Chicago Atlantic BDC, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Chicago Atlantic BDC Inc. Q3 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Trip Sullivan of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. Welcome to the Chicago Atlantic BDC conference call to review the company's results. On the call today will be Scott Gordon, Executive Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer. Andreas Bodmeier, Chief Executive Officer. Humesh Mahajan, Co-Chief Investment Officer and Chief Financial Officer. and Dino Colonna, president. Our results were released last night in our earnings press release, which can be found in the best relations section of our website, along with our supplemental earnings presentation filed with the SEC. A live audio webcast of this call is being made available today. For those who listened to the replay of this webcast, we remind you that the remarks made herein are as of today and will not be updated subsequent to this call. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements that are not based on historical facts made during this call, including any statements related to financial guidance, may be deemed forward-looking statements under federal securities laws because these forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risk and uncertainties that are important factors that could cause actual results to occur materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We encourage you to refer to our most recent SEC filing for information on some of these risk factors. Chicago Atlantic BDC assumes no obligation or responsibility to update any forward-looking statement. Please note that the information reported on this call speaks only as of today, November 8, 2024. Therefore, you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate at the time of any replay or transcript reading. I'll now turn the call over to Scott Gordon. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Tripp. Good morning, everyone. A little over a month ago, we closed on the acquisition of a loan portfolio from Chicago Atlantic, renamed the company to Chicago Atlantic BDC, Inc., and began a new chapter in our history with the ticker symbol of LEAN. This was a long journey that we've updated you on throughout the year, and I'm pleased that we're now seeing the fruits of that hard work. Lean came together as a joint venture between Chicago Atlantic and Silver Spike, combining two leading investment platforms in the cannabis industry. And more importantly, Lean is the only publicly traded BDC focused on lending to cannabis companies with net assets of over $300 million in investments in 28 portfolio companies. I am proud to be leading a great management team comprised of talent from both companies. We believe our BDC gives investors access to a differentiated source of credit alpha from what is typically found in other BDCs or private credit funds. By doing this, we increase the prospects for further growth within our core activity of providing capital to high-quality operators within grossly underserved sectors. In addition to our proven experience in cannabis lending, there are several reasons why we're confident in growing the non-cannabis lending vertical. The three biggest reasons are we have the right team with relevant origination and underwriting experience to succeed in non-cannabis investing. Chicago Atlantic has a track record in non-cannabis lending with a strong return profile and consistent growth in the portfolio. And lastly, Chicago Atlantic has a pipeline of self-originated deals in non-cannabis through its distinctive referral network. Since we began trading under our new name and ticker on October 2nd, Lean has been well received by investors. This is what we were hoping for when Silver Spike and Chicago Atlantic began talks. We saw an accretive opportunity from which all shareholders and team members can benefit. We shared synergistic goals, and we are excited to collaborate, innovate, and drive collective results for the benefit of our shareholders. This week's election has certainly been front and center in everyone's mind, and none more so than in the cannabis industry. As we've talked about all year, federal rescheduling is likely a next year type of event. The Trump campaign had been generally supportive of rescheduling, so we don't see too many hurdles to that ultimately occurring. Question will be the timing. Safer banking is going to take some time as well. With the gridlock Congress, the timeline is likely pushed out even further than it was pre-election. We have never underwritten our loans on the basis of rescheduling. Safer banking, or any other legislative or regulatory relief taking place in the immediate future. We underwrite on the current market as it exists today at the federal level and on each individual state regulatory scheme. Now, I'll hand it over to Andreas. Thanks, Scott.