Oaktree Specialty Lending Corp (OCSL) 2019 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome, and thank you for joining the Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation's Third Fiscal Quarter 2019 Conference Call. Today's conference call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

歡迎並感謝您參加橡樹專業貸款公司 2019 年第三財季電話會議。今天的電話會議正在錄音。（操作員說明）

Now I would like to introduce Michael Mosticchio of Investor Relations, who will host today's conference call. Mr. Mosticchio, you may begin.

現在我想介紹一下投資者關係部的邁克爾·莫斯蒂奇奧（Michael Mosticchio），他將主持今天的電話會議。莫斯蒂奇奧先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, operator, and welcome to Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation's fiscal third quarter conference call. Our earnings release, which we issued this morning, and the accompanying slide presentation can be accessed on the Investors section of our website at oaktreespecialtylending.com.

謝謝您，營運商，歡迎參加橡樹專業貸款公司第三季財報電話會議。我們今天早上發布的收益報告以及隨附的幻燈片演示文稿可以在我們網站的投資者部分獲取，網址為：oaktreespecialtylending.com。

Our speakers today are Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Edgar Lee; Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Mel Carlisle; and Chief Operating Officer, Matt Pendo. We will be happy to take your questions following their prepared remarks.

今天我們的演講者是執行長兼首席投資長 Edgar Lee；財務長兼財務主管 Mel Carlisle；和首席營運長馬特·彭多。我們很樂意在他們準備好的發言後回答您的問題。

Before we begin, I want to remind you that comments on today's call include forward-looking statements reflecting our current views with respect to, among other things, our future operating results and financial performance. Our actual results could differ materially from those implied or expressed in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to our SEC filings for a discussion of these factors in further detail. We undertake no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，今天電話會議的評論包括前瞻性陳述，反映了我們目前對未來營運表現和財務表現等的看法。我們的實際結果可能與前瞻性陳述中暗示或表達的結果有重大差異。請參閱我們向 SEC 提交的文件，以了解對這些因素的更詳細討論。我們不承擔更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述的責任。

I'd also like to remind you that nothing on this call constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any interest in any Oaktree fund. Investors and others should note that Oaktree Specialty Lending uses the Investors section of its corporate website to announce material information. Accordingly, the company encourages investors, the media and others to visit its corporate website to obtain investor-related material.

我還想提醒您，本次電話會議中的任何內容均不構成出售要約或徵求購買任何橡樹基金任何權益的要約。投資者和其他人應注意，橡樹專業貸款公司使用其公司網站的投資者部分來公佈重要資訊。因此，公司鼓勵投資者、媒體和其他人造訪公司網站以取得投資者相關資料。

With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Edgar.

現在我想把電話轉給埃德加。

Thank you, Mike, and welcome, everyone, to our third quarter earnings conference call. We appreciate your interest in OCSL.

謝謝麥克，歡迎大家參加我們的第三季財報電話會議。我們感謝您對 OCSL 的興趣。

We are pleased to report another quarter of strong results, highlighted again by NAV growth, solid earnings, continued progress on monetizing non-core investments and an ongoing conservative financial position.

我們很高興地報告又一個季度的強勁業績，資產淨值增長、穩健的盈利、非核心投資貨幣化的持續進展以及持續保守的財務狀況再次凸顯了這一點。

NAV per share increased $0.05 from the previous quarter. This marked the sixth straight quarter of NAV growth, demonstrating the solid credit quality of our portfolio and the success of our portfolio repositioning efforts since we started managing OCSL in 2017.

每股資產淨值較上一季增加 0.05 美元。這標誌著資產淨值連續第六個季度增長，證明了我們投資組合的可靠信用品質以及自 2017 年開始管理 OCSL 以來我們的投資組合重新定位工作的成功。

Our portfolio produced net investment income per share of $0.12 in the third quarter, relatively consistent with the first two quarters of the year. Contributing to investment income this quarter were call protection and prepayment fees received on two loans that were paid off during the quarter.

我們的投資組合第三季每股淨投資收益為 0.12 美元，與今年前兩季相對穩定。本季投資收入的貢獻因素是本季償還的兩筆貸款收到的催繳保護費和預付款費。

In one instance, our $30 million investment in U.S. Well Services, a provider of fracking services in oil and gas basins, was repaid. As you may recall, this investment was part of a $75 million 1-year loan that Oaktree made to the company, which OCSL participated in alongside with other Oaktree funds. During the quarter, our loan was refinanced, generating an IRR of over 60% and a money multiple of 1.17x in just over 5 months.

在一個例子中，我們對 U.S. Well Services（一家油氣盆地水力壓裂服務提供商）的 3000 萬美元投資得到了償還。您可能還記得，這項投資是橡樹資本向該公司提供的 7500 萬美元的一年期貸款的一部分，OCSL 與橡樹資本的其他基金一起參與了該貸款。本季度，我們的貸款進行了再融資，在短短 5 個多月內產生了超過 60% 的內部收益率和 1.17 倍的貨幣倍數。

The third quarter was also highlighted by continued progress in repositioning the portfolio as we realized approximately $27 million from the monetizations of non-core investments. I will discuss one of these exits in more detail later.

第三季的另一個亮點是投資組合重新定位的持續進展，我們從非核心投資的貨幣化中實現了約 2,700 萬美元。稍後我將更詳細地討論其中一個出口。

Additionally, we maintained a conservative financial position during the quarter. We are exercising caution and discipline given the current market environment and the late stage of the economic cycle, and as a result, leverage was down slightly to 0.58x, below our long-term target range of 0.70x to 0.85x. That noted, we remain active in the market and are well positioned to take advantage of market dislocations as we have about $330 million of dry powder for new investments at quarter end.

此外，我們在本季保持保守的財務狀況。鑑於目前的市場環境和經濟週期的後期階段，我們保持謹慎和紀律，因此槓桿率小幅降至0.58倍，低於我們0.70倍至0.85倍的長期目標範圍。值得注意的是，我們在市場上仍然活躍，並且處於有利地位，可以利用市場混亂，因為我們在季度末有約 3.3 億美元的乾粉用於新投資。

Now I would like to share our view on the overall market environment. The competitive lending environment we experienced earlier in the year continued through the most recent quarter. There is a tremendous amount of capital targeting direct lending opportunities, extending a borrower-friendly environment in which some direct lending funds are approaching loan deals aggressively and taking on excessive risk. This translates into credit spreads that continue to be tight and generally covenant structures and terms that we find less attractive.

下面我想分享一下我們對整個市場環境的看法。我們今年稍早經歷的競爭性貸款環境持續到最近一個季度。有大量資本瞄準直接貸款機會，擴大了對借款人友好的環境，在這種環境中，一些直接貸款基金正在積極進行貸款交易並承擔過高的風險。這意味著信用利差繼續收緊，並且我們認為契約結構和條款的吸引力普遍降低。

While we are not seeing widespread signs of credit deterioration, increasing number of direct lending funds are experiencing deterioration in several of their loans. These pressures may eventually help encourage a rebalancing of the direct lending market and create more attractive opportunities.

雖然我們沒有看到廣泛的信貸惡化跡象，但越來越多的直接貸款基金的一些貸款正在經歷惡化。這些壓力最終可能有助於鼓勵直接貸款市場的重新平衡並創造更有吸引力的機會。

In keeping with our strategy, we continue to focus on the near-term investment objectives we outlined on our last call: maintaining diversity across issuers and industries, focusing on senior secured opportunities; lending to larger, more diversified businesses; and seeking borrowers with lower leverage levels.

根據我們的策略，我們繼續關注我們在上次電話會議中概述的近期投資目標：保持發行人和行業的多樣性，並專注於高級擔保機會；向規模更大、更多元化的企業提供貸款；並尋找槓桿水平較低的借款人。

OCSL's portfolio characteristics were generally stable from last quarter. As of June 30, we had $1.5 billion of investments diversified across 105 companies in 36 industries. 80% of the portfolio was invested in senior secured loans, of which 54% were first lien.

OCSL 的投資組合特徵與上季相比整體穩定。截至 6 月 30 日，我們對 36 個產業的 105 家公司進行了 15 億美元的多元化投資。投資組合的 80% 投資於優先擔保貸款，其中 54% 為第一留置權。

In addition, we continue to weight the portfolio towards larger middle market companies with lower amounts of leverage. The median annual EBITDA of companies in our investment portfolio increased to $130 million in the quarter, up from $99 million in the same quarter one year ago, and 57% of our companies generated EBITDA in excess of $100 million. Leverage at our portfolio companies was 5.0x at quarter end, well below the overall market leverage levels of over 5.5x.

此外，我們繼續將投資組合的權重轉向槓桿率較低的大型中型市場公司。我們投資組合中公司的年度 EBITDA 中位數從一年前同一季度的 9,900 萬美元增至本季的 1.3 億美元，其中 57% 的公司產生的 EBITDA 超過 1 億美元。截至季末，我們投資組合公司的槓桿率為 5.0 倍，遠低於超過 5.5 倍的整體市場槓桿水準。

Moving on to our non-core portfolio. As mentioned earlier, we monetized $27 million in non-core investments during the quarter, $21 million of which came from the sale of an airplane in our aviation subsidiary. We were able to complete the sale at a premium to our plane's prior quarter mark, which drove gains of approximately $3 million. Following the sale, our aviation subsidiary's fair value is down to approximately $15 million in just one aircraft. Notably, the remaining plane is an Airbus A320 that is leased to a high-quality counterparty, and as a result, we are confident that we will carry out a successful sale process to exit the remaining balance of this investment.

繼續我們的非核心投資組合。如前所述，本季我們將 2,700 萬美元的非核心投資貨幣化，其中 2,100 萬美元來自我們航空子公司出售的一架飛機。我們能夠以高於上一季飛機價格的溢價完成出售，這帶來了約 300 萬美元的收益。出售後，我們航空子公司僅一架飛機的公允價值就降至約 1,500 萬美元。值得注意的是，剩餘的飛機是一架空中巴士 A320，已租給優質交易對方，因此，我們有信心成功完成出售流程，退出此投資的剩餘餘額。

With these monetizations, non-core investments have declined from $893 million since we began managing OCSL to $273 million as of June 30. Of the remaining non-core investments, five are nonaccrual, totaling $87 million or 6% of the portfolio at fair value. We continue to work diligently on maximizing the values of our remaining investments, which we expect will continue to occur over time.

透過這些貨幣化，非核心投資已從我們開始管理 OCSL 以來的 8.93 億美元下降到截至 6 月 30 日的 2.73 億美元。其餘非核心投資中，有 5 項為非應計投資，總計 8,700 萬美元，以公允價值計算，佔投資組合的 6%。我們將繼續努力實現剩餘投資的價值最大化，我們預計隨著時間的推移，這種情況將繼續發生。

Given our conservative posture and patient approach, we identified fewer origination opportunities that met our standards in the third quarter. While we evaluated more than 200 potential transactions during the quarter, we originated $67 million across seven investments, down from $100 million in the previous quarter. First lien loans accounted for 94% of the third quarter investments. Three of these transactions were add-on investments to support the growth of existing portfolio companies, while four were new portfolio company investments made across the primary and secondary markets.

鑑於我們的保守態度和耐心態度，我們在第三季度發現符合我們標準的創始機會較少。雖然我們在本季評估了 200 多筆潛在交易，但我們在七項投資中籌集了 6,700 萬美元，低於上一季的 1 億美元。第一留置權貸款佔第三季投資的94%。其中三筆交易是附加投資，以支持現有投資組合公司的成長，而四筆交易是在一級和二級市場上進行的新投資組合公司投資。

The most prominent investment for the quarter was a $40 million loan to Lightbox, a commercial real estate data and software provider with market leading positions in certain niches. In aggregate, Oaktree funds lent $90 million to the company and led its $190 million first lien financing. The loan carried an attractive rate at LIBOR plus 500 and a favorable covenant package. The loan is supported by $379 million of equity capital cushion.

本季最引人注目的投資是向 Lightbox 提供 4000 萬美元貸款，Lightbox 是一家商業房地產數據和軟體提供商，在某些利基市場中處於市場領先地位。橡樹基金總共向該公司貸款了 9,000 萬美元，並主導了 1.9 億美元的首次留置權融資。這筆貸款的利率很有吸引力，倫敦銀行同業拆借利率 (LIBOR) 加 500，並提供有利的契約方案。該貸款由 3.79 億美元的股本緩衝支持。

The average yield for all of our originations was 8%, down modestly from the previous quarter. Although our conservative approach has muted the overall yield on new investments, we are confident that this is a prudent way to generate income in the near term, especially given the current volatile geopolitical and macro environment.

我們所有產品的平均收益率為 8%，比上一季略有下降。儘管我們的保守策略削弱了新投資的整體收益率，但我們相信，這是短期內創造收入的謹慎方式，特別是考慮到當前不穩定的地緣政治和宏觀環境。

In summary, we are very pleased with our strong third quarter results. We hold a defensive portfolio that we believe will continue to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns to our shareholders, and we believe we are well positioned to navigate the changing market conditions.

總之，我們對第三季的強勁業績感到非常滿意。我們持有防禦性投資組合，我們相信該投資組合將繼續為股東帶來有吸引力的風險調整回報，我們相信我們已做好應對不斷變化的市場狀況的準備。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mel to discuss our financial results in more detail.

說到這裡，我想把電話轉給梅爾，更詳細地討論我們的財務表現。

Thank you, Edgar. OCSL reported another quarter of strong financial results. Total investment income was $36.7 million, down slightly from $38.2 million in the second quarter. The $1.6 million decline was due to lower interest income, including PIK interest income, and was partially offset by higher fee income.

謝謝你，埃德加。OCSL 公佈了另一個季度強勁的財務業績。總投資收入為 3,670 萬美元，略低於第二季的 3,820 萬美元。下降 160 萬美元是由於利息收入（包括 PIK 利息收入）減少，但部分被費用收入增加所抵銷。

Interest income was down by $1.4 million quarter-over-quarter, primarily the result of recognizing $4.6 million of non-recurring OID accretion related to Dominion Diagnostics in the second quarter. This was offset by OID acceleration and make-whole interest from payoffs.

利息收入環比下降 140 萬美元，主要是由於第二季度確認了與 Dominion Diagnostics 相關的 460 萬美元非經常性 OID 增加。這被 OID 加速和來自支付的整體利息所抵消。

PIK interest income was down from the second quarter as we exited our investment in Maverick Healthcare last quarter. Now nearly all the PIK income we receive is from our investment in Alvatek, a senior secured bond that we originated in the December quarter. Fee income was up during the quarter primarily driven by prepayment fees that we received from the U.S. Well Services repayment.

由於我們在上季度退出了對 Maverick Healthcare 的投資，PIK 利息收入較第二季有所下降。現在，我們收到的幾乎所有 PIK 收入都來自我們對 Alvatek 的投資，這是我們在 12 月季度發行的優先擔保債券。本季的費用收入成長主要是由於我們從美國油井服務還款中收到的預付款費。

Operating expenses, excluding management fees and interest, were up $141,000 mainly driven by slightly higher professional fees. As a result of these items, net investment income was $16.6 million, down $1.1 million from the prior quarter.

營運費用（不包括管理費和利息）增加了 141,000 美元，主要是由於專業費用略有上升。由於這些項目的影響，淨投資收入為 1,660 萬美元，比上一季減少 110 萬美元。

Turning to net asset value. NAV increased to $6.60 per share from $6.55 per share on March 31. Contributing to the sequential increase were income in excess of our dividend and net gains on exited investments. However, offsetting these were mark-to-market valuation adjustments on some of our holdings.

轉向資產淨值。3 月 31 日，資產淨值從每股 6.55 美元增至每股 6.60 美元。收入超過我們的股息和退出投資的淨收益，促成了環比增長。然而，我們對部分持股進行了按市值計價的估值調整，抵消了這些影響。

The credit quality of the portfolio remains stable between quarters, as no new investments were added to nonaccrual in the quarter. As of June 30, 6.4% of our debt investments at fair value were on nonaccrual status as compared to 6.1% at March 31. This represents five positions, down from six, as we exited our investment in Advanced Pain Management, which had previously been written down to zero.

投資組合的信貸品質在季度之間保持穩定，因為本季沒有在非應計項目中添加新投資。截至 6 月 30 日，我們以公允價值計算的債務投資中有 6.4% 處於非應計狀態，而 3 月 31 日這一比例為 6.1%。這代表著五個職位，從六個減少，因為我們退出了對高級疼痛管理的投資，該投資之前已減記為零。

With respect to leverage, our leverage ratio decreased to 0.58x from 0.64x on March 31 as the portfolio shrank slightly during the quarter. We experienced $138 million in payoffs and exits, which was greater than the $74 million of investment fundings.

在槓桿方面，由於本季投資組合略有收縮，我們的槓桿率從 3 月 31 日的 0.64 倍降至 0.58 倍。我們經歷了 1.38 億美元的回報和退出，這比 7,400 萬美元的投資資金還要多。

As of June 30, total debt outstanding was $543 million and had a weighted average interest rate of 5.1%, unchanged from the prior quarter. Cash and cash equivalents were $6 million at quarter end, and we had $330 million of undrawn capacity on the revolving credit facility.

截至 6 月 30 日，未償債務總額為 5.43 億美元，加權平均利率為 5.1%，與上一季持平。截至季末，現金及現金等價物為 600 萬美元，循環信貸額度未動用量為 3.3 億美元。

Shifting now to the Kemper joint venture. As of June 30, the JV had $349 million of assets invested in senior secured loans to 51 companies. This compared to $347 million of total assets invested in 49 companies last quarter. Leverage at the JV was 1.3x at June 30, flat with last quarter. During the quarter, we amended and increased the size of the JV's credit facility from $200 million to $250 million, and at quarter end, the credit facility had $63 million of undrawn capacity.

現在轉向 Kemper 合資企業。截至 6 月 30 日，該合資公司已將 3.49 億美元的資產投資於向 51 家公司提供的優先擔保貸款。相比之下，上季投資於 49 家公司的總資產為 3.47 億美元。截至 6 月 30 日，合資公司的槓桿率為 1.3 倍，與上季持平。在本季度，我們修改了合資企業信貸額度並將其規模從 2 億美元增加到 2.5 億美元，截至季度末，信貸額度的未提取能力為 6,300 萬美元。

Now I will turn the call over to Matt.

現在我將把電話轉給馬特。

Thank you, Mel. We continue to execute on our plan to increase ROE on several fronts, which has resulted in solid returns for OCSL. We have steadily exited noninterest-generating investments and further strengthened our foundation of core earning assets.

謝謝你，梅爾。我們繼續執行在多個方面提高股本回報率的計劃，這為 OCSL 帶來了豐厚的回報。我們穩定退出非生息投資，進一步夯實核心獲利資產基礎。

During the quarter, we received proceeds of $6 million from three positions and have rotated out of over $100 million of non-interest generating investments this fiscal year. The remaining non-interest generating investments comprise $152 million or approximately 10% of the portfolio, which represents a significant opportunity to increase overall portfolio yield.

本季度，我們從三個職位獲得了 600 萬美元的收益，並在本財年轉出了超過 1 億美元的非生息投資。其餘的非生息投資包括 1.52 億美元，約佔投資組合的 10%，這是提高整體投資組合收益率的重大機會。

Additionally, our efforts to optimize the Kemper JV are contributing nicely to our results. The JV added $17 million in investments across 5 companies during the quarter, all of these were first lien loans.

此外，我們優化 Kemper JV 的努力也為我們的業績做出了巨大貢獻。該合資公司在本季對 5 家公司增加了 1,700 萬美元的投資，所有這些都是第一留置權貸款。

As Mel mentioned, the JV increased its credit facility capacity by $50 million to $250 million and now has $63 million of available capacity. We expect that over time, the JV will increase leverage as it incrementally adds investments. Leverage at quarter end was 1.3x, well below the longer-term target of 2.0x.

正如梅爾所提到的，合資企業將其信貸額度增加了 5,000 萬美元，達到 2.5 億美元，目前可用容量為 6,300 萬美元。我們預計，隨著時間的推移，合資企業將隨著投資的逐步增加而提高槓桿率。季末槓桿率為 1.3 倍，遠低於 2.0 倍的長期目標。

Furthermore, OCSL has the opportunity to increase returns by deploying more leverage at the portfolio level. We are currently operating at less than 0.6x, so we do have the ability to enhance returns as we find attractive investments and deploy higher leverage.

此外，OCSL 有機會透過在投資組合層面部署更多槓桿來增加回報。我們目前的營運利率低於 0.6 倍，因此當我們發現有吸引力的投資並部署更高的槓桿時，我們確實有能力提高回報。

Finally, we continue to rotate out of broadly syndicated loans with yields below LIBOR plus 400 basis points, positioning the portfolio for improved yield. During the third quarter, we owned $20 million of these lower-yielding broadly syndicated loans, down from $32 million in the second quarter. Over time, we plan to replace these investments with higher-yielding proprietary investments.

最後，我們繼續輪換收益率低於 LIBOR 加 400 個基點的廣泛銀團貸款，從而提高投資組合的收益率。第三季度，我們擁有 2,000 萬美元的此類低收益銀團貸款，低於第二季的 3,200 萬美元。隨著時間的推移，我們計劃用收益更高的自營投資取代這些投資。

Now turning to the dividend. Our Board approved a $0.095 dividend today, maintaining the level of the five prior quarters. As you know, we are determined to pay sustainable and consistent dividends, supported by portfolio performance.

現在轉向股息。今天，我們的董事會批准了 0.095 美元的股息，維持前五個季度的水準。如您所知，我們決心在投資組合績效的支持下支付可持續且持續的股息。

And lastly, I want to provide an update on the proxy initiatives that we put before shareholders with respect to the pending Brookfield transaction with Oaktree, as well as modifying the asset coverage requirements applicable to OCSL.

最後，我想提供有關我們向股東提交的有關布魯克菲爾德與橡樹資本懸而未決的交易的代理計劃的最新信息，以及修改適用於 OCSL 的資產覆蓋要求。

As you may recall, in light of Brookfield Asset Management's merger agreement with the parent of our investment advisor, Oaktree Capital Group, we sought shareholder approval of a new Investment Advisory Agreement between Oaktree and OCSL. The new Investment Advisory Agreement will become effective when the merger closes. Notably, other than changing the date of its effectiveness, the terms of the new Investment Advisory Agreement remain unchanged from those in the existing agreement.

您可能還記得，根據布魯克菲爾德資產管理公司與我們投資顧問的母公司橡樹資本集團的合併協議，我們尋求股東批准橡樹資本和 OCSL 之間的新投資諮詢協議。新的投資諮詢協議將於合併完成後生效。值得注意的是，除了生效日期變更外，新投資顧問協議的條款與現有協議的條款保持不變。

At the same time, we asked shareholders to approve an increase in our leverage limits by modifying our asset coverage requirements. Importantly, we sought this change in order to provide us with additional operating flexibility to deploy capital as the market becomes more favorable. As a reminder, with these new leverage limits, our base management fee will be reduced to 1% on all assets financed using leverage above 1x debt-to-equity.

同時，我們要求股東批准透過修改資產覆蓋率要求來提高槓桿限額。重要的是，我們尋求這項變更是為了為我們提供額外的營運彈性，以便在市場變得更加有利時部署資本。提醒一下，根據這些新的槓桿限制，對於使用高於 1 倍債務股本槓桿的槓桿融資的所有資產，我們的基本管理費將降低至 1%。

We are pleased to report that both of these proposals received overwhelming approval from shareholders, and we thank all those that voted their shares and participated in the meeting.

我們很高興地報告，這兩項提案都獲得了股東的壓倒性批准，我們感謝所有投票並參加會議的人。

In conclusion, as we look to the remainder of this fiscal year and into 2020, we are confident we have positioned the portfolio for continued strong results. We will strategically deleverage Oaktree's expertise and resources to identify attractive risk-adjusted investment opportunities that deliver value to our shareholders.

總之，當我們展望本財年剩餘時間和 2020 年時，我們有信心我們的投資組合能夠持續取得強勁業績。我們將策略性地利用橡樹資本的專業知識和資源，尋找具有吸引力的風險調整投資機會，為我們的股東帶來價值。

Thank you for joining us on today's call and for your continued interest in OCSL. With that, we're happy to take your questions. Operator, please open the lines.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議並感謝您對 OCSL 的持續關注。因此，我們很樂意回答您的問題。接線員，請開通線路。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Chris York of JMP securities.

（操作員指令）我們的第一個問題將來自 JMP 證券公司的 Chris York。

So maybe, Edgar or Matt, I just have one question this morning. So I calculated the payout ratio of your earnings fiscal year-to-date, I think it's below 80%, and that's below the 90% threshold generally associated with maintaining a BDC's reg status. So the question is twofold. Are there historical tax loss carry forwards that are currently shielding the distribution requirement and the payment of excise taxes? And then when can investor expect a dividend increase to a level closer to your earnings?

也許，埃德加或馬特，我今天早上只有一個問題。因此，我計算了貴公司本財年迄今為止的收入支付率，我認為該比率低於 80%，並且低於通常與維持 BDC 註冊狀態相關的 90% 門檻。所以問題是雙重的。目前是否存在歷史稅收損失結轉來保護分配要求和消費稅的支付？那麼投資者什麼時候可以期望股息增加到更接近您的收益的水平？

So on the -- Rick, it's Matt -- or sorry, Chris. On the last part of your question, the things that we're focused on, as I said before, is really the earnings in the portfolio translating into the dividends. And in the first and second quarters, we had some nonrecurring, non-cash items related to OID accretion accruals, particularly with Dominion. And in the current quarter, we had higher interest and fee income related to U.S. Well, so it was about $3.5 million and Dominion was $1.2 million. So those are items that we've had in the most recent quarters. So we're kind of waiting to work through those. Obviously, it's a volatile environment out there right now around interest rates and markets. So we're kind of weighing all those things as we pour through it.

那麼，瑞克，我是馬特，或者抱歉，克里斯。關於你問題的最後一部分，正如我之前所說，我們關注的實際上是投資組合中的收益轉化為股息。在第一季和第二季度，我們有一些與 OI​​D 累積應計相關的非經常性、非現金項目，特別是與 Dominion 相關的項目。在本季度，我們與 U.S. Well 相關的利息和費用收入較高，約為 350 萬美元，Dominion 為 120 萬美元。這些是我們最近幾季的產品。所以我們正在等待解決這些問題。顯然，目前利率和市場的環境不穩定。因此，當我們傾注時，我們會權衡所有這些事情。

In terms of the specifics on the tax, I want to circle back with you, there's -- we obviously watch that and there's spillover and ways to manage it. So I don't have a specific number for you right now.

就稅收的具體細節而言，我想和你們一起回顧一下，我們顯然正在關注這一點，並且存在溢出效應和管理方法。所以我現在沒有具體的數字給你。

Okay. Just so -- to be clear on the earnings, so what would you think is the core net investment income, I guess, this quarter that would be comparable to your dividend? So if I calculate a payout ratio, adjusting for some of those onetime items, what would we use in that denominator?

好的。就這樣 - 為了明確收益，那麼我想，您認為本季的核心淨投資收益與您的股息相當嗎？因此，如果我計算支付率，並對其中一些一次性項目進行調整，我們將在該分母中使用什麼？

Well, I mean, the payout ratio is -- that we've targeted is in the low 90s of net investment income. There's -- every quarter, there's been, as I mentioned before, kind of OID accretion or fees, et cetera. So it's really -- and those are really hard to predict kind of quarter-to-quarter. So if you kind of run your models and look at kind of the steady state in investment income, the other thing that we're focused on is taking some of the nonaccruals and turning them into accruing assets. So all those are just various inputs we have. I don't want to kind of give you the specific projection, but you can use that to kind of run through your models.

嗯，我的意思是，我們的目標是淨投資收入的派息率在 90 左右。正如我之前提到的，每個季度都會有 OID 增加或費用等等。所以這真的是——而且這些真的很難按季度進行預測。因此，如果你運行你的模型並觀察投資收入的穩定狀態，我們關注的另一件事就是將一些非應計項目轉化為應計資產。所以所有這些只是我們擁有的各種輸入。我不想給你具體的預測，但你可以用它來運行你的模型。

And Chris, if I can just add to what Matt mentioned, if you look at our dividend stream over time, over the past year, it's been a combination of return of capital as well as an income dividend. For investors, it's actually been quite advantageous because in our return of capital, there's a sort of tax efficiency associated with it because we do have a significant amount of net operating losses, which, again, provide some tax efficiency to those distributions in those circumstances.

克里斯，如果我可以補充馬特提到的內容，如果你看看我們過去一年的股息流，它是資本回報和收入股息的結合。對於投資者來說，這實際上是相當有利的，因為在我們的資本回報中，有一種與之相關的稅收效率，因為我們確實有大量的淨營運虧損，這再次為在這種情況下的分配提供了一些稅收效率。

And then just a follow-up. Is that the reason why you're not accruing any excise tax because you have those NOLs?

然後只是後續行動。這就是您因為擁有這些 NOL 而無需繳納任何消費稅的原因嗎？

Exactly. There's a certain amount of -- because of return of capital versus income distributions.

確切地。由於資本回報與所得分配的關係，因此有一定程度的影響。

Our next question comes from Rick Shane of JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的里克·謝恩。

I just want to talk a little bit about ongoing portfolio rotation. You cited specifically $130 million of assets that are generating income, and we can all do sort of the math on what that would represent from a P&L perspective. I am curious, though, and again, I understand that leverage is a very fungible concept in that you guys have leverage capacity with the new rules. But are those investments that in -- within your discipline are underlevered? And so as that capital is recycled, would we actually expect to see not only an -- a migration to earning assets, but actually, more than $130 million of assets replacing that?

我只想談談正在進行的投資組合輪換。您特別提到了 1.3 億美元的創收資產，我們都可以從損益表的角度計算這意味著什麼。不過，我很好奇，我再次明白，槓桿是一個非常可替代的概念，因為你們在新規則下擁有槓桿能力。但在您的學科範圍內，這些投資是否槓桿不足？因此，當資本被回收時，我們是否真的會期望看到不僅向盈利資產遷移，而且實際上會有超過 1.3 億美元的資產取代它？

So Rick, it's an interesting way to look at those assets. I don't think we quite think of it as methodically as you do in that sense. It's really a reflection of what are the investment opportunities in front of us and do we think they reflect good risk/reward. So while you are correct in your statement that, theoretically, the $130 million of assets are underlevered, even if we translate those $130 million into cash and then we redeploy the $130 million into new loans. While we could lever those loans up and, therefore, net deploy well in excess of $130 million, we may not do so if we can't find enough good assets to invest in beyond the $130 million, for example.

所以 Rick，這是看待這些資產的一種有趣的方式。從這個意義上說，我認為我們沒有像您一樣有條理地思考它。這實際上反映了我們面前的投資機會是什麼，以及我們是否認為它們反映了良好的風險/回報。因此，儘管您的說法是正確的，即從理論上講，這 1.3 億美元的資產槓桿不足，即使我們將這 1.3 億美元轉化為現金，然後將這 1.3 億美元重新部署到新貸款中。雖然我們可以提高這些貸款的槓桿率，從而使淨部署遠遠超過 1.3 億美元，但如果我們找不到足夠的優質資產來投資超過 1.3 億美元，我們可能不會這樣做。

Yes. I don't think -- look -- go ahead.

是的。我不認為——看——繼續。

Just to pick up on, it's Matt, what Edgar said, the leverage -- the portfolio leverage we run isn't influenced by the nonaccruals, it's influenced by the investment opportunities.

順便說一句，馬特，正如埃德加所說，槓桿——我們運行的投資組合槓桿不受非應計項目的影響，而是受到投資機會的影響。

Got it. Look, and I agree with you in that, and I think it's part of the strong philosophy of the company, which is that you don't solve for how big the portfolio should be, the portfolio size is defined by the opportunity that you guys perceive. But I am, at the same time, assuming that, that opportunity does present itself, curious about how big -- how that pool of capital could be translated into facing that opportunity?

知道了。聽著，我同意你的觀點，我認為這是公司強大理念的一部分，即你不解決投資組合應該有多大，投資組合的規模是由你們的機會決定的。感知。但同時，我假設這個機會確實出現了，很好奇這個資本池有多大──如何轉化為面對這個機會？

You are absolutely right, Rick, on that point. If you think about the total earnings potential of the company, if we were able to translate that $130 million into accruing assets and lever those assets, the earnings opportunity here could be meaningfully larger than what they are today.

瑞克，在這一點上你是絕對正確的。如果你考慮公司的總獲利潛力，如果我們能夠將這 1.3 億美元轉化為應計資產並利用這些資產，那麼這裡的獲利機會可能會比現在大得多。

On that point about leverage, we do have a significant amount of what we consider sort of dry powder here available to invest in the marketplace. As we commented in our prepared remarks and as you've seen in our materials, leverage has declined at the company this past quarter. Part of that is a reflection of a strong refinancing environment and part of that is a reflection of us not being satisfied with the types of opportunities that we're seeing before us today. That is not a reflection of not necessarily finding enough -- or originating enough opportunities, it's just a reflection of we don't necessarily like the opportunities before us. I think that's served us well. As we begin Q3 or we've begun August here, we've seen a significant amount of volatility. And you've heard folks at Oaktree in the past publicly comment about market is priced for perfection. Our general view was, as we were approaching the end of Q2, that the market was really priced for perfection. A lot of aggressive behaviors in the marketplace and ones that we just did not just feel comfortable with. And I think as we've seen in August, as the markets have sold off, especially equity markets on Monday, we can see that people didn't leave a large margin for error and we saw some pretty significant downward pressure on the marketplace and a significant amount of anxiety in the markets these days. And we're hopeful that those anxieties will continue to escalate to a certain extent because it will position us well to take advantage of those because we are -- we aren't in our optimal leverage target right now and we do have the ability to deploy a significant amount of capital, still.

在槓桿方面，我們確實有大量我們認為是乾粉的東西可用於市場投資。正如我們在準備好的評論中所評論的以及您在我們的材料中所看到的，上個季度該公司的槓桿率有所下降。部分原因是強勁的再融資環境，部分原因是我們對今天看到的機會類型不滿意。這並不反映我們不一定能找到足夠的機會，也不一定能創造出足夠的機會，而只是反映我們不一定喜歡擺在我們面前的機會。我認為這對我們很有幫助。當我們進入第三季或進入八月時，我們已經看到了巨大的波動。您過去曾聽過橡樹資本的員工公開評論說，市場定價已經完美。我們的總體觀點是，隨著第二季末的臨近，市場的定價確實非常完美。市場上有很多攻擊性行為，而我們只是對此感到不舒服。我認為，正如我們在8 月所看到的那樣，隨著市場的拋售，尤其是周一的股市，我們可以看到人們並沒有留下很大的錯誤餘地，我們看到市場面臨一些相當大的下行壓力，這些天市場出現了很大的焦慮。我們希望這些焦慮將在一定程度上繼續升級，因為這將使我們能夠很好地利用這些焦慮，因為我們現在還沒有達到最佳槓桿目標，但我們確實有能力仍然部署大量資本。

Our next question comes from Ryan Lynch of KBW.

我們的下一個問題來自 KBW 的 Ryan Lynch。

If I look at your guys' leverage over the last several quarters, it just continues to kind of tick lower. I wondered if you could kind of comment what you think is the main driver. Is it more of a lack of an opportunity set of new investments given the competitive environment? Is it more that you guys are kind of pushing investments out, trying to exit them as you rotate the portfolio? Or is this just some intentional positioning for lower leverage given that we are just later in a credit cycle?

如果我看看過去幾季你們的槓桿率，我會發現它只是繼續下降。我想知道您是否可以評論一下您認為主要驅動因素是什麼。考慮到競爭環境，是否更多的是缺乏新投資的機會？你們是否更多地是在推動投資，在輪換投資組合時試圖退出它們？或者這只是考慮到我們剛剛進入信貸週期的後期而有意降低槓桿率？

I think it's a little bit of the latter of the last two points you made. A couple of thoughts around your comments. One, as you saw in Q4 of last year, our deployment of capital picked up quite a bit, and that was because in Q4, we saw some pretty significant market disruptions, as all of you are aware of. When those disruptions happen, what we see consistently over time is that direct lenders or private credit funds tend to step back from the marketplace. You would think that, that is the time when these funds would step into the marketplace, but what we find consistently is that they step back from the marketplace, which creates really interesting opportunities for us. So as markets get weaker, our deployment tends to pick up. It's not always the case, but it tends to pick up in a pretty meaningful way, one.

我認為這有點像你最後兩點中的後者。關於您的評論的一些想法。一，正如您在去年第四季度看到的那樣，我們的資本部署大幅增加，這是因為在第四季度，我們看到了一些相當重大的市場混亂，正如大家都知道的那樣。當這些幹擾發生時，隨著時間的推移，我們一直看到直接貸款機構或私人信貸基金往往會退出市場。你可能會認為，這是這些基金進入市場的時候，但我們一致發現它們退出市場，這為我們創造了真正有趣的機會。因此，隨著市場走弱，我們的部署往往會增加。情況並非總是如此，但它往往會以一種非常有意義的方式出現。

Two, when we look at the market place overall, it really -- we look at it in terms of a risk/reward basis. A lot of managers might look at investments or loans that they make in terms of a yield perspective, that they can make 6% yield or an 8% yield. We really look at it as what's the reward? How many dollars can I make? And what's the potential for us to lose dollars here? How many bps or, therefore, how many dollars can we lose? And what we were seeing in this past quarter and we've seen it over the beginning part of this year as the market has been very strong was that, that risk/reward ratio was increasingly becoming unfavorable and it didn't make sense for us as fiduciaries to be investing our investors' dollars into that and into what we considered suboptimal situations. As you can see and you've seen from other BDCs, other direct lenders, you hear it anecdotally in the market place, there have been plenty of managers who have made some pretty poor quality loans to, one, have capital deployed; but two, did it because they thought they could earn an incremental 1% per year; but three, unfortunately, have been suffering losses of 20 to 30 points. And when we look at those risk/reward ratios, we struggle to see how those are prudent situations to get involved in where to make 1 point a year incremental, you have to take on the risk of losing 20 to 30 points to the downside. So that's what we were seeing in the market place, and we've seen more loans start to really struggle in the marketplace. And we saw fewer good quality opportunities and, therefore, really decided to curtail some of our lending activity in the short term.

第二，當我們從整體上看待市場時，我們實際上是從風險/回報的角度來看它的。許多管理者可能會從收益率的角度來看待他們進行的投資或貸款，他們可以獲得 6% 或 8% 的收益率。我們真正將其視為獎勵是什麼？我能賺多少錢？我們在這裡損失美元的可能性有多大？我們可以損失多少個基點，或者說，多少美元？我們在上個季度和今年年初看到的情況是，由於市場非常強勁，風險/回報比變得越來越不利，這對我們來說沒有意義作為受託人，將我們投資者的資金投入到我們認為次優的情況中。正如您所看到的，以及您從其他BDC、其他直接貸款人那裡看到的，您在市場上聽過這樣的軼事：有很多經理髮放了一些質量相當差的貸款，其目的是：第一，部署資本；第二，但有兩個人這樣做是因為他們認為每年可以增加 1% 的收入；但不幸的是，其中 3 家球隊損失了 20 至 30 分。當我們審視這些風險/報酬比率時，我們很難看出這些是謹慎的情況，如果每年增加 1 個百分點，你就必須承擔下跌 20 到 30 個百分點的風險。這就是我們在市場上看到的情況，我們看到更多的貸款開始在市場上陷入困境。我們看到的優質機會越來越少，因此確實決定在短期內減少一些貸款活動。

Having said that, I would caution investors to not measure us from quarter-to-quarter, but rather think of it -- take a longer term view. And as we mentioned in our prepared remarks on U.S. Well Services, for example, that loan was a loan that we made in Q4 at a time that market was dislocating. We were refinanced out of that loan. We generated an IRR well over 60%. The money multiple on that loan in five months was 1.17x money. If you think about a traditional loan that you would make in today's environment, if we had done it in Q2, that loan probably would have generated about maybe a 9% IRR on an unlevered basis with a money multiple maybe of 1.1x, 1.2x over a 2- to 3-year period. So if I can find opportunities in a marketplace where we can generate high IRRs, good money multiples and manage our downside risk but that comes with the lumpiness of capital deployment from quarter-to-quarter, I would rather take that than introduce our investors to significant downside risk just to have our originations and leverage up in a single quarter.

話雖如此，我還是要提醒投資人不要以季度來衡量我們，而應該以更長遠的眼光來思考。例如，正如我們在有關美國油田服務公司的準備好的評論中提到的那樣，這筆貸款是我們在第四季度市場混亂時發放的貸款。我們從這筆貸款中獲得了再融資。我們的 IRR 遠超過 60%。五個月內該貸款的貨幣倍數為 1.17 倍。如果你考慮在當今環境下發放的傳統貸款，如果我們在第二季度這樣做，那麼該貸款可能會在無槓桿的基礎上產生約 9% 的 IRR，貨幣倍數可能為 1.1 倍、1.2 倍在2到3 年的時間內。因此，如果我能在一個市場中找到機會，我們可以產生高內部收益率、良好的貨幣倍數並管理我們的下行風險，但隨之而來的是每季資本部署的不穩定性，我寧願接受它，也不願向我們的投資者介紹僅僅為了在一個季度內提高我們的起源和槓桿率，就存在重大的下行風險。

That's good color, and I definitely agree on focusing on the longer-term as well as not reaching for 1 point at the risk of losing 20 on the downside. And that kind of brings me to my next question. On slide 15, you guys outlined 4 opportunities to increase your return on equity. And certainly, I would say, points 2 through 4 are all opportunities that rely on finding attractive investments in the market to deploy capital into, growing leverage, utilization of the JV with Kemper and rotating to higher-yielding proprietary investments. If the market conditions for direct lending remain unchanged, as they are today, which as you've explained are pretty tight and pretty competitive, how confident are you that you can successfully achieve those opportunities that you've outlined, particularly opportunities 2 through 4, which rely on an attractive opportunities in the market?

這是很好的顏色，我絕對同意專注於長期目標，並且不要冒著損失 20 點的風險而達到 1 點。這就引出了我的下一個問題。在投影片 15 上，你們概述了 4 個提高股本回報率的機會。當然，我想說，第2 點到第4 點都是依賴於在市場上尋找有吸引力的投資來部署資本、提高槓桿率、利用與Kemper 的合資企業以及轉向收益更高的自營投資的機會。如果直接貸款的市場條件像今天一樣保持不變，正如您所解釋的，市場條件相當緊張且競爭相當激烈，那麼您對成功實現您所概述的這些機會有多大信心，特別是機會 2 到 4 ，依靠哪些有吸引力的市場機會？

So it's Matt. I think if you look back, as we've taken over as the manager here, I think we've done -- we've taken action in points 1 through 4. And I think every quarter, there'll be different levels of activity. As Edgar mentioned, given the investment environment, we saw in the last quarter, our originations were lower. But as Edgar mentioned U.S. Well, we did that loan a year ago. We've done things like Allen Media, since we have taken over as managers. So I think you can see opportunities, since we've taken over really in the last year, even in the last two quarters, we have been able to put on some higher-yielding proprietary investments. And four, If you look over the last couple of quarters, we have put additional investments in Kemper, so we've done that. The leverage target is #2, that we haven't done. In terms of just looking at the numbers here, we've taken in the last year leverage down from 0.75x to 0.58x. So that one, we're just waiting with dry powder for the opportunity to deploy. But all these things in the last year, quarter-to-quarter we've done. So we still feel pretty confident we can do that. But we're going to be thoughtful and opportunistic. And every day, things change, as we've seen this week, so that creates opportunities for us.

所以是馬特。我想如果你回顧一下，當我們接任這裡的經理時，我認為我們已經做到了——我們已經在第 1 點到第 4 點中採取了行動。我認為每個季度都會有不同程度的活動。正如埃德加所提到的，考慮到投資環境，我們在上個季度看到，我們的起源較低。但正如埃德加所提到的，美國，我們一年前就貸款了。自從我們接任經理以來，我們已經做了像艾倫媒體這樣的事。所以我認為你可以看到機會，因為我們在去年真正接管了，甚至在過去兩個季度，我們已經能夠進行一些更高收益的自營投資。第四，如果你看看過去幾個季度，我們已經對肯珀進行了額外的投資，所以我們已經這樣做了。槓桿目標是#2，我們還沒做到。光是看這裡的數字，我們去年的槓桿率從 0.75 倍降至 0.58 倍。因此，我們只是帶著乾粉等待部署的機會。但所有這些事情都是我們在去年每個季度都完成的。所以我們仍然非常有信心能夠做到這一點。但我們會深思熟慮並抓住機會。正如我們本週所看到的那樣，事情每天都在變化，這為我們創造了機會。

But those opportunities going forward really depend on your guys' view and the attractiveness of deploying capital into the market, which can be out of your control?

但未來的這些機會實際上取決於你們的觀點以及將資本部署到市場的吸引力，這可能是你們無法控制的？

Yes. Although, I mean, Ryan, like the last -- the private credit direct lending environment for the last year has been pretty robust and we still manage to get stuff done, so -- but we're going to be choosy and picky.

是的。我的意思是，瑞安，儘管去年的私人信貸直接貸款環境相當強勁，我們仍然設法完成工作，所以，但我們會變得挑剔和挑剔。

Ryan, I think a couple of things worth noting. One, as we've said in the past, we encourage investors to think about investments in our portfolio on a total return basis, not just on an interest income bearing basis. So while our total assets in the portfolio or our leverage may have been declining, what doesn't accurately necessarily get reflected in financials, LTM financials and others in the BDC space is the capital appreciation upside. We're little bit different than other BDCs because of the nature of this portfolio in that there is a pretty significant amount of equities and other opportunities here that are trading or have a fair market value below par that create potential for capital appreciation in the future. Obviously, there's no guarantee that'll be created. But I think if you look at our past performance over the last couple of years since managing the portfolio that there has been a pretty decent amount of capital appreciation that has been created. So we can create value for shareholders even if we don't necessarily increase leverage in the short term. And I'd encourage people not to discount that necessarily.

瑞安，我認為有幾件事值得注意。第一，正如我們過去所說，我們鼓勵投資者在總回報的基礎上考慮我們投資組合的投資，而不僅僅是利息收入的基礎上。因此，雖然我們投資組合中的總資產或槓桿率可能一直在下降，但資本增值的上升空間不一定能準確地反映在財務數據、LTM 財務數據和 BDC 領域的其他數據中。我們與其他 BDC 略有不同，因為該投資組合的性質在於，這裡有大量股票和其他機會正在交易或公平市場價值低於面值，從而在未來創造資本增值的潛力。顯然，不能保證一定會創建。但我認為，如果你看看我們管理投資組合以來過去幾年的表現，你會發現已經創造了相當可觀的資本增值。因此，即使短期內不一定會提高槓桿率，我們也可以為股東創造價值。我鼓勵人們不要低估這一點。

Two, in terms of some of the points that have been outlined on Page 15, a couple of things to think about when you think about the optimal leverage on a portfolio or your ability to lever a portfolio. If we think about it in the context of a commercial bank perspective where you're looking at net interest margin, over the last several quarters, as we've been driving down the cost of our capital by renegotiating our credit facility cost of capital with our borrowings by refinancing out high-cost fixed-rate debt and so on and so forth, we're actually creating the opportunity for us to basically use that leverage in a way and take advantage of a market where our yields overall are coming down but we're creating or we're increasing our ability to generate NIM by driving down our cost of liabilities, which allows us, theoretically, to push up our leverage levels over time, again if we find interesting investment opportunities.

第二，就第 15 頁概述的一些要點而言，當您考慮投資組合的最佳槓桿或槓桿投資組合的能力時，需要考慮一些事項。如果我們從商業銀行的角度來考慮這個問題，即在過去的幾個季度中，您會看到淨息差，因為我們一直在通過與信貸便利資本成本進行重新談判來降低資本成本。通過對高成本固定利率債務進行再融資等方式來償還我們的借款，我們實際上正在為我們創造機會，基本上以某種方式使用槓桿，並利用我們的收益率總體下降的市場，但我們正在通過降低負債成本來創造或增強產生淨利差的能力，理論上，如果我們發現有趣的投資機會，隨著時間的推移，我們可以再次提高槓桿水平。

When we think about the investing environment where we say that we're more cautious, that is absolutely true, but that doesn't mean that we don't find opportunities coming up. What ends up happening, though, is when the market is very strong and you have a strong lending environment, the opportunities come in the door in a more episodic way, as opposed to a consistent way. And so in Q3 or in any future quarter, it's quite possible that even if the market is strong that we all of a sudden see a pretty significant pickup in our net deployment, just because there were some unique situations that we were able to identify or create that just happened to match up with a particular quarter. So I wouldn't look at our historical and say that, that is necessarily a good predictor of our future deployment. Because of the nature of the lending that we do, it can be episodic and -- at points in time, and it doesn't necessarily always correlate to the overall lending environment.

當我們考慮我們所說的更謹慎的投資環境時，這絕對是事實，但這並不意味著我們沒有發現機會。然而，最終發生的情況是，當市場非常強勁並且擁有強大的貸款環境時，機會會以更偶然的方式出現，而不是持續的方式。因此，在第三季度或未來的任何季度，即使市場強勁，我們也很可能突然看到我們的網路部署出現相當大的回升，只是因為我們能夠識別或發現一些獨特的情況創建恰好與特定季度相匹配的內容。因此，我不會回顧我們的歷史並說，這必然是我們未來部署的良好預測。由於我們提供的貸款的性質，它可能是間歇性的，而且在某個時間點上，它並不一定總是與整體貸款環境相關。

On this point about the Kemper JV, it is an area and a tool that we are utilizing today. Unfortunately, because when markets are very strong, we do experience a fair amount of refinancings. And so sometimes when markets are very strong, that treadmill picks up speed quite a bit, but we do look at the Kemper JV as a tool, especially in periods where we may not find as many attractive overall opportunities, we do use that as a tool to enhance ROEs, and we think that's a great tool for us to use in more robust environments, for sure.

關於 Kemper JV，這是我們今天正在利用的一個領域和一個工具。不幸的是，因為當市場非常強勁時，我們確實會經歷大量的再融資。因此，有時當市場非常強勁時，跑步機的速度會大大加快，但我們確實將Kemper JV 視為一種工具，特別是在我們可能找不到那麼多有吸引力的整體機會的時期，我們確實將其用作一種工具。增強 ROE 的工具，我們認為這無疑是我們在更強大的環境中使用的一個很好的工具。

Our next question comes from Kyle Joseph of Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的凱爾約瑟夫 (Kyle Joseph)。

Thanks for answering my questions. Most have been asked and answered, but I just wanted to follow up. You guys have referenced some volatility picking up recently in the market. You guys, obviously, have a portfolio of over 100 companies. At the company-specific level, have you seen any changes in terms of top line or EBITDA growth trends in your portfolio?

謝謝回答我的問題。大多數問題都已被詢問和回答，但我只是想跟進。你們提到了最近市場上出現的一些波動。顯然，你們擁有超過 100 家公司的投資組合。在公司特定層面上，您的投資組合中的營收或 EBITDA 成長趨勢是否有任何變化？

That's a great question, and thank you for the question. I would say that, generally, things have been stable. I would say that we are seeing slowing growth as a general comment, and that's because of the breadth of our portfolio, we get -- and for that matter, the breadth of the Oaktree platform. We get a pretty good view into the U.S. economy because we touch so many industries here at Oaktree. And I would just generally say that it's been more sluggish. I wouldn't say that we're seeing negative trends necessarily, it's just not as robust as maybe where we were a year ago.

這是一個很好的問題，謝謝你的提問。我想說的是，整體來說，情況是穩定的。我想說的是，我們普遍認為成長正在放緩，這是因為我們投資組合的廣度，就這一點而言，橡樹平台的廣度。我們對美國經濟有很好的了解，因為我們在橡樹資本接觸到了許多產業。我只是籠統地說，它變得更加遲緩。我不會說我們一定會看到負面趨勢，它只是不像一年前那麼強勁。

Okay. And then one follow up on that. So given a little bit more sluggishness, a shifting rate environment, have you seen any sort of shifts in terms of competitor strategies? Any higher demand for fixed rate debt or anything like that over the last few months?

好的。然後有人對此進行跟進。因此，考慮到經濟更加低迷、利率環境變化，您是否看到競爭對手策略發生了任何變化？過去幾個月對固定利率債務或類似債務的需求是否增加？

Not that I can think of off the top of my head. Not really a dramatic shift.

我不是憑空就能想到的。這並不是一個真正的戲劇性轉變。

Our next question comes from Finian O'Shea of Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的菲尼安·奧謝。

Just a couple on co-investment. Can you remind us on the private credit platform? Is there a specific direct lending cohort, whether it be the BDC and more similar funds that are able to eat first on the allocation -- on the origination you generate and then have a broader overflow claim for your broader private credit group? Or is the whole group entitled to deal flow based on allocable capital?

只是一對夫婦共同投資。您能在民間信貸平台上提醒我們嗎？是否有一個特定的直接貸款群體，無論是 BDC 還是更多類似的基金，能夠首先根據您產生的分配資金進行分配，然後為您更廣泛的私人信貸集團提供更廣泛的溢出索賠？或者整個集團是否有權根據可配置資本獲得交易流？

So thank you for the question, Fin. So under our exemptive relief order, every strategy that could participate in a private direct loan that meets Board-established criteria has the opportunity to participate -- or has a requirement, I should say, to show us all of their opportunities through the BDC. The reverse does not hold true. But every opportunity that any other strategy at Oaktree -- that is generated by any other strategy at Oaktree that meets the Board-established criteria, they must show those opportunities to the BDC. The BDC will then -- and the team managing the BDC will evaluate those opportunities. If we would like to participate in those opportunities, we will put an order in for that opportunity, and all the other strategies that -- or that strategy that originated the opportunity has to put in an order as well. They will be allocated their pro rata amounts of that opportunity based on their order size. And the order size will be based on, in part, by portfolio criteria and demands, strategy as well as just available lending or investing capacity.

謝謝你的提問，芬。因此，根據我們的豁免救濟令，每一個可以參與符合董事會制定標準的私人直接貸款的策略都有機會參與——或者我應該說，有一個要求，透過 BDC 向我們展示他們的所有機會。反之則不然。但是，橡樹資本的任何其他策略所產生的每一個機會，即由橡樹資本的任何其他策略產生的符合董事會制定標準的機會，他們都必須向 BDC 展示這些機會。然後，BDC 以及管理 BDC 的團隊將評估這些機會。如果我們想參與這些機會，我們將為該機會下訂單，並且所有其他策略或發起該機會的策略也必須下訂單。他們將根據訂單大小按比例分配該機會。訂單規模將部分取決於投資組合標準和需求、策略以及可用的貸款或投資能力。

That's very helpful. And you were saying, though, in the sense of the reverse, the -- from your group as it relates to the BDC, the Oaktree Specialty Lending eats what it wants and then it's overflow. Is that what you were saying as well?

這非常有幫助。不過，你剛才說，從相反的意義上說，從你的團隊與 BDC 的關係來看，橡樹專業貸款公司吃掉了它想要的東西，然後就溢出了。你也是這麼說的嗎？

So any opportunity that is originated by the investment team that manages the BDCs here, those opportunities do not have to be shown to any other strategy at Oaktree. Under the exemptive relief order, they are not required to do so. So to the extent, for example, if we had a $500 million private loan opportunity and the BDCs collectively that are managed by the strategic credit group only wanted to participate in $100 million of that loan, there would technically be $400 million of available -- loan available. The BDCs could then go to the balance of Oaktree and ask does any other strategy want to participate in the loan? But those are the ones that would effectively serve as the overflow, theoretically, under the exemptive relief order, and I am talking specifically to the exemptive relief order.

因此，由管理 BDC 的投資團隊發起的任何機會，這些機會都不必向橡樹資本的任何其他策略展示。根據豁免救濟令，他們不需要這樣做。因此，舉例來說，如果我們有5 億美元的私人貸款機會，而由戰略信貸集團管理的BDC 集體只想參與其中1 億美元的貸款，那麼從技術上講，將有4 億美元的可用資金——可以貸款。然後，BDC 可以詢問橡樹資本的餘額，詢問是否有其他策略想要參與貸款？但從理論上講，這些是根據豁免救濟令實際上可以充當溢出的人，我正在專門談論豁免救濟令。

All right. Well, I appreciate the color. And one more on origination. Does the advisor or any affiliate of the advisor receive economics from the upfront work before allocating to the BDC?

好的。嗯，我很欣賞這個顏色。還有一個關於起源的問題。在分配給 BDC 之前，顧問或顧問的任何附屬機構是否會從前期工作中獲得經濟效益？

No.

不。

Our next question is a follow-up from Chris York of JMP securities.

我們的下一個問題是 JMP 證券公司 Chris York 的後續問題。

Just one follow-up strategic question. So presumably a component of the investment thesis of Oaktree to acquire the contracts of both BDCs from Fifth Street was to potentially take advantage of future disruption among direct lenders and then utilize the managers to distress the expertise, which you've done a good job of demonstrating with the resolution of your non-core investments. So now we've started to see some BDCs acquire some subscale BDCs, and we expect BDC M&A to continue. So the question to you is, do you consider yourself as a strategic buyer of either other BDCs or portfolios today?

只是一個後續戰略問題。因此，橡樹資本從第五街收購兩家 BDC 合約的投資理論的一個組成部分可能是利用未來直接貸款機構之間的混亂，然後利用經理人來削弱專業知識，而您在這方面做得很好用你的非核心投資的決議來證明。因此，現在我們已經開始看到一些 BDC 收購了一些規模較小的 BDC，我們預計 BDC 併購將會繼續。因此，您面臨的問題是，您現在是否認為自己是其他 BDC 或投資組合的策略買家？

Both, theoretically.

理論上兩者都是。

The answer is yes.

答案是肯定的。

No. We -- it's a great question, Chris. And obviously, there's been a number of BDCs and portfolios setup and transacting over the last couple of quarters. Oaktree doesn't generally; comment on our M&A strategy other than we would say that we'll explore and look at all of these opportunities, and if they make sense, we will pursue them.

不。我們——這是一個很好的問題，克里斯。顯然，過去幾個季度出現了許多 BDC 和投資組合的設立和交易。橡樹資本通常不會；除了評論我們的併購策略外，我們還會探索和研究所有這些機會，如果它們有意義，我們就會追求它們。

Yes. And whether it's an exciting BDC or a portfolio, we look at all those. I think -- to your point, I think we have the scale and expertise to do those type of things. And we would expect -- I personally would expect to see more of those opportunities present themselves over the next year. I mean you're starting to see a few kind of subscale BDCs continue to have -- or start to have more credit issues.

是的。無論是令人興奮的 BDC 還是投資組合，我們都會關注所有這些。我認為——就你的觀點而言，我認為我們有規模和專業知識來做這些類型的事情。我們預計——我個人預計明年會出現更多這樣的機會。我的意思是，你開始看到一些小規模的 BDC 繼續存在——或者開始出現更多的信用問題。

We have no further questions, Mr. Mosticchio.

我們沒有其他問題了，莫斯蒂奇奧先生。

Thank you, again, for joining us for our fiscal third quarter 2019 earnings conference call. A replay of this conference call will be available for 30 days on OCSL's website in the Investors section or by dialing (877) 344-7529 for U.S. callers or 1 (412) 317-0088 for non-U. S. callers with the replay access code 10133101, beginning approximately 1 hour after this broadcast.

再次感謝您參加我們的 2019 財年第三季財報電話會議。本次電話會議的重播將在 OCSL 網站的投資者部分提供，為期 30 天，或透過撥打 (877) 344-7529（美國用戶）或 1 (412) 317-0088（非美國用戶）進行重播。美國來電者使用重播存取代碼 10133101，在本次廣播後約 1 小時開始。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。