Gladstone Investment Corporation (NASDAQ:GAIN) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Gladstone: Yes. And I think if looking forward obviously as I always like to say, we try to be really deliberate in our look forward and we are, as I mentioned, the good news is I think we are starting to see some interesting new investment opportunities and they’re kind of coming back to us a little bit in terms of valuation. So, we just have to see. In terms of the only other thing that maybe what underlying your question is from a competitive perspective where some of these other private equity firms would be going out to get leverage say from whether it be banks or other third-parties. Our sense is that the leverage availability obviously is tighter. So as a result of that, some of these firms are actually having – if they’re going to do a deal, have to put more equity in relatively speaking and that seems to be helping, if you will in terms of the valuations that we’re bidding against.

So yes, it’s a little tighter and again for us, we have as Rachel mentioned, our line of credit with our banks and we have availability and we are able to still do our own debt and the equity when we buy a business.

Kyle Joseph: Great, thanks very much for answering my questions this morning.

David Gladstone: Thanks Kyle. Do we have any other questions, Latanya?

Operato: The next question comes from Bryce Rowe with B. Riley. Please proceed.

Bryce Rowe: Hi, good morning. Wanted to maybe start on some of the prepared comments there, Dave, around M&A chatter picking up here recently. Maybe just kind of help us think about What’s causing that or are you seeing sellers maybe just more comfortable with the environment, with the level of interest rates and the direction of interest rates – or like you said? Are you just seeing some – seeing the buyers kind of come back in terms of valuation and getting comfortable with kind of where valuations are today?

David Gladstone: Yes. I think when you look say going into the sort of end of last year, early part of this year and clearly uncertainty and both private equity firms that might have been looking to sell companies and sellers what we were seeing was a little bit of a, I’ll call it, not a pullback per se, but while there’s a flurry of activity, the quality generally speaking was frankly kind of medium, if you will. And then subject now, of course, to kind of what’s going on the credit side obviously, And as this rest of the year plays out, what we are seeing is some of the companies are still coming to market now and deciding to say, okay look let’s – we think valuations are now settling down a bit. And as a result of that, they’re willing to come back into the market.

And actually when I was writing the – ironically the remarks, as you said, I was then on a phone with one of the M&A bankers we deal with on the sell side and said, look, here’s an idea what I think I’m going to say is that would just make sense and he said absolutely. So I think generally the idea that the backlog I think that they being the M&A bankers are seeing to some extent seems to be picking up. Now again, how that’s going to play out again with some of the credit issues that looking forward, it’s hard to tell. But as of right now, I’d say we are probably looking at more legitimate opportunities and we were certainly probably three months ago.

Bryce Rowe: Okay. That’s helpful commentary. And then maybe a question on the income statement – looks like a fairly subdued quarter from an activity perspective within the portfolio. Can you speak to the nature of dividend, other success fee income that we saw on the income statement this quarter?