Greetings, and welcome to the Rand Capital Corporation First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Craig Mychajluk, Investor Relations for Rand Capital Corporation. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate your interest in Rand Capital and for joining us today for our first quarter 2023 financial results conference call. On the line with me are Dan Penberthy, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Margaret Brechtel, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. A copy of the release and slides that accompany our conversation is available at randcapital.com. If you're following along in the slide deck, please turn to Slide 2, where I'd like to point out some important information. As you are likely aware, we may make some forward-looking statements during this presentation. These statements apply to future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ from where we are today. You can find a summary of these risks and uncertainties and other factors in the earnings release and other documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents can be found on our website or at sec.gov. During today's call, we'll also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. We believe these will be useful in evaluating our performance. You should not consider the presentation of this additional information in isolation or as a substitute for results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. We have provided reconciliations of non-GAAP measures with comparable GAAP measures in the tables that accompany today's earnings release. With that, please turn to Slide 3, and I'll hand the discussion over to Dan. Dan?

Thank you, Craig, and good day, everyone. We kicked off the year with a strong first quarter demonstrated by continued earnings momentum driven by the improvement of our portfolio composition as well as the overall favorable performance of portfolio companies, amidst a challenging economic business climate. We delivered total investment income growth of 65% for the quarter, which reflected strong growth in interest from portfolio companies, dividend income that more than doubled and higher fee income. For the quarter, net investment income per share was $0.28 compared with $0.30 in the prior year period. The change was largely driven by the accrual of additional capital gains incentive fees, which Margaret will review in greater detail. We paid a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share during the first quarter. And just over a week ago, on April 26, Rand increased its regular quarterly cash dividend for the second quarter by $0.05 per share or 25%, making a 25% -- I'm sorry, $0.25 per share for the quarter. We have continued to execute our strategy by growing our income-producing portfolio, which has enabled us to increase the dividend. We believe that our deal flow and our unique position in the market will help to continue to support future dividends. Other notable highlights during the quarter included $5.6 million in new and follow-on investments while receiving $500,000 from portfolio investment sales and repayments. Rand's Board of Directors also renewed the share repurchase program authorizing the company to purchase up to $1.5 million in additional Rand's common stock. If you could please turn to Slide 4, you can see our portfolio mix between debt and equity and the changes during the past quarter. As of March 31, 2023, our portfolio consisted of investments in 30 companies, up 1 since year-end 2022. The…

Thanks, Dan, and good afternoon, everyone. I will start on Slide 9, which provides an overview of our financial summary and operational highlights for the first quarter of 2023. Total investment income was $1.8 million, and this is up 65% over last year, driven by a 42% increase in interest from portfolio companies and higher dividend and fee income. Of our 30 total portfolio company investments, 23 contributed to our total investment income during this first quarter. Total expenses were approximately $1.5 million during the first quarter compared with $345,000 in the prior year quarter. This increase includes a $531,000 increase in our capital gain incentive fee accrual payable to the company's external investment adviser, Rand Capital Management, LLC. It also reflects $158,000 in interest expense from our senior revolving credit facility that we entered into last year. As a reminder, we are required to accrue capital gains incentive fees on the basis of net realized capital gains and losses and net unrealized gains and losses at the close of a period. Excluding the capital gains incentive fees, adjusted expenses, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, were approximately $757,000 compared with $585,000 in the first quarter of 2022. First quarter net investment income was $715,000 or $0.28 per share compared with $772,000 or $0.30 per share in last year's period. On an adjusted basis, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, net investment income was $0.39 per share and this is up 86% from $0.21 per share at last year's period. Slide 10 provides a waterfall graph change in our net asset value for the quarter. Net assets from March 31, 2023, were $59.4 million, up from year-end 2022. This change reflects solid investment income and positive fair value changes across a number of portfolio companies, partially offset by $516,000 in…

Thanks, Margaret. The first quarter did show continued growth as we scale the business by focusing on debt and related equity investments in privately held lower middle market companies. Looking ahead, we believe we can continue to replicate our success by leveraging our multiple sources of capital to grow our portfolio and drive investment income growth well into the future. Thank you for joining us today and for your continued interest and support of Rand Capital. We look forward to updating all of you on our second quarter 2023 results, which will be reported in August. We hope you have a pleasant day.