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Barings BDC, Inc. (BBDC)

Q4 2019 Earnings Call· Fri, Feb 28, 2020

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Barings BDC Incorporated Conference Call for the Year Ended December 31, 2019. All participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the Company's formal remarks. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference is being recorded and a replay will be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call on the Company's website at www.baringsbdc.com under the Investor Relations section. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this call may contain forward-looking statements that include statements regarding the Company's goals, beliefs, strategies, future operating results and cash flows. Although the Company believes these statements are reasonable, actual results could differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. These statements are based on various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, including those disclosed under the sections titled Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Statements in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Barings BDC undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements unless required by law. At this time, I will turn the call over to Eric Lloyd, Chief Executive Officer of Barings BDC.

Eric Lloyd

Analyst

Thank you, operator, and good morning everyone. We appreciate everyone joining us for today's call. And please note that throughout this call, we'll be referring to our fourth quarter 2019 earnings presentation that was posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. On the call today, I'm joined by Barings BDC's President and Co-Head of Global Private Finance, Ian Fowler; Tom McDonnell, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager in our Global High Yield group; and BDC's Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Bock. Ian and Jon will review our fourth quarter results and provide a market update in a few minutes, but I'd like to begin today with some high-level comments about the quarter. Please turn to Slide 5 of the presentation where you can see our fourth quarter highlights. Overall, results were consistent with the third quarter as we increased proprietary assets exposure and remained active in reducing our broadly syndicated loans. As I've mentioned on prior calls, our investor ramp is both steady and deliberate. Since August of 2018, we've invested approximately $660 million in middle-market investments, averaging a $110 million per quarter with new middle-market investments totaling 165 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Additionally, we matched those four quarter originations with a healthy 169 million of net broadly syndicated loan sales and repayments, bringing our total BSL exposure to below 50% of the portfolio at December 31st. As we look at 2020, we remain on track with the steady deliberate transition, expecting to average $100 million of proprietary originations per quarter in normalized markets to drive us towards our 8% yield expectation. For the quarter, NAV per share was $11.66, increased primarily by appreciation of our broadly syndicated loan portfolio while our net investment income was $0.50 per share driven by sales of broadly syndicated loan late…

Ian Fowler

Analyst

Thanks, Eric, and good morning everyone. Jumping to Slide 9, you can see a summary of our investment activity for the fourth quarter. New middle-market investments totaled 165 million, the sales and payments of 28 million. As you can see from the trend over the last six quarters, we have maintained our expected 100 million quarterly middle-market loan originations pace funded BSL sales and borrowings under our credit facility. New investments include 15 new platforms and 8 follow-on investments. Five of these investments were European platforms and we expect to continue ramping in Europe as we see very favorable terms in that market and believe it is an excellent way to diversify the BDC's portfolio. On Slide 10, you can see that the end of the 2019 we were invested roughly $606 million of private middle-market loans in equity which included $49 million of unfunded commitments. Liquid broadly syndicated loans were down to $510 million, which as Eric mentioned, makes this the first quarter where our directly originated portfolio exceeded our BSL portfolio. Our portfolio is high-quality with 97.6 senior secured first-lien assets. The weighted-average senior leverage for the total portfolio remained consistent with last quarter at 4.9 times. Focusing on the middle-market portfolio statistics, as of year-end, our $557 million funded middle-market portfolio was spread across 53 portfolio companies, as compared to $422 million across 38 portfolio companies at the end of the third quarter. Underlying portfolio company fundamentals remained strong with weighted-average senior leverage of 4.7 times and weighted-average interest coverage of 2.7 times. Of the 53 middle-market investments, 51 where first-lien investments and two were selectively chosen second-lien term loans, comprising less than 1.5% of the portfolio. Average spreads were up this quarter from 519 basis points at September 30th to 528 basis points at December 31st.…

Jonathan Bock

Analyst

Thanks Dan. Good morning everyone. On Slide 17, you can see the bridge of the Company's net asset value per share from September 30th to December 31st, 2019. As you pointed out, our NAV was up by $0.08 this quarter to $11.66 per share. This increase is primarily due to net unrealized appreciation of $0.13, partially offset by $0.06 of net realized losses, both of which were primarily attributable to activity in the BSL portfolio. Our net investment income for the quarter matched the dividends and our share repurchase program resulted in $0.01 accretion, and previously stated, our board approved the program for 2020 to purchase up to 5% of our outstanding shares, demonstrating our long-term alignment with the shareholders. Additionally, 500 shares below net asset values accretive to all shareholders and demonstrate our belief in our own underwriting. Slide 18 and 19 show our income statement and balance sheets for the last five quarters. I'd like to highlight a few items here. First, our total investment income decreased to approximately $900,000 compared to the third quarter. Lower LIBOR and the timing of our continued portfolio transition led to low range income. One-time fees also declined as we had no middle-market investment repayments in the fourth quarter. Second, on the expense side, lower LIBOR helps total interest expense decreased by $226,000 quarter-over-quarter despite slightly higher total borrowings while our base management fee was virtually unchanged for the quarter, G&A expenses were up by approximately $115,000. Also loan section separately on Slide 18, you'll see on the income statement, our form 10-K that the net realized and unrealized losses on foreign currency transactions totaled approximately $1 million for 2019. The foreign currency translations relate only to our foreign currency borrowing and hedging transactions and will not reported separately. Please be aware…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Finian O'Shea with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.

Finian O'Shea

Analyst

First, I'll ask Eric on the earnings ramped. You've opened up talking about this being on piece and outlook should continue on the earnings. Obviously, since you took over here LIBOR moved against you and there's probably, you have a more cautious outlook today at this point in terms of taking on risks. So, how would you describe to us your position to ramp and grow earnings over 2020 given today's real-time market environment?

Eric Lloyd

Analyst

You're right. I mean, obviously, LIBOR moved against us, which has made it challenging kind of philosophically as I address it and then kind of get more specific. From kind of day one, I've said to shareholders that, we're not going to reverse all for what assets we need to generate in order to hit a certain targeted ROE. That just I think leads people to chasing risk in order to generate a certain return. We come as the other way which is we're going to do what risk we think is a prudent risk adjusted return for a given asset and look at that from an asset level. So as we sit here today, right with our pre-modeled spreads, the ROE would be more challenging than would've been 18 months ago. Now, I balanced that with one of the benefits of the entire Barings platform, which is something that these kind of markets really can benefit shareholders, right. We have -- and Tom is here with me, we have a really large liquid investment platform that is able to capitalize on market volatility and. technicals in the market. You combine that with a very strong special situations group that has proprietary asset flow that can find really attractive yields for assets come into the portfolio. A third leg of that could be our structured credit business, right. And in these types of markets, when we see loans sell off materially, you could see certain BBB tranches of CLOs really trade-off materially, in some cases even more so with those technicals that could brought attractive returns. Balance all that out to say that, our only source of opportunity isn't just the middle market direct lending, it's really the power of the $330 billion platform that we have. As we sit here today and as John referenced the pipeline and Ian mentioned the market, obviously a lot of people are putting a lot of transactions on hold, right. People are unsure of what the economy is going to look like or all those things, right. It's a lot of unknowns right now. And so, it is a more challenging environment, most likely over the course of the next month or two or ever period of time for direct originations. Yes. It's likely to be a more challenging period of time than it has been in the past. But I don't believe that there is not opportunities for us on our platform to invest. And so, I can't tell you exactly what that means as far as what that ROE or earning will be, but I think these times with volatility where we can really play in the flavor of someone like our platform.

Finian O'Shea

Analyst

I appreciate that color and your willingness to go across to platform more liquid businesses and take advantage. With that, I'll ask a follow on for Ian. You gave some context on European assets improving your spreads. Can you give us color on what sort of risk premium you get on a apples-to-apples, European versus U.S. deal today?

Ian Fowler

Analyst

Yes. Sure, Dan. Good morning. So, a couple of things, first of all, as I mentioned, it's important just in terms of diversification, accessing that market from a portfolio construction perspective. So, there's that benefit, but then if you actually look at the assets themselves, basically in the European markets. It's the deals that we do in that market. The deals that are done in that market are maybe a quarter of a turn to maybe half of turn deeper in terms of senior leverage with no leverage behind it. So, it's one tranche with higher spreads and higher OIDs. The OIDs in the European deals are about a 100 basis points more on average than our North American deals, and if you just think about the velocity that's occurring in the market, whether it's here or overseas in terms of the average duration of these loans compressing, from three and a half to four years on average to two to three years on average now, getting that pickup in OID actually creates a return less.

Finian O'Shea

Analyst

Sure. I appreciate that and thanks for taking my questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kyle Joseph with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Kyle Joseph

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

I wanted to commend you on ongoing share repurchase activity. I'd like to start out just on yields dynamics in the quarter, reported yields appeared pretty stable. I know you've mentioned there with some potentially back waiting in terms of the middle market origination. Can you give us a sense for that, any color there like 75% of the deals were completed in December or something like that just to get a sense for yield dynamics in the quarter?

Jonathan Bock

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, sure, this is Bock, Kyle. So, number one, you could see the over 180 million of BSL sales. There's a two part equations, right. We were reducing BSL consistently throughout the quarter, heavy amounts early. And say, roughly two thirds of our deals closed near the end of December, right. So, when you start to find that double whammy on both sides led to the timing difference as well as well as pressured earnings. So for us, I'd say, that's probably good bound numbers to look at for the fourth quarter.

Kyle Joseph

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

And I was going to say on my next question, as you think about the forward curve as you think about your balance of BSL versus no market loans, from a modeling perspective. How are you guys thinking about consolidated yields going forward? And I guess it might be helpful to talk about this sort of coronavirus impact?

Jonathan Bock

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, this is unknown, right. So, again, yes, I think, Ian mentioned that what we really focus on is credit spread and upfront fees, and basically the combination of those two things, and we don't think the winning model is to play the interest rate game and kind of take a guess or a speculation on what those interest rates are. If you look at our blended spreads from Q3 to Q4, the blended spread increased from 402 at the end of Q3 to 443 at the end of Q4 and we can control that. What we can't control is what's going to happen in LIBOR or other situations like that. So, then we have to look at again, back to the volatility question. What opportunities does that provide? We also know that we have a target ROE that we want to generate for shareholders, of which we're the single largest one by a large margin. We want to generate that for ourselves too. And so that's where I think the comments I made earlier to finish question around the platform and the other places that we can find attractive yields that can compliment and help offset some of the pressure on earnings and return that LIBOR creates.

Kyle Joseph

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

That's very helpful. Appreciate the time and answering my questions. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Robert Dodd with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Robert Dodd

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Hi guys. I've got a couple, but first congratulations on extending the repurchase plan. I think that's a good set of shareholders of which, as you know the biggest one. Next, on coronavirus, its early days or COVIT-19 or what I'm supposed to call. It's early days, obviously, right now. Can you give us any color on potential portfolio impacts? Probably, you don't lend directly to Chinese companies, but it's expanding from China. But if I look at three of your top 10 industries, for example three of your top 10 investments transportation cargo, now I presume, those are shipping containerships of applying the China-U.S root, but any color you can give us on the sensitivity to the supply chain, the indirect impacts, et cetera?

Eric Lloyd

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, Robert, it's Eric. I'm going to take a crack at this first then I'll turn it over to Ian, and see if Tom has any comments also. So, I'm going to take a kind of step back first and I know this is probably the third time. I'm not going to reference the platform and the benefit of it. We have an investment office in Shanghai. We have an investment office in Seoul. We have a large investment office also in Hong Kong. So, our access and knowledge in those Asia-Pacific markets is materially different I believe than a number of other managers who have a very domestic-centric focus and the only information they're getting is through potentially portfolio companies which are maybe getting it second or third hand from somebody else So again, I think our firm knowledge is one that I think brings to bear. So, what does that mean as far as specifics? We look at it across the liquid and illiquid asset classes because the impact could be the same in some cases. They also could be different in some cases, right. It's more typical that our larger companies, the companies with 500, 600, $700 million of EBITDA is going to have a more of the global type of revenue source as well as potentially a more global type of supplier source. You balance that with our middle market companies or more typically to have a U.S. centric revenue source and potentially a more limited supplier source. They also probably have less -- they also have less resources to adjust towards potential challenges. So, what we have been focusing on, you hit it on supply chain and it really how far up the supply chain and given kind of you can get information. And I don't want to go down the path of sharing what our teams in China and the like have communicated to us because I think that information that we need to keep it within the Barings family, but I can tell you is that, we're all over it and what we haven't done is speculative to what exactly it's going to be for a given company. You hit the logistics types companies, right. Obviously, goods moving around the world is going too slow and so there are going to be an impact, but we just don't know what that is today. And I'll come back to the last point on diversification. I believe our largest position in the portfolio is about 2.3% or so, right. From day one, I made the representation that we are going to run a highly diversified portfolio at the expense of ramping faster, right? We could have put larger holes into the BDC, ramp more middle market assets that would have helped to ROE but we were to open up with a position that was 5% or 6% or 7%, and that's inconsistent with how we believe portfolio construction should be done.

Ian Fowler

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

So, Rob, I think, Eric hit on all the key points, and obviously the situation is fluid and expanding. We had our team do a review of the portfolio months ago, with companies that has any exposure to any supply chain coming from China. Some of this gets back to just like good underwriting because if you have any company out there, that is locked into one source of manufacturing or one source of supplier without diversification, that's just not a really good credit. And I know of one company in the market and portfolio that went to market and as they went to market 100% of their manufacturing will move on. And so, obviously that deal was closed. And so, we don't have any companies in our portfolio with like materials direct exposure to China, and we were in touch with the management teams in terms of our portfolio companies to make sure that they have plans in place to the extent that they have any exposure to coronavirus issues. And again, I come back to portfolio construction that Eric mentioned and good underwriting. When we look, we had a deal in our investment committee the other day, commercial cleaning business, 100% of its revenues U.S. domestic. But you need to look at, to layout the concentration in LA that's got bid and something happens in LA and that market shuts down and everyone goes home. So, it just becomes back to diversification within the portfolio and within the companies.

Eric Lloyd

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, this is Tom. I will chime in from the high yield side. So, we're seeing now yesterday really the first cracks in our market with real selling. I think it was very orderly. So the first couple of days of the week and so now we're starting to see a little bit more of a selloff in loans on high yield side. So, what we're doing is evaluate. Clearly, there's a kind of a first order impact, I'll call it with travel companies, airlines, gaming companies things like that that immediately are backing up in price. And then the second order impact what you're trying to evaluate, which is sort of the supply chain and then concentration to customers in China, as you know, the broadly syndicated market is more of a worldwide market. So, we're going through all that now. And so what we're doing as a team in our sectors, are just going through names that we've clearly identified that may have an impact, right. So identifying where did they sit from a liquidity perspective, whereas leverage, what kind of sponsors support might be there if this thing turns into more of a prolonged and a situation where they see massive disruption in revenues and cash flow.

Eric Lloyd

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

So, lastly, I would say is, if you're going to have disruption from the middle market perspective, it's fair to have it in the slow part of the year, first two quarters, then the last half of the year, which is where we pick up most of our volume.

Robert Dodd

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

I appreciate that color, really helpful, and kind of then flows into the next question. You've talked about the platform and the potential to take advantage of some market disconnects within the liquid side or special situations or things like that. And I know you're not generally in the business of market timing, but obviously there is a disconnect going on now. At what point, would you be that those other avenues are not something you've really exploited within the BDC yet? What time is appropriate to do that given there's the old catching and folding nice thing and we don't know where all this stops or how bad coronavirus gets?

Tom McDonnell

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, Robert, so this is Tom. I'll weigh in that because we're kind of actually going through that right now. And so, we've got a targeted list of names. We watch this fall away for some of these names that might not even necessarily be impacted by the situation, right. Som you've got outflows now occurring out of mutual funds and ETFs, potential forced selling of names. Right now, it's not really a broad across all sort of ratings categories, but so we're looking at that first. We've got a number of names that are on our target list that we have target prices for. And so as the bids back up on those and we see the conditions become favorable for those kinds of purchases. We're in the process of actually doing that right now.

Jonathan Bock

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

And Robert, this is Bock. So on Slide 15 just to take a look, this is just one illustrative example. What we outlined there is spreads that occurred in the middle markets. Those are produced by [indiscernible] as well as overlay the Credit Suisse leveraged loan index, it's a single B. One item is really important I know you've heard Eric and you mentioned it. We are a principal investor first. And so when you think about how we're owned, right, and where loans effectively go, we always have a view that one, we should never take liquid term and liquid price and put it in an illiquid wrapper because at that point, you've lost the true value of illiquidity. And so if you look in the fourth quarter of the 18, you can see when yield gapped out and the liquid market, oftentimes the middle market doesn't move. And you certainly have to ask yourself a question is to, which is better from a relative risk, a relative value perspective? And that's very important because right now, if all you are is monochromatic in your focus and all you see is black and white of direct lending. This is a world of technicolor and it requires a very wide frame so that you cannot price to middle market loan appropriately, but then look to Tom or other areas of the platform, they can generate good risk-adjusted return.

Eric Lloyd

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

And I'm just going to wrap it up with, I agree with Tom and John said, and all I can tell you is, we won't get it perfect, right. We're looking at opportunity and if we think the right entry point is 75 or 80, and that's a really attractive place to invest in that, we're going to do that and if that means the next tray down 5 points, that's life. We can't control that. Where we control is where we enter it and there is a risk return we think is attractive at that time and the technical will be what they are.

Robert Dodd

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

I appreciate that color. And then one more if I can on the unitranche versus first-lien, second-lien kind of synthetic blend. Obviously, unitranche has gotten competitive, shall we say, and to some that may not be, an advance total return premium, which is arguable in the first place. When you look at, your portfolio, obviously you've been, you have more on the kind of the first-lien. Do you think is there anything changing, ignoring the covert stuff and everything else right now, anything changing in terms of your appetite to do first-lien versus second-lien versus unitranche given that's been pretty big dynamic shifts in affective spreads, et cetera in the fourth quarter?

Eric Lloyd

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, great question, Robert, and so, just a couple of things. One, the key is when you think about portfolio construction, it's really focusing on the credit metrics that we've laid out. So, when we build that portfolio, we're trying to get to around four and a half times average weighted spread in the portfolio. That will include some deals that are deeper in the capital structure, and will include other deals that are not as deep in the capital structure. It all boils down to the opportunity that you're looking at and making sure that, you're getting paid for the rest. I think what we're really trying to avoid here and to kind of use this one dimensional thing even within the middle market is making sure that we're getting a price for the risks that we're taking. So, to the extent we see an opportunity and an example I think I've used in the past is software deal that's 20 times enterprise value in someone's out there with a 7 times unitranche, we want to bifurcate that rest because seven times is not senior debt risk. And so, we want to bifurcate into the first-lien, second-lien, and we'll pick which side is more attractive, and we'll look at both sides of that equation. That's where we differentiate as a capital solution provider as oppose to someone that's forced based on their fee structure and their return on need to go out and just push unitranche. And the problem that you're seeing in this market right now is everyone's forced in that type of structure, they're competing on price. And when you see unitranche, they used to carry a premium over traditional first-lien, second-lien, completely erode that premium and is even now being priced less than that. At the end of the day, what's really being given up is you're not getting paid for that implied in your capital risk.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Casey Alexander with Compass Point. Please proceed with your question.

Casey Alexander

Analyst · Compass Point. Please proceed with your question.

I have three quick questions. One the European loans that you've been originating and put on balance sheet this quarter, should we expect to see some or all of those matriculate into the JV after they've spent a quarter on the balance sheet?

Jonathan Bock

Analyst · Compass Point. Please proceed with your question.

Casey, great question, this is Bock. So, the answer is no, not all. What we're doing there is an important part where we're trying to manage to the 30% bucket test. So, you can probably see some, greater than 50%, but not effectively be in transferred because our goal is to make sure that one we want to exposure and we can get exposure to these asset classes two way, through our equity investment in the JV as well as having some given now we have ample capacity in the 30% bucket on ECM on the BDC balance sheet as well. Just all to being smart to pace the growth of that asset bucket to make sure that it's in line but still delivering that return. So expect the transitions down but also but do not expect full sales.

Casey Alexander

Analyst · Compass Point. Please proceed with your question.

Okay, great. Thank you. Secondly while the top side limit of the share repurchase program continues to be 5%, it looks like some of the technical language has changed. Could you explain as the share repurchase program become more tactical in what way is the share repurchase program changing?

Jonathan Bock

Analyst · Compass Point. Please proceed with your question.

Well, number one, I think if you remember last year where we had outlined very programmatic means to repurchase the shares where we would purchase 2.5% of the shares above NAV, 5.5% of shares below NAV. And we looked at it on a daily basis terms on where the stock price traded to determine that number. Number one, right we established that program. Our commitment to you was to outline where you do what we say we're going to do, right, because there's oftentimes situations where folks are happy to announce your buybacks but not execute them. We would expect a similar level and similar focus in 2020 as we did in 2019 however once you start to see the geopolitical effects that are occurring as well as the potential for volatility in the markets. It's really important to make sure that we have free range to make sure that we're going to maximize the ability to repurchase those shares at the right price for you. Having understood that we do what we say we're going to do, which we demonstrated in 2019. So there's a little bit of to it, but our underlying philosophical view of finding investment opportunities in our assets as well as their own share hasn't changed.

Casey Alexander

Analyst · Compass Point. Please proceed with your question.

And last question. I guess this is kind of like the million dollar question is. We're clearly seeing some unsettlement in the market and if spreads start really blowing out, and obviously, it looks like cost of liabilities may even be decreasing more. Would you be willing to considering the fact that the spreads are widening in the broadly syndicated loan market also lever up a little bit higher to take advantage of spreads blowing out while the cost of liabilities is low?

Eric Lloyd

Analyst · Compass Point. Please proceed with your question.

I think that's exactly the way we think about managing our business. And so, I'm going to take a step back. Fourth quarter, Tom and team, and they sold the technical's in syndicated loan market would be attractive. They sold reasonably aggressively into those attractive bids. That's really benefited us as we sit here right now. It's sub one to one leverage, right, which is lower than what we've said we might target or go to in that. So, it gives us what's just call it, a quarter turn or so of flexibility that we could capitalize on these technicals with having to sell anything, which would benefit shareholders. But I want to make sure we're really clear that we have no intention to just aggressively increase leverage into this kind of technical dynamic. I think the optionality of having that leverage, the optionality of the cushion we have, the optionality of the diversification that we have on our liability structure are all positives. I think it gives the flexibility to do that when the time is right.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Robert Brock with West Family Investments. Please proceed with your question.

Robert Brock

Analyst · West Family Investments. Please proceed with your question.

Could you talk a little bit about two things? One LIBOR for us and is there any pressure to remove them at all and how low they've gone? Secondly, could you talk a little bit about, whether the Corona virus, if you've seen any signs impacting your businesses, particularly those in Europe. And third, maybe just generally, you talked about your spreads. Could you just talk about a little bit how they evolved over the fourth quarter? You gave the number for the three months, but just which direction spreads are going? Thank you very much.

Ian Fowler

Analyst · West Family Investments. Please proceed with your question.

Rob, it's Ian Fowler. I'll cover the first two and let others jump in. So, in terms of the European assets, we went through the same exercise there that we went through with our North American portfolio. There are no material issues with any of those portfolio companies, and like I said earlier, this is a fluid and from a geographic standpoint expanding situation. So, it's dynamic. We're looking at the portfolio on a constant basis and we're in touch with management teams in the portfolio to make sure that they have plans in place if they're directly impacted. In terms of the LIBOR for us, majority of our companies do have about 1% floor in the portfolio I think where you start to lose that floors when you move up market, and it's one of the reasons why we stay in the middle of the middle market.

Eric Lloyd

Analyst · West Family Investments. Please proceed with your question.

And then, I'll just highlight because we haven't spent that much time talking about our European business. Roll back to when we closed on the transaction in August of 2018, we've said to you at that time there are certain industries that we don't like to invest in, retail, restaurants, oil and gas, certain like airline type of companies and alike, right. That's consistent in our European business too. So, these companies that are in there or higher free cash flow type of business. They are not restaurants, retail, gathering places for individuals. And so, the consistent credit mindset that we have, you asked as reply to our European business also.

Jonathan Bock

Analyst · West Family Investments. Please proceed with your question.

Finally, Robert, and the answer of your question on spread. So, we continue to see spreads to be stable to slightly increasing where we outlined, slightly increasing is given the mix shift with as Ian outline focused on Europe, right? When you start to see the ability to deploy an attractive risk adjusted returns there, strong OIDs and strong, you end up finding that really, the overall portfolio mix moves higher as Eric outlines moving from 402 to 443 basis points over LIBOR and then also want new investment deployments given Europe, a part of that transaction dynamic we're seeing is 525 higher. We've been very, very fortunate to see spreads stable to increasing even while LIBOR declined.

Eric Lloyd

Analyst · West Family Investments. Please proceed with your question.

I just want to wrap up on the spread point, goes up oil and someone would sit here and say, well, next quarter is going to go from four 443 to 460. It's going to be whether it makes the most sense from a risk-adjusted return opportunity in the market. Back to where I started, which is we're not going to reverse all for an asset flow that it fits a certain return profile, because I think that is going to leave you changing risk rather than having discipline what makes the most sense. I think we're going to continue in this environment. We'll see some spread widening potentially, but if we sold a certain amount of assets into the JV is a European assets and have a little higher spread and the U.S. flow is not as strong and we don't see the opportunities that I referenced earlier in more discounted broadly syndicated loans or special situations. It may be that that's 430 number is 440 and maybe just 460. I don't know what it'll be, but I just don't want this highlighted this. I don't want people to model in a 40 basis point increases in the next quarter because that's not how we run our business. Any other questions? With that, I just wanted to say thank you again. Thank you for your support and trust in us in 2019 as we sit here going into 2020. Know that we're being good stewards of your capital and know all these questions around coronavirus and other things is, we're all over that from a platform perspective, but really making sure we're managing the portfolio prudently. I think comments I've made a couple of times, right. It really starts with underwriting as Ian said and then really starts with diversification, improving portfolio construction. And I know at times that can be frustrating as far as the pace of the ramp, but I think the flexibility that we generated by running right now at less than one to one leverage by having a single asset be 2.3% of our portfolio, really puts us in a good position. For whatever the situation might, be I can't promise what the outcomes will be, but we enter that in a strong position. So thank you for all your support.

Operator

Operator

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