Earnings Labs

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

Q1 2017 Earnings Call· Fri, May 5, 2017

$25.47

+0.00%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Kristen and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the WhiteHorse Financial First Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. Our hosts for today's call are, Stuart Aronson, Chief Executive Officer, and Ed Giordano, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 1.00 PM Eastern Time. The replay dial-in number is 404-537-3406 and the PIN number is 99156801. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Sean Silva of Prosek Partners.

Sean Silva

Analyst

Thank you, Kristen, and thank you everyone for joining us today to discuss WhiteHorse Finance's first quarter 2017 earnings results. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements which are not based on historical facts made during this call, including any statements relating to financial guidance, may be 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. During this call, we will discuss GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures, for which a reconciliation can be found in our press release, which is available on our Web-site at www.whitehorsefinance.com. With that, allow me to introduce WhiteHorse Finance's CEO, Stuart Aronson. Stuart, you may begin.

Stuart Aronson

Analyst

Thank you, Sean. Good morning and thank you for joining us today. As you're aware, we issued our press release this morning prior to market open and I hope you've had a chance to review our results, which are also available on our Web-site. I'm going to take you through our first quarter operating performance, and then Ed will review the financial results, after which we'll take your questions. I'm pleased to share that WhiteHorse Finance had a strong quarter. Our first quarter results were driven by continued robust pipeline that added four new investments to our portfolio. I'll provide more detail on these originations in a few minutes. Through our ability to capitalize on market dynamics while leveraging enhancements we've recently made to the quality of our portfolio, WhiteHorse Finance generated net investment income of $0.356 per share, which is just above our quarterly shareholder distribution of $0.355. NAV for the quarter was up at $13.80 per share, a $0.17 increase from last quarter, and our average unlevered effective yield of 11.8% held constant from last quarter. The whole position of the four loans we originated during the quarter fell between our target range of $4 million to $20 million. All the deals were directly originated and ranged in leverage from 2.9x to 5.7x, with equity cushions of between 40% and 60%. Two of these were first lien loans and two of them were second lien loans. The first origination, AST, is an application software company based in Illinois. It is a first lien loan of $4.9 million with an effective yield of 9.6%. The second deal, Climate Pros, is an HVAC and refrigeration service provider based in Illinois. It is a first lien loan of $4.9 million, with an average effective yield of 10.9%. The third asset, StackPath,…

Edward Giordano

Analyst

Thanks, Stuart. Turning to the Q1 first quarter results, NII was $6.5 million for the quarter or $0.356 per share, compared to $6.6 million or $0.358 per share in the prior quarter. Our investment income continues to consist primarily of recurring cash interest. We reported a net increase in net assets from operations of $9.6 million or $0.53 per share for the first quarter. As of March 31, 2017, net asset value was $252.5 million or $13.80 per share, up from $249.4 million or $13.63 per share as reported for Q4. Switching over to portfolio investment activity, the risk ratings on our portfolio remained mostly unchanged. We continued to maintain a 3 rating in our energy holdings to reflect the current macroeconomic market conditions. And as a reminder, we continue to have low exposure to the energy sector overall with approximately 2% of our portfolio representing energy or energy-related investments. Turning to our balance sheet, we had cash resources of approximately $20.1 million as of March 31, 2017, and approximately $23.7 million of undrawn capacity under our revolving credit facility. We continue to closely monitor our asset coverage ratio and feel comfortable with our leverage as of March 31, 2017. The Company's asset coverage ratio for borrowed amounts, as defined by the 1940 Act, was 229.8% at the end of the first quarter, well above the statute requirement of 200%. Our net effective debt-to-equity ratio after adjusting for cash on hand was 0.69x. Last, I'd like to highlight our quarterly distribution. On March 17th, we declared a distribution for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 of $0.355 per share, for a total distribution of $6.5 million to stockholders of record as of March 27, 2017. The distribution was paid to stockholders on April 3rd. This marks the Company's 18th distribution since our IPO in December 2012, with all distributions at the rate of $0.355 per share per quarter. We expect to be in a position to continue our regular distributions. I will now turn the call to the operator for your questions. Operator?

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Dan Nicholas with Baird.

Dan Nicholas

Analyst

Stuart, appreciate the color you gave on the portfolio and the sourcing network. Just diving in a little deeper, I'm wondering if you could kind of give us a bit of a breakdown on the sourcing behind 1Q originations and what you're seeing into 2Q, is it more – are you seeing more in the non-sponsored space or going more after the non-sponsored space given some of the competitive dynamics you mentioned?

Stuart Aronson

Analyst

Yes, I'm happy to give more color on that. The timing to close deals is typically between two and four months. So deals that were closing in Q1 were for the most part deals that started gestating well before that or before that. The current position in the sponsor market was a little bit less aggressive towards the end of the year and we did source several deals that were sponsor transactions. As we're in this year, the originations that we're finding, we are active in both the sponsor and non-sponsor market, but the deals that we're finding to be more appealing and the deals that we're seeking and getting mandates on have been primarily non-sponsor assets. So, the two assets that are mandated and closing already in Q2 are both non-sponsor assets. But you can continue to see us expect to play both sectors and try to pick and choose the best risk-return opportunities in both the sponsor and non-sponsor market.

Dan Nicholas

Analyst

Okay, that's helpful. And then I think in the past you all talked about kind of roughly a 50-50 split there between sponsored and non-sponsored activity in the portfolio. Is that still kind of what we can expect going forward?

Stuart Aronson

Analyst

I would say, in the current market environment, my expectation would be that we'd be a higher percentage of non-sponsor deals and a lower percentage of sponsor deals. If there were any type of correction in the sponsor market where the sponsor deals became relatively more attractive from a risk return standpoint, we'd pivot that very quickly. But in today's market and given our current pipeline, the most attractive opportunities we're seeing are mostly non-sponsor deals.

Dan Nicholas

Analyst

Got it, okay. That's helpful. Thanks Stuart.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation in the WhiteHorse Financial First Quarter 2017 Earnings Call. All participants may disconnect at this time.