David Dullum
Analyst · Wedbush. Your line is now open
Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that we did increase our net asset value, NAV from $11.57 per share at the 06/30/2018 timeframe to $12.30 per share at 09/30/2018, so an increase from $11.57 to $12.30 per share. We also were able to successfully complete several financing transactions such as our Series E preferred stock and Julia will report on that later on. Subsequent to quarter end in October, our Board of Directors approved and we announced a 1.5% increase in our annual distribution rate to common stockholders from $0.80 a share to $0.82 per share. Now this was based because of our results which were inclusive of the fiscal year ending 03/31/2018, the fiscal year 2019 to-date and as we look forward in our expectation of ability to fund and pay our dividends. We also announced a continuation of our semi-annual supplemental distributions program with a payment of $0.06 per common share which is to be made in December 2018. We expect that a significant portion of these distributions will be made from capital gains in these supplemental distributions. And as Julia will discuss in more detail, our adjusted NII for the quarter ended September 30 was lower than last quarter. Now this result was somewhat amplified by timing on certain income and expense items. And again, Julia will discuss this in more detail. So, while our quarterly results which are generally relatively stable, we mentioned numerous signs before there can be variability. And that's why when we look at and we focus on operating the business on a fiscal year end results instead of necessarily focused on the quarter-to-quarter results. Now we know that's important, but we definitely look forward and also manage the business accordingly. So, in spite of this quarter's lower adjusted NII, we do believe though that our core business, which includes new investments, the exits that we've been making and we will talk about and the underlying portfolio company values is very strong and robust. So, just touching on some of these timings and subsequent to the quarter end, we announced that we successfully exited our investment in Logo Sportswear which resulted in a significant realized gain on equity. We sold the equity investment in CCE which is one of our investments we've had for a while. And even though this resulted in a small realized loss, we did generate income through the payment of $1 million of success fees and we did retained a performing Jet investment in the company. We also made an additional $15 million secured debt investment in J.R. Hobbs and this was used by the company to fund an acquisition. So, while we have seen some decrease in our stock price quarter-over-quarter, also our total return which is inclusive of dividends for the 12 months ended September 30 was approximately 30.8%. And this would compare very favorably to the Wells Fargo BDC Index of 3.6%. So, we continue to believe that our results are providing the investor community with support for the value proposition of continuing growth in the distributions that we have from adjusted NII and realized capital gains and also the upside of the equity component of our buyout business model. So, this differentiated investment strategy and it's very important to really understand it and the business model is for us to invest in the majority of equity and debt capital and buyouts where we are the significant capital provider for that transaction. These companies as we mentioned generally have earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation or EBITDA generally between $3 million and $20 million. The structure we use for funding our buyouts consists of a direct equity investment for significant ownership position and that is in combination with the secured first or second lean debt in that company. So, this does differentiate us from traditional credit-oriented BDCs. In that the proportion of debt direct equity investments in our portfolio [ph] sequences certainly be around 25% equity to 75% debt at cost when compared to most of the credit-oriented BDCs. And this is a significant difference and really illustrates the nature of our NII and also the cap gains and the nature of portfolios and you will see more of that as we go forward. So, what are some of the practical outcomes of our approach? We summarized them as follows. First, the interest in the success fees on the debt portion of our investments do provide a steady stream of income which will allow us to pay and over time grow our monthly distributions as we currently are now at an $0.82 per common share run rate. And as we have mentioned on prior calls, we will experience fluctuations in this month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter adjusted NII such as this quarter certainly compared to last quarter. However, we managed the business, I mentioned before and it's important with the view to fiscal year-end results and a goal of having our adjusted NII support and cover our annual distribution to shareholders. We do not expect distributions to get ahead of our ability to cover on an annual basis. Second, with a significant equity position that we own in each portfolio company, we look for increasing value so that an increase in the equity provides capital gains and other income over the life of the investment or upon an exit. These potential capital gains and other income may then be distributed to our stockholders in part as supplemental distributions. As our portfolio matures, we should continue to realize gains from exits somewhat consistently. To this point, we have made three such planned supplemental distributions in the amount of $0.06 per share to common stockholders in June and December 2017 and then in June 2018. And as mentioned, we announced the fourth such supplemental distribution which will be made in December of 2018. Third, the differentiated investment approach to being a provider of a significant portion of the equity and most of the debt in our transactions does give us an advantage. In that we do have some influence on the companies that we buy. And so, not only is that allow us to limit really the risk of our debt being refinanced, but it gives us the opportunity to be involved with the management of those companies and interaction where necessary which will happen from time to time such as the similar traditional private equity fund would operate. So, I'd like to look at some of our historical performance. Just to review this, I like to do this from time to time. And looking at it from 03/31/2014 to 09/30/2018, we've seen an update and this would be an update of our annual scorecard discussion. You can also find further information and analysis including in graphical form in our quarterly presentations that are posted on our website. So, what are some of the highlights? First of all, we have grown total assets of about $331 million to over $675 million at fair value. Again this is at period from 03/31/2014 to 09/30/2018. The debt portion of our assets at cost has grown from about $279 million to over $442 million which is supporting the growth in our regular monthly distributions per common share which have gone from $0.66 per share in 2014 to $0.82 per share at an annual run rate as of October in 2018. The equity portion of our assets at cost has grown from about a $105 million to about $152 million. Our NAV per share has increased from $8.34 to $12.30 over that same period. We had 32 companies in our portfolio at 09/30/2018 from inception which was 2005 and through 09/30/2018 we have exited 13 of our buyout companies, not including those that I mentioned as subsequent events earlier and these exits have generated over $100 million in net realized gains and $22 million in other income on exit. So, these exits achieved in aggregate cash on cash return on the exit of the equity portion of those investments of approximately 3.4%, again an important aspect of our business model. It is this equity growth and the exit activity that has allowed us to deliver on our objective of generating capital gains from the equity portion of our assets which we look to continue in the future. So, what is that future look like as we go forward with exits? We build our investment portfolio with new buyouts, we also managed the sale or exit of the portfolio companies and that's consistent with the strategy of providing realized capital gains from the equity portion of our portfolio. At this point, we exited Drew Foam in June 2018 generating a gain of about $13.8 million. We exit Logo Sportswear in this past week in November with a significant gain. And we sold the equity investment as I mentioned in CCE at a small loss, while retaining again in that case a performing an income producing debt investment. So, we will continue to be guided by market conditions. We'll be assessing the risk and the return and continuing to hold an investment versus exiting it and remain sensitive to preserving our portfolio of assets, which in large part produce the income for our monthly distributions. So, developing new buyout opportunities are obviously a very high priority and a significant part of our daily activities. Our team, as I mentioned before, actively calls on what we refer to as independent sponsors, middle market investment bankers and other sources that help us create somewhat of a proprietary investment opportunity mix. Generally our investments include - do include partnering with management teams in the purchase of business. We believe that our strict adherence to investment fundamentals and our thorough due diligence process has enabled us to provide shareholders' returns in both our consistent regular monthly distributions as well as the supplemental distributions. At any point in time we are reviewing and conducting due diligence on a number of new potential investments and with an eye on achieving our new acquisition goals. So, in addition to new standalone acquisitions, we are actively pursuing accretive add-on investments for some of our portfolio companies. This is a good way and allows us to build assets while accelerating the value creation of the existing companies. As I mentioned earlier, in October, we invest in an additional $15 million of secure debt in J.R. Hobbs which will allow them to fund an acquisition which we'll be able to then expand their geographic and their service footprint. So, we're still in a buyout environment however where competition for new investments is elevated, purchase price is being paid a pretty high. This makes it challenging for us to close new investments given our conservative value approach and the expected financial returns and that could lead to an appearance of a low rate of new investment production at any one point in time. But keep in mind that we are working at this every day. And when we consider our investments, we do strive to build value with a portfolio which is both income and equity to satisfy our distribution goals. We are not a volume driven shop. So, we continue to target our equity investments to provide a minimum two to three times cash on cash return. The debt investments which are generally secured and primarily first liens typically carry a cash yield in the low to mid-teens. These debt cash returns balance the equity portion of our investment, thereby which produces a blended current cash yield to support our stockholder distribution expectations. The investment focus we have is not really changed. We're generally investing in companies with consistent EBITDA and operating cash flow obviously with an opportunity to grow and expand it. Areas of interest that we continue to like would be like specialty manufacturing, specialty consumer products and services and industrial products and services. So, we will continue executing our plan. We'll be adding accretive investments to grow both the income generating part of our assets and the equity portion of our assets, while positioning the potential, excuse me, positioning the portfolio for potential exits, thus trying to maximize distributions of all kinds to stockholders. We anticipate paying semi-annual supplemental distributions as the portfolio continues to mature and we're able to manage exits and realize capital gains. These distributions are generally expected to be made from undistributed net capital gains and undistributed net investment income. So, we and our Board of Directors will evaluate the ability to make additional supplemented distributions including the amount and timing, excuse me, of such semi-annual supplemental distributions as we continue to execute our strategy. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to our CFO, Julia Ryan and have her give some more detail on the actual financial performance. Julia?