12. RECENT ACTIVITIES

These financial statements include a discussion of material events that have occurred subsequent to June 30, 2011 (referred to as “subsequent events”) through the issuance of these consolidated financial statements. Events subsequent to that date have not been considered in these financial statements.

In January 2011, Newcastle, through two of its CDOs, made a cash investment of approximately $47 million in a portion of a new secured loan to a portfolio company of a private equity fund managed by Newcastle’s manager. Newcastle’s chairman and secretary are officers or directors of the borrower. The terms of the loan were negotiated by a third party bank that acted as agent for the creditors on the loan. At closing, Newcastle received an origination fee on the loan equal to 2% of the amount of cash it loaned to the portfolio company, which was the same fee received by other creditors on the loan. In February 2011, the portfolio company repaid the loan in full.

In February 2011, Newcastle, through one of its subsidiaries, purchased the management rights with respect to certain C-BASS Investment Management LLC (“C-BASS”) CDOs pursuant to a bankruptcy proceeding for $2.2 million. As a result, Newcastle became the collateral manager of certain CDOs previously managed by C-BASS and will earn, on average, a 20 basis point annual senior management fee on a portion of the total collateral, which was $1.3 billion at acquisition.

In February 2011, two mezzanine loan investments with a total outstanding principal balance of $88.8 million were paid off in full. The payoff increased Newcastle’s restricted cash available for reinvestment in two CDOs by $60.8 million and its unrestricted cash by $28.0 million.

In March 2011, Newcastle issued 17,250,000 million shares of its common stock in a public offering at a price to the public of $6.00 per share for net proceeds of approximately $98.4 million. For the purpose of compensating the Manager for its successful efforts in raising capital for Newcastle, in connection with this offering, Newcastle granted options to the Manager to purchase 1,725,000 shares of Newcastle’s common stock at the public offering price, which were valued at approximately $7.0 million. The assumptions used in valuing the options were: a 1.70% risk-free rate, 107.8% volatility and a 3.3 year expected term.

In April 2011, Newcastle entered into an agreement to sell its retained interests in Newcastle CDO VII. Pursuant to the agreement, the buyer of the retained interests liquidated CDO VII in June 2011 and paid Newcastle total consideration of approximately $3.9 million. As a result, Newcastle recorded a gain of approximately $3.4 million in the second quarter of 2011, representing the excess of the sales proceeds over the carrying value of Newcastle’s retained interests.

On May 4, 2011, Newcastle completed a securitization transaction to refinance its Manufactured Housing Loans Portfolio II. Newcastle sold approximately $197.0 million outstanding principal balance of manufactured housing loans to Newcastle Investment Trust 2011-MH 1 (the “Issuer”), an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Newcastle. The Issuer issued approximately $159.8 million aggregate principal amount of investment grade notes, of which $142.8 million was sold to third parties and $17.0 million was sold to one of the CDOs managed and consolidated by Newcastle. In addition, Newcastle retained the below investment grade notes and residual interest. As a result, Newcastle invested approximately $20.0 million of its unrestricted cash in the new securitization structure. The notes issued to third parties have an average expected maturity of 3.8 years and bear interest at an average rate of 3.23% per annum. At the closing of the securitization transaction, Newcastle used the gross proceeds received from the issuance of the notes to repay the previously existing debt in full, terminate the related interest rate swap contracts and pay the related transaction costs. Under the applicable accounting guidance, the securitization transaction is accounted for as a secured borrowing. As a result, no gain or loss is recorded for the transaction. Newcastle continues to recognize the portfolio of manufactured housing loans as pledged assets, which have been classified as residential mortgage loans held for investment at securitization, and records the notes issued to third parties as a secured borrowing. The associated assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses are presented in the non-recourse financing structure sections of the consolidated financial statements.

In the first six months of 2011, Newcastle settled purchases of $109.4 million principal balance of FNMA/FHLMC securities (primarily one-year ARMs) for approximately $114.3 million, using $5.7 million of unrestricted cash and financed with $108.6 million of repurchase agreements. These repurchase agreements bear interest at 0.29%, mature in August 2011, and are subject to customary margin call provisions. Newcastle purchased an additional $85.3 million of FNMA/FHLMC securities on June 29, 2011 but had not yet settled this purchase at June 30, 2011. The securities purchased are included in Real Estate Securities Available for Sale and the related payables are presented as Payables to Brokers, Dealers and Clearing Organizations in the consolidated balance sheet.