Ares Capital Corporation

Good afternoon and welcome to Aries Capital Corporation's fourth quarter and year-ended December 31st, 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on Wednesday, February 5th, 2025. I will now turn the call over to Mr. John Stillmar, partner of Aries Public Markets Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you very much. Let me start with some important reminders. Comments made during the course of this conference call and webcast and 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 reason, 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 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 useful information to investors regarding the financial information because it's one method the company uses to measure its financial results and conditions. A reconciliation of GAAP net income per share, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure to core EPS, can be found in the accompanying slide presentation for this call. In addition, reconciliation of these measures may also be found in our earnings release file this morning at the SEC on Form 8-K. Certain information discussed in this conference call and the accompanying slide presentation, including information related 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-ended December 31st, 2024 earnings presentation can be found on the company's website at www.ariescapitalcorp.com by clicking on the fourth quarter earnings presentation on the homepage of the investor resources section. Aries Capital Corporation earnings release in Form 10-K are also available on the company's website. I'll now turn the call to Mr. Kip DeVere, Aries Capital Corporation's Chief Executive Officer. Kip?

Thanks so much, John. Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining our earnings call today. I'm joined by Cord Schnabel, our newly announced CEO, Jim Miller, our co-president, Jana Markowitz, our chief operating officer, and Scott Lem, our chief financial officer, as well as other members of the management team who will also be available during our Q&A session. Before the team discusses our fourth quarter and full year results, I want to discuss the leadership changes that were announced this morning. As you may have seen from our press release this morning, Court Schnabel has been named as our new Chief Executive Officer, effective April 30th. Court, who joined ARIES in 2001, is a widely respected and tenured executive at ARIES with extensive leadership and private credit experience. As a founding member of ARIES' U.S. Direct Lending Strategy back in 2004, Court has been instrumental to the success and growth of the U.S. Direct Lending Platform which has driven the successful long-term track record at Aries Capital. Elevating court to CEO is a natural progression given his many past contributions and our confidence in his future leadership. In connection with this appointment and considering my new responsibilities at Aries Management, which were announced this morning, I will be stepping down as the CEO of Aries Capital Corporation at the end of April. I will, however, remain actively involved with the company, both as a member of the ARCC Board of Directors and the ARIES U.S. Direct Lending Investment Committee. Jim Miller, who currently serves as a co-president of ARIES Capital, alongside Mr. Schnabel, will continue as the sole president of the company. These changes reflect the natural evolution in the leadership at ARIES, and we're very fortunate to have such a deep and committed team. Over the past decade, as CEO, it's been a great privilege working day-to-day with the entire team that has driven all of the success of ARCC. During this roughly 10-year period, the company has paid over 40 quarters of steady or increasing dividends, increased book value per share by over 20%, and generated $500 million of realized gains in excess of realized losses. This investing success has led to a stock-based total return for our investors of nearly 14% per annum, outperforming the S&P 500, the S&P 500 Financials Index, and the KBW Bank Index over that period. And when compared to other yield-oriented investments available to shareholders, we've generated more than 300 basis points per annum of outperformance when compared to the ETFs for utility and REIT stocks, and for mortgage rates. I'm confident that Cort and the broader Aries Capital leadership team, which averages 20 years of experience at the company, will continue to execute strongly for our shareholders. I can't think of a better, more capable leader for the next chapter. And before turning the call over to Cort for some additional comments on our company's successful 2024 I do want to acknowledge the tragic impact that we've witnessed from the wildfires that have spread across the Los Angeles area. This tragedy has unfortunately impacted the lives of many of our clients and colleagues, and our thoughts are with them and their loved ones during this challenging time. ARIES is working diligently to support them and the entire area in their recovery. Let me now turn the call over to Gordon.