Blackrock Tcp Capital Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 7, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Q2 nonaccruals improved to 3.7% of portfolio value, down from 4.4% last quarter and 5.6% at end-2024, reflecting steady progress on problem credits.
  • Negative Sentiment: Net asset value declined this quarter due to markdowns on previously restructured companies rather than any new credit issues, weighing on overall book value.
  • Positive Sentiment: Year-to-date, TCPC invested $178 million across 13 new and 11 existing middle-market companies, all in first-lien loans and averaging $7.4 million per position for enhanced diversification.
  • Positive Sentiment: The Board declared a regular dividend of $0.25 and a special dividend of $0.04 per share, and repurchased 40,830 shares this quarter in support of shareholder returns.
  • Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s acquisition of HPS has created the Private Financing Solutions platform, boosting TCPC’s access to larger transactions, expanded sourcing, and deeper restructuring expertise.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Blackrock Tcp Capital Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome, everyone, to BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. Second Quarter Earnings Call. Today's conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the company's formal remarks.

Operator

I will repeat these instructions before we begin the Q and A session. Now I would like to turn the call over to Alex Doll, a member of BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. Investor Relations team. Alex, please proceed.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Before we begin, I'll note that this conference call may contain forward looking statements based on the estimates and assumptions of management at the time of such statements and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. Any forward looking statements made on this call are made as of today and are subject to change without notice. Additionally, certain information discussed and presented may have been derived from third party sources and has not been independently verified.

Speaker 1

Accordingly, we make no representation or warranty with respect to such information. Earlier today, we issued our earnings release for the second quarter ended 06/30/2025, and posted a supplemental earnings presentation to our website at www.tcpcapital.com. To view the slide presentation, which we will refer to on today's call, please click on the Investor Relations link and select Events and Presentations. These documents should be reviewed in conjunction with the company's Form 10 Q, which was filed with the SEC earlier today. Now, I will turn the call over to our Chairman, CEO and Co CIO, Phil Zhang.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Alex, and thanks to all of our investors and analysts for joining us today. I'll begin today's call with a high level overview of our performance for the second quarter. Our President, Jason Mehring, then provide details on our portfolio and investment activity and Eric Cuellar, our CFO, will review our financial results. Following Eric's remarks and before we open the call up to questions, I'll provide an update on BlackRock's recent acquisition of HPS and the strategic benefits it brings to TCPC. We're also joined today by Dan Morell, our Co CIO, who will be available to answer questions.

Speaker 2

Now I'll begin with an overview of our second quarter performance. We made meaningful progress in reducing nonaccruals, which declined to 3.7% of the portfolio's fair market value, down from 4.4% last quarter and 5.6% at the 2024. That said, NAV declined during the quarter primarily due to markdowns on previously restructured portfolio companies rather than any new credit issues. Turning to more detail on non accruals. We removed four large investments from non accrual status this quarter including InMoment, Cellarex, Lithium and Renovo.

Speaker 2

We are pleased with this steady improvement. However, progress is not linear and situations can remain dynamic as the companies implement their turnaround plans. We also added four investments to non accrual. These additions, Thrasio, Fishbowl, Brook and Whittle and four thousand eight hundred forty fall into two main categories. In the first category, we have companies that have been restructured and are continuing to demonstrate uneven performance.

Speaker 2

This includes Thrasio and Amazon aggregator and Fishbowl, a marketing platform that helps restaurants drive guest engagement. In our experience, restructured companies often experience some level of volatility in their financial results as they work towards long term recovery. As you may recall, Thrasio was restructured in early twenty twenty four. We placed the company on nonaccrual this quarter following a recent agreement to extend PIK interest for another twelve months. This extension provides management with the time needed to continue executing on key strategic initiatives, including streamlining the brand portfolio and diversifying beyond Amazon.

Speaker 2

It also allows the company to navigate macro uncertainties, including tariff policy changes and potential softening in consumer confidence. Despite the pick extension, we are encouraged that Thrasios performance continues to improve with the support of several standout brands that are delivering strong results in their respective categories. Fishbowl, which underwent a restructuring in 2022, continues to make progress on its turnaround strategy with improved bookings. Despite the bookings momentum, near term liquidity remains constrained. As a result, we decided to place the credit on nonaccrual.

Speaker 2

However, Fishbowl continues to meet its interest obligations through PIK interest. The second category of underperformance includes companies that are being impacted by lower demand, principally due to shifts in consumer purchasing behavior. One example is four thousand eight hundred forty, a shipping and packaging service provider, which we discussed last quarter. In light of four thousand eight hundred forty's recent performance and outlook, we decided to place it on nonaccrual. In a similar situation, Brook and Whittle, a sustainable packaging and label manufacturer, has felt the effect of customers training down to lower cost providers to reduce their expenses.

Speaker 2

We are actively engaged with the management teams of each one of these portfolio companies as they work to address operational challenges and improve performance. In the second quarter, we marked down our position in AutoAlert, an automotive data analytics platform. As part of a restructuring in March 2023, we assumed control of the company and since then its performance has improved. Even so, valuations for similar companies in the sector have recently come down and our third party valuation providers adjusted AutoAlert's valuation to reflect those broader market trends. We also substantially marked up several portfolio companies this quarter.

Speaker 2

Our largest gain was on Domo, a publicly traded cloud software company. We marked this investment up following a better than expected earnings report in the first quarter and are confident that Domo is on the right track for continued strong performance. Now turning to our dividend. Our Board declared a second quarter dividend of $0.25 and a special dividend of $04 per share, both of which are payable on September 30 to shareholders of record on September 16. As part of our commitment to supporting our shareholders, we also repurchased 40,830 shares of TCPC stock this quarter.

Speaker 2

Now I'll turn the call over to Jason to address our portfolio in more detail as well as our recent investment activity.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Phil, and welcome, everyone. During the second quarter, we remained focused on selectively deploying capital into opportunities directly aligned with our stated investment strategy. As a reminder, this includes investing in the core middle market, maintaining a well diversified portfolio, prioritizing first lien loans and leveraging the extensive resources of the BlackRock platform to optimize your opportunity set. Since the start of the year, we've invested $178,000,000 in 13 new and 11 existing portfolio companies. Our average position size this year has been granular at $7,400,000 lower than in prior years and aligned with our overall diversification strategy.

Speaker 3

All of these investments are first lien loans, and we have continued to focus on companies supported by long term growth drivers with strong fundamentals that exhibit economic resilience. In addition, repeat borrowers remain an important source of originations, and existing portfolio companies have accounted for 51% of our investment dollars year to date. Now I'll discuss three investments we made this quarter to illustrate how we're executing our strategy, particularly our emphasis on acting as a lender of influence. In each transaction, BlackRock served as either the sole or lead lender. First, we invested $4,100,000 as part of $160,000,000 first lien financing for the difference card or TDC.

Speaker 3

TDC enables small and midsized businesses to lower health care expenses by pairing high deductible health plans with employer funded reimbursement programs, allowing them to offer competitive coverage at a reduced cost. We were drawn to TDC's twenty plus year operating history, high customer retention rates, and ability to deliver meaningful savings to employers. The company benefits from a predictable recurring revenue model with healthy margins and low capital needs resulting in strong cash flow generation. In addition, the transaction was structured with downside protection and supported by a conservative loan to value profile. This investment aligns with our strategy of backing resilient, capital efficient businesses in essential, less cyclical sectors like health care, and our platform was able to serve as the lead lender in this transaction.

Speaker 3

Second, we invested $6,900,000 as part of a BlackRock led $150,000,000 first lien credit facility in Dragos, a leader in protecting operational technology and industrial control systems from cyber attacks. Dragos serves critical infrastructure sectors such as oil and gas and utilities, where its deeply embedded platform provides real time threat detection and risk mitigation. Dragos has a large addressable market and is poised to benefit from favorable regulatory and secular tailwinds. We invested in Dragos due to its strong market position, mission critical offering with high switching costs, impressive annual top line growth of more than 50% and improving profitability. This deal highlights our emphasis on originating senior secured loans to resilient high growth businesses in less cyclical sectors and restructured with strong downside protection.

Speaker 3

Third, we invested $10,000,000 as part of a $2.00 $5,000,000 first lien credit facility in Brown and Settle, a leader in site development for the construction of large commercial buildings such as data centers. Brown and Settle is well positioned for sustained growth, supported by a fully contracted backlog, strong relationships with blue chip general contractors and a significant footprint in Northern Virginia, one of the world's largest and fastest growing data center hubs. This investment also reflects our focus on originating senior secured loans to middle market borrowers in sectors that are benefiting from long term tailwinds. BlackRock was the sole provider of the credit facility, which includes $185,000,000 term loan and a $20,000,000 revolver. This investment was sourced directly from the sponsor and structured to support Brown and Settle's continued growth while providing downside lender protection.

Speaker 3

At the end of the quarter, our portfolio had a fair market value of approximately $1,800,000,000 invested across 153 companies in more than 20 industry sectors. Our average investment size was $11,700,000 or 65 basis points of the portfolio. The vast majority, or 89% of that portfolio was invested in senior secured debt, all of which was in floating rate instruments. Investment income remains broadly distributed across our diverse portfolio with 76% of portfolio companies each contributing less than 1% of total income. The weighted average annual effective yield of our portfolio was 12% in the second quarter compared to 12.2% in the prior quarter.

Speaker 3

New investments had a weighted average yield of 10.8, while those we exited carried an average yield of 10.5%. Now I'll turn the call over to Eric, who will walk through our financial results and capital and liquidity positions.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Jason. I will begin with a review of our financial results for the second quarter. As detailed in our earnings press release, adjusted net investment income excludes the amortization of the purchase accounting discount resulting from our merger with BCIC and is calculated in accordance with GAAP. A full reconciliation of adjusted net investment income to GAAP net investment income as well as other non GAAP financial metrics is included in our earnings press release and 10 Q. Second quarter adjusted net investment income was $0.31 per share and gross investment income was $0.61 per share in the second quarter.

Speaker 4

This compares to $0.36 and $0.66 per share respectively in the first quarter. This quarter's gross investment income included recurring cash interest of $0.48 per share, non recurring income of $01 recurring discount and fee amortization of $03 PIK income of $07 and dividend income of $02 per share. PIK interest income represented 11.4% of total investment income, down from 11.6% last quarter. Operating expenses for the second quarter were $0.28 per share, including $0.20 per share of interest and other debt expenses. As of 06/30/2025, our cumulative total return did not exceed the total return hurdle, and therefore, no incentive compensation was accrued for the second quarter.

Speaker 4

Additionally, we waived a portion of our base management fee again this quarter in line with our advisor's decision to waive one third of our base management fee for the 2025. Net realized losses for the quarter were approximately $66,000,000 or $0.78 per share, driven by the restructuring of our investments in CellRx, Chorus, InMoment and Renovo. These losses were already substantially reflected in last quarter's NAV. Net unrealized gains were $23,000,000 or $0.27 per share, primarily reflecting the reversal of previously recognized unrealized losses from the restructuring of the investments I just mentioned, partially offset by unrealized losses in Auto Alert and Brook and Woodle. The net decrease in net assets for the quarter was $16,000,000 or $0.19 per share.

Speaker 4

As of June 30, eight portfolio companies were on nonaccrual status, representing 3.7% of the portfolio at fair value and 10.4% at cost. This is down from 4.412.6% respectively as of March 31. The remainder of our portfolio is performing well. As Phil noted, we continue to work closely with our borrowers, their sponsors and creditors to optimize our recovery value. Now I'll discuss our balance sheet and liquidity position.

Speaker 4

Our balance sheet remains strong. Total liquidity at quarter end was $566,000,000 including $455,000,000 of available leverage and $107,000,000 in cash. Unfunded loan commitments represented 8.6% of our $1,800,000,000 investment portfolio or approximately $154,000,000 including $64,000,000 in revolver commitments. Net regulatory leverage was 1.28 times at quarter end compared to 1.13 times in Q1, which was slightly above our target range of 0.9 times to 1.2 times. The increase was primarily due to the timing of new investments late in the quarter, a delay in expected repayments and a decline in NAV.

Speaker 4

Based on our current outlook, we expect third quarter leverage to return to approximately the levels reported in Q1. Our diversified leverage program includes three low cost credit facilities, three unsecured note issuances and an SBA program. The weighted average interest rate on debt outstanding at quarter end was 5.2% unchanged from the prior quarter. Subsequent to quarter end, we repaid the remaining $92,000,000 outstanding of our 2025 notes, the first step in addressing our upcoming maturities. At the July, we extended the maturity of our $200,000,000 Funding two credit facility to support future investment activity.

Speaker 4

Looking ahead, we are taking proactive steps to manage our capital structure, including evaluating the best alternatives to refinance our 2026 notes. Now I'll turn the call back to Phil for his closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Eric. Now I will provide an update on BlackRock's recently completed acquisition of HPS and the benefits it provides TCPC. Our entire team is very excited to join forces with HPS. This acquisition positions BlackRock to capitalize on the enormous opportunities that lay ahead in private credit. To fully capture those, BlackRock and HPS created a new platform called Private Financing Solutions or PFS.

Speaker 2

PFS combines the firm's private credit and GPLP solutions and liquid and private credit CLO businesses into one single integrated platform. With more than $280,000,000,000 in total assets under management, PFS is well positioned to provide both public and private income solutions. We expect TCPC to benefit from the PFS platform in several ways. First, BlackRock is centralizing its private investment sourcing and origination teams within PFS to maximize collaboration and effectiveness. TCPC will continue to directly source investments and will also leverage PFS' extensive deal sourcing and enriching capabilities to expand our pipeline.

Speaker 2

Second, the new PFS platform enhances our investment expertise and resources. With decades of experience executing thousands of successful private credit transactions spanning performing and special situations across market cycles, we are already benefiting from the team's deep experience, knowledge and insights. We recently welcomed three senior credit investors from HPS to our investment committee and expect our close collaboration with the broader PFS team will enhance our sourcing, underwriting and portfolio management capabilities now and over the long term. Third, BlackRock is now positioned as one of the few firms that can lead large private credit transactions. We're excited about the opportunity to participate in larger transactions where we are a lender of influence and that offer compelling risk adjusted returns.

Speaker 2

In closing, while we are disappointed by the additional markdowns to our portfolio this quarter, we made progress in reducing non accruals and in sourcing attractive investments that position our portfolio to return to historical performance levels. Our entire team continues to focus on diligently working through portfolio challenges to deliver the best possible outcomes for our shareholders. I want to thank our investors and analysts for your continued patience and support. We appreciate it and we'll continue to keep you apprised of our progress. I'll now turn the call to the operator to open the call for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. We will just take a brief pause to allow the questions to come in. Our first question today comes from Paul Johnson with KBW. Please go ahead, Paul.

Speaker 5

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I guess you outlined some of the the changes that have been made, you know, with the private financing solutions kind of reorganization, I guess, within BlackRock. But you added a few new people at the investment committee. How does that change the investment process going forward aside from kind

Speaker 2

of the benefits that you're trying to pull

Speaker 5

from, you know, the broader BlackRock and HPS sort of, you know, combined platform now. I mean, is there anything notable, that you guys are implementing with, the new investment committee members?

Speaker 2

Hey, Paul. Thanks for the question. I think I think it's an important one to understand, you know, what the combined process and resourcing looks like for sure. So so certainly changes, as we described in the call on the investment process first will be on the front end on the origination and sourcing side. We described that PFS will be centralizing all originations.

Speaker 2

So, the idea there being, to leverage the the depth of our resources, with both, you know, private equity sponsors, advisers, intermediaries, banks, so on to ensure that, you know, the the best middle market deals, do get to the to the right to the right homes. So that's absolutely critical, and and we're we're actually seeing, you know, in the past five weeks, that we've been together, have started seeing deals that we otherwise wouldn't have seen. So so I think that's that's really positive. With respect to our investment process, we are continuing, you know, do our our normal, process around our investment committee. We have our, you know, portfolio management process as well that is being absolutely, supplemented with the engagement of the HPS professionals, both those that are formally on our investment committee, but also much broader than that.

Speaker 2

So that's obviously very welcomed. You know, we, you know, we do think that, our our experience in the market and direct lending has been has been vast, but, layering onto that, you know, the vast experience of of HPS and their, you know, decades of experience across, direct lending and other credit, strategies certainly is is accretive to us. I'll also add that that HPS resources do come with, depth on the restructuring side and portfolio management side. So, there's a substantial group, within HPS that's now within PFS that we have started to, tap into. In fact, we've had a number of these restructuring professionals engaged in our portfolio companies already.

Speaker 2

And those are, you know, your financial, legal restructuring professionals, but also post restructuring operational improvement, private equity type, restructuring professionals. So we've already started engaging with them. They're on a number of our portfolio companies. We've had those resources as part of BlackRock, but certainly enhancing our capabilities there is hopefully accretive to recovering value for for some of our portfolio companies. Got it.

Speaker 2

Appreciate that,

Speaker 5

Phil. And and I guess that, you know, kind of tagging on to this, if you touched on some of this here in your response, but in BlackRock is scaling pretty fast, obviously, with the HPS acquisition here. And, you know, it still seems like there's, you know, a lot of secular growth here left in in the industry. I imagine BlackRock's gonna be looking to capture that. But, I mean, for TCPC, how do you, I guess, ensure, you know, through this, you know, period of growth, I think the sector will continue to experience, you know, continues to get, you know, the proper access and proper resources from, the platform and and, you know, avoid kind of falling too low in in priority or, you know, falling, you know, of to, I guess, off the advisers kind of, you know, priority list in in terms of management.

Speaker 5

Yeah. Sure that,

Speaker 2

you know, t PC continues to get access to to to all these resources. Yeah. That's that's that's a great question. And, you know, I think I think that, folks can be assured that, TCPC is an important strategic priority, an overall priority for for the PFS platform in BlackRock. Keep in mind, TCPC is the only publicly traded BDC, on the PFS platform.

Speaker 2

You know, there are certainly other, you know, vehicles and pools of capital, within PFS direct lending, but, but TCP is important. And, you know, based on, our engagement and involvement, you know, like I said, with the new committee members, with the engagement outside of the committee members across our investment process, whether it's origination, underwriting, or portfolio management, or restructuring, the engagement is deep. And and so I would, certainly attest to the importance of TCPC to, to HPS leadership as well as BlackRock.

Speaker 5

Appreciate that. Thanks. And then last question was just on Auto Alert, just on the markdown this quarter. You said the company was performing well, but it sounds like the mark this quarter was driven more due to comps, or was there any sort of kind of performance related mark, in that asset as well this quarter?

Speaker 2

Yeah. So our comment on auto alert was that, the performance has improved since we restructured and took over the company. So it has made made some improvements certainly on both revenue and EBITDA, but the valuation decline was more driven by, by the comps. So market multiples and and value associated with, with these automotive data analytics providers. Thank you.

Speaker 2

That's all for me. Thanks, Paul.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Robert Dodge with Raymond James. Please go ahead, Robert.

Speaker 6

Hi, guys. On what do you you can't obviously you you to be a lender of influence, which obviously I I think we know why why you want that. Now as a whole platform, PFS could obviously be a lender of influence without TCPC necessarily being a a big piece of any any given loan. So should we get how how should we think about that? Is is TCPC maybe gonna take small more diversified smaller bite sizes, but PFS is going to be a lender of influence in the transaction?

Speaker 6

Or is is it that you want TCP itself to be that lender of influence, in which case the bite sizes might be a little larger than they would be if was more platform driven influence?

Speaker 2

Hey. Thanks, Robert. Yeah. So you saw in the last the last couple quarters of employment, our average Mhmm. Ticket size coming out of TCPC was around 11, you know, million plus or minus.

Speaker 2

So clearly, TCPC in and of itself is not leading transactions. And so TCPC, as we've always kind of spoken about, gets the benefit of of being part of a larger platform, you know, and getting allocations of these deals similar to to many of our of our peers in the in the BDC world. So it's no different now with the addition of of HPS or broader PFS. So there will be deals that we are now able to speak for, the entirety of, certainly lead, co lead, and and and at least be a lender of influence. And I think the percentage of those deals will increase, And TCPC will get allocations to those deals.

Speaker 2

You know, just in looking at the last couple quarters in of itself, that search has been happening already. So of the deals we've done in the last two quarters, I think, I would say at least 90% of them have been solar co lead.

Speaker 6

Got it. Got it.

Speaker 2

Thank

Speaker 6

you. And then one more second. I mean yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6

Understood. Thank you. One more second. On on the the the appointment, the write downs in a lot of cases were already previously restructured assets, and it's it's not just in your portfolio. We're seeing we're seeing it elsewhere where restructured assets are going through in some cases the second round of problems.

Speaker 6

Is there you know, is there a scene here where maybe maybe first restructurings aren't as, you know, put a close amount as as aggressive as as maybe they should be. And then this is more like a question about the the the restructuring market, the workout approach. Because it it does seem to again, not just you or not just TCPC, though, where we're we're seeing more of these things kind of revisit, you know, write downs or not a call or whatever even after going through the process once. And it's happening more often to assets that have been through the process once than potentially to to new assets that are that are, so any any any thoughts there on on, like, do restructurings and adjustments do do they need to be more aggressive than than they have been?

Speaker 2

I think it's difficult to say, Robert. You know, I think it's a case by case basis. You know, I think there are I think their market conditions or economic conditions or macro, the macro environment surely has something to do with it as well. Right? If if the high rate environment stays higher for longer, does that impact, you know, demand and, or does, does inflation impact, you know, customer demand and so on?

Speaker 2

I think I think some of these, you know, you know, estimates or forecasts in the macro side can have an impact on companies just like they do on new underwrite. So Uh-huh. But I think hindsight's always twenty twenty. But, you know, restructured businesses, they're they're they are in challenging situations when they are going through restructuring. And as you know, the recoveries and performance, performances of these businesses are not linear, right, in terms of their recovery.

Speaker 2

So we're, you know, we're working extremely hard with the management teams of each one of these businesses to address the operational challenges and and work to improve performance. And I think over time, we've been on the right side of of of those outcomes, and we're, you know, we're hoping to deliver on that again.

Speaker 6

Got it. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we have no further And so I'll hand the call back to Phil Seng for closing comments.

Speaker 2

I'd like to thank our team for their continued efforts and our investors and our analysts for your support. Please contact us with any questions and have a great day. Thank you all.

Operator

Thank you everyone for joining us today. This concludes our call and you may now disconnect your lines.

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