Good morning, and welcome to CION’s Investment Corporation’s First Quarter ended March 31, 2023 Earnings Conference Call. An earnings press release was distributed earlier this morning before market open. A copy of the release, along with the supplemental earnings presentation, is available on the company’s website at www.cionbdc.com in the Investor Resources section and should be reviewed in conjunction with the company’s Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. Please note that today’s conference call may contain forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees of future performance or results, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of the number of factors, including those described in the company’s filings with the SEC. Speaking on today’s call will be Michael Reisner, CION Investment Corporation’s Co-Chief Executive Officer; Gregg Bresner, President and Chief Investment Officer; and Keith Franz, Chief Financial Officer. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Reisner. Please go ahead, Michael.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us. As mentioned, I’m joined today by Gregg and Keith as well as other members of senior management, including my Co-CEO, Mark Gatto. I will start our call today with an overview of our first quarter results. Gregg will review our investment activity during the quarter, and Keith will provide additional detail on our financial results. After Keith’s prepared remarks, we will open the call to questions. As we reported this morning, we had yet another strong quarter, marking the fifth consecutive quarter we’ve exceeded The Street’s expectations with total investment income increasing 17% sequentially quarter-over-quarter and net investment income increasing 25% quarter-over-quarter and 53% year-over-year. We believe that our continued ability to substantially outearn our dividend demonstrates the resilience of our business model and our ability to drive returns through a strategy laser-focused on senior secured floating rate loans originated from our diverse sourcing strategy. Presumably, for the first quarter, our net investment income of $0.54 per share ou5earned $0.34 per share dividend we declared for the first quarter of 2023 and the net investment income of $0.43 per share we earned last quarter. Besides an increase in base rates, our income during the quarter was driven by equity dividends from deleveraging companies, realized earnings from our EagleTree joint venture, prepayment premiums and other yield-enhancing provisions embedded within our primarily first lien portfolio. On the financing side, we have agreed in principle with our two senior secured lenders on expanding the facilities that are set to mature within the next year. JPMorgan has agreed in principle to extend its facility for 1 year at the same spread, and we have agreed in principle with UBS to extend its facility for 1 year at a slightly tighter spread. In addition,…

Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. Our strong Q1 net investment income benefited from a diverse combination of the direct pass-through of higher interest rates from our primarily floating rate first lien loan assets, equity dividends from deleveraging companies, realized earnings distributions from our EagleTree joint venture, prepayment premiums and other yield-enhancing provisions embedded within our primarily first lien portfolio. Our defensive strategic positioning also contributed to our ability to declare a nearly 10% increase to our base quarterly dividend to our shareholders for the first quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. On the macroeconomic environment, the recent banking failures with SVB, Signature Bank and First Republic and the resulting reduced access to financing have more than dampened what seemed to be early signs of optimism in February. The clearest signs in Q1 seem to be the negative impact to the U.S. consumer, particularly in the middle and lower markets, and sharply reduced M&A activity or initial indications of interest and value are not being converted into closed transactions. Thus, our total return to investors for Q1 was down 3.3%, driven by a 5.4% decline or $56 million in unrealized mark-to-market valuation. Of this $56 million, approximately two-thirds represent performing or recently restructured investments, where valuations were more reflective of current market conditions and market multiples as opposed to our longer-term exit value expectations where we still believe that we will retrieve the full amortized cost basis of our investment. Most of the remaining one-third of our mark-to-market declines were from first lien investments that were valued at 3/31 based on the status of current issues or restructuring processes at that particular date and not necessarily our expected realized values after exercising our priority position and other rights and remedies as a first lien lender…

Okay. Thank you, Gregg, and good morning, everyone. As Michael mentioned, we reported another quarter of solid investment income. Total investment income increased by 17% during the quarter to $65 million when compared to $55.5 million during the fourth quarter. Net investment income was up by 25% to $29.9 million or $0.54 per share as compared to $23.9 million or $0.43 per share reported in the fourth quarter. On the expense side, total operating expenses were $35.1 million compared to $31.6 million during the fourth quarter. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in interest expense under our financing arrangements due to higher LIBOR and SOFR rates as well as higher advisory fees when compared to the prior quarter. At March 31, we had total assets of approximately $1.9 billion and total equity or net assets of $830 million with total debt outstanding of $1 billion and 54.9 million shares outstanding. At the end of the quarter, our net debt-to-equity ratio was 1.02x, which is slightly higher than our debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98x at the end of Q4. Total debt outstanding increased by $53 million since year-end primarily due to the unsecured public bond offering completed during February. At March 31, our NAV was $15.11 per share compared to $15.98 per share at December 31. The decrease of $0.87 per share was primarily due to price declines in our portfolio. This was partially offset by overearning our distribution and the accretive nature of our share repurchase program during the quarter. We ended the quarter with a strong and flexible balance sheet with over $400 million in unencumbered assets lower leverage relative to our peers, our strong debt servicing capacity and solid liquidity. We have over $160 million in cash and short-term investments and $100 million available under our credit…

Thanks, Keith. A final thought before we open the line for questions. We would just like to reiterate our message, but we believe CION is well positioned to provide solid returns to its shareholders despite current market conditions. And with that, operator, we’re ready to take any questions.

Great. Well, thank you, everyone, who joined the call today. We appreciate your interest in CION. We look forward to speaking to you again in early August when we announce our second quarter 2023 results. Take care.

Thank you. That concludes today’s conference. All parties may disconnect. Have a good day.