Eagle Point Credit Company Common Share of Beneficial Interest

Greetings and welcome to the Eagle Point Credit Company second quarter 2026 financial results call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Darren Doherty with ProSec Partners. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and good morning. Welcome to Eagle Point Credit Company's earnings conference call for the second quarter of 2026. Speaking on the call today are Thomas Majewski, Chief Executive Officer, and Kenneth Onorio, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that the matters discussed on this call include forward-looking statements or projected financial information that involves risks and uncertainties that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from such projections. For further information on factors that could impact the company and the statements and projections contained herein, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Each forward-looking statement or projection of financial information made during this call is based on the information available to us as of the date of this call. We disclaim any obligation to update our forward-looking statements unless required by law. Earlier today, we filed our second quarter 2026 financial statements and investor presentation with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These are also available in the investor relations section of the company's website, eaglepointcreditcompany.com. A replay of this call will also be made available later today. I will now turn the call over to Thomas Majewski, Chief Executive Officer of Eagle Point Credit Company. Tom?

Thanks, Darren, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your joining the Eagle Point earnings call this morning. I'll start by providing some perspectives on the recent quarter. Let me begin with the headline results. Our net asset value for the quarter ended at $4.51 per share, and that's an increase of 8% from $4.17 at March 31st. We generated a gap return on common equity of 12.7% for the second quarter. And during the quarter, we paid an aggregate of $0.18 per share in cash distributions to our common shareholders. The recovery of NAB was driven by a meaningful rebound in loan prices and CLO equity valuations following the volatility we experienced in the first quarter. Uncertainty surrounding the potential impact of artificial intelligence on software borrowers, together with the geopolitical developments, had weighed on leveraged loan prices and CLO equity valuations earlier in the year. As market sentiment improved during the second quarter, valuations recovered meaningfully, while underlying credit fundamentals remained resilient throughout the period. This supports our view that much of the first quarter decline reflected market-driven pricing pressure rather than a broad deterioration in credit. Software remained an area of focus during the quarter as investors continued to assess the long-term impact of AI across different business models. While AI will invariably create both winners and losers over time, many software businesses continue to benefit from recurring contracted revenue, sticky customer relationships, and mission-critical products. We believe the market reaction earlier in the year was overstated to what we expect to be the actual impact on the broader software sector to ultimately be. The volatility earlier this year also improved the reinvestment optionality available within our CLOs. Lower loan prices enabled CLO collateral managers to purchase performing credits at discounted prices, while reduced repricing activity in the loan market helped preserve and in some cases modestly improve loan spreads. These dynamics support PAR building and spread enhancement within our CLO portfolios, which can contribute to stronger CLO equity cash flows and valuations over time.