BlackRock TCP Capital Corp.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the BlackRock TCP Capital Corp Q1 2026 earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Alex Dahl, Executive Director. Alex, please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Before we begin, I will note that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements based on management's estimates and assumptions at the time such statements are made, which are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in our most recently filed report on Form 10-Q and the Form 8-K filed with the SEC today, along with the associated press release. Any forward-looking statements made on this call are as of today and are subject to change without notice. Additionally, certain information discussed and presented may have been derived from third-party sources and has not been independently verified. Accordingly, we will make no representation or warranty with respect to such information. Earlier today, we issued our earnings release for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026 and posted a supplemental earnings presentation on our website at www.tcpcapital.com. To view the slide presentation, which we will refer to on today's call, please click the investor relations link and select events and presentations. These documents should be reviewed in conjunction with the company's form 10Q, which was filed with the SEC earlier today. Now, I will turn the call over to our chairman, CEO, and co-CIO, Phil Tsang.

Thank you, Alex, and thank you to our investors and analysts for joining us today. I'll start with an overview of our first quarter 2026 performance. Then Jason Merring, our president, will cover portfolio and investment activity. And Eric Quay, our CFO, will walk through our financial results. And then I'll come back with closing remarks before we open up the call for questions. We're also joined today by Dan Worrell, our co-CIO, who will be available to answer questions. In the first quarter, we executed against our strategic priorities, which are improving credit quality, further repositioning our investment portfolio, and strengthening our balance sheet. We are deploying capital selectively into high-quality opportunities, leveraging the origination power of the PFS platform, while reducing average position sizes, increasing the portion of the portfolio in first lien loans, and reducing leverage. While there is work to do, we are taking steps to drive value for our shareholders. One of the most important metrics for us is non-accruals. And during this quarter, these declined to 2.8% of the portfolio at fair value and 7.6% at cost, down from 4% and 9.7% respectively last quarter. This improvement reflects the completion of the restructurings of Alpine 4840 and Suited Connector and the sale of Fishbowl. Importantly, net leverage declined to 1.29 times at quarter end, down from 1.41 times last quarter, bringing it closer to our target range of 0.9 to 1.2 times. The reduction in leverage was driven primarily by exits, partial pay downs, and proactive balance sheet management. Full exits and partial pay downs during the quarter totaled $135.3 million and included sizable payoffs of our investments in Team Services, James Peirce, CART.com, and Eddie Bauer, with average position size of more than $28 million. Further, Team Services, our largest repayment during the period, was a second lien position. In addition to generating attractive returns, these repayments helped to reduce leverage. enhanced diversification by lowering portfolio concentration, and supported our continued focus on increasing the percentage of the portfolio allocated to senior positions in the capital structure. Since quarter end, we received more than $50 million of additional paydowns, including approximately $13 million from auto alert, which was previously restructured and recently sold to a strategic buyer. While we still have equity in the combined company, we view this repayment as a positive outcome that meaningfully reduces our exposure while preserving potential upside. At the end of the quarter, our portfolio had a fair market value of $1.4 billion, invested across 139 companies in more than 20 industry sectors with an average position size of $10 million. 91.8% of the portfolio was invested in senior secured loans, and 8.2% was in equity investments, and 94.4% of our debt investments were floating rate. Adjusted net investment income for the quarter was 21 cents per share compared to 25 cents last quarter, primarily reflecting a smaller portfolio as paydowns outpaced investments lower investment income, and higher expenses. Annualized net investment income, ROE, was 11.8%. Pick interest income for the quarter was 8.5% of total investment income, down from 10.9% last quarter, and nearly 80% of pick was from positions that contemplated pick when the loans were underwritten. NAV declined 4.9% to $6.72 per share at quarter end from $7.07 last quarter, reflecting $35 million of net portfolio markdowns during the quarter. Job & Talent, a staffing company, was the largest contributor to the markdowns at approximately $11 million, or 32% of the total markdowns during the quarter. Weaker operating performance during the quarter combined with lower industry-wide valuation multiples put pressure on the company's enterprise value. Our current exposure includes both the first lien term loan and preferred equity. The preferred equity drove a meaningful portion of this quarter's mark-to-market movement, given its greater sensitivity to changes in enterprise value. Separately, software-related investments also accounted for approximately $11 million, or 32% of total markdowns in the period. These reductions were driven primarily by valuation multiple compression, revised growth expectations, and AI-related disruption risk in certain subsectors. The balance of the NAV decline was attributable to unrealized losses across the portfolio related to wider market spreads and lower market multiples, in addition to borrower-specific factors. These markdowns were more spread out and hence limited in size per borrower, the largest of which was 2.8 million. Now I want to provide some perspective on our software portfolio. As we mentioned on our last call, we don't view software as monolithic because some segments are fundamentally more resilient than others. We've considered the potential for AI disruption in our underwriting of potential software investments for some time now. And as a result, we have pursued businesses where we believe AI is more likely to enhance a company's offering rather than displace it. As of March 31st, software represented 30.5% of the portfolio at fair value and was spread across 47 companies with 95% in depositions and the remaining 5% in equity. These companies had an LTV of approximately 26% at origination. providing a considerable equity cushion. While public software companies have seen valuations reprice, we have not seen a corresponding decline in the operating performance of our private portfolio companies. That said, we will continue to closely monitor our software investments. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jason to discuss our portfolio as well as our recent investment activity.