Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation (NASDAQ:OCSL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Ryan Lynch: Okay. That’s helpful backdrop. And I always do appreciate your prudent approach to investing in deploying capital and utilizing leverage. I just had one final question regarding the special dividend distribution of $0.14. I understand what generated those gains that you guys had. I’m just curious, I’d like to hear more about the philosophy around the payout. You guys are doing a onetime special dividend. Was there a reason to pay that out in a onetime shot before year-end? Why did you guys consider doing a more supplemental type of dividend that was paid out over multiple quarters? And how is that $0.14 calculated? Did you guys — do you guys want to run with a level of spillover income? Did you guys want to eliminate all of it? How is that number for the payout decided?

Matt Pendo: Yes. Brian, it’s Matt. I’ll take the kind of the philosophical parts of it, and then Chris can walk through the details. But we considered everything. We looked at — it’s the first time we’ve paid this dividend. But at end of the day, the decision was, let’s return the capital to the shareholders. Let’s not pay the excise tax. It’s — there is an excise tax like 4%. So, in essence, let’s return all the capital to the shareholders, let them redeploy it as they see fit rather than kind of using it to build that or fund internally and pay the tax. So, that’s where we came out philosophically on this. I know some of our peers do different things. But for us, it was — let’s avoid the excise tax, let’s pay the distribution to the shareholders. That’s what — kind of that was the amount of kind of the tax and all that — or the income. I’ll let Chris talk to specifics, but that philosophical — that’s kind of how we — where we landed.

Chris McKown: Yes. I think, Matt, I think you covered it pretty well, but that’s right. We looked at what our taxable income was for the year, what we would need to pay out to try to minimize or outright avoid that excise tax, and that’s where we shook out with respect to the $0.14 special.

Ryan Lynch: Okay. Was there any thought of paying that out over multiple quarters or anything like that, or why was it, I guess, the decision to pay before in kind of one go? And did the closing of the merger, did you pay that out before that did that have anything to do with it?

Chris McKown: No. The merger had nothing to do with it. It was really — it’s a calendar year-end kind of item. So, we paid it out for the calendar year end. That’s just kind of our approach. But — yes, the merger had nothing to do with it.

Operator: And there are no further questions. I’d like to turn the conference over to Michael Mosticchio for any closing words.

Michael Mosticchio: Thanks, Cole, and thank you all for joining us on today’s earnings conference call. A replay of this call will be available for 30 days on OCSL’s website in the Investors section or by dialing 877-344-7529 for U.S. callers or 1-412-317-0088 for non-U.S. callers with the replay access code 8580879, beginning approximately one hour after this broadcast.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time.

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