Earnings Labs

WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. 7.875% Notes due 2028 (WHFCL)

Q2 2013 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 13, 2013

$25.47

+0.00%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Laurie and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the WhiteHorse Finance’s Second Quarter 2013 Earnings Teleconference. Our hosts for today’s call are Jay Carvell, Chief Executive Officer, Ethan Underwood, Chief Operating Officer, and Alastair Merrick, Chief Financial Officer. Today’s call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 1 PM Eastern Standard Time. The replay dial-in number is 404-537-3406 and the pin number is 143-42688. At this time all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode and the floor will be opened for your questions following the presentation. (Operator Instructions). It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Brian Schaffer of Prosek Partners.

Brian Schaffer

Management

Thank you, operator and thank you everyone for joining us today to discuss WhiteHorse Finance’s second quarter (2013) earnings results. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this call which are not based on historical facts including any statements relating to financial guidance maybe deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because these forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties these are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. WhiteHorse Finance assumes no obligation or responsibility to update any forward-looking statements. With that allow me to introduce WhiteHorse Finance’s CEO, Jay Carvell. Jay, you may begin.

Jay Carvell

Management

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us. As usual I'm going to make some opening remarks about current market conditions as well as our investment portfolio, investment activity and overall strategy before turning the call over to our CFO, Alastair Merrick. Once Alastair has completed his remarks on our financial result we’ll open the call to questions and we’ll be joined by COO, Ethan Underwood. I would like to start with some general comments on the market and economy. As all of you know, markets in general have been more volatile since the May comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke referencing a potential tapering off bond purchases. Anticipation of interest rate hikes, the faith of U.S. economic growth and their affects of the European recession will continue to add to overall credit market uncertainty. However, we believe that these factors have marked a trend change from a low interest rate environment characterize by investors taking yield to a more stable slightly rising credit environment. While the pace of high yield [inflows] is somewhat abated over the past several weeks, the larger loan and bond markets remain relatively healthy. The supply of capital overall remain strong, which has led to a slightly tightening of spreads and loosening of credit terms. As we previously noted, these issues do not dramatically affect the small and mid-cap space where we spend most of our time, they are compressed pricing and lower credit standards have created a more competitive environment across all credit spaces. Despite these challenges, credit activity has been steady and economic confidence in general seems to be picking up. : Our focus continues to be on sourcing proprietary high-quality investment opportunities in the smaller end of the capital markets across a broad range of industries. We want to be…

Alastair Merrick

Management

Thank you, Jay. I would now take you through the financial highlights of our earnings, which we released this morning before the market opened. Before I begin due to our conversion to a BDC in December 2012 we do not have comparable year-over-year results. Looking at our results for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 we reported net investment income of $4.9 million or $0.32 per share this was an increase of 21% over the first quarter. Net realized and unrealized losses on investment were $1.7 million. These losses were primarily attributable to a reduction in the fair value of our investment in GMT Holdings driven by two main factors. First a more conservative view on the international aerospace and airplane part industries. Second, the fixed rate nature of the loan against a backdrop of a raising rate environment. For the second quarter of 2013 there was an increase in net assets from operations of $3.2 million. Expenses for the quarter totaled $4.6 million primarily consisting of interest expenses on our credit facilities of $1.3 million and base management fees and performance based incentive fees of approximately $2.4 million. Net asset value was $225.1 million as of June 30, 2013 resulting in NAV per share of $15.04 down slightly from $227.2 million an NAV per share of $15.18 as of March 31, 2013. Switching over to portfolio and investment activity, as of June 30, the fair value of WhiteHorse Finance’s investment portfolio was $237.7 million, principally invested in 15 positions across 12 portfolio companies. The fair value of the portfolio consisted of $201.5 million or 84.8% of first lien and $36.2 million of second lien secured debt investments. As of June 30, the weighted average current cash yield on the portfolio was 14.0%, compared with 14.6% reported in the quarter…

Operator

Operator

The floor is now open for questions. (Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Greg Mason of KBW. Greg Mason – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods: Great thank you. Good morning gentlemen. Could you talk a little bit about any type of fee income with the prepayments, were there any accelerated fees or one-time items in the revenue line this quarter?

Jay Carvell

Management

Thanks for being on Greg. Alastair you’ve got that?

Alastair Merrick

Management

Sure, Greg, the fee income within investment income this quarter was $400,000 and it’s a combination of some prepayment fees and amendment fees, and that compares to the first quarter, because I know you’re going to ask the question which was $180,000. Greg Mason – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods: And then, could you talk about the one new investment that you made the oilfield services, could you talk about the yield on that investment and just where did you source that, is that a non-sponsored deal or a sponsored deal, just a little more color there?

Alastair Merrick

Management

Greg, it’s a 10% fixed rate on the oilfield services company.

Jay Carvell

Management

As far as where that came from, that is not a non-sponsored deal. That’s a participation in another – in a broader facility. Greg Mason – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods: Talk about just the pipeline that you’re seeing for new investments, you talked about overall yields were coming in a little bit, but could you just maybe give us a little more color on what you’re seeing and what the pipeline looks like?

Jay Carvell

Management

Sure. In general, we’re seeing some pretty good activity, I think that’s probably a theme across a lot of BDCs that people anticipated pretty good second half of the year. In terms of, kind of what we’re seeing it similar to what our pipeline had looked like over the last 6 months to 12 months, a variety of deals, variety of sizes. We’re trying to traffic in the same place that we always have before in originating those things and also taking advantage of other opportunities as they come forth for us. So in general, it probably looks a lot like what it has in the last six months, but a pretty healthy pipeline overall.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from the line of Rich Shane of JPMorgan. Richard Shane – JPMorgan: Hi guys, thanks for taking my question. Greg had asked part of it, I want to talk about the yield compression just a little bit in terms of the portfolio rotation. You added $20 million gross, you’ve experience $14 million, just under $15 million of repayments; was the move from $14.6 million yield to $14 million yield so the 60 basis point decline entirely a function of new lower yielding assets coming on and higher yielding assets coming off, or is there something else? I just – I want to make sure given it’s a relatively small gross repayment and gross originations that there’s not something else we’re missing there?

Jay Carvell

Management

No you’ve got it. It’s a primarily due to the new things we’ve added and also that the mix of what we’re adding, we’re continuing to be focused on the top part of the cap structure on senior unsecured and so you’re seeing some compression across all markets in that. I thing we said we generally try to stay in the smaller end of capital markets where you don’t see as much compression as you do in broadly syndicated markets, but it will creep across just as a general proposition. Richard Shane – JPMorgan: Got it, great. Thank you guys very much.

Jay Carvell

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Greg Mason of KBW. Greg Mason – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods: Great, thanks. I had one kind of quick follow-up on GMT, just because it’s such a large portion of your portfolio and earnings, can you talk about I believe that that company owns 10 planes and if I remember there were older planes. Can you just talk a little bit about that business and kind of your collateral coverage there in that and obviously you made a comment that you wrote it down on a more conservative use. So just maybe a little more color on that investment just because it’s so meaningful right now.

Jay Carvell

Management

Sure, Greg. You are right that is your memory is good on what that business is. What those guys are operating in is a slightly tougher environment and I think that’s why you have seen our valuation methodology kind of take that into account. So it’s both operating and leasing those planes and then the part out business you would probably recall from our discussion before, that we like the asset coverage there, but it’s clearly an operating business as well. So there is a couple of avenues there that you have for repayments and that was part of the discussion when we did the extension. Greg Mason – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods: Thanks you guys, I appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

At this time there are no further questions. I would now turn the call over to Jay Carvell for any closing remarks.

Jay Carvell

Management

Thank you everyone for joining us today. I look forward to speaking to you next quarter. Operator, I’ll turn it back to you.