Sound Point Meridian Capital, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the SoundPoint Meridian Capital Inc. third fiscal quarter ended December 31st, 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call has been recorded on Wednesday, February 12th, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Peter with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. SoundPoint Meridian Capital refers participants on this call to the investor webpage, www.soundpointmeridiancap.com, for the press release, investor information, and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of the risks that can affect the business. SoundPoint Meridian Capital specifically refers participants to the presentation furnished today on the Form 8K with the SEC and to remind listeners that some of the comments today may contain forward-looking statements and, as such, will be subject to risks and uncertainties which, if they materialize, can materially affect results. Reference is made to the section titled Forward-Looking Statements in the company's earnings press release for the period ended December 31, 2024, which is incorporated herein by reference. We note forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, include, but are not limited to, SoundPoint Meridian Capital's expectation or prediction of financial and business performance and conditions. as well as its competitive and industry outlook. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, which, if they materialize, can materially affect results. And such forward-looking statements do not guarantee performance, and SoundPoint Meridian Capital gives no such assurances. SoundPoint Meridian Capital is under no obligation and expressly disclaims any obligation to update, alter, or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. In addition, historical data pertaining to the operating results and other performance indicators applicable to Sound Point Meridian Capital are not necessarily indicative of results to be achieved in succeeding periods. I will now turn the call over to Ujjaval Desai, Chief Executive Officer of Sound Point Meridian Capital.

Thank you to everyone joining us today for your interest in Sound Point Meridian Capital. and welcome to our earnings call for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2024. We would like to invite you to download our investor presentation from our website, which provides additional information about the company and our portfolio. With me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Gerlitz, and after our prepared remarks, we will open it up to your questions. We're happy to report that for our third fiscal quarter, SPMC delivered strong results. For the quarter, we generated net investment income, or NII, of $12.5 million, or 62 cents per common share, and net realized gain on exited investments of 10 cents per common share, while we paid dividends during the quarter of 66 cents per share. Net asset value per share ended the quarter at 20.52, up from where it stood on September 30th at 19.59, driven mainly by value created from resets of CLOs in the portfolio and a mark-to-market increase due to CLO equity trading at tighter yields in the market. During the quarter, we deployed approximately $43.4 million in eight CLO warehouse investments. We closed six new warehouses that generated six new equity positions with an amortized cost of $66.7 million as of December 31, 2024, and a weighted average gap yield of 15.4%. We priced two new warehouses resulting in the commitment to purchase two CLO equity positions with a cost of $28.4 million. We refinanced the liabilities of eight CLO equity investments in the portfolio, significantly reducing liability costs in those transactions. As of December 31, the weighted average gap yield on our equity portfolio was 15.2% versus 15.7% as of September 30th. The decrease in gap yield was mainly the result of loan repricing in the underlying CLO portfolios, which reduced estimated feature cash flows available to CLO equity holders. This was slightly offset by CLO refinancing and reset activity, which lowered the CLO liability costs on certain CLO investments in the portfolio. Our portfolio, as of December 31, was diversified across 74 CLO investments managed by 23 CLO managers. The underlying loan portfolio consisted of roughly 1,500 loan issuers across 30 plus industries on a look-through basis. We believe this strategy of broad diversification enables us to manage risk effectively, providing us with dividend sustainability and downside protection through changing market conditions. Subsequent to quarter end, as of Jan 31, 2025, our estimated net asset value per common share was 20.56, a slight increase from December 31 at 20.52. On February 5th, we announced monthly distributions for calendar Q2 2025 of 25 cents per share, an increase of 4.2% over the calendar Q1 2025 monthly distribution rate of 24 cents per share. This announcement is consistent with our IPO strategy of raising our distribution steadily over time as we deploy the proceeds from our IPO offering, our senior financing facility, and our Series A preferred stock. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Kevin for a more detailed review of our financial highlights for the quarter.