BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:TCPC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Robert Dodd: Got it. Thank you. And thank you for the additional color on all of those items. That’s it for me. Thanks a lot.

Raj Vig: Thanks, Robert.

Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Kevin Fultz with JMP Securities. Please proceed.

Kevin Fultz: Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Looking at trends within the portfolio, can you provide an update on where weighted average EBITDA portfolio company leverage and interest coverage stand at quarter end and how they have trended over the past few quarters?

Raj Vig: Yeah, Kevin, thanks for the question. We haven’t seen a noticeable change or a trend per se. Certainly, we realize that there’s a little bit of a lag in some of that reporting, and that might change over time. But we’ll say, we haven’t seen really a meaningful change over the last couple of quarters.

Erik Cuellar: Yeah. And let me add to that, Kevin. I would say, keep in mind, our portfolio is not sort of an index approach to the economy. We’re very deliberate about where we’re focusing by industry and by company. A fair bit of our portfolio is growing. So €“ if I had to guess, I don’t have the exact data in front of me, I wouldn’t expect there to be a significant change in average EBITDA LTVs or leverage. And I would say that, the majority of the — just to be clear, the majority of our portfolio, given we’re an industry’s software, services, health care, financial services that are growing. The majority of our portfolio is growing on a revenue, as well as an EBITDA basis. So I think trend wise, you should consider it a healthy portfolio, one that we’ve been very deliberate about where we are positioning it based on secular views at an industry level, those industries are healthy and growing, and we’re tending to work with well-positioned companies within those industries.

So in turn, the average levels of EBITDA and attachment points on the leverage. I would think are stable, if not improving, but I don’t want to make that comment with update in front of me.

Kevin Fultz: Okay. That’s good to hear. I appreciate your comments on specific investments that were written down during the quarter. I guess on the amendment side, have you seen any increase in amendment requests from borrowers? And can you discuss your expectations for that to potentially pick up over the next few quarters?

Phil Tseng: Yes. Thanks for that question. So amendment requests have increased. And I think that’s a clear reflection of the impact that the higher rate environment is having on not just the middle market economy, but broadly as well as we’ve seen even within the large cap space. So we think we are seeing amendment activity pick up. We attribute that to both our ability when we do negotiate these deals upfront, putting in tight covenants and most of the times multiple covenants that really gives us see the table early on when there is either slower growth or maybe there’s not as much liquidity as we’re baking in upfront. And in most of those cases, I think what’s really important are the decisions that we make around the table and investment committee on how we want to derisk those positions to ensure full recoveries on those loans.

In fact, a number of our refinancings in recent quarters have been driven by amendment or near amendment cases where the companies are breaching covenants or they perhaps need more liquidity. And our type structures have put to the table requiring them to refinance this out if we’re not comfortable in the position we’re in.