Criimi Mae Inc.

11200 Rockville Pike

Year founded: 1989

Industry: Real estate

Post 200 Category: Top 125 Companies

Revenue: $107.53 Million

Net Income/Loss: $22.88 Million

Earnings per share: $1.06

Dividend: n/a

Stockholder equity: $428.06 Million

Auditor: Ernst & Young LLP

Stock: CMM

Assets: $1.07 Billion

Market capitalization: $320.26 Million

52-week high: 22.22 3/8/2005

52-week low: 10.31 4/29/2004

Chairman and CEO: Barry S. Blattman

President and COO: Mark R. Jarrell

Employees: 71

Local employees: 71

Description: Criimi Mae is a real estate investment trust focusing on commercial mortgages. The firm owns and manages a large portfolio of commercial-related mortgages.

Developments: Criimi Mae put itself up for sale in late February 2005 and hired Citigroup Global Markets Inc. to evaluate several takeover bids for the company and explore other options. One offer came from an affiliate of its largest shareholder, BREF One LLC, Series A, which is managed by Criimi Mae chief executive Barry S. Blattman. Independent members of Criimi Mae's board of directors plan to study the offers and make recommendations to the full board. The company has explored other takeover bids in recent years that did not lead to transactions. After being one of the biggest buyers of risky, high-yielding commercial mortgages in the 1990s, Criimi Mae ran into financial distress, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1998, emerged in 2001, and turned its first annual profit in 2003 following years of large losses. Criimi Mae's financial comeback is attributable in part to innovation, refinancings and lower borrowing costs. Real Estate Finance and Investment, an industry publication, named Criimi Mae its "2004 Innovator the Year" for the company's handling of complex issues related to $146 million in distressed commercial loans affected by the bankruptcy of Shilo Inns. As of Sept. 30, 2004, the company held $13.8 billion of commercial mortgage loans underlying its commercial mortgage-backed securities, and $407.3 million in hotel mortgage loans. Criimi Mae is a stockholder-owned company and, unlike Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is not a government sponsored enterprise, despite their similarity in name.