BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:TCPC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Robert Dodd: Got it. Thank you and I appreciate that answer, and I wonder if I can take it in a slightly different direction as well. I mean, you mentioned as well that, it’s harder to find favorable deals and I certainly think that’s the case in, like LBO financing and things like that. Over the last decade, I mean, let’s call it that, you guys have shown a lot more flexibility than some BDCs in terms of willingness to do other kinds of deals, ABL financing for retail, leasing, other areas of the market that you’ll look at. Is that something we should expect to see increasingly over the next couple of years if the market for LBOs maybe stays a little bit more moderate? Should we see more of these other verticals for you guys or how are you thinking about operating in an environment hypothetically where LBO activity remains moderate for a prolonged period?

Raj Vig: Yeah. Great question, Robert. I think that also, you have an insight that perhaps goes beyond the public vehicle, the platform itself, which has existed well before the BDC was public. And I think, as you highlight, we’ve always, been able to pivot to things that are a little maybe, I won’t say opportunistic and risk, but areas that are maybe a little less picked over, like the leasing, and I think, even aviation or things of that sort. I think that one of the benefits of the merger that we don’t speak about as much is the greater scale also allows us to think through some of those things, and perhaps, take advantage of that. I will say just as an additional element, even if new LBO activity is abated, keep in mind that the existing portfolio, even through the last couple of years and I expect going forward, will always be a good source of deals, add-on investments, because as the portfolio remains healthy, those companies are good about taking advantage of less help elsewhere, whether through M&A or other types of consolidation.

But to answer your question, as we see things that are interesting, areas where we can do the credit work and we feel comfortable with, the industry or the asset, I would say, we will take advantage of that, and I think, the leasing is a good example. We’ve also done more ABL structures where there’s less of a desire to be exposed to the entity, but more of a desire to be covered by the discrete asset, and I think, as the environment gives rise to those opportunities, our team is very well-positioned to take advantage of that, but it’s always going to be a credit-first downside protection type of approach.

Robert Dodd: All right. Thank you.

Phill Tseng: Thank you.

Raj Vig: Thanks for the question.

Operator: Our next question comes from Christopher Nolan with Ladenburg Thalman. Please go ahead, Christopher.

Christopher Nolan: Hey, guys. Katie, congratulations. Michaela, welcome.

Katie McGlynn: Thank you, Chris.

Christopher Nolan: And on the maturing debt that you guys referred to earlier, what’s the thought in terms of where you’re going to refinance that? Is it going to be a bond issuance, because you — and for that, are you able to leverage your investment-grade rating, do you think or are you going to turn to bank financing?

Raj Vig: Yeah. Chris, good question. We’re certainly looking to address those maturities in the near future and we’re very happy with what we’ve seen in the capital markets within our sector. So, definitely, that’ll be a factor. We also like our current mix of secure versus unsecured. So, all of that will come into play. We, really, the only reason we haven’t addressed it to this point was the pending transaction and we just wanted to wait until that was done to be able to address the maturity. But we plan to do so in the near term.

Christopher Nolan: All right. And then I read an article where Moody’s is taking a dimmer view on private credit in general. Does this — does your funding cost really turn on just having an investment-grade rating?

Raj Vig: I mean, I think, our — I think any credit issuance is correlated to a rating, ours no different. I would just clarify that, the article, two things, was more broader based than honing in on our issues specifically and it wasn’t a downgrade. It was an outlook change, which we have seen them do before in the past in the sector. So, whether that actually really impacts the pricing, I think it’s TBD as we’re exploring that. I also think the net movement in pricing has been favorable over the last 12 months to 18 months and you can see that in issuances — issues and issuances that have hit the market. It’s a very directly, I think, comparable deal. So, stay tuned. I think we’re going to do the responsible thing and sort of explore the options.

Obviously, the write-up is not irrelevant, but how relevant it is sort of TBD and I think, fortunately, we’ve had a very long, well-established investment-grade rating in the market. So, I think, hopefully, our bond investors and others looking at it will keep that on.

Christopher Nolan: Okay. That’s it from me. Thank you.

Raj Vig: Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Paul Johnson with KBW. Please go ahead, Paul.

Paul Johnson: Yeah. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I’m just curious, what was the driver of the higher other income this quarter? Was there anything in particular driving that, amendments or dividends or anything like that?

Erik Cuellar: Yeah. We did have $0.02 of non-recurring income, just amendments in general and a couple of prepayments that we received. Anytime that we have any prepayments, it tends to accelerate any unadvertised discount or exit fee that might be linked to that investment.

Paul Johnson: Got it. Thanks for that. And then, just kind of higher level, with the portfolio, there’s a decent amount of software businesses in the portfolio. I know it’s not something you’ve disclosed historically, but I’m just curious, are any of those ARR loans and are you able to give any kind of sense of what percent of the portfolio is ARR?

Phill Tseng: Yeah. Thanks, Paul. So, we have disclosed the percentage of software for ARR deal, but when we look at our portfolio in a more detailed way, our software and ARR portfolio, ARR is a subset of our software exposure. But generally speaking, it’s been one of the sectors for us that held up the strongest. And the way we think about software actually is not as a broad brush kind of industry exposure. We actually look at it more as a horizontal across a number of end market exposures. So, the way we think about it, for example, is a risk management software provider for an insurance company. That is a little bit more right into the insurance and insurance market. And then, alternatively, a software provider that helps facilitate e-commerce transactions for retailers that perhaps are in the retail consumer market — end market.