Josh Siegel
Analyst · KBW. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Rachel. Good afternoon. And welcome to StoneCastle Financial’s third quarter 2015 investor call. In addition to Rachel, joining me today are George Shilowitz, President; and Pat Farrell, Chief Financial Officer. On the call today, I will highlight StoneCastle Financial’s quarterly results, review the current portfolio and comment on the investment in Community Funding CLO, which close subsequent to the end of the quarter. As always, Pat, will follow with details on our financial results. I am pleased to report that in the third quarter, StoneCastle delivered another increase in total income, our eight consecutive quarterly increase since inception of the company. Reported earnings in the third quarter totaled $0.37 per share. Net investment income for the quarter reached $2.4 million, also $0.37 per share, a 2% increase from the previous quarter. The company also generated approximately $18,000 in capital gains. At quarter end the company’s net asset value per share was $22.09, up $0.04 from last quarter. StoneCastle Financial deployed $12.8 million in net new investments. Total investment of $30 million in five new assets was offset by issuer repayments of $9.3 million from seven investments and sales proceeds of $7.9 million from 10 investments. As of September 30, company had total assets of $203 million, consisting of total investments of $197 million, cash of $4 million and other assets of $2 million. Other assets include receivables of $1 million and prepaid assets of $1 million. Total investments were comprised of 40% term loans and debt securities, 24% trust preferred securities and 30% preferred and convertible preferred stock. The remaining 6% includes equity positions, short-term investments and other securities. The quarter end schedule of investments can be found in the company’s end Q and on the company's website. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, StoneCastle Financial purchased $45.5 million of preferred shares issued by Community Funding CLO Limited, which closed on October 15th. Let's spend a moment to discuss this transaction, 35 community banks and bank holding companies from 24 states issued $250 million of securities, predominantly in the form of subordinated loans. These subordinated loans account as Tier 2 capital for the issuers, the component of a bank holding company's total capital requirements. These securities rank senior in priority to trust preferred securities, TARP, SBLF, preferred shares and common shares, roughly 97% of the banks in this pool received an investment grade equivalent credit score by Crow ratings and roughly 91% received an investment grade credit score from Moody’s RiskCalc, the name that were not investment grade were scored BB equivalent. To allow these banks to access the capital markets and benefit from capital markets pricing, the majority of them came to market together to issue on the same day as a group. This group of subordinated loans was funded with 82% debt and 18% equity. The 82% debt was comprised of $205 million of Senior Secured Class A Notes rated A3 by Moody’s. The 18% equity or $45.5 million of preferred shares was purchased entirely by StoneCastle Financial. In order to fund the purchase, StoneCastle Financial contributed $45.4 million of securities, with the balance paid in cash. The securities consisted of $26.4 million of investments made in the third quarter, including Bankwell, Linden, Market and Sandhills. Approximately $19 million of existing investments made prior to Q3 were also contributed and included CornerStone, Country Bank, Freeport, MidWest Community and Williams Holding. All the securities were contributed subsequent to the end of the third quarter. To understand the transaction it is best for us to first review the sources and uses of proceeds for the CLO. Funds we needed to purchase collateral with an aggregate cost of $248.3 million and to pay $44.9 million of deal related expenses for a total of $253.2 million needed to complete the transaction. The CLO source of funds to pay for this was comprised of $205 million of senior debt, $45.5 million of preferred shares and $2.7 million received from the banks as upfront origination fees. Now let's discuss the straightforward economics of the preferred shares, which is how StoneCastle Financial will make a return on this investment. Quarterly income is generated by the $250 million pool of collateral, which has an approximate yield of 7%. That income is used to pay three types of expenses, administrative expenses of approximately 5 basis points per annum on the amount of collateral, interest expense on the $205 million of senior notes, which is initially 5.75% fixed rate and then increases to 6.4% fixed rate after year five and the servicing fee of 10 basis points per annum on the amount of collateral. After these expenses are paid, StoneCastle Financial is entitled to receive all of the remaining cash flows each quarter. Income received on a preferred shares looks to the characterization of income from the underlying loans, which is ordinary income. It is important to note that the servicer for the CLO is StoneCastle Investment Management LLC, an affiliate of StoneCastle Partners. The servicers will fully repay the servicing fee back to StoneCastle Financial each quarter as additional income. I want to take a momentum to explain securitizations. A securitization by definition is a secured financing of assets, where investors have a security interest in the collateral. The CDO or collateralized debt obligation is used liberally in article but it is typically used to represent a very specific type of securitization. One backed by asset-backed securities comprised of subprime mortgages. Securitizations have been used for decades to bring funding to many asset classes including but not limited to student loans, auto loans and commercial real estate. They were also used in the early 2000s to fund poorly underwritten subprime mortgages, which became a component of the credit crisis. However, subprime mortgages were only one small part of a well-functioning multi-trillion dollar market of pool or securitized financing. By comparison, Community Funding contains no more it is all derivatives, subprime or otherwise. In fact, the portfolio of non-deferrable loans owned by Community Funding is comprised of healthy highly-regulated predominantly investment-grade quality banks. To emphasize this point in comparison to the $300 billion current CLO market, those transactions have 10% equity supporting a pool of mostly single B rated loans. Community Funding in contrast has 18% equity, supporting a pool of mostly BBB quality loans. We believe in a pool vehicle it is the quality of the underlying asset that should really matter to investors. In closing, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the key point that distinguishes StoneCastle Financial from many other income vehicles, credit quality. A majority of the banks in which we invest are deemed investment grade quality, BBB or better by Crow ratings. Most of the high-yielding income focused investment companies have majority of their portfolio and investments rated well below investment grade. We believe that investors should focus on the underlying credit quality of StoneCastle Financial assets relative to our share price, currently at the discount to NAV. Now I want to turn over the call to Pat Farrell to discuss the financial results in greater detail.