Q1 2024 BlackRock TCP Capital Corp Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Katie McGlynn; Investor Relations; BlackRock TCP Capital Corp

Rajneesh Vig; Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer; BlackRock TCP Capital Corp

Philip Tseng; President & COO; BlackRock TCP Capital Corp

Erik Cuellar; Chief Financial Officer; BlackRock TCP Capital Corp

Robert Dodd; Analyst; Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Christopher Nolan; Analyst; Ladenburg Thalmann & Co Inc.

Paul Johnson; Analyst; Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc

Presentation

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome, everyone to BlackRock TCP Capital Corp's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Today's conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. (Operator Instructions)
And now I would like to turn the call over to Katie McGlynn, Director of the BlackRock TCP Capital Corp Investor Relations team. Katie, please proceed.

Katie McGlynn

Thank you, Emily. Before we begin, I'll note that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements based on the estimates and assumptions of management at the time of such statements and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those projected.
Any forward-looking statements made on this call are made as of today and are subject to change without notice. Additionally, certain information discussed and presented may have been derived from third-party sources and has not been independently verified. And accordingly, we make no representation or warranty with respect to such information.
Earlier today, we issued our earnings release for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. We also posted a supplemental earnings presentation to our website at www.tcpcapital.com to view the slide presentation, which we will refer to on today's call, please click on the Investor Relations link and select Events and Presentations.
These documents should be reviewed in conjunction with the company's Form 10-Q, which was filed with the SEC earlier today.
I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Raj Vig.

Rajneesh Vig

Thanks, Katie, and thank you for joining us for TCPC Q1 2024 earnings call. Which is also officially the first earnings call for TCPC as a combined entity post our successful combination with our former affiliate, ABC, BlackRock Capital Investment Corp., core VCIC. today, I'm joined by our President, Bill Sanger and our CFO, Eric, where we are also joined today by Kevin Murray, who will be taking over the Investor Relations role from key demographic, who's leading the effort to pursue other opportunities.
I'd like to officially welcome Mikael to the show. As a reminder, key has been a valued member of the TCPC team and private debt platform since 2018 through instrumental in structuring and closing the recent merger. She's been a great partner friend and will be sorely missed. We, of course, wish her well in her future endeavors for today.
I'll begin with a few comments on the successful completion of our merger with BCIC. I'll then provide an overview of our first quarter results. Phil will follow with an overview of the investment environment and our portfolio and investment activity, and Eric will then review our financial results as well as our capital and liquidity in greater detail. Finally, I will wrap up with a few comments on the opportunities we see ahead before taking your questions.
But as I mentioned earlier, during the first quarter, on March 18, we closed our affiliate merger with BCIC. As a reminder, since BlackRock's acquisition of TCP's platform in 2018, the investment activities of both TCPC. and BCIC. were managed by one team under the current leadership. The merger simply formalized the combination of these two materially overlapping portfolios and delivers meaningful value for our shareholders through greater scale and targeted operating efficiencies.
This includes a lower overall fee structure for the larger combined entity, the likelihood of more efficient access to capital and income accretion for the company and ultimately for our shareholders. From this point forward, we will be discussing financial results for the entity on a combined basis.
Now let's begin with a review of the highlights of our first quarter results. I am pleased to report that from the first quarter of 2024 TCPC delivered adjusted net income of $0.45 per share an increase from $0.44 per share in the prior quarter. Our run rate remains among the highest in TCP's history of the company and our annualized net investment income return on equity for the quarter was 14.7% and continues to benefit from relatively higher base rates, base rates and spreads.
During the first quarter, our net debt declined 6.4%, primarily due to net unrealized losses on portfolio companies. Previously process, including our investments in 2.5 is on aggregators for audio and Raser, along with our equity invested in inventory. The write-downs in the first quarter are mostly the result of circumstances specific to a handful of companies that we have stated before. We do not believe these situations are any indication of broader credit challenges in our portfolio.
The majority of our portfolio companies continue to report revenue and margin expansion with many generating sustained performance improvements. That said, I again must provide commentary on a few of the names that contributed to the portfolio markdowns throughout here and razor both operate in the Amazon aggregator space. And as we have discussed on previous calls, the aggregators are consolidated small to medium-sized brands that sell through Amazon to market leading third party platform.
This sector was initially impacted by COVID-related supply chain issues and then by slowing growth in online consumer spending and supply chain issues, alleviated resulting in excess inventories and over-leveraged balance sheet given the persistent operating and liquidity challenges that resulted from IPO when the largest and more aggregators opted for a balance sheet restructuring or Chapter 11 filing in February 2024, which we supported given the net benefits on that process although a fair bit of work remains ahead of us, we expect ultimately project to emerge with a lower and more manageable debt structure as well as a leaner and more efficient operating profile.
This should allow the company to remain a leader in the sector and to focus on a return to profitability post emergence and what we continue to believe the long-term and viable and tracking industry by contrast, razor group. But by contrast, rated room officer address challenges via consolidation and acquired perch in March, solidifying the combined entity's position as a global leader in the space similar to Raja standalone restructuring effort.
We expect this strategic combination to drive a more efficient operating structure than either company could have achieved in the near term standalone. We also believe that further consolidation and cost optimization are likely to continue in this space. And ultimately, there will be fewer, larger scale and better capitalized vendors serving. And we will continue to update you on our progress at each of these as we're able to net other stuff, Edmentum and online learning provider, which, as we noted last quarter, is navigating a reversion to a more normalized, but still positive demand environment, demand for tools and services spikes during the pandemic. But that has since corrected following the successful return to in-person attendance and many schools relative to pre-pandemic levels.
Digital Education and remote learning services continued to grow in popularity and provenance and Edmentum remains well positioned in an industry with positive secular trends as a reminder, our current investment in medicine is a residual equity position after we receive full repayment on our loan to the company as a longtime player in the direct lending space.
Our team has experienced lending across market cycles and has developed unique expertise and a proven track record of success working through challenged credits, challenging credit situations. We are leveraging this expertise believe we have the right teams in place and are proactively working with management teams, equity owners and other lenders to improve performance and achieve positive outcomes for our investments.
Most importantly, outside of these situations, the credit quality of our portfolio remains strong. As of March 31, 2024, our internal risk rating was relatively unchanged from December 31, 2023, and reflects the fact that the majority of our portfolio companies are substantially in line or ahead of base-case expectations.
Our Board of Directors declared a second quarter dividend of $0.34 per share, which implies 132% and a coverage based on our first quarter adjusted identified a second quarter dividend is payable on June 28th to shareholders of record on June 14. We have always taken a disciplined approach to our dividends with an emphasis on stability and strong coverage for more recurring net investment income for our TCPC.s, 12-year history.
We have consistently covered our dividend for recurring net investment income and have also paid several special dividends, including the most recent quarters.
Now I will turn it over to Phil to discuss our investment activity and portfolio.