New Mountain Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:NMFC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Derek Hewett: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question will come from Erik Zwick with Hovde Group. Please go ahead. Erik Zwick, your line is open for questions.

Erik Zwick: Thank you. Good morning. Wondering if I could just maybe expand on some of the earlier discussions about the capital allocation and optionality you mentioned in the press release and some of the uses of liquidity to pay-down some notes in the remainder of the year. I am curious of how you are thinking about the opportunity to buy back shares in this environment, or does the economic uncertainty maybe keep you on the sidelines with regard to that option today?

Robert Hamwee: Yes. Hey Erik, this is Rob. Thanks for the question. We have historically talked about buying back shares when the stock was certainly below 80% of NAV and thinking about it between 80% and 90% of NAV. I think that remains our guideline for that. So, it’s not really operational in this moment in time. Obviously, if the market became further dislocated, and we had that incremental liquidity, it’s something we would consider like we have done in the past. But it’s really got to be the intersection of us having material excess liquidity as well as having the stock be dislocated. Obviously, our number one priority is to maintain our liquidity and our leverage in such a way as to maintain the investment-grade rating. So, we are obviously super €“ hyper conscious of that as well. So, I don’t see that as a near to medium-term likelihood. But of course, the markets can change at any moment. So, it is something that’s always on the long-term radar, if you will.

Erik Zwick: Thanks. That’s helpful. And just one more for me. When you repaid the notes in January, I am curious if you went out to the market all to see, what the opportunity would be there to raise additional unsecured debt and chose not to either because of the rate environment or demand still just not there, curious kind of the tenor of the market today, if you are able to gauge that.

John Kline: So, the market continues to be open for companies that the market perceives to be good credit risk. I think we are in that camp. We are constantly evaluating the market. We are very confident that we have access to multiple different segments of the market, and it’s just an ongoing discussion. So, we feel very good that when we look at our liquidity and we look at our capital structure, we have a lot of different options to choose from. And when we think about the convert that we did, it really, I think really allowed €“ addressed a really big chunk of the upcoming maturities and lessened the overall magnitude of debt that we have to think about in 2023 and as Shiraz said, we can just go in a lot of different directions, whether it’s the secured market, unsecured market, convert market, etcetera.

Erik Zwick: Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator: Our next question will be a follow-up from Ryan Lynch with KBW. Please go ahead.

Ryan Lynch: I just had one follow-up on Slide #12. This is the slide you guys provided last quarter as well. And I am just curious as far as the resets from your assets versus liabilities, are your liabilities being reset on a daily basis as I kind of look at that line chart on the top right of the slide, are your liabilities being reset on a daily basis? And then are your assets been being reset on a three-month to six-month basis? Is that how it’s working?