Rand Capital Corporation
Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 8 Mar 2021

[Operator:]

Greetings, and welcome to Rand Capital Corporation Fourth Quarter 2020 Financial Results. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Deborah Pawlowski, Rand Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

[Deborah Pawlowski:]

Thank you, Doug, and good afternoon, everyone. We certainly appreciate your time today and your interest in Rand Capital. As we discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial results, I will have Pete Grum, our Chief Executive Officer and Dan Penberthy, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, provide you some formal remarks and then we will open it for Q&A. You should have a copy of the release that crossed the wires this morning as well as the slides that will accompany our conversation. If not, they are available on our website at www.randcapital.com.

[Pete Grum:]

Thank you, Deb. Thank you, and good morning or actually afternoon everyone and thanks for your time today. 2020 marked another important year in our transformation into an income-producing, dividend-paying BDC. Importantly, I believe we ended the year on a strong note. For the quarter, net investment income per share was up nearly 4x to $0.29 per share. For the full-year, net investment income was $1.8 million, or $0.77 per share. We began this transformation process in 2019 with the sale of shares to East Asset Management that raised $25 million in equity. Concurrent with the sale, we externalized our management to Rand Capital Management. 2020, there were several additional achievements that were part of that path of transformation to increase shareholder value. Let me just outline them. Because we are electing for IRS purposes to become a regulated investment company or RIC, as we refer to it, in May last year, we distributed all of our accumulated earnings and profits since inception with a special dividend. Total dividend was $23.7 million, or $1.62 per share and was paid out with a combination of cash and stock. Later that month, we executed a 1

[Dan Penberthy:]

Thanks, Pete, and good afternoon, everyone. Slides 9 and 10 provide an overview of our financial summary and operational highlights. Total investment income in 2020 was $3.1 million, a 14% increase over last year and does reflect the shift in our portfolio profile to more debt investments. This increased debt portfolio resulted in $941,000 or a 62% increase in portfolio interest income. The externalization of the administration and management of the Rand portfolio through the Rand Capital Management external manager did reduce our operating cost by $796,000 compared with 2019. As a result of the higher investment income, coupled with the reduced operating expenses, net assets from operations measurably improved $744,000, or $0.33 per share. If we turn to Slides 11 and 12, you will see a waterfall graph for the changes in NAV for the quarter as well as for the full 2020 period. The fourth quarter change reflects net realized loss on the sales and disposition of investments of $8.4 million. It is important to recognize that in excess of $8 million of this loss was simply recording a realized loss for portfolio investments that had been previously deemed worthless and had valuations carried at zero. This is why you will also see a large offsetting valuation adjustment to net unrealized depreciation. Effectively, we have moved unrealized depreciation to a realized loss position.

[Operator:]

Than you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. We have a question from the line of , private investor. You may proceed with your question.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Yes, thank you. It looks like ACV auctions you did – it’s carried at what the last raise was. So it’s up from $6.2 million. Is that correct?

[Pete Grum:]

I think we put in there when we reflected a raise and I don’t believe it was their last raise.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

So, it’s undervalued versus the last raise, correct? Because I believe the last raise was higher than the one before. I had understood our value was $6.2 million based on the last raise. So, I see the $6.5 million. I just assume that, that was up. And my question about it is do you have any indication where it might come in the S-1?

[Pete Grum:]

No, we don’t. Your guess is as good as mine.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Okay. Okay, thank you.

[Pete Grum:]

Thanks, Lance.

[Operator:]

There are no other questions in the queue. I’d like to hand the call back to Mr. Grum for closing remarks.

[Pete Grum:]

I want to thank all of you for joining us this afternoon and for your interest in Rand Capital. We look forward to updating all of you on our first quarter 2021 results in May, and have a great day.

[Operator:]

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.