Capital Southwest Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
October 31, 2023

There are 10 speakers on the call.

Operator

Thank you for joining today's Capital Southwest Second Quarter Fiscal Year 20 24 Earnings Call. Participating on today's call are Bowen Diehl, CEO Michael Sarner, CFO and Chris Reberger, VP, Finance. I will now turn the call over to Chris Reberger.

Speaker 1

Thank you. I would like to

Speaker 2

remind everyone that in the course

Speaker 1

of this call, we will be making certain forward looking statements. These statements are based on current conditions, currently available information and management's expectations, assumptions and beliefs. They are not guarantees of future results and are subject to numerous risks, Securities and Assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. For information concerning these risks and uncertainties, Decampel Southwest publicly available filings with the SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements, Deel.

Speaker 1

I will now hand the call off to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Bowen Deel. Thanks, Chris, and thank you everyone for joining us for our Q2 2024 Earnings Call. We are pleased to be with you this morning and look forward to giving you an update on the performance of our company and our portfolio which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.capitalsouthwest.com. You will also find our quarterly earnings press release issued last evening on our website. We'll begin on Slide 6 of the earnings presentation, where we have summarized some of the key performance highlights for the quarter.

Speaker 1

During the quarter, we generated pre tax net investment income of $0.67 per share, With $0.67 per share, Morgan covered both our regular dividend and our supplemental dividend paid during the quarter of $0.56 $0.06 per share respectively. Portfolio earnings continue to be strong and as of the end of the quarter, we estimate that our undistributed Bowen. We're also pleased to announce today that our Board of Directors has declared a $0.01 per share increase and our regular dividend of $0.57 per share for the quarter ending December 31, 2023. This represents an increase of 1.8% compared to the $0.56 per share regular dividend paid during the September quarter and 9.6% over the 52% per share paid a year ago in the December quarter. These increases in our regular dividends are a result of In addition, due to the excess earnings being generated by our floating rate debt investment portfolio in this high interest rate environment, Our Board has again declared a supplemental dividend of $0.06 per share in the December 23 quarter, paid out a year ago quarter.

Speaker 1

While future dividend declarations are at the discretion of our Board of Directors, it is our intent and expectation Capital Southwest will continue to distribute quarterly supplemental dividends for the foreseeable future, while base rates are above historical averages and we have a meaningful UTI, which is generated by earnings in excess of our dividends and realized gains from our equity investment portfolio. During the quarter, deal quality and activity in the lower middle market continued at a healthy pace and we continue to be able to find attractive investment opportunities. Deal flow continued to be weighted more towards acquisitions rather than refinancing and the environment continued to be a favorable one for non Bank First Lien Lenders on Capital Southwest. Private equity firms and business owners continue to transact, While non bank lenders continue to provide more certainty to closing than traditional bank financing structures. Loan pricing spreads remained attractive, but moderated somewhat, retracting 25 basis points to 50 basis That said, we are still seeing very attractive loan pricing spreads on new portfolio loans that are 25 to 50 basis points higher than 12 to 18 months ago.

Speaker 1

Leverage levels on the new portfolio company loans remain generally lower by half to a full turn of EBITDA. We also continue to see loan to value levels on new loans calculated as our 1st lien loan divided by the enterprise value being paid for an acquisition, down meaningfully from 12 to 18 months ago as private equity firms remain willing to pay relatively full multiples for quality companies. Portfolio growth during the quarter was driven by $110,000,000 in new commitments, consisting of $81,700,000 in commitments and Company's Investors and $28,300,000 in commitments to 6 existing portfolio companies. On the capitalization front, we are pleased to announce that during the quarter, we successfully amended, extended and upsized our corporate revolving credit facility, While also raising $22,800,000 in gross equity proceeds at a weighted average price of $20.77 per share or 127 percent of the prevailing NAV per share. We have remained diligent to ensuring we have strong balance sheet liquidity, while also funding a meaningful portion of our investment activity with accretive equity issuances.

Speaker 1

As we believe it is important to maintain a conservative mindset to both balance sheet liquidity and BDC leverage. We continue to manage our BDC with a full economic cycle mentality. This starts with our underwriting of new opportunities, and it also applies to how we manage the BDC's capitalization. Managing leverage to the lower end of our target range positions us to invest throughout a potential recession and risk adjusted returns can be particularly attractive. It also allows us to support our portfolio companies, While also opportunistically repurchasing our stock if it were to trade meaningfully below NAV.

Speaker 1

Finally, Subsequent to quarter end, we received shareholder approval to increase authorized shares of our common stock to 75,000,000 shares, from 40,000,000 shares. These new shares will allow us to continue our track record of growing our asset base, On Slide 78, we illustrate our continued track record of producing strong dividend growth, consistent dividend coverage and solid value creation since the launch of our credit strategy back in January of 2015. Since that time, we have increased our regular dividend paid to shareholders 28 times and have never cut the regular dividend, all while maintaining strong coverage of our regular dividend with pre tax NII. Additionally, over the same time period, we have paid or declared 22 special or supplemental dividends totaling $3.83 per share, Including the $0.06 per share the Board has declared for the December 2023 quarter, all generated from excess earnings and realized gains from our investment portfolio. We believe our track record of thoughtfully growing our dividend, the solid performance of our portfolio, as well as our company's sustained access to multiple capital sources, has demonstrated the strength of our investment and capitalization management strategy, as well as the absolute alignment of all our decisions with the interest of our shareholders.

Speaker 1

Turning to Slide 9, we lay out the Bowen. Our core strategy is lending and investing in the lower middle market, the vast majority of which is in 1st lien senior secured loans The company is backed by private equity firms. In fact, approximately 91% of our credit portfolio is backed by private equity firms, which provide important guidance and leadership to the portfolio companies as well as the potential for new junior capital support if needed. We have been pleased with the leadership and support that our private equity firm partners have provided our portfolio companies, both in the few and Company's Board of Directors. This is where capital has been required to maintain the operating and growth strategies of the portfolio company and in realizing operational efficiencies B.

Speaker 1

Lowe's. In the lower middle market, we often have the opportunity to invest on a minority basis in the equity Perry pursued with the private equity firm, when we believe the equity thesis is compelling. As of the end of the quarter, Our equity co investment portfolio consists of 59 investments with a total fair value of 121,100,000 which was marked at 147 percent of costs, representing $38,900,000 in embedded unrealized appreciation or $0.97 per share. Our equity portfolio, which represented approximately 9% of our total portfolio at fair value as of the end of the quarter, continues to provide our shareholders participation in the attractive upside potential of these growing lower middle market businesses, which will come in the form of NAV per share growth and supplemental dividends over time. Our lower middle market strategy is complemented by Club participation in 1st lien loans to larger companies led by like minded lenders with whom we have relationships and have gained confidence and their post closing loan management from working together across multiple deals.

Speaker 1

Virtually all of these club deals are 1st lien senior secured and backed Private Equity Boards. As illustrated on Slide 10, our on balance sheet credit portfolio as of the end of the quarter grew 6% quarter over quarter to $1,200,000,000 compared to $1,100,000,000 as of the end of the prior quarter. Year over year, the portfolio has grown 31% from $903,000,000 as of the September 22 quarter end. For the current quarter, 100 percent of our new portfolio company debt originations were 1st lien senior secured. And as of the end of the quarter, 97% of the credit portfolio was 1st lien senior security.

Speaker 1

The weighted average credit exposure per company in our portfolio Capital was 1.1%. We believe our portfolio granularity speaks to our continued investment discipline B. Lowe's. On Slide 11, We detailed the $110,000,000 of capital invested in and committed to portfolio companies during the quarter. Capital committed this quarter included 79.7 $1,000,000 in 1st lien senior secured debt committed to 5 new portfolio companies, including 2 in which we also invested a total of $2,000,000 in equity.

Speaker 1

We also committed a total of $27,800,000 in 1st lien senior secured debt and 550,000 in equity to 6 existing portfolio companies. We are pleased with the strong market position that our team has Bowen. Deal activity over the past quarter continued at a healthy pace and we continue to expect solid net portfolio growth in the coming quarters. Slide 12, we detail key stats for our on balance sheet portfolio as of the end of the quarter, excluding our I-forty five joint venture. As of the end of the quarter, the total portfolio net fair value was weighted 87.8 percent to 1st lien senior secured debt, 2.8% to 2nd lien senior secured debt, 0.1% to sub debt and 9.3% to equity co investments.

Speaker 1

As seen on Slide 13, our total investment portfolio, including our I-forty five JV, continues to be well diversified across industries with an asset mix which provides strong security for our shareholders capital. The portfolio remains predominantly weighted towards 1st lien senior secured debt with less than 3% of the total portfolio in 2nd lien senior secured debt. Turning to Slide 14, we have laid out the rating migration within our portfolio during the quarter. As a reminder, all loans upon origination are initially assigned an investment rating of 2 on a 4 point scale with 1% being the highest rating and 4% being the lowest rate. We feel very good about the performance of our portfolio with 96.9% of the portfolio at fair value rated in one of the top 2 categories, a 1 or a 2.

Speaker 1

I will now hand the call over to Michael to review more specifics of our financial performance for the quarter.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Bowen. Specific to our performance for the quarter, as summarized on Slide 16, We increased pretax net investment income by 6% quarter over quarter to $26,400,000 or $0.67 per share compared to $25,000,000 or $0.67 per share in the prior quarter. During the quarter, we paid out a $0.56 per share regular dividend on a $0.06 per share supplemental dividend. As mentioned earlier, our Board has approved a $0.01 per share increase to the regular dividend to $0.57 per share and maintained a $0.06 per share supplemental dividend for the December quarter. Maintaining a consistent track record of meaningfully covering our dividend with pre tax net investment income is important to our investment strategy.

Speaker 3

We continue our strong track record of regular dividend coverage with 120 percent coverage for the last 12 months ended September 30, 2023 and 109% cumulative coverage since the launch of our credit strategy in January 2015. Given the floating nature of our credit portfolio, Elevated interest rates continue to be a tailwind to our net investment income. The quarter over quarter increase in the base rate index Used to calculate interest on a majority of our loans moderated from the pace of increase we have seen in the past several quarters, having reset in early October to approximately 5.39%. This represented an increase of 15 basis points from its early July base rate reset of approximately 5.24%. As a reminder, our intent is to continue to share a portion of the excess of our quarterly pre tax NII over our regular dividend with our shareholders in a quarterly supplemental dividend.

Speaker 3

We are confident in our ability to continue to distribute quarterly supplemental dividends for the foreseeable future based upon our current UTI balance of $0.42 per share, our ability to grow UTI each quarter organically by over earning our total dividend and the expectation that we will harvest gains over time from our existing $0.97 per share in unrealized depreciation on the equity portfolio. For the quarter, we increased total investment income to $42,800,000 representing 6% growth quarter over quarter 60% growth from a year ago. Weighted average yield in the portfolio on all investments was 13%. As of the end of the quarter, we had 4 portfolio companies with loans on non accrual representing 2% of our investment portfolio at fair value. On Slide 17, we further improved LTM operating leverage to 1.8% for the current quarter.

Speaker 3

Achieving 2% or better operating leverage was one of our initial long term goals when we relaunched CSWC as a middle market lender back in 2015. To put this metric in perspective, our 1.8% operating leverage is 2nd best and the entire BDC industry. We believe this metric speaks to the benefits of an internally managed model and our absolute alignment with shareholders. The internally managed model has and will continue to produce real fixed cost leverage while also allowing for significant resources to invest in people and infrastructure to continue to build a best in class BDC. As we look forward, We expect further improvements in operating leverage as we continue to grow the balance sheet over time.

Speaker 3

Turning to Slide 18, The company's NAV per share at the end of the quarter increased by $0.08 per share to $16.46 The primary drivers of the NAV per share increase for the quarter were earnings in excess of our dividends for the quarter and accretion from the issuance of common stock Credit premium to NAV per share, partially offset by net depreciation on our investment portfolio. Turning to Slide 19, We're pleased to report that our balance sheet liquidity remains strong with approximately $207,000,000 in cash and undrawn leverage commitments on our revolving credit facility and the end of the quarter. We recently completed an amendment upsize an extension on our revolving credit facility as our bank syndicate continues to support our growth. In fact, 8 of our existing lenders in the facility upsized their commitments, which we believe demonstrates their confidence in our stewardship, especially in the current capital markets environment. The amendment increased total revolving facility commitments from 400,000,000 $435,000,000 and extended the maturity of the facility from August 2026 to August 2028.

Speaker 3

Based on our current borrowing base, we have full access to the incremental revolver capacity. The facility also has an accordion feature allowing for the further increase of total commitments up to an aggregate of $750,000,000 allowing us to continue to grow our revolver capacity in lockstep with the growth of our overall balance sheet. In addition, we have a $45,000,000 uncommitted SBA debentures capacity to draw from in the future. As of the end of the September quarter, 49% of our capital structure liabilities were in unsecured covenant free bonds and our earliest debt maturity is in January 2026. As Bowen mentioned earlier, subsequent to quarter end, we have received shareholder approval to increase the number of authorized shares from $40,000,000 to $75,000,000 These incremental shares provide Capital Southwest with the flexibility to continue our track record of raising accretive equity to maintain conservative balance sheet leverage as we continue to grow our asset base.

Speaker 3

Our regulatory leverage as seen on Slide 20 ended the quarter at a debt to equity ratio of 0.92:one, down meaningfully from 1.11 to 1 as of the year ago September quarter. We will continue to methodically and opportunistically raise both Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as equity capital through both our ATM program and secondary offerings to ensure We continue to maintain significant liquidity, conservative leverage and adequate covenant cushions throughout all economic cycles. I will now hand the call back to Bowen for some final comments.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Michael. And again, thank you everyone for joining us today. We appreciate the opportunity to provide you an update on our business, our portfolio and the market environment. Our company and portfolio continue to demonstrate strong performance We continue to be impressed by the job our team has done in building a robust asset base, deal origination and portfolio management capability, as well as the flexible capital structure. As to the uncertainty in the economy, we have been underwriting new deals and managing the overall BDC with a full economic cycle mentality since day 1, which we believe has positioned us well for the potential economic volatility in the coming months years.

Speaker 1

In summary, we have a credit portfolio heavily weighted to 1st lien senior secured debt allocated across a broad array of companies and industries, Over 90% of which is backed by private equity firms. We have a well capitalized balance sheet with multiple capital sources, Strong liquidity and a flexible capital structure, much of which is fixed rate and covenant light. We believe our 1st lien senior security investment focus and our capitalization strategy provide us complete confidence in the health and positioning of our company and our portfolio

Speaker 4

Our first question comes from mikesh Lian with Ladenburg. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Yes. Good morning, everyone. Bowen, one of your larger investments this quarter was in Swenson's Restaurants. And obviously, that can be a Bowen. Maybe coming.

Speaker 5

I do see that its menu seems to be focused on value, which is appealing. But is there anything else In that deal in particular that attracted you to this investment?

Speaker 1

Yes, it's interesting question. We don't do a lot of restaurant deals obviously. That was kind of unique. You referenced the value menu, but it's also it's founded back in 1934 and it's in a certain couple of markets that has been there for a long time and it's kind of nostalgic drive in We're literally the waiters and waitresses job to your car and back and it's very nostalgic and it's been it's kind of a Very loved by the community, let's put it that way. And so a lot of people go there because they went there whereas their parents and grandparents went there, that type That's why I included the word nostalgic in the press release, that's literally what it is.

Speaker 1

And then obviously the leverage profitability and all those other things were very attractive to us. But those are the reasons that it's different than your typical restaurant deal.

Speaker 5

Appreciate that. Wanted to ask you also a couple of questions about the operating leverage ratio. Can you give us a sense of the number of portfolio companies you're now managing per investment professional. And do you see that how do you see that ratio trending?

Speaker 1

So we've got 94 portfolio companies and we have 15 Investment Professionals. So the average will be 6.3 percent per Investment Professional. I mean, Yes, plus we've got a bunch of employees that have been here for a while too, so and underwrote those portfolio companies. So we feel pretty good about the coverage ratio that you're asking about. And certainly we watch obviously and as we grow, we'll certainly be increasing people As well as internally promoting people and hiring more junior people underneath them to leverage their time.

Speaker 2

And you might want to just touch about the scale. We've added significant employees in middle levels. We've promoted employees from within. We're probably deep today than we've ever been. And as Bowen said, a lot of People are seasoned professionals that can handle, certainly

Speaker 3

can handle 6 deals at a time.

Speaker 1

Yes, we're certainly very biased towards internal professional development And then letting people grow and learn how we do things, how the business model has actually worked, because it's worked quite well over the last 8 years. And people underneath them. So the staffing ratio looks pretty good right now.

Speaker 5

So my last question sort of a segue from that. Your operating leverage ratio is now very close to the peer you mentioned in your prepared remarks. And they've obviously been around a long time and they're quite a bit larger than you. So do you see more upside in this ratio or Is this about as good as it can get?

Speaker 1

Yes. I mean, I think it may improve a little bit, but I mean, it's we don't Obviously, we need to have the best professionals in the industry, so we have to compensate them accordingly. And so there's only Asset Management Business or something like that. The operating leverage will grow it will probably improve a little bit, but It's not going to drop by half. Well, I'd

Speaker 2

say right now, run rate is about 1.7% and we probably see Over the next I would actually say for the next 6 to 12 months, we'd see us dropping to that 1.7% on an LTM and probably down to 1.6 percent.

Speaker 1

Yes, a little bit of improvement. Yes, for sure.

Speaker 5

Okay. Yes, that sounds right. Okay, I appreciate it. Those are my questions this morning. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Becky.

Speaker 4

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Vilas Abraham with UBS. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Hi, everybody. Thanks for the question. You mentioned on the last call that there was some potential M and A Percolating and potentially $35,000,000 to $75,000,000 in prepays through the end of the year. Can you just talk a little bit about what transpired over the quarter that may have delayed that, just broader public market volatility or idiosyncratic dynamics That may have changed things.

Speaker 1

Yes. No, I mean, I think I wouldn't say that I'm The processes you're referring to, I wouldn't say they were significantly delayed. As long as the sale processes kind of take a while, Obviously, the financing market is choppier than it was 12 to 18 months ago. So raising financing is a I'd say probably a larger a more of a handholding type exercise for a private equity firm than it might have been 2 year and a half ago. So maybe things take a little bit longer, but and 2

Speaker 2

of them actually, one of them is going through an HSR process that was not identified before the need for it. So that actually puts that out 8 to 10 weeks, it's still expected to close. The other one that We were probably alluding to it's actually not happening. I think they're probably more likely to do a dividend recap and stay in the deal. So those are the 2 largest deals.

Speaker 6

Okay. That's helpful. And then, yes, just as you think about Bowen just line of sight into prepays over the next couple of quarters and just balancing that with managing leverage. Just any thoughts there on the look forward.

Speaker 2

Yes. So I think we're talking about really leverage and we obviously and Company. We ended the quarter at 0.92, and we want to note, we just received approval to increase our share base for the Shell from $40,000,000 to $75,000,000 So we had essentially had a partial quarter of a run rate ATM Raises. I'd probably tell you in this Q4 will be more than the $22,000,000 that was raised in this quarter. Okay.

Speaker 2

So actually in the prepayment side, I think we have around maybe $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 In prepayments that we're expecting, but those could also slip past the end of the year. So we'll see that. We do plan to bring leverage down this quarter,

Speaker 6

Okay. That's all helpful. I'll hop back in the queue. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 4

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Bryce Roe with B. Riley. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Thanks. Good morning. Maybe wanted to touch on that last point, Michael and Bowen. It sounds like the shareholder vote to increase the authorized shares is really the reason for maybe less usage on the ATM this past quarter?

Speaker 2

That's correct. Yes.

Speaker 7

Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe wanted to hit on I-forty five Leverage within that JV kind of continues to go down in terms

Speaker 3

of debt outstanding on that particular facility.

Speaker 7

On that particular facility. What's the outlook there? Do you expect to continue to See debt outstanding within that for that facility going down or kind of steady state from this point forward?

Speaker 2

Yes. I mean, Over time, we've seen less attractive opportunities in that market and I think Main Street and Capital Southwest both believe that's the case. So we haven't originated in quite some time, but we have seen significant amounts of capital coming back, which we've utilized to pay down that facility. We would tell you probably over the next 1 to 2 quarters, we will look to continue to pay down that facility. And with the notion that there's always we've talked to the market in times about consolidation being a possibility.

Speaker 2

That is something that in order to do so, we probably be delevering ahead of time. So by delevering that will obviously give us a little bit of flexibility what we want to do.

Speaker 7

Okay, that's helpful. And then maybe one follow-up just on expenses compensation. Michael, do you expect kind of an uptick here in the Q4 in that comp line as maybe you get some catch up bonus accruals?

Speaker 2

Yes, for sure. I think so. What you saw during the ninethirty quarter was, I'd tell you though, the run rate of SG and A was Probably about $200,000 high actually based on the fact that we had a special meeting, but the cash comp was right on in terms of our run rate. So we would expect Potentially, I would almost say $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 in addition to the current quarter's Cash comp in the following quarter.

Speaker 7

Okay. Good deal. I appreciate the comments. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thanks,

Speaker 4

Our next question comes from Erik Zuk with Hovde Group. Your line is open.

Speaker 8

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to first just start in thinking about the outlook for the weighted average yield in the portfolio and kind of What that implies for interest income. Just curious how much of the sulfur continued to kind of move higher in 3Q. Looks like it may have stabilized here for a little bit and if we assume the Fed doesn't move tomorrow and we're kind of in this current environment now.

Speaker 8

Is there still a little bit more of the Your 9 30 quarter increase in SOFR to trickle through the portfolio or is most of that been realized at this point?

Speaker 2

Yes, there's probably another I think 15 basis

Speaker 8

And then I know you addressed prepayment fees a little bit already, but just looking at that prepayment fees and other income line, down a little bit in the 9.30 quarter. Just curious, what percentage of that line item is driven by prepayment fees versus other and Just curious about kind of the outlook going forward from your perspective.

Speaker 2

Yes. So the prepayments were about $330,000 which were We've considered one time. On top of that, there's another $400,000 that's really the base. Those are really admin fees and management fees that we

Speaker 3

based on originations historically.

Speaker 2

And then prepayment fees and amendment fees, that's obviously a lot harder to judge. We would tell you that we saw amended fees, waiver fees sort of peak 2 quarters ago. And so it's come down precipitously over the last 2. So looking at the twelvethirty one quarter right now, there's not a whole lot of activity that way. So I wouldn't expect significant amount there.

Speaker 8

That's helpful. Thank you. And last one, just looking at the Slide 14 and the 3 credits that were downgraded in the quarter. Wondering if you could Add a little color there in terms of the industries that those companies operate in and maybe what developments in the quarter led to the downgrades?

Speaker 1

Yes, it's actually, so there are 3 companies downgraded and 3 companies upgraded. On the downgrades, it's pretty idiosyncratic to those Certain companies, one services, utilities and vegetation management and that industry has moved a bit. And Pharma Services and the pharma is kind of delaying some of their budgeting, and so that kind of affected that business. Yes, there's some credit around some industrial type things that are on that particular company. So nothing really economic per se.

Speaker 1

It was encouraging this quarter of the 3 upgrades, the 2 companies that were upgraded to 2 We're formerly 3. And so the credit risk improved meaningfully in both those cases. So seeing things migrate up from struggling to performing is obviously encouraging.

Speaker 8

Yes. Thank you for the color there. And yes, nice to see that the overall total rating went up even with the downgrades as you noted some upgrades as well. So Excellent. That's all for me today.

Speaker 8

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 4

One moment for our next question. With Raymond James. Your line is open.

Speaker 9

Hey, guys. Good morning. Just a few questions. Have you guys seen any change in types of businesses that are coming to market now versus 3 to 6 months ago, whether it be industry sectors or Credit Quality?

Speaker 1

That's an interesting question. I'm trying to think Not really on the type companies. In the credit quality, anytime you have an environment where Yields have been healthy. Loan value multiples are about the same and leverage level is down. So your loan to value on your new loans has come down.

Speaker 1

It's been down Bowen kind of in the last 3 or 4 3 quarters anyway. That's obviously a good thing for a 1st lien lender. And so I'd say quality of deals has been strong. I think it slightly changed this quarter as I referenced in our remarks with the competitive landscape in the lower markets increased a bit. It's still not back to normal levels, I would say, but it's definitely, like I said in the remarks, slightly, slightly moved towards normal levels, but loan to value is still very attractive.

Speaker 1

Yields are still Obviously, very strong for folks like us. So I feel like the flow of deal flow has been attractive. Yes. I'm not sure

Speaker 2

if Bowen said earlier, but No. Our loan to value probably a year ago before it was 40%. Over the last 2, 3 quarters, it was really in the 25% to 30%. Now it's ticked up between maybe 30 to 40, so still attractive, but Yes, low 30s. Certainly, this last 12 to 18 months has definitely been strong in terms of tighter LTV.

Speaker 9

Thank you. I appreciate the color. And my last question was, last quarter you briefly touched on the 2 non accruals and the portfolio, I think bring it to a total of 3, as well as your expectations for restructuring event for both by the year end. Has there been any update on those plans? And was there any surprises on the non accrual performance for the quarter?

Speaker 1

No, I mean, the restructuring, I think one of them will happen before the other one. The company that we moved to for will be restructured probably next couple of weeks, actually improved slightly since the end of the quarter, but it will be restructured. The other one, it's a little bit unclear as far as the timing of the other one. Anyways, the question really is sponsor The quantum of dollars coming in, etcetera, something like that, specific to that company. But one of them will be done in the next couple of weeks and the other one's 4 to 6 weeks away maybe.

Speaker 1

And we

Speaker 2

have to say one of the other portfolio companies that wasn't upgrade or downgrade, but it's performing Pretty well over the last 3 quarters. We've been conservative to maintain it on non accrual, but there's a high chance that one of

Speaker 3

those actually is removed and

Speaker 4

Our next question comes from Vilas Abraham with UBS. Your line is open. Bylus Abraham with UBS. Please make sure your line is unmuted.

Speaker 6

Sorry about that. I was on mute. The UTI is up to $0.42 per share this Can you just discuss that trend and whether there's a range that you'd like to be on an ongoing basis with that?

Speaker 2

Absolutely. So I think you noted we have $0.42 at the end of the quarter. If you look at where our run rate NII is, which is around No. $0.67 is a good run rate, but I think a question earlier in terms of the increase by 15 basis points will drive that higher Over the next few quarters, assuming rates continue to be maintained in this range, we'd expect to share Half of this under distributed income, so grow our UTI bucket by $0.05 a quarter. So if you look ahead, that's probably it's another $0.20 We're targeting probably having a minimum of $0.60 or more, as it's going forward, and we think that, That type of level will help support the $0.06 supplemental dividend that we're paying today as a minimum.

Speaker 2

There's always a possibility we would grow it. This certainly allows us to maintain that success long term into the future.

Speaker 6

Okay. That's very helpful. And maybe if I could sneak just one more in here. Can you give some color on How your portfolio companies are thinking about 2024 budgeting in terms of EBITDA expectations? Is it preparing for the worst and hoping for the best kind of situation or is there a more sanguine way to characterize How they're thinking about things looking ahead?

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Speaker 5

Yes. I mean, so

Speaker 1

just to be clear, I mean, with 91% of them Bowen being portfolio or private equity firm backs, they're going through the budgeting process right now. So I don't have any specific views of the actual budgets in front of us or internally necessarily yet. But that said, I mean these PE firms have been working We all hear about all the business input costs going up across the whole economy. And the other thing that's been going up is their interest burden. And so they've been working very diligently on streamlining everywhere All levels of the cost structure to counterbalance that.

Speaker 1

And so one would think inflation should start moderating next year. I mean, the companies have really positioned themselves well on automating where it's automating, digitizing where you can digitize and that type of thing. So they've got the companies very efficient in my view. And so I would expect I really know what the budget will be as a general matter. I mean the portfolio companies now are growing on an EBITDA level of Bowen.

Speaker 1

They're kind of plugging along. So it will be interesting to see what the budgets look like for 2024. We haven't seen them yet given it's obviously End of October, they're working through right now. My guess is we will see them see the budget by certainly by the next time we talk to the shareholders, that'll be early Yes, early February, I guess, late January. So we will have better knowledge of that.

Speaker 1

So I would say ask that question again next quarter And we'll have a better view out of really actually seeing the budgets.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. Appreciate it.

Speaker 7

And you know, Bill, I'd say one thing I just want

Speaker 2

to step back on is, on the UTI, the other part of our UTI balance on top of just the undistributed earnings is realized gains that we'll harvest in the future. So when I noted the $0.60 that's probably a minimum number because we do anticipate being able to Harvest Gains in 2024.

Speaker 1

Got it. Thanks.

Speaker 4

Deal. Thank you. That concludes the question and answer session. At this time, I would like to turn it back to Bowen Deal for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Great. Thank you, operator, and thanks everyone for joining us. As always, we enjoy giving updates on the company and things are going well and we appreciate all your support. We will talk to you next quarter.

Speaker 4

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Capital Southwest Q2 2024
00:00 / 00:00
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