Phil Tseng
Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. So please go ahead, Christopher. Your line is now open
Thanks, Raj. I’ll start with a few comments on the investment environment before providing an update on our portfolio and highlights from our investment activity during the second quarter. As Raj noted, economic uncertainty has driven a slowdown in market transaction volumes. Institutional leverage loan issuance and U.S. M&A volumes were both down more than 30% year-over-year in the second quarter. Despite the slowdown in market activity, our industry focused deal teams continue to proactively identify unique investment opportunities from a wide range of sources, including directly through industry contexts and management teams, as well as through our traditional sponsor relationships. However, we’re not immune to the year-to-date slowdown in market volumes. We remain disciplined and are passing on more opportunities, particularly when pricing does not appropriately reflect the current market conditions or when terms did not provide adequate lender protections. In the second quarter, TCPC invested $17 million, deployment of the quarter included loans to two new and two existing companies primarily in senior secured loans. In reviewing new opportunities, we emphasized transactions where we are positioned as a lender of influence, which enables us to leverage our two decades of experience in negotiating deal terms and conditions that we believe provide meaningful downside protection. We believe this has been a key factor in our low realized loss rates over our long-term track record. In addition, our industry specialization, which our borrowers value provides two key benefits. First, it bolsters our ability to assess and effectively mitigate risk in our underwriting and when negotiating terms in credit documentation. And second, it expands our deal sourcing capabilities and sponsors who value our industry experience, which lends itself to more reliable execution and also with non-sponsors like corporates and foundry-owned businesses who value an informed balance sheet partner. Follow on investments in existing holdings continue to be important sources of opportunity. 45% of total dollars deployed over the last 12 months were with existing portfolio companies. TCPC’s largest new investment during the second quarter was a senior secured first lien term loan to support the acquisition and carve out of Global Payments Gaming Solutions division, which has since been rebranded as a standalone business called Pavilion Payments. Pavilion is a payment services provider to the gaming sector providing a full suite of on-premise and online gaming payment solutions. We view this as an attractive business given strong positioning in an industry with high barriers to entry because of regulatory oversight and unique industry requirements. BlackRock participated as lead lender among a small group of lenders. New investments in the second quarter were offset by total dispositions of $32 million. We also continue to closely monitor our existing portfolio companies. Our team members are continuously engaged in dialogue with owners and operators to assess both current and projected performance relative to our original underwriting assumptions. Given the rate environment, higher input costs, and the general uncertainty in the economy, a few of our portfolio companies are navigating slower revenue growth and/or margin pressure. We’re working closely with the management teams and owners of these handful of companies in this position. However, we recently completed our quarterly review process and are pleased to report that their portfolio generally remains in good shape. Our emphasis is on companies with established business models and proven core customer bases that make them more resilient in times like this. At quarter end, our portfolio had a fair market value of approximately $1.6 billion. 88% of our investments were senior secure debt spread across a wide range of industries, providing portfolio diversity and minimizing concentration risk. We also continue to emphasize companies in less cyclical industries. The portfolio at quarter end consisted of investments in 143 companies and our average portfolio company investment was $11.5 million. As the chart on Slide 6 of the presentation illustrates, our recurring income is distributed broadly across our portfolio and is not reliant on income from any one company. In fact, more than 90% of our portfolio companies each contribute less than 2% to our recurring income. 86% of our debt investments are first lien providing substantial downside protection, and 94% of our investments are floating rate, clearly an important benefit in this higher rate environment. The overall effective yield in our portfolio increased to 13.8% compared with 9.8% one year ago, reflecting the benefit of higher base rates and wider spreads on new investments. Investments in new portfolio companies during the quarter had a weighted average effective yield of 14.1%, exceeding the 12.2% weighted average effective yield on exited positions. Given further pullback in commercial bank’s ability and willingness to lend in this environment, we’re continuing to benefit from a more lender friendly investment environment with improvements in both pricing and terms relative to 12 months ago. Post quarter end, we’ve seen a modest picked up in activity and have been investing selectively, maintaining our underwriting discipline while being mindful of the inflationary environment. We emphasize companies that have significant pricing power to pass on higher input costs, including increases in their cost of capital. It’s also important to note that we did not underwrite to perfection. We seek to build in sufficient buffers to ensure companies can withstand changes in the macro environment, including higher costs without impairing their ability to service our loan. Our pipeline is building and the yields on investments in our pipeline are generally in line with our current portfolio. To date, we have had no prepayment income in the third quarter. Let me now turn it over to Eric to walk through our financial results as well as our capital and liquidity positioning.