Arthur Penn
Analyst · JMP Securities
Thanks, Aviv. I’ going to spend a few minutes discussing financial highlights, followed by a discussion of the portfolio, investment activity, the financials and then open it up for Q&A.For the quarter ended September 30, we invested $141 million in primarily first-lien senior secured assets at an average yield of 8.5%. PennantPark Senior Secured Loan Fund, or PSSL, continued to perform well. As of September 30, PSSL owned a $489 million diversified pool of 45 names with an average yield of 7.6%.Credit quality has improved since last quarter. The number of non-accruals on our books today is 1, down from 4 as of March 31. The 1 non-accrual represents only 0.4% of cost and 0% of the market value of the portfolio. We are pleased with this progress.Over the last several years, we've substantially grown our platform by adding senior and mid-level investment professionals in regional offices as well as New York. The additional people in offices, combined with additional equity and debt capital we have raised has significantly enhanced our deal flow. This puts us in a position to be both active and selective. Today, we are only investing in approximately 4% of the opportunities that we are shown.Net investment income was $0.29 per share due to our activity level and the maturation of PSSL we are pleased that our current run rate net investment income covers our dividend.Our earnings stream should have a nice tailwind based on the gradual increase in our debt to equity ratio, while still maintaining a prudent debt profile. As of September 30, our spillover was $0.31 per share.With regard to the Small Business Credit Availability Act, a reminder that our Board approved the modified asset coverage that was included in the law reducing asset coverage from 200% to 150% effective April 5, 2019.Over time, we are targeting a debt to equity ratio of 1.4 to 1.7 times. We will not reach this target overnight. We will continue to carefully invest, and it may take us several quarters to reach the new target. As of September 30, our debt-to-equity ratio was 1.27 times.Given the seniority of our assets, in September, we completed our first CLO financing in which we raised $228 million of external financing to help achieve this new target. CLO financing is attractively priced and long term.The financing has an average cost of LIBOR plus 2.46 [ph] as an expected average life of 7 years and a final maturity of 12 years. A careful and prudent increase in leverage against a primarily first-lien portfolio should lead to higher earnings.Our primary business of financing middle-market financial sponsors has remained robust. We have relationships with about 400 private equity sponsors across the country and elsewhere that we manage from our offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.We have done business with almost 185 sponsors to date. Due to the wide funnel of deal flow that we receive relative to the size of our vehicles, we can be extremely selective in our investments. We remain primarily focused on long-term value and making investments that will perform well over several years and can withstand changing business cycles.Our focus continues to be on companies and structures that are more defensive, have low leverage, strong covenants and high returns. We continue to be a first call for middle-market financial sponsors, management teams and intermediaries who want consistent credible capital. As an independent provider, free of conflicts or affiliations, we are a trusted financing partner for our clients.As a result of our focus on high-quality companies, seniority in the capital structure, floating rate assets and continuing diversification, our portfolio is constructed to withstand market and economic volatility.The cash interest coverage ratio, the amount by which EBITDA or cash flow exceeds cash interest expense, continued to be healthy 2.4 times. This provides significant cushion to support stable investment income. Additionally, at cost, the ratio of debt to EBITDA on the overall portfolio was 4.6 times, another indication of prudent risk.In our core market of companies with $15 million to $50 million of EBITDA, our capital is generally important to the borrowers and sponsors, we are still seeing attractive risk reward, and we are receiving covenants, which help protect our capital.Our credit quality since inception over 8.5 years ago has been excellent. Out of 363 companies in which we have invested since inception, we've experienced only 9 non-accruals.Since inception, PFLT has invested over $3 billion at an average yield of 8.1%. And this compares to an annualized loss ratio, including both realized and unrealized losses of approximately 9 basis points annually. With regard to the economy and the credit cycle, at this point, our underlying portfolio indicates a strong US economy and no signs of a recession.From an experience standpoint, we are 1 of the few middle-market direct lenders who was in business prior to the global financial crisis, and have a strong underwriting track record during that time. Although PFLT was not in existence back then, PennantPark as an organization was, and at that time, was focused primarily on investing in subordinated and mezzanine debt.Prior to the onset of the global financial crisis in September of 2008, we initiated investments which ultimately aggregated $480 million, again, primarily in subordinated debt.During the recession, the weighted average EBITDA of those underlying portfolio companies declined by 7.2% at the trough of the recession. This compares to the average EBITDA decline of the Bloomberg North American high-yield index of down 42%.As a result, the IRR of those underlying investments was 8%, even though they were made prior to the financial crisis and recession. We are proud of this downside case track record on primarily subordinated debt.On a mark-to-market basis, positive movements in the value of By Light and Montreign were offset by valuation declines of Country Fresh, Unitek and the write-off of Hollander. As discussed last quarter, Hollander filed for Chapter 11 in May.Our preferred strategy was a lender-funded reorganization, whereby the lenders would take majority control. Unfortunately, we cannot get the majority of lenders to support a lender funded transaction, and the company was sold to a third party.In terms of new investments, we had another active quarter investing in attractive risk-adjusted returns. Our activity was driven by a mixture of M&A deals, growth financings and re-financings. In virtually all of these investments, we've known these particular companies for a while, have studied the industries or have a strong relationship with the sponsor.Let's walk through some of the highlights. We purchased $6.5 million of first-lien term loan, $2.2 million of first-lien revolver and $1.4 million of common equity of Altamira Technologies. The company is a government services contractor focusing on the modernization of technology for the US defense and intelligence communities. Clearsky is the sponsor.We purchased $[19] [ph] million of first-lien term loan of Quantum Spatial. As a provider of geospatial solutions, the company gathers detailed mapping data sets, provides analysis and generates insights for its customers. Arlington Capital Partners is the sponsor.We purchased $18.3 million of first-lien term loan, $1.9 million of revolver and $4 million of delayed draw as well as $0.5 million of equity of Schlesinger Global. The company is a global market research platform that offers agencies and brands, both qualitative and quantitative data collection services. Gauge Capital is the sponsor.Turning to the outlook. We believe the rest of 2019 will be active due to both growth and M&A-driven financings. Due to our strong sourcing network and client relationships, we are seeing active deal flow.Let me now turn the call over to Aviv, our CFO, to take you through the financial results.