New York City REIT (“NYC REIT”) declared a dividend of $0.10 per share on each share of NYC REIT’s Class A common stock and Class B common stock payable on January 15, 2021 to common stockholders of record at the close of business on January 11, 2021. While the continuing dividends are welcome, they provide modest relief to shareholders whose shares’ value continues to languish, with NYC REIT shares trading at below $10.00 a share during most of 2021.
Previously, on November 12, 2020, NYC REIT filed its quarterly report with the SEC, for the period ending September 30, 2020 and reported a net loss per common share of $(0.96), versus a loss of $(0.38) from the third quarter of 2019. NYC REIT also disclosed that it had only collected 85% of the cash rents due on its portfolio properties, all located in New York City, and stated as follows as to its outlook going forward: “The negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused and may continue to cause certain of our tenants to be unable to make rent payments to us timely, or at all, which has had, and could continue to have, an adverse effect on the amount of cash we receive from our operations and therefore our ability to fund operating expenses and other capital needs, which, beginning in October 2020, include dividends to our common stockholders.”
NYC REIT’s share price has languished since the company listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange on August 18, 2020. Based on NYC REIT’s current share price, on a pre-split basis, investors who acquired their NYC shares pre-IPO—when the Company was still structured as a non-traded REIT—have suffered losses of 75% or more of the principal invested.