Ares Capital Corporation

Good afternoon. Welcome to Aries Capital Corporation's fourth quarter and year-ended December 31st, 2020 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on Wednesday, February 10th, 2021. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. John Stilmar, Managing Director of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Tom. Now let me start with some important reminders. Comments made during the course of this conference call and webcast, as well as the accompanying documents, contain forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. The company's actual results could differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements for any reasons, including those listed in its SEC filings. Aries Capital Corporation assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Please also note that past performance or market information is not a guarantee of future results. During this conference call, the company may discuss certain non-GAAP measures as defined by SEC Regulation G, such as core earnings per share or core EPS. The company believes that core EPS provides a useful information to investors regarding financial performance because it's one method the company uses to measure its financial condition and results of operation. A reconciliation of core EPS to the net per share increase or decrease in stockholders' equity resulting from operations, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, can be found in the accompanying slide presentation for this call. In addition, the reconciliation of these measures may also be found in our earnings release filed this morning with the SEC on Form 8K. Certain information discussed in this call and the accompanying slide presentation, including information relating to portfolio companies, was derived from third-party sources and has not been independently verified. And accordingly, the company makes no representation or warranty with respect to this information. The company's fourth quarter and year-end December 31st, 2020 earnings presentation can be found on the company's website at www.ariescapitalcorp.com by clicking on the fourth quarter 2020 earnings presentation link on the homepage of the investor resources section of our website. Aries Capital Corporation's earnings release and 10-K are also available on the company's website. I'd like to now turn the call over to Kip DeVere, Aries Capital Corporation's Chief Executive Officer.

Thanks a lot, John. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm here with our co-presidents Michael Smith and Mitch Goldstein, our Chief Financial Officer Penny Roll, and several other members of the management team. I want to start by highlighting our strong fourth quarter and full year results, and then provide some thoughts on our position and the current market conditions.