Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE: ACRE) reported Q2 EPS of $0.31, $0.04 better than the analyst estimate of $0.27.

“As expected, our second quarter earnings rebounded strongly as we benefited from increased loan originations,” commented Robert L. Rosen, Chairman of the Board and Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation. “During the second quarter, we also reached an agreement to sell our mortgage banking business at an attractive gain, allowing us to realize the value we have created in repositioning this platform. We plan to reinvest these proceeds into our principal lending business and once fully vested, we believe we will be able to generate materially higher earnings on this capital with greater stability and predictability compared to the historical earnings from our mortgage banking operations.”

“We believe that market conditions remain favorable with attractive lending returns, stable competitive dynamics and strong commercial real estate fundamentals,” said John Jardine, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation. “Our deal flow is accelerating and we are seeing a growing set of attractive opportunities as evidenced by $158 million in new commitments for the month of July 2016 alone.”

“We continue to demonstrate access to diverse and attractive sources of financing,” said Tae-Sik Yoon, Chief Financial Officer of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation. “So far in 2016, we have increased available sources of financing by more than $245 million, including a new $125 million facility with U.S. Bank and expanded our existing Wells Fargo facility by $100 million from $225 million to $325 million. Plus, in 2016, we have renewed or extended approximately $325 million of our existing funding facilities and we continue to have discussions for additional sources of attractive capital. Accordingly, we remain well positioned to expand our lending portfolio and realize the earnings efficiencies from further capital deployment.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Ares Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) click here.