Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

and welcome to the Blackstone Secured Lending First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If you require operator assistance, please press star zero. If you'd like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. If you're using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Justin Farshidi, Principal for Blackstone Credit and Insurance. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Blackstone Secured Lending Fund's first quarter conference call. Joining me today are Brad Marshall, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Bock, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Carlos Whitaker, President, Teddy Deloge, Chief Financial Officer, and other members of the management team. Earlier today, we issued a press release with a presentation of our results and filed our 10-Q, both of which are available on the shareholder resources section of our website, www.bxsl.com. We will be referring to that presentation throughout today's call. I'd like to remind you that this call may include forward-looking statements, which are uncertain and outside of the firm's control, and may differ materially from actual results. We do not undertake any duty to update these statements. For some of the risks that could affect results, please see the risk factor section of our Form 10-Q filed earlier today. This audio cast is copyright material of Blackstone and may not be duplicated without consent. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brad Marshall.

Great. Thank you, Justin, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our call. Before I dive into some details with John, Carlos, and Teddy, I do want to hit on some high-level views of the current environment and thoughts around our first quarter. Since the start of the year, uncertainty around tariffs and their potential impact on economic growth and inflation has certainly impacted investor sentiment. While we believe it's too early to assess the full implications of tariffs, the complex nature of the situation means that patience and discipline are key, tenets we have had since BXSL's inception. On the broader economy, it's important to remember we entered this period in a fundamentally strong position, and we believe those fundamentals remain intact. Blackstone has lived through multiple cycles in its four-decade history, and we've used the firm's significant scale and data insights to benefit both our clients and portfolio companies. This includes investing in sectors that we think are more resilient in periods of volatility, and it also includes using resources like our value creation program to add value. For example, we have identified a relatively small group of companies in our portfolio that may be impacted by tariffs. And our team is actively helping these companies, whether it be through our procurement and e-sourcing programs or supply chain consulting. Of course, it's one thing to highlight tariff exposure. It is certainly another thing to have the resources to potentially manage its impact. Despite the near-term market volatility, BXSL reported another strong quarter. Our net investment income, or NAI, of 83 cents per share this quarter represented a 12.1% annualized return on equity and is made up overwhelmingly of interest income rather than income from PIC or dividends. Net asset value per share remained flat at $27.39 quarter over quarter. Our distribution of 77 cents per share was covered by our net investment income per share by 108% and represents an 11.2% annualized distribution yield, one of the highest among our traded BDC peers, with as much of their portfolio invested in first-lane senior secured assets. BXSL still has among the lowest management fee and lowest G&A costs as a percentage of NAV across our traded BDC peers, which allows us to focus on high-quality assets. Finally, Credit quality remains strong with 0.3% of investments on non-accrual at cost and 0.1% at fair market value, well below the average of our traded BDC peers of 2.7% and 1.2% respectively in the fourth quarter. Last quarter, we discussed positioning BXSL for an anticipated ramp up in deal activity in the back portion of 2025. And despite market uncertainty, we've been building our investment firepower to take advantage of opportunities that arise. For example, this quarter, we issued $500 million of new debt at a coupon of 5.3% or a spread of 147 basis points over the relevant benchmark treasury rate, the tightest spread compared to traded BDC peers in 2025. Our liability stack continues to be diverse with floating rate components allowing us to help offset the reduced base rates on the asset side this quarter. In fact, the total weighted average interest rate on drawn debt decreased to 5.01% in Q1. In Q1, we had over $750 million of investment commitments, our sixth consecutive quarter of $750 million or above in total commitments. We also had nearly $700 million in new investments. This was offset by an increased repayment of $900 million during the quarter. We believe the fund's capitalization positions it well for potential future opportunities amidst market volatility. And with that, I will pass over to my colleague, Jonathan.