Earnings Call Transcript - NMFC Q1 2024

Operator, Operator

Good day, and welcome to the New Mountain Finance Corporation First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. This event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Kline, President and CEO of New Mountain Finance. Please go ahead.

John Kline, President and CEO

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to New Mountain Finance Corporation's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. On the line with me here today are Steve Klinsky, Chairman of NMFC and CEO of New Mountain Capital; Laura Holston, COO of NMFC; and Kris Corbett, CFO and Treasurer of NMFC. Laura is a little under the weather today, so she will not be making prepared remarks but will be available for Q&A. Now Steve is going to make some introductory remarks, but before he does, I'd like to ask Kris to make some important statements regarding today's call.

Kris Corbett, CFO and Treasurer

Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. Before we get into the presentation, I would like to advise everyone that today's call and webcast are being recorded. Please note that they are the property of New Mountain Finance Corporation and that any unauthorized broadcast in any form is strictly prohibited. Information about the audio replay of this call is available on our May 1 earnings press release. I would also like to call your attention to the customary safe harbor disclosure in our press release and on Pages 2 and 3 of our slide presentation regarding forward-looking statements. Today's conference call and webcast may include forward-looking statements and projections, and we ask that you refer to our most recent filings with the SEC for important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements and projections. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements or projections unless required to by law. To obtain copies of our latest SEC filings and to access the slide presentation that we'll be referencing throughout this call, please visit our website at www.newmountainfinance.com. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Steve Klinsky, NMFC's Chairman, who will give some highlights beginning on Page 5 of the slide presentation. Steve?

Steven Klinsky, Chairman and CEO of New Mountain Capital

Thanks, Kris. It's great to be able to address you all today, both as NMFC's Chairman and as a major fellow shareholder. Adjusted net investment income for the quarter was $0.36 per share, in line with our implied guidance and more than covering our $0.32 per share regular dividend that was paid in cash on March 29. Our net asset value per share decreased slightly to $12.77, a $0.10 decline compared to last quarter. NMFC experienced strong core credit performance, offset by a decrease in value of one of our equity positions, which John will discuss later in the presentation. Given our earnings of $0.36 per share this quarter, we will make our fifth consecutive variable supplemental dividend payment. The variable supplemental dividend for this quarter will be $0.02 per share, which is equal to half of the amount of our Q1 quarterly earnings in excess of our regular dividend of $0.32. NMFC will pay these distributions on June 28 to holders of record as of June 14. The remainder of the excess earnings will remain on our balance sheet and may be paid out in the future. Our dividend at $0.34 represents an annualized current distribution yield of 11%. Looking forward to Q2, in addition to our $0.32 regular dividend, we expect to again generate a variable supplemental dividend of $0.02 per share, or $0.34 in total payable in the third quarter of 2024. We also continue to keep our dividend protection program in place and are committed to reduce our incentive fee if and as needed, to fully support the $0.32 per share quarterly regular dividend. We do not anticipate utilizing this pledge given our strong credit performance and current earnings power. We believe the strength of New Mountain and of NMFC is driven by the consistency of our strategy and the quality of our team. New Mountain overall now numbers over 245 members, and the firm has developed specialties in attractive defensive growth that is acyclical growth sectors such as life science supplies, health care information technology, software, infrastructure services and digital engineering. When pursuing our credit investing efforts, we utilize our extensive group of industry experts to provide unique knowledge and expertise that allows us to make very informed, high-conviction underwriting decisions. Over the last year, we have continued to expand the quality of our overall team. New Mountain's private equity funds have never had a bankruptcy or missed an interest payment, and the firm now manages over $50 billion of assets. Similarly, NMFC has experienced only 5 basis points of average annualized net realized losses in its 13 years as a public company, while paying out nearly $18 per share of cumulative ordinary supplemental and special dividends. We believe our loans today are well positioned overall in defensive growth industries that we think are right in all times and particularly attractive in less certain economic times. Finally, we, as management, continue as major shareholders of NMFC. I and NMFC's other senior management employees currently own approximately 12% of NMFC's total shares personally. With that, let me turn the call to John.

John Kline, President and CEO

Thank you, Steve. I would like to begin by offering some more details on our direct lending investment strategy and track record. Starting on Page 8, we highlight our exposure to a diversified list of defensive, noncyclical sectors. These sectors mapped industries where New Mountain has made successful private equity investments and where our firm's knowledge is the strongest. We seek to make investments in companies with durable growth drivers, predictable revenue streams, margin stability and great free cash flow conversion. As you can see from the industry pie chart on Page 8, we have virtually no exposure to cyclical, volatile and secularly challenged industries, which could be riskier areas to invest in given today's higher rate environment. Our strategy has been consistent over our 13 years as a public company, and it allows us to operate with confidence in any economic environment. Page 9 provides a high-level snapshot of our business where we show a long-term track record of delivering consistent, enhanced yield to our shareholders by minimizing credit losses and distributing virtually all of our excess income to shareholders. Since our IPO in 2011, NMFC has returned over $1.2 billion to shareholders through our dividend program, generating an annualized return of approximately 10%. This represents a very strong cash flow-oriented return well in excess of the high-yield index. Our current portfolio invests in companies within high-quality industries that are performing well and where our last dollar of risk is approximately 40% of the purchase price paid for the business. We lend primarily to businesses owned by financial sponsors, who are sophisticated and supportive owners with significant capital that is junior to the loans that we make. Turning to Page 10. The internal risk rating of our portfolio improved quarter-over-quarter with 96.5% of our portfolio rated green compared to 94.5% last quarter. This represents the highest level of green-rated assets since we began using the heat map rating system during COVID. Our most challenged names within the orange and red categories represent less than 1.5% of NMFC's fair value, making them a negligible part of our portfolio. We have de-risked our book value by marking our red names to just 8% of face value and our orange names to 67% of face value. Overall, when we consider the very high proportion of green names compared to our nongreen names, our portfolio is as healthy as it has been in recent history. The updated heat map is shown in its entirety on Page 11 and given our portfolio's orientation towards defensive sectors like software, business services and health care, we believe our assets are well positioned to continue to perform no matter how the economic landscape develops. We did not have any negative risk rating migrations during the quarter. We also received full repayment of our $37.5 million second lien position in Franklin Energy, a yellow rated name marked at $0.91 as of 12/31. As Franklin Energy and other material paydowns in recent quarters demonstrate, we continue to believe that many of our non-green names have the ability to migrate back to green and achieve exits at par. Turning to Page 12. We provide a graphical analysis of NAV changes during the quarter, resulting in a book value of $12.77. Overall, the quarter benefited from very good core credit performance and a supportive market environment. However, we did reduce the carrying value of our equity stake in Edmentum. As a reminder, Edmentum is a leading provider of K-12 online learning programs. We have been a minority owner since the restructuring in 2015 and have since recovered our cost basis while maintaining a residual equity position in the company. During COVID, Edmentum and certain other players in the education technology market benefited from an accelerated shift to virtual learning. As the market normalizes post COVID, we have seen a slowdown in performance and therefore, reversed some of the unrealized gain we had previously recognized. We believe the market has stabilized, and Edmentum remains well positioned and the value proposition of the company's products remains strong. Page 13 addresses NMFC's nonaccrual performance. On the left side of the page, we show the current state of the portfolio, where we have approximately $3.1 billion of investments at fair value, with $49 million or 1.6% of the portfolio currently on nonaccrual. As we mentioned on our Q4 earnings call, Careismatic Brands, a red name with a current fair market value of just $0.4 million, filed for bankruptcy and was placed on nonaccrual. The other names on nonaccrual are for much older vintages have been written down materially and have a good chance of exiting the portfolio in the medium term. On the right side of the page, we show our cumulative credit performance since IPO, where NMFC has made $9.5 billion of investments while realizing losses of only $37 million. This represents an annualized net realized loss rate of approximately 5 basis points since IPO. This is consistent with our value proposition of preserving principal value and distributing nearly all of our net investment income through predictable quarterly dividends. On Page 14, we present NMFC's overall economic performance since IPO, showing that we have delivered consistent and compelling returns. Cumulatively, NMFC has earned nearly $1.3 billion in net investment income, while generating only $37 million of cumulative net realized losses and only $58 million of net unrealized depreciation, resulting in $1.2 billion of value created for shareholders. Moving to general market commentary, we continue to believe the outlook for the remainder of 2024 in the sponsor-backed direct lending market is positive. Deal flow is picking up in real time, but still remains depressed versus historical levels. There are pockets of activity in our defensive growth verticals where we have the opportunity to make loans at attractive yields while staying very selective. Deal structures remain compelling with leverage levels below peak levels and significant sponsor equity contributions representing the vast majority of the capital structures. We remain bullish on the medium- and long-term outlook for M&A activity given the magnitude of dry powder for private equity and the increasing pressure to return capital to LPs, as well as more attractive financing markets for borrowers. Syndicated markets are open, and we continue to see modest spread compression related to the increased competition. However, we expect the supply/demand imbalance to normalize as soon as we see a more regular deal flow environment return. While the syndicated markets are open, the direct lending market remains the financing market of choice for sponsors, as the majority of our sponsors still recognize the benefits of direct lending solutions, including more certain execution, more flexibility around creating bespoke capital structures and the ability to hand select lenders. In addition to new activity, we have seen an increased volume of opportunistic refinancing and add-on opportunities within our large portfolio of over 100 unique borrowers. This provides an ongoing opportunity set to make incremental loans to existing well-performing companies seeking to pursue accretive M&A. Page 16 presents an interest rate analysis that provides insight into the effect of base rates on NMFC's earnings. As a reminder, the NMFC loan portfolio is 88% floating rate and 12% fixed rate, while our liabilities are 54% fixed rate and 46% floating rate as of quarter end. During Q1, we fully swapped our investment-grade bond issuance from fixed to floating rate. As we access the investment-grade market in the future, we would expect to hedge interest rate risk in this manner again. Moving on to Page 17. In Q1, we saw continued portfolio velocity. We originated $192 million of assets, partially offset by $145 million of repayments. Our originations consisted of investments in our core defensive growth power alleys, including niches of enterprise software and business services. I'd highlight that 3 of our repayments during the first quarter were second lien positions. And turning to Page 18, subsequent to quarter end, we received 4 additional second lien repayments. We believe this uptick in second lien repayments is a function of credit selection. We generally reserve our second lien capacity for our highest conviction opportunities. These companies have largely performed well and have been able to take advantage of the current market environment to either sell or refinance their capital structures. These refinancings combined with our incumbency position often provide a mechanism for us to rotate from second lien to first lien, as you can see in the case of OEConnection and TriTech. Turning to Page 19, we show our asset mix where approximately 69% of our investments, inclusive of first lien SLPs and net lease, are senior in nature. As I mentioned, this continues to skew more senior over time. Second lien position has decreased from 18% in Q1 of last year to 14% this quarter, and only 10% pro forma for the post-quarter end second lien repayments. Approximately 8% of the portfolio is comprised of our equity positions, the largest of which are shown on the right side of the page. As mentioned in prior quarters, we hope to monetize certain of these equity positions in the medium term and rotate those dollars into cash-yielding assets. Page 20 shows the average yield of NMFC's portfolio has increased from 10.9% in Q4 to 11.1% for Q1, primarily due to the higher, prolonged shift in the base rate curve. Generally speaking, even though spreads are tighter, as evidenced by lower yields on our originations compared to our repayments, yields remain attractive and support our net investment income target. Page 21 highlights the scale and credit trends of our underlying borrowers. As you can see, the weighted average EBITDA of our borrowers has increased over the last several quarters to $179 million. This is primarily attributable to our originations of some larger companies as well as growth at individual portfolio companies that we lend to. While we first and foremost concentrate on how an opportunity maps against our defensive growth criteria and internal New Mountain knowledge, we believe that larger borrowers tend to be marginally safer, all else equal. We also show the relevant leverage and interest coverage stats across the portfolio. Portfolio company leverage has decreased slightly over the last several quarters. Loan-to-values continue to be quite compelling, and the current portfolio has an average loan-to-value of 43%. Interest coverage ratios have stabilized as expected, and the weighted average interest coverage on the portfolio actually increased slightly to 1.7x this quarter. We see sponsors continue to proactively support company liquidity and continued M&A activity. This is a great indication that our portfolio consists of companies that are performing well and are able to attract additional investments at healthy valuation. Finally, as illustrated on Page 22, we have a diversified portfolio across 115 portfolio companies, the top 15 investment, inclusive of our SLP funds and net lease account, for approximately 42% of total fair value and represent our highest conviction names. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Kris Corbett, to discuss our financial results.

Kris Corbett, CFO and Treasurer

Thank you, John. For more details, please refer to our quarterly report on Form 10-Q that was filed yesterday with the SEC. As shown on Slide 23, the portfolio had approximately $3.1 billion in investments at fair value on March 31 and total assets of $3.3 billion, with total liabilities of $1.9 billion, of which total statutory debt outstanding was $1.5 billion. Net asset value of $1.4 billion or $12.77 per share was down slightly compared to the prior quarter. At quarter end, our statutory debt-to-equity ratio was 1.08:1 and 1.03:1 net of available cash on the balance sheet. This represents the lower end of our target range and is meaningfully lower than Q1 of the prior year. On Slide 24, we show our quarterly income statement results. For the current quarter, we earned total investment income of $90.3 million, a 2% decrease from the prior year. Total net expenses of approximately $53 million decreased 1% versus the prior year. As a reminder, the investment adviser has committed to a management fee of 1.25% for the 2024 calendar year. As mentioned earlier, the investment adviser has also pledged to reduce its incentive fee if and as needed during this period to fully support the $0.32 per share regular quarterly dividend. Based on our forward view of the earnings power of the business, we do not expect to use this pledge. It is important to note that the investment adviser cannot recoup fees previously waived. Our adjusted net investment income for the quarter was $0.36 per weighted average share, which has meaningfully exceeded our Q1 regular dividend of $0.32 per share.

John Kline, President and CEO

As Slide 25 demonstrates, 98% of our total investment income is recurring this quarter, given the minimal fees earned in Q1. You will see historically that over 90% of our quarterly income is recurring in nature and on average, over 80% of our income is regularly paid in cash. We believe this consistency shows the stability and predictability of our investment income. Importantly, over 99% of our quarterly noncash income is generated from our green rated names. Turning to Slide 26. The red line shows the coverage of our regular dividend. This quarter, adjusted NII exceeded our Q1 regular dividend by $0.04 per share. For Q1 2024, our Board of Directors has again declared a regular dividend of $0.32 per share, as well as a supplemental dividend of $0.02 per share. On Slide 27, we highlight our various financing sources and diversified leverage profile. Taking into account the SBA guaranteed debentures, we have $2.6 billion of total borrowing capacity, with $787 million available on our revolving line subject to borrowing base limitations. This represents our most significant availability since the inception of our business and highlights our strong liquidity position. As a reminder, covenants under both our Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank credit facilities are generally tied to the operating performance of the underlying businesses that we lend to rather than the marks of our investments at any given time, which we think is particularly important during more volatile times. Finally, on Slide 28, we show our leverage maturity schedule. During the quarter, we issued a $300 million 5-year investment grade bond with very strong execution for NMFC's first issuance of this kind. In the future, we plan to be repeat issuers in the investment-grade debt markets to further ladder our maturities in the most cost-efficient manner. Notably, nearly 70% of our debt matures in or after 2027. With that, I'd like to turn the call back over to John. Thank you, Kris. As we look forward over the remainder of 2024, we remain confident in the continued strong performance of NMFC's portfolio and believe we are on track to continue to deliver great risk-adjusted returns to our shareholders. We once again would like to thank all of our stakeholders for the ongoing partnership and support and look forward to maintaining our dialogue throughout the year. I will now turn things back to the operator to begin Q&A.

Operator, Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Bryce Rowe of B. Riley.

Bryce Rowe, Analyst

Maybe I just wanted to start on some of the origination versus repayment dynamic in terms of pricing. And I think you noted it in your prepared remarks, as well as kind of show it on Slide 20. So it looks like some of the repayment activity is coming off at a higher yield and the originations are coming on at a lower yield. Can you talk about that dynamic and kind of what your expectations are, especially considering maybe increased competition and tighter spreads that we're starting to see here?

John Kline, President and CEO

Sure, that's true when you examine the numbers. We had some second lien positions repaid that had attractive spreads. Currently, the primarily unitranche loans we are originating also have good spreads, although they are slightly lower. I believe this is a moment where there isn't enough deal activity to meet the demand in the lending community. However, we believe this could normalize over the rest of the year, and we expect spreads to at least stabilize and possibly improve. Looking at our originations, we are pleased with the risk-adjusted returns these new loans provide and believe they are wise investments. We're confident about them, though we need to monitor our return on equity. Nonetheless, based on the results and the earning potential of the portfolio, we are in a good position and feel optimistic for the rest of the year.

Bryce Rowe, Analyst

Maybe one question on the income statement. Dividends from the SLPs look to be a little bit larger than you've seen here recently, anything specifically going on and just trying to get a feel for how sustainable those dividend levels are.

John Kline, President and CEO

Sure. The SLP funds have been great for us over the last 10 years. And I really think that over the course of the last 2 to 3 years, we've accumulated positions in really well-performing loans that have very nice spreads. And I think we're reaping the benefits of that right now. I think the SLPs will continue to produce great income for NMFC. It's possible that there'll be a little bit of spread pressure on those funds. But as far as I can see over the next few quarters, I think the distribution yields from the SLPs will be very strong.

Bryce Rowe, Analyst

Last one for me, and not just around the capital structure. You've got some SBA debentures that are starting to approach maturity in '25. I'm curious how you're thinking about the SBIC licenses that you have. Is there an opportunity to reapply for a third? Or have you guys kind of outpaced those SBIC licenses and expect them just to level off here?

John Kline, President and CEO

Sure. I think the SBA program has been a really great program for us for a long period of time. SBA 1 has done very well. But as you mentioned, it is heading towards maturity. Right now, our mindset is to try to replace that with a third license, but we don't have anything to report with regard to achieving that third license. And so that's sort of where things stand. So we're very aware of the March '25 first maturity. And of course, we still have SBA II, which has longer maturities. So generally, we feel really good about the SBA program, and we've been able to populate it with good conforming loans. I guess I'd also note that we have some other debt that's coming due over the next year or so that is actually at much higher rates. So there could potentially be an opportunity depending on what the overall rate environment looks like there could be an opportunity to refinance those at attractive rates.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Finian O'Shea of Wells Fargo.

Finian O'Shea, Analyst

Could you clarify the potential incentive fee waivers? I understand the points you made, but it seemed like this applies to a specific timeframe or addresses a particular ROE headwind. Can you explain that again, including how long it lasts and what the anticipated headwinds might be?

John Kline, President and CEO

Thank you for the question. We've had this program in place for some time now. The main goal is to assure our investors that if our earnings fall below the $0.32 base dividend, we will waive the incentive fee and redirect those funds back into the company to ensure that the net investment income covers our dividend. This is a strong commitment and provides our stakeholders with reassurance that even if the net investment income dips below $0.32, they can still feel confident in their $0.32 dividend. This initiative has been in effect for a while, and while we haven't discussed it much lately due to our net investment income remaining significantly above $0.32, we want investors to keep this in mind. The program is set to expire at the end of this year, but I plan to talk to our Board soon about extending it. We are very supportive of this program, and I believe many of our shareholders appreciate it.

Finian O'Shea, Analyst

What I'm considering is that if base rates decline, New Mountain and several other BDCs would likely have to implement dividend cuts. In that potential new environment, would the current situation still be applicable?

John Kline, President and CEO

Yes. In the past, we have consistently set the dividend protection program to be in effect for a certain period. I would suggest discussing with our Board the possibility of extending it for one to two years. If we proceed with this, we would honor our commitment to the dividend protection program. Our presentation includes sensitivities regarding different base rates, and while lower base rates can lead to challenges, they may also present some positive opportunities. For instance, we have some high-cost debt maturing in 2025. If base rates were to significantly drop by then, although we might see reduced yields on our assets, it would create a valuable opportunity to refinance a large portion of our upcoming debt at lower rates. We have certain hedges in place, and the analysis provided is dynamic, adjusting based on the conditions of our assets and liabilities.

Finian O'Shea, Analyst

That's helpful. I have a follow-up regarding the equity rotation potential mentioned on Slide 19. You all present the various aspects of the New Mountain story very well. Notably, there are a few significant names that have been involved for some time. It’s been a challenging market in recent years. I’m curious to get an update on how these businesses are rebounding and their marketability. Regarding Edmentum, it seems like there's been a reconsideration of its strategy now that we are past the COVID period. Is that the main factor, or did something more fundamental occur operationally that led to this change? Is this situation more like taking two steps back?

John Kline, President and CEO

Thank you for the question. When we consider our equity position, it's clear that it has been in place for a while. Over the past three years, the market has been challenging for asset owners trying to sell companies, making the environment less than ideal, as you noted. We are eager to monetize our assets. Looking at the performance of our top investments, UniTek is performing quite well, having reduced its debt significantly and benefitting from favorable market conditions, with consistent growth over the past few years. Its end market in telecom fiber construction is currently very strong. Benevis is experiencing a gradual recovery in the dental practice management sector, and we are allocating resources to enhance its earnings potential. Meanwhile, Permian is also seeing favorable trends as we adjust its business mix. Overall, the businesses are doing well; however, a difficult M&A environment makes it hard to achieve good valuations, regardless of a company's performance. Regarding Edmentum, there was a substantial boost during COVID for many education technology firms, and Edmentum experienced similar impacts. We are waiting for the markets to stabilize, and we have no significant concerns about our products or business execution. It will require more effort to secure business now that the market is not as favorable as it was during the pandemic when many schools were rapidly adopting ed tech solutions. We anticipate it will take time for the market to normalize, and we are prepared to compete more aggressively. Over the next year, we expect to gain better insights into Edmentum’s performance, and we remain optimistic about its prospects in the coming 12 to 18 months.

Finian O'Shea, Analyst

Yes.

Operator, Operator

The next question comes from Erik Zwick of Boenning and Scattergood.

Erik Zwick, Analyst

Good morning, everyone. I wanted to start by discussing your thoughts on the opportunity for portfolio growth. You mentioned that deal flow is improving in real time, but it can be challenging to have a strong outlook on repayment activity more than a couple of months in advance. Considering the compression of spreads, this may put some pressure on investment income if you aim to grow the portfolio. Do you see a pathway for this, and how do you view the opportunity to expand the portfolio in the next quarter or two?

John Kline, President and CEO

Sure. Thanks for the question. I'm glad you asked because, after accounting for cash, this quarter we reached a statutory debt level of 1.03x, which is the lowest we've seen in some time. We remain committed to our target range of statutory leverage between 1 and 1.25x. However, I do believe there is an opportunity to increase our leverage slightly to enhance our return on equity, using that as a strategy to counteract the spread compression we are experiencing. It's important to approach this with discipline, and as we've noted before, we aim to avoid being at the maximum of our range every quarter. That said, reaching the mid-to-high end of the range comfortably is certainly a possibility.

Erik Zwick, Analyst

That makes sense. And second one for me, it was interesting to note on Slide 21 to see the interest coverage ratio for the portfolio go up. I'm curious what maybe the major drivers of that? Certainly on the graph above the average portfolio weighted EBITDA growth, so that helps, and base rates have been stable now for a couple of quarters. So curious if there was anything else driving that increase and whether you think we've maybe seen the bottom of that ratio for this cycle?

John Kline, President and CEO

Yes. I'm glad you asked that question, too. I mean, I really view it as good performance. It's reflective of good performance of our underlying portfolio companies. I think it's also reflective of the new deals that we're originating having better coverage than maybe some of the old deals that we had, and that's a function of just less aggressive gearing in the higher interest rate environment that we're in right now. So I really see those as the 2 factors, good performance and a positive mix from an interest coverage perspective.

Operator, Operator

With no further questions, this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Kline for any closing remarks.

John Kline, President and CEO

Great. Well, we thank you for your interest in New Mountain Finance Corporation, and we very much look forward to speaking to you on the next earnings call. Goodbye.

Operator, Operator

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