Investcorp Credit Management BDC, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICMB) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Ryan Lynch : Okay. That’s fine. And then just following up kind of on your commentary on the dividend. I’d love to just hear kind of the overall framework you guys are thinking regarding dividend payouts. I mean, is the kind of the lowering of the core dividend, but keeping the overall total dividend the same, is that more of a function of potential deleveraging of the portfolio or credit quality issues that you guys could potentially have just because when you look at your earnings today, you guys are going to have a tailwind of interest rates going forward. So it would appear that holding everything else equal, there should actually be accelerated earnings growth. But meanwhile, you guys are reducing kind of that core level of dividend payout. So I’d just love to hear kind of the framework you guys had behind kind of changing the mix even the whole dividend level the same but kind of changing the mix and reducing that core dividend level slightly.

Michael Mauer : Yeah, Ryan, it’s a great question. I’m glad you asked it because we probably could have spent more time on it or I could have spent more time on it in the prepared. But we did talk about trying to make sure we manage into that leverage ratio. So that’s one thing. The other is that as we’ve continued to invest, and we will continue to rotate the portfolio. We’re not about maximizing the spread. So we’ve seen spreads line now probably 25 to 50-75. We’re more focused on the subordination in this environment. And so on an absolute yield, I don’t know that you’ll see us get a widening plus a widening of the spread plus the SOFR uplift. So if you look at what happened to our new investments were around 10%. What rolled off was above 10%.

SOFR was up 150 — SOFR and LIBOR 150 plus or minus during the quarter of our numbers. Our overall was up around the same. So most of that’s coming from that lift. And when we think about the dividend, we want to make sure that the core dividend will always comfortable covering. Right now, we’re comfortable covering both the core and the supplemental. But I think just from a signaling, we want to make sure that, that core is around all the dynamics that we see going on right now.

Ryan Lynch : Okay. That’s a fair approach, I think, going forward. And then just my last question, obviously, the stock, is that a pretty big discount to book value and has been that way for a bit of time. Obviously, you all don’t control the stock price or the valuation of your company, but you do control the fundamentals of your business and as we are rapidly approaching calendar 2023, what are the — what are some areas that you all are looking to improve upon the fundamental performance of Investcorp that you think that could hopefully increase investor interest and potentially close that discounted valuation.

Michael Mauer : Well, listen, we’re — the same old song in that we’re always looking at strategic ways to grow it. We have not either found the right one or been successful in executing on one or two that we did like. But away from that, and I think that’s kind of outside of our control because those come and go inside our control, the other thing we’re focused on is building the base of private, which will decrease the OpEx and will help again on the dividend and the performance. So we’ve got to continue to build that base, and we’re actively working on that right now.

Ryan Lynch : Okay. That’s all for me. I appreciate the time today.

Michael Mauer : Thank you very much.

Operator: And thank you everyone. It looks like we have no further questions.

Michael Mauer : Thank you, everyone. We look forward to talking to you next quarter.

Operator: And this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you, everyone, for attending.

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