FS KKR Capital Corp. (NYSE:FSK) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Dan Pietrzak: Yes, no, happy to do that. I think we talked about the 1.7 times, I think we wanted to make it clear how we calculated that. So, that was not an LTM sort of interest number that was using the 12-31 number. For your benefit, if we think about just where we are today or sort of the top of that forward curve, you probably take that down to 1.6, so, not a big move from there. I think we still have seen year-on-year EBITDA growth, I think we’re happy to see that. I think we’re probably a little bit worried about margins. We’ve seen companies been able to pass through prices, but the inflation points are real, the wage inflation points are real. So, we’re quite mindful about the portfolio and managing the risk in it, but we probably, from a base case perspective, I think the portfolio has probably outperformed where I thought it would have been a handful of quarters ago, but you got to watch it going forward.

John Hecht: All right, thanks very much, and congratulations on a good quarter.

Dan Pietrzak: Right, thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Lynch with KBW. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Ryan Lynch: Hey, good morning. First question has to do with, you mentioned the potential for some pickup in activity, obviously that there is the hope for that, and also that there’s some of the other talk about that as well. My question though comes to if that market does start to pick up at all and there is more activity, and then M&A, and LBOs going on, I was just curious if you had any take on that Emerson, Emerson deal kind of switching from the direct lenders to the broadest syndicated loan market. Is that sort of a one-off? Or do you think of deal activity picks up, they’ll also potentially coincide with a broadly syndicated loan market, looking to piggyback to share?

Dan Pietrzak: Hey, good morning, Ryan. I mean probably no specific thoughts on the individual deal. I think every deal in some ways is unique, either to the company or the situation, or if it’s a sponsor deal, the sponsor. And then I mentioned it on to John on the prior question, I think we’re just — we’re seeing a bit more inquiry, we’re seeing a bit more of just existing companies responses, maybe to those that we lend to thinking about how we lend to, a forward sort of sale of that business. So, I think that’s a bit of sort of positive news. I mean, clearly private debt has filled the void for the syndicated loan market, in the last probably four or five quarters at this point, when the loan market comes back, and functions sort of as normal, that balance will sort of change a bit, I think we expect that the syndicated loan markets not going to go away.

I think what we feel good about, though the tailwinds on the other side is, we’ve just seen more and more companies wanting to access a private debt solution. They want to know their lender, they want certainty of execution. And I think that trend continues. So, clearly the syndicated loan market will refinance some of these companies over time, but I still think the tailwind is here for private debt.

Ryan Lynch: Okay, understood. And a lot of times when we hear about new articles in your portfolio, or any BBC portfolios, usually idiosyncratic events that are happening in your business. I would just love to hear though, if you think about maybe the bottom quartile of performers in your portfolios, maybe not just the non-accruals but just somewhat underperformance of your portfolio, have you been able to notice any sort of common threads of that you’re seeing weed through of why those companies are struggling more than others in this particular environment?