Josh Siegel
Analyst · JMP Securities. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Rachel. Good afternoon, and welcome to StoneCastle’s Financials fourth quarter 2018 investor call. In addition to Rachel, joining me today is George Shilowitz, President; and Pat Farrell, our Chief Financial Officer. I would like to start the call today with a review of StoneCastle’s Financials quarterly results, with brief comments and the market environment, as well as updates on the company. Then I will turn the call over to Pat, who will provide you with greater detail on our financial results, before I open up the call for questions. Net investment income for the quarter was $2.7 million or $0.42 per share. Total assets were approximately $196.2 million, and the value of the invested portfolio was approximately $189.1 million. The net asset value at the end of the quarter was $21.43, down $0.61 from the prior quarter. This decline was predominantly due to unrealized depreciation in the quarter decreasing by $3.4 million or $0.51 per share. We believe no meaningful credit issues currently exist within the portfolio, and the majority of the underlying banks continued to be scored investment grade by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Now let me turn to the portfolio review. This was another quiet quarter within the community banking industry. As published by SNL, there were 10 reported sub-debt deals closed during the quarter, raising under – just under $500 billion of capital with coupons ranging from 5.9% to 7%, with a weighted average coupon of 6.1%, one [ph] $300 million issuance with a coupon of 5.9% accounted for approximately 60% of this total. These statistics put in perspective the strength of StoneCastle’s ability to originate bespoke investment opportunities even in slow and/or volatile markets. During Q4 StoneCastle’s management was able to originate a unique investment in a secured loan issued by Young Partners with a Yield to Maturity of 10.5%. Young Partners is a holding company of Citizens Bancshares Company of Kansas City, Missouri which owns Citizens Bank and Trust Company. Another transaction in the quarter was a small investment in Valley Bancshares, a fixed term loan with a coupon rate of 6.375%. Working with an institutional investor we were able to utilize a version of the pooled investment structure we used previously. As a result StoneCastle was able to structure an attractive investment resulting in an effective yield closer to 9.6%. We believe our ability to execute this type of transaction will open up new opportunities going forward. These types of transactions in a relatively quiet market have resulted in the company maintaining a strong portfolio of yields. At the end of the quarter, the portfolio's estimated annualized current yield of 9.32%, is a continued testament to shareholder value created by the company. The estimated yield is subject to fluctuations as the mix of portfolio investments and their values will change, but it has been consistently above 9% in eight of the last 10 reported quarters. I just want to remind our shareholders that StoneCastle benefits from the range of investments the company generally pursues within a bank's capital structure. Our scheduled investments is predominantly a fixed income portfolio with any public common equity vehicle, as the company typically invests in securities that rank senior to bank equity. And such, a little understood aspect of the portfolio construction is that a bank common equity insulates StoneCastle’s income stream by absorbing the economic impact of credit and/or other losses sustained by an individual bank before affecting the company's more senior security. The quarter end scheduled investments can be found in the company's SEC filings and on the company's website. Now let me make some comments on the general landscape of banking and the investment environment going into 2019. As I pointed out last quarter, the market remains slow, with bank demand for capital below historic norms due to the high equity capitalization within the banking industry and tepid economic growth. Variables will be the Federal Reserve's continued unwinding of its balance sheet, their outlook and decisions on interest rates, as well as the overall growth of the economy. As the interest rate environment continues in transition, we believe the best course of action is that of patient capital and prudently utilizing our line of credit for additional asset growth. Therefore we continue to focus on credit quality as a priority in the portfolio. The yield on new issues subordinated debt issued by community banks compress significantly over the past several years and we believe this has been largely driven by the reduction in issuance, as well as the market's perception of the improved credit quality of banks. For these reasons we believe the community banks need for capital will continue to be relatively low in the immediate future. Although there may be a cyclical decline in demand for capital, we believe the multi-trillion dollar community bank sector is ripe kph with opportunity for us, as we survey a broad landscape of bank and banking related investments. We believe the company is well positioned to participate in expanded opportunities consistent with our investment objectives. StoneCastle's reputation in the market and its industry expertise allows us unique reach into community banks and banking related companies. We have proprietary and early knowledge of front, mid and back office services available to automate and digitize banks, along with the opportunity to understand the trends and adoption rates of these banking related businesses. An example of this is technology and its impact on consumer behavior. Banks are seeing the first generation of customers who can't remember a time before the Internet or digital banking. In general, we believe that the impact of technology will be favorable for community banks and many other companies will continue to grow rapidly to service this multi-trillion dollar industry. Banks are increasingly developing digital solutions for their customers and streamlining operations to reduce non-interest expenses. Another example of banking related services are specialized companies performing time consuming administrative functions, such as Know-Your-Customer, OFAC and third party risk assessments for example. Banks are outsourcing these functions in increased regularity to emerging service companies, many of which directly offer us opportunities to invest. The vast majority of banks in the U.S. or besides that allow for cost efficient outsource technology solutions and a number of companies has emerged to serve the needs of these approximately 5400 banks. We are not willing to sacrifice credit quality and chase yield, if we can find more attractive risk return profiles elsewhere in the banking related scope of opportunities we prefer to focus on those alternatives. Banking has historically been profitable and most banks at their core are lenders, providing commercial and/or consumer credit. As such we believe that bank performance is highly correlated with a credit performance of these underlying assets, a term we call Community Risk. The current lack of demand for capital by bank is creating compressed spreads and therefore we are seeking to increase our exposure to other bank related credit products and bank related services and software businesses. We believe that the inclusion of such investments complement our overall strategy and enhance the diversity of our holdings. Let me conclude my remarks by commenting on StoneCastle as an investment. Given the current market volatility and uncertain macro environment, I want to emphasize that an investment in StoneCastle Financial is a pure domestic play on local market economies across the United States. With approximately 60% of our dollar weighted to underlying bank investments in the heartland of the country, banks offers a strong, geographical diversification across 34 states. StoneCastle targets investments in small community banks, the majority of which have less than 1 billion in assets. These banks for the most part serve their local markets, which is a differentiating factor for regional and money center banks. Finally, we continue to believe that an investment in StoneCastle Financial affords shareholders a great opportunity for capital preservation relative to the market. Now I want to turn the call over to Pat to discuss the financial results and provide details on the underlying value of the company.