Ellington Financial Inc. Common Stock

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corporation second quarter of 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines have been placed in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions, and instructions will follow at that time. This conference is being recorded, and a replay of the call will be available in an audio webcast on the TriplePoint Venture Growth website. Company management is pleased to share with you the company's results for the second quarter of 2024. Today, representing the company is Jim LeBay, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, Sajul Srivastava, President and Chief Investment Officer, and Chris Matthew, Chief Financial Officer. Before I turn the call over to Mr. LeBay, I'd like to direct your attention to the customary safe harbor disclosure in the company's press release regarding forward-looking statements and remind you that during this call, management will make certain statements that relate to future events or the company's future performance or financial condition, which are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities law. You are asked to refer to the company's most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or projections unless required by law. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements made during the call, which reflect management's opinions only as of today. To obtain copies of our latest SEC filings, please visit the company's website at www.tpvg.com. Now I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. LeBay.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to TPVG's second quarter earnings call. During the second quarter, our focus continued to remain on navigating through what the NVCA labels as a generational market shift. in the venture capital markets. Given the continued volatility and challenges in the venture capital market, as well as the public markets for technology companies, we stayed on our path of selectively increasing our investment activity to capture growing investment opportunities coming to market, proactively managing our existing investment portfolio, maintaining strong liquidity, and taking the steps that we believe will enable us to position TPVG for the future. While we're seeing a modest increase in investment activity, we do not believe this marks an inflection point. The imbalance continues between the levels of venture capital investment activity and the continuing limited exit opportunities through IPOs, merger acquisitions for venture capital-backed private technology companies. Private company valuations have not fully reset, and we expect the valuation overhang and venture growth stage companies to continue to be worked through over the coming quarters. VCs continue to be patient with their investment activity, balancing the need to preserve their dry powder, and also growing mindful of the need to generate distributions for the limited partner investors through exit activity, while all at the same time taking advantage of new investment opportunities they are seeing at investor-friendly terms in today's market. Turning to the market for debt financing, the demand for venture lending continues. Many from companies who have raised capital in the current market environment or a meaningful existing cash runway and are looking to complement that capital with debt financing given their continued operational success. Combining this continued increase in demand and our previously stated expectation of an increased new investment activity in 2024, signed term sheets for venture growth stage companies at TriplePoint Capital increased 44 percent over the previous quarter. and new debt commitments by 420% and fundings by 186% at TPVG. In terms of the current portfolio, our team continues to monitor and maintain close contact with all of our portfolio companies and their venture investors. And we remain heads down managing through existing credit situations. At the same time, were encouraged by the strengthening operating performance and improved fundraising activity from a number of our portfolio companies, which are also across several industry sectors. An aggregate of almost $1 billion was raised by our debt portfolio companies in the first half of this year. That's more than double that of the previous year. And it excludes Metropolis. which in itself raised a billion in Q2 as part of its acquisition of SP Plus. This increased fundraising activity we are seeing continues across multiple sectors, including software, fintech, robotics, cybersecurity, and others that we have been talking about and citing in these calls. Touching on our warrant and equity positions in our portfolio, we have outstanding warrant positions in 94 portfolio companies, and equity positions in 46. We believe these positions bode well for our ability to improve NAV over the long term. I'm also pleased to report that we've made notable progress over the past year and a half in reducing our unfunded commitments, boosting our total liquidity, and reducing our leverage ratio to fall within our target range. Unfunded commitments went from a high of $205 million one year ago to $71 million as of the second quarter. And more importantly, we reduced our gross leverage ratio from as high as 1.76 at the end of last year to 1.15 as of quarter's end. We also announced earlier today the renewal of our revolving credit facility. which provides us a meaningful source of capital and financial flexibility for us in our go-forward plans. These efforts have provided us with substantial liquidity and will play key roles in positioning TPVG here in the short term and over the long term. The Board took another step on this path forward by reducing our regular distribution this quarter to 30 cents per share. This was not an easy decision and reflects a number of considerations, including our higher-than-expected repayment and prepayment activity during the first quarter. And once again, our higher-than-expected repayment and prepayments last quarter. But also given the impact of reduced fundings, measured investment allocations, the lower level of funding activity relative to prior years, again reducing our leverage to our target leverage range, and factoring in what we think will be expected federal interest rate cuts. The dividend is now much better aligned with the earnings power of our portfolio, our core portfolio yield, and other targeted leverage, while still providing sizable distributions to shareholders. Complementing these efforts is our continued progress on diversifying the portfolio, including the industry sector and geographic rotation we have been talking about during the last few quarters. Our focus remains to be investing in companies operating in what we believe are attractive investment sectors, and ones that have recently raised capital, have ample cash runways, have backing from our select venture investors, have prudent management teams, and whose business models have attractive unit economics and high retention rates. We'll also continue to evaluate hold sizes, debt-to-equity ratios, deal structures, and other key metrics. We're encouraged by the progress to date and the recent investments we've made, which continue to reflect these goals and parameters. We're evaluating the potential for broadened investment strategies for TPVG, particularly given our sponsor, TriplePoint Capital, a multibillion-dollar platform-wide venture lending business and potential increased ways in which TPVG could benefit. TriplePoint Capital manages multiple vehicles and has been underwriting venture loans for almost 20 years. to date having committed more than $13 billion to more than 1,000 venture-backed companies during that period. As a leader in the venture lending market with an exceptional brand name and reputation, TriplePoint Capital continues to grow and capitalize on investment opportunities in today's market, including actively expanding its bench and ongoing increases in originations and investment staffing nationwide. We believe the sum of all these efforts positions TPVG well for when the venture capital markets recover and believe it could result in tangible benefits to our stakeholders as well as over the long term. Finally, I'd like to take a minute to thank Chris Matthew for his efforts over the past five years, not only at TPVG, but also at our TriplePoint Capital platform. We wish him the best in his upcoming retirement and appreciate not only his dedication, but the friendship over the many years. As we continue with our search for a CFO, we would like to welcome Matt Gagliani, whom we announced earlier this week to serve as our interim CFO. Matt takes over the reins this Friday and joined the company back in 2019, and he served as the company's controller since December 2022. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Sajal to cover our activity and outlook in more detail.

Sajal Sajal Thank you, Jim, and good afternoon. Investment pipeline activity increased for the fourth consecutive quarter as Triple Point Capital signed $188 million of term sheets with venture growth stage companies compared to $130 million in Q1, reflecting continued increases in originations by our investment team, referrals from our select venture capital funds, and demand from high-quality companies seeking debt financing. Although our investment pipeline activity is increasing, TriplePoint Capital and TPVG continue to be very measured in our approach to new originations in light of market conditions. With regards to new investment allocation to TPVG during the second quarter, in light of our progress of reducing leverage and mindful of our objectives for portfolio diversification, TriplePoint Capital allocated $52 million in new commitments to five companies to TPBG, including two new portfolio companies, our highest commitment amount over the past six quarters. Commitments to new portfolio companies during Q2 included Affinity, a software-based relationship intelligence platform built to expand and involve traditional CRM, backed by Menlo Ventures, Pear Ventures, and other investors, and Cresta Intelligence, a software company which leverages artificial intelligence to help sales and service agents improve the quality of their customer service, backed by Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and other investors. During the quarter, we also made follow-on commitments to two recent portfolio companies, as well as refinance an existing portfolio company in conjunction with an upside. Thus far in Q3, TPBG has closed a total of 11 million of new commitments to one new portfolio company in the software industry and one existing portfolio company. During the quarter, TPBG funded $38.7 million in debt investments to five portfolio companies, which is up from $13.5 million in debt investments to three portfolio companies in Q1, and is our highest funding amount over the past five quarters. We have funded $52.2 million year-to-date and $89.3 over the past 12 months, which supports our efforts to increase newer portfolio vintages. The investments funded this quarter carried a weighted average annualized portfolio yield of 15.5% at origination, up from 14.3 in Q1. Our quarterly gross funding target continues to be in the $25 to $50 million range. As a reminder, new fundings typically occur at the end of a quarter and don't materially contribute to income in the quarter in which they fund. During Q2, we had $51 million of loan prepayments due primarily to large equity capital raises and acquisitions, up from $31 million of loan prepayments in Q1, representing $82 million of prepayments to date and $153 million over the past 12 months. Prepayment-related income this quarter contributed to an overall weighted average portfolio yield of 15.8%, in line with last quarter's portfolio yield. Excluding prepayments, core portfolio yield was 13.9%, down from 14.7% in Q1. During Q2, we had $28 million of scheduled principal repayments and $15 million of proceeds from the disposition of loans, for a total of $43 million, up from $7 million of scheduled principal repayments and $1 million of proceeds from the disposition of loans for a total of $8 million in Q1. Year-to-date, we've had $51 million in total scheduled principal repayments and proceeds from the dispositions of loans and $110 million over the past 12 months. So in summary, over the past 12 months, we've had over $260 million of cash received from prepays, principal repayments and disposition of loans, and in light of market conditions over that same time period, have had investment fundings of only $89 million, contributing to net portfolio contraction of approximately $170 million. As we look to the rest of this year, given how the portfolio has contracted, we expect the pace of prepay and amortization to slow down over the remainder of 2024, but do expect the pace of principal repayments to increase in 2025, given contractual amortization requirements. With regards to fundraising activity, nine portfolio companies with debt outstanding as of quarter's end raised $442 million during the quarter, compared with eight portfolio companies with debt outstanding, raising $584 million during Q1. five portfolio companies raising $157 million in Q4, and three portfolio companies raising $47 million in Q3. Year-to-date, 16 portfolio companies with debt outstanding have raised over $1 billion of capital, compared to 14 portfolio companies raising $390 million over the same period last year. As Jim mentioned, we continue to see capital raising activity within our portfolio picking up, and continue to have several portfolio companies either in active fundraising discussions or expecting to launch a fundraising process shortly. Last week, Flow Health, a consumer-focused portfolio company with $25 million outstanding, announced raising over $200 million at a $1 billion valuation from General Atlantic. We believe this fundraising activity should strengthen the credit quality for these companies and bodes well for the value of our worn and equity investments. As of June 30th, we held warrants in 94 companies and equity investments in 46 companies, with a total fair value of $98 million, up from $78 million last quarter. Our warrant and equity portfolio experienced a $12.8 million net unrealized gain in fair value, or $0.33 per share for the quarter, primarily driven by an increase in the fair value of Revolut, based on its exceptional financial performance, as disclosed in its recently filed financial statements, and the news that it obtained a U.K. banking license, both of which have positive implications for its continued growth and profitability. We believe there is the potential for a positive impact in net asset value from not only Revolut, but other companies currently in our worn NECRE portfolio, particularly as market conditions improve over the long term. During the quarter, we sold our publicly held shares in HIMS and HERS, resulting in a realized gain of $1.8 million on our warrant and equity investments, representing an over three times multiple on our invested capital. In other portfolio activity during the quarter, mine management was acquired by Roofstock, and our loans were paid off in full, and our warrants were assumed. Existing credit watch list companies Outdoor Voices and TFG completed their acquisitions as well. These two companies had previously been marked down by $13 million, and we recognized an additional $800,000 loss from these events. During the quarter, one portfolio company with a principal balance of $25 million was upgraded from Category 2 to Category 1. One portfolio company with a principal balance of $4.7 million was downgraded from category one to category two. And one portfolio company with a principal balance of $13 million was downgraded from category two to three, primarily due to cash runway or financing events underway. In addition, Good Eggs, which has debt with a fair value of approximately $6.3 million, was downgraded from category two to category four during Q2, and announced yesterday its sale to Grub Market. Our recovery is expected to be consistent with our mark as of Q2, and the company will be removed from our watch list in Q3. Mind Candy, with a fair value of $16 million, was downgraded from Category 3 to Category 4, reflecting year-to-date performance and other near-term challenges for the company, including additional maturity date extensions of our loans. Despite being one of TPBG's oldest investments, MindCandy continues to receive support from its equity investors as it builds and grows its MoshiKids app. While our total percentage of watch list investments was relatively flat this quarter, A number of these companies are in the process of completing equity financing or strategic events that are underway, as well as improving operational performance, which, if completed or achieved, could result in improved credit outlooks. As we look to developments not only over the past six months, but also looking forward over the next one to two quarters, our e-commerce and retail-focused companies continue to face challenges. They generally have made the hard decisions to pull back on growth cut burn, and focus on achieving profitability as soon as possible. As they come to market for follow-on financing or strategic processes, including M&A, to enable them to continue the journey, the reception continues to be chilly as investors and acquirers generally remain on the sidelines. And these companies, they're investors. And in many cases, we as lender must all decide if they continue to wait out the market or transact at whatever price the market will clear despite the progress they've made. Our teams continue to track these companies as well as other watch list situations. As we take a step back and assess not only market conditions and our recent performance, but also our outlook for the market, our playbook continues to be focused on building a strong foundation for TPBG. We've reduced our net leverage and have access to substantial liquidity that we intend to deploy in a measured fashion to companies in attractive sectors to further diversify our portfolio. Our team is continuing to focus on bringing credit situations to a close or positioning companies for the longer term when market conditions are better. We believe that as market conditions improve, our Warren and equity portfolio will have a positive impact to our net asset value. We are also valuing opportunities to broaden TVBG's investment strategy, as well as its overall size and scale in complementary ways. And finally, we are aligning expectations, including the decision to reduce our distribution, to be more consistent with our current portfolio size and earnings power, without creating pressure to deploy assets, and with the potential to generate excess earnings to stabilize and grow NAB. In summary, we have a plan, and I'm optimistic for our future. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Chris.