Bain Capital Specialty Finance, Inc. Q4 FY2022 Earnings Call

Thanks, Rana. Good morning everyone and welcome to Bain Capital Specialty Finance fourth quarter and year ended December 31st, 2022 conference call. Yesterday after market close, we issued our earnings press release and investor presentation of our quarterly and year-end results, a copy of which are available on Bain Capital Specialty Finance's Investor Relations website. Following our remarks today, we will hold a question-and-answer session for analysts and investors. This call is being webcast and a replay will be made available on our website. This call and the webcast are property of Bain Capital Specialty Finance and any unauthorized broadcast in any form is strictly prohibited. Any forward-looking statements made today do not guarantee future performance and actual results may differ materially. These statements are based on current management expectations, which include risks and uncertainties which are identified in the Risk Factors section of our Form 10-K that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Bain Capital Specialty Finance assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements at this time unless required to do so by law. Lastly past performance does not guarantee future results. So, with that, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer Michael Ewald.

Thank you, Katherine. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on our earnings call today. I'm here with Mike Boyle, our President; and our Chief Financial Officer, Sally Dornaus. I'll start with an overview of our fourth quarter and year ended December 31st, 2022 results and then provide some thoughts on our performance, the overall market environment, and our positioning. Thereafter, Mike and Sally will discuss our investment portfolio and financial results in greater detail. Beginning with our results, Q4 net investment income per share was $0.37, equating to an annualized yield on average book value of 8.7%. Our net investment income covered our dividend by 103% during the fourth quarter. Q4 earnings per share were $0.67, equating to an annualized return on average book value of 15.7%. For the full year 2022, net investment income per share was $1.59, equal to a 9.3% return on equity. This was up over 100 basis points from our 2021 NII return on equity. Our NII covered our dividend by 115% during the year. Earnings per share for 2022 were $1.63, representing a total return on equity of 9.8% for the full year of 2022. Consistent with our 2021 earnings, our annual net earnings exceeded our dividend payout for a second consecutive year. We believe this is an important metric for measuring not only attractive levels of net investment income generated across our portfolio, but also overall credit performance of our portfolio and is a testament to Bain Capital Credit's experience investing in the middle market. Our returns were driven by high-quality interest income earned from our middle market borrowers and strong credit performance as demonstrated by overall net realized and unrealized gains across our portfolio during both the fourth quarter and full year. Our net asset value ended the year at $17.29 per share, up from $16.98 from the previous quarter and up from $17.04 as of Q4 2021, reflecting the portfolio strength. We are especially pleased with the strong performance in 2022 during a period of greater market volatility that occurred throughout the second half of the year. At year end, we estimate that our spillover income per share is approximately $0.32. We believe this is a healthy amount of undistributed income and beneficial to the stability of our dividend. For the second consecutive quarter, our Board increased our regular quarterly dividend by approximately 6% or $0.02 per share to $0.38 per share to shareholders of record as of March 31, 2023. This represents an annualized yield of 8.8% on book value as of December 31. On a year-over-year basis, we increased our regular dividend level by 12% driven by the higher levels of interest income being generated by the company. Our Q1 regular dividend represents an 11.7% annualized yield based on BCSF's current trading levels. We believe this is a very compelling level for investors on both an absolute and relative value basis across the BDC sector. Our investment portfolio is largely comprised of a highly diversified portfolio of first lien senior secured floating rate notes. The strong credit quality health of our portfolio is reflected by low non-accrual rates as over 98% of our debt investments at fair value are performing loans that are paying interest currently pursuant to their contractual terms. Furthermore, we are in a solid capital structure position with over 40% of our outstanding liabilities comprised of low-cost fixed-rate debt maturing in 2026. We ended the fourth quarter with a net leverage ratio of 1.14 times right in the middle of our target range of between 1.0 times and 1.25 times providing us with additional dry powder to capitalize on new investments in the current environment. As compared to prior loan vintages in recent years, we are seeing higher market spreads tighter documentation and more favorable overall structures. While we see compelling returns within the middle market opportunity set, we're also mindful of high inflation high interest rates and a slow-growth economic backdrop for middle market companies. We believe having a disciplined investment approach and prior experience investing through several cycles will be increasingly important to navigate potential risks ahead. Bain Capital Credit has 25 years of experience investing in the middle market and our senior leadership has remained consistent over that long-standing history. Given the current market backdrop, we have heightened our focus on our portfolio company's debt service coverage and free cash flow metrics. For companies that are on our watch list, we are looking ahead and focusing on our alignment with private equity sponsors on near-term value preservation and liquidity management. This is especially important to get ahead of any potential issues that may arise so we can identify problems early and preserve value to maximize our outcome in any downside scenario. 93% of our debt investments are structured with documentation containing financial covenants tied directly to management's forecast and we have majority control positions in 80% of our debt tranches allowing us to drive eventual outcomes in our direction. Bain Capital Credit's industry research team continues to provide us with even deeper sector expertise across many verticals and allows us to uncover companies and niche industries that are expected to be strong performers over the coming years. Recently we have been digging in further to uncover industries that may have less susceptibility to inflationary pressures and more importantly we are looking to avoid acutely impacted sectors for new investments. We believe this deep industry expertise will be increasingly important in a higher-default cycle and allow us to avoid businesses that may be in more cyclical sectors. We remain focused on resilient companies with rational capital structures and investments that have meaningful insulation to equity volatility. I will now turn the call over to Mike Boyle, our President to walk through our investment portfolio in greater detail.

Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. I will begin by discussing our investment activity for the fourth quarter and then provide an update with more details about our portfolio. In the fourth quarter, we funded new investments totaling $221 million spread across 44 portfolio companies, which included $101 million towards five new companies, $102 million towards 38 existing companies, and $18 million in the ISLP. Sales and repayment activity reached about $162 million, leading to a net funded portfolio growth of $59 million from the previous quarter. For the entire year, our investment fundings amounted to $1.5 billion, while total sales and repayments were $1.4 billion. We are pleased with our ability to moderately increase the size of our investment portfolio while remaining within our net leverage target range. Our investment activities for the fourth quarter and the entire year consisted of a blend of new funding for new portfolio companies and existing ones. Throughout the year, our new investment fundings, excluding joint venture investments, comprised approximately 65% for new companies and 35% for existing ones. Our incumbency advantage with our extensive portfolio of middle market borrowers enables us to provide additional capital to existing borrowers with whom we have established relationships. In 2022, we took advantage of higher market spreads on new originations. For first lien investments we originated for new companies in the fourth quarter, the weighted average spread was around 695 basis points, which is a 150 basis point increase compared to our new first lien originations in the same quarter last year. We not only have the capability to underwrite new first lien loans at higher spreads and yields, but we also noted a decrease in leverage levels on new loans, as lenders are focusing on maintaining leveraged free cash flow and fixed charge coverage ratios. We continue to prioritize structuring precise documentation, especially regarding leverage covenants and EBITDA definitions, to minimize add-backs. Looking at the investment portfolio, by the end of the fourth quarter, the fair value of our investment portfolio was $2.4 billion across a well-diversified group of 132 portfolio companies in 31 different sectors. We maintain a focus on first lien senior secured structures. As of December 31, 68% of the investment portfolio at fair value was allocated to first lien debt, 13% to joint ventures, 6% to second lien or subordinated debt, and 13% to preferred or common equity. It is notable that while the proportion of first lien investments has decreased over the past year, this is mainly due to our investment vehicles or joint ventures, which include over 96% first lien senior secured loans. At the end of December, the weighted average yield on the investment portfolio at amortized cost was 11.4% and at fair value 11.6%, compared to 10.2% and 10.6% on September 30, 2022. This increase was primarily due to higher reference rates on our loans. These figures also represent a significant yearly increase of approximately 380 basis points. 95% of our debt investments are tied to floating rates, positioning us well as interest rates have seen a rise beyond the reference rate floors of our loans. Throughout this quarter and the year, we continued to pursue our investment strategies within our joint ventures by focusing on investing in senior secured middle market loans. We have seen the positive impact of higher interest rates transit through our JVs, as nearly all our investments consist of floating rate loans. At year-end, our joint venture investments accounted for 13% of our overall portfolio's fair value and demonstrated strong performance aligning with our expectations. ISLP generated an annualized income return on equity of 11.5% in Q4 and 10.4% for 2022. Similarly, SLP delivered an annualized income return on equity of 21.5% in Q4 and 19.5% across 2022. The ISLP's investment portfolio, valued at fair value as of December 31, was around $708 million, comprising investments in 38 companies across 17 different sectors. 98.5% of the investment portfolio was in senior secured floating rate loans, which included 96% in first lien, 3% in second lien, and 1% in equity interests. As a reminder, the ISLP is our joint venture that focuses on investing in Europe and Australia, markets where Bain Capital Credit has a longstanding presence and experience. Although Europe has witnessed more market volatility than the U.S. over the past year, we feel confident about the underlying strength of our companies across our diversified portfolio. Our most significant sector exposure includes business services, high-tech industries, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals, which have shown resilience compared to more industrial-focused firms in Europe. By December 31, the SLP's investment portfolio was valued at approximately $547 million, consisting of investments in 48 companies across 21 different sectors. Every part of the investment portfolio is in senior secured loans, with 96% in the first lien and 4% in the second lien. Now, regarding portfolio credit quality trends, they remained stable from the previous quarter. According to our internal risk rating scale, 91% of our portfolio at fair value as of December 31, comprised risk ratings one and two, indicating that the companies are performing in line with or exceeding our initial expectations. Three investments, representing 8% of our portfolio at fair value, reflect companies impacted by inflationary pressures due to supply chain disruptions, rising freight costs, wage pressures, and increasing interest rates. We are focused on monitoring these companies closely but do not foresee any near-term restructurings or defaults. Risk ratings for our investments accounted for less than 2% of our portfolio at fair value, which included three companies in non-accrual status. Overall, we believe our credit fundamentals remain solid throughout the portfolio. Our median portfolio leverage stands at 5.1 times as of December 31, down from 5.6 times as of September 30. The net asset value of BCSF benefited from stable credit trends and the strong performance of our travel and aviation sectors, which continue to show solid fundamentals.

Thank you, Mike and good morning, everyone. I'll start the review of our fourth quarter 2022 results, with our income statement. Total investment income was $62.4 million for the three months ended December 31, 2022 as compared to $58.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The increase in investment income was primarily driven by the benefit of rising interest rates across our large portfolio of senior secured, floating rate loans. Total expenses for the fourth quarter were $37.3 million as compared to $28.7 million in the third quarter. The increase in expenses was driven by greater incentive fees, due to a higher cumulative net return earned by the company. As a reminder, we net our capital losses whether realized or unrealized against pre-incentive net investment income for the purposes of calculating incentive fees and measure our cumulative net return against our hurdle rate over a trailing three-year period. While this can create periods of volatility within our incentive fee stream, we believe this provides us with the proper alignment with our shareholders, especially during periods of elevated market volatility. Net investment income for the quarter was $24.2 million or $0.37 per share as compared to $30.1 million or $0.47 per share for the prior quarter. Our net investment income was lower during the quarter due to higher incentive fees earned from prior quarters given our three-year total return look back future. Excluding the impact of the look back, Q4 NII would have been approximately $0.43 per share. Net investment income per share for the full year 2022 was $1.59 per share. During the three months ended December 31, 2022, the company had net realized and unrealized gains of $19.3 million. GAAP income per share for the three months ended December 31, 2022 was $0.67 per share, bringing earnings per share for 2022 to $1.63. Moving over to our balance sheet. As of December 31, our investment portfolio at fair value totaled $2.4 billion and total assets of $2.6 billion. Total net assets were $1.1 billion as of December 31. NAV per share was $17.29, up from $16.98 at the end of the third quarter, representing a 1.8% increase quarter-over-quarter. Our NAV increase during the fourth quarter was primarily driven by net gain related to travel-related investments that generated strong performance. At the end of Q4, our debt-to-equity ratio was 1.25 times, unchanged from the end of Q3. Our net leverage ratio which represents principal debt outstanding less cash was 1.14 times at the end of Q4 as compared to 1.2 times at the end of Q3. During the quarter, we continued to improve our liability structure. We increased the size of our Sumitomo Credit Facility to $665 million, up from $635 million. And over the course of 2022, this facility more than doubled in size reflecting our continued efforts to further strengthen the company's balance sheet and funding profile. Subsequent to quarter end, we announced Kroll Bond Rating Agency or KBRA assigned the company an investment-grade rating of BBB and stable outlook. We are pleased to now have three investment-grade ratings from well-known and regarded rating agencies. Our capital structure is durable with a large portion of our outstanding debt in fixed-rate unsecured debt allocation. These structures provide the company with greater financial flexibility to withstand greater periods of volatility ahead. As of December 31, approximately 57% of our outstanding debt within floating rate debt and 43% at fixed rate. The company is well positioned to benefit from higher interest income across our portfolio given its large portfolio of floating rate loans. As of December 31, holding all else constant, we calculate that a 100 basis point increase in rates could increase our quarterly earnings by approximately $0.04 per share. Our Form 10-K provides further detail on our sensitivity to various changes in interest rates. Available liquidity consisting of cash and undrawn capacity on our credit facilities was approximately $317 million. This compares to $304 million of undrawn investment commitments. For the three months ended December 31, 2022, the weighted average interest rate on our debt outstanding was 4.3% as compared to 3.7% as of the prior quarter end. The increase is driven by higher SOFR rates on our floating rate debt structures. With that I will turn the call back over to Mike for closing remarks.

Thanks, Sally. In closing, we were pleased with the execution of our investment strategy on behalf of our shareholders during the fourth quarter and the entirety of 2022. We demonstrated high and attractive levels of investment income earned across our portfolio and strong credit performance across our middle market borrowers while mitigating risk wherever possible. As we look forward into 2023, we believe our portfolio is on strong footing to navigate greater periods of volatility ahead and that we are well positioned to capitalize on attractive growth opportunities. We remain committed to delivering value to our shareholders by producing attractive returns on equity and thank you for the privilege of managing our shareholders' capital. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from Arren Cyganovich with Citi.

Thanks. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the health of your portfolio of companies and how they're dealing with the rising interest costs and any other inflationary impacts of their businesses?

Sure. Happy to talk through it. So we did highlight in our remarks that the net leverage of our portfolio of companies on average is 5.1x which was actually down from 5.6x one quarter before, which I think indicates the continued strong earnings of the portfolio. We've also been focusing in on the interest coverage ratios across the portfolio where historically we've been north of 2x interest coverage. We've really focused in although that has come down the rising interest rates we are still around that 2x mark across the overall portfolio and any names that are closer to 1.5x interest coverage fall into that risk rating three baskets where we are focused on the near-term outlook for those companies and making sure we're avoiding any sort of restructuring or default. So companies overall have been performing quite well although it has been a much more challenged environment.

And Arren, I'd also add that from an inflationary perspective, we've been, I guess, pleased and surprised to the extent to which our portfolio of companies have been able to increase prices themselves in order to hold up their gross margins if not actually constant, but certainly up there. Of course, the negative consequence of that is that we just keep seeing an inflationary spiral, right? But overall, they've actually performed pretty well from a profitability perspective as well.

Thanks. And maybe just about the origination environment. Obviously, it seems much more lender-friendly today, but also I would imagine deal activities probably lower. What's your outlook in terms of originations going forward?

Yeah. I think deal activity is definitely lower. I think we continue to see muted sales and churn in the portfolio. Having said that, we continue to see some strength on the add-on front where if private equity sponsors are holding their investments longer, they're trying to bolt-on some acquisitions in the meantime. So you'll have seen the stats in our remarks and in our filings that we are active both on the new deal front, but also especially so on the add-on front. It's always hard to look in a crystal ball, right? But I would imagine that 2023 from a completely new LBO perspective is going to be more muted than 2022, although we saw some of that slowdown already happened in the second half last year anyway.

Got it. All right. Thank you.

Sure.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Paul Johnson with KBW. Please go ahead, sir.

Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Adding on Arren's question a little bit, have you guys conducted any sort of test, I guess, with your portfolio in terms of distressing portfolio of companies with something like the forward curve or perhaps something even more extreme with that and got my sense, I guess, where your portfolio falls in terms of interest coverage or anything that you can provide along those lines?

We conduct several stress tests on our portfolio to assess its overall health in the current environment. We analyze forward curves and make snap adjustments, such as considering the possibility of interest rates and SOFR rates rising above 5% for an extended period, to evaluate the potential decline in interest rate coverage. This factor is crucial when determining our risk ratings from one to four. Companies with a quicker decline in interest rate coverage fall into risk rating three, which represents a relatively small portion of our portfolio. In summary, we perform stress tests and are confident in the portfolio's health. Currently, we maintain approximately two times interest coverage based on the latest twelve months, and while we anticipate a decline in coverage when applying some of these tests, we believe our portfolio is adequately covered.

Got it. Appreciate that. Thanks for the color on that. Another question I just had, you guys have a fairly large percentage of your portfolio in the aerospace and defense industry, around 15% or so. That's generally been a big sector for you guys. That industry has obviously undergone some massive probably changes over the last year or so. I'm just wondering your kind of thoughts on that sector and whether you find things to be, I guess, more attractive there, how you feel about your current portfolio? Just any sort of color you can provide there would be interesting.

Sure. So, I mean, if you break it up a little bit and take the kind of pieces separately on the defense side that's certainly been pretty steady. And arguably that's a good place to be these days when you think about geopolitical concerns, and the likely backdrop that that has for defense spending. On the aerospace side, a lot of that exposure has been more on parts and pieces and components and things like that. There's a little bit of aircraft leasing in there, but we focus a little bit more on the widgets, if you will. And that certainly took a hit from COVID. It also took a hit quite frankly from the 737 MAX grounding. However, coming out of COVID, now you've certainly seen travel bounce back pretty considerably. And you've also seen that the 737 MAX orders pick back up again. And so we think we're on the right platforms from a commercial aerospace perspective the growing ones. We've seen that demand pick up pretty considerably again. And so we actually think it's a pretty interesting place to be today.

Yeah. Thanks. That's interesting. The last question a smaller one. I'm just wondering, if you're able to give any sort of sense of incentive fee for next quarter, if you expect it to be anywhere kind of in line with, I guess, what we had this quarter $9.2 million. Or any level you can provide would be helpful.

Yeah. So I think a little bit in our remarks, I talked about how our calculation works. And I think that the look back sometimes did this quarter, causes a little bit of volatility quarter-over-quarter. So we're a bit higher than I would expect the run rate to be although I think we have another quarter of this coming based on how we see the look back calculation working.

Great. Well, it looks like there's no more questions. I really appreciate everyone's time today. Certainly, if you have any other questions, please do reach out, and we look forward to updating you in the normal course here. Thanks very much.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.