Main Street Capital Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Main Street reported a strong second quarter, including an 18.9% annualized return on equity, record NAV per share of $33.92, and $65 million of net fair value appreciation.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company realized a gain of more than $46 million on its Centre Technologies exit, contributing to approximately $88 million of realized gains from three lower-middle-market equity exits since the fourth quarter of 2025.
  • Positive Sentiment: The board declared a $0.30-per-share supplemental dividend for September and raised fourth-quarter regular monthly dividends by 3.9%; management also anticipates proposing another significant supplemental dividend in December.
  • Positive Sentiment: Main Street ended the quarter with $1.2 billion of cash and unused credit capacity, a 0.69x debt-to-equity ratio, and no firm debt maturity until June 2027, supporting continued portfolio growth.
  • Negative Sentiment: Management expects third-quarter DNII before taxes of at least $0.97 per share, below the second-quarter $1.08, due to a meaningful decline in non-recurring income and higher funding costs; dividend income may also remain lumpy as some portfolio companies prioritize growth or conserve capital.
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Earnings Conference Call
Main Street Capital Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Greetings, welcome to the Main Street Capital second quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Zach Vaughan. Please go ahead, sir.

Zach Vaughan
Zach Vaughan
Investor Relations Representative at Main Street Capital

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Main Street Capital Corporation's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me today with prepared comments are Dwayne Hyzak, Chief Executive Officer, David Magdol, President and Chief Investment Officer, and Ryan Nelson, Chief Financial Officer. Also participating in the Q&A portion of the call is Nick Meserve, Managing Director and Head of Main Street's Private Credit Investment Group. Main Street issued a press release yesterday afternoon that details the company's second-quarter financial and operating results. This document is available on the investor relations section of the company's website at mainstcapital.com. A replay of today's call will be available beginning an hour after the completion of the call and will remain available until August 14th. Information on how to access the replay was included in yesterday's release.

Zach Vaughan
Zach Vaughan
Investor Relations Representative at Main Street Capital

We also advise you that this conference call is being broadcast live through the internet and can be accessed on the company's homepage. Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, August 7th, 2026, and therefore, you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate at the time of any replay listening or transcript reading. Today's call will contain forward-looking statements. Any of these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as anticipates, believes, expects, intends, will, should, may, or similar expressions. These statements are based on management's estimates, assumptions, and projections as of the date of this call, and there are no guarantees of future performance.

Zach Vaughan
Zach Vaughan
Investor Relations Representative at Main Street Capital

Actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied in these statements as a result of risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including, but not limited to, the factors set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be found on the company's website or at sec.gov. Main Street assumes no obligation to update any of these statements unless required by law. During today's call, management will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, including Distributable Net Investment Income, or DNII, and DNII before taxes. DNII is Net Investment Income, or NII, as determined in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, excluding the impact of non-cash compensation expenses. DNII before taxes is NII, as determined in accordance with GAAP, excluding the impact of non-cash compensation expenses and any tax expenses included in NII.

Zach Vaughan
Zach Vaughan
Investor Relations Representative at Main Street Capital

Management believes that presenting DNII and DNII before taxes and the related per share amounts is a useful and appropriate supplemental disclosure for analyzing Main Street Capital Corporation's financial performance, since non-cash compensation expenses do not result in a net cash impact to Main Street upon settlement, and tax expenses included in NII may include excise tax expense, which is not solely attributable to NII and deferred taxes which are not payable in the current period. Please refer to yesterday's press release for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. Two additional key performance indicators that management will be discussing on this call are net asset value, or NAV, and return on equity, or ROE. NAV is defined as total assets minus total liabilities and is also reported on a per share basis.

Zach Vaughan
Zach Vaughan
Investor Relations Representative at Main Street Capital

Main Street defines ROE as the net increase in net assets resulting from operations divided by the average quarterly NAV. Please note that certain information discussed on this call, including information related to portfolio companies, was derived from third-party sources and has not been independently verified. I'll turn the call over to Main Street CEO, Dwayne Hyzak.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Thanks, Zach. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We appreciate your participation on this morning's call. We hope that everyone's doing well. On today's call, we provide our key quarterly updates. After which, we'll be happy to take your questions. We are very pleased with our performance in the second quarter, which resulted in strong quarterly operating results, highlighted by an annualized return on equity of 18.9%, favorable levels of DNII per share, a significant increase in NAV per share. We believe that these results continue to demonstrate the sustainable strength of our overall platform, the benefits of our differentiated and diversified investment strategies, and the continued strength and quality of our portfolio companies. We are also pleased that we further strengthened our capital structure in the second quarter, which Ryan will discuss in more detail.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Given our strong liquidity position and conservative leverage profile, we are very well-positioned to continue the growth of our investment portfolio for the foreseeable future, and we are excited about the current opportunities we are seeing. We remain confident that our unique investment, income, and value-creation drivers, together with our cost-efficient operations and conservative capital structure, will allow us to continue to deliver superior results for our shareholders in the future. Our favorable results for the second quarter, combined with our continued positive outlook for the future, resulted in our most recent dividend announcements, which I will discuss in more detail later.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Our NAV per share increased in the quarter, primarily due to the impact of significant net fair value appreciation in both our lower middle market and private loan investment portfolios, including the benefits of another material net realized gain in our lower middle market investment portfolio.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Ryan will discuss our NAV per share increase in more detail. The continued favorable performance of the majority of our lower middle market portfolio companies resulted in another quarter of meaningful dividend income contributions and net fair value appreciation in our lower middle market equity investments. Consistent with my comments on our last call, we continue to see increased variability between our over-performing and under-performing portfolio companies, and the impact of that variability is reflected in our results. Overall, based upon our current views of the investment portfolio and the feedback from our portfolio company management teams, we continue to maintain a positive view regarding the expected future contributions from our lower middle market portfolio companies.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Consistent with our guidance over the last few quarters, as David Magdol will discuss in more detail, we are pleased to have supported our portfolio company management team partners in another highly successful exit of our investments in a high-performing lower middle market portfolio company, Centre Technologies, in the second quarter at a realized gain of over $46 million and a meaningful premium to our March 31st fair value. Our investment in Centre serves as yet another great example of the benefits of our highly unique lower middle market investment strategy, which delivered significant benefits for both Main Street and our management team partners at Centre, including significant dividend income, fair value appreciation, and realized gains, resulting in best-in-class returns on our equity investment. In addition to the opportunity to back Centre's management team by funding their growth initiatives primarily with follow-on Main Street debt investments.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

We continue to see significant interest from potential buyers in several of our lower middle market portfolio companies, which we expect will lead to additional favorable realizations over the next few quarters, which we believe further highlights the strength and quality of our portfolio companies and their exceptional leadership teams. Now turning to our investment activity, we are excited about the new and follow-on investments we made in our lower middle market strategy during the quarter. These investments were offset by elevated repayment activity, driven in part by the Centre exit, resulting in a net decrease in our lower middle market investments of $31 million. Our private loan investment activity improved significantly in the second quarter, but we also experienced increased levels of repayments, resulting in a net increase in private loan investments of $60 million. David will discuss our investment activity in more detail.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

We also continue to produce favorable results in our asset management business. The funds we advise through our External Investment Manager continue to experience favorable performance in the second quarter, resulting in meaningful incentive fee income for our asset management business, together with our recurring base management fees, a significant contribution to our net investment income. We remain excited about our plans for the external funds that we manage and are optimistic about the future performance of the funds and the expected returns for the investors of each fund. We also continue to be excited about our strategy for growing our asset management business within our internally managed structure.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

As part of these efforts, we remain focused on growing the investment portfolio of MSC Income Fund, a publicly traded BDC advised by our External Investment Manager, which is solely focused on our private loan investment strategy with respect to new portfolio company investments. The fund continues to maintain the capacity for significant future growth. MSC Income's second quarter 2026 financial results conference call will be held later this morning for those who would like additional details. Based upon our results for the second quarter and our favorable outlook for the future, earlier this week, our board declared a supplemental dividend of $0.30 per share payable in September, representing our 20th consecutive quarterly supplemental dividends and regular monthly dividends for the fourth quarter of 2026 of $0.265 per share, representing a 3.9% increase from the regular monthly dividends paid in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

The supplemental dividend for September is a result of our strong performance in the second quarter and our net realized gains over the last few quarters and will result in total supplemental dividends paid during the trailing 12-month period of $1.20 per share, representing an additional 38% paid to our shareholders in excess of our regular monthly dividends. We currently expect to recommend that our board declare future supplemental dividends to the extent DNII before taxes significantly exceeds our regular monthly dividends paid, or we generate net realized gains and we maintain a stable to positive NAV per share in future quarters. Based upon our expectations for continued favorable performance in the third quarter, we currently anticipate proposing an additional significant supplemental dividend payable in December 2026. Turning to our current investment pipeline. As of today, I would characterize our lower middle market investment pipeline as average.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Consistent with our experience in prior periods of broad economic uncertainty, we believe that our ability to provide highly flexible and customized financing solutions to lower middle market companies and their owners and management teams, together with our differentiated long-term to permanent holding periods, represents an even more attractive solution to the needs of many lower middle market companies. We are excited about our expectations for the continued growth of our lower middle market investment portfolio. Similarly, in our private loan investment strategy, we continue to see an improved lending environment and significant opportunities, which we believe has us well-positioned to capitalize on new private loan investment opportunities and to generate growth for our private loan portfolio and our asset management business. As of today, I would also characterize our private loan investment pipeline as average. With that, I will turn the call over to David.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

Thanks, Dwayne, and good morning, everyone. As Dwayne highlighted in his remarks, we believe that our strong second quarter financial results continue to demonstrate the strengths of Main Street's platform, our differentiated investment approach, and our unique operating model. We are pleased to report that the overall operating performance for most of our portfolio companies continues to be positive, which contributed to our attractive second-quarter financial results. Despite the continued heightened level of uncertainty in the overall economy, we remain confident in the ability of our portfolio companies to continue to navigate the current environment. As we have previously discussed, we believe that one of the primary drivers of our long-term success has been and will continue to be our unique focus on investing both debt and equity investments in the underserved lower middle market.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

Most notably and uniquely, our lower middle market strategy provides attractive leverage points and yields on our first-lien debt investments, while also creating a true partnership with the existing owners and management teams of our portfolio companies through our flexible equity ownership positions. In short, we believe that this approach provides significant downside protection through our first-lien debt investments, combined with the benefit of alignment of interests and significant upside potential through our equity investments. Each quarter, we try to highlight different key aspects of our investment strategy and differentiated approach that allow us to consistently produce best-in-class results. In today's call, I'm going to spend some time discussing the benefits we receive from the equity investments in our lower middle market strategy.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

As a result of our lower middle market equity investments in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first half of 2026, we were able to generate approximately $88 million of realized gains from the exits of our equity investments in three lower middle market portfolio companies. These three realizations included a $24 million realized gain in Mystic Logistics, which, in addition to total dividends of $22 million received over the life of our equity investment, represented an annualized internal rate of return of 33% and 18x money invested on our equity investment. A $17 million realized gain in KBK Industries, which, in addition to total dividends of $25 million received over the life of our equity investment, resulted in an annualized internal rate of return of 127% and 63x money invested on our equity investment.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

Finally, a $46 million realized gain in Centre Technologies, which, in addition to total dividends of $2 million received over the life of the equity investment, represented an annualized internal rate of return of 40% and 9x money invested on our equity investment. Realized gains like these provide the ability to offset the inevitable credit losses that will be experienced when investing in non-investment grade debt, consistent with the debt investments executed by investors in the private credit industry.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

Based upon our historical experience and current portfolio, we expect that our future net realized gains on lower middle market equity investments will exceed any future credit losses from our current investment strategies. Another advantage of having equity ownership positions in our lower middle market portfolio companies is our ability to provide additional growth capital to our companies as they find opportunities to expand both organically and through acquisitions.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

For example, after we made our initial investment in Centre Technologies, they executed multiple value-creating acquisitions almost exclusively with additional debt capital that we provided. Similar to our experiences with Centre Technologies and other historical lower middle market portfolio companies, a meaningful portion of our lower middle market portfolio companies represent the opportunity for us to invest additional capital in our highest-performing, proven portfolio companies as they execute their acquisition and other growth strategies.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

As a result of these follow-on investments, both we and our portfolio company management team partners are able to benefit from the significant value created by these growth initiatives. We have multiple examples in which we have greatly increased our national investment sizes and our highest-performing lower middle market portfolio companies through a combination of debt and equity follow-on investments, and we look forward to continuing to execute this part of our strategy in the future.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

In addition to the benefits received from net realized gains and net unrealized appreciation, we also benefit from dividend income received from our lower middle market equity investments. As we have stated in the past, as our lower middle market portfolio companies perform over time, they naturally de-leverage through operating cash flows, which provides the opportunity for those companies to pay dividends to their equity owners. Additionally, our unique long-term to permanent holding period capabilities for our lower middle market portfolio companies enhance our ability to benefit from the long-term free cash flow generation and resulting dividends received from these companies. We are pleased to report that in the second quarter, we, alongside our portfolio company management team owners, continue to receive the benefit of significant dividends from our lower middle market equity investments.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

While Main Street's dividend income can be lumpy on a quarter-to-quarter basis as a result of exits of certain high-performing companies and changes in our portfolio company's cash flow and capital allocation decisions, given the diversity and quality of our existing lower middle market investment portfolio, we expect dividend income to continue to be a significant contributor to our results in the future. Turning to the composition of our investment portfolio as of June 30th, we continue to maintain a highly diversified portfolio with investments in 191 companies spanning across numerous industries and end markets. Our largest portfolio companies, excluding the External Investment Manager, represented only 3.9% of our total investment income for the trailing 12-month period and 3.5% of our total investment portfolio fair value at quarter end. The majority of our portfolio investments represented less than 1% of our income and our assets.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

Our lower middle market investment strategy in the second quarter included total investments of approximately $100 million, including total investments of $46 million in two new lower middle market portfolio companies, which, after aggregate investment activity, resulted in a net decrease in our lower middle market portfolio of $31 million. In our private loan strategy, we completed $239 million in total private loan investments, which, after aggregate investment activity, resulted in a net increase in our private loan portfolio of $60 million. At the end of the second quarter, our lower middle market portfolio included investments in 94 companies representing $3.2 billion of fair value, which is 26% above our related cost basis, and our private loan portfolio included investments in 86 companies representing $2.1 billion of fair value. The total investment portfolio at fair value at quarter-end was 116% of our related cost basis.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

Additional details in our investment portfolio at quarter-end are included in the press release that we issued yesterday. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ryan to cover our financial results, capital structure, and liquidity position.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

Thank you, David. To echo Dwayne's and David's comments, we are pleased with our operating results for the second quarter, which included favorable levels of NII per share and DNII per share, and another increase in NAV per share. Our total investment income for the second quarter was $149.6 million, increasing by $5.6 million, or 3.9%, over the second quarter of 2025, and by $9.5 million, or 6.8%, from the first quarter of 2026. Interest income increased by $11.8 million from a year ago, and by $7.3 million from the first quarter of 2026. The increase from the prior year was principally attributable to the impact of higher levels of income-producing debt investments, partially offset by a decrease in interest rates, primarily resulting from decreases in benchmark index rates on our floating-rate debt investments and the negative impact from investments on non-accrual status.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

The increase from the first quarter was principally attributable to the impact of higher levels of income-producing debt investments and an increase in prepayment activity, partially offset by the negative impact from investments on non-accrual status. Dividend income decreased by $10.4 million when compared to a year ago, including a $2.5 million decrease in unusual or non-recurring dividends, and decreased by $800,000 from the first quarter after a $1 million increase in unusual non-recurring dividends. The decrease in dividend income from the prior year is primarily due to a decrease in dividends from our lower middle market companies as a result of exits since the beginning of the comparable period in the prior year, and changes in the performance and capital allocation decisions of our existing lower middle market companies relative to the prior period.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

Decreases from our External Investment Manager and our other portfolio companies, and the decrease in non-recurring dividends. The decrease in dividend income from the first quarter is primarily due to decreased dividends from our External Investment Manager and other portfolio companies, partially offset by an increase in dividends from our lower middle market companies as a result of their improved performance and their capital allocation decisions relative to the prior quarter, and an increase in non-recurring dividends. Fee income increased by $4.3 million from a year ago and by $2.9 million from the first quarter. The increases in fee income for both comparable periods are primarily due to an increase in fee income from the refinancing and prepayment of debt investments and other investment activity, partially offset by lower closing fees on new and follow-on lower middle market investments.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

Fee income considered non-recurring increased by $3.1 million from a year ago and by $2.2 million from the first quarter of 2026. The second quarter included income considered less consistent or non-recurring in nature, primarily related to accelerated fee and interest income and dividend income, which totaled $9.5 million. These income items were $1.4 million, or $0.01 per share higher than the second quarter of 2025, $5.4 million, or $0.06 per share higher than the first quarter, and $3.5 million, or $0.04 per share higher than the prior four-quarter average. These increases were primarily due to higher non-recurring fees, accelerated interest income, and dividend income across all comparative periods, with the exception of non-recurring dividends, which were lower in the second quarter of 2026 when compared to the second quarter of 2025.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

Our operating expenses increased by $5.1 million over the second quarter of 2025 and by $3.5 million from the first quarter. The increases in operating expenses from the prior year and first quarter were largely driven by increases in interest expense and compensation-related expenses, partially offset by an increase in expenses allocated to the External Investment Manager. The increase in interest expense from a year ago was primarily driven by an increase in average borrowings to fund the growth of our investment portfolio, partially offset by a decrease in the weighted average interest rate on our credit facilities, resulting from decreases in benchmark index rates.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

The increase in interest expense from the first quarter was primarily driven by an increase in average borrowings to fund the growth of our investment portfolio and an increase in the weighted average interest rate on our unsecured debt obligations, resulting from the additional issuance under our March 2029 notes and the issuance of our April 2031 notes. The ratio of our total operating expenses, excluding interest expense, as a percentage of our average total assets, was 1.3% for the quarter on an annualized basis in the trailing 12-month period and continues to be among the lowest in our industry. Our External Investment Manager contributed $8.7 million to our net investment income during the second quarter, which was consistent with the contribution from the same quarter a year ago and represents an increase of $400,000 from the first quarter.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

Our External Investment Manager earned gross incentive fees of $3.2 million during the second quarter and waived $300,000 in incentive fees from MSC Income Fund, resulting in net incentive fees of $3 million. This net result represents a decrease of $700,000 in net incentive fees from the prior year and a net amount consistent with the first quarter of 2026. Our External Investment Manager ended the quarter with total assets under management of $1.8 billion. During the quarter, we recorded net fair value appreciation, including net unrealized appreciation and net realized gains on the investment portfolio of $65 million. The increase was primarily driven by net fair value appreciation in our lower middle market and private loan investment portfolios, partially offset by net fair value depreciation of our External Investment Manager.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

The net fair value appreciation in our lower middle market portfolio was largely driven by the continued positive performance of certain of our portfolio companies. The net fair value appreciation in our private loan portfolio was primarily driven by net appreciation on specific portfolio equity investments and decreases in market spreads. The net fair value depreciation of our External Investment Manager was primarily driven by decreases in the valuation multiples of publicly traded peers, which we use as a benchmark for valuation purposes, partially offset by increased fee income. We recognized net realized gains of $33 million in the quarter, primarily as a result of the exit of Centre Technologies, as previously discussed by Dwayne and David. Additional details on our net realized fair value activity are included in the press release that we issued yesterday.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

We ended the second quarter with investments on non-accrual status comprising approximately 1.1% of the total investment portfolio at fair value and approximately 4% at cost. Net asset value, or NAV, increased by $0.46 per share over the first quarter, or 1.4%, and by $1.62 per share, or 5%, when compared to a year ago, to a record NAV per share of $33.92 at quarter-end. Our regulatory debt-to-equity leverage, calculated as total debt excluding our SBIC debentures divided by NAV, was 0.69x, and our regulatory asset coverage ratio was 2.44x. These ratios continue to be more conservative than our long-term target ranges of 0.8x-0.9x and 2.25x-2.1x, respectively. We continued to be active this quarter on capital activities, aided by our strong relationships as we continue to manage our near-term maturities and overall capital structure diversity.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

These activities included the issuance of $150 million of private placement unsecured notes maturing in April 2031 with an interest rate of 6.93%, and the amendment of our corporate credit facility, increasing our total commitments by $65 million to $1.24 billion and extending the maturity to June 2031. Given our current liquidity position and recent net investment activity, we were less active in our at-the-market, or ATM,program, raising net proceeds of $18.8 million from equity issuances during the second quarter. After giving effect to the capital activities in the second quarter of 2026 and the repayment of our $500 million July 2026 notes at maturity, we entered the third quarter with strong liquidity, including cash and unused capacity under our credit facilities totaling $1.2 billion, with our next firm debt maturity of $400 million in June 2027.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

We continue to believe that our conservative leverage, strong liquidity, and continued access to capital are significant strengths that have proven to benefit us historically and have us well positioned for the future, allowing us to continue to execute our attractive investment strategies despite the current market uncertainty. Coming back to our operating results, DNII before taxes per share for the quarter of $1.08 was $0.03 per share lower than the second quarter of last year and $0.04 per share higher than the first quarter. Looking forward, we expect third quarter of 2026 DNII before taxes of at least $0.97 per share. This outlook reflects the impacts of an expected meaningful decline in non-recurring income from the second quarter and the increased cost of capital following the refinancing of our July 2026 notes, with the potential for upside driven by portfolio investment activities during the quarter.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

With that, I will now turn the call over to the operator so we can take any questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question, we'll hear from Robert Dodd with Raymond James.

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

Robert, are you there?

Operator

Just one moment. Robert Dodd, please go ahead.

Robert Dodd
Robert Dodd
Analyst at Raymond James

Can you hear me now?

Ryan Nelson
Ryan Nelson
CFO at Main Street Capital

We can hear you, Robert. Good morning.

Robert Dodd
Robert Dodd
Analyst at Raymond James

Excellent. Thank you. On one of your comments in the opening remarks, Dwayne, you said there's an increased variability, and I don't think this is new per se, I just want to follow up. Increased variability between the overperformance and the underperformance. Obviously, there's a lot more good/overperformance than there are under, so it's not the end of the world. On the underperformance, are there any themes that show up there in terms of industry structures, types of business, that you've learnt from already or can learn from in terms of which kind of deals to avoid going forward? Is it just idiosyncratic and stuff happens with credit?

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

I'd say it's the latter. It's idiosyncratic. I think you have situations where a management team might underperform, and that could be attributable to the company, could be attributable to the broader industry. We're not seeing a consistent broad theme or pattern. We are seeing when you have companies that are overperforming, as we try to communicate in the script that they're overperforming at a high level or higher level.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

When you see the pressure, I think you're seeing more pressure. I attribute that to just the overall economic uncertainty and just some of the things that are going on across the economy more broadly. I don't think it's anything that is a broad trend or a specific trend in any area.

Robert Dodd
Robert Dodd
Analyst at Raymond James

Got it. Thank you. On the asset management business, obviously, it's performing well. The incentive fees are good. You do plan on growing it further, obviously. You've made some hires, or a hire at least, I think, in that area, relatively recently, obviously. Any update on any new initiatives that are being contemplated or implemented in that business to produce accelerated growth, maybe, obviously, beyond MSIF, which is obviously the biggest piece of it today?

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Sure, Robert. Nothing other than what you hit on. As you said, we hired an individual who will have a sole focus on fundraising for us. We plan to have a private Fund number III at some point in this year or early next year. Obviously, we hope to be successful there. We hope that Fund III is larger than Funds I and II, but time will tell how successful we are. I'd say other than that activity or that initiative, nothing else new. We are excited about those plans, and we look forward to seeing how that launch goes here in a couple of months.

Robert Dodd
Robert Dodd
Analyst at Raymond James

Got it. Thank you. One more, if I can. On the pipeline data you give us, which is always helpful, that's kind of a relatively near-term, one or two-quarter kind of outlook on that front. Some businesses that you end up doing deals with, you have built relationships over years rather than just a couple of months. Are you seeing anything change in the early-stage discussion pipeline? Is that continuing to build? In the past, sometimes that's been impacted by political or administration changes. Obviously, we've got midterms, but not an administration change coming up. Anything on the really early-stage kind of discussions that's shifting?

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

I don't think there's anything that's shifting or changing there. I think we continue to feel good about the pipeline, both lower middle market and private loan. When we say average, it's not intended to be a negative. It's just intended to give you.

Robert Dodd
Robert Dodd
Analyst at Raymond James

Right.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Direction relative to history. We're not seeing anything that's changing on the early stage of the pipeline. I think we continue to be confident, and we continue to believe that our unique offering in the lower middle market will be attractive to a lot of different individual owner-operators and their management team. Nothing has changed there.

Robert Dodd
Robert Dodd
Analyst at Raymond James

Got it. Thank you.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Thank you, Robert.

Operator

Next question, we'll hear from Kenneth Lee with RBC Capital Markets.

Kenneth Lee
Kenneth Lee
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Just a follow-up question around the lower mid-market pipeline there. Are you able to maybe just comment in terms of any kind of outlook between either follow-on opportunities? It sounds like there's not much in the early stage for the newer deal platforms. Once again, just wanted to get some color around that. Thanks.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Yeah. Morning, Ken, and thanks for the question. I'd say we feel good about both the new investment opportunities we have. We have several transactions that are in advanced stages of diligence and documentation, so we feel good about those. I think on the existing portfolio company side, we continue to see add-on opportunities there. Nothing that's changed to the negative. We do expect to have both new investments and follow-ons in Q3 and Q4 that will be consistent with what we've seen in the past.

Kenneth Lee
Kenneth Lee
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Got it. Very helpful there. One follow-up, if I may, just in terms of the dividend income you get from the portfolio companies. Any color in terms of what you're seeing around capital allocation priorities over the near term and any potential outlook around the income there? Thanks.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

I wouldn't say there's a huge shift there, Ken. I'll let David add on if he has any additional comments. I do think that you're seeing some companies that are changing capital allocation views, at least as we sit here today, that could be for growth purposes. It could be them just becoming a little more conservative in their approach and not expecting to pay as much dividend income as they may have paid if there wasn't the continued uncertainty across the economy. We don't think there's huge changes there. You are seeing some companies that are either prioritizing capital for growth or maybe being a little more conservative. David, if you want to add anything onto that.

David Magdol
David Magdol
President and Chief Investment Officer at Main Street Capital

No, nothing to add.

Kenneth Lee
Kenneth Lee
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Gotcha. Very helpful there. Just, if I could squeeze one more in. Maybe could you remind us again, in terms of your supplemental dividend framework there, any updated thoughts around that? Perhaps just remind us how you think about that going forward. Thanks.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Yeah. Ken, I'd say that the plans for the supplemental continue to be consistent with what we've been trying to communicate the last couple of quarters. First, we look at our DNII before taxes to the extent that is a significant difference versus the monthly, which has continued to be a meaningful difference. That's the first source of funding for the supplemental. We've also, as you know, have had a significant amount of realized gains over the last couple of quarters. Not just the last two, but really for the last year and a half, plus or minus. I think the number we calculated here recently was about $130 million of net realized gains. Increasingly, that's becoming part of the calculus on the supplemental dividend.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Will not be the primary driver, but it is part of the calculus when you look at. That level of realized gains, trying to look forward at managing the supplemental dividend to help us manage spillover income, those types of considerations are coming into play, largely just because of the significance of the net realized gains.

Kenneth Lee
Kenneth Lee
Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Got you. Very helpful there. Thanks again.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Thank you, Ken.

Operator

Our next question, we'll hear from Arren Cyganovich with Truist Securities.

Arren Cyganovich
Arren Cyganovich
VP at Truist Securities

Thank you. Just following up on Robert's initial questioning. How would you say the underperformers versus overperformers how that differs historically from different periods? Because you've been obviously doing this for a long time. What's your approach whenever you do have a period like this where you might have some underperformers that you might need to put a little bit more focus on?

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Sure, Arren. The way I would respond to that is, I'd say, if you look at a portfolio today and historically for us, it's a bell curve. You've got some companies that one end of the curve that are underperforming. You've got other companies at the opposite end that are overperforming and a bunch that are in the middle. I would say if you look at the number of companies, I would say that distribution is not materially different than what it's been in the past. It's just when you see the overperformance, you have some companies on the right side of that. When they're overperforming, they're overperforming in a very meaningful or significant way, and more so than they would've done historically.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

I think on the other side, just given the uncertainty in the economy and some of the challenges out there, when a company is struggling, it's also probably struggling to a greater extent. I think our view, our philosophy approach has always been, not just in times like this, but in all times. When you have a high-performing company, more importantly, a high-performing management team, we're going to work with them. Obviously, it's their decision first and foremost, but we're going to work with them to support their growth plans. If they want to grow, we're going to be very interested in funding that growth. You're seeing us continue to do that today, and you'll see us continue to do that going forward.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

On the flip side, where there's underperformance, the first thing that our teams, whether it's a lower middle market investment or private loan investment, the first thing our teams do is work with that team. If it's a private loan investment, work with the private equity sponsor to figure out how do we fix this, how do we address the shortcomings or the shortfalls. Eventually, if the determination is that the underperformance is so extreme or so drastic, then the approach we try to take is just don't put good money after bad. The one thing we can control on the downside is how much money we lose. If we're disciplined and consistent and not putting good money after bad, you can limit the downside.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Whereas on the upside, if a company's performing, there probably is a limit, but theoretically, there's no limit to what the upside is. That's the way that I would frame it. That's been our consistent strategy for 20 years, and nothing's really changed there.

Arren Cyganovich
Arren Cyganovich
VP at Truist Securities

Great. Thanks, Dwayne.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Thank you.

Operator

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Next, we'll hear from Chris Muller with Citizens Bank.

Chris Muller
Analyst at Citizens Bank

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Nice to be on with you this morning, and congrats on a strong quarter here. Maybe following up on the question on MSC Adviser. When that fundraising process does start, how long does it typically take from start to finish? Do you guys get paid management fees on total commitments or when the capital is actually deployed there? Just trying to understand that dynamic a little better.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Sure, Chris. Well, good morning, and thanks for joining us, and happy to have you on board for the call. When you look at the two questions you have there, I'd say once we launch, you're probably looking at an 18-month time period for the fundraising period. Likely, the fundraising starts off a little bit slower just because you're trying to get the initial investors in, and it'll pick up steam halfway through that 18-month time period if you look at our history. I would expect something similar to that to be the case once we launch Fund III. In terms of what drives our fees, it is on deployed capital, so it's assets invested. Similar to what I just said, you probably will likely start seeing the benefits 12, 18, 24 months after we start raising capital because you first have to raise the capital.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

You put a credit facility in place and then start deploying it. That's the time period approach I would expect. Nick, if you have a different view or something you want to add, feel free to add on.

Nick Meserve
Nick Meserve
Managing Director and Head of Main Street's Private Credit Investment Group at Main Street Capital

I think that covers it. I think probably the full cycle fundraise for Fund III is probably that 18-24-month window.

Chris Muller
Analyst at Citizens Bank

Got it. That is very helpful. Maybe shifting gears a little bit. Looks like we are in an environment where rates are poised to move higher in the next eight months or so. Typically, in a rising rate environment, we see spreads tighten up a little bit. Does that dynamic hold true on the private loan side for you guys as well?

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Yeah, to some degree. It depends on the underlying business and where the overall M&A activity will be. I would say that is relatively accurate.

Chris Muller
Analyst at Citizens Bank

Got it. Appreciate you guys taking the questions today, and congrats again on a strong quarter.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Operator

This will conclude the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back to the management team for closing remarks.

Dwayne Hyzak
Dwayne Hyzak
CEO at Main Street Capital

Thank you. Thank you again, everyone, for joining us this morning for the call. We appreciate the continued support of our shareholders, and we look forward to talking to you again in early November after the release of our results for the third quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

Executives
    • Zach Vaughan
      Zach Vaughan
      Investor Relations Representative
    • David Magdol
      David Magdol
      President and Chief Investment Officer
    • Ryan Nelson
      Ryan Nelson
      CFO
    • Nick Meserve
      Nick Meserve
      Managing Director and Head of Main Street's Private Credit Investment Group
Analysts