Sound Point Meridian Capital, Inc.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the SoundPoint Meridian Capital, Inc. first fiscal quarter ended June 30th, 2026 earnings conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Julie Smith, Head of Investor Relations. Julie, please go ahead.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. SoundPoint Meridian Capital refers participants on this call to the investor webpage at www.soundpointmeridiancap.com for the press release, investor information and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and for a discussion of the risks that can affect the business. Sound Point 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, could materially affect results. References made to the section titled Forward-Looking Statements in the Company's Earnings Press Release for the Latest Quarter End, 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, could materially affect results. And such forward-looking statements do not guarantee performance, and SoundPoint Meridian Capital gives no such assurances. Sound Point 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 SoundPoint Meridian Capital.

Thank you to everyone joining us today and welcome to the SoundPoint Meridian Capital earnings call for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30th, 2026. We'd 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, Dan Fabian, and after our prepared remarks, we'll open the call to your questions. For the first fiscal quarter ended June 30th, 2026, we generated net investment income or NII of $5 million or 24 cents a share and paid distributions of 60 cents per share during the quarter. Despite the successful refinancing of CLO transactions in the portfolio over the past quarter, NII remained below common distributions due to spread tightening and higher model loss reserves for AI impacted software loans within our CLO collateral portfolios. Net asset value or NAV per share ended the quarter at $9.88 up from $9.63 as of March 31st, 2026. The NAV increase was primarily driven by net unrealized appreciation in the fair value of our CLO equity investments partially offset by distributions paid in excess of NII. As of quarter end, our CLO equity portfolio's weighted average gap yield was 9.8% versus 9.1% in the prior quarter. Our portfolio remains highly diversified with investments across 108 CLOs managed by 31 different managers, providing exposure to over 1,500 underlying loans spanning more than 30 industries on a look-through basis. In an environment characterized by increasing dispersion across sectors, We believe this level of diversification remains an important component of our risk management approach. Subsequent to quarter end, we announced monthly distributions for calendar Q4 2026 of 13 cents per share, down from our previously announced Q3 2026 monthly distribution of 20 cents per share. In setting the revised distribution level, the board considered a range of factors, including current and expected portfolio yield, the importance of maintaining balance sheet flexibility and our objective of supporting net asset value over time while earning a distribution through net investment income. Subsequent to quarter end, SoundPoint as the advisor for SPMC proposed a base management and incentive fee waiver for the six month period beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending on December 31st, 2026. The fee waiver will reduce the annual base management fee from 1.75% to 1.5% and will reduce the annual incentive fee from 20% to 15% of pre-incentive net investment income. In recognition of the unprecedented income compression faced by the CLO equity asset class, the advisor proposed this fee waiver to help reduce the expense burden on the company while we work to increase our income through loan spread improvement, refinancing of our liabilities, and active trading of our investments. I'll now turn the call over to Dan for a more detailed review of our financial highlights for the quarter before I share thoughts on the overall market.