts. This information as well as core earnings, economic return and comparative expenses constitute non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of Item 10(e) of Regulation 5-k, as promulgated by the SEC. While we believe the non-GAAP information included in this press release provides supplemental information to assist investors in analyzing that portion of our portfolio composed of Non-Agency RMBS and Multi-Family MBS, and to assist investors in comparing our results with other peer issuers, these measures are not in accordance with GAAP, and they should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, our financial information calculated in accordance with GAAP. Our GAAP financial results and the reconciliations from these results should be carefully evaluated.

Reconciliation of GAAP to Core Earnings

Additional Information

As of December 31, 2015, we have determined that we were the primary beneficiary of two Multi-Family MBS securitization trusts, the FREMF 2011-K13 Trust, and the FREMF 2012-KF01 Trust. As a result, we are required to consolidate the trusts' underlying multi-family loans together with their liabilities, income and expenses in our consolidated financial statements. We have elected the fair value option on the assets and liabilities held within the trusts, which requires that changes in valuation in the assets and liabilities of these trusts be reflected in our consolidated statements of operations.

A reconciliation of our net capital investment in multi-family investments to our financial statements as of December 31, 2015 is set forth below:

As of December 31, 2015, we have determined that we were the primary beneficiary of two prime jumbo residential mortgage securitization trusts, JPMMT 2014-OAK4 and CSMC 2014-OAK1. As a result, we are required to consolidate the trusts' underlying prime jumbo residential loans together with their liabilities, income and expenses in our consolidated financial statements. We have elected the fair value option on the assets and liabilities held within the trusts, which requires that changes in valuation in the assets and liabilities of the trusts be reflected in our consolidated statements of operations.

A reconciliation of our net capital investment in Non-Agency RMBS to our financial statements as of December 31, 2015 is set forth below:

Five Oaks Investment Corp.

Five Oaks Investment Corp. is a real estate investment trust ("REIT") focused with its subsidiaries on investing on a leveraged basis in mortgage and other real estate-related assets, particularly residential mortgage loans, mortgage servicing rights, and mortgage-backed securities ("MBS"), including residential mortgage-backed securities ("RMBS") and multi-family mortgage-backed securities ("Multi-Family MBS"). Since its IPO, the Company has focused on implementing a strategy of transitioning to an operating company focused on credit while maintaining a relative value investment approach across the whole residential mortgage market. The Company's objective remains to deliver attractive cash flow returns over time to its investors, and to generate income through its mortgage loan acquisition and securitization business.

Five Oaks Investment Corp. is externally managed and advised by Oak Circle Capital Partners LLC.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

Investors, security holders and other interested persons may find additional information regarding the Company at the SEC's Internet site at http://www.sec.gov/ or the Company website www.fiveoaksinvestment.com or by directing requests to: Five Oaks Investment Corp., 540 Madison Avenue, 19^th Floor, New York, NY 10022, Attention: Investor Relations.

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CONTACT: David Oston, Chief Financial Officer, Five Oaks Investment Corp. (212) 257 5073