Stellus Capital Investment Corporation (NYSE:SCM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Erik Zwick: Appreciate the color there. That’s helpful. And then last one for me just in terms of — wondering if you could kind of categorize or quantify the size of the pipeline today, how maybe it’s changed over the past three to six months and if there’s any particular concentrations of industries that are particularly strong in there today as well?

Robert Ladd: We’re so active, Erik, around the country in all industries, except for a few. And so I’d say it’s pretty broad, which is helpful. So our natural flow creates interesting industry diversification. So nothing in particular.

Erik Zwick: Got it. And in terms of just the size of the pipeline today, how would you…

Robert Ladd: Sorry, so I would just — we don’t describe it in nominal dollars, but I would say that it’s said early. It’s very active and quite a bit busier than we were in April and May. And again, if it’s helpful, too, just in terms of capacity, because of our credit facilities and the equity that we’ve raised, we have the ability to really get up to $950 million or so as a limit. So think of us today at $915 million. So we have lots of things, but you can quickly fill up the balance. So think of us as we’ve got more capital to invest, but also we’ll be reinvesting repayments. So again, I think plenty of pipeline to keep us full in terms of the portfolio.

Erik Zwick: Thanks so much for taking the questions this morning.

Robert Ladd: Yes, thank you, Erik.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Robert Dodd from Raymond James. Your line is live.

Robert Ladd: Good morning, Robert.

Robert Dodd: Hi guys, good morning. On that — congratulations on the realized equity gain in Q3. I mean on that pipeline pickup, et cetera, are you expecting an acceleration in kind of equity realizations as well? Is that the kind of activity that might go on where you again — maybe taken out on the debt and of equity gain and then redeploying? Or any color on that?

Robert Ladd: Yes, Robert. So none other that are in front of us that we could speak to. I would say probably there’s more of the case of refinancing than actual sales of companies, although we would expect that to pick up as well. So more to come. But I think at this point, just one that we know of for this quarter.

Robert Dodd: Got it. Thank you. And then on the ones where you maybe have seen there’s a little bit of PIK because of higher rates and things like that. How are the sponsors responding in these situations in terms of providing additional support if necessary, et cetera? Can you just give us some color on how — are they stepping forward, being proactive or — just how is the environment with the sponsor relationships right now?

Robert Ladd: Yes. So I’d say that substantially all of our sponsors have responded very well, which has been true over time throughout our history, and that’s the principal reason that we’ve gone to principally a sponsor-backed strategy. So we found very, very good responses from sponsors. And in many cases, they were putting equity in. So imagine in the — in a few cases where we might have some PIK in addition to cash income, you can assume sponsors put in cash equity below us.

Robert Dodd: Got it, thank you.

Robert Ladd: Yes, thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Ryan Lynch from KBW. Your line is live.

Robert Ladd: Good morning, Ryan.