Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation (NASDAQ:OCSL) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Matt Pendo: Yes. I think it’s been pretty light so far. It’s been I would say, consistent with what it’s been, it wasn’t 2022 or 2021, so not really an uptick. I would expect some of those conversations to happen at some point in the markets broadly. But for now, it’s really been pretty quiet on that front.

Ryan Lynch: Okay. And then just one final question that I had, kind of a higher level question, but you guys have had really good insights on the credit markets. You mentioned higher base rates that borrowers are just now starting to feel the effect of higher base rates kind have on their financials? I am just curious, we have heard in the past that that higher base rates of loan are probably not going to put a lot of borrowers into default. It’s probably going to take some sort of weakness in the business, in combination with higher base rates. So, I am just curious, do you expect sort of broadly and then maybe with your portfolio specifically, because the economy has been so resilient? Now, there has been uneven in certain areas, but it’s been pretty resilient.

Are you expecting sort of a meaningful increase in defaults? If the economy does stay strong if and base rates stay this high? Do you think base rates alone are effective enough to kind of meaningfully increase the defaults going forward?

Matt Pendo: Yes. I mean it’s hard, it’s very hard to predict. But you are right, that base rates of the loan are probably not going to result in a wave of defaults. It should result in an increase in the default rate by a couple of 100 basis points from the historical averages. And over a period of time, over an extended period of time, I think that you will see the big spike in defaults until you get to closer to a maturity wall, which in the public markets, you start seeing more heavy maturities in 2025 or 2026. You don’t really see a very heavy maturity level in 2024. The comment about base rates being problematic is that, if base rates are being this elevated for an extended period of time, then what you will find is a maturity issue.

Potentially, you will find some number of companies, albeit maybe not a big distress cycle, but you will see defaults growing. And you will see this asset bubble, deflation, as companies and asset owners need to decide are they going to invest additional equity into these businesses, if they are underwater from a capital structure perspective. So, you will see a combination of factors that don’t bode well, under investment in assets, some level of defaults, some requests for picking interest, some requests for amendments and waivers. It’s really hard to see in the I would say the medium-term, a very positive outlook, in the case of a higher for longer scenario. And for those businesses that are able to grow nominal profitability, or nominal dollars of profit over the medium to long-term, then maybe better off if they are able to survive this capital crunch that is probably going to occur over the next 6 months to 18 months is the guess that I would have as to when the impact of the base rates have the access to the capital markets for highly levered capital structures put in place before the pandemic.

I think that this next year or 2 years is going to be when we see some pretty key decisions about asset owners support those businesses.

Ryan Lynch: Okay. Understood. That’s all for me. Thanks.

Operator: And we have a question from Kyle Joseph from Jefferies. Kyle, please go ahead.

Kyle Joseph: Hey. Good morning guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Apologies if I missed, there has been too many earnings this morning. But just it was an active quarter of both deployments and repayments. And then it looks to me like fee income was a little lighter than I was expecting, anything you would highlight there? Was it just kind of the nature of some of the repayments there or anything, any other nuance?