Great Elm Group Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 7, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Negative Sentiment: The company reported a net loss of $13.5 million for the quarter, driven primarily by approximately $9.8 million of non‑cash unrealized losses tied to its investments in GECC common stock and related SPVs.
  • Positive Sentiment: Great Elm ended the quarter with a solid liquidity position of about $45.5 million in cash and equivalents and GECC has substantially delevered its capital structure, leaving it with no debt maturities until 2029.
  • Positive Sentiment: Leadership and strategy changes at GECC (Jason Reese now CEO) reprioritize protecting and growing NAV over near‑term income, and portfolio rotation increased first‑lien investments to nearly 75% of corporate credit exposure.
  • Positive Sentiment: The board increased the share repurchase authorization by $15 million to a total of $40 million; the company repurchased ~1.4 million shares this quarter and ~7.8 million shares (~$15.6 million) since inception, signaling management’s view that shares are undervalued.
  • Negative Sentiment: Fee‑paying AUM and total AUM declined year‑over‑year to $528 million and $744 million, respectively, and adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $1.6 million, reflecting near‑term operational and market headwinds.
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Earnings Conference Call
Great Elm Group Q3 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 4 speakers on the call.

Speaker 3

Greetings, and welcome to Great Elm Group fiscal 2026 third quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star 0 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Adam Yates, Managing Director. Thank you. You may begin.

Operator

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Great Elm Group's fiscal 2026 third quarter earnings conference call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded on Thursday, May 7, 2026. If you would like to be added to our distribution list, you can email geginvestorrelations@greatelmcap.com, or you can sign up for alerts directly on our website, www.greatelmgroup.com. The slide presentation accompanying today's conference call and webcast can be found on our website under Events and Presentations. A link to the webcast is also available on our website, as well as in the press release that was disseminated to announce the quarterly results. Today's conference call includes forward-looking statements, and we ask that you refer to Great Elm Group's filings with the SEC for important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements.

Operator

Great Elm Group does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements unless required by law. In addition, during today's call, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most comparable financial measures are included in our earnings release. To obtain copies of our SEC filings, please visit Great Elm Group's website under Financial Information and select SEC Filings. Today's comments do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy interests in any investment vehicle managed by Great Elm or its affiliates. Any such offer or solicitation will only be made pursuant to the applicable offering documents for such investment vehicle. On the call today, we have Jason Reese, CEO, Adam Kleinman, President and General Counsel, Nichole Milz, COO, and Keri Davis, CFO. I will now turn the call over to Jason Reese, CEO.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Adam. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. This quarter, Great Elm made meaningful progress advancing our strategic initiatives while operating against a challenging backdrop. Fiscal third quarter 2026 was marked by heightened volatility across the BDC sector, driven by broader concerns around private credit quality. GECC, our public BDC, was not insulated from that volatility. Our reported results reflect approximately $9.8 million of unrealized losses, primarily related to our holdings in GECC common stock and related SPVs. Despite these non-cash mark-to-market losses, our balance sheet remains strong with over $45 million of cash and equivalents. This liquidity provides us with significant flexibility to support our growth initiatives and pursue attractive opportunities as we move forward. In this environment, we continue to build momentum across our alternative asset management platform.

Speaker 1

In March, I assumed the role of Executive Chairman of GECC at an important inflection point for the company. On May fourth, I was appointed CEO. The company was established to create income and protect and grow NAV. In the near term, I am reprioritizing. We will protect and grow NAV first and secondarily create income. We will accomplish this by strengthening oversight, protecting shareholder value, and reinforcing accountability across the platform. We are already making tangible progress across each of these efforts. At GECC, we took decisive steps during the quarter to strengthen the balance sheet and improve overall portfolio quality. We substantially delevered the capital structure by calling and repurchasing all near-term funded debt, and GECC will soon have no debt maturities until 2029. This eliminates near-term refinancing risk and enhances our ability to deploy capital in a disciplined and opportunistic manner.

Speaker 1

We also advanced our portfolio rotation strategy, exiting select investments and increasing portfolio quality by redeploying capital into predominantly senior secured positions. As a result, first lien investments now comprise nearly 75% of GECC's corporate credit portfolio, the highest level in recent history. Additionally, we're expanding our proprietary sourcing effort. During the quarter, we closed 3 transactions sourced through institutional partners. We closed another proprietary private investment in April and expect to close on an additional investments in the near future. Our focus remains on rigorous underwriting, enhanced portfolio diversification, and increasing cash generative secured credit investments. We believe these actions position GECC for an improved trajectory with durable performance. Within our private credit strategy, the Great Elm Credit Income Fund, which we launched in November 2023, began an orderly wind down last quarter.

Speaker 1

We offered third-party investors an early redemption option, All have since exited the fund, leaving Great Elm Group's approximately $7 million investment at quarter end. The fund generated a net return of over 20% from inception through March 31, 2026. In real estate, Great Elm Real Estate Ventures delivered another strong quarter, driven by continued execution across the Monomoy platform. Monomoy CRE generated approximately $1 million of investment and property management fees in the quarter, growing more than 20% from the prior year period. Monomoy REIT closed on 5 acquisitions in the quarter, deploying approximately $28 million and surpassing its full year 2025 acquisition activity. Monomoy BTS delivered a third development property in Florida to an investment-grade tenant with rent commencing in March. During the quarter, the team also advanced its fourth design build project in Texas following a land acquisition.

Speaker 1

The real estate platform continues to build a robust pipeline of additional build-to-suit opportunities, spurred by its strong execution track record and high tenant satisfaction. Lastly, Monomoy Construction Services completed its fourth full quarter of operations, adding $0.7 million in total revenue. Outside of our core platform, our CoreWeave related investment continues to perform well with cumulative distributions of $6.8 million to date, exceeding our initial $5 million investment. We continue to see upside potential based on current trading levels, and we are encouraged by CoreWeave's recent stock price rebound and successful capital raises. Turning to capital allocation, we believe our shares remain materially undervalued and continue to prioritize share repurchases accordingly. Our board recently approved a $15 million increase in our stock repurchase program, bringing the total authorization to $40 million.

Speaker 1

This marks our 10th consecutive quarter of share repurchases, underscoring both our conviction in the business and our commitment to enhancing shareholder value. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 1.4 million shares, or over 4% of shares outstanding, at an average price of $2.04 per share. Through May 4th, we have repurchased approximately 7.8 million shares at an average price of $2 per share, representing $15.6 million deployed since inception. This leaves approximately $24.4 million of remaining capacity, and we intend to remain active under the program at current valuation levels. As we enter the fourth quarter of our fiscal year, we remain focused on growing fee-paying AUM, scaling our alternative credit and real estate businesses, and sourcing new investment opportunities.

Speaker 1

Looking ahead, we seek to expand our platform and add accretive, differentiated investment solutions with attractive risk-adjusted return profiles. With that, I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Keri Davis.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jason Reese. I'll provide a brief overview of the quarter and of course, welcome all of you to review our filings for additional detail or reach out to our team with any questions. Fiscal third quarter revenue was $3.4 million compared to $3.2 million in the prior year period. A 7% increase driven primarily by growth in MCS construction management fees. Estimated fee paying AUM and AUM were $528 million and $744 million, respectively, as of March 31, 2026. These figures represent a decrease of 7% and 3%, respectively, compared to the prior year period. We reported a net loss of $13.5 million for the quarter, compared to a net loss of $4.5 million a year ago.

Speaker 2

The change was primarily driven by $9.8 million of unrealized losses, including consolidated funds, the majority of which were associated with the company's investments in GECC common stock and related SPVs. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was -$1.6 million compared to $0.5 million in the prior year period. As of March 31, 2026, we held approximately $45.5 million of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet to deploy across our growing alternative asset management platform. Please refer to the earnings release in our Form 10-Q for a more detailed summary of our financial position. This concludes my financial review of the quarter. With that, we will turn the call over to the operator to open for questions.

Speaker 3

Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. There are no questions at this time. At this point, I'd like to turn the call back over to Jason Reese for closing comments.

Speaker 1

Thank you again for joining us today. We remain confident in the strategic direction of our business. Our credit and real estate platforms continue to execute. With the strength of our balance sheet, we are taking disciplined actions to position the platform for long-term success. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. Thank you for your time and continued support.

Speaker 3

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

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