speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Blue Owl Technology Finance Corp's fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike Mustachio, head of BDC Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

speaker
Mike Mustachio
Head of BDC Investor Relations

Thank you, operator, and welcome to Blue Owl Technology Finance Corp's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. Yesterday, OTF issued its earnings release and posted an earnings presentation for the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2025. These should be reviewed in connection with the company's 10-K filed yesterday with the SEC. All materials referenced on today's call, including the earnings press release, earnings presentation, and 10-K, are available on the investor section of the company's website at blueltechnologyfinance.com. Joining us on the call today are Craig Packer, Chief Executive Officer, Eric Bissonnette, President, and Jonathan Lamb, Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to remind listeners that remarks made during today's call may contain forward-looking statements which are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that are outside of the company's control. Actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described in OTF's filings with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. We'd also like to remind everyone that we'll refer to non-GAAP measures on this call, which are reconciled to GAAP figures in our earnings presentation, available on the events and presentations section of our website. Certain information discussed on this call and in the company's earnings materials, including information related to portfolio companies, was derived from third-party sources and has not been independently verified. The company makes no such representations or warranties with respect to this information. With that, I'll turn the call over to Craig.

speaker
Craig Packer
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Mike. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us today. There has been a lot of investor attention on software over the past several weeks, particularly around what AI could mean for the sector. We understand the focus. What I want to underscore at the outset is that performance at OTF has been strong, and we expect that to continue. We are pleased to report another strong quarter for OTF, closing out a milestone year marked by our successful public listing on the New York Stock Exchange and continued progress in enhancing our long-term earnings power. In June 2025, OTF was listed and established as the largest publicly traded technology-focused BDC by Total Assets. In connection with the listing, we declared five quarterly special dividends of $0.05 per share through September 2026, in addition to our regular $0.35 per share dividend, supported by substantial spillover income generated prior to the listing. This distribution profile underscores our earnings potential as we ramp toward our target leverage, particularly during a period when many credit managers are navigating earnings compression. Since listing, we've been working our way through the lockup releases, and as of today, roughly 50% of shares are freely tradable. We used this increased float to opportunistically repurchase $65 million of OTF shares during the fourth quarter at an average price-to-book value of 0.82. These repurchases were accretive to NAB per share and reflective of our conviction in the quality of our portfolio. With that, let me address the recent headlines around software and AI. We saw a broad sell-off in tech and SaaS names on concerns that AI could disrupt software business models, and that pressure ultimately impacted BDCs as well. We've always liked software, and it has been a significant contributor to our performance. We built dedicated technology investing capabilities to match the opportunity, and portfolio performance remains excellent. Our software borrowers are delivering low to mid-teens revenue and EBITDA growth, on average, among the strongest across our direct lending strategy. Our technology strategy is supported by a dedicated team of over 40 technology investment professionals, part of our broader direct lending team of more than 120 investment professionals. The team is organized across 10 key subsectors, including cybersecurity, healthcare IT, and fintech. giving us deep domain coverage and experience navigating ongoing technology shifts. They have evaluated AI risks and opportunities for many years, but given how quickly the technology is evolving, we proactively revisited our core thesis and reevaluated our portfolio with a forward-looking lens. Our analysis confirms the quality of our assets and gives us confidence that our portfolio remains aligned with where the market is going. As a reminder, we primarily lend to large-scale, market-leading companies that provide mission-critical solutions with durable moats. We emphasize systems of record that are deeply embedded in customers' workflows, carry high switching costs, and operate in environments where errors, downtime, or security breaches cannot be tolerated. Combined with our defensively constructed portfolio of predominantly first lien, senior secured loans, to private equity sponsored borrowers with LTVs in the low 30s and significant equity cushions, we have a substantial buffer even in periods when equity valuations are pressured, which helps support downside protection and durable earnings. Our performance continues to validate our approach. In the fourth quarter, OTF delivered a nearly 11% return on adjusted net income. NAV increased 35 basis points in the quarter and is up nearly 16% since inception. Furthermore, OTF continues to maintain low levels of non-accruals and has posted average annual net gains of 23 basis points since inception, underscoring our credit quality. While periods of rapid technological change will create disruption, they will also create opportunities and dispersion in performance. We believe that our deep domain expertise positions us to identify and capitalize on those opportunities. We are very pleased with our results and confident that we are well positioned to navigate ongoing changes in the sector. With that, I'll turn it over to Eric.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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