Item 1. Business.
Our Company
Owl Rock Capital Corporation was formed on October 15, 2015 as a corporation under the laws of the State of Maryland. We are a specialty finance company focused on lending to U.S. middle-market companies. Since we began investment activities in April 2016 through December 31, 2017, our Adviser has originated $3.5 billion aggregate principal amount of investments, of which $2.9 billion of aggregate principal amount of investments prior to any subsequent exits or repayments, was retained by either us or Owl Rock Capital Corporation II, a BDC advised by our Adviser. In addition, since June 2016, we have originated $336.1 million of aggregate principal amount of investments prior to any subsequent exits or repayments, which was retained by Sebago Lake LLC (“Sebago Lake”), a joint venture discussed below. Our capital will be used by our portfolio companies to support growth, acquisitions, market or product expansion, refinancings and/or recapitalizations. We define “middle market companies” to generally mean companies with earnings before interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) between $10 million and $250 million annually, and/or annual revenue of $50 million to $2.5 billion at the time of investment. We may on occasion invest in smaller or larger companies if an attractive opportunity presents itself, especially when there are dislocations in the capital markets, including the high yield and syndicated loan markets. Our target credit investments will typically have maturities between three and ten years and generally range in size between $20 million and $250 million. The investment size will vary with the size of our capital base. As of December 31, 2017, our portfolio companies had weighted average annual revenue of $673 million and weighted average annual EBITDA of $90 million.
We invest in senior secured or unsecured loans, subordinated loans or mezzanine loans and, to a lesser extent, equity-related securities including warrants, preferred stock and similar forms of senior equity, which may or may not be convertible into a portfolio company’s common equity. Our investment objective is to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by targeting investment opportunities with favorable risk-adjusted returns. While we believe that current market conditions favor extending credit to middle market companies in the United States, our investment strategy is intended to generate favorable returns across credit cycles with an emphasis on preserving capital. As of December 31, 2017, based on fair value, our portfolio consisted of 69.1% first lien debt investments, 28.0% second-lien debt investments, 2.7% investment funds and vehicles, and 0.2% equity investments. Approximately 98.4% of our debt investments based on fair value as of December 31, 2017 are floating rate in nature, all of which are subject to an interest rate floor. As of December 31, 2017 we had investments in 40 portfolio companies, with an average investment size in each of our portfolio companies of approximately $59.7 million based on fair value.
As of December 31, 2017, our portfolio was invested across 23 different industries. The largest industries in our portfolio as of December 31, 2017 were distribution and business services, which represented, as a percentage of our portfolio, 13.3% and 8.8%, respectively, based on fair value.
We conduct private offerings (each, a “Private Offering”) of our common shares to accredited investors in reliance on exemptions from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). At the closing of each Private Offering, each investor makes a capital commitment (a “Capital Commitment”) to purchase shares of our common stock pursuant to a subscription agreement entered into with the Company. Investors are required to fund drawdowns to purchase shares of our common stock up to the amount of their respective Capital Commitment on an as-needed basis each time we deliver a drawdown notice to our investors. The initial closing of the Private Offering occurred on March 3, 2016 (the "Initial Closing"). As of March 2, 2018, we had $5.5 billion in total Capital Commitments from investors, of which $1.4 billion has been drawn down. Prior to the listing of our common stock on a national exchange (an “Exchange Listing”), the Adviser may, in its sole discretion, permit one or more additional closings (“Subsequent Closings”) as additional Capital Commitments are obtained (the conclusion of all Subsequent Closings, if any, the “Final Closing” and the Initial Closing, each Subsequent Closing and the Final Closing, each a “Closing”). See “- The Private Offering.”
If we have not consummated an Exchange Listing by the five-year anniversary of the Initial Closing, subject to extension for two additional one-year periods, in the sole discretion of our board of directors (the “Board”), the Board (subject to any necessary shareholder approvals and applicable requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “1940 Act”)) will use its commercially reasonable efforts to wind down and/or liquidate and dissolve the Company in an orderly manner.
We are an externally managed, closed-end, non-diversified management investment company that has elected to be regulated as a BDC under the 1940 Act. We have elected to be treated, and intend to qualify annually, as a RIC under the Code for U.S. federal income tax purposes. As a BDC and a RIC, we are required to comply with certain regulatory requirements. As a BDC, at least 70% of our assets must be assets of the type listed in Section 55(a) of the 1940 Act, as described herein. We will not invest more than 20% of our total assets in companies whose principal place of business is outside the United States. See “- Regulation as a Business Development Company” and “- Certain U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations.”
We generally intend to distribute, out of assets legally available for distribution, substantially all of our available earnings, on a quarterly basis, as determined by our Board in its sole discretion.
To achieve our investment objective, we will leverage the Adviser’s investment team’s extensive network of relationships with other sophisticated institutions to source, evaluate and, as appropriate, partner with on transactions. There are no assurances that we will achieve our investment objective.
We may borrow money from time to time within the levels permitted by the 1940 Act (which generally allows us to incur leverage up to one half of our assets). We have entered into a senior secured revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Credit Facility”), a subscription line revolving credit facility (the “Subscription Credit Facility”), and a SPV asset credit facility (the “SPV Asset Facility”), and in the future may enter into additional credit facilities. In addition, we have issued senior unsecured notes maturing in 2023 (the “2023 Notes”), in a private placement. We expect to use our credit facilities and other borrowings, along with proceeds from the rotation of our portfolio, proceeds from the Private Offerings and the sale of the 2023 Notes to finance our investment objectives. See “- Business Development Company Regulations” for discussion of BDC regulation and other regulatory considerations. See “ITEM 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of OperationS - Debt.”
Market Trends
We believe the middle-market lending environment provides opportunities for us to meet our goal of making investments that generate attractive risk-adjusted returns based on a combination of the following factors:
Limited Availability of Capital for Middle Market Companies. We believe that regulatory and structural changes in the market have reduced the amount of capital available to U.S. middle-market companies. In particular, we believe there are currently fewer traditional providers of capital to middle market companies. Traditional middle market lenders, such as commercial and regional banks and commercial finance companies, have contracted their origination and lending activities and are focusing on more liquid asset classes, or have exited the business altogether. We believe the Basel III accord, and implemented regulations by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have significantly increased capital and liquidity requirements for banks, decreasing their capacity to hold non-investment grade leveraged loans on their balance sheets. Coupled with new risk retention requirements for collateralized loan vehicles, we believe these developments reduce the capacity of traditional lenders to serve this market segment and, as a result, have restricted the access to capital and increased the cost of borrowing for U.S. middle market companies.
Capital Markets Have Been Unable to Fill the Void in U.S. Middle Market Finance Left by Banks. While underwritten bond and syndicated loan markets have been robust in recent years, middle market companies are less able to access these markets for reasons including the following:
High Yield Market - Middle market companies generally are not issuing debt in an amount large enough to be an attractively sized bond. High yield bonds are generally purchased by institutional investors who, among other things, are highly focused on the liquidity characteristics of the bond being issued. For example, mutual funds and exchange traded funds (“ETFs”) are significant buyers of underwritten bonds. However, mutual funds and ETFs generally require the ability to liquidate their investments quickly in order to fund investor redemptions and/or comply with regulatory requirements. Accordingly, the existence of an active secondary market for bonds is an important consideration in these entities’ initial investment decision. Because there is typically little or no active secondary market for the debt of U.S. middle market companies, mutual funds and ETFs generally do not provide debt capital to U.S. middle market companies. We believe this is likely to be a persistent problem and creates an advantage for those like us who have a more stable capital base and have the ability to invest in illiquid assets.
Syndicated Loan Market - While the syndicated loan market is modestly more accommodating to middle market issuers, as with bonds, loan issue size and liquidity are key drivers of institutional appetite and, correspondingly, underwriters’ willingness to underwrite the loans. Loans arranged through a bank are done either on a “best efforts” basis or are underwritten with terms plus “flex” - a set of terms, coupon and fee cushion that underwriters have the right to impose on the loan as a means to help the loan clear the market in the event the terms initially marketed are insufficiently attractive to investors. Furthermore, banks are generally reluctant to underwrite middle market loans because the arrangement fees they may earn on the placement of the debt generally are not sufficient to meet the banks’ return hurdles. Loans provided by companies such as ours provide certainty to issuers in that we can commit to a given amount of debt on specific terms, at stated coupons and with agreed upon fees. As we are the ultimate holder of the loans, we do not require market “flex” or other arrangements that banks may require when acting on an agency basis.
Robust Demand for Debt Capital. We believe U.S. middle market companies will continue to require access to debt capital to refinance existing debt, support growth and finance acquisitions. In addition, we believe the large amount of uninvested capital held by funds of private equity firms, estimated by Preqin Ltd., an alternative assets industry data and research company, to be $954 billion as of September 30, 2017, will continue to drive deal activity. We expect that private equity sponsors will continue to pursue acquisitions and leverage their equity investments with secured loans provided by companies such as us.
The Middle Market is a Large Addressable Market. According to GE Capital’s National Center for the Middle Market 4th Quarter 2017 Middle Market Indicator, there are approximately 200,000 U.S. middle market companies, which have approximately 47.9 million aggregate employees. Moreover, the U.S. middle market accounts for approximately one-third of private sector gross domestic product (“GDP”). GE defines U.S. middle market companies as those between $10 million and $1 billion in annual revenue, which we believe has significant overlap with our definition of U.S. middle market companies.
Attractive Investment Dynamics. An imbalance between the supply of, and demand for, middle market debt capital creates attractive pricing dynamics. We believe the directly negotiated nature of middle market financings also generally provides more favorable terms to the lender, including stronger covenant and reporting packages, better call protection, and lender-protective change of control provisions. Additionally, we believe BDC managers’ expertise in credit selection and ability to manage through credit cycles has generally resulted in BDCs experiencing lower loss rates than U.S. commercial banks through credit cycles. Further, we believe that historical middle market default rates have been lower, and recovery rates have been higher, as compared to the larger market capitalization, broadly distributed market, leading to lower cumulative losses.
Conservative Capital Structures. Following the credit crisis, which we define broadly as occurring between mid-2007 and mid-2009, lenders have generally required borrowers to maintain more equity as a percentage of their total capitalization, specifically to protect lenders during economic downturns. With more conservative capital structures, U.S. middle market companies have exhibited higher levels of cash flows available to service their debt. In addition, U.S. middle market companies often are characterized by simpler capital structures than larger borrowers, which facilitates a streamlined underwriting process and, when necessary, restructuring process.
Attractive Opportunities in Investments in Loans. We invest in senior secured or unsecured loans, subordinated loans or mezzanine loans and, to a lesser extent, equity-related securities. We believe that opportunities in senior secured loans are significant because of the floating rate structure of most senior secured debt issuances and because of the strong defensive characteristics of these types of investments. Given the current low interest rate environment, we believe that debt issues with floating interest rates offer a superior return profile as compared with fixed-rate investments, since floating rate structures are generally less susceptible to declines in value experienced by fixed-rate securities in a rising interest rate environment. Senior secured debt also provides strong defensive characteristics. Senior secured debt has priority in payment among an issuer’s security holders whereby holders are due to receive payment before junior creditors and equity holders. Further, these investments are secured by the issuer’s assets, which may provide protection in the event of a default.
The Adviser - Owl Rock Capital Advisors LLC
Owl Rock Capital Advisors LLC serves as our investment adviser pursuant to an investment advisory agreement (the “Investment Advisory Agreement”) between us and the Adviser. See “Investment Advisory Agreement” below. The Adviser is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Advisers Act”). The Adviser is an indirect subsidiary of Owl Rock Capital Partners LP (“Owl Rock Capital Partners”). Owl Rock Capital Partners is led by its three co-founders, Douglas I. Ostrover, Marc S. Lipschultz and Craig W. Packer. The Adviser’s investment team (the “Investment Team”) is also led by Douglas I. Ostrover, Marc S. Lipschultz and Craig W. Packer and is supported by certain members of the Adviser’s senior executive team and the investment committee (the “Investment Committee”). The Investment Committee is comprised of Douglas I. Ostrover, Marc S. Lipschultz, Craig W. Packer and Alexis Maged. The Adviser has limited operating history. Subject to the overall supervision of the Board, the Adviser manages our day-to-day operations, and provides investment advisory and management services to us.
The Adviser also serves as investment adviser to Owl Rock Capital Corporation II. Owl Rock Capital Corporation II is a corporation formed under the laws of the State of Maryland that, like us, has elected to be treated as a BDC under the 1940 Act. Owl Rock Capital Corporation II’s investment objective is similar to ours, which is to generate current income, and to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by targeting investment opportunities with favorable risk-adjusted returns. On April 4, 2017, Owl Rock Capital Corporation II received subscription agreements totaling $10.0 million for the purchase of shares of its common stock from a private placement from certain individuals and entities affiliated with the Adviser, met its minimum offering requirement of $2.5 million, and issued 277,778 shares of common stock. The purchase price of these shares was $9.00 per share, which represented Owl Rock Capital Corporation II’s initial public offering price of $9.47 per share, net of selling commissions and dealer manager fees. In April 2017, Owl Rock Capital Corporation II made its first portfolio company investment. As of December 31, 2017, Owl Rock Capital Corporation II had raised gross proceeds of approximately $90.9 million, including seed capital contributed by the Adviser in September 2016 and approximately $10.0 million in gross proceeds raised from certain individuals and entities affiliated with the Adviser.
In addition to Owl Rock Capital Corporation II, the Adviser may provide management or investment advisory services to entities that have overlapping objectives with us. The Adviser may face conflicts in the allocation of investment opportunities to us and others. In order to address these conflicts, the Adviser has put in place an investment allocation policy that addresses the allocation of investment opportunities as well as co-investment restrictions under the 1940 Act.
In addition, we, the Adviser and certain of its affiliates have been granted exemptive relief by the SEC to co-invest with other funds managed by the Adviser or its affiliates in a manner consistent with our investment objective, positions, policies, strategies and restrictions as well as regulatory requirements and other pertinent factors. Pursuant to such exemptive relief, we generally are permitted to co-invest with certain of our affiliates if a “required majority” (as defined in Section 57(o) of the 1940 Act) of our independent directors make certain conclusions in connection with a co-investment transaction, including that (1) the terms of the transaction, including the consideration to be paid, are reasonable and fair to us and our shareholders and do not involve overreaching of us or our shareholders on the part of any person concerned, (2) the transaction is consistent with the interests of our shareholders and is consistent with our investment objective and strategies, and (3) the investment by our affiliates would not disadvantage us, and our participation would not be on a basis different from or less advantageous than that on which our affiliates are investing. The Adviser’s investment allocation policy incorporates the conditions of the exemptive relief. See “Item 1A.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Investing in our common stock involves a number of significant risks. You should consider carefully the following information before making an investment in our common stock. The risks below are not the only risks we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or not presently deemed material by us may also impair our operations and performance. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Business
We have a limited operating history.
We were formed on October 15, 2015 and are subject to all of the business risks and uncertainties associated with any business with a limited operating history, including the risk that we will not achieve or sustain our investment objective and that the value of our common stock could decline substantially.
The lack of liquidity in our investments may adversely affect our business.
We may acquire a significant percentage of our portfolio company investments from privately held companies in directly negotiated transactions. Substantially all of these investments are subject to legal and other restrictions on resale or are otherwise less liquid than exchange-listed securities or other securities for which there is an active trading market. We typically would be unable to exit these investments unless and until the portfolio company has a liquidity event such as a sale, refinancing, or initial public offering.
The illiquidity of our investments may make it difficult or impossible for us to sell such investments if the need arises. In addition, if we are required to liquidate all or a portion of our portfolio quickly, we may realize significantly less than the value at which we have previously recorded our investments, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Moreover, investments purchased by us that are liquid at the time of purchase may subsequently become illiquid due to events relating to the issuer, market events, economic conditions or investor perceptions.
Defaults under our current borrowings or any future borrowing facility or notes may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Our current borrowings may include customary covenants, including certain limitations on our incurrence of additional indebtedness and on our ability to make distributions to our shareholders, or redeem, repurchase or retire shares of stock, upon the occurrence of certain events and certain financial covenants related to asset coverage and liquidity and other maintenance covenants, as well as customary events of default
In the event we default under the terms of our current or future borrowings, our business could be adversely affected as we may be forced to sell a portion of our investments quickly and prematurely at what may be disadvantageous prices to us in order to meet our outstanding payment obligations and/or support working capital requirements under the terms of our current or future borrowings, any of which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. An event of default under the terms of our current or any future borrowings could result in an accelerated maturity date for all amounts outstanding thereunder, and in some instances, lead to a cross-default under other borrowings. This could reduce our liquidity and cash flow and impair our ability to grow our business. Collectively, substantially all of our assets are currently pledged as collateral under the Revolving Credit Facility or the SPV Asset Facility. If we were to default on our obligations under the terms of the Revolving Credit Facility, the SPV Asset Facility, or any future secured debt instrument the agent for the applicable creditors would be able to assume control of the disposition of any or all of our assets securing such debt, including the selection of such assets to be disposed and the timing of such disposition, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Defaults under the Subscription Credit Facility could require shareholders to fund their remaining Capital Commitments without regard to the underlying value of their investment.
The Subscription Credit Facility is secured by a perfected first priority security interest in our right, title, and interest in and to the Capital Commitments of our investors, including our right to make capital calls, receive and apply capital contributions, enforce remedies and claims related thereto together with capital call proceeds and related rights, and a pledge of the collateral account into which capital call proceeds are deposited. To the extent an event of default under the Subscription Credit Facility does occur,
shareholders could be required to fund any shortfall up to their remaining Capital Commitments, without regard to the underlying value of their investment.
Provisions in our current borrowings or any other future borrowings may limit discretion in operating our business.
Any security interests and/or negative covenants required by a credit facility we enter into or notes we issue may limit our ability to create liens on assets to secure additional debt and may make it difficult for us to restructure or refinance indebtedness at or prior to maturity or obtain additional debt or equity financing. For example, under the terms of the Revolving Credit Facility, we have agreed not to incur any additional secured indebtedness other than in certain limited circumstances in which the incurrence is permitted under the Revolving Credit Facility. In addition, if our borrowing base under the Revolving Credit Facility were to decrease, we would be required to secure additional assets or repay advances under the Revolving Credit Facility which could have a material adverse impact on our ability to fund future investments and to make distributions.
In addition, under the Subscription Credit Facility, Revolving Credit Facility, and SPV Asset Facility we are subject to limitations as to how borrowed funds may be used, as well as regulatory restrictions on leverage which may affect the amount of funding that we may obtain. There may also be certain requirements relating to portfolio performance, a violation of which could limit further advances and, in some cases, result in an event of default. This could reduce our liquidity and cash flow and impair our ability to grow our business.
The Note Purchase Agreement, pursuant to which the 2023 Notes were issued, includes prohibitions on certain fundamental changes at the Company or any subsidiary guarantor.
Price declines in the corporate leveraged loan market may adversely affect the fair value of our portfolio, reducing our net asset value through increased net unrealized depreciation and the incurrence of realized losses.
Conditions in the U.S. corporate debt market may experience disruption or deterioration in the future, which may cause pricing levels to decline or be volatile. As a result, our net asset value could decline through an increase in unrealized depreciation and incurrence of realized losses in connection with the sale or other disposition of our investments, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are unable to obtain additional debt financing, or if our borrowing capacity is materially reduced, our business could be materially adversely affected.
We may want to obtain additional debt financing, or need to do so upon maturity of our credit facilities, in order to obtain funds which may be made available for investments. The revolving period under the Revolving Credit Facility ends on January 31, 2020, and the Revolving Credit Facility matures on February 1, 2021. The Subscription Credit Facility, the SPV Asset Facility and the 2023 Notes mature on August 1, 2019, December 21, 2022 and June 21, 2023, respectively. If we are unable to increase, renew or replace any such facilities and enter into new debt financing facilities or other debt financing on commercially reasonable terms, our liquidity may be reduced significantly. In addition, if we are unable to repay amounts outstanding under any such facilities and are declared in default or are unable to renew or refinance these facilities, we may not be able to make new investments or operate our business in the normal course. These situations may arise due to circumstances that we may be unable to control, such as lack of access to the credit markets, a severe decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, an economic downturn or an operational problem that affects us or third parties, and could materially damage our business operations, results of operations and financial condition.
Global economic, political and market conditions may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, including our revenue growth and profitability.
The current worldwide financial market situation, as well as various social and political tensions in the United States and around the world, may contribute to increased market volatility, may have long-term effects on the United States and worldwide financial markets, and may cause economic uncertainties or deterioration in the United States and worldwide. We monitor developments and seek to manage our investments in a manner consistent with achieving our investment objective, but there can be no assurance that we will be successful in doing so.
In August 2011 and then affirmed in August 2013, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the U.S. from “AAA” to “AA+”. Additionally, in January of 2012, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating for several large European countries. These ratings negatively impacted global markets and economic conditions. Although U.S. lawmakers have taken steps to avoid further downgrades, U.S. budget deficit concerns and similar conditions in Europe, China and elsewhere have increased the possibility of additional credit-rating downgrades and worsening global economic and market conditions. There can be no assurance that current or future governmental measures to mitigate these conditions will be effective. These conditions, government actions and future developments may cause interest rates and borrowing costs to rise, which may adversely affect our ability to access debt financing on favorable terms and may increase the interest costs of our
borrowers, hampering their ability to repay us. Continued or future adverse economic conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In October 2014, the Federal Reserve announced that it was concluding its bond-buying program, or quantitative easing, which was designed to stimulate the economy and expand the Federal Reserve’s holdings of long-term securities, suggesting that key economic indicators, such as the unemployment rate, had showed signs of improvement since the inception of the program. It is possible that, without quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve, these developments, along with the United States government’s credit and deficit concerns and other global economic conditions, could cause interest rates and borrowing costs to rise, which may negatively impact our ability to access the debt markets on favorable terms. Additionally, in December 2016, the Federal Reserve raised its federal funds target rate. However, if key economic indicators, such as the unemployment rate or inflation, do not progress at a rate consistent with the Federal Reserve’s objectives, the target range for the federal funds rate may further increase and cause interest rates and borrowing costs to rise, which may negatively impact our ability to access the debt markets on favorable terms and may also increase the costs of our borrowers, hampering their ability to repay us.
As a result of the 2016 U.S. election, the Republican Party currently controls both the executive and legislative branches of government, which increases the likelihood that legislation may be adopted that could significantly affect the regulation of U.S. financial markets. Areas subject to potential change, amendment or repeal include the Dodd-Frank Act and the authority of the Federal Reserve and the Financial Stability Oversight Council. These or other regulatory changes could result in greater competition from banks and other lenders with which we compete for lending and other investment opportunities. The United States may also potentially withdraw from or renegotiate various trade agreements and take other actions that would change current trade policies of the United States. We cannot predict which, if any, of these actions will be taken or, if taken, their effect on the financial stability of the United States. Such actions could have a significant adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The United Kingdom referendum decision to leave the European Union may create significant risks and uncertainty for global markets and our investments.
The recent decision made in the United Kingdom referendum to leave the European Union has led to volatility in global financial markets, and in particular in the markets of the United Kingdom and across Europe, and may also lead to weakening in consumer, corporate and financial confidence in the United Kingdom and Europe. The extent and process by which the United Kingdom will exit the European Union, and the longer term economic, legal, political and social framework to be put in place between the United Kingdom and the European Union are unclear at this stage and are likely to lead to ongoing political and economic uncertainty and periods of exacerbated volatility in both the United Kingdom and in wider European markets for some time. In particular, the decision made in the United Kingdom referendum may lead to a call for similar referenda in other European jurisdictions which may cause increased economic volatility and uncertainty in the European and global markets. This volatility and uncertainty may have an adverse effect on the economy generally and on our ability of and the ability of our portfolio companies to execute our respective strategies and to receive attractive returns.
In particular, currency volatility may mean that our returns and the returns of our portfolio companies will be adversely affected by market movements and may make it more difficult, or more expensive, for us to implement appropriate currency hedging. Potential declines in the value of the British Pound and/or the euro against other currencies, along with the potential downgrading of the United Kingdom’s sovereign credit rating, may also have an impact on the performance of any of our portfolio companies located in the United Kingdom or Europe.
Economic recessions or downturns could impair our portfolio companies and harm our operating results.
Many of our portfolio companies may be susceptible to economic slowdowns or recessions and may be unable to repay our debt investments during these periods. Therefore, our non-performing assets may increase, and the value of our portfolio is likely to decrease during these periods. Adverse economic conditions may also decrease the value of any collateral securing our loans. A severe recession may further decrease the value of such collateral and result in losses of value in our portfolio and a decrease in our revenues, net income, assets and net worth. Unfavorable economic conditions also could increase our funding costs, limit our access to the capital markets or result in a decision by lenders not to extend credit to us on terms we deem acceptable. These events could prevent us from increasing investments and harm our operating results.
The occurrence of recessionary conditions and/or negative developments in the domestic and international credit markets may significantly affect the markets in which we do business, the value of our investments, and our ongoing operations, costs and profitability. Any such unfavorable economic conditions, including rising interest rates, may also increase our funding costs, limit our access to capital markets or negatively impact our ability to obtain financing, particularly from the debt markets. In addition, any future financial market uncertainty could lead to financial market disruptions and could further impact our ability to obtain financing. These events could limit our investment originations, limit our ability to grow and negatively impact our operating results and financial condition.
Our ability to achieve our investment objective depends on our Adviser’s ability to manage and support our investment process. If our Adviser were to lose a significant number of its key professionals, or terminate the Advisory Agreement, our ability to achieve our investment objective could be significantly harmed.
We do not have any employees. Additionally, we have no internal management capacity other than our appointed executive officers and will be dependent upon the investment expertise, skill and network of business contacts of our Adviser to achieve our investment objective. Our Adviser will evaluate, negotiate, structure, execute, monitor, and service our investments. Our success will depend to a significant extent on the continued service and coordination of our Adviser, including its key professionals. The departure of a significant number of key professionals from our Adviser could have a material adverse effect on our ability to achieve our investment objective.
Our ability to achieve our investment objective also depends on the ability of our Adviser to identify, analyze, invest in, finance, and monitor companies that meet our investment criteria. Our Adviser’s capabilities in structuring the investment process, providing competent, attentive and efficient services to us, and facilitating access to financing on acceptable terms depend on the involvement of investment professionals of adequate number and sophistication to match the corresponding flow of transactions. To achieve our investment objective, our Adviser may need to retain, hire, train, supervise, and manage new investment professionals to participate in our investment selection and monitoring process. Our Adviser may not be able to find qualified investment professionals in a timely manner or at all. Any failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, the Investment Advisory Agreement has a termination provision that allows the agreement to be terminated by us on 60 days’ notice without penalty by the vote of a Majority of the Outstanding Shares of our common stock or by the vote of our independent directors. The Investment Advisory Agreement generally may be terminated at any time, without penalty, by Owl Rock Capital Advisors upon 120 days’ notice to us prior to an Exchange Listing. Furthermore, the Investment Advisory Agreement automatically terminates in the event of its assignment, as defined in the 1940 Act, by the Adviser. If the Adviser resigns or is terminated, or if we do not obtain the requisite approvals of shareholders and our Board to approve an agreement with the Adviser after an assignment, we may not be able to find a new investment adviser or hire internal management with similar expertise and ability to provide the same or equivalent services on acceptable terms prior to the termination of the Investment Advisory Agreement, or at all. If we are unable to do so quickly, our operations are likely to experience a disruption and costs under any new agreements that we enter into could increase. Our financial condition, business and results of operations, as well as our ability to pay distributions, are likely to be adversely affected, and the value of our common stock may decline.
The amount of any distributions we may make on our common stock is uncertain. We may not be able to pay you distributions, or be able to sustain distributions at any particular level, and our distributions per share, if any, may not grow over time, and our distributions per share may be reduced. We have not established any limit on the extent to which we may use borrowings, if any, and we may use offering proceeds to fund distributions (which may reduce the amount of capital we ultimately invest in portfolio companies).
Subject to our Board’s discretion and applicable legal restrictions, we intend to authorize and declare cash distributions on a monthly or quarterly basis and pay such distributions on a monthly or quarterly basis. We expect to pay distributions out of assets legally available for distribution. However, we cannot assure you that we will achieve investment results that will allow us to make a consistent targeted level of cash distributions or year-to-year increases in cash distributions. Our ability to pay distributions might be adversely affected by the impact of the risks described herein. In addition, the inability to satisfy the asset coverage test applicable to us as a business development company under the 1940 Act can limit our ability to pay distributions. Distributions from offering proceeds also could reduce the amount of capital we ultimately invest in debt or equity securities of portfolio companies. We cannot assure you that we will pay distributions to our shareholders in the future.
Distributions on our common stock may exceed our taxable earnings and profits, particularly during the period before we have substantially invested the net proceeds from our private offering. Therefore, portions of the distributions that we pay may represent a return of capital to you. A return of capital is a return of a portion of your original investment in shares of our common stock. As a result, a return of capital will (i) lower your tax basis in your shares and thereby increase the amount of capital gain (or decrease the amount of capital loss) realized upon a subsequent sale or redemption of such shares, and (ii) reduce the amount of funds we have for investment in portfolio companies. We have not established any limit on the extent to which we may use offering proceeds to fund distributions.
We may pay our distributions from offering proceeds in anticipation of future cash flow, which may constitute a return of your capital and will lower your tax basis in your shares, thereby increasing the amount of capital gain (or decreasing the amount of capital loss) realized upon a subsequent sale or redemption of such shares, even if such shares have not increased in value or have, in fact, lost value. Distributions from offering proceeds also could reduce the amount of capital we ultimately have available to invest in portfolio companies.
Because our business model depends to a significant extent upon the Adviser’s relationships with corporations, financial institutions and investment firms, the inability of our Adviser to maintain or develop these relationships, or the failure of these relationships to generate investment opportunities, could adversely affect our business.
Our Adviser depends on its relationships with corporations, financial institutions and investment firms, and we will rely to a significant extent upon these relationships to provide us with potential investment opportunities. If our Adviser fails to maintain its existing relationships or develop new relationships or sources of investment opportunities, we may not be able to grow our investment portfolio. In addition, individuals with whom our Adviser has relationships are not obligated to provide us with investment opportunities, and, therefore, there is no assurance that such relationships will generate investment opportunities for us.
We may face increasing competition for investment opportunities, which could delay further deployment of our capital, reduce returns and result in losses.
We may compete for investments with other business development companies and investment funds (including registered investment companies, private equity funds and mezzanine funds), as well as traditional financial services companies such as commercial banks and other sources of funding. Moreover, alternative investment vehicles, such as hedge funds, continue to increase their investment focus in our target market of privately owned U.S. companies. We may experience increased competition from banks and investment vehicles who may continue to lend to the middle market. Additionally, the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators may periodically provide incentives to U.S. commercial banks to originate more loans to U.S. middle market private companies. As a result of these market participants and regulatory incentives, competition for investment opportunities in privately owned U.S. companies is strong and may intensify. Many of our competitors are substantially larger and have considerably greater financial, technical, and marketing resources than we do. For example, some competitors may have a lower cost of capital and access to funding sources that are not available to us. In addition, some competitors may have higher risk tolerances or different risk assessments than us. These characteristics could allow our competitors to consider a wider variety of investments, establish more relationships and offer better pricing and more flexible structuring than we are able to do.
We may lose investment opportunities if we do not match our competitors’ pricing, terms, and investment structure criteria. If we are forced to match these competitors’ investment terms criteria, we may not be able to achieve acceptable returns on our investments or may bear substantial risk of capital loss. A significant increase in the number and/or the size of our competitors in our target market could force us to accept less attractive investment terms. Furthermore, many competitors are not subject to the regulatory restrictions that the 1940 Act imposes on us as a business development company or the source of income, asset diversification and distribution requirements we must satisfy to maintain our RIC tax treatment. The competitive pressures we face, and the manner in which we react or adjust to competitive pressures, may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, effective yield on investments, investment returns, leverage ratio, and cash flows. As a result of this competition, we may not be able to take advantage of attractive investment opportunities from time to time. Also, we may not be able to identify and make investments that are consistent with our investment objective.
Our investment portfolio will be recorded at fair value as determined in good faith in accordance with procedures established by our Board and, as a result, there is and will be uncertainty as to the value of our portfolio investments.
Under the 1940 Act, we are required to carry our portfolio investments at market value or, if there is no readily available market value, at fair value as determined in accordance with procedures established by our Board. There is not a public market or active secondary market for many of the types of investments in privately held companies that we hold and intend to make. Our investments may not be publicly traded or actively traded on a secondary market but, instead, may be traded on a privately negotiated over-the-counter secondary market for institutional investors, if at all. As a result, we will value these investments quarterly at fair value as determined in good faith in accordance with valuation policy and procedures approved by our Board.
The determination of fair value, and thus the amount of unrealized appreciation or depreciation we may recognize in any reporting period, is to a degree subjective, and our Adviser has a conflict of interest in making recommendations of fair value. We will value our investments quarterly at fair value as determined in good faith by our Board, based on, among other things, input of the Adviser, our Audit Committee and independent third-party valuation firm(s) engaged at the direction of the Board. The types of factors that may be considered in determining the fair values of our investments include the nature and realizable value of any collateral, the portfolio company’s ability to make payments and its earnings, the markets in which the portfolio company does business, comparison to publicly traded companies, discounted cash flow, current market interest rates and other relevant factors. Because such valuations, and particularly valuations of private securities and private companies, are inherently uncertain, the valuations may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time due to changes in current market conditions. The determinations of fair value in accordance with procedures established by our Board may differ materially from the values that would have been used if an active market and market quotations existed for such investments. Our net asset value could be adversely affected if the determinations regarding the fair value of the investments were materially higher than the values that we ultimately realize upon the disposal of such investments.
Our Board may change our operating policies and strategies without prior notice or shareholder approval, the effects of which may be adverse to our shareholders.
Our Board has the authority to modify or waive current operating policies, investment criteria and strategies without prior notice and without shareholder approval. We cannot predict the effect any changes to current operating policies, investment criteria and strategies would have on our business, net asset value, operating results and the value of our securities. However, the effects might be adverse, which could negatively impact our ability to pay you distributions and cause you to lose all or part of your investment. Moreover, we will have significant flexibility in investing the net proceeds of our offering and may use the net proceeds from our offering in ways with which our investors may not agree.
Changes in laws or regulations governing our operations may adversely affect our business or cause us to alter our business strategy.
We and our portfolio companies will be subject to regulation at the local, state, and federal levels. Changes to the laws and regulations governing our permitted investments may require a change to our investment strategy. Such changes could differ materially from our strategies and plans as set forth in this report and may shift our investment focus from the areas of expertise of our Adviser. Thus, any such changes, if they occur, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and the value of your investment in us.
We are an “emerging growth company” under the JOBS Act, and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are and we will remain an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act until the earlier of (a) the last day of the fiscal year (i) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial offering, (ii) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.0 billion, or (iii) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (b) the date on which we have issued more than$1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. For so long as we remain an “emerging growth company” we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely on some or all of these exemptions.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of such extended transition periods.
Our status as an “emerging growth company” under the JOBS Act may make it more difficult to raise capital as and when we need it.
Because of the exemptions from various reporting requirements provided to us as an “emerging growth company” and because we will have an extended transition period for complying with new or revised financial accounting standards, we may be less attractive to investors and it may be difficult for us to raise additional capital as and when we need it. Investors may be unable to compare our business with other companies in our industry if they believe that our financial accounting is not as transparent as other companies in our industry. If we are unable to raise additional capital as and when we need it, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
We may experience fluctuations in our operating results.
We may experience fluctuations in our operating results due to a number of factors, including our ability or inability to make investments in companies that meet our investment criteria, interest rates and default rates on the debt investments we make, the level of our expenses, variations in and the timing of the recognition of realized gains or losses, unrealized appreciation or depreciation, the degree to which we encounter competition in our markets, and general economic conditions. These occurrences could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, the value of your investment in us and our ability to pay distributions to you and our other shareholders.
Any unrealized depreciation we experience on our portfolio may be an indication of future realized losses, which could reduce our income available for distribution.
As a business development company, we are required to carry our investments at market value or, if no market value is ascertainable, at the fair value as determined in good faith in accordance with procedures established by our Board. Decreases in the market values or fair values of our investments relative to amortized cost will be recorded as unrealized depreciation. Any unrealized
losses in our portfolio could be an indication of a portfolio company’s inability to meet its repayment obligations to us with respect to the affected loans. This could result in realized losses in the future and ultimately in reductions of our income available for distribution in future periods. In addition, decreases in the market value or fair value of our investments will reduce our net asset value. See “ITEM 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Critical Accounting Policies - Investments at Fair Value.”
We are a non-diversified investment company within the meaning of the 1940 Act, and therefore we are not limited with respect to the proportion of our assets that may be invested in a single issuer.
We are classified as a non-diversified investment company within the meaning of the 1940 Act, which means that we are not limited by the 1940 Act with respect to the proportion of our assets that we may invest in a single issuer. Beyond the asset diversification requirements associated with our qualification as a RIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we do not have fixed guidelines for diversification. While we are not targeting any specific industries, our investments may be focused on relatively few industries. To the extent that we hold large positions in a small number of issuers, or within a particular industry, our net asset value may fluctuate to a greater extent than that of a diversified investment company as a result of changes in the issuer’s financial condition or the market’s assessment of the issuer. We may also be more susceptible to any single economic or regulatory occurrence or a downturn in particular industry in which we may invest significantly than a diversified investment company.
We are dependent on information systems and systems failures could significantly disrupt our business, which may, in turn, negatively affect our liquidity, financial condition or results of operations.
Our business is dependent on our and third parties’ communications and information systems. Any failure or interruption of those systems, including as a result of the termination of an agreement with any third-party service providers, could cause delays or other problems in our activities. Our financial, accounting, data processing, portfolio monitoring, backup or other operating systems and facilities may fail to operate properly or become disabled or damaged as a result of a number of factors including events that are wholly or partially beyond our control. There could be:
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sudden electrical or telecommunications outages;
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natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes;
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disease pandemics;
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events arising from local or larger scale political or social matters, including terrorist acts;
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outages due to idiosyncratic issues at specific service providers; and
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cyber-attacks.
These events, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and negatively affect the net asset value of our common stock and our ability to pay distributions to our shareholders.
Internal and external cyber threats, as well as other disasters, could impair our ability to conduct business effectively.
The occurrence of a disaster, such as a cyber-attack against us or against a third-party that has access to our data or networks, a natural catastrophe, an industrial accident, failure of our disaster recovery systems, or consequential employee error, could have an adverse effect on our ability to communicate or conduct business, negatively impacting our operations and financial condition. This adverse effect can become particularly acute if those events affect our electronic data processing, transmission, storage, and retrieval systems, or impact the availability, integrity, or confidentiality of our data.
We depend heavily upon computer systems to perform necessary business functions. Despite our implementation of a variety of security measures, our computer systems, networks, and data, like those of other companies, could be subject to cyber-attacks and unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, such as from physical and electronic break-ins or unauthorized tampering. If one or more of these events occurs, it could potentially jeopardize the confidential, proprietary, and other information processed, stored in, and transmitted through our computer systems and networks. Such an attack could cause interruptions or malfunctions in our operations, which could result in financial losses, litigation, regulatory penalties, client dissatisfaction or loss, reputational damage, and increased costs associated with mitigation of damages and remediation.
Third parties with which we do business may also be sources of cybersecurity or other technological risk. We outsource certain functions and these relationships allow for the storage and processing of our information, as well as client, counterparty, employee, and borrower information. While we engage in actions to reduce our exposure resulting from outsourcing, ongoing threats may result in unauthorized access, loss, exposure, destruction, or other cybersecurity incidents that adversely affects our data, resulting in increased costs and other consequences as described above.
We are exposed to risks resulting from the current low interest rate environment.
Because we may borrow money to make investments, our net investment income will depend, in part, upon the difference between the rate at which we borrow funds and the rate at which we invest those funds. The current, historically low interest rate environment can, depending on our cost of capital, depress our net investment income, even though the terms of our investments generally will include a minimum interest rate. In addition, any reduction in the level of interest rates on new investments relative to interest rates on our current investments could adversely impact our net investment income, reducing our ability to service the interest obligations on, and to repay the principal of, our indebtedness, as well as our capacity to pay distributions. Any such developments would result in a decline in our net asset value and in our net asset value per share.
The interest rates of our term loans to our portfolio companies that extend beyond 2021 might be subject to change based on recent regulatory changes
LIBOR, the London Interbank Offered Rate, is the basic rate of interest used in lending transactions between banks on the London interbank market and is widely used as a reference for setting the interest rate on loans globally. We typically use LIBOR as a reference rate in term loans we extend to portfolio companies such that the interest due to us pursuant to a term loan extended to a portfolio company is calculated using LIBOR. The terms of our debt investments generally include minimum interest rate floors which are calculated based on LIBOR.
On July 27, 2017, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, announced that it intends to phase out LIBOR by the end of 2021. It is unclear if at that time whether LIBOR will cease to exist or if new methods of calculating LIBOR will be established such that it continues to exist after 2021. The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large U.S. financial institutions, is considering replacing U.S. dollar LIBOR with a new index calculated by short term repurchase agreements, backed by Treasury securities. The future of LIBOR at this time is uncertain. If LIBOR ceases to exist, we may need to renegotiate the credit agreements extending beyond 2021 with our portfolio companies that utilize LIBOR as a factor in determining the interest rate to replace LIBOR with the new standard that is established, which may have an adverse effect on our ability to receive attractive returns.
Our investments in the business services industry face considerable uncertainties including significant regulatory challenges.
Our investments in portfolio companies that operate in the business services industry represent approximately 8.8% of our total portfolio as of December 31, 2017. Our investments in portfolio companies in the business services sector include those that provide services related to data and information, building, cleaning and maintenance services, and energy efficiency services. Portfolio companies in the business services sector are subject to many risks, including the negative impact of regulation, changing technology, a competitive marketplace and difficulty in obtaining financing. Portfolio companies in the business services industry must respond quickly to technological changes and understand the impact of these changes on customers’ preferences. Adverse economic, business, or regulatory developments affecting the business services sector could have a negative impact on the value of our investments in portfolio companies operating in this industry, and therefore could negatively impact our business and results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Adviser and Its Affiliates
The Adviser and its affiliates have limited experience managing a business development company.
Our Adviser and its affiliates have limited experience managing a vehicle regulated as a business development company and may not be able to operate our business successfully or achieve our investment objective. As a result, an investment in our securities may entail more risk than the securities of a comparable company with a substantial operating history.
The 1940 Act and the Code impose numerous constraints on the operations of business development companies and RICs that do not apply to the other types of investment vehicles previously managed by the personnel of our Adviser and its affiliates. For example, under the 1940 Act, business development companies are generally required to invest at least 70% of their total assets primarily in securities of qualifying U.S. private or thinly traded companies. Moreover, qualification for RIC tax treatment under Subchapter M of the Code requires satisfaction of source-of-income, asset diversification and other requirements. Any failure by us to comply with these provisions could prevent us from maintaining our qualification as a business development company or tax treatment as a RIC or could force us to pay unexpected taxes and penalties, which could be material. Our Adviser’s and its affiliates’ limited experience in managing a portfolio of assets under such constraints may hinder their ability to take advantage of attractive investment opportunities and, as a result, make it more difficult for us to achieve our investment objective.
The Adviser and its affiliates, including our officers and some of our directors, may face conflicts of interest caused by compensation arrangements with us and our affiliates, which could result in increased risk-taking by us.
The Adviser and its affiliates will receive substantial fees from us in return for their services. In the event of an Exchange Listing, these fees may include certain incentive fees based on the amount of appreciation of our investments. These fees could influence the advice provided to us. Generally, the more equity we sell in public offerings and the greater the risk assumed by us with respect to our investments, the greater the potential for growth in our assets and profits, and, correlatively, the fees payable by us to our Adviser. These compensation arrangements could affect our Adviser’s or its affiliates’ judgment with respect to public offerings of equity and investments made by us, which allow our Adviser to earn increased asset management fees.
The time and resources that individuals associated with our Adviser devote to us may be diverted, and we may face additional competition due to the fact that neither our Adviser nor its affiliates is prohibited from raising money for or managing another entity that makes the same types of investments that we target.
The Adviser and its respective affiliates currently manage Owl Rock Capital Corporation II and are not prohibited from raising money for and managing future investment entities that make the same or similar types of investments as those we target. As a result, the time and resources that our Adviser devotes to us may be diverted, and during times of intense activity in other investment programs they may devote less time and resources to our business than is necessary or appropriate. In addition, we may compete with any such investment entity also managed by the Adviser for the same investors and investment opportunities.
The Adviser may face conflicts of interest with respect to services performed for issuers in which we invest.
Our Adviser and its affiliates may provide a broad range of financial services to companies in which we invest, including providing arrangement, syndication, origination structuring and other services to our borrowers, in compliance with applicable law, and will generally be paid fees for such services. In addition, affiliates of our Adviser may act as placement agents or in similar capacities in connection with an offering of securities by one of the companies in our portfolio. Any compensation received by our Adviser for providing these services will not be shared with us and may be received before we realize a return on our investment. Our Adviser may face conflicts of interest with respect to services performed for these companies, on the one hand, and investments recommended to us, on the other hand.
The Adviser may have incentives to favor their respective other accounts and clients over us, which may result in conflicts of interest that could be harmful to us.
Because our Adviser and its affiliates manage assets for, or may in the future manage assets for, other investment companies, pooled investment vehicles and/or other accounts (including institutional clients, pension plans, co-invest vehicles and certain high net worth individuals), certain conflicts of interest are present. For instance, the Adviser and its affiliates may receive asset management performance-based, or other fees from certain accounts that are higher than the fees received by our Adviser from us. In those instances, a portfolio manager for our Adviser has an incentive to favor the higher fee and/or performance-based fee accounts over us. In addition, a conflict of interest exists to the extent our Adviser, its affiliates, or any of their respective executives, portfolio managers or employees have proprietary or personal investments in other investment companies or accounts or when certain other investment companies or accounts are investment options in our Adviser’s or its affiliates’ employee benefit plans. In these circumstances, our Adviser has an incentive to favor these other investment companies or accounts over us. Our Board will seek to monitor these conflicts but there can be no assurances that such monitoring will fully mitigate any such conflicts.
Our fee structure may create incentives for our Adviser to make speculative investments or use substantial leverage.
The incentive fee payable by us to our Adviser after an Exchange Listing may create an incentive for our Adviser to make investments on our behalf that are risky or more speculative than would be the case in the absence of such compensation arrangements. The way in which the incentive fee is determined may encourage our Adviser to use leverage to increase the leveraged return on our investment portfolio.
In addition, the fact that our base management fee is payable based upon our average gross assets (which includes any borrowings for investment purposes) may encourage our Adviser to use leverage to make additional investments. Such a practice could make such investments more risky than would otherwise be the case, which could result in higher investment losses, particularly during cyclical economic downturns. Under certain circumstances, the use of substantial leverage (up to the limits prescribed by the 1940 Act) may increase the likelihood of our defaulting on our borrowings, which would be detrimental to holders of our securities.
Our Adviser serves as the investment adviser to Owl Rock Capital Corporation II, another business development company that has substantially the same investment objective and strategies as us, subjecting our Adviser to certain conflicts of interests.
Our Adviser will experience conflicts of interest in connection with the management of our business affairs relating to and arising from a number of matters, including: the allocation of investment opportunities by our Adviser and its affiliates; compensation
to our Adviser; services that may be provided by our Adviser and its affiliates to issuers in which we invest; investments by us and other clients of our Adviser, subject to the limitations of the 1940 Act; the formation of additional investment funds managed by our Adviser; differing recommendations given by our Adviser to us versus other clients; our Adviser’s use of information gained from issuers in our portfolio for investments by other clients, subject to applicable law; and restrictions on our Adviser’s use of “inside information” with respect to potential investments by us.
Specifically, we may compete for investments with affiliated business development companies that are also advised by our Adviser, such as Owl Rock Capital Corporation II, subjecting our Adviser and its affiliates to certain conflicts of interest in evaluating the suitability of investment opportunities and making or recommending acquisitions on our behalf. To mitigate these conflicts, our Adviser will seek to execute such transactions for all of the participating investment accounts, including us, on a fair and equitable basis and in accordance with its allocation policy, taking into account such factors as the relative amounts of capital available for new investments; cash on hand; existing commitments and reserves; the investment programs and portfolio positions of the participating investment accounts, including portfolio construction, diversification and concentration considerations; the investment objectives, guidelines and strategies of each client; the clients for which participation is appropriate’ each client’s life cycle; targeted leverage level; targeted asset mix and any other factors deemed appropriate.
We may co-invest with investment funds, accounts and vehicles managed by the Adviser, where doing so is consistent with our investment strategy as well as applicable law and SEC staff interpretations. We generally will be permitted to co-invest with such investment funds, accounts and vehicles where the only term that is negotiated is price. However, we, the Adviser and certain of our affiliates have applied for and been granted exemptive relief by the SEC to co-invest with other funds managed by the Adviser or its affiliates in transactions in which terms other than price are negotiated in a manner consistent with our investment objective, positions, policies, strategies and restrictions as well as regulatory requirements and other pertinent factors. Pursuant to such exemptive relief, we are generally permitted to co-invest with certain of our affiliates if a “required majority” (as defined in Section 57(o) of the 1940 Act) of our independent directors makes certain conclusions in connection with a co-investment transactions, including that (1) the terms of the transaction, including the consideration to be paid, are reasonable and fair to us and our shareholders and do not involve overreaching of us or our shareholders on the part of any person concerned, (2) the transaction is consistent with the interests of our shareholders and is consistent with our investment objective and strategies, and (3) the investments by our affiliates would not disadvantage us, and our participation would not be on a basis different from or less advantageous than that on which our affiliates are investing.
Our Adviser’s actions on behalf of its other accounts and clients may be adverse to us and our investments and harmful to us.
Our Adviser and its affiliates manage assets for accounts other than us, including private funds (for purposes of this section, “Adviser Funds”), including, but not limited to, Owl Rock Capital Corporation II. Actions taken by our Adviser or its affiliates on behalf of its Adviser Funds may be adverse to us and our investments, which could harm our performance. For example, we may invest in the same credit obligations as other Adviser Funds, although, to the extent permitted under the 1940 Act, our investments may include different obligations of the same issuer. Decisions made with respect to the securities held by one Adviser Fund may cause (or have the potential to cause) harm to the different class of securities of the issuer held by other Adviser Funds (including us).
Our access to confidential information may restrict our ability to take action with respect to some investments, which, in turn, may negatively affect our results of operations.
We, directly or through our Adviser, may obtain confidential information about the companies in which we have invested or may invest or be deemed to have such confidential information. Our Adviser may come into possession of material, non-public information through its members, officers, directors, employees, principals or affiliates. The possession of such information may, to our detriment, limit the ability of us and our Adviser to buy or sell a security or otherwise to participate in an investment opportunity. In certain circumstances, employees of our Adviser may serve as board members or in other capacities for portfolio or potential portfolio companies, which could restrict our ability to trade in the securities of such companies. For example, if personnel of our Adviser come into possession of material non-public information with respect to our investments, such personnel will be restricted by our Adviser’s information-sharing policies and procedures or by law or contract from sharing such information with our management team, even where the disclosure of such information would be in our best interests or would otherwise influence decisions taken by the members of the management team with respect to that investment. This conflict and these procedures and practices may limit the freedom of our Adviser to enter into or exit from potentially profitable investments for us, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will be able to fully leverage the resources and industry expertise of our Adviser in the course of its duties. Additionally, there may be circumstances in which one or more individuals associated with our Adviser will be precluded from providing services to us because of certain confidential information available to those individuals or to other parts of our Adviser.
We may be obligated to pay our Adviser incentive fees even if we incur a net loss due to a decline in the value of our portfolio and even if our earned interest income is not payable in cash.
Upon an Exchange Listing, the Investment Advisory Agreement entitles our Adviser to receive an incentive fee based on our pre-incentive fee net investment income regardless of any capital losses. In such case, we may be required to pay our Adviser an incentive fee for a fiscal quarter even if there is a decline in the value of our portfolio or if we incur a net loss for that quarter.
Any incentive fee payable by us that relates to the pre-incentive fee net investment income may be computed and paid on income that may include interest that has been accrued but not yet received or interest in the form of securities received rather than cash (“payment-in-kind”, or “PIK”, income). PIK income will be included in the pre-incentive fee net investment income used to calculate the incentive fee to our Adviser even though we do not receive the income in the form of cash. If a portfolio company defaults on a loan that is structured to provide accrued interest income, it is possible that accrued interest income previously included in the calculation of the incentive fee will become uncollectible. Our Adviser is not obligated to reimburse us for any part of the incentive fee it received that was based on accrued interest income that we never receive as a result of a subsequent default.
The quarterly incentive fee on income is recognized and paid without regard to: (i) the trend of pre-incentive fee net investment income as a percent of adjusted capital over multiple quarters in arrears which may in fact be consistently less than the quarterly preferred return, or (ii) the net income or net loss in the current calendar quarter, the current year or any combination of prior periods.
For federal income tax purposes, we may be required to recognize taxable income in some circumstances in which we do not receive a corresponding payment in cash and to make distributions with respect to such income to maintain our tax treatment as a RIC and/or minimize excise tax. Under such circumstances, we may have difficulty meeting the Annual Distribution Requirement necessary to maintain RIC tax treatment under the Code. This difficulty in making the required distribution may be amplified to the extent that we are required to pay the incentive fee on income with respect to such accrued income. As a result, we may have to sell some of our investments at times and/or at prices we would not consider advantageous, raise additional debt or equity capital, or forgo new investment opportunities for this purpose. If we are not able to obtain cash from other sources, we may fail to qualify for RIC tax treatment and thus become subject to corporate-level income tax.
Our ability to enter into transactions with our affiliates is restricted.
We are prohibited under the 1940 Act from participating in certain transactions with certain of our affiliates without the prior approval of a majority of our independent directors and, in some cases, the SEC. Any person that owns, directly or indirectly, 5% or more of our outstanding voting securities will be our affiliate for purposes of the 1940 Act, and we will generally be prohibited from buying or selling any securities from or to such affiliate on a principal basis, absent the prior approval of our Board and, in some cases, the SEC. The 1940 Act also prohibits certain “joint” transactions with certain of our affiliates, including other funds or clients advised by the Adviser, which in certain circumstances could include investments in the same portfolio company (whether at the same or different times to the extent the transaction involves a joint investment), without prior approval of our Board and, in some cases, the SEC. If a person acquires more than 25% of our voting securities, we will be prohibited from buying or selling any security from or to such person or certain of that person’s affiliates, or entering into prohibited joint transactions with such persons, absent the prior approval of the SEC. Similar restrictions limit our ability to transact business with our officers or directors or their affiliates or anyone who is under common control with us. The SEC has interpreted the business development company regulations governing transactions with affiliates to prohibit certain joint transactions involving entities that share a common investment adviser. As a result of these restrictions, we may be prohibited from buying or selling any security from or to any portfolio company that is controlled by a fund managed by either of our Adviser or its affiliates without the prior approval of the SEC, which may limit the scope of investment or disposition opportunities that would otherwise be available to us.
On February 7, 2017, we, the Adviser and certain of our affiliates received exemptive relief from the SEC to permit us to co-invest with other funds managed by the Adviser or its affiliates in a manner consistent with our investment objective, positions, policies, strategies and restrictions as well as regulatory requirements and other pertinent factors. Pursuant to such exemptive relief, we generally are permitted to co-invest with certain of our affiliates if a “required majority” (as defined in Section 57(o) of the 1940 Act) of our independent directors make certain conclusions in connection with a co-investment transaction, including that (1) the terms of the transactions, including the consideration to be paid, are reasonable and fair to us and our shareholders and do not involve overreaching by us or our shareholders on the part of any person concerned, (2) the transaction is consistent with the interests of our shareholders and is consistent with our investment objective and strategies, and (3) the investment by our affiliates would not disadvantage us, and our participation would not be on a basis different from or less advantageous than that on which our affiliates are investing.
In situations when co-investment with the Adviser’s other clients is not permitted under the 1940 Act and related rules, existing or future staff guidance, or the terms and conditions of the exemptive relief granted to us by the SEC, our Adviser will need to decide which client or clients will proceed with the investment. Generally, we will not be entitled to make a co-investment in these circumstances and, to the extent that another client elects to proceed with the investment, we will not be permitted to participate.
Moreover, except in certain circumstances, we will not invest in any issuer in which an affiliate’s other client holds a controlling interest.
We may make investments that could give rise to a conflict of interest.
We do not expect to invest in, or hold securities of, companies that are controlled by an affiliate’s other clients. However, our Adviser or an affiliate’s other clients may invest in, and gain control over, one of our portfolio companies. If our Adviser or an affiliate’s other client, or clients, gains control over one of our portfolio companies, it may create conflicts of interest and may subject us to certain restrictions under the 1940 Act. As a result of these conflicts and restrictions our Adviser may be unable to implement our investment strategies as effectively as they could have in the absence of such conflicts or restrictions. For example, as a result of a conflict or restriction, our Adviser may be unable to engage in certain transactions that it would otherwise pursue. In order to avoid these conflicts and restrictions, our Adviser may choose to exit such investments prematurely and, as a result, we may forego any positive returns associated with such investments. In addition, to the extent that an affiliate’s other client holds a different class of securities than us as a result of such transactions, our interests may not be aligned.
The recommendations given to us by our Adviser may differ from those rendered to their other clients.
Our Adviser and its affiliates may give advice and recommend securities to other clients which may differ from advice given to, or securities recommended or bought for, us even though such other clients’ investment objectives may be similar to ours, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our Adviser’s liability is limited under the Investment Advisory Agreement, and we are required to indemnify our Adviser against certain liabilities, which may lead our Adviser to act in a riskier manner on our behalf than it would when acting for its own account.
Our Adviser has not assumed any responsibility to us other than to render the services described in the Investment Advisory Agreement (and, separately, under the Administration Agreement), and it will not be responsible for any action of our Board in declining to follow our Adviser’ advice or recommendations. Pursuant to the Investment Advisory Agreement, our Adviser and its directors, officers, shareholders, members, agents, employees, controlling persons, and any other person or entity affiliated with, or acting on behalf of our Adviser will not be liable to us for their acts under the Investment Advisory Agreement, absent willful misfeasance, bad faith, gross negligence or reckless disregard in the performance of their duties. We have also agreed to indemnify, defend and protect our Adviser and its directors, officers, shareholders, members, agents, employees, controlling persons and any other person or entity affiliated with, or acting on behalf of our Adviser with respect to all damages, liabilities, costs and expenses resulting from acts of our Adviser not arising out of willful misfeasance, bad faith, gross negligence or reckless disregard in the performance of their duties. These protections may lead our Adviser to act in a riskier manner when acting on our behalf than it would when acting for its own account.
Risks Related to Business Development Companies
The requirement that we invest a sufficient portion of our assets in qualifying assets could preclude us from investing in accordance with our current business strategy; conversely, the failure to invest a sufficient portion of our assets in qualifying assets could result in our failure to maintain our status as a business development company.
As a business development company, the 1940 Act prohibits us from acquiring any assets other than certain qualifying assets unless, at the time of and after giving effect to such acquisition, at least 70% of our total assets are qualifying assets. Therefore, we may be precluded from investing in what we believe are attractive investments if such investments are not qualifying assets. Conversely, if we fail to invest a sufficient portion of our assets in qualifying assets, we could lose our status as a business development company, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Similarly, these rules could prevent us from making additional investments in existing portfolio companies, which could result in the dilution of our position, or could require us to dispose of investments at an inopportune time to comply with the 1940 Act. If we were forced to sell non-qualifying investments in the portfolio for compliance purposes, the proceeds from such sale could be significantly less than the current value of such investments.
Failure to maintain our status as a business development company would reduce our operating flexibility.
If we do not remain as a business development company, we might be regulated as a closed-end investment company under the 1940 Act, which would subject us to substantially more regulatory restrictions and correspondingly decrease our operating flexibility.
Regulations governing our operation as a business development company and RIC affect our ability to raise capital and the way in which we raise additional capital or borrow for investment purposes, which may have a negative effect on our growth. As a business development company, the necessity of raising additional capital may expose us to risks, including risks associated with leverage.
As a result of the Annual Distribution Requirement to qualify for tax treatment as a RIC, we may need to access the capital markets periodically to raise cash to fund new investments in portfolio companies. We may issue “senior securities,” including borrowing money from banks or other financial institutions only in amounts such that our asset coverage, as defined in the 1940 Act, equals at least 200% after such incurrence or issuance. If we issue senior securities, we will be exposed to risks associated with leverage, including an increased risk of loss. Our ability to issue different types of securities is also limited. Compliance with RIC distribution requirements may unfavorably limit our investment opportunities and reduce our ability in comparison to other companies to profit from favorable spreads between the rates at which we can borrow and the rates at which we can lend. Therefore, we intend to seek to continuously issue equity securities, which may lead to shareholder dilution.
We may borrow to fund investments. If the value of our assets declines, we may be unable to satisfy the asset coverage test under the 1940 Act, which would prohibit us from paying distributions and could prevent us from qualifying for tax treatment as a RIC, which would generally result in a corporate-level tax on any income and net gains. If we cannot satisfy the asset coverage test, we may be required to sell a portion of our investments and, depending on the nature of our debt financing, repay a portion of our indebtedness at a time when such sales may be disadvantageous. Also, any amounts that we use to service our indebtedness would not be available for distributions to our shareholders.
In addition, we anticipate that as market conditions permit, we may securitize our loans to generate cash for funding new investments. To securitize loans, we may create a wholly owned subsidiary, contribute a pool of loans to the subsidiary and have the subsidiary issue primarily investment grade debt securities to purchasers who would be expected to be willing to accept a substantially lower interest rate than the loans earn. We would retain all or a portion of the equity in the securitized pool of loans. Our retained equity would be exposed to any losses on the portfolio of loans before any of the debt securities would be exposed to such losses.
Risks Related to Our Investments
Our investments in portfolio companies may be risky, and we could lose all or part of our investments.
Our strategy focuses primarily on originating and making loans to, and making debt and equity investments in, U.S. middle market companies, with a focus on originated transactions sourced through the networks of our Adviser. Short transaction closing timeframes associated with originated transactions coupled with added tax or accounting structuring complexity and international transactions may result in higher risk in comparison to non-originated transactions.
First-Lien Debt. When we make a first-lien loan, we generally take a security interest in the available assets of the portfolio company, including the equity interests of its subsidiaries, which we expect to help mitigate the risk that we will not be repaid. However, there is a risk that the collateral securing our loans may decrease in value over time, may be difficult to sell in a timely manner, may be difficult to appraise, and may fluctuate in value based upon the success of the business and market conditions, including as a result of the inability of the portfolio company to raise additional capital. In some circumstances, our lien is, or could become, subordinated to claims of other creditors. Consequently, the fact that a loan is secured does not guarantee that we will receive principal and interest payments according to the loan’s terms, or at all, or that we will be able to collect on the loan should we need to enforce our remedies. In addition, in connection with any “last out” first-lien loans in which we may invest, we would enter into agreements among lenders. Under these agreements, our interest in the collateral of the first-lien loans may rank junior to those of other lenders in the loan under certain circumstances. This may result in greater risk and loss of principal on these loans.
Second-Lien and Mezzanine Debt. Our investments in second-lien and mezzanine debt generally are subordinated to senior loans and will either have junior security interests or be unsecured. As such, other creditors may rank senior to us in the event of insolvency. This may result in greater risk and loss of principal.
Equity Investments. When we invest in first-lien debt, second-lien debt or mezzanine debt, we may acquire equity securities, such as warrants, options and convertible instruments, as well. In addition, we may invest directly in the equity securities of portfolio companies. We seek to dispose of these equity interests and realize gains upon our disposition of these interests. However, the equity interests we receive may not appreciate in value and, in fact, may decline in value. Accordingly, we may not be able to realize gains from our equity interests, and any gains that we do realize on the disposition of any equity interests may not be sufficient to offset any other losses we experience.
Most debt securities in which we intend to invest will not be rated by any rating agency and, if they were rated, they would be rated as below investment grade quality. Debt securities rated below investment grade quality are generally regarded as having predominantly speculative characteristics and may carry a greater risk with respect to a borrower’s capacity to pay interest and repay principal.
We may invest through joint ventures, partnerships or other special purpose vehicles and our investments through these vehicles may entail greater risks, or risks that we otherwise would not incur, if we otherwise made such investments directly.
We may make indirect investments in portfolio companies through joint ventures, partnerships or other special purpose vehicles (“Investment Vehicles”). In general, the risks associated with indirect investments in portfolio companies through a joint venture, partnership or other special purpose vehicle are similar to those associated with a direct investment in a portfolio company. While we intend to analyze the credit and business of a potential portfolio company in determining whether or not to make an investment in an Investment Vehicle, we will nonetheless be exposed to the creditworthiness of the Investment Vehicle. In the event of a bankruptcy proceeding against the portfolio company, the assets of the portfolio company may be used to satisfy its obligations prior to the satisfaction of our investment in the Investment Vehicle (i.e., our investment in the Investment Vehicle could be structurally subordinated to the other obligations of the portfolio company). In addition, if we are to invest in an Investment Vehicle, we may be required to rely on our partners in the Investment Vehicle when making decisions regarding the such Investment Vehicle’s investments, accordingly, the value of the investment could be adversely affected if our interests diverge from those of our partners in the Investment Vehicle.
The credit ratings of certain of our investments may not be indicative of the actual credit risk of such rated instruments.
Rating agencies rate debt securities based upon their assessment of the likelihood of the receipt of principal and interest payments. Rating agencies do not consider the risks of fluctuations in market value or other factors that may influence the value of debt securities. Therefore, the credit rating assigned to a particular instrument may not fully reflect the true risks of an investment in such instrument. Credit rating agencies may change their methods of evaluating credit risk and determining ratings. These changes may occur quickly and often. While we may give some consideration to ratings, ratings may not be indicative of the actual credit risk of our investments in rated instruments.
Prepayments of our debt investments by our portfolio companies could adversely impact our results of operations and reduce our return on equity.
We are subject to the risk that the investments we make in our portfolio companies may be repaid prior to maturity. When this occurs, we will generally reinvest these proceeds in temporary investments, pending their future investment in new portfolio companies. These temporary investments will typically have substantially lower yields than the debt being prepaid and we could experience significant delays in reinvesting these amounts. Any future investment in a new portfolio company may also be at lower yields than the debt that was repaid. As a result, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected if one or more of our portfolio companies elect to prepay amounts owed to us. Additionally, prepayments, net of prepayment fees, could negatively impact our return on equity. This risk will be more acute when interest rates decrease, as we may be unable to reinvest at rates as favorable as when we made our initial investment.
A redemption of convertible securities held by us could have an adverse effect on our ability to achieve our investment objective.
A convertible security may be subject to redemption at the option of the issuer at a price established in the convertible security’s governing instrument. If a convertible security held by us is called for redemption, we will be required to permit the issuer to redeem the security, convert it into the underlying common stock or sell it to a third party. Any of these actions could have an adverse effect on our ability to achieve our investment objective.
To the extent original issue discount (OID) and payment-in-kind (PIK) interest income constitute a portion of our income, we will be exposed to risks associated with the deferred receipt of cash representing such income.
Our investments may include OID and PIK instruments. To the extent OID and PIK constitute a portion of our income, we will be exposed to risks associated with such income being required to be included in income for financial reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) and taxable income prior to receipt of cash, including the following:
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Original issue discount instruments may have unreliable valuations because the accruals require judgments about collectability or deferred payments and the value of any associated collateral;
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Original issue discount instruments may create heightened credit risks because the inducement to the borrower to accept higher interest rates in exchange for the deferral of cash payments typically represents, to some extent, speculation on the part of the borrower;
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For U.S. GAAP purposes, cash distributions to shareholders that include a component of OID income do not come from paid-in capital, although they may be paid from the offering proceeds. Thus, although a distribution of OID income may come from the cash invested by the shareholders, the 1940 Act does not require that shareholders be given notice of this fact;
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The presence of OID and PIK creates the risk of non-refundable cash payments to our Adviser in the form of incentive fees on income based on non-cash OID and PIK accruals that may never be realized; and
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In the case of PIK, “toggle” debt, which gives the issuer the option to defer an interest payment in exchange for an increased interest rate in the future, the PIK election has the simultaneous effect of increasing the investment income, thus increasing the potential for realizing incentive fees.
Our portfolio companies may incur debt that ranks equally with, or senior to, our investments in such companies.
Our strategy focuses on investing primarily in the debt of privately owned U.S. companies with a focus on originated transactions sourced through the networks of our Adviser. Our portfolio companies may have, or may be permitted to incur, other debt that ranks equally with, or senior to, the debt in which we invest. By their terms, such debt instruments may entitle the holders to receive payment of interest or principal on or before the dates on which we are entitled to receive payments with respect to the debt instruments in which we invest. Also, in the event of insolvency, liquidation, dissolution, reorganization or bankruptcy of a portfolio company, any holders of debt instruments ranking senior to our investment in that portfolio company would typically be entitled to receive payment in full before we receive any distribution. After repaying such senior creditors, such portfolio company may not have any remaining assets to use for repaying its obligation to us. In the case of debt ranking equally with debt instruments in which we invest, we would have to share on an equal basis any distributions with other creditors holding such debt in the event of an insolvency, liquidation, dissolution, reorganization or bankruptcy of the relevant portfolio company and our portfolio company may not have sufficient assets to pay all equally ranking credit even if we hold senior, first-lien debt.
If we cannot obtain debt financing or equity capital on acceptable terms, our ability to acquire investments and to expand our operations will be adversely affected.
The net proceeds from the sale of our shares will be used for our investment opportunities, and, if necessary, the payment of operating expenses and the payment of various fees and expenses such as base management fees, incentive fees, other fees and distributions. Any working capital reserves we maintain may not be sufficient for investment purposes, and we may require additional debt financing or equity capital to operate. Pursuant to tax rules that apply to us, we will be required to distribute at least 90% of our net ordinary income and net short-term capital gains in excess of net long-term capital losses, if any, to our shareholders to maintain our tax treatment as a RIC. Accordingly, in the event that we need additional capital in the future for investments or for any other reason we may need to access the capital markets periodically to issue debt or equity securities or borrow from financial institutions in order to obtain such additional capital. These sources of funding may not be available to us due to unfavorable economic conditions, which could increase our funding costs, limit our access to the capital markets or result in a decision by lenders not to extend credit to us. Consequently, if we cannot obtain further debt or equity financing on acceptable terms, our ability to acquire additional investments and to expand our operations will be adversely affected. As a result, we would be less able to diversify our portfolio and achieve our investment objective, which may negatively impact our results of operations and reduce our ability to make distributions to our shareholders.
Subordinated liens on collateral securing debt investments that we may make to portfolio companies may be subject to control by senior creditors with first priority liens. If there is a default, the value of the collateral may not be sufficient to repay in full both the first priority creditors and us.
Certain debt investments that we will make in portfolio companies will be secured on a second priority lien basis by the same collateral securing senior debt of such companies. We also make debt investments in portfolio companies secured on a first priority basis. The first priority liens on the collateral will secure the portfolio company’s obligations under any outstanding senior debt and may secure certain other future debt that may be permitted to be incurred by the portfolio company under the agreements governing the debt. In the event of a default, the holders of obligations secured by the first priority liens on the collateral will generally control the liquidation of and be entitled to receive proceeds from any realization of the collateral to repay their obligations in full before us. In addition, the value of the collateral in the event of liquidation will depend on market and economic conditions, the availability of buyers and other factors. There can be no assurance that the proceeds, if any, from the sale or sales of all of the collateral would be sufficient to satisfy the debt obligations secured by the first priority or second priority liens after payment in full of all obligations secured by the first priority liens on the collateral. If such proceeds are not sufficient to repay amounts outstanding under the debt obligations secured by the first priority or second priority liens, then we, to the extent not repaid from the proceeds of the sale of the collateral, will only have an unsecured claim against the portfolio company’s remaining assets, if any.
We may also make unsecured debt investments in portfolio companies, meaning that such investments will not benefit from any interest in collateral of such companies. Liens on any such portfolio company’s collateral, if any, will secure the portfolio company’s obligations under its outstanding secured debt and may secure certain future debt that is permitted to be incurred by the portfolio company under its secured debt agreements. The holders of obligations secured by such liens will generally control the liquidation of, and be entitled to receive proceeds from, any realization of such collateral to repay their obligations in full before us. In addition, the value of such collateral in the event of liquidation will depend on market and economic conditions, the availability of buyers and other
factors. There can be no assurance that the proceeds, if any, from sales of such collateral would be sufficient to satisfy our unsecured debt obligations after payment in full of all secured debt obligations. If such proceeds were not sufficient to repay the outstanding secured debt obligations, then our unsecured claims would rank equally with the unpaid portion of such secured creditors’ claims against the portfolio company’s remaining assets, if any.
The rights we may have with respect to the collateral securing the debt investments we make in our portfolio companies with senior debt outstanding may also be limited pursuant to the terms of one or more inter-creditor agreements that we enter into with the holders of senior debt. Under such an inter-creditor agreement, at any time obligations that have the benefit of the first priority liens are outstanding, any of the following actions that may be taken in respect of the collateral will be at the direction of the holders of the obligations secured by the first priority liens: the ability to cause the commencement of enforcement proceedings against the collateral; the ability to control the conduct of such proceedings; the approval of amendments to collateral documents; releases of liens on the collateral; and waivers of past defaults under collateral documents. We may not have the ability to control or direct such actions, even if our rights are adversely affected.
Certain of our investments may be adversely affected by laws relating to fraudulent conveyance or voidable preferences.
Certain of our investments could be subject to federal bankruptcy law and state fraudulent transfer laws, which vary from state to state, if the debt obligations relating to certain investments were issued with the intent of hindering, delaying or defrauding creditors or, in certain circumstances, if the issuer receives less than reasonably equivalent value or fair consideration in return for issuing such debt obligations. If the debt proceeds are used for a buyout of shareholders, this risk is greater than if the debt proceeds are used for day-to-day operations or organic growth. If a court were to find that the issuance of the debt obligations was a fraudulent transfer or conveyance, the court could void or otherwise refuse to recognize the payment obligations under the debt obligations or the collateral supporting such obligations, further subordinate the debt obligations or the liens supporting such obligations to other existing and future indebtedness of the issuer or require us to repay any amounts received by us with respect to the debt obligations or collateral. In the event of a finding that a fraudulent transfer or conveyance occurred, we may not receive any repayment on such debt obligations.
Under certain circumstances, payments to us and distributions by us to our shareholders may be reclaimed if any such payment or distribution is later determined to have been a fraudulent conveyance, preferential payment or similar transaction under applicable bankruptcy and insolvency laws. Furthermore, investments in restructurings may be adversely affected by statutes relating to, among other things, fraudulent conveyances, voidable preferences, lender liability and the court’s discretionary power to disallow, subordinate or disenfranchise particular claims or recharacterize investments made in the form of debt as equity contributions.
There may be circumstances where our debt investments could be subordinated to claims of other creditors or we could be subject to lender liability claims.
Although we intend to structure certain of our investments as senior debt, if one of our portfolio companies were to go bankrupt, depending on the facts and circumstances, including the extent to which we provided managerial assistance to that portfolio company or a representative of us or our Adviser sat on the board of directors of such portfolio company, a bankruptcy court might re-characterize our debt investment and subordinate all or a portion of our claim to that of other creditors. In situations where a bankruptcy carries a high degree of political significance, our legal rights may be subordinated to other creditors.
In addition, a number of U.S. judicial decisions have upheld judgments obtained by borrowers against lending institutions on the basis of various evolving legal theories, collectively termed “lender liability.” Generally, lender liability is founded on the premise that a lender has violated a duty (whether implied or contractual) of good faith, commercial reasonableness and fair dealing, or a similar duty owed to the borrower or has assumed an excessive degree of control over the borrower resulting in the creation of a fiduciary duty owed to the borrower or its other creditors or shareholders. Because of the nature of our investments in portfolio companies (including that, as a business development company, we may be required to provide managerial assistance to those portfolio companies if they so request upon our offer), we may be subject to allegations of lender liability.
We generally will not control the business operations of our portfolio companies and, due to the illiquid nature of our holdings in our portfolio companies, we may not be able to dispose of our interests in our portfolio companies.
We do not currently, and do not expect in the future, to control most of our portfolio companies, although we may have board representation or board observation rights, and our debt agreements may impose certain restrictive covenants on our borrowers. As a result, we are subject to the risk that a portfolio company in which we invest may make business decisions with which we disagree and the management of such company, as representatives of the holders of their common equity, may take risks or otherwise act in ways that do not serve our interests as a debt investor. Due to the lack of liquidity for our investments in private companies, we may not be able to dispose of our interests in our portfolio companies as readily as we would like or at a favorable value. As a result, a portfolio company may make decisions that could decrease the value of our portfolio holdings.
We will be exposed to risks associated with changes in interest rates.
General interest rate fluctuations may have a substantial negative impact on our investments and investment opportunities and, accordingly, may have a material adverse effect on our ability to achieve our investment objective and the rate of return on invested capital. Because we may borrow money to make investments, our net investment income will depend, in part, upon the difference between the rate at which we borrow funds and the rate at which we invest these funds. As a result, there can be no assurance that a significant change in market interest rates will not have a material adverse effect on our net investment income.
Many of our debt investments are based on floating interest rates, such as LIBOR, EURIBOR, the Federal Funds Rate or the Prime Rate, that reset on a periodic basis, and that many of our investments will be subject to interest rate floors. A reduction in the interest rates on new investments relative to interest rates on current investments could have an adverse impact on our net investment income, which also could be negatively impacted by our borrowers making prepayments on their loans. On the other hand, an increase in interest rates could increase the interest repayment obligations of our borrowers and result in challenges to their financial performance and ability to repay their obligations. In addition, our cost of funds likely will increase because the interest rates on the majority of amounts we may borrow are likely to be floating, which could reduce our net investment income to the extent any debt investments have fixed interest rates, and the interest rate on investments with an interest rate floor will not increase until interest rates exceed the applicable floor.
Trading prices for debt that pays a fixed rate of return tend to fall as interest rates rise. Trading prices tend to fluctuate more for fixed-rate securities that have longer maturities. Moreover, an increase in interest rates available to investors could make investment in our common stock less attractive if we are not able to increase our dividend rate, which could reduce the value of our common stock. Federal Reserve policy, including with respect to certain interest rates and the decision to end its quantitative easing policy, may also adversely affect the value, volatility and liquidity of dividend- and interest-paying securities. Market volatility, rising interest rates and/or a return to unfavorable economic conditions could adversely affect our business.
We may enter into certain hedging transactions, such as interest rate swap agreements, in an effort to mitigate our exposure to adverse fluctuations in interest rates and we may increase our floating rate investments to position the portfolio for rate increases. However, we cannot assure you that such transactions will be successful in mitigating our exposure to interest rate risk or if we will enter into such interest rate hedges. Hedging transactions may also limit our ability to participate in the benefits of lower interest rates with respect to our portfolio investments.
We will not have a policy governing the maturities of our investments. This means that we are subject to greater risk (other things being equal) than a fund invested solely in shorter-term securities. A decline in the prices of the debt we own could adversely affect our net asset value. Also, an increase in interest rates available to investors could make an investment in our common stock less attractive if we are not able to increase our dividend rate.
To the extent that we make floating rate debt investments, a rise in the general level of interest rates would lead to higher interest rates applicable to our debt investments. Accordingly, an increase in interest rates may result in an increase in the amount of the Incentive Fee payable to the Adviser.
International investments create additional risks.
We may make investments in portfolio companies that are domiciled outside of the United States. We will not invest more than 20% of our total assets in companies whose principal place of business is outside the United States. Our investments in foreign portfolio companies are deemed “non-qualifying assets”, which means that, as required by the 1940 Act, such investments, along with other investments in non-qualifying assets, may not constitute more than 30% of our total assets at the time of our acquisition of any such asset, after giving effect to the acquisition. Notwithstanding the limitation on our ownership of foreign portfolio companies, such investments subject us to many of the same risks as our domestic investments, as well as certain additional risks, including the following:
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foreign governmental laws, rules and policies, including those relating to taxation and bankruptcy and restricting the ownership of assets in the foreign country or the repatriation of profits from the foreign country to the United States and any adverse changes in these laws;
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foreign currency devaluations that reduce the value of and returns on our foreign investments;
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adverse changes in the availability, cost and terms of investments due to the varying economic policies of a foreign country in which we invest;
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adverse changes in tax rates, the tax treatment of transaction structures and other changes in operating expenses of a particular foreign country in which we invest;
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the assessment of foreign-country taxes (including withholding taxes, transfer taxes and value added taxes, any or all of which could be significant) on income or gains from our investments in the foreign country;
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changes that adversely affect the social, political and/or economic stability of a foreign country in which we invest;
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high inflation in the foreign countries in which we invest, which could increase the costs to us of investing in those countries;
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deflationary periods in the foreign countries in which we invest, which could reduce demand for our assets in those countries and diminish the value of such investments and the related investment returns to us; and
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legal and logistical barriers in the foreign countries in which we invest that materially and adversely limit our ability to enforce our contractual rights with respect to those investments.
In addition, we may make investments in countries whose governments or economies may prove unstable. Certain of the countries in which we may invest may have political, economic and legal systems that are unpredictable, unreliable or otherwise inadequate with respect to the implementation, interpretation and enforcement of laws protecting asset ownership and economic interests. In some of the countries in which we may invest, there may be a risk of nationalization, expropriation or confiscatory taxation, which may have an adverse effect on our portfolio companies in those countries and the rates of return that we are able to achieve on such investments. We may also lose the total value of any investment which is nationalized, expropriated or confiscated. The financial results and investment opportunities available to us, particularly in developing countries and emerging markets, may be materially and adversely affected by any or all of these political, economic and legal risks.
We may acquire various structured financial instruments for purposes of “hedging” or reducing our risks, which may be costly and ineffective and could reduce the cash available to service our debt or for distribution to our shareholders.
We may seek to hedge against interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations and credit risk by using structured financial instruments such as futures, options, swaps and forward contracts, subject to the requirements of the 1940 Act. Use of structured financial instruments for hedging purposes may present significant risks, including the risk of loss of the amounts invested. Defaults by the other party to a hedging transaction can result in losses in the hedging transaction. Hedging activities also involve the risk of an imperfect correlation between the hedging instrument and the asset being hedged, which could result in losses both on the hedging transaction and on the instrument being hedged. Use of hedging activities may not prevent significant losses and could increase our losses. Further, hedging transactions may reduce cash available to service our debt or pay distributions to our shareholders.
We may enter into total return swaps that would expose us to certain risks, including market risk, liquidity risk and other risks similar to those associated with the use of leverage.
A total return swap is a contract in which one party agrees to make periodic payments to another party based on the change in the market value of the assets underlying the total return swap, which may include a specified security or loan, basket of securities or loans or securities or loan indices during the specified period, in return for periodic payments based on a fixed or variable interest rate. A total return swap is typically used to obtain exposure to a security, loan or market without owning or taking physical custody of such security or loan or investing directly in such market. A total return swap may effectively add leverage to our portfolio because, in addition to our total net assets, we would be subject to investment exposure on the amount of securities or loans subject to the total return swap. A total return swap is also subject to the risk that a counterparty will default on its payment obligations thereunder or that we will not be able to meet our obligations to the counterparty. In addition, because a total return swap is a form of synthetic leverage, such arrangements are subject to risks similar to those associated with the use of leverage.
Defaults by our portfolio companies could harm our operating results.
A portfolio company’s failure to satisfy financial or operating covenants imposed by us or other lenders could lead to defaults and, potentially, termination of its debt financing and foreclosure on its secured assets, which could trigger cross-defaults under other agreements and jeopardize a portfolio company’s ability to meet its obligations under the debt or equity investments that we hold. We may incur expenses to the extent necessary to seek recovery upon default or to negotiate new terms, which may include the waiver of certain financial covenants, with a defaulting portfolio company.
As part of our lending activities, we may in certain opportunistic circumstances originate loans to companies that are experiencing significant financial or business difficulties, including companies involved in bankruptcy or other reorganization and liquidation proceedings. Any such investment would involve a substantial degree of risk. In any reorganization or liquidation proceeding relating to a company that we fund, we may lose all or part of the amounts advanced to the borrower or may be required to accept collateral with a value less than the amount of the loan advanced by us to the borrower.
Our portfolio may be focused on a limited number of portfolio companies or industries, which will subject us to a risk of significant loss if any of these companies defaults on its obligations under any of its debt instruments or if there is a downturn in a particular industry.
Beyond the asset diversification requirements associated with our qualification as a RIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we do not have fixed guidelines for diversification. While we are not targeting any specific industries, our investments may be focused on relatively few industries. As a result, the aggregate returns we realize may be significantly adversely affected if a small number of investments perform poorly or if we need to write down the value of any one investment. Additionally, a downturn in any particular industry in which we are invested could significantly affect our aggregate returns.
We cannot guarantee that we will be able to obtain various required licenses in U.S. states or in any other jurisdiction where they may be required in the future.
We are required to have and may be required in the future to obtain various state licenses to, among other things, originate commercial loans, and may be required to obtain similar licenses from other authorities, including outside of the United States, in the future in connection with one or more investments. Applying for and obtaining required licenses can be costly and take several months. We cannot assure you that we will maintain or obtain all of the licenses that we need on a timely basis. We also are and will be subject to various information and other requirements to maintain and obtain these licenses, and we cannot assure you that we will satisfy those requirements. Our failure to maintain or obtain licenses that we require, now or in the future, might restrict investment options and have other adverse consequences.
An investment strategy focused primarily on privately held companies presents certain challenges, including the lack of available information about these companies.
We invest primarily in privately held companies. Investments in private companies pose certain incremental risks as compared to investments in public companies including that they:
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have reduced access to the capital markets, resulting in diminished capital resources and ability to withstand financial distress;
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may have limited financial resources and may be unable to meet their obligations under their debt obligations that we hold, which may be accompanied by a deterioration in the value of any collateral and a reduction in the likelihood of our realizing any guarantees we may have obtained in connection with our investment;
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may have shorter operating histories, narrower product lines and smaller market shares than larger businesses, which tend to render them more vulnerable to competitors’ actions and changing market conditions, as well as general economic downturns;
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are more likely to depend on the management talents and efforts of a small group of persons and, therefore, the death, disability, resignation or termination of one or more of these persons could have a material adverse impact on the company and, in turn, on us; and
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generally have less predictable operating results, may from time to time be parties to litigation, may be engaged in rapidly changing businesses with products subject to a substantial risk of obsolescence, and may require substantial additional capital to support their operations, finance expansion or maintain their competitive position.
In addition, investments in private companies tend to be less liquid. The securities of private companies are not publicly traded or actively traded on the secondary market and are, instead, traded on a privately negotiated over-the-counter secondary market for institutional investors. These over-the-counter secondary markets may be inactive during an economic downturn or a credit crisis and in any event often have lower volumes than publicly traded securities even in normal market conditions. In addition, the securities in these companies will be subject to legal and other restrictions on resale or will otherwise be less liquid than publicly traded securities. If there is no readily available market for these investments, we are required to carry these investments at fair value as determined by our Board. As a result, if we are required to liquidate all or a portion of our portfolio quickly, we may realize significantly less than the value at which we had previously recorded these investments. We may also face other restrictions on our ability to liquidate an investment in a portfolio company to the extent that we, our Adviser or any of its affiliates have material nonpublic information regarding such portfolio company or where the sale would be an impermissible joint transaction under the 1940 Act. The reduced liquidity of our investments may make it difficult for us to dispose of them at a favorable price, and, as a result, we may suffer losses.
Finally, little public information generally exists about private companies and these companies may not have third-party credit ratings or audited financial statements. We must therefore rely on the ability of our Adviser to obtain adequate information through due diligence to evaluate the creditworthiness and potential returns from investing in these companies, and to monitor the activities and performance of these investments. To the extent that we (or other clients of the Adviser) may hold a larger number of investments, greater demands will be placed on the Adviser’s time, resources and personnel in monitoring such investments, which may result in
less attention being paid to any individual investment and greater risk that our investment decisions may not be fully informed. Additionally, these companies and their financial information will not generally be subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and other rules that govern public companies. If we are unable to uncover all material information about these companies, we may not make a fully informed investment decision, and we may lose money on our investments.
Certain investment analyses and decisions by the Adviser may be required to be undertaken on an expedited basis.
Investment analyses and decisions by the Adviser may be required to be undertaken on an expedited basis to take advantage of certain investment opportunities. While we generally will not seek to make an investment until the Adviser has conducted sufficient due diligence to make a determination as to the acceptability of the credit quality of the investment and the underlying issuer, in such cases, the information available to the Adviser at the time of making an investment decision may be limited. Therefore, no assurance can be given that the Adviser will have knowledge of all circumstances that may adversely affect an investment. In addition, the Adviser may rely upon independent consultants in connection with its evaluation of proposed investments. No assurance can be given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by such independent consultants and we may incur liability as a result of such consultants’ actions, many of whom we will have limited recourse against in the event of any such inaccuracies.
We may not have the funds or ability to make additional investments in our portfolio companies or to fund our unfunded commitments.
After our initial investment in a portfolio company, we may be called upon from time to time to provide additional funds to such company or have the opportunity to increase our investment through the exercise of a warrant or other right to purchase common stock. There is no assurance that we will make, or will have sufficient funds to make, follow-on investments. Even if we do have sufficient capital to make a desired follow-on investment, we may elect not to make a follow-on investment because we may not want to increase our level of risk, we prefer other opportunities, we are limited in our ability to do so by compliance with business development company requirements or in order to maintain our RIC status. Our ability to make follow-on investments may also be limited by our Adviser’s allocation policies. Any decision not to make a follow-on investment or any inability on our part to make such an investment may have a negative impact on a portfolio company in need of such an investment, may result in a missed opportunity for us to increase our participation in a successful investment or may reduce the expected return to us on the investment.
Pending legislation may allow us to incur additional leverage.
As a BDC, under the 1940 Act we generally are not permitted to incur borrowings, issue debt securities or issue preferred stock unless immediately after the borrowing or issuance the ratio of total assets (less total liabilities other than indebtedness) to total indebtedness plus preferred stock is at least 200%. Legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, if passed, would modify this section of the 1940 Act and increase the amount of debt that BDCs may incur by modifying the asset coverage percentage from 200% to 150%. As a result, we may be able to incur additional indebtedness in the future and you may face increased investment risk. In addition, since our base management fee is calculated as a percentage of the value of our gross assets, excluding cash and cash-equivalents but including assets purchased with borrowed amounts, our base management fee expenses will increase if we incur additional indebtedness to the extent we use leverage to make investments.
Our ability to enter into transactions involving derivatives and financial commitment transactions may be limited.
The SEC has proposed a new rule under the 1940 Act that would govern the use of derivatives (defined to include any swap, security-based swap, futures contract, forward contract, option or any similar instrument) as well as financial commitment transactions (defined to include reverse repurchase agreements, short sale borrowings and any firm or standby commitment agreement or similar agreement) by BDCs. Under the proposed rule, a BDC would be required to comply with one of two alternative portfolio limitations and manage the risks associated with derivatives transactions and financial commitment transactions by segregating certain assets. Furthermore, a BDC that engages in more than a limited amount of derivatives transactions or that uses complex derivatives would be required to establish a formalized derivatives risk management program. If the SEC adopts this rule in the form proposed, we may incur greater and indirect costs to engage in derivatives transactions or financial commitment transactions, and our ability to enter into transactions involving such instruments may be hindered, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
To the extent that we borrow money, the potential for gain or loss on amounts invested in us will be magnified and may increase the risk of investing in us. Borrowed money may also adversely affect the return on our assets, reduce cash available to service our debt or for distribution to our shareholders, and result in losses.
The use of borrowings, also known as leverage, increases the volatility of investments by magnifying the potential for gain or loss on invested equity capital. To the extent that we use leverage to partially finance our investments through borrowing from banks and other lenders, you will experience increased risks of investing in our securities. If the value of our assets decreases, leverage would cause our net asset value to decline more sharply than it otherwise would if we had not borrowed and employed leverage.
Similarly, any decrease in our income would cause net income to decline more sharply than it would have if we had not borrowed and employed leverage. Such a decline could negatively affect our ability to service our debt or make distributions to our shareholders. In addition, our shareholders will bear the burden of any increase in our expenses as a result of our use of leverage, including interest expenses and any increase in the base management or incentive fees payable to our Adviser attributable to the increase in assets purchased using leverage.
The amount of leverage that we employ will depend on our Adviser’s and our Board’s assessment of market and other factors at the time of any proposed borrowing. There can be no assurance that leveraged financing will be available to us on favorable terms or at all. However, to the extent that we use leverage to finance our assets, our financing costs will reduce cash available for distributions to shareholders. Moreover, we may not be able to meet our financing obligations and, to the extent that we cannot, we risk the loss of some or all of our assets to liquidation or sale to satisfy the obligations. In such an event, we may be forced to sell assets at significantly depressed prices due to market conditions or otherwise, which may result in losses.
As a business development company, we are required to meet a coverage ratio of total assets to total borrowings and other senior securities, which include all of our borrowings and any preferred stock that we may issue in the future, of at least 200%. If this ratio declines below 200%, we cannot incur additional debt and could be required to sell a portion of our investments to repay some indebtedness when it is disadvantageous to do so. This could have a material adverse effect on our operations, and we may not be able to service our debt or make distributions.
Risks Related to an Investment in Our Common Stock
Our shares are not listed on an exchange or quoted through a quotation system and will not be listed for the foreseeable future, if ever. Therefore, our shareholders will have limited liquidity.
Our shares are illiquid investments for which there is not a secondary market nor is it expected that any such secondary market will develop in the future. Our common stock will not be registered under the Securities Act, or any state securities law and will be restricted as to transfer by law and the terms of our charter. Shareholders generally may not sell, assign or transfer their shares without prior written consent of the Adviser, which the Adviser may grant or withhold in its sole discretion. Except in limited circumstances for legal or regulatory purposes, shareholders are not entitled to redeem their shares of our common stock. Shareholders must be prepared to bear the economic risk of an investment in us for an indefinite period of time.
We do not know at this time what circumstances will exist in the future and therefore we do not know what factors our Board will consider in determining whether to conduct an Exchange Listing. If we do undertake an Exchange Listing, we cannot assure you a public trading market will develop or, if one develops, that such trading market can be sustained. Shares of companies offered in an initial public offering often trade at a discount to the initial offering price due to underwriting discounts and related offering expenses. Also, shares of closed-end investment companies and business development companies frequently trade at a discount from their net asset value. This characteristic of closed-end investment companies is separate and distinct from the risk that our net asset value per share of common stock may decline. We cannot predict whether our common stock, if listed on a national securities exchange, will trade at, above or below net asset value.
A shareholder’s interest in us will be diluted if we issue additional shares, which could reduce the overall value of an investment in us.
Our shareholders do not have preemptive rights to purchase any shares we issue in the future. Our charter authorizes us to issue up to 500 million shares of common stock. Pursuant to our charter, a majority of our entire Board may amend our charter to increase the number of shares of common stock we may issue without shareholder approval. Our board may elect to sell additional shares in the future or issue equity interests in private offerings. To the extent we issue additional equity interests at or below net asset value, your percentage ownership interest in us may be diluted. In addition, depending upon the terms and pricing of any additional offerings and the value of our investments, you may also experience dilution in the book value and fair value of your shares.
Under the 1940 Act, we generally are prohibited from issuing or selling our common stock at a price below net asset value per share, which may be a disadvantage as compared with certain public companies. We may, however, sell our common stock, or warrants, options, or rights to acquire our common stock, at a price below the current net asset value of our common stock if our Board and independent directors determine that such sale is in our best interests and the best interests of our shareholders, and our shareholders, including a majority of those shareholders that are not affiliated with us, approve such sale. In any such case, the price at which our securities are to be issued and sold may not be less than a price that, in the determination of our Board, closely approximates the fair value of such securities (less any distributing commission or discount). If we raise additional funds by issuing common stock or senior securities convertible into, or exchangeable for, our common stock, then the percentage ownership of our shareholders at that time will decrease and you will experience dilution.
Certain provisions of our charter and actions of our Board could deter takeover attempts and have an adverse impact on the value of shares of our common stock.
Our charter, as well as certain statutory and regulatory requirements, contain certain provisions that may have the effect of discouraging a third party from attempting to acquire us. Our Board is divided into three classes of directors serving staggered three-year terms, which could prevent shareholders from removing a majority of directors in any given election. Our Board may, without shareholder action, authorize the issuance of shares in one or more classes or series, including shares of preferred stock; and our Board may, without shareholder action, amend our charter to increase the number of shares of our common stock, of any class or series, that we will have authority to issue. These anti-takeover provisions may inhibit a change of control in circumstances that could give the holders of shares of our common stock the opportunity to realize a premium over the value of shares of our common stock.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk.
The investments we make in accordance with our investment objective may result in a higher amount of risk than alternative investment options, including volatility or loss of principal. Our investments in portfolio companies may be highly speculative and aggressive and, therefore, an investment in our common stock may not be suitable for someone with lower risk tolerance.
The net asset value of our common stock may fluctuate significantly.
The net asset value and liquidity, if any, of the market for shares of our common stock may be significantly affected by numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control and may not be directly related to our operating performance. These factors include:
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changes in the value of our portfolio of investments and derivative instruments as a result of changes in market factors, such as interest rate shifts, and also portfolio specific performance, such as portfolio company defaults, among other reasons;
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changes in regulatory policies or tax guidelines, particularly with respect to RICs or business development companies;
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loss of RIC tax treatment or BDC status;
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distributions that exceed our net investment income and net income as reported according to U.S. GAAP;
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changes in earnings or variations in operating results;
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changes in accounting guidelines governing valuation of our investments;
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any shortfall in revenue or net income or any increase in losses from levels expected by investors;
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departure of our Adviser or certain of its key personnel;
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general economic trends and other external factors; and
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loss of a major funding source.
The amount of any distributions we may make is uncertain. We may pay distributions from offering proceeds, borrowings or the sale of assets to the extent our cash flows from operations, net investment income or earnings are not sufficient to fund declared distributions.
We may fund distributions from the uninvested proceeds of an offering, borrowings and expense reimbursements from our Adviser, which is subject to recoupment. We have not established limits on the amount of funds we may use from such proceeds or borrowings or expense reimbursements to make any such distributions. We may pay distributions from the sale of assets to the extent distributions exceed our earnings or cash flows from operations. Distributions from offering proceeds or from borrowings could reduce the amount of capital we ultimately invest in our investment portfolio.
Shareholders will experience dilution in their ownership percentage if they do not participate in our dividend reinvestment plan.
All distributions declared in cash payable to shareholders that are participants in our dividend reinvestment plan will generally be automatically reinvested in shares of our common stock if the investor opts in to the plan. As a result, shareholders that do not elect to participate in our dividend reinvestment plan may experience dilution over time. Shareholders who do not elect to participate in dividend reinvestment plan may experience accretion to the net asset value of their shares if our shares are trading at a premium to net asset value and dilution if our shares are trading at a discount to net asset value. The level of accretion or discount would depend on various factors, including the proportion of our shareholders who participate in the plan, the level of premium or discount at which our shares are trading and the amount of the distribution payable to shareholders.
The existence of a large number of outstanding shares and shareholders prior to an Exchange Listing could negatively affect our stock price.
The ability of our shareholders to liquidate their investments will be limited. If we were to conduct an Exchange Listing in the future, a large volume of sales of these shares could decrease the prevailing market prices of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise additional capital through the sale of equity securities in the future. Even if a substantial number of sales are not affected, the mere perception of the possibility of these sales could depress the market price of our common stock and have a negative effect on our ability to raise capital in the future. In addition, anticipated downward pressure on our common stock price due to actual or anticipated sales of common stock from this market overhang could cause some institutions or individuals to engage in short sales of our common stock, which may itself cause the price of our stock to decline.
Preferred stock could be issued with rights and preferences that would adversely affect holders of our common stock.
Under the terms of our charter, our Board is authorized to issue shares of preferred stock in one or more series without shareholder approval, which could potentially adversely affect the interests of existing shareholders.
If we issue preferred stock, debt securities or convertible debt securities, the net asset value of our common stock may become more volatile.
We cannot assure you that the issuance of preferred stock and/or debt securities would result in a higher yield or return to the holders of our common stock. The issuance of preferred stock, debt securities or convertible debt would likely cause the net asset value of our common stock to become more volatile. If the dividend rate on the preferred stock, or the interest rate on the debt securities, were to approach the net rate of return on our investment portfolio, the benefit of such leverage to the holders of our common stock would be reduced. If the dividend rate on the preferred stock, or the interest rate on the debt securities, were to exceed the net rate of return on our portfolio, the use of leverage would result in a lower rate of return to the holders of common stock than if we had not issued the preferred stock or debt securities. Any decline in the net asset value of our investment would be borne entirely by the holders of our common stock. Therefore, if the market value of our portfolio were to decline, the leverage would result in a greater decrease in net asset value to the holders of our common stock than if we were not leveraged through the issuance of preferred stock or debt securities. This decline in net asset value would also tend to cause a greater decline in the market price, if any, for our common stock.
There is also a risk that, in the event of a sharp decline in the value of our net assets, we would be in danger of failing to maintain required asset coverage ratios, which may be required by the preferred stock, debt securities or convertible debt, or our current investment income might not be sufficient to meet the dividend requirements on the preferred stock or the interest payments on the debt securities. In order to counteract such an event, we might need to liquidate investments in order to fund the redemption of some or all of the preferred stock, debt securities or convertible debt. In addition, we would pay (and the holders of our common stock would bear) all costs and expenses relating to the issuance and ongoing maintenance of the preferred stock, debt securities, convertible debt, or any combination of these securities. Holders of preferred stock, debt securities or convertible debt may have different interests than holders of common stock and may at times have disproportionate influence over our affairs.
Holders of any preferred stock that we may issue will have the right to elect certain members of our Board and have class voting rights on certain matters.
The 1940 Act requires that holders of shares of preferred stock must be entitled as a class to elect two directors at all times and to elect a majority of the directors if dividends on such preferred stock are in arrears by two years or more, until such arrearage is eliminated. In addition, certain matters under the 1940 Act require the separate vote of the holders of any issued and outstanding preferred stock, including changes in fundamental investment restrictions and conversion to open-end status and, accordingly, preferred shareholders could veto any such changes. Restrictions imposed on the declarations and payment of dividends or other distributions to the holders of our common stock and preferred stock, both by the 1940 Act and by requirements imposed by rating agencies, might impair our ability to maintain our tax treatment as a RIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
Federal Income Tax Risks
We cannot predict how tax reform legislation will affect us, our investments, or our shareholders, and any such legislation could adversely affect our business.
Legislative or other actions relating to taxes could have a negative effect on us. The rules dealing with U.S. federal income taxation are constantly under review by persons involved in the legislative process and by the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department. The U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate recently passed tax reform legislation, which the President signed into law. Such legislation will make many changes to the Internal Revenue Code, including significant changes to the taxation of business entities, the deductibility of interest expense, and the tax treatment of capital investment. We cannot predict with certainty how any changes in
the tax laws might affect us, our shareholders, or our portfolio investments. New legislation and any U.S. Treasury regulations, administrative interpretations or court decisions interpreting such legislation could significantly and negatively affect our ability to qualify for tax treatment as a RIC or the U.S. federal income tax consequences to us and our shareholders of such qualification, or could have other adverse consequences. Shareholders are urged to consult with their tax advisor regarding tax legislative, regulatory, or administrative developments and proposals and their potential effect on an investment in our securities.
We will be subject to corporate-level income tax if we are unable to qualify for and maintain our tax treatment as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code or if we make investments through taxable subsidiaries.
To qualify for and maintain RIC tax treatment under the Code, we must meet the following annual distribution, income source and asset diversification requirements. See “ITEM 1. BUSINESS - Certain U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations.”
The Annual Distribution Requirement for a RIC will be satisfied if we distribute to our shareholders on an annual basis at least 90% of our “investment company taxable income,” which is generally our net ordinary income plus the excess, if any, of realized net short-term capital gains over realized net long-term capital losses. In addition, a RIC may, in certain cases, satisfy the 90% distribution requirement by distributing dividends relating to a taxable year after the close of such taxable year under the “spillback dividend” provisions of Subchapter M. We would be taxed, at regular corporate rates, on retained income and/or gains, including any short-term capital gains or long-term capital gains. We also must satisfy an additional Annual Distribution Requirement with respect to each calendar year in order to minimize the 4% excise tax on the amount of the under-distribution. Because we may use debt financing, we are subject to (i) an asset coverage ratio requirement under the 1940 Act and may, in the future, be subject to (ii) certain financial covenants under loan and credit agreements that could, under certain circumstances, restrict us from making distributions necessary to satisfy the distribution requirements. If we are unable to obtain cash from other sources, or choose or are required to retain a portion of our taxable income or gains, we could (1) be required to pay excise taxes and (2) fail to qualify for RIC tax treatment, and thus become subject to corporate-level income tax on our taxable income (including gains).
The income source requirement will be satisfied if we obtain at least 90% of our annual income from dividends, interest, gains from the sale of stock or securities, or other income derived from the business of investing in stock or securities.
The asset diversification requirement will be satisfied if we meet certain asset diversification requirements at the end of each quarter of our taxable year. Specifically, at least 50% of the value of our assets must consist of cash, cash-equivalents (including receivables), U.S. government securities, securities of other RICs, and other acceptable securities if such securities or any one issuer do not represent more than 5% of the value of our assets or more than 10% of the outstanding voting securities of the issuer; and no more than 25% of the value of our assets can be invested in the securities, other than U.S. government securities or securities of other RICs, of one issuer, of two or more issuers that are controlled, as determined under applicable Code rules, by us and that are engaged in the same or similar or related trades or businesses or of certain “qualified publicly traded partnerships.” Failure to meet these requirements may result in our having to dispose of certain investments quickly in order to prevent the loss of RIC status. Because most of our investments will be in private companies, and therefore will be relatively illiquid, any such dispositions could be made at disadvantageous prices and could result in substantial losses.
If we fail to qualify for or maintain RIC tax treatment for any reason and are subject to corporate income tax, the resulting corporate taxes could substantially reduce our net assets, the amount of income available for distribution, and the amount of our distributions.
We may invest in certain debt and equity investments through taxable subsidiaries and the net taxable income of these taxable subsidiaries will be subject to federal and state corporate income taxes. We may invest in certain foreign debt and equity investments which could be subject to foreign taxes (such as income tax, withholding, and value added taxes).
We may have difficulty paying our required distributions if we recognize income before or without receiving cash representing such income.
For federal income tax purposes, we may be required to recognize taxable income in circumstances in which we do not receive a corresponding payment in cash. For example, since we will likely hold debt obligations that are treated under applicable tax rules as having OID (such as debt instruments with PIK, secondary market purchases of debt securities at a discount to par, interest or, in certain cases, increasing interest rates or debt instruments that were issued with warrants), we must include in income each year a portion of the OID that accrues over the life of the obligation, regardless of whether cash representing such income is received by us in the same taxable year. We may also have to include in income other amounts that we have not yet received in cash, such as unrealized appreciation for foreign currency forward contracts and deferred loan origination fees that are paid after origination of the loan or are paid in non-cash compensation such as warrants or stock. Furthermore, we may invest in non-U.S. corporations (or other non-U.S. entities treated as corporations for U.S. federal income tax purposes) that could be treated under the Code and U.S. Treasury regulations as “passive foreign investment companies” and/or “controlled foreign corporations.” The rules relating to investment in these types of non-U.S. entities are designed to ensure that U.S. taxpayers are either, in effect, taxed currently (or on an accelerated
basis with respect to corporate-level events) or taxed at increased tax rates at distribution or disposition. In certain circumstances this could require us to recognize income where we do not receive a corresponding payment in cash.
Unrealized appreciation on derivatives, such as foreign currency forward contracts, may be included in taxable income while the receipt of cash may occur in a subsequent period when the related contract expires. Any unrealized depreciation on investments that the foreign currency forward contracts are designed to hedge are not currently deductible for tax purposes. This can result in increased taxable income whereby we may not have sufficient cash to pay distributions or we may opt to retain such taxable income and pay a 4% excise tax. In such cases we could still rely upon the “spillback provisions” to maintain RIC tax treatment.
We anticipate that a portion of our income may constitute OID or other income required to be included in taxable income prior to receipt of cash. Further, we may elect to amortize market discounts with respect to debt securities acquired in the secondary market and include such amounts in our taxable income in the current year, instead of upon disposition, as an election not to do so would limit our ability to deduct interest expenses for tax purposes. Because any OID or other amounts accrued will be included in our investment company taxable income for the year of the accrual, we may be required to make a distribution to our shareholders in order to satisfy the Annual Distribution Requirement, even if we will not have received any corresponding cash amount. As a result, we may have difficulty meeting the Annual Distribution Requirement necessary to maintain RIC tax treatment under the Code. We may have to sell some of our investments at times and/or at prices we would not consider advantageous, raise additional debt or equity capital, make a partial share distribution, or forgo new investment opportunities for this purpose. If we are not able to obtain cash from other sources, and choose not to make a qualifying share distribution, we may fail to qualify for RIC tax treatment and thus become subject to corporate-level income tax.
If we are not treated as a “publicly offered regulated investment company,” as defined in the Code, certain U.S. shareholders will be treated as having received a dividend from us in the amount of such U.S. shareholders’ allocable share of the base management fee and incentive fees paid to our Adviser and some of our expenses, and these fees and expenses will be treated as miscellaneous itemized deductions of such U.S. shareholders.
A “publicly offered regulated investment company” is a RIC whose shares are either (i) continuously offered pursuant to a public offering within the meaning of Section 4 of the Securities Act, (ii) regularly traded on an established securities market or (iii) held by at least 500 persons at all times during the taxable year. While we anticipate that we will constitute a publicly offered RIC, there can be no assurance that we will in fact so qualify for any of our taxable years. If we are not treated as a publicly offered regulated investment company for any calendar year, each U.S. shareholder that is an individual, trust or estate will be treated as having received a dividend from us in the amount of such U.S. shareholder’s allocable share of the base management fee and incentive fees paid to our Adviser and certain of our other expenses for the calendar year, and these fees and expenses will be treated as miscellaneous itemized deductions of such U.S. shareholder. Miscellaneous itemized deductions generally are deductible by a U.S. shareholder' that is an individual, trust or estate only to the extent that the aggregate of such U.S. shareholder’s miscellaneous itemized deductions exceeds 2% of such U.S. shareholder’s adjusted gross income for U.S. federal income tax purposes, are not deductible for purposes of the alternative minimum tax and are subject to the overall limitation on itemized deductions under the Code.
Item 1B.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
Item 2.
Item 2. Properties.
Our corporate headquarters are located at 245 Park Avenue, 41st floor, New York, New York 10167 and are provided by the Adviser in accordance with the terms of our Administration Agreement. We believe that our office facilities are suitable and adequate for our business as it is contemplated to be conducted.
Item 3.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
We are not currently subject to any material legal proceedings, nor, to our knowledge, are any material legal proceeding threatened against us. From time to time, we may be a party to certain legal proceedings in the ordinary course of business, including proceedings relating to the enforcement of our rights under contracts with our portfolio companies. Our business is also subject to extensive regulation, which may result in regulatory proceedings against us. While the outcome of any such future legal or regulatory proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not expect that any such future proceedings will have a material effect upon our financial condition or results of operations.
Item 4.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
Not applicable.
PART II
Item 5.
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Until an Exchange Listing, our common stock will be offered and sold in transactions exempt from registration under Section 4(a)(2) and Regulation D of the Securities Act. There is not currently a public market for our common stock, nor can we give any assurance that one will develop.
Our common stock may not be sold, transferred, assigned, pledged or otherwise disposed of unless (i) if such transfer is prior to an Exchange Listing, our Adviser consents to such transfer and (ii) the common stock is registered under applicable securities laws or specifically exempted from registration (in which case the shareholder may, at our option, be required to provide us with a legal opinion, in form and substance satisfactory to us, that registration is not required). Accordingly, an investor must be willing to bear the economic risk of investment in the common stock for an indefinite period of time. No sale, transfer, assignment, pledge or other disposition, whether voluntary or involuntary, of the common stock may be made except by registration of the transfer on our books. Prior to an Exchange Listing, each transferee will be required to execute an instrument agreeing to be bound by these restrictions and the other restrictions imposed on our common stock and to execute such other instruments or certifications as we may reasonably require.
Dividends
We generally intend to distribute, out of assets legally available for distribution, substantially all of our available earnings, on a quarterly basis, as determined by Board in its discretion. The following table summarizes dividends declared for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016:
The dividends declared during the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 were derived from ordinary income, determined on a tax basis. For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, 88.3% and 94.7%, respectively, of distributed ordinary income qualified as interest related dividend which is exempt from U.S. withholding tax applicable to non-U.S. shareholders.
Item 6.
Item 6. Selected Financial Data.
The following table below sets forth our selected consolidated historical financial data for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016. The selected consolidated historical financial data has been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, which is included elsewhere in this Form 10-K and our SEC filings.
The selected consolidated financial information and other data presented below should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and “ITEM 7.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
The information contained in this section should be read in conjunction with “ITEM 8. CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTAL DATA”. This discussion contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or the future performance or financial condition of Owl Rock Capital Corporation and involves numerous risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, those described in “ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.” This discussion also should be read in conjunction with the “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements” set forth on page 2 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Actual results could differ materially from those implied or expressed in any forward-looking statements.
Overview
Owl Rock Capital Corporation (the “Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a Maryland corporation formed on October 15, 2015. We were formed primarily to originate and make loans to, and make debt and equity investments in, U.S. middle market companies. We invest in senior secured or unsecured loans, subordinated loans or mezzanine loans and, to a lesser extent, equity-related securities including warrants, preferred stock and similar forms of senior equity, which may or may not be convertible into a portfolio company’s common equity. Our investment objective is to generate current income, and to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by targeting investment opportunities with favorable risk-adjusted returns.
We are managed by Owl Rock Capital Advisors LLC (“the Adviser” or “our Adviser”). The Adviser is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Subject to the overall supervision of our board of directors (the “Board”), the Adviser manages our day-to-day operations, and provides investment advisory and management services to us. The Adviser or its affiliates may engage in certain origination activities and receive attendant arrangement, structuring or similar fees. The Adviser is responsible for managing our business and activities, including sourcing investment opportunities, conducting research, performing diligence on potential investments, structuring our investments, and monitoring our portfolio companies on an ongoing basis through a team of investment professionals. The Board consists of seven directors, four of whom are independent.
We conduct private offerings (each, a “Private Offering”) of our common shares to accredited investors in reliance on exemptions from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. At the closing of each Private Offering, each investor makes a capital commitment (a “Capital Commitment”) to purchase shares of our common stock pursuant to a subscription agreement entered into with the Company. Investors are required to fund drawdowns to purchase shares of our common stock up to the amount of their respective Capital Commitment on an as-needed basis each time we deliver a drawdown notice to our investors. The initial closing of the Private Offering occurred on March 3, 2016 (the "Initial Closing"). As of March 2, 2018, we had $5.5 billion in total Capital Commitments from investors. If we have not consummated a listing of our common stock on a national securities exchange (an "Exchange Listing") by the five-year anniversary of the Initial Closing, subject to extension for two additional one-year periods, in the sole discretion of the Board, the Board (subject to any necessary shareholder approvals and applicable requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “1940 Act”)) will use its commercially reasonable efforts to wind down and/or liquidate and dissolve the Company in an orderly manner.
Placement activities will be conducted by our officers and the Adviser. In addition, we have entered into agreements with placement agents or broker-dealers to solicit investor Capital Commitments. Fees paid pursuant to these agreements will be paid by our Adviser.
The Adviser also serves as investment adviser to Owl Rock Capital Corporation II. Owl Rock Capital Corporation II is a corporation formed under the laws of the State of Maryland that, like us, has elected to be treated as a business development company (“BDC”) under the 1940 Act. Owl Rock Capital Corporation II’s investment objective is similar to ours, which is to generate current income, and to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by targeting investment opportunities with favorable risk-adjusted returns. On April 4, 2017, Owl Rock Capital Corporation II received subscription agreements totaling $10.0 million for the purchase of shares of its common stock from a private placement from certain individuals and entities affiliated with the Adviser, met its minimum offering requirement of $2.5 million, and issued 277,778 shares of common stock. The purchase price of these shares was $9.00 per share, which represented Owl Rock Capital Corporation II’s initial public offering price of $9.47 per share, net of selling commissions and dealer manager fees. In April 2017, Owl Rock Capital Corporation II made its first portfolio company investment. As of December 31, 2017, Owl Rock Capital Corporation II had raised gross proceeds of approximately $90.9 million, including seed capital contributed by our Adviser in September 2016 and approximately $10.0 million in gross proceeds raised from certain individuals and entities affiliated with the Adviser.
We may be prohibited under the 1940 Act from conducting certain transactions with our affiliates without the prior approval of our directors who are not interested persons and, in some cases, the prior approval of the SEC. We, our Adviser and certain affiliates have been granted exemptive relief by the SEC to permit us to co-invest with other funds managed by our Adviser or its affiliates, including Owl Rock Capital Corporation II, in a manner consistent with our investment objective, positions, policies, strategies and restrictions as well as regulatory requirements and other pertinent factors. Pursuant to such exemptive relief, we generally are permitted to co-invest with certain of our affiliates if a “required majority” (as defined in Section 57(o) of the 1940 Act) of our independent directors make certain conclusions in connection with a co-investment transaction, including that (1) the terms of the
transactions, including the consideration to be paid, are reasonable and fair to us and our shareholders and do not involve overreaching by us or our shareholders on the part of any person concerned, (2) the transaction is consistent with the interests of our shareholders and is consistent with our investment objective and strategies, and (3) the investment by our affiliates would not disadvantage us, and our participation would not be on a basis different from or less advantageous than that on which our affiliates are investing. Our Adviser’s investment allocation policy incorporates the conditions of the exemptive relief. As a result of the exemptive relief, there could be significant overlap in our investment portfolio and the investment portfolio of Owl Rock Capital Corporation II and/or other funds established by the Adviser that could avail themselves of the exemptive relief.
On April 27, 2016, we formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, OR Lending LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, which holds a California finance lenders license and a Tennessee industrial loan and thrift certificate. On August 24, 2017, we formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, ORCC Financing LLC, a Delaware limited liability Company. On October 18, 2017, we formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, OR DH LLC, a Delaware limited liability company.
We have elected to be regulated as a BDC under the 1940 Act and as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) for tax purposes under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). As a result, we are required to comply with various statutory and regulatory requirements, such as:
•
the requirement to invest at least 70% of our assets in “qualifying assets”, as such term is defined in the 1940 Act;
•
source of income limitations;
•
asset diversification requirements; and
•
the requirement to distribute (or be treated as distributing) in each taxable year at least 90% of our investment company taxable income and tax-exempt interest for that taxable year.
In addition, we will not invest more than 20% of our total assets in companies whose principal place of business is outside the United States.
Our Investment Framework
We are a Maryland corporation organized primarily to originate and make loans to, and make debt and equity investments in, U.S. middle market companies. Our investment objective is to generate current income, and to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by targeting investment opportunities with favorable risk-adjusted returns. Since our Adviser began investment activities in April 2016 through December 31, 2017, our Adviser has originated $3.5 billion aggregate principal amount of investments, of which $2.9 billion of aggregate principal amount of investments prior to any subsequent exits or repayments, was retained by either us or Owl Rock Capital Corporation II, a BDC advised by our Adviser. In addition, since June 2016, we have originated $336.1 million of aggregate principal amount of investments prior to any subsequent exits or repayments, which was retained by Sebago Lake LLC (“Sebago Lake”). We seek to generate current income primarily in U.S. middle market companies through direct originations of senior secured loans or originations of unsecured loans, subordinated loans or mezzanine loans and, to a lesser extent, investments in equity-related securities including warrants, preferred stock and similar forms of senior equity.
We define “middle market companies” generally to mean companies with earnings before interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, or “EBITDA,” between $10 million and $250 million annually and/or annual revenue of $50 million to $2.5 billion at the time of investment, although we may on occasion invest in smaller or larger companies if an opportunity presents itself.
As of December 31, 2017, our average investment size in each of our portfolio companies was approximately $59.7 million based on fair value. As of December 31, 2017, our portfolio companies (excluding the investment in Sebago Lake) had weighted average annual revenue of $673 million and weighted average annual EBITDA of $90 million.
The companies in which we invest use our capital to support their growth, acquisitions, market or product expansion, refinancings and/or recapitalizations. The debt in which we invest typically is not rated by any rating agency, but if these instruments were rated, they would likely receive a rating of below investment grade (that is, below BBB- or Baa3), which is often referred to as “junk”.
Key Components of Our Results of Operations
Investments
We focus primarily on the direct origination of loans to middle market companies domiciled in the United States.
Our level of investment activity (both the number of investments and the size of each investment) can and will vary substantially from period to period depending on many factors, including the amount of debt and equity capital available to middle market companies, the level of merger and acquisition activity for such companies, the general economic environment and the competitive environment for the types of investments we make.
In addition, as part of our risk strategy on investments, we may reduce the levels of certain investments through partial sales or syndication to additional lenders.
Revenues
We generate revenues primarily in the form of interest income from the investments we hold. In addition, we may generate income from dividends on either direct equity investments or equity interests obtained in connection with originating loans, such as options, warrants or conversion rights. Our debt investments typically have a term of three to ten years. As of December 31, 2017, 98.4% of our debt investments based on fair value bear interest at a floating rate, subject to interest rate floors, in certain cases. Interest on our debt investments is generally payable either monthly or quarterly.
Our investment portfolio consists primarily of floating rate loans, and our credit facilities bear interest at floating rates. Macro trends in base interest rates like London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) may affect our net investment income over the long term. However, because we generally originate loans to a small number of portfolio companies each quarter, and those investments vary in size, our results in any given period, including the interest rate on investments that were sold or repaid in a period compared to the interest rate of new investments made during that period, often are idiosyncratic, and reflect the characteristics of the particular portfolio companies that we invested in or exited during the period and not necessarily any trends in our business or macro trends.
Loan origination fees, original issue discount and market discount or premium are capitalized, and we accrete or amortize such amounts as interest income using the effective yield method for term instruments and the straight-line method for revolving or delayed draw instruments. Repayments of our debt investments can reduce interest income from period to period. The frequency or volume of these repayments may fluctuate significantly. We record prepayment premiums on loans as interest income. We may also generate revenue in the form of commitment, loan origination, structuring, or due diligence fees, fees for providing managerial assistance to our portfolio companies and possibly consulting fees.
Dividend income on equity investments is recorded on the record date for private portfolio companies or on the ex-dividend date for publicly traded companies.
Our portfolio activity also reflects the proceeds from sales of investments. We recognize realized gains or losses on investments based on the difference between the net proceeds from the disposition and the amortized cost basis of the investment without regard to unrealized gains or losses previously recognized. We record current period changes in fair value of investments that are measured at fair value as a component of the net change in unrealized gains (losses) on investments in the consolidated statement of operations.
Expenses
Our primary operating expenses include the payment of the management fee and, in the event of the future quotation or listing of our securities on a national securities exchange, the incentive fee, and expenses reimbursable under the Administration Agreement and Investment Advisory Agreement. The management fee and incentive fee compensate our Adviser for work in identifying, evaluating, negotiating, closing, monitoring and realizing our investments.
Except as specifically provided below, all investment professionals and staff of the Adviser, when and to the extent engaged in providing investment advisory and management services to us, the base compensation, bonus and benefits, and the routine overhead expenses of such personnel allocable to such services, are provided and paid for by the Adviser. We bear our allocable portion of the compensation paid by the Adviser (or its affiliates) to our Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Financial Officer and their respective staffs (based on a percentage of time such individuals devote, on an estimated basis, to our business affairs). We bear all other costs and expenses of our operations, administration and transactions, including, but not limited to (i) investment advisory fees, including management fees and incentive fees, to the Adviser, pursuant to the Investment Advisory Agreement; (ii) our allocable portion of overhead and other expenses incurred by the Adviser in performing its administrative obligations under the Administration Agreement; and (iii) all other expenses of its operations and transactions including, without limitation, those relating to:
•
the cost of our organization and offerings;
•
the cost of calculating our net asset value, including the cost of any third-party valuation services;
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the cost of effecting any sales and repurchases of our common stock and other securities;
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fees and expenses payable under any dealer manager agreements, if any;
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debt service and other costs of borrowings or other financing arrangements;
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costs of hedging;
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expenses, including travel expense, incurred by the Adviser, or members of the investment team, or payable to third parties, performing due diligence on prospective portfolio companies and, if necessary, enforcing our rights;
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transfer agent and custodial fees;
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fees and expenses associated with marketing efforts;
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federal and state registration fees, any stock exchange listing fees and fees payable to rating agencies;
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federal, state and local taxes;
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independent directors’ fees and expenses including certain travel expenses;
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costs of preparing financial statements and maintaining books and records and filing reports or other documents with the SEC (or other regulatory bodies) and other reporting and compliance costs, including registration and listing fees, and the compensation of professionals responsible for the preparation of the foregoing;
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the costs of any reports, proxy statements or other notices to our shareholders (including printing and mailing costs), the costs of any shareholder or director meetings and the compensation of investor relations personnel responsible for the preparation of the foregoing and related matters;
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commissions and other compensation payable to brokers or dealers;
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research and market data;
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fidelity bond, directors’ and officers’ errors and omissions liability insurance and other insurance premiums;
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direct costs and expenses of administration, including printing, mailing, long distance telephone and staff;
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fees and expenses associated with independent audits, outside legal and consulting costs;
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costs of winding up;
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costs incurred in connection with the formation or maintenance of entities or vehicles to hold our assets for tax or other purposes;
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extraordinary expenses (such as litigation or indemnification); and
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costs associated with reporting and compliance obligations under the 1940 Act and applicable federal and state securities laws.
We expect, but cannot assure, that our general and administrative expenses will increase in dollar terms during periods of asset growth, but will decline as a percentage of total assets during such periods.
Leverage
The amount of leverage we use in any period depends on a variety of factors, including cash available for investing, the cost of financing and general economic and market conditions. However, our total borrowings are limited so that our asset coverage ratio cannot fall below 200%, as defined in the 1940 Act. In any period, our interest expense will depend largely on the extent of our borrowing and we expect interest expense will increase as we increase our leverage over time subject to the limits of the 1940 Act. In addition, we may dedicate assets to financing facilities.
Market Trends
We believe the middle-market lending environment provides opportunities for us to meet our goal of making investments that generate attractive risk-adjusted returns based on a combination of the following factors:
Limited Availability of Capital for Middle Market Companies. We believe that regulatory and structural changes in the market have reduced the amount of capital available to U.S. middle-market companies. In particular, we believe there are currently fewer traditional providers of capital to middle market companies. Traditional middle market lenders, such as commercial and regional banks and commercial finance companies, have contracted their origination and lending activities and are focusing on more liquid asset classes, or have exited the business altogether. We believe the Basel III accord, and implemented regulations by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have significantly increased capital and liquidity requirements for banks, decreasing their capacity to hold non-investment grade leveraged loans on their balance sheets. Coupled with new risk retention requirements for collateralized loan vehicles, we believe these developments reduce the capacity of traditional lenders to serve this market segment and, as a result, have restricted the access to capital and increased the cost of borrowing for U.S. middle market companies.
Capital Markets Have Been Unable to Fill the Void in U.S. Middle Market Finance Left by Banks. While underwritten bond and syndicated loan markets have been robust in recent years, middle market companies are less able to access these markets for reasons including the following:
High Yield Market - Middle market companies generally are not issuing debt in an amount large enough to be an attractively sized bond. High yield bonds are generally purchased by institutional investors who, among other things, are focused on the liquidity characteristics of the bond being issued. For example, mutual funds and exchange traded funds (“ETFs”) are significant buyers of underwritten bonds. However, mutual funds and ETFs generally require the ability to liquidate their investments quickly in order to
fund investor redemptions and/or comply with regulatory requirements. Accordingly, the existence of an active secondary market for bonds is an important consideration in these entities’ initial investment decision. Because there is typically little or no active secondary market for the debt of U.S. middle market companies, mutual funds and ETFs generally do not provide debt capital to U.S. middle market companies. We believe this is likely to be a persistent problem and creates an advantage for those like us who have a more stable capital base and have the ability to invest in illiquid assets.
Syndicated Loan Market - While the syndicated loan market is modestly more accommodating to middle market issuers, as with bonds, loan issue size and liquidity are key drivers of institutional appetite and, correspondingly, underwriters’ willingness to underwrite the loans. Loans arranged through a bank are done either on a “best efforts” basis or are underwritten with terms plus “flex” - a set of terms, coupon and fee cushion that underwriters have the right to impose on the loan as a means to help the loan clear the market in the event the terms initially marketed are insufficiently attractive to investors. Furthermore, banks are generally reluctant to underwrite middle market loans because the arrangement fees they may earn on the placement of the debt generally are not sufficient to meet the banks’ return hurdles. Loans provided by companies such as ours provide certainty to issuers in that we can commit to a given amount of debt on specific terms, at stated coupons and with agreed upon fees. As we are the ultimate holder of the loans, we do not require market “flex” or other arrangements that banks may require when acting on an agency basis.
Robust Demand for Debt Capital. We believe U.S. middle market companies will continue to require access to debt capital to refinance existing debt, support growth and finance acquisitions. In addition, we believe the large amount of uninvested capital held by funds of private equity firms, estimated by Preqin Ltd., an alternative assets industry data and research company, to be $954 billion as of September 30, 2017, will continue to drive deal activity. We expect that private equity sponsors will continue to pursue acquisitions and leverage their equity investments with secured loans provided by companies such as us.
The Middle Market is a Large Addressable Market. According to GE Capital’s National Center for the Middle Market 4th Quarter 2017 Middle Market Indicator, there are approximately 200,000 U.S. middle market companies, which have approximately 47.9 million aggregate employees. Moreover, the U.S. middle market accounts for one-third of private sector gross domestic product (“GDP”). GE defines U.S. middle market companies as those between $10 million and $1 billion in annual revenue, which we believe has significant overlap with our definition of U.S. middle market companies.
Attractive Investment Dynamics. An imbalance between the supply of, and demand for, middle market debt capital creates attractive pricing dynamics. We believe the directly negotiated nature of middle market financings also generally provides more favorable terms to the lender, including stronger covenant and reporting packages, better call protection, and lender-protective change of control provisions. Additionally, we believe BDC managers’ expertise in credit selection and ability to manage through credit cycles has generally resulted in BDCs experiencing lower loss rates than U.S. commercial banks through credit cycles. Further, we believe that historical middle market default rates have been lower, and recovery rates have been higher, as compared to the larger market capitalization, broadly distributed market, leading to lower cumulative losses.
Conservative Capital Structures. Following the credit crisis, which we define broadly as occurring between mid-2007 and mid-2009, lenders have generally required borrowers to maintain more equity as a percentage of their total capitalization, specifically to protect lenders during economic downturns. With more conservative capital structures, U.S. middle market companies have exhibited higher levels of cash flows available to service their debt. In addition, U.S. middle market companies often are characterized by simpler capital structures than larger borrowers, which facilitates a streamlined underwriting process and, when necessary, restructuring process.
Attractive Opportunities in Investments in Loans. We invest in senior secured or unsecured loans, subordinated loans or mezzanine loans and, to a lesser extent, equity-related securities. We believe that opportunities in senior secured loans are significant because of the floating rate structure of most senior secured debt issuances and because of the strong defensive characteristics of these types of investments. Given the current low interest rate environment, we believe that debt issues with floating interest rates offer a superior return profile as compared with fixed-rate investments, since floating rate structures are generally less susceptible to declines in value experienced by fixed-rate securities in a rising interest rate environment. Senior secured debt also provides strong defensive characteristics. Senior secured debt has priority in payment among an issuer’s security holders whereby holders are due to receive payment before junior creditors and equity holders. Further, these investments are secured by the issuer’s assets, which may provide protection in the event of a default.
Portfolio and Investment Activity
As of December 31, 2017, based on fair value, our debt portfolio consisted of 69.1% first lien senior secured debt investments, 28.0% second lien senior secured debt investments, 2.7% investment funds and vehicles, and 0.2% equity investments.
As of December 31, 2017, our weighted average total yield of the portfolio at fair value and amortized cost was 8.8% and 8.9%, respectively, and our weighted average yield of debt and income producing securities at fair value and amortized cost was 8.8% and 8.9%, respectively.
As of December 31, 2017 we had investments in 40 portfolio companies with an aggregate fair value of $2.4 billion.
Our investment activity for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 is presented below (information presented herein is at par value unless otherwise indicated).
________________
(1)
Number of new investment commitments represents commitments to a particular portfolio company.
As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, our investments consisted of the following:
________________
(1)
Includes investment in Sebago Lake.
The table below describes investments by industry composition based on fair value as of December 31, 2017 and 2016:
________________
(1)
Includes investment in Sebago Lake.
The table below describes investments by geographic composition based on fair value as of December 31, 2017 and 2016:
The weighted average yields and interest rate of our investments at fair value as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 were as follows:
The weighted average yield of our debt and income producing securities is not the same as a return on investment for our shareholders but, rather, relates to a portion of our investment portfolio and is calculated before the payment of all of our and our subsidiaries’ fees and expenses. The weighted average yield was computed using the effective interest rates as of each respective date, including accretion of original issue discount and loan origination fees, but excluding investments on non-accrual status, if any. There can be no assurance that the weighted average yield will remain at its current level.
Our Adviser monitors our portfolio companies on an ongoing basis. It monitors the financial trends of each portfolio company to determine if they are meeting their respective business plans and to assess the appropriate course of action with respect to each portfolio company. Our Adviser has several methods of evaluating and monitoring the performance and fair value of our investments, which may include the following:
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assessment of success of the portfolio company in adhering to its business plan and compliance with covenants;
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periodic and regular contact with portfolio company management and, if appropriate, the financial or strategic sponsor, to discuss financial position, requirements and accomplishments;
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comparisons to other companies in the portfolio company’s industry; and
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review of monthly or quarterly financial statements and financial projections for portfolio companies.
As part of the monitoring process, our Adviser employs an investment rating system to categorize our investments. In addition to various risk management and monitoring tools, our Adviser rates the credit risk of all investments on a scale of 1 to 5. This system is intended primarily to reflect the underlying risk of a portfolio investment relative to our initial cost basis in respect of such portfolio investment (i.e., at the time of origination or acquisition), although it may also take into account the performance of the portfolio company’s business, the collateral coverage of the investment and other relevant factors. The rating system is as follows:
Investment Rating
Description
Investments with a rating of 1 involve the least amount of risk to our initial cost basis. The borrower is performing above expectations, and the trends and risk factors for this investment since origination or acquisition are generally favorable;
Investments rated 2 involve an acceptable level of risk that is similar to the risk at the time of origination or acquisition. The borrower is generally performing as expected and the risk factors are neutral to favorable. All investments or acquired investments in new portfolio companies are initially assessed a rate of 2;
Investments rated 3 involve a borrower performing below expectations and indicates that the loan’s risk has increased somewhat since origination or acquisition;
Investments rated 4 involve a borrower performing materially below expectations and indicates that the loan’s risk has increased materially since origination or acquisition. In addition to the borrower being generally out of compliance with debt covenants, loan payments may be past due (but generally not more than 120 days past due); and
Investments rated 5 involve a borrower performing substantially below expectations and indicates that the loan’s risk has increased substantially since origination or acquisition. Most or all of the debt covenants are out of compliance and payments are substantially delinquent. Loans rated 5 are not anticipated to be repaid in full and we will reduce the fair market value of the loan to the amount we anticipate will be recovered.
Our Adviser rates the investments in our portfolio at least quarterly and it is possible that the rating of a portfolio investment may be reduced or increased over time. For investments rated 3, 4 or 5, our Adviser enhances its level of scrutiny over the monitoring of such portfolio company.
The following table shows the composition of our portfolio on the 1 to 5 rating scale as of December 31, 2017 and 2016:
The following table shows the amortized cost of our performing and non-accrual debt investments as of December 31, 2017 and 2016:
Loans are generally placed on non-accrual status when there is reasonable doubt that principal or interest will be collected in full. Accrued interest is generally reversed when a loan is placed on non-accrual status. Interest payments received on non-accrual loans may be recognized as income or applied to principal depending upon management’s judgment regarding collectability. Non-accrual loans are restored to accrual status when past due principal and interest is paid current and, in management’s judgment, are likely to remain current. Management may make exceptions to this treatment and determine to not place a loan on non-accrual status if the loan has sufficient collateral value and is in the process of collection.
Sebago Lake LLC
Sebago Lake, a Delaware limited liability company, was formed as a joint venture between us and The Regents of the University of California (“Regents”) and commenced operations on June 20, 2017. Sebago Lake’s principal purpose is to make investments, primarily in senior secured loans that are made to middle-market companies or in broadly syndicated loans. Both us and Regents (the “Members”) have a 50% economic ownership in Sebago Lake. It is anticipated that each of the Members will contribute up to $100 million to Sebago Lake. As of December 31, 2017, each Member has funded $65.0 million of their $100 million subscriptions. Sebago Lake is managed by the Members, each of which have equal voting rights. Investment decisions must be approved by each of the Members.
We have determined that Sebago Lake is an investment company under Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 946, however, in accordance with such guidance, we will generally not consolidate its investment in a company other than a wholly owned investment company subsidiary or a controlled operating company whose business consists of providing services to the Company. Accordingly, we do not consolidate our non-controlling interest in Sebago Lake.
During the period ended December 31, 2017, we sold our investment in three portfolio companies at fair value, as determined by an independent valuation firm, to Sebago Lake generating a realized gain of $0.5 million.
As of December 31, 2017, Sebago Lake had total investments in senior secured debt at fair value of $330.0 million. The determination of fair value is in accordance with ASC Topic 820; however, such fair value is not included in our Board’s valuation process. The following table is a summary of Sebago Lake’s portfolio as well as a listing of the portfolio investments in Sebago Lake’s portfolio as of December 31, 2017:
________________
(1)
At par.
________________
(1)
Certain portfolio company investments are subject to contractual restrictions on sales.
(2)
Unless otherwise indicated, Sebago Lake’s portfolio companies are pledged as collateral supporting the amounts outstanding under Sebago Lake’s credit facility.
(3)
The amortized cost represents the original cost adjusted for the amortization of discounts and premiums, as applicable, on debt investments using the effective interest method.
(4)
Unless otherwise indicated, all investments are considered Level 3 investments.
(5)
Unless otherwise indicated, loan contains a variable rate structure, and may be subject to an interest rate floor. Variable rate loans bear interest at a rate that may be determined by reference to either the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR” or “L”) (which can include one-, two-, three- or six-month LIBOR) or an alternate base rate (which can include the Federal Funds Effective Rate or the Prime Rate), at the borrower’s option, and which reset periodically based on the terms of the loan agreement.
(6)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 1 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.56%.
(7)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 3 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.69%.
(8)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 6 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.84%.
(9)
Position or portion thereof is an unfunded loan commitment.
(10)
The negative cost is the result of the capitalized discount being greater than the principal amount outstanding on the loan. The negative fair value is the result of the capitalized discount on the loan.
(11)
The date disclosed represents the commitment period of the unfunded term loan. Upon expiration of the commitment period, the funded portion of the term loan may be subject to a longer maturity date.
(12)
Investment is not pledged as collateral under Sebago Lake’s credit facility.
(13)
Level 2 investment.
Below is selected balance sheet information for Sebago Lake as of December 31, 2017:
Below is selected statement of operations information for Sebago Lake for the period ended December 31, 2017:
On August 9, 2017, Sebago Lake Financing LLC and SL Lending LLC, wholly-owned subsidiaries of Sebago Lake, entered into a credit facility with Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Goldman Sachs Bank USA serves as the sole lead arranger, syndication agent and administrative agent, and State Street Bank and Trust Company serves as the collateral administrator and agent. The credit facility includes a maximum borrowing capacity of $400 million. As of December 31, 2017, there was $205.7 million outstanding under the credit facility. For the period ended December 31, 2017, the components of interest expense were as follows:
________________
(1)
Averages reflect the period from August 9, 2017, the date of agreement, through December 31, 2017.
Loan Origination and Structuring Fees
If the loan origination and structuring fees earned by Sebago Lake during a fiscal period exceed Sebago Lake’s expenses and other obligations (excluding financing costs), such excess is allocated to the Member(s) responsible for the origination of the loans pro rata in accordance with the total loan origination and structuring fees earned by Sebago Lake with respect to the loans originated by such Member; provided, that in no event will the amount allocated to a Member exceed 1% of the par value of the loans originated by such Member in any fiscal year. The loan origination and structuring fee is accrued quarterly and included in other income from controlled, affiliated investments on our Consolidated Statements of Operations and paid annually. For the period ended December 31, 2017, we accrued and received income based on loan origination and structuring fees of $3.4 million.
Results of Operations
The following table represents the operating results for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016. We were initially capitalized on March 1, 2016 and commenced operations on March 3, 2016.
Net increase (decrease) in net assets resulting from operations can vary from period to period as a result of various factors, including the level of new investment commitments, expenses, the recognition of realized gains and losses and changes in unrealized appreciation and depreciation on the investment portfolio. Additionally, we were initially capitalized on March 1, 2016 and commenced investing activities in April 2016. As a result, comparisons may not be meaningful.
Investment Income
Investment income for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 were as follows:
Investment income increased to $159.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 from $28.8 million for the same period in prior year due to increase in interest income as a result of an increase in our investment portfolio, dividend income and other income earned during the year ended December 31, 2017.
Expenses
Expenses for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 were as follows:
Under the terms of the Administration Agreement, we reimburse the Adviser for services performed for us. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the Administration Agreement, the Adviser may delegate its obligations under the Administration Agreement to an affiliate or to a third party and we reimburse the Adviser for any services performed for us by such affiliate or third party.
Total expenses increased to $65.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 from $19.4 million for the same period in prior year due to an increase in management fees, interest expense and other expenses of $21.9 million, $21.8 million and $4.0 million, respectively, partially offset by initial organization expenses incurred during the year ended December 31, 2016 of $1.2 million.
Income Taxes, Including Excise Taxes
We have elected to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code, and we intend to operate in a manner so as to continue to qualify for the tax treatment applicable to RICs. To qualify for tax treatment as a RIC, we must, among other things, distribute to our shareholders in each taxable year generally at least 90% of our investment company taxable income, as defined by the Code, and net tax-exempt income for that taxable year. To maintain our tax treatment as a RIC, we, among other things, intend to make the requisite distributions to our shareholders, which generally relieves us from corporate-level U.S. federal income taxes.
Depending on the level of taxable income earned in a tax year, we can be expected to carry forward taxable income (including net capital gains, if any) in excess of current year dividend distributions from the current tax year into the next tax year and pay a nondeductible 4% U.S. federal excise tax on such taxable income, as required. To the extent that we determine that our estimated current year annual taxable income will be in excess of estimated current year dividend distributions from such income, we will accrue excise tax on estimated excess taxable income.
For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, we recorded expenses of $0.2 million and $0.4 million, respectively, for U.S. federal excise tax.
Net Unrealized Gains (Losses) on Investments
We fair value our portfolio investments quarterly and any changes in fair value are recorded as unrealized gains or losses. During the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, net unrealized gains (losses) on our investment portfolio were comprised of the following:
Net Realized Gains (Losses) on Investments
The realized gains and losses on fully exited and partially exited portfolio companies during the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 were comprised of the following:
A portion of the realized gains and losses during the year ended December 31, 2017 is the result of our sale of three investments to Sebago Lake.
Realized Gross Internal Rate of Return
Since we began investing in 2016 through December 31, 2017, weighted by capital invested, our exited investments have generated an average realized gross internal rate of return to us of 11.6% (based on total capital invested of $311.5 million and total proceeds from these exited investments of $344.1 million). Eighty-six percent of these exited investments resulted in a realized gross internal rate of return (“IRR”) to us of 10% or greater.
IRR, is a measure of our discounted cash flows (inflows and outflows). Specifically, IRR is the discount rate at which the net present value of all cash flows is equal to zero. That is, IRR is the discount rate at which the present value of total capital invested in each of our investments is equal to the present value of all realized returns from that investment. Our IRR calculations are unaudited.
Capital invested, with respect to an investment, represents the aggregate cost basis allocable to the realized or unrealized portion of the investment, net of any upfront fees paid at closing for the term loan portion of the investment.
Realized returns, with respect to an investment, represents the total cash received with respect to each investment, including all amortization payments, interest, dividends, prepayment fees, upfront fees (except upfront fees paid at closing for the term loan portion of an investment), administrative fees, agent fees, amendment fees, accrued interest, and other fees and proceeds.
Gross IRR, with respect to an investment, is calculated based on the dates that we invested capital and dates we received distributions, regardless of when we made distributions to our shareholders. Initial investments are assumed to occur at time zero.
Average gross IRR is the average of the gross IRR for each of our exited investments (each calculated as described above), weighted by the total capital invested for each of those investments.
Gross IRR reflects historical results relating to our past performance and is not necessarily indicative of our future results. In addition, gross IRR does not reflect the effect of management fees, expenses, incentive fees or taxes borne, or to be borne, by us or our shareholders, and would be lower if it did.
Average gross IRR on our exited investments reflects only invested and realized cash amounts as described above, and does not reflect any unrealized gains or losses in our portfolio.
Financial Condition, Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our liquidity and capital resources are generated primarily from the proceeds of capital drawdowns of our privately placed Capital Commitments, cash flows from interest, dividends and fees earned from our investments and principal repayments, our credit facilities and the issuance of the 2023 Notes. The primary uses of our cash is for (i) investments in portfolio companies and other investments and to comply with certain portfolio diversification requirements, (ii) the cost of operations (including paying our Adviser), (iii) debt service, repayment and other financing costs of any borrowings and (iv) cash distributions to the holders of our shares.
We may from time to time enter into additional debt facilities, increase the size of our existing credit facilities or issue additional debt securities. Any such incurrence or issuance would be subject to prevailing market conditions, our liquidity requirements, contractual and regulatory restrictions and other factors. In accordance with the 1940 Act, with certain limited exceptions, we are only allowed to incur borrowings, issue debt securities or issue preferred stock, if immediately after the borrowing or issuance, the ratio of total assets (less total liabilities other than indebtedness) to total indebtedness plus preferred stock, is at least 200%. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, our asset coverage ratio was 258% and 237%, respectively. We seek to carefully consider our unfunded commitments for the purpose of planning our ongoing financial leverage. Further, we maintain sufficient borrowing capacity within the 200% asset coverage limitation to cover any outstanding unfunded commitments we are required to fund.
Cash and restricted cash as of December 31, 2017, taken together with our uncalled Capital Commitments of $3.7 billion, is expected to be sufficient for our investing activities and to conduct our operations in the near term. As of December 31, 2017, we had $914.2 million available under our credit facilities.
As of December 31, 2017, we had $20.1 million in cash and restricted cash. During the year ended December 31, 2017, we used $1,334.7 million in cash for operating activities, primarily as a result of funding portfolio investments of $1,944.6 million, partially offset by sell downs of $542.8 million and other operating activity of $67.1 million. Lastly, cash provided by financing activities was $1,145.4 million during the period, which was the result of proceeds from net borrowings on our credit facilities, net of debt issuance costs, of $424.9 million and proceeds from the issuance of shares, net of offering costs paid, of $748.6 million, partially offset by distributions paid of $28.1 million.
As of December 31, 2016, we had $209.4 million in cash. During the year ended December 31, 2016, we used $945.0 million in cash for operating activities, primarily as a result of funding portfolio investments of $1,117.4 million, partially offset by sell downs and paydowns of $158.5 million and other operating activity of $13.9 million. Lastly, cash provided by financing activities was $1,154.4 million during the period, which was the result of proceeds from net borrowings on our credit facilities, net of debt issuance costs, of $491.5 million and proceeds from the issuance of shares, net of offering costs paid, of $664.3 million, partially offset by distributions paid of $1.4 million.
Equity
Subscriptions and Drawdowns
In connection with our formation, we have the authority to issue 500,000,000 common shares at $0.01 per share par value.
On March 1, 2016, we issued 100 common shares for $1,500 to the Adviser.
We have entered into subscription agreements (the “Subscription Agreements”) with investors providing for the private placement of our common shares. Under the terms of the Subscription Agreements, investors are required to fund drawdowns to purchase our common shares up to the amount of their respective Capital Commitment on an as-needed basis each time we deliver a drawdown notice to our investors.
During the year ended December 31, 2017, we delivered the following capital call notices to our investors:
During the year ended December 31, 2016, we delivered the following capital call notices to our investors:
Distributions
The following table reflects the distributions declared on shares of our common stock during the year ended December 31, 2017:
The following table reflects the distribution declared on shares of our common stock during the year ended December 31, 2016:
On March 2, 2018, our Board declared a distribution of 90% of our estimated first quarter taxable income for shareholders of record on March 31, 2018, payable on April 30, 2018.
Dividend Reinvestment
With respect to distributions, we have adopted an “opt out” dividend reinvestment plan for common shareholders. As a result, in the event of a declared distribution, each shareholder that has not “opted out” of the dividend reinvestment plan will have their dividends or distributions automatically reinvested in additional shares of our common stock rather than receiving cash distributions. Shareholders who receive distributions in the form of shares of common stock will be subject to the same U.S. federal, state and local tax consequences as if they received cash distributions.
The following table reflects the common stock issued pursuant to the dividend reinvestment plan during year ended December 31, 2017:
The following table reflects the common stock issued pursuant to the dividend reinvestment plan during the year ended December 31, 2016:
Repurchase Offers
On March 15, 2017, we offered to repurchase up to $50 million of issued and outstanding shares of common stock at a purchase price of $15.09 per share. The offer to repurchase expired on April 11, 2017 and no shares were repurchased. We will not affect any other repurchase prior to the earlier of (i) an Exchange Listing and (ii) such time as all of the Capital Commitments have been fully drawn down.
Debt
Aggregate Borrowings
Debt obligations consisted of the following as of December 31, 2017 and 2016:
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(1)
The amount available reflects any limitations related to each credit facility’s borrowing base.
(2)
The carrying value of the Company’s Subscription Credit Facility, Revolving Credit Facility, SPV Asset Facility and the 2023 Notes are presented net of deferred financing costs of $3.1 million, $3.0 million, $4.6 million, and $1.9 million respectively.
(3)
The amount available is reduced by $3.8 million of outstanding letters of credit.
(4)
Amounts available were issued on January 30, 2018.
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(1)
The amount available reflects any limitations related to each credit facility’s borrowing base.
(2)
The carrying value of our Subscription Credit Facility is presented net of deferred financing costs of $3.1 million.
For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, the components of interest expense were as follows:
Subscription Credit Facility
On August 1, 2016, we entered into a subscription credit facility (the “Original Subscription Credit Facility”) with Wells Fargo Bank, National Association (“Wells Fargo”), as administrative agent (the “Subscription Credit Facility Administrative Agent”) and letter of credit issuer, and Wells Fargo, State Street Bank and Trust Company and the banks and financial institutions from time to time party thereto, as lenders.
The Original Subscription Credit Facility permitted us to borrow up to $250 million, subject to availability under the “Borrowing Base”. The Borrowing Base is calculated based on the unused Capital Commitments of the investors meeting various eligibility requirements above certain concentration limits based on investors’ credit ratings. The Original Subscription Credit Facility also included a provision permitting us to increase the size of the facility on or before August 1, 2017 up to a maximum principal amount not exceeding $500 million, subject to customary conditions, and included a further provision permitting us to increase the size of the facility under certain circumstances up to a maximum principal amount not exceeding $750 million, if the existing or new lenders agreed to commit to such further increase.
On September 14, 2016 we increased the size of the facility to a total of $300 million. On September 26, 2016 we increased the size of the facility to a total of $500 million. On January 4, 2017, we increased the size of the facility to a total of $575 million. On March 13, 2017, we increased the size of the facility to a total of $700 million.
On November 2, 2017, we amended the Original Subscription Credit Facility pursuant to a first amendment to revolving credit agreement (the “First Amendment” and the Original Subscription Credit Facility, as amended, the “Subscription Credit Facility”), which, among other things: (i) increased the size of the facility to a total of $750 million and (ii) amended the accordion feature to permit the Company to increase the commitments under the Subscription Credit Facility under certain circumstances up to a maximum principal amount of $900 million, if the existing or new lenders agreed to commit to such further increase. On November 2, 2017, we temporarily increased the size of the facility to $850 million. On December 1, 2017, we increased the size of the Subscription Credit Facility to a total of $900 million.
Borrowings under the Subscription Credit Facility bear interest, at our election at the time of drawdown, at a rate per annum equal to (i) in the case of LIBOR rate loans, an adjusted LIBOR rate for the applicable interest period plus 1.60% or (ii) in the case of reference rate loans, the greatest of (A) a prime rate plus 0.60%, (B) the federal funds rate plus 1.10%, and (C) one-month LIBOR plus 1.60%. Loans may be converted from one rate to another at any time at our election, subject to certain conditions. We also will pay an unused commitment fee of 0.25% per annum on the unused commitments.
The Subscription Credit Facility will mature upon the earliest of (i) the date three (3) years from August 1, 2016; (ii) the date upon which the Subscription Credit Facility Administrative Agent declares the obligations under the Subscription Credit Facility due and payable after the occurrence of an event of default; (iii) forty-five (45) days prior to the scheduled termination of the commitment period under our Subscription Agreements (as defined below); (iv) forty-five (45) days prior to the date of any listing of our common stock on a national securities exchange; (v) the termination of the commitment period under our Subscription Agreements (if earlier than the scheduled date); and (vi) the date we terminate the commitments pursuant to the Subscription Credit Facility.
The Subscription Credit Facility is secured by a perfected first priority security interest in our right, title, and interest in and to the capital commitments of our private investors. including our right to make capital calls, receive and apply capital contributions, enforce remedies and claims related thereto together with capital call proceeds and related rights, and a pledge of the collateral account into which capital call proceeds are deposited.
The Subscription Credit Facility contains customary covenants, including certain limitations on the incurrence by us of additional indebtedness and on our ability to make distributions to our shareholders, or redeem, repurchase or retire shares of stock, upon the occurrence of certain events, and customary events of default (with customary cure and notice provisions).
Transfers of interests in the Company by investors must comply with certain sections of the Subscription Credit Facility and we shall notify the Administrative Agent before such transfers take place. Such transfers may trigger mandatory prepayment obligations.
Revolving Credit Facility
On February 1, 2017, we entered into a senior secured revolving credit agreement (the “Revolving Credit Facility”). The parties to the Revolving Credit Facility include us, as Borrower, the lenders from time to time parties thereto (each a “Revolving Credit Facility Lender” and collectively, the “Revolving Credit Facility Lenders”) and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated as Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Book Runners, SunTrust Bank as administrative agent (“Revolving Credit Facility Administrative Agent”) and Bank of America, N.A. as Syndication Agent.
The Revolving Credit Facility is guaranteed by OR Lending LLC, one of our subsidiaries, and will be guaranteed by certain of our domestic subsidiaries that are formed or acquired by us in the future (collectively, the “Guarantors”). Proceeds of the Revolving Credit Facility may be used for general corporate purposes, including the funding of portfolio investments.
The maximum principal amount of the Revolving Credit Facility is $400 million, subject to availability under the borrowing base, which is based on our portfolio investments and other outstanding indebtedness. Maximum capacity under the Revolving Credit Facility may be increased to $750 million through the exercise by the Borrower of an uncommitted accordion feature through which existing and new lenders may, at their option, agree to provide additional financing. The Revolving Credit Facility includes a $50 million limit for swingline loans and is secured by a perfected first-priority interest in substantially all of the portfolio investments held by us and each Guarantor, subject to certain exceptions.
The availability period under the Revolving Credit Facility will terminate on January 31, 2020 (“Revolving Credit Facility Commitment Termination Date”) and the Revolving Credit Facility will mature on February 1, 2021 (“Revolving Credit Facility Maturity Date”). During the period from the Revolving Credit Facility Commitment Termination Date to the Revolving Credit Facility Maturity Date, we will be obligated to make mandatory prepayments under the Revolving Credit Facility out of the proceeds of certain asset sales and other recovery events and equity and debt issuances.
We may borrow amounts in U.S. dollars or certain other permitted currencies. Amounts drawn under the Revolving Credit Facility will bear interest at either LIBOR plus 2.25%, or the prime rate plus 1.25%. We may elect either the LIBOR or prime rate at the time of drawdown, and loans may be converted from one rate to another at any time at our option, subject to certain conditions. We will also pay a fee of 0.375% on undrawn amounts under the Revolving Credit Facility.
The Revolving Credit Facility includes customary covenants, including certain limitations on the incurrence by us of additional indebtedness and on our ability to make distributions to our shareholders, or redeem, repurchase or retire shares of stock, upon the occurrence of certain events and certain financial covenants related to asset coverage and liquidity and other maintenance covenants, as well as customary events of default.
SPV Asset Facility
On December 21, 2017 (the “SPV Asset Facility Closing Date”), ORCC Financing LLC (“ORCC Financing”), a Delaware limited liability company and newly formed subsidiary of the Company, entered into a Loan and Servicing Agreement (the “SPV Asset Facility”), with ORCC Financing as Borrower, us as Transferor and Servicer, the lenders from time to time parties thereto (the “SPV Asset Facility Lenders”), Morgan Stanley Asset Funding Inc. as administrative agent (“SPV Asset Facility Administrative Agent”), State Street Bank and Trust Company as Collateral Agent and Cortland Capital Market Services LLC as Collateral Custodian.
From time to time, we expect to sell and contribute certain investments to ORCC Financing pursuant to a Sale and Contribution Agreement by and between us and ORCC Financing. No gain or loss will be recognized as a result of the contribution. Proceeds from the SPV Asset Facility will be used to finance the origination and acquisition of eligible assets by ORCC Financing, including the purchase of such assets from us. We retain a residual interest in assets contributed to or acquired by ORCC Financing through our ownership of ORCC Financing. The maximum principal amount of the SPV Asset Facility is $400 million; the availability of this amount is subject to a borrowing base test, which is based on the value of ORCC Financing’s assets from time to time, and satisfaction of certain conditions, including certain concentration limits.
The SPV Asset Facility provides for the ability to draw and redraw amounts under the SPV Asset Facility for a period of up to three years after the SPV Asset Facility Closing Date (the “SPV Asset Facility Commitment Termination Date”). Unless otherwise terminated, the SPV Asset Facility will mature on December 21, 2022 (the “SPV Asset Facility Maturity Date”). Prior to the SPV Asset Facility Maturity Date, proceeds received by ORCC Financing from principal and interest, dividends, or fees on assets must be used to pay fees, expenses and interest on outstanding borrowings, and the excess may be returned to the Company, subject to certain conditions. On the SPV Asset Facility Maturity Date, ORCC Financing must pay in full all outstanding fees and expenses and all principal and interest on outstanding borrowings, and the excess may be returned to us.
Amounts drawn will bear interest at LIBOR plus a spread of 2.25% until the six-month anniversary of the SPV Asset Facility Closing Date, increasing to 2.50% thereafter, until the Commitment Termination Date. After the SPV Asset Facility Commitment Termination Date, amounts drawn will bear interest at LIBOR plus a spread of 2.75%, increasing to 3.00% on the first anniversary of the SPV Asset Facility Commitment Termination Date. After a ramp-up period, there is an unused fee of 0.75% per annum on the amount, if any, by which the undrawn amount under the SPV Asset Facility exceeds 25% of the maximum principal amount of the SPV Asset Facility. The SPV Asset Facility contains customary covenants, including certain financial maintenance covenants, limitations on the activities of ORCC Financing, including limitations on incurrence of incremental indebtedness, and customary events of default. The SPV Asset Facility is secured by a perfected first priority security interest in the assets of ORCC Financing and on any payments received by ORCC Financing in respect of those assets. Assets pledged to the Lenders will not be available to pay our debts. Borrowings of ORCC Financing are considered our borrowings for purposes of complying with the asset coverage requirements under the 1940 Act.
Unsecured Notes
2023 Notes
On December 21, 2017, we entered into a Note Purchase Agreement governing the issuance of $150 million in aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes (the “2023 Notes”) to institutional investors in a private placement. The issuance of $138.5 million of the 2023 Notes occurred on December 21, 2017, and $11.5 million of the 2023 Notes were issued in January 2018. The 2023 Notes have a fixed interest rate of 4.75% and are due on June 21, 2023. Interest on the 2023 Notes will be due semiannually. This interest rate is subject to increase (up to a maximum interest rate of 5.50%) in the event that, subject to certain exceptions, the 2023 Notes cease to have an investment grade rating. We are obligated to offer to repay the 2023 Notes at par if certain change in control events occur. The 2023 Notes are general unsecured obligations of us that rank pari passu with all outstanding and future unsecured unsubordinated indebtedness issued by us.
The Note Purchase Agreement for the 2023 Notes contains customary terms and conditions for senior unsecured notes issued in a private placement, including, without limitation, affirmative and negative covenants such as information reporting, maintenance of our status as a BDC within the meaning of the 1940 Act and a RIC under the Code, minimum shareholders equity, minimum asset coverage ratio and prohibitions on certain fundamental changes at us or any subsidiary guarantor, as well as customary events of default with customary cure and notice, including, without limitation, nonpayment, misrepresentation in a material respect, breach of covenant, cross-default under other indebtedness of us or certain significant subsidiaries, certain judgments and orders, and certain events of bankruptcy.
The 2023 Notes were offered in reliance on Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. The 2023 Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws and, unless so registered, may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act as applicable.
In connection with the offering of the 2023 Notes, on December 21, 2017 we entered into an interest rate swap to continue to align the interest rates of our liabilities with our investment portfolio, which consists predominately of floating rate loans. The notional amount of the interest rate swap is $150 million. We will receive fixed rate interest at 4.75% and pay variable rate interest based on the 1-month LIBOR plus 2.545%. The interest rate swap matures on December 21, 2021. Pursuant to ASC 815 Derivatives and Hedging, the interest expense related to the 2023 Notes is offset by proceeds received from the interest rate swap. The swap adjusted interest expense is included as a component of interest expense in our Consolidated Statements of Operations.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
Portfolio Company Commitments
From time to time, we may enter into commitments to fund investments. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, we had the following outstanding commitments to fund investments in current portfolio companies:
We maintain sufficient capacity to cover outstanding unfunded portfolio company commitments that we may be required to fund. We seek to carefully consider our unfunded portfolio company commitments for the purpose of planning our ongoing financial leverage. Further, we maintain sufficient borrowing capacity within the 200% asset coverage limitation to cover any outstanding portfolio company unfunded commitments we are required to fund.
Other Commitments and Contingencies
As of December 31, 2017, we had $5.1 billion in total Capital Commitments from investors ($3.7 billion undrawn), of which $112.4 million is from executives of our Adviser ($63.5 million undrawn). These undrawn Capital Commitments will no longer remain in effect following the completion of an initial public offering of the Company’s common stock. Subsequent to December 31,
2017, we entered into $0.4 billion of Subscription Agreements with investors, which increased total Capital Commitments to $5.5 billion ($4.2 billion undrawn).
As of December 31, 2016, we had $2.3 billion in total Capital Commitments from investors ($1.6 billion undrawn), of which $112.4 million is from executives of the Adviser ($63.8 million undrawn). These undrawn Capital Commitments will no longer remain in effect following the completion of an initial public offering of the Company’s common stock.
From time to time, the Company may become a party to certain legal proceedings incidental to the normal course of its business. At December 31, 2017, management is not aware of any pending or threatened litigation.
2023 Notes
As of December 31, 2017, $11.5 million of the 2023 Notes remained outstanding.
Contractual Obligations
A summary of our contractual payment obligations under our credit facilities as of December 31, 2017, is as follows:
Related-Party Transactions
We have entered into a number of business relationships with affiliated or related parties, including the following:
•
the Investment Advisory Agreement;
•
the Administration Agreement; and
•
the License Agreement.
In addition to the aforementioned agreements, we, our Adviser and certain of our Adviser’s affiliates have been granted exemptive relief by the SEC to co-invest with other funds managed by our Adviser or its affiliates, including Owl Rock Capital Corporation II, in a manner consistent with our investment objective, positions, policies, strategies and restrictions as well as regulatory requirements and other pertinent factors. See “ITEM 8. - Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements - Note 3. Agreements and Related Party Transactions” for further details.
We invest together with Regents through Sebago Lake, a controlled affiliated investment as defined in the 1940 Act. See “ITEM 8. - Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements - Note 4. Investments - Sebago Lake LLC” for further details.
Critical Accounting Policies
The preparation of the consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses. Changes in the economic environment, financial markets, and any other parameters used in determining such estimates could cause actual results to differ. Our critical accounting policies should be read in connection with our risk factors as described in “ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.”
Investments at Fair Value
Investment transactions are recorded on the trade date. Realized gains or losses are measured by the difference between the net proceeds received (excluding prepayment fees, if any) and the amortized cost basis of the investment using the specific identification method without regard to unrealized gains or losses previously recognized, and include investments charged off during the period, net of recoveries. The net change in unrealized gains or losses primarily reflects the change in investment values, including the reversal of previously recorded unrealized gains or losses with respect to investments realized during the period.
Investments for which market quotations are readily available are typically valued at the bid price of those market quotations. To validate market quotations, we utilize a number of factors to determine if the quotations are representative of fair value, including the source and number of the quotations. Debt and equity securities that are not publicly traded or whose market prices are not readily
available, as is the case for substantially all of our investments, are valued at fair value as determined in good faith by our Board, based on, among other things, the input of the Adviser, our audit committee and independent third-party valuation firm(s) engaged at the direction of the Board.
As part of the valuation process, the Board takes into account relevant factors in determining the fair value of our investments, including: the estimated enterprise value of a portfolio company (i.e., the total fair value of the portfolio company’s debt and equity), the nature and realizable value of any collateral, the portfolio company’s ability to make payments based on its earnings and cash flow, the markets in which the portfolio company does business, a comparison of the portfolio company’s securities to any similar publicly traded securities, and overall changes in the interest rate environment and the credit markets that may affect the price at which similar investments may be made in the future. When an external event such as a purchase transaction, public offering or subsequent equity sale occurs, the Board considers whether the pricing indicated by the external event corroborates its valuation.
The Board undertakes a multi-step valuation process, which includes, among other procedures, the following:
•
With respect to investments for which market quotations are readily available, those investments will typically be valued at the bid price of those market quotations;
•
With respect to investment for which market quotations are not readily available, the valuation process begins with the independent valuation firm(s) providing a preliminary valuation of each investment to the Adviser’s valuation committee;
•
Preliminary valuation conclusions are documented and discussed with the Adviser’s valuation committee. Agreed upon valuation recommendations are presented to the Audit Committee;
•
The Audit Committee reviews the valuations recommendations and recommends values for each investment to the Board; and
•
The Board reviews the recommended valuations and determines the fair value of each investment.
We conduct this valuation process on a quarterly basis.
We apply Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification 820, Fair Value Measurements (“ASC 820”), as amended, which establishes a framework for measuring fair value in accordance with U.S. GAAP and required disclosures of fair value measurements. ASC 820 determines fair value to be the price that would be received for an investment in a current sale, which assumes an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. Market participants are defined as buyers and sellers in the principal or most advantageous market (which may be a hypothetical market) that are independent, knowledgeable, and willing and able to transact. In accordance with ASC 820, we consider its principal market to be the market that has the greatest volume and level of activity. ASC 820 specifies a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes and ranks the level of observability of inputs used in determination of fair value. In accordance with ASC 820, these levels are summarized below:
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Level 1 - Valuations based on quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that we have the ability to access.
•
Level 2 - Valuations based on quoted prices in markets that are not active or for which all significant inputs are observable, either directly or indirectly.
•
Level 3 - Valuations based on inputs that are unobservable and significant to the overall fair value measurement.
Transfers between levels, if any, are recognized at the beginning of the quarter in which the transfer occurred. In addition to using the above inputs in investment valuations, we apply the valuation policy approved by our Board that is consistent with ASC 820. Consistent with the valuation policy, we evaluate the source of the inputs, including any markets in which our investments are trading (or any markets in which securities with similar attributes are trading), in determining fair value. When an investment is valued based on prices provided by reputable dealers or pricing services (that is, broker quotes), we subject those prices to various criteria in making the determination as to whether a particular investment would qualify for treatment as a Level 2 or Level 3 investment. For example, we, or the independent valuation firm(s), review pricing support provided by dealers or pricing services in order to determine if observable market information is being used, versus unobservable inputs.
Due to the inherent uncertainty of determining the fair value of investments that do not have a readily available market value, the fair value of our investments may fluctuate from period to period. Additionally, the fair value of such investments may differ significantly from the values that would have been used had a ready market existed for such investments and may differ materially from the values that may ultimately be realized. Further, such investments are generally less liquid than publicly traded securities and may be subject to contractual and other restrictions on resale. If we were required to liquidate a portfolio investment in a forced or liquidation sale, it could realize amounts that are different from the amounts presented and such differences could be material.
In addition, changes in the market environment and other events that may occur over the life of the investments may cause the gains or losses ultimately realized on these investments to be different than the unrealized gains or losses reflected herein.
Interest and Dividend Income Recognition
Interest income is recorded on the accrual basis and includes amortization of discounts or premiums. Discounts and premiums to par value on securities purchased are amortized into interest income over the contractual life of the respective security using the effective yield method. The amortized cost of investments represents the original cost adjusted for the amortization of discounts or premiums, if any. Upon prepayment of a loan or debt security, any prepayment premiums, unamortized upfront loan origination fees and unamortized discounts are recorded as interest income in the current period.
Loans are generally placed on non-accrual status when there is reasonable doubt that principal or interest will be collected in full. Accrued interest is generally reversed when a loan is placed on non-accrual status. Interest payments received on non-accrual loans may be recognized as income or applied to principal depending upon management’s judgment regarding collectability. Non-accrual loans are restored to accrual status when past due principal and interest is paid current and, in management’s judgment, are likely to remain current. Management may make exceptions to this treatment and determine to not place a loan on non-accrual status if the loan has sufficient collateral value and is in the process of collection.
Dividend income on preferred equity securities is recorded on the accrual basis to the extent that such amounts are payable by the portfolio company and are expected to be collected. Dividend income on common equity securities is recorded on the record date for private portfolio companies or on the ex-dividend date for publicly-traded portfolio companies.
Distributions
We have elected to be treated for U.S. federal income tax purposes, and qualify annually thereafter, as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. To obtain and maintain our tax treatment as a RIC, we must distribute (or be deemed to distribute) in each taxable year distribution for tax purposes equal to at least 90 percent of the sum of our:
•
investment company taxable income (which is generally our ordinary income plus the excess of realized short-term capital gains over realized net long-term capital losses), determined without regard to the deduction for dividends paid, for such taxable year; and
•
net tax-exempt interest income (which is the excess of our gross tax-exempt interest income over certain disallowed deductions) for such taxable year.
As a RIC, we (but not our shareholders) generally will not be subject to U.S. federal tax on investment company taxable income and net capital gains that we distribute to our shareholders.
We intend to distribute annually all or substantially all of such income. To the extent that we retain our net capital gains or any investment company taxable income, we generally will be subject to corporate-level U.S. federal income tax. We can be expected to carry forward our net capital gains or any investment company taxable income in excess of current year dividend distributions, and pay the U.S. federal excise tax as described below.
Amounts not distributed on a timely basis in accordance with a calendar year distribution requirement are subject to a nondeductible 4% U.S. federal excise tax payable by us. We may be subject to a nondeductible 4% U.S. federal excise tax if we do not distribute (or are treated as distributing) during each calendar year an amount at least equal to the sum of:
•
98% of our net ordinary income excluding certain ordinary gains or losses for that calendar year;
•
98.2% of our capital gain net income, adjusted for certain ordinary gains and losses, recognized for the twelve-month period ending on October 31 of that calendar year; and
•
100% of any income or gains recognized, but not distributed, in preceding years.
While we intend to distribute any income and capital gains in the manner necessary to minimize imposition of the 4% U.S. federal excise tax, sufficient amounts of our taxable income and capital gains may not be distributed and as a result, in such cases, the excise tax will be imposed. In such an event, we will be liable for this tax only on the amount by which we do not meet the foregoing distribution requirement.
We intend to pay quarterly distributions to our shareholders out of assets legally available for distribution. All distributions will be paid at the discretion of our Board and will depend on our earnings, financial condition, maintenance of our tax treatment as a RIC, compliance with applicable BDC regulations and such other factors as our Board may deem relevant from time to time.
To the extent our current taxable earnings for a year fall below the total amount of our distributions for that year, a portion of those distributions may be deemed a return of capital to our shareholders for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Thus, the source of a distribution to our shareholders may be the original capital invested by the shareholder rather than our income or gains. Shareholders should read written disclosure carefully and should not assume that the source of any distribution is our ordinary income or gains.
We have adopted an “opt out” dividend reinvestment plan for our common shareholders. As a result, if we declare a cash dividend or other distribution, each shareholder that has not “opted out” of our dividend reinvestment plan will have their dividends or distributions automatically reinvested in additional shares of our common stock rather than receiving cash distributions. Shareholders who receive distributions in the form of shares of common stock will be subject to the same U.S. federal, state and local tax consequences as if they received cash distributions.
Income Taxes
We have elected to be treated as a BDC under the 1940 Act. We have also elected to be treated as a RIC under the Code beginning with the taxable year ending December 31, 2016. So long as we maintain our tax treatment as a RIC, we generally will not pay corporate-level U.S. federal income taxes on any ordinary income or capital gains that we distribute at least annually to our shareholders as distributions. Rather, any tax liability related to income earned and distributed by us represents obligations of our investors and will not be reflected in our consolidated financial statements.
We evaluate tax positions taken or expected to be taken in the course of preparing our consolidated financial statements to determine whether the tax positions are “more-likely-than-not” to be sustained by the applicable tax authority. Tax positions not deemed to meet the “more-likely-than-not” threshold are reserved and recorded as a tax benefit or expense in the current year. All penalties and interest associated with income taxes are included in income tax expense. Conclusions regarding tax positions are subject to review and may be adjusted at a later date based on factors including, but not limited to, on-going analyses of tax laws, regulations and interpretations thereof. There were no material uncertain income tax positions through December 31, 2017. The 2015 and 2016 tax years remain subject to examination by U.S. federal, state and local tax authorities.
To qualify as a RIC, we must, among other things, meet certain source-of-income and asset diversification requirements. In addition, to qualify for RIC tax treatment, we must distribute to our shareholders, for each taxable year, at least 90% of our “investment company taxable income” for that year, which is generally our ordinary income plus the excess of our realized net short-term capital gains over our realized net long-term capital losses. In order for us to not be subject to U.S. federal excise taxes, we must distribute annually an amount at least equal to the sum of (i) 98% of its net ordinary income (taking into account certain deferrals and elections) for the calendar year, (ii) 98.2% of its capital gains in excess of capital losses for the one-year period ending on October 31 of the calendar year and (iii) any net ordinary income and capital gains in excess of capital losses for preceding years that were not distributed during such years. We, at our discretion, may carry forward taxable income in excess of calendar year dividends and pay a 4% nondeductible U.S. excise tax on this income.
Item 7A.
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
We are subject to financial market risks, including valuation risk and interest rate risk.
Valuation Risk
We have invested, and plan to continue to invest, primarily in illiquid debt and equity securities of private companies. Most of our investments will not have a readily available market price, and we value these investments at fair value as determined in good faith by our Board, based on, among other things, the input of the Adviser, our Audit Committee and independent third-party valuation firm(s) engaged at the direction of the Board, and in accordance with our valuation policy. There is no single standard for determining fair value. As a result, determining fair value requires that judgment be applied to the specific facts and circumstances of each portfolio investment while employing a consistently applied valuation process for the types of investments we make. If we were required to liquidate a portfolio investment in a forced or liquidation sale, we may realize amounts that are different from the amounts presented and such differences could be material.
Interest Rate Risk
Interest rate sensitivity refers to the change in earnings that may result from changes in the level of interest rates. We intend to fund portions of our investments with borrowings, and at such time, our net investment income will be affected by the difference between the rate at which we invest and the rate at which we borrow. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that a significant change in market interest rates will not have a material adverse effect on our net investment income.
As of December 31, 2017, 98.4% of the debt investments based on fair value in our portfolio were at floating rates.
Based on our Consolidated Statements of Assets and Liabilities as of December 31, 2017, the following table shows the annualized impact on net income of hypothetical base rate changes in interest rates on our debt investments (considering interest rate floors for floating rate instruments) assuming each floating rate investment is subject to 3-month LIBOR and there are no changes in our investment and borrowing structure.
Currency Risk
From time to time, we may make investments that are denominated in a foreign currency. These investments are translated into U.S. dollars at each balance sheet date, exposing us to movements in foreign exchange rates. We may employ hedging techniques to minimize these risks, but we cannot assure you that such strategies will be effective or without risk to us. We may seek to utilize instruments such as, but not limited to, forward contracts to seek to hedge against fluctuations in the relative values of our portfolio positions from changes in currency exchange rates. We also have the ability to borrow in certain foreign currencies under our credit facilities. Instead of entering into a foreign currency exchanges forward contract in connection with loans or other investments we have made that are denominated in a foreign currency, we may borrow in that currency to establish a natural hedge against our loan or investment. To the extent the loan or investment is based on a floating rate other than a rate under which we can borrow under our credit facilities, we may seek to utilize interest rate derivatives to hedge our exposure to changes in the associated rate.
Item 8.
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Consolidated Statements of Assets and Liabilities as of December 31, 2017 and 2016
Consolidated Statements of Operations for the Years Ended December 31, 2017 and 2016
Consolidated Schedules of Investments as of December 31, 2017 and 2016
Consolidated Statements of Changes in Net Assets for the Years Ended December 31, 2017 and 2016
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the Years Ended December 31, 2017 and 2016
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Shareholders and Board of Directors
Owl Rock Capital Corporation:
Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of assets and liabilities of Owl Rock Capital Corporation (and subsidiaries) (the Company), including the consolidated schedules of investments, as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, the related consolidated statements of operations, changes in net assets, and cash flows for each of the years in the two-year period ended December 31, 2017, and the related notes (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the two-year period ended December 31, 2017, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
Basis for Opinion
These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Such procedures also included confirmation of securities owned as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, by correspondence with custodians, portfolio companies or agents. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/ KPMG LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2016.
New York, New York
March 2, 2018
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Statements of Assets and Liabilities
(Amounts in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Statements of Operations
(Amounts in thousands, except share and per share amounts)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Schedules of Investments
As of December 31, 2017
(Amounts in thousands, except share amounts)
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Schedules of Investments
As of December 31, 2017
(Amounts in thousands, except share amounts)
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Schedules of Investments
As of December 31, 2017
(Amounts in thousands, except share amounts)
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Schedules of Investments
As of December 31, 2017
(Amounts in thousands, except share amounts)
________________
(1)
Certain portfolio company investments are subject to contractual restrictions on sales.
(2)
Unless otherwise indicated, all investments are considered Level 3 investments.
(3)
The amortized cost represents the original cost adjusted for the amortization of discounts and premiums, as applicable, on debt investments using the effective interest method.
(4)
Loan contains a variable rate structure and may be subject to an interest rate floor. Variable rate loans bear interest at a rate that may be determined by reference to either the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR” or “L”) (which can include one-, two-, three- or six-month
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Schedules of Investments
As of December 31, 2017
(Amounts in thousands, except share amounts)
LIBOR) or an alternate base rate (which can include the Federal Funds Effective Rate or the Prime Rate), at the borrower’s option, and which reset periodically based on the terms of the loan agreement.
(5)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 1 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.56%.
(6)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 3 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.69%.
(7)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 6 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.84%.
(8)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to the Prime Rate (“Prime” or “P”), which as of December 31, 2017 was 4.50%.
(9)
The first lien term loan is comprised of two components: Term Loan A and Term Loan B. The Company's Term Loan A and Term Loan B principal amounts are $28.8 million and $119.9 million, respectively. Both Term Loan A and Term Loan B have the same maturity date. Interest disclosed reflects the blended rate of the first lien term loan. The Term Loan A represents a ‘first out’ tranche and the Term Loan B represents a ‘last out’ tranche. The ‘first out’ tranche has priority as to the ‘last out’ tranche with respect to payments of principal, interest and any amounts due thereunder.
(10)
Position or portion thereof is an unfunded loan commitment. See Note 7 “Commitments and Contingencies”.
(11)
The negative cost is the result of the capitalized discount being greater than the principal amount outstanding on the loan. The negative fair value is the result of the capitalized discount on the loan.
(12)
The date disclosed represents the commitment period of the unfunded term loan. Upon expiration of the commitment period, the funded portion of the term loan may be subject to a longer maturity date.
(13)
This portfolio company is not a qualifying asset under Section 55(a) of the 1940 Act. Under the 1940 Act, the Company may not acquire any non-qualifying asset unless, at the time such acquisition is made, qualifying assets represent at least 70% of total assets.
(14)
Unless otherwise indicated, the Company’s portfolio companies are pledged as collateral supporting the amounts outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility and SPV Asset Facility. See Note 6 “Debt”.
(15)
As defined in the 1940 Act, the Company is deemed to be both an "Affiliated Person" and has "Control" of this portfolio company as the Company owns more than 25% of the portfolio company's outstanding voting securities or has the power to exercise control over management or policies of such portfolio company (including through a management agreement). Other than for purposes of the 1940 Act, the Company does not believe that it has control over this portfolio company. The Company’s investment in affiliates for the year ended December 31, 2017, were as follows:
(16)
Level 2 investment.
(17)
Investment is not pledged as collateral for the credit facilities.
(18)
The Company may be entitled to receive additional interest as a result of an arrangement with other lenders in the syndication.
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Schedules of Investments
As of December 31, 2016
(Amounts in thousands, except share amounts)
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Schedules of Investments
As of December 31, 2016
(Amounts in thousands, except share amounts)
________________
(1)
Certain portfolio company investments are subject to contractual restrictions on sales.
(2)
The amortized cost represents the original cost adjusted for the amortization of discounts and premiums, as applicable, on debt investments using the effective interest method.
(3)
Loan contains a variable rate structure, subject to an interest rate floor. Variable rate loans bear interest at a rate that may be determined by reference to either the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR” or “L”) (which can include one-, two-, three- or six-month LIBOR) or an alternate base rate (which can include the Federal Funds Effective Rate or the Prime Rate), at the borrower’s option, and which reset periodically based on the terms of the loan agreement. For each such loan, the Company has provided the interest rate in effect on the date presented.
(4)
Unless otherwise indicated, all investments are non-controlled, non-affiliated investments. Non-controlled, non-affiliated investments are defined as investments in which the Company owns less than 5% of the portfolio company’s outstanding voting securities and does not have the power to exercise control over the management or policies of such portfolio company.
(5)
This portfolio company is not a qualifying asset under Section 55(a) of the 1940 Act. Under the 1940 Act, the Company may not acquire any non-qualifying asset unless, at the time such acquisition is made, qualifying assets represent at least 70% of total assets.
(6)
Position or portion thereof is an unfunded loan commitment. See Note 7 “Commitments and Contingencies”.
(7)
The negative cost is the result of the capitalized discount being greater than the principal amount outstanding on the loan. The negative fair value is the result of the capitalized discount on the loan.
(8)
The date disclosed represents the commitment period of the unfunded term loan. Upon expiration of the commitment period, the funded portion of the term loan may be subject to a longer maturity date.
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Statements of Changes in Net Assets
(Amounts in thousands)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(Amounts in thousands)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
Note 1. Organization
Owl Rock Capital Corporation (“Owl Rock” or the “Company”) is a Maryland corporation formed on October 15, 2015. The Company was formed primarily to originate and make loans to, and make debt and equity investments in, U.S. middle market companies. The Company invests in senior secured or unsecured loans, subordinated loans or mezzanine loans and, to a lesser extent, equity-related securities including warrants, preferred stock and similar forms of senior equity, which may or may not be convertible into a portfolio company’s common equity. The Company’s investment objective is to generate current income and to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by targeting investment opportunities with favorable risk-adjusted returns.
The Company has elected to be regulated as a business development company (“BDC”) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”). In addition, for tax purposes, the Company is treated as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). Because the Company has elected to be regulated as a BDC and qualifies as a RIC under the Code, the Company’s portfolio is subject to diversification and other requirements.
In April 2016, the Company made its first portfolio company investment. On April 27, 2016, the Company formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, OR Lending LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, which holds a California finance lenders license and a Tennessee industrial loan and thrift certificate. On August 24, 2017, the Company formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, ORCC Financing LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. On October 18, 2017, the Company formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, OR DH LLC, a Delaware limited liability company.
Owl Rock Capital Advisors LLC (the “Adviser”) serves as the Company’s investment adviser. The Adviser is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as an investment adviser under the 1940 Act. Subject to the overall supervision of the Company’s board of directors (the “Board”), the Adviser manages the day-to-day operations of, and provides investment advisory and management services to, the Company.
The Company conducts private offerings (each, a “Private Offering”) of its common shares to accredited investors in reliance on exemptions from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). At the closing of each Private Offering, each investor makes a capital commitment (a “Capital Commitment”) to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock pursuant to a subscription agreement entered into with the Company. Investors are required to fund drawdowns to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock up to the amount of their respective Capital Commitment on an as-needed basis each time the Company delivers a drawdown notice to its investors. The initial closing of the Private Offering occurred on March 3, 2016 (the “Initial Closing”). If the Company has not consummated a listing of its common shares on a national securities exchange (an “Exchange Listing”) by the five-year anniversary of the Initial Closing, subject to extension for two additional one-year periods, in the sole discretion of the Board, the Board (subject to any necessary shareholder approvals and applicable requirements of the 1940 Act) will use its commercially reasonable efforts to wind down and/or liquidate and dissolve the Company in an orderly manner.
Note 2. Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”). The Company is an investment company and, therefore, applies the specialized accounting and reporting guidance in Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 946, Financial Services - Investment Companies. In the opinion of management, all adjustments considered necessary for the fair presentation of the consolidated financial statements have been included. The Company was initially capitalized on March 1, 2016 and commenced operations on March 3, 2016. The Company’s fiscal year ends on December 31.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of the consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements. Actual amounts could differ from those estimates and such differences could be material.
Cash
Cash consists of deposits held at a custodian bank and restricted cash pledged as collateral. Cash is carried at cost, which approximates fair value. The Company deposits its cash with highly-rated banking corporations and, at times, may exceed the insured limits under applicable law.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Investments at Fair Value
Investment transactions are recorded on the trade date. Realized gains or losses are measured by the difference between the net proceeds received and the amortized cost basis of the investment using the specific identification method without regard to unrealized gains or losses previously recognized, and include investments charged off during the period, net of recoveries. The net change in unrealized gains or losses primarily reflects the change in investment values, including the reversal of previously recorded unrealized gains or losses with respect to investments realized during the period.
Investments for which market quotations are readily available are typically valued at the bid price of those market quotations. To validate market quotations, the Company utilizes a number of factors to determine if the quotations are representative of fair value, including the source and number of the quotations. Debt and equity securities that are not publicly traded or whose market prices are not readily available, as is the case for substantially all of the Company’s investments, are valued at fair value as determined in good faith by the Board, based on, among other things, the input of the Adviser, the Company’s audit committee and independent third-party valuation firm(s) engaged at the direction of the Board.
As part of the valuation process, the Board takes into account relevant factors in determining the fair value of the Company’s investments, including: the estimated enterprise value of a portfolio company (i.e., the total fair value of the portfolio company’s debt and equity), the nature and realizable value of any collateral, the portfolio company’s ability to make payments based on its earnings and cash flow, the markets in which the portfolio company does business, a comparison of the portfolio company’s securities to any similar publicly traded securities, and overall changes in the interest rate environment and the credit markets that may affect the price at which similar investments may be made in the future. When an external event such as a purchase or sale transaction, public offering or subsequent equity sale occurs, the Board considers whether the pricing indicated by the external event corroborates its valuation.
The Board undertakes a multi-step valuation process, which includes, among other procedures, the following:
•
With respect to investments for which market quotations are readily available, those investments will typically be valued at the bid price of those market quotations;
•
With respect to investments for which market quotations are not readily available, the valuation process begins with the independent valuation firm(s) providing a preliminary valuation of each investment to the Adviser’s valuation committee;
•
Preliminary valuation conclusions are documented and discussed with the Adviser’s valuation committee. Agreed upon valuation recommendations are presented to the Audit Committee;
•
The Audit Committee reviews the valuation recommendations and recommends values for each investment to the Board; and
•
The Board reviews the recommended valuations and determines the fair value of each investment.
The Company conducts this valuation process on a quarterly basis.
The Company applies Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification 820, Fair Value Measurements (“ASC 820”), as amended, which establishes a framework for measuring fair value in accordance with U.S. GAAP and required disclosures of fair value measurements. ASC 820 determines fair value to be the price that would be received for an investment in a current sale, which assumes an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. Market participants are defined as buyers and sellers in the principal or most advantageous market (which may be a hypothetical market) that are independent, knowledgeable, and willing and able to transact. In accordance with ASC 820, the Company considers its principal market to be the market that has the greatest volume and level of activity. ASC 820 specifies a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes and ranks the level of observability of inputs used in determination of fair value. In accordance with ASC 820, these levels are summarized below:
•
Level 1 - Valuations based on quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the Company has the ability to access.
•
Level 2 - Valuations based on quoted prices in markets that are not active or for which all significant inputs are observable, either directly or indirectly.
•
Level 3 - Valuations based on inputs that are unobservable and significant to the overall fair value measurement.
Transfers between levels, if any, are recognized at the beginning of the quarter in which the transfer occurs. In addition to using the above inputs in investment valuations, the Company applies the valuation policy approved by its Board that is consistent with ASC
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
820. Consistent with the valuation policy, the Company evaluates the source of the inputs, including any markets in which its investments are trading (or any markets in which securities with similar attributes are trading), in determining fair value. When an investment is valued based on prices provided by reputable dealers or pricing services (such as broker quotes), the Company subjects those prices to various criteria in making the determination as to whether a particular investment would qualify for treatment as a Level 2 or Level 3 investment. For example, the Company, or the independent valuation firm(s), reviews pricing support provided by dealers or pricing services in order to determine if observable market information is being used, versus unobservable inputs.
Due to the inherent uncertainty of determining the fair value of investments that do not have a readily available market value, the fair value of the Company’s investments may fluctuate from period to period. Additionally, the fair value of such investments may differ significantly from the values that would have been used had a ready market existed for such investments and may differ materially from the values that may ultimately be realized. Further, such investments are generally less liquid than publicly traded securities and may be subject to contractual and other restrictions on resale. If the Company were required to liquidate a portfolio investment in a forced or liquidation sale, it could realize amounts that are different from the amounts presented and such differences could be material.
In addition, changes in the market environment and other events that may occur over the life of the investments may cause the gains or losses ultimately realized on these investments to be different than the unrealized gains or losses reflected herein.
Financial and Derivative Instruments
Pursuant to ASC 815 Derivatives and Hedging, further clarified by the FASB’s issuance of the Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2017-12, Derivatives and Hedging, which was adopted early by the Company, all derivative instruments entered into by the Company are designated as hedging instruments. For all derivative instruments designated as a hedge, the entire change in the fair value of the hedging instrument shall be recorded in the same line item of the Consolidated Statements of Operations as the hedged item. The Company’s derivative instruments are used to hedge the Company’s fixed rate debt, and therefore both the periodic payment and the change in fair value for the ineffective hedge, if applicable, will be recorded as components of interest expense in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.
Interest and Dividend Income Recognition
Interest income is recorded on the accrual basis and includes amortization of discounts or premiums. Discounts and premiums to par value on securities purchased are amortized into interest income over the contractual life of the respective security using the effective yield method. The amortized cost of investments represents the original cost adjusted for the amortization of discounts or premiums, if any. Upon prepayment of a loan or debt security, any prepayment premiums, unamortized upfront loan origination fees and unamortized discounts are recorded as interest income in the current period.
Loans are generally placed on non-accrual status when there is reasonable doubt that principal or interest will be collected in full. Accrued interest is generally reversed when a loan is placed on non-accrual status. Interest payments received on non-accrual loans may be recognized as income or applied to principal depending upon management’s judgment regarding collectability. Non-accrual loans are restored to accrual status when past due principal and interest is paid current and, in management’s judgment, are likely to remain current. Management may make exceptions to this treatment and determine to not place a loan on non-accrual status if the loan has sufficient collateral value and is in the process of collection.
Dividend income on preferred equity securities is recorded on the accrual basis to the extent that such amounts are payable by the portfolio company and are expected to be collected. Dividend income on common equity securities is recorded on the record date for private portfolio companies or on the ex-dividend date for publicly-traded portfolio companies.
Other Income
From time to time, the Company may receive fees for services provided to portfolio companies. These fees are generally only available to the Company as a result of closing investments, are normally paid at the closing of the investments, are generally non-recurring and are recognized as revenue when earned upon closing of the investment. The services that the Adviser provides vary by investment, but can include closing, work, diligence or other similar fees and fees for providing managerial assistance to our portfolio companies.
Organization Expenses
Costs associated with the organization of the Company are expensed as incurred. These expenses consist primarily of legal fees and other costs of organizing the Company.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Offering Expenses
Costs associated with the offering of common shares of the Company are capitalized as deferred offering expenses and are included in prepaid expenses and other assets in the Consolidated Statements of Assets and Liabilities and are amortized over a twelve-month period from incurrence. These expenses consist primarily of legal fees and other costs incurred in connection with the Company’s share offerings, the preparation of the Company’s registration statement, and registration fees.
Debt Issuance Costs
The Company records origination and other expenses related to its debt obligations as deferred financing costs. These expenses are deferred and amortized over the life of the related debt instrument. Debt issuance costs are presented on the Consolidated Statements of Assets and Liabilities as a direct deduction from the debt liability. In circumstances in which there is not an associated debt liability amount recorded in the consolidated financial statements when the debt issuance costs are incurred, such debt issuance costs will be reported on the Consolidated Statements of Assets and Liabilities as an asset until the debt liability is recorded.
Reimbursement of Transaction-Related Expenses
The Company may receive reimbursement for certain transaction-related expenses in pursuing investments. Transaction-related expenses, which are generally expected to be reimbursed by the Company’s portfolio companies, are typically deferred until the transaction is consummated and are recorded in prepaid expenses and other assets on the date incurred. The costs of successfully completed investments not otherwise reimbursed are borne by the Company and are included as a component of the investment’s cost basis.
Cash advances received in respect of transaction-related expenses are recorded as cash with an offset to accrued expenses and other liabilities. Accrued expenses and other liabilities are relieved as reimbursable expenses are incurred.
Income Taxes
The Company has elected to be treated as a BDC under the 1940 Act. The Company has elected to be treated as a RIC under the Code beginning with its taxable year ending December 31, 2016. So long as the Company maintains its tax treatment as a RIC, it generally will not pay corporate-level U.S. federal income taxes on any ordinary income or capital gains that it distributes at least annually to its shareholders as dividends. Instead, any tax liability related to income earned and distributed by Owl Rock represents obligations of the Company’s investors and will not be reflected in the consolidated financial statements of the Company.
To qualify as a RIC, the Company must, among other things, meet certain source-of-income and asset diversification requirements. In addition, to qualify for RIC tax treatment, the Company must distribute to its shareholders, for each taxable year, at least 90% of its “investment company taxable income” for that year, which is generally its ordinary income plus the excess of its realized net short-term capital gains over its realized net long-term capital losses. In order for the Company not to be subject to U.S. federal excise taxes, it must distribute annually an amount at least equal to the sum of (i) 98% of its net ordinary income (taking into account certain deferrals and elections) for the calendar year, (ii) 98.2% of its capital gains in excess of capital losses for the one-year period ending on October 31 of the calendar year and (iii) any net ordinary income and capital gains in excess of capital losses for preceding years that were not distributed during such years. The Company, at its discretion, may carry forward taxable income in excess of calendar year dividends and pay a 4% nondeductible U.S. federal excise tax on this income.
The Company evaluates tax positions taken or expected to be taken in the course of preparing its consolidated financial statements to determine whether the tax positions are “more-likely-than-not” to be sustained by the applicable tax authority. Tax positions not deemed to meet the “more-likely-than-not” threshold are reserved and recorded as a tax benefit or expense in the current year. All penalties and interest associated with income taxes are included in income tax expense. Conclusions regarding tax positions are subject to review and may be adjusted at a later date based on factors including, but not limited to, on-going analyses of tax laws, regulations and interpretations thereof. There were no material uncertain income tax positions through December 31, 2017. The 2015 and 2016 tax years remain subject to examination by U.S. federal, state and local tax authorities.
Distributions to Common Shareholders
Distributions to common shareholders are recorded on the record date. The amount to be distributed is determined by the Board and is generally based upon the earnings estimated by the Adviser. Net realized long-term capital gains, if any, would be generally distributed at least annually, although the Company may decide to retain such capital gains for investment.
The Company has adopted a dividend reinvestment plan that provides for reinvestment of any cash distributions on behalf of shareholders, unless a shareholder elects to receive cash. As a result, if the Board authorizes and declares a cash distribution, then the shareholders who have not “opted out” of the dividend reinvestment plan will have their cash distribution automatically reinvested in additional shares of the Company’s common stock, rather than receiving the cash distribution. The Company expects to use newly issued shares to implement the dividend reinvestment plan.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Consolidation
As provided under Regulation S-X and ASC Topic 946 - Financial Services - Investment Companies, the Company will generally not consolidate its investment in a company other than a wholly-owned investment company or controlled operating company whose business consists of providing services to the Company. Accordingly, the Company consolidated the accounts of the Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries in its consolidated financial statements. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.
The Company does not consolidate its equity interest in Sebago Lake LLC (“Sebago Lake”). For further description of the Company’s investment in Sebago Lake, see Note 4 “Investments”.
New Accounting Pronouncements
Revenue Recognition
In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606). The guidance in this ASU supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in Revenue Recognition (Topic 605). Under the updated guidance, an entity should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The amendments in ASU No. 2014-09 are effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within that reporting period.
In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-08, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Principal versus Agent Considerations, which clarifies the guidance in ASU No. 2014-09 and has the same effective date as the original standard.
In April 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-10, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Identifying Performance Obligations and Licensing, an update on identifying performance obligations and accounting for licenses of intellectual property.
In May 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-12, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Narrow-Scope Improvements and Practical Expedients, which includes amendments for enhanced clarification of the guidance.
In December 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-20, Technical Corrections and Improvements to Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), the amendments in this update are of a similar nature to the items typically addressed in the technical corrections and improvements project.
In February 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-05, Other Income - Gains and Losses from the Derecognition of Nonfinancial Assets (subtopic 610-20): Clarifying the Scope of Asset Derecognition Guidance and Accounting for Partial Sales of Nonfinancial Assets, an update clarifying that a financial asset is within the scope of Subtopic 610-20 if it is deemed an “in-substance non-financial asset.”
The application of the aforementioned updated revenue recognition guidance is not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
Restricted Cash
In November 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-18 Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230) - Restricted Cash which requires an entity’s reconciliation of the beginning-of-period and end-of-period total amounts shown on the statement of cash flows to include in cash and cash equivalents amounts generally described as restricted cash. ASU 2016-18 is effective for public business entities for annual and interim periods in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017. Early adoption is permitted, including adoption in an interim period. The Company adopted this guidance during the year ended December 31, 2017.
Other than previously notated, management does not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards, if currently adopted, would have a material effect on the accompanying consolidated financial statements.
Note 3. Agreements and Related Party Transactions
Administration Agreement
On March 1, 2016, the Company entered into an Administration Agreement (the “Administration Agreement”) with the Adviser. Under the terms of the Administration Agreement, the Adviser performs, or oversees, the performance of, required administrative services, which includes providing office space, equipment and office services, maintaining financial records, preparing reports to shareholders and reports filed with the SEC, and managing the payment of expenses and the performance of administrative and professional services rendered by others.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
The Administration Agreement also provides that the Company reimburses the Adviser for certain organization costs incurred prior to the commencement of the Company’s operations, and for certain offering costs.
The Company reimburses the Adviser for services performed for it pursuant to the terms of the Administration Agreement. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the Administration Agreement, the Adviser may delegate its obligations under the Administration Agreement to an affiliate or to a third party and the Company will reimburse the Adviser for any services performed for it by such affiliate or third party.
On March 1, 2018, the Board approved to extend the Administration Agreement. Unless earlier terminated as described below, the Administration Agreement will remain in effect until March 1, 2019 and from year to year thereafter if approved annually by (1) the vote of the Board, or by the vote of a majority of its outstanding voting securities, and (2) the vote of a majority of the Company’s directors who are not “interested persons” of the Company, of the Adviser or of any of their respective affiliates, as defined in the 1940 Act. The Administration Agreement may be terminated at any time, without the payment of any penalty, on 60 days’ written notice, by the vote of a majority of the outstanding voting securities of the Company, or by the vote of the Board or by the Administrator.
No person who is an officer, director, or employee of the Adviser or its affiliates and who serves as a director of the Company receives any compensation from the Company for his or her services as a director. However, the Company reimburses the Adviser (or its affiliates) for an allocable portion of the compensation paid by the Adviser or its affiliates to the Company’s Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Financial Officer and their respective staffs (based on the percentage of time those individuals devote, on an estimated basis, to the business and affairs of the Company). Directors who are not affiliated with the Adviser receive compensation for their services and reimbursement of expenses incurred to attend meetings.
For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, the Company incurred expenses of approximately $3.3 million and $2.8 million, respectively, for costs and expenses reimbursable to the Adviser under the terms of the Administration Agreement.
Investment Advisory Agreement
On March 1, 2016, the Company entered into an Investment Advisory Agreement (the “Investment Advisory Agreement”) with the Adviser. Under the terms of the Investment Advisory Agreement, the Adviser is responsible for managing the Company’s business and activities, including sourcing investment opportunities, conducting research, performing diligence on potential investments, structuring its investments, and monitoring its portfolio companies on an ongoing basis through a team of investment professionals.
The Adviser’s services under the Investment Advisory Agreement are not exclusive, and it is free to furnish similar services to other entities so long as its services to the Company are not impaired.
On March 1, 2018, the Board approved to extend the Investment Advisory Agreement. Unless earlier terminated as described below, the Investment Advisory Agreement will remain in effect until March 1, 2019 and will remain in effect from year-to-year thereafter if approved annually by a majority of the Board or by the holders of a majority of our outstanding voting securities and, in each case, by a majority of independent directors.
The Investment Advisory Agreement will automatically terminate within the meaning of the 1940 Act and related SEC guidance and interpretations in the event of its assignment. In accordance with the 1940 Act, without payment of any penalty, the Company may terminate the Investment Advisory Agreement with the Adviser upon 60 days’ written notice. The decision to terminate the agreement may be made by a majority of the Board or the shareholders holding a majority (as defined under the 1940 Act) of the outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock or the Adviser. In addition, without payment of any penalty, the Adviser may generally terminate the Investment Advisory Agreement upon 60 days’ written notice and, in certain circumstances, the Adviser may only be able to terminate the Investment Advisory Agreement upon 120 days’ written notice.
From time to time, the Adviser may pay amounts owed by the Company to third-party providers of goods or services, including the Board, and the Company will subsequently reimburse the Adviser for such amounts paid on its behalf. Amounts payable to the Adviser are settled in the normal course of business without formal payment terms.
Under the terms of the Investment Advisory Agreement, the Company will pay the Adviser a base management fee and may also pay to it certain incentive fees. The cost of both the management fee and the incentive fee will ultimately be borne by the Company’s shareholders.
The management fee is payable quarterly in arrears. Prior to the future quotation or listing of the Company’s securities on a national securities exchange (an “Exchange Listing”) or the future quotation or listing of its securities on any other public trading market, the management fee is payable at an annual rate of 0.75% of the Company’s (i) average gross assets, excluding cash and cash equivalents but including assets purchased with borrowed amounts, at the end of the Company’s two most recently completed calendar quarters plus (ii) the average of any remaining unfunded Capital Commitments at the end of the two most recently completed
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
calendar quarters. Following an Exchange Listing, the management fee is payable at an annual rate of 1.75% of the Company’s average gross assets excluding cash and cash equivalents but including assets purchased with borrowed amounts, at the end of the two most recently completed calendar quarters. The management fee for any partial month or quarter, as the case may be, will be appropriately prorated and adjusted for any share issuances or repurchases during the relevant calendar months or quarters, as the case may be.
For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, management fees were $31.1 million and $9.2 million, respectively.
Pursuant to the Investment Advisory Agreement, the Adviser will not be entitled to an incentive fee prior to an Exchange Listing. Following an Exchange Listing, the incentive fee will consist of two components that are independent of each other, with the result that one component may be payable even if the other is not. A portion of the incentive fee is based on the Company’s pre-incentive fee net investment income and a portion is based on the Company’s capital gains. The portion of the incentive fee based on pre-incentive fee net investment income is determined and paid quarterly in arrears commencing with the first calendar quarter following an Exchange Listing, and equals 100% of the pre-incentive fee net investment income in excess of a 1.5% quarterly “hurdle rate,” until the Adviser has received 20% of the total pre-incentive fee net investment income for that calendar quarter and, for pre-incentive fee net investment income in excess of 1.875% quarterly, 20% of all remaining pre-incentive fee net investment income for that calendar quarter.
The second component of the incentive fee, the capital gains incentive fee, payable at the end of each calendar year in arrears, equals 20% of cumulative realized capital gains from the date on which the Exchange Listing becomes effective (the “Listing Date”) to the end of each calendar year, less cumulative realized capital losses and unrealized capital depreciation from the Listing Date to the end of each calendar year, less the aggregate amount of any previously paid capital gains incentive fee for prior periods. In no event will the capital gains incentive fee payable pursuant to the Investment Advisory Agreement be in excess of the amount permitted by the Advisers Act, including Section 205 thereof.
There was no incentive fee for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016.
Affiliated Transactions
The Company may be prohibited under the 1940 Act from conducting certain transactions with its affiliates without prior approval of the directors who are not interested persons, and in some cases, the prior approval of the SEC. The Company, the Adviser and certain of its affiliates have been granted exemptive relief by the SEC to co-invest with other funds managed by the Adviser or its affiliates, including Owl Rock Capital Corporation II, in a manner consistent with our investment objective, positions, policies, strategies and restrictions as well as regulatory requirements and other pertinent factors. Pursuant to such exemptive relief, the Company generally is permitted to co-invest with certain of its affiliates if a “required majority” (as defined in Section 57(o) of the 1940 Act) of the Board make certain conclusions in connection with a co-investment transaction, including that (1) the terms of the transaction, including the consideration to be paid, are reasonable and fair to the Company and its shareholders and do not involve overreaching of the Company or its shareholders on the part of any person concerned, (2) the transaction is consistent with the interests of the Company’s shareholders and is consistent with its investment objective and strategies, and (3) the investment by its affiliates would not disadvantage the Company, and the Company’s participation would not be on a basis different from or less advantageous than that on which its affiliates are investing. The Adviser’s investment allocation policy incorporates the conditions of the exemptive relief. As a result of exemptive relief, there could be significant overlap in the Company’s investment portfolio and the investment portfolio of Owl Rock Capital Corporation II and/or other funds established by the Adviser that could avail themselves of the exemptive relief.
License Agreement
The Company has entered into a license agreement (the “License Agreement”) with Owl Rock Capital Partners LP, pursuant to which Owl Rock Capital Partners LP has granted the Company a non-exclusive license to use the name “Owl Rock.” Under the License Agreement, the Company has a right to use the Owl Rock name for so long as the Adviser or one of its affiliates remains the Company’s investment adviser. Other than with respect to this limited license, the Company will have no legal right to the “Owl Rock” name or logo.
Note 4. Investments
Under the 1940 Act, the Company is required to separately identify non-controlled investments where it owns 5% or more of a portfolio company’s outstanding voting securities and/or had the power to exercise control over the management or policies of such portfolio company as investments in “affiliated” companies. In addition, under the 1940 Act, the Company is required to separately identify investments where it owns more than 25% of a portfolio company’s outstanding voting securities and/or had the power to exercise control over the management or policies of such portfolio company as investments in “controlled” companies. Under the
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
1940 Act, "non-affiliated investments" are defined as investments that are neither controlled investments nor affiliated investments. Detailed information with respect to the Company’s non-controlled, non-affiliated; non-controlled, affiliated; and controlled affiliated investments is contained in the accompanying consolidated financial statements, including the consolidated schedule of investments. The information in the tables below is presented on an aggregate portfolio basis, without regard to whether they are non-controlled non-affiliated, non-controlled affiliated or controlled affiliated investments.
Investments at fair value and amortized cost consisted of the following as of December 31, 2017 and 2016:
________________
(1)
Includes equity investment in Sebago Lake. See below, within Note 4, for more information regarding Sebago Lake.
The industry composition of investments based on fair value as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 was as follows:
________________
(1)
Includes equity investment in Sebago Lake. See below, within Note 4, for more information regarding Sebago Lake.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
The geographic composition of investments based on fair value as of December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 was as follows:
Sebago Lake LLC
Sebago Lake, a Delaware limited liability company, was formed as a joint venture between the Company and The Regents of the University of California (“Regents”) and commenced operations on June 20, 2017. Sebago Lake’s principal purpose is to make investments, primarily in senior secured loans that are made to middle-market companies or in broadly syndicated loans. Both the Company and Regents (the “Members”) have a 50% economic ownership in Sebago Lake. It is anticipated that each of the Members will contribute up to $100 million to Sebago Lake. As of December 31, 2017, each Member has funded $65.0 million of their $100 million subscriptions. Sebago Lake is managed by the Members, each of which have equal voting rights. Investment decisions must be approved by each of the Members.
The Company has determined that Sebago Lake is an investment company under ASC 946; however, in accordance with such guidance, the Company will generally not consolidate its investment in a company other than a wholly owned investment company subsidiary or a controlled operating company whose business consists of providing services to the Company. Accordingly, the Company does not consolidate its non-controlling interest in Sebago Lake.
During the period ended December 31, 2017, the Company sold its investment in three portfolio companies at fair market value, as determined by an independent valuation firm, to Sebago Lake generating a realized gain of $0.5 million for the Company.
As of December 31, 2017, Sebago Lake had total investments in senior secured debt at fair value of $330.0 million. The determination of fair value is in accordance with ASC Topic 820; however, such fair value is not included in the Board’s valuation process described herein. The following table is a summary of Sebago Lake’s portfolio as well as a listing of the portfolio investments in Sebago Lake’s portfolio as of December 31, 2017:
________________
(1)
At par.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
________________
(1)
Certain portfolio company investments are subject to contractual restrictions on sales.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
(2)
Unless otherwise indicated, Sebago Lake’s portfolio companies are pledged as collateral supporting the amounts outstanding under Sebago Lake’s credit facility.
(3)
The amortized cost represents the original cost adjusted for the amortization of discounts and premiums, as applicable, on debt investments using the effective interest method.
(4)
Unless otherwise indicated, all investments are considered Level 3 investments.
(5)
Unless otherwise indicated, loan contains a variable rate structure, and may be subject to an interest rate floor. Variable rate loans bear interest at a rate that may be determined by reference to either the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR” or “L”) (which can include one-, two-, three- or six-month LIBOR) or an alternate base rate (which can include the Federal Funds Effective Rate or the Prime Rate), at the borrower’s option, and which reset periodically based on the terms of the loan agreement.
(6)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 1 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.56%.
(7)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 3 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.69%.
(8)
The interest rate on these loans is subject to 6 month LIBOR, which as of December 31, 2017 was 1.84%.
(9)
Position or portion thereof is an unfunded loan commitment.
(10)
The negative cost is the result of the capitalized discount being greater than the principal amount outstanding on the loan. The negative fair value is the result of the capitalized discount on the loan.
(11)
The date disclosed represents the commitment period of the unfunded term loan. Upon expiration of the commitment period, the funded portion of the term loan may be subject to a longer maturity date.
(12)
Investment is not pledged as collateral under Sebago Lake’s credit facility.
(13)
Level 2 investment.
Below is selected balance sheet information for Sebago Lake as of December 31, 2017:
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Below is selected statement of operations information for Sebago Lake for the period ended December 31, 2017:
Loan Origination and Structuring Fees
If the loan origination and structuring fees earned by Sebago Lake during a fiscal year exceed Sebago Lake’s expenses and other obligations (excluding financing costs), such excess is allocated to the Member(s) responsible for the origination of the loans pro rata in accordance with the total loan origination and structuring fees earned by Sebago Lake with respect to the loans originated by such Member; provided, that in no event will the amount allocated to a Member exceed 1% of the par value of the loans originated by such Member in any fiscal year. The loan origination and structuring fee is accrued quarterly and included in other income from controlled, affiliated investments on the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Operations and paid annually. For the period ended December 31, 2017, the Company accrued and received income based on loan origination and structuring fees of $3.4 million.
Note 5. Fair Value of Investments
Investments
The following tables present the fair value hierarchy of investments as of December 31, 2017 and 2016:
________________
(1)
Includes equity investment in Sebago Lake.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
The following tables present changes in the fair value of investments for which Level 3 inputs were used to determine the fair value as of and for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016:
________________
(1)
Purchases may include payment-in-kind (“PIK”).
(2)
Transfers between levels, if any, are recognized at the beginning of the quarter in which the transfers occur.
________________
(1)
Transfers between levels, if any, are recognized at the beginning of the quarter in which the transfers occur.
The following tables presents information with respect to net change in unrealized gains on investments for which Level 3 inputs were used in determining the fair value that are still held by the Company for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016:
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
The following tables present quantitative information about the significant unobservable inputs of the Company’s Level 3 investments as of December 31, 2017 and 2016. The tables are not intended to be all-inclusive but instead capture the significant unobservable inputs relevant to the Company’s determination of fair value.
________________
(1)
Excludes an investment at fair value amounting to $15,037, which the Company valued using indicative bid prices obtained from brokers.
The Company typically determines the fair value of its performing Level 3 debt investments utilizing a yield analysis. In a yield analysis, a price is ascribed for each investment based upon an assessment of current and expected market yields for similar investments and risk profiles. Additional consideration is given to the expected life, portfolio company performance since close, and other terms and risks associated with an investment. Among other factors, a determinant of risk is the amount of leverage used by the portfolio company relative to its total enterprise value, and the rights and remedies of the Company’s investment within the portfolio company’s capital structure.
Significant unobservable quantitative inputs typically used in the fair value measurement of the Company’s Level 3 debt investments primarily include current market yields, including relevant market indices, but may also include quotes from brokers, dealers, and pricing services as indicated by comparable investments. For the Company’s Level 3 equity investments, a market approach, based on comparable publicly-traded company and comparable market transaction multiples of revenues, earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) or some combination thereof and comparable market transactions typically would be used.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Financial Instruments Not Carried at Fair Value
The fair value of the Company’s credit facilities, which are categorized as Level 3 within the fair value hierarchy as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, approximates their carrying value. The carrying amounts of the Company’s assets and liabilities, other than investments at fair value, approximate fair value due to their short maturities.
Note 6. Debt
In accordance with the 1940 Act, with certain limitations, the Company is allowed to borrow amounts such that its asset coverage, as defined in the 1940 Act, is at least 200% after such borrowing. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, the Company’s asset coverage was 258% and 237%, respectively.
Debt obligations consisted of the following as of December 31, 2017 and 2016:
________________
(1)
The amount available reflects any limitations related to each credit facility’s borrowing base.
(2)
The carrying value of the Company’s Subscription Credit Facility, Revolving Credit Facility, SPV Asset Facility and the 2023 Notes are presented net of deferred financing costs of $3.1 million, $3.0 million, $4.6 million, and $1.9 million respectively.
(3)
The amount available is reduced by $3.8 million of outstanding letters of credit.
(4)
Amounts available were issued on January 30, 2018.
________________
(1)
The amount available reflects any limitations related to each credit facility’s borrowing base.
(2)
The carrying value of the Company’s Subscription Credit Facility is presented net of deferred financing costs of $3.1 million.
For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, the components of interest expense were as follows:
Subscription Credit Facility
On August 1, 2016, the Company entered into a subscription credit facility (the “Original Subscription Credit Facility”) with Wells Fargo Bank, National Association (“Wells Fargo”), as administrative agent (the “Administrative Agent”) and letter of credit issuer, and Wells Fargo, State Street Bank and Trust Company and the banks and financial institutions from time to time party thereto, as lenders.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
The Original Subscription Credit Facility permitted the Company to borrow up to $250 million, subject to availability under the “Borrowing Base”. The Borrowing Base is calculated based on the unused Capital Commitments of the investors meeting various eligibility requirements above certain concentration limits based on investors’ credit ratings. The Original Subscription Credit Facility also included a provision permitting the Company to increase the size of the facility on or before August 1, 2017 up to a maximum principal amount not exceeding $500 million, subject to customary conditions, and included a further provision permitting the Company to increase the size of the facility under certain circumstances up to a maximum principal amount not exceeding $750 million, if the existing or new lenders agreed to commit to such further increase.
On September 14, 2016, the Company increased the size of the facility to a total of $300 million. On September 26, 2016, the Company increased the size of the facility to a total of $500 million. On January 4, 2017, the Company increased the size of the facility to a total of $575 million. On March 13, 2017, the Company increased the size of the facility to a total of $700 million.
On November 2, 2017, the Company amended the Original Subscription Credit Facility pursuant to a first amendment to revolving credit agreement (the “First Amendment” and the Original Subscription Credit Facility, as amended, the “Subscription Credit Facility”), which, among other things: (i) increased the size of the facility to a total of $750 million and (ii) amended the accordion feature to permit the Company to increase the commitments under the Subscription Credit Facility under certain circumstances up to a maximum principal amount of $900 million, if the existing or new lenders agreed to commit to such further increase. On November 2, 2017, the Company temporarily increased the size of the facility to $850 million. On December 1, 2017, the Company increased the size of the Subscription Credit Facility to a total of $900 million.
Borrowings under the Subscription Credit Facility bear interest, at the Company’s election at the time of drawdown, at a rate per annum equal to (i) in the case of LIBOR rate loans, an adjusted LIBOR rate for the applicable interest period plus 1.60% or (ii) in the case of reference rate loans, the greatest of (A) a prime rate plus 0.60%, (B) the federal funds rate plus 1.10%, and (C) one-month LIBOR plus 1.60%. Loans may be converted from one rate to another at any time at the Company’s election, subject to certain conditions. The Company also will pay an unused commitment fee of 0.25% per annum on the unused commitments.
The Subscription Credit Facility will mature upon the earliest of (i) the date three (3) years from August 1, 2016; (ii) the date upon which the Administrative Agent declares the obligations under the Credit Facility due and payable after the occurrence of an event of default; (iii) forty-five (45) days prior to the scheduled termination of the commitment period under the Company’s Subscription Agreements (as defined below); (iv) forty-five (45) days prior to the date of any listing of the Company’s common stock on a national securities exchange; (v) the termination of the commitment period under the Company’s Subscription Agreements (if earlier than the scheduled date); and (vi) the date the Company terminates the commitments pursuant to the Subscription Credit Facility.
The Subscription Credit Facility is secured by a perfected first priority security interest in the Company’s right, title, and interest in and to the capital commitments of the Company’s private investors, including the Company’s right to make capital calls, receive and apply capital contributions, enforce remedies and claims related thereto together with capital call proceeds and related rights, and a pledge of the collateral account into which capital call proceeds are deposited.
The Subscription Credit Facility contains customary covenants, including certain limitations on the incurrence by the Company of additional indebtedness and on the Company’s ability to make distributions to its shareholders, or redeem, repurchase or retire shares of stock, upon the occurrence of certain events, and customary events of default (with customary cure and notice provisions).
Transfers of interests in the Company by shareholders must comply with certain sections of the Subscription Credit Facility and the Company shall notify the Administrative Agent before such transfers take place. Such transfers may trigger mandatory prepayment obligations.
Revolving Credit Facility
On February 1, 2017, the Company entered into a senior secured revolving credit agreement (the “Revolving Credit Facility”). The parties to the Revolving Credit Facility include the Company, as Borrower, the lenders from time to time parties thereto (each a “Lender” and collectively, the “Lenders”) and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated as Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Book Runners, SunTrust Bank as Administrative Agent and Bank of America, N.A. as Syndication Agent.
The Revolving Credit Facility is guaranteed by OR Lending LLC, a subsidiary of the Company, and will be guaranteed by certain domestic subsidiaries of the Company that are formed or acquired by the Company in the future (collectively, the “Guarantors”). Proceeds of the Revolving Credit Facility may be used for general corporate purposes, including the funding of portfolio investments.
The maximum principal amount of the Revolving Credit Facility is $400 million, subject to availability under the borrowing base, which is based on the Company’s portfolio investments and other outstanding indebtedness. Maximum capacity under the Revolving
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Credit Facility may be increased to $750 million through the exercise by the Borrower of an uncommitted accordion feature through which existing and new lenders may, at their option, agree to provide additional financing. The Revolving Credit Facility includes a $50 million limit for swingline loans and is secured by a perfected first-priority interest in substantially all of the portfolio investments held by the Company and each Guarantor, subject to certain exceptions.
The availability period under the Revolving Credit Facility will terminate on January 31, 2020 (“Revolving Credit Facility Commitment Termination Date”) and the Revolving Credit Facility will mature on February 1, 2021 (“Revolving Credit Facility Maturity Date”). During the period from the Revolving Credit Facility Commitment Termination Date to the Revolving Credit Facility Maturity Date, the Company will be obligated to make mandatory prepayments under the Revolving Credit Facility out of the proceeds of certain asset sales and other recovery events and equity and debt issuances.
The Company may borrow amounts in U.S. dollars or certain other permitted currencies. Amounts drawn under the Revolving Credit Facility will bear interest at either LIBOR plus 2.25%, or the prime rate plus 1.25%. The Company may elect either the LIBOR or prime rate at the time of drawdown, and loans may be converted from one rate to another at any time at the Company’s option, subject to certain conditions. The Company also pays a fee of 0.375% on undrawn amounts under the Revolving Credit Facility.
The Revolving Credit Facility includes customary covenants, including certain limitations on the incurrence by the Company of additional indebtedness and on the Company’s ability to make distributions to its shareholders, or redeem, repurchase or retire shares of stock, upon the occurrence of certain events and certain financial covenants related to asset coverage and liquidity and other maintenance covenants, as well as customary events of default.
SPV Asset Facility
On December 21, 2017 (the “SPV Asset Facility Closing Date”), ORCC Financing LLC (“ORCC Financing”), a Delaware limited liability company and newly formed subsidiary of the Company, entered into a Loan and Servicing Agreement (the “SPV Asset Facility”), with ORCC Financing as Borrower, the Company as Transferor and Servicer, the lenders from time to time parties thereto (the “Lenders”), Morgan Stanley Asset Funding Inc. as Administrative Agent, State Street Bank and Trust Company as Collateral Agent and Cortland Capital Market Services LLC as Collateral Custodian.
From time to time, the Company expects to sell and contribute certain investments to ORCC Financing pursuant to a Sale and Contribution Agreement by and between the Company and ORCC Financing. No gain or loss will be recognized as a result of the contribution. Proceeds from the SPV Asset Facility will be used to finance the origination and acquisition of eligible assets by ORCC Financing, including the purchase of such assets from the Company. The Company retains a residual interest in assets contributed to or acquired by ORCC Financing through our ownership of ORCC Financing. The maximum principal amount of the SPV Asset Facility is $400 million; the availability of this amount is subject to a borrowing base test, which is based on the value of ORCC Financing’s assets from time to time, and satisfaction of certain conditions, including certain concentration limits.
The SPV Asset Facility provides for the ability to draw and redraw amounts under the SPV Asset Facility for a period of up to three years after the SPV Asset Facility Closing Date (the “SPV Asset Commitment Termination Date”). Unless otherwise terminated, the SPV Asset Facility will mature on December 21, 2022 (the “SPV Asset Facility Maturity Date”). Prior to the SPV Asset Facility Maturity Date, proceeds received by ORCC Financing from principal and interest, dividends, or fees on assets must be used to pay fees, expenses and interest on outstanding borrowings, and the excess may be returned to the Company, subject to certain conditions. On the SPV Asset Facility Maturity Date, ORCC Financing must pay in full all outstanding fees and expenses and all principal and interest on outstanding borrowings, and the excess may be returned to the Company.
Amounts drawn will bear interest at LIBOR plus a spread of 2.25% until the six-month anniversary of the SPV Asset Facility Closing Date, increasing to 2.50% thereafter, until the SPV Asset Facility Commitment Termination Date. After the SPV Asset Facility Commitment Termination Date, amounts drawn will bear interest at LIBOR plus a spread of 2.75%, increasing to 3.00% on the first anniversary of the SPV Asset Facility Commitment Termination Date. After a ramp-up period, there is an unused fee of 0.75% per annum on the amount, if any, by which the undrawn amount under the SPV Asset Facility exceeds 25% of the maximum principal amount of the SPV Asset Facility. The SPV Asset Facility contains customary covenants, including certain financial maintenance covenants, limitations on the activities of ORCC Financing, including limitations on incurrence of incremental indebtedness, and customary events of default. The SPV Asset Facility is secured by a perfected first priority security interest in the assets of ORCC Financing and on any payments received by ORCC Financing in respect of those assets. Assets pledged to the Lenders will not be available to pay the debts of the Company. Borrowings of ORCC Financing are considered our borrowings for purposes of complying with the asset coverage requirements under the 1940 Act.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Unsecured Notes
2023 Notes
On December 21, 2017, Owl Rock Capital Corporation entered into a Note Purchase Agreement governing the issuance of $150 million in aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes (the “2023 Notes”) to institutional investors in a private placement. The issuance of $138.5 million of the 2023 Notes occurred on December 21, 2017, and $11.5 million of the 2023 Notes were issued in January 2018. The 2023 Notes have a fixed interest rate of 4.75% and are due on June 21, 2023. Interest on the 2023 Notes will be due semiannually. This interest rate is subject to increase (up to a maximum interest rate of 5.50%) in the event that, subject to certain exceptions, the 2023 Notes cease to have an investment grade rating. The Company is obligated to offer to repay the 2023 Notes at par if certain change in control events occur. The 2023 Notes are general unsecured obligations of the Company that rank pari passu with all outstanding and future unsecured unsubordinated indebtedness issued by the Company.
The Note Purchase Agreement for the 2023 Notes contains customary terms and conditions for senior unsecured notes issued in a private placement, including, without limitation, affirmative and negative covenants such as information reporting, maintenance of the Company’s status as a BDC within the meaning of the 1940 Act and a RIC under the Code, minimum shareholders equity, minimum asset coverage ratio and prohibitions on certain fundamental changes at the Company or any subsidiary guarantor, as well as customary events of default with customary cure and notice, including, without limitation, nonpayment, misrepresentation in a material respect, breach of covenant, cross-default under other indebtedness of the Company or certain significant subsidiaries, certain judgments and orders, and certain events of bankruptcy.
The 2023 Notes were offered in reliance on Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act. The 2023 Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws and, unless so registered, may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act as applicable.
In connection with the offering of the 2023 Notes, on December 21, 2017 the Company entered into an interest rate swap to continue to align the interest rates of its liabilities with its investment portfolio, which consists predominately of floating rate loans. The notional amount of the interest rate swap is $150 million. The Company will receive fixed rate interest at 4.75% and pay variable rate interest based on the 1-month LIBOR plus 2.545%. The interest rate swap matures on December 21, 2021. Pursuant to ASC 815 Derivatives and Hedging, the interest expense related to the 2023 Notes will be offset by the proceeds received from the interest rate swap. The swap adjusted interest expense is included as a component of interest expense on the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Operations.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Note 7. Commitments and Contingencies
Portfolio Company Commitments
From time to time, the Company may enter into commitments to fund investments. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, the Company had the following outstanding commitments to fund investments in current portfolio companies:
The Company maintains sufficient capacity to cover outstanding unfunded portfolio company commitments that the Company may be required to fund.
Other Commitments and Contingencies
As of December 31, 2017, the Company had $5.1 billion in total Capital Commitments from investors ($3.7 billion undrawn), of which $112.4 million is from executives of the Adviser ($63.5 million undrawn). These undrawn Capital Commitments will no longer remain in effect following the completion of an initial public offering of the Company’s common stock. Subsequent to December 31, 2017, the Company entered into $0.4 billion of Subscription Agreements with investors, which increased the Capital Commitments to $5.5 billion ($4.2 billion undrawn).
As of December 31, 2016, the Company had $2.3 billion in total Capital Commitments from investors ($1.6 billion undrawn), of which $112.4 million is from executives of the Adviser ($63.8 million undrawn). These undrawn Capital Commitments will no longer remain in effect following the completion of an initial public offering of the Company’s common stock.
From time to time, the Company may become a party to certain legal proceedings incidental to the normal course of its business. At December 31, 2017, management is not aware of any pending or threatened litigation.
2023 Notes
As of December 31, 2017, $11.5 million of the 2023 Notes remained outstanding.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Note 8. Net Assets
Subscriptions and Drawdowns
In connection with its formation, the Company has the authority to issue 500,000,000 common shares at $0.01 per share par value.
On March 1, 2016, the Company issued 100 common shares for $1,500 to the Adviser.
The Company has entered into subscription agreements (the “Subscription Agreements”) with investors providing for the private placement of the Company’s common shares. Under the terms of the Subscription Agreements, investors are required to fund drawdowns to purchase the Company’s common shares up to the amount of their respective Capital Commitment on an as-needed basis each time the Company delivers a drawdown notice to its investors.
During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company delivered the following capital call notices to investors:
During the year ended December 31, 2016, the Company delivered the following capital call notices to investors:
Distributions
The following table reflects the distributions declared on shares of the Company’s common stock during the year ended December 31, 2017:
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
The following table reflects the distribution declared on shares of the Company’s common stock during the year ended December 31, 2016:
On March 2, 2018, the Board declared a distribution of 90% of the Company’s estimated first quarter taxable income for shareholders of record on March 31, 2018, payable on April 30, 2018.
Dividend Reinvestment
With respect to distributions, the Company has adopted an “opt out” dividend reinvestment plan for common shareholders. As a result, in the event of a declared distribution, each shareholder that has not “opted out” of the dividend reinvestment plan will have their dividends or distributions automatically reinvested in additional shares of our common stock rather than receiving cash distributions. Shareholders who receive distributions in the form of shares of common stock will be subject to the same U.S. federal, state and local tax consequences as if they received cash distributions.
The following table reflects the common stock issued pursuant to the dividend reinvestment plan during the year ended December 31, 2017:
The following table reflects the common stock issued pursuant to the dividend reinvestment plan during the year ended December 31, 2016:
Repurchase Offers
The Company offered to repurchase up to $50 million of issued and outstanding shares of common stock at a purchase price of $15.09 per share. The offer to repurchase commenced on March 15, 2017 and expired on April 11, 2017. No shares were repurchased in connection with the tender offer.
Note 9. Earnings Per Share
The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted earnings per common share:
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Note 10. Income Taxes
Taxable income generally differs from increase in net assets resulting from operations due to temporary and permanent differences in the recognition of income and expenses, and generally excludes net unrealized gains or losses, as unrealized gains or losses are generally not included in taxable income until they are realized.
The Company makes certain adjustments to the classification of net assets as a result of permanent book-to-tax differences, which include differences in the book and tax basis of certain assets and liabilities, and nondeductible federal taxes or losses among other items. To the extent these differences are permanent, they are charged or credited to additional paid in capital, undistributed net investment income or undistributed net realized gains on investments, as appropriate.
The following reconciles the increase in net assets resulting from operations for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 to undistributed taxable income at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively:
________________
(1)
Tax information for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 is estimated and is not considered final until the Company files its tax returns.
For the year ended December 31, 2017
All distributions declared for the calendar year ended December 31, 2017 were characterized as ordinary income. For the calendar year ended December 31, 2017 the Company had $6.9 million of undistributed ordinary income and $0.2 million of undistributed capital gains on a tax basis. For the year ended December 31, 2017, 88.3% of distributed ordinary income qualified as interest related dividend which is exempt from U.S. withholding tax applicable to non-U.S. shareholders.
During the year ended December 31, 2017, permanent differences were principally related to $0.9 million of recharacterization of prepayment penalties for tax purposes between ordinary income and capital gains, $0.8 million of non-deductible offering costs and $0.2 million attributable to U.S. federal excise taxes.
The tax cost of the Company’s investments at December 31, 2017 approximates their amortized cost.
For the year ended December 31, 2016
All distributions declared for the calendar year ended December 31, 2016 were characterized as ordinary income. For the calendar year ended December 31, 2016 the Company had $9.0 million of undistributed ordinary income on a tax basis. For the year ended December 31, 2016, 94.7% of distributed ordinary income qualified as interest related dividend which is exempt from U.S. withholding tax applicable to non-U.S. shareholders.
During the year ended December 31, 2016, permanent differences were principally related to $0.6 million of non-deductible offering costs and $0.4 million attributable to U.S. federal excise taxes.
The tax cost of the Company’s investments at December 31, 2016 approximates their amortized cost.
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Note 11. Financial Highlights
The following are the financial highlights for a common share outstanding during years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016:
________________
(1)
The per share data was derived by using the weighted average shares outstanding during the period.
(2)
The per share data was derived using actual shares outstanding at the date of the relevant transaction.
(3)
Total return is calculated as the change in net asset value (“NAV”) per share during the period, plus distributions per share, if any, divided by the beginning NAV per share.
(4)
Does not include expenses of investment companies in which the Company invests.
(5)
For the year ended December 31, 2016, the ratios reflect amounts from the commencement of operations, March 3, 2016, through December 31, 2016 and are not annualized.
Note 12. Selected Quarterly Financial Data (Unaudited)
Owl Rock Capital Corporation
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (continued)
Note 13. Subsequent Events
The Company’s management evaluated subsequent events through the date of issuance of these consolidated financial statements. Other than those previously disclosed, there have been no subsequent events that occurred during such period that would require disclosure in, or would be required to be recognized in, these consolidated financial statements.
Item 9.
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.
There are not and have not been any disagreements between the Company and its accountant on any matter of accounting principles, practices, or financial statement disclosure.
Item 9A.
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.
(a)
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
In accordance with Rules 13a-15(b) and 15d-15(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), we, under the supervision and with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) and Rule 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act) as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K and determined that our disclosure controls and procedures are effective as of the end of the period covered by the Annual Report on Form 10-K.
(b)
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act). Under the supervision and with the participation of management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 COSO Framework). Based on our evaluation under the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework, management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2017.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
This annual report does not include an attestation report of the company’s registered public accounting firm pursuant to the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
(c)
Changes in Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting
There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during our most recently completed fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Item 9B.
Item 9B. Other Information.
None
PART III
Item 10.
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.
Information in response to this item is incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement relating to our 2018 annual meeting of shareholders. The Proxy Statement will be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Form 10-K pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Exchange Act.
Item 11.
Item 11. Executive Compensation.
Information in response to this item is incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement relating to our 2018 annual meeting of shareholders.
Item 12.
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters.
Information in response to this item is incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement relating to our 2018 annual meeting of shareholders.
Item 13.
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.
Information in response to this item is incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement relating to our 2018 annual meeting of shareholders.
Item 14.
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services.
Information in response to this item is incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement relating to our 2018 annual meeting of shareholders.
PART IV
Item 15.
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules.
The following documents are filed as part of this annual report:
(1)
Financial Statements - Financial statements are included in Item 8. See the Index to the Consolidated Financial Statements on page of this annual report on Form 10-K.
(2)
Financial Statement Schedules - None. We have omitted financial statement schedules because they are not required or are not applicable, or the required information is shown in the consolidated statements or notes to the consolidated financial statements included in this annual report on Form 10-K.
(3)
Exhibits - The following is a list of all exhibits filed as a part of this annual report on Form 10-K, including those incorporated by reference
Please note that the agreements included as exhibits to this Form 10-K are included to provide information regarding their terms and are not intended to provide any other factual or disclosure information about us or the other parties to the agreements. The agreements contain representations and warranties by each of the parties to the applicable agreement that have been made solely for the benefit of the other parties to the applicable agreement and may not describe the actual state of affairs as of the date they were made or at any other time.
The following exhibits are filed as part of this report or hereby incorporated by reference to exhibits previously filed with the SEC:
________________
*Filed herein
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this Report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Craig W. Packer and Alan Kirshenbaum, and each of them, such person’s true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent, with full power of substitution and revocation, for such person and in such person’s name, place and stead, in any and all capacities, to sign one or more Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the fiscal December 31, 2017, and any and all amendments thereto, and to file same with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneys-in-fact and agents, and each of them, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in connection therewith, as fully to all intents and purposes as such person might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys-in-fact and agents and each of them, or their or his substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this Report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant in the capacities on March 2, 2018.
Name
Title
/s/ Craig W. Packer
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Craig W. Packer
/s/ Alan Kirshenbaum
Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Director
Alan Kirshenbaum
/s/ Douglas I. Ostrover
Director
Douglas I. Ostrover
/s/ Edward D’Alelio
Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Edward D’Alelio
/s/ Christopher M. Temple
Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee
Christopher M. Temple
/s/ Eric Kaye
Director and Chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
Eric Kaye
/s/ Brian Finn
Director
Brian Finn