BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:TCPC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Paul Johnson: Got it. Okay. That’s very good color. And then if you kind of take out [indiscernible], Securus or rise sort of decline you take those 3 out, what were the marks on the reps of the portfolio was stable? Was there any sort of broad markdown elsewhere in the portfolio or [indiscernible]

Rajneesh Vig: Yes. I would say I would characterize it as generally stable. There are a lot of companies that have movement. I don’t want to put any numbers about it being accurate. But I think you can see from the general performance that it’s pretty stable. And to put the NAV movement in context, 75% of it is tied to these 3 businesses. Some of it is tied to the dividends going out the door and then the remainder of Bottarini tied to a very stable low performing portfolio.

Paul Johnson: And then last question just on the pipeline bigger picture, activity picking up, curious on your thoughts where the pipeline sort of stand today versus maybe 6 months ago? And high-quality deals? Or is the market still sort of looking on this return of the M&A market.

Rajneesh Vig: Yes. It’s a good question, Paul. So — so I would say that the pipeline is seeing a pick up and we start seeing a pickup in activity last quarter in Q4 of last year. I would say that the pickup continues to be gradual rather than a step function higher. So I think that there is still more to come in terms of buyers and sellers willing to transact more refinancing activity and so on. I think we’re still early days on that research end. But I’d say, based on what we’re hearing and talking to the market participants, both intermediaries, business owners, sponsors and so on. And we do expect that activity to be being fully higher this year than last year. And whether that’s more weighted towards back half, it’s still TBD, but we’re hopeful.

Operator: Our next question comes from Robert Dodd with Raymond James.

Robert Dodd: Going back to [indiscernible] question first. [indiscernible] the file bankruptcy, lender-led financing, can we presume that there will be incremental capital deployed to Sao maybe Q1, Q2, but in kind of the first half of the year that there will be additional financial support provided to that business to to work it to.

Rajneesh Vig: Correct. And just to be specific, look, when we go through these things, these types of challenged credits, you have a — I guess I’ll add some more color. You have an array of tools to facilitate a fix. When it’s a good business in a challenged balance sheet and a good sector, I would say that’s something that’s workable and then you decide what is the best way within which to facilitate the changes or the fundings that you’re providing on the lender. In the case of a bankruptcy, a lender-led bankruptcy, I should say, that is — provides benefits that you want to offset to what to do to the company if anything. And here, the benefits of this process were felt to outweigh any challenges of the bankruptcy, and I would call it a 1 that can be done very efficiently including protecting the nature and the terms of financing provided, particularly because there were other discussions being had around this and given interest in the company and the sector, and this was helped to be something that I think we net-net benefit from.

But to answer your question, jointly, yes, there will be additional funding support as the bankruptcy filing will highlight which is for document now.

Robert Dodd: Got it. Got it. And I mean, Perch, I believe, is another 1 of [indiscernible] now as the fair value deteriorated over a few quarters. Is it looking likely to be following the same kind of past for ratio? Or is that 1 being handled differently by you and the sponsor.

Erik Cuellar: Yes, no. I wish I could be specific, but I can probably be specific in another year. So the answer in many of these will need to just think about scaling and consolidating and addressing balance sheet issues that are a result of some macro issues. So I think ultimately, all of them will have — we’ll look at and maybe utilize a set of these tools, whether it’s funding, clean up balance sheets and maybe even consolidating, I would include perch in that content. And I think stay tuned for something for a part year on those comments. But the answer is essentially yes.

Operator: [Operator Instructions]. We have no further questions registered. So I will hand back to the management team for any closing comments.

Erik Cuellar: Thank you. We appreciate your participation on today’s call. I would like to thank our team for all their hard work and dedication and our shareholders and capital partners for their confidence and continued support. Thanks for joining us. This concludes today’s call.

Operator: Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. This concludes our call, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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