OFS Capital Corporation
Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 5 Mar 2021

[Operator:]

Good day, and welcome to the OFS Capital Corporation Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. . After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steve Altebrando. Please go ahead.

[Stephen Altebrando:]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Also on the call today is Bilal Rashid, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OFS Capital; and Jeff Cerny, the company's Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Please note that we issued a press release this morning announcing our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2020 results. This press release was subsequently filed on Form 8-K with the SEC. Both documents can be obtained under the Investor Relations section of our website at ofscapital.com.

[Bilal Rashid:]

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, and welcome. We appreciate you joining us today to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2020 performance. I hope that you and your families continue to be safe and healthy. OFS Capital performed well in the fourth quarter as both the firm and our borrowers continue to successfully navigate through the economic impact of COVID. As the economy begins to return toward a new normal, our portfolio continues to perform well. Our view is based on the following takeaways from the fourth quarter. A 10.5% increase in net investment income compared to last quarter. This was in line with the preliminary estimates we released in early February. A 6% increase in our NAV, which stood at $11.85 per share at the end of the year. This was at the top of our estimated range. Our NAV per share at the end of 2020 was less than 5% below our NAV per share at the end of 2019, reflecting a strong recovery of our NAV per share during the pandemic. We declared a $0.20 per share quarterly distribution for the first quarter of 2021, an increase of approximately 11% compared to last quarter and our second consecutive quarterly increase. The overall health of our portfolio is good. We had no new loans or nonaccrual, reflecting our disciplined underwriting process and signs of an improving economy. $25 million of investments in new portfolio companies and $23 million of investments in our existing portfolio companies as they pursue growth opportunities. We believe that these achievements also reflect our team's ability to execute on our long-standing priority of capital preservation while also continuing to grow our earnings.

[Jeffrey Cerny:]

Thanks, Bilal. Good morning, everyone. As Bilal just discussed, we are encouraged by the performance of our portfolio companies as well as the add-on activity and the increase in new deal pipeline. We are optimistic about the economy and this pickup in investment activity. However, we remain cautious moving forward. Turning to our financial results. Starting with our balance sheet. We had approximately $37.7 million of cash at the end of the quarter. $32.2 million of that cash was in our SBIC and we utilized some of that cash in the first quarter to repay an additional $9.8 million of SBA debentures. Our debt-to-equity ratio at the end of the quarter, excluding our SBIC debt, improved to approximately 1.3x from 1.4x in the prior quarter. As you may recall, the SBIC leverage does not count towards the regulatory test. Our net asset value per share at the end of the quarter was $11.85, up $0.67 from the prior quarter. This 6% increase was primarily driven by higher fair value marks on our investments. Our NAV per share has made a strong recovery since the onset of the pandemic. As Bilal mentioned, we had no new nonaccruals in this quarter. Several of our portfolio companies identified opportunities for growth, for which we provided incremental funding. We currently have 3.8% of the loan portfolio on nonaccrual at fair value. Turning to the income statement. Total investment income for the quarter increased approximately $600,000 to $11.1 million. This increase was primarily due to syndication fees and other fees as well as dividends received on certain common equity investments. Total expenses of $8.1 million were up approximately $300,000, primarily due to an increase in incentive fees.

[Bilal Rashid:]

Thank you, Jeff. In closing, we are pleased with our performance in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2020. Additionally, we are happy to announce an increase in our distribution in the first quarter of 2021. We believe that our solid liquidity position will help us in this current economic environment as we seek to take advantage of potential new investment opportunities and support our existing portfolio companies.

[Operator:]

. The first question comes from .

[Unidentified Analyst:]

It's . Congratulations on the quarter. Just a question. Could you give a little color on your holdings in Pfanstiehl and how you -- what you see going forward with that holding?

[Jeffrey Cerny:]

Yes. David, this is Jeff Cerny. Yes, Pfanstiehl has been a very, very strong performer. They supply raw materials to the pharma industry, and they work with some of the leading biopharma firms. And we expect continued strong performance from that company, and they've got some nice tailwinds behind them in this business with COVID, but notwithstanding COVID, they've just been a very strong performer, and we expect continued strong performance moving forward.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Okay. Are you concerned about the concentration in your portfolio with that holding?

[Jeffrey Cerny:]

I think -- look, it certainly is a concentration in the portfolio, but our cost on that is quite low. And it's one of those assets that we're very happy to have invested in it. But yes, as the fair value continues to increase, it does cause some concentration concerns that we're thinking about.

[Operator:]

The next question comes from Mickey Schleien with Ladenburg.

[Mickey Schleien:]

I wanted to ask you a high-level question. How do you feel about the leverage loan market supply and demand balance when we think about the amount of capital in the market and the capital providers are all chasing borrowers who are performing well during the pandemic? And what does that portend for spread compression?

[Bilal Rashid:]

Yes. So I think the -- certainly, over the last several months, I mean, we've seen that this demand supply imbalance has been growing in favor of the borrowers. I think it becomes harder to deploy capital in environments like this, but it's not impossible. I think it's is taking us more effort to find the right deals, but we're still able to find the right deals across really the loan asset class. So you're looking at larger borrowers in the syndicated asset class, also on the middle market asset class, we have still been able to find some attractive opportunities. And also, from time to time, in the structured credit asset class, I think we've been able to find some good opportunities there as well. So I think having a broad capability where you can look at relative value across the different asset classes within the credit space, I think, does benefit us. And -- but I do agree with you. I think it's harder to put money to work, but not impossible, and we're still finding some decent opportunities.

[Mickey Schleien:]

I appreciate that, Bilal. And another follow-up sort of high-level question. We're starting to see some meaningful wholesale price inflation and there's tightness in certain parts of the labor market despite all the unemployment figures. So I'd like to understand how you feel about your borrowers' ability to pass on those cost increases to their customers and protect their margins.

[Bilal Rashid:]

Yes. So I think that's a good question. I think that at least so far, we haven't seen the -- that impact through wage inflation or inflation in commodity prices. But I think when we make investments, I mean, part of our due diligence process and underwriting process is to look at the margins in companies that we are investing in and being able to make sure that in times when there's a potential for inflation or margins to go down that our investment is still protected. And so I think some of that, for us, happens when we are looking at the leverage that we are putting on these companies and also their ability to pass on some of the impact of inflation to their customers. So at this point, I think it's a little bit early. We are not seeing that pressure right now, but we believe that the way we have structured our loan investments, our hope and expectation would be that we would still be able to withstand that pressure on our borrowers.

[Mickey Schleien:]

That's helpful. And with what you just said in mind, what trends are you seeing in apart from the highly impacted borrowers related to COVID, what sort of trends are you seeing in revenue and EBITDA margins? And if you could remind us what is sort of the average revenue and EBITDA on the portfolio?

[Bilal Rashid:]

Yes. So I think right now, we're actually -- we are seeing positive trends in the sectors that have not been impacted by COVID directly. And so we're seeing both positive trends on the revenue and EBITDA side, which is very encouraging. I think as it relates to the average EBITDA and average revenue on the loans that we originate, I'll let Jeff answer that question.

[Jeffrey Cerny:]

Yes. As far as the revenues and loans that we originate, they tend to range from about $5 million to $20 million or so of EBITDA. And let's call it, $30 million to $150 million of top line.

[Mickey Schleien:]

Okay. So very much in the middle market. And Jeff, 1 last question, sort of a housekeeping question. Could you give us a sense of the breakdown of the senior secured loan portfolio between first-lien unit tranche and second lien?

[Jeffrey Cerny:]

Yes. Mickey, I'd say, about 25% of the portfolio is second lien. I would say second-lien loans tend to be the larger, more liquid loans and very valuable in this market and very liquid, higher-yielding loans. So we feel quite comfortable with that second-lien exposure at 25%.

[Mickey Schleien:]

And the tranche?

[Jeffrey Cerny:]

And the unit tranche, let's call it, maybe 1/3 or so of the first lien.

[Operator:]

This concludes our Q&A session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Bilal Rashid for any closing remarks.

[Bilal Rashid:]

Thank you all for joining our call today, and we look forward to speaking with everyone again next quarter. Operator, you may now end the call. Thank you.

[Operator:]

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.