Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to 6th Street Specialty Lending, Inc.' 's second quarter-ended June 30, 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on Thursday, July 31, 2025. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Kami Sinator, Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you. Before we begin today's call, I would like to remind our listeners that remarks made during the call may contain forward-looking statements. Statements other than statements of historical facts made during this call may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in Sixth Street Specialty Lending Inc.' 's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Yesterday, after the market closed, we issued our earnings press release for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025, and posted a presentation to the Investor Resources section of our website, www.sixthstreetspecialtylending.com. The presentation should be reviewed in conjunction with our Form 10-Q filed yesterday with the SEC. Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc.' 's earnings release is also available on our website under the Investor Resources section. Unless noted otherwise, all performance figures mentioned in today's prepared remarks are as of and for the second quarter ended June 30th, 2025. As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. I will now turn the call over to Joshua Easterly, Chief Executive Officer of Sixth Street Specialty Lending Inc.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me today are President Bo Stanley and CFO Ian Simmons. Before we get started, I want to take a moment to express a profound sorrow following the tragic events that unfolded in our city earlier this week. On behalf of our entire company, our hearts go out to the victims and their loved ones. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, first responders, and local firms affected by the senseless and random act. After the market closed yesterday, we reported the second quarter adjusted net investment income of $0.56 per share on annualized return on equity of 13.1%, an adjusted net income of $0.64 per share, or an annualized return on equity of 15.1%. As presented in our financial statements, our Q2 net investment income and net income per share, inclusive of the accrued capital gains incentive fee expenses, were $0.54 and $0.63, respectively. As a reminder, any differences between the adjusted and reported metrics is a non-cash expense related to accrued fees on unrealized gains from the valuation of our investments. The difference between adjusted net investment income and adjusted net income of $0.08 per share in Q2 was largely related to net unrealized gains from the impact of tightening credit spreads on the valuation of our investments and positive portfolio company specific events. I'd like to frame an important shift we see unfolding in the sector following the mini credit cycle that took place over the last few years beginning in mid-2022 with the rapid rise of interest rates. Through that cycle, public BDCs, including SOX, experienced idiosyncratic credit issues, putting downward pressure on net asset values. While the average public BDC saw its net asset value per share decline by 10.1% from the fourth quarter of 2021, through the first quarter of this year, SLX's net asset value per share increased by 1.2% over the same timeframe, or 2% through Q2. Even with the rise of non-accruals and the losses we recognize, our disciplined approach to capital allocation allowed us to overrun our cost of equity and grow net asset value. Over this period, we generated total economic return, calculated as change in net asset value plus dividends, 42.6%, more than doubling the average of our of our public BDC peers of 19.1 percent. We expect that credit issues are predominantly behind us. This is evidenced by an improvement in non-accruals for SOX this quarter and also for the sector more broadly, which experienced a marginal decrease in non-accruals at Q1. While we don't have peer data for Q2, we expect the trend to continue this quarter. This should result in a convergence between net investment income and net income for the sector. Under the premise that credit has broadly stabilized, we anticipate the focus for the sector shifts from credit quality to dividend coverage as portfolio yields decline from the combination of lower forward rates and tighter portfolio spreads. For SLX, adjusted net investment income in Q2 of 56 cents per share exceeded our base dividend by 22%. This robust dividend coverage is tied to our ability to source and execute on differentiated investment opportunities. This is clearly demonstrated by our weighted average spread on our new first lien investors in the second quarter of 6.5%, which compares to the public BDC sector average of 5.3% on new issued first lien loans for the first quarter. Again, we don't have comparable Q2 data for our peers, but we expect the weighted average portfolio spread to decline further this quarter. We continue to caution that there has been complacency in the sector. In addition to the pursuit of AUM growth, we believe this is largely driven by a backward-looking focus on LPM metrics that reflect an elevated rate and spread environment that's no longer indicative of today's investment landscape. What matters today and always is a forward view, and we believe our approach will continue to positively distinguish our earnings profile. Looking ahead, we estimate the quarterly earnings power of our business to exceed our base dividend level, assuming stable credit, leverage in the middle of our target range, and conservative fee income. As of June 30th, our net asset value was 17.17 per share, representing an increase of 70 basis points from 17.04 as of March 31st. Yesterday, our board approved a base quarterly dividend of 46 cents per share, to shareholders of record as of September 15th, payable on September 30th. Our board also declared a supplemental dividend of five cents per share related to our Q2 earnings to shareholders of record as of August 29th, payable September 19th. Net asset value per share adjusted for the impact of the supplemental dividend that was declared yesterday at $17.12. We estimate that a spillover income per share is approximately $1.30. With that, I'll now pass it over to Beau to discuss this quarter's investment activity. Thanks, Josh.

I'd like to start by sharing some thoughts on the M&A environment and how that's impacting activity in our portfolio. As we've discussed for several quarters, the M&A market has yet to deliver the meaningful rebound that many had anticipated in 2025. This muted transactional environment is clearly reflected in the leveraged loan market, where M&A-related loan volume was down approximately 31 percent in the second quarter compared to the first. In second quarter, loan volume marked its lowest levels since the fourth quarter of 2023. From our perspective, a meaningful reacceleration in M&A requires a catalyst for one of three areas, economic growth, interest rates, or time. Given the prevailing uncertainty around trade policy, a surge in near-term growth appears unlikely. and the forward curve suggests rates will remain higher for longer. This leaves time as the most important factor. In an environment of slower growth and elevated rates, sponsors and management teams need a longer runway for portfolio company earnings to grow and generate an appropriate return on investments. While we can't predict the future, we estimate the timing of M&A activity taking inspiration from the Huber Peak Theory, which was used 1950s to estimate when U.S. oil production would peak. Utilizing data sourced from PitchBook, the medium buyout multiple at peak levels in 2021 has declined roughly three turns compared to the medium for closed buyout deals year-to-date. If we assume no multiple compression from the peak in 2021 and an average annual EBITDA growth rate of approximately 9%, consistent with historical S&P earnings growth, it would take approximately four to five years for a buyer to earn an appropriate multiple of money on their investment. If we apply the same assumptions, but including the re-rating of multiples since the race hiking cycle, this lengthens the timeline to six to seven years, implying an additional two years needed to grow earnings until an appropriate multiple of money is achieved. Based on our analysis, the earlier wave of investments from the pre-COVID vintages are now approaching the six to seven year mark, which should moderately increase M&A activity in the next few quarters. As for the record-setting post-COVID pre-rape-hiking vintages of 2021 and early 2022, which we estimate make up more than 40% of current private equity net asset value, sellers need six to eight additional quarters to reach an acceptable multiple of money, implying a further delay of the broad-based return of M&A activity that many are predicting. We recognize there are additional factors at play, and this timeline will vary for different segments of the market. For example, investment-grade M&A is likely the first to return given the favorable regulatory environment. These businesses are also less leveraged compared to non-investment-grade companies, which means they have less sensitivity to interest rates. While the widespread return of M&A in our markets remains a future prospect. We have observed a noticeable shift in market sentiment beginning in late June and strengthening through July. In addition to some green shoots related to the buy and build strategies, we have more notably seen a pickup in non-M&A related activity within sponsor portfolios, such as duration management transactions. We expect these types of financings to be a prominent theme in the second half of the year as sponsors work to optimize their portfolio companies in preparation for an improved exit environment. We believe we are very well positioned to provide the kind of complex, bespoke capital solutions these situations require, creating attractive risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders. Turning now to activity in the second quarter, we provided total commitments of $289 million and total fundings of $209 million across 13 new investments and four upsizes to existing portfolio companies. To characterize our origination activity in Q2, approximately 30% of our commitments were sourced outside the sponsor channel. The remaining 70% came through the traditional sponsor-backed finance market, where we leveraged our deep relationships and platform scale to deploy capital into investments that earn an appropriate risk-adjusted return for our business. An example of our non-traditional transactions in Q2 is our direct-to-company investment in Genovese Health. This was an accounts receivable securitization financing where the combination of our deep knowledge and specific healthcare themes, combined with a longstanding track record in asset-based loans, created a unique investment opportunity for SLX shareholders. With the resources in place across the 6G platform, including dedicated ABL and healthcare teams, We have the ability to source and underwrite these off-the-run transactions that diversify our assets as well as our return profile relative to the sector. Another differentiated investment in our portfolio is Karis Life Sciences. As a reminder, we made initial debt and equity-linked investment in Karis in 2018 and subsequent equity-linked investments in 2020 and 2021. We fully exited our debt security in 2023, and the company recently completed its an IPO in June. We still hold an equity position today, which is valued quarterly based on the company's closing stock price on the last day of the quarter. While equity positions are a small part of our overall portfolio, our ability to embed potential incremental economics into our business through unique thematic sourcing and disciplined underwriting serves as a competitive advantage for our shareholders. I'd like to spend a moment providing an update on one of our existing portfolio companies, Lithium Technology, that had previously been on non-accrual status. During Q2, we navigated a sale process and restructuring of the business, working closely with a new sponsor to negotiate and drive an outcome. As a result of the restructuring, we hold a smaller loan that is paying cash interest and an earn-out equity security. This transaction had no material impact on our net asset value in Q2, as a realization of our original investment was consistent with our valuation as of March 31st. Lithium has therefore been removed from non-accrual status following the restructuring. Moving on to repayment activity, the second quarter marked the third consecutive quarter of elevated payoffs. Total repayments in Q2 were $389 million. This repayment activity contributed to another strong quarter of activity-based fee income excluding other income, totaling 11 cents per share in Q2 relative to our three-year historical average of 5 cents per share. The repayment activity we experienced during the quarter was driven by a mix of refinancings and M&A activity. Of the excess that involved refinancing transactions, the majority were completed at lower investment spreads. Our portfolio continues to reflect our disciplined capital allocation as only 6.2% our investments by fair value as a quarter end had a contractual spread of 500 basis points or below. While we don't have the comparable Q2 peer data set available yet, this is nearly five times less than the average of 29% of public BDC portfolio spreads of 500 basis points or below as of March 31st. A large proportion of our payoffs during the quarter came from older pre-2022 vintages, reducing our exposure to these assets to 29% of the portfolio by cost. This compares to 59% or roughly double pre-2022 vintage exposure for the public BDC sector average as of March 31st. We view this as a positive differentiator for our business as it reflected greater exposure to newer vintage assets that were originated following the commencement of the rate hiking cycle in early 2022. Given this greater exposure to new vintage assets, 37% of our exits were post-2022 investments, resulting in an incremental economics of shareholders driven by prepayment fees. Moving on to the portfolio metrics and yield, despite recent competitive dynamics, we've remained committed to high documentation standards that provide robust downside protection. At quarter end, we maintain effective voting control of 78% of our debt investments and average of two financial covenants, consistent with historical levels. As for managing prepayment risk, the fair value of our portfolio as a percentage of call protection is 94.1%, which means that we have protection in the form of additional economics that would flow through net investment income should our portfolio get repaid in the near term. As of June 30th, the weighted average total yield on our debt and income-producing securities have amortized costs as 12.0% compared to 12.3% as of March 31st. Given the meaningful payoff activity we experienced in Q2, the decline primarily reflects playoffs of higher-yielding assets exceeding the yields of new investments funded during the quarter. While credit spreads have remained competitive in Q2, our omni-channel sourcing capabilities enabled us to put capital to work in a disciplined manner demonstrated by a weighted average spread on new first lien investments of 652 basis points, which compares to a spread of 533 basis points on new issued first lien loans for the BDC peers in Q1, as Josh mentioned earlier. Moving on to the portfolio composition and key credit stats across our core borrowers for whom these metrics are relevant, we continue to have conservative weighted average attachment and detachment points of 0.3 times and 5.0 times, respectively. And our weighted average interest coverage remained consistent at 2.1x. As of Q2 2025, the weighted average revenue in EBITDA of our core portfolio companies was $377 million and $114 million, respectively. Medium revenue in EBITDA was $147 million and $46 million, respectively. Finally, overall portfolio performance is strong, with weighted average rating of 1.10 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the strongest. The lithium restriction resulted in an improvement in non-accruals quarter over quarter, from 1.2% of the portfolio at fair value to 0.6%. As of June 30th, we have two portfolio companies on non-accrual status. With that, I'd like to turn it over to my partner, Ian, to cover our financial performance in more detail. Thank you, Bo.

For Q2, we generated adjusted net investment income per share of 56 cents and adjusted net income per share of 64 cents. Total investments were $3.3 billion, down slightly from $3.4 billion in the prior quarter as a result of net repayment activity. Total principal debt outstanding at quarter end was $1.8 billion, and net assets were $1.6 billion, or $17.17 per share, prior to the impact of the supplemental dividend that was declared yesterday. Our average debt to equity ratio was 1.2 times, up from 1.19 times in the prior quarter, and our ending debt to equity ratio decreased from 1.18 times to 1.09 times quarter over quarter. Average leverage was higher than ending leverage, driven by the timing of repayment activity, which predominantly occurred towards the end of the quarter. We continue to focus on maintaining leverage within our target range of 0.9 to 1.25 times, And since the regulatory change in late 2018, we have operated with an average quarterly debt to equity ratio of 1.03 times. Leverage remains within our target range and above our historical average, providing ample capital for new investment opportunities. In terms of balance sheet positioning, we had approximately 1.1 billion of unfunded revolver capacity at quarter end against 159 million of unfunded portfolio company commitments eligible to be drawn or coverage of approximately seven times. Our quarter-end funding mix was represented by 71% unsecured debt. As a reminder, we proactively completed several capital markets transactions during Q1, strengthening our balance sheet. Following these transactions, our capital, liquidity, and funding profile remain in excellent shape. Further, we have no near-term maturities with our nearest obligation being $300 million of unsecured notes not occurring until August 2026. We did not issue any shares through our ATM program during the quarter. Pivoting to our presentation materials, slide eight contains this quarter's NAV bridge. Walking through the main drivers of NAV growth, we added 56 cents per share from adjusted net investment income against our base dividend of 46 cents per share. As Josh mentioned, There was approximately 2 cents per share of accrued capital gains incentive fee expenses related to this quarter's net realized and unrealized gains. There was a 13 cents per share reduction to NAV as we reversed net unrealized gains on the balance sheet related to investment realizations and recognized these gains into this quarter's income. The reversal of unrealized gains this quarter was primarily driven by early payoffs resulting in accelerated OID and call protection There was a $0.09 per share positive impact to NAV, primarily from the effect of tightening credit market spreads on the fair value of our portfolio. Portfolio company-specific events increased NAV by $0.07 per share. And finally, there was $0.06 per share of net realized gains, mainly from equity realizations in ReliaQuest and Murchison. As Beau mentioned earlier, there was no material impact to net asset value from the lithium restructuring as the realized value was consistent with our fair value as of March 31. As shown in our financial statements, there was an unrealized gain from the reversal of the previous unrealized loss that was equally offset by a realized loss this quarter. Moving on to our operating results detail on slide 9, we generated $115 million of total investment income for the quarter compared to $116.3 million in the prior quarter. Interest and dividend income was $97.2 million, down slightly from prior quarter, primarily driven by lower dividend income and a decline in foreign base rates. Other fees, representing prepayment fees and accelerated amortization of upfront fees from unscheduled paydowns, were lower at $10.2 million compared to $14 million in Q1, driven by the significant arrowhead prepayment fee that occurred in Q1. Other income, was $7.6 million, up from $3.5 million in the prior quarter. Net expenses, excluding the impact of the non-cash accrual related to capital gains incentive fees, was $61.4 million, up marginally from $60.7 million in the prior quarter, primarily driven by expenses incurred for the annual and special shareholder meetings held during the second quarter. Our weighted average interest rate on average debt outstanding decreased slightly from 6.4% to 6.3% This was primarily the result of a decline in foreign base rates. Before handing it back to Josh, I wanted to provide an update on our ROE metrics. Year to date, we've generated strong annualized ROEs based on adjusted net investment income and net income of 13.3% and 11.7% respectively. We believe this reflects our broad originations platform, ability to embed economics into our portfolio, and disciplined capital allocation. Based on our year-to-date performance and our expectation of the quarterly earnings power of the business in the second half of the year, we anticipate generating a return on equity based on adjusted net investment income in the top half of our previously stated range of 11.5% to 12.5% for the full year. If activity-based fees remain elevated, as we have experienced in recent quarters, there is potential to exceed the top end of that range. With that, I'll turn it back to Josh for concluding remarks.

Thank you, Ian. It's a tricky investment environment driven by the imbalance between supply and demand of capital. Competition is elevated, and it's increasingly difficult to generate outside returns. However, Sixth Street was built to navigate such complexity. We have a long and proven history of delivering for our shareholders through challenging backdrops, including the energy Market volatility has started in late 2014 and continued in 2015 and 16, the global pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and most recently, the interest rate hiking cycle of 2022 and 2023. Through passive locations, we have consistently proven our ability to protect capital and generate value. During these years, SOX generated an average annualized return on equity of 13.7%. a significant outperformance compared to the 7.5% average for our public BDC peers over the same years. While today's market presents a different set of challenges, our cold strategy remains unchanged, leveraging a deep bench of talented individuals who work collaboratively to source and underwrite investments that differentiate our return profile. This investor-first approach is not just a guiding principle, it's deeply embedded in our firm's culture and business model. To appreciate our strategy, one must first understand the framework of our industry. The cost to our performance in the highly regulated BDC sector is exceptionally narrow. First, there is little to no opportunity for differentiation through leverage or financing, as the liability side of the balance sheet offers no real source of excess return. Second, most industry participants operate on a similar cost structure of fees and expenses. Consequently, our performance must be generated almost exclusively on the asset side by sourcing differentiated investments and, just as importantly, minimizing investment losses. This is ultimately accomplished by the team, which becomes the real differentiator. This is the core of the six-speed model where our platform has consistently shined. For over a decade as a public company, the human capital advantage has delivered strong risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders. Looking forward, we will lean on these proven capabilities, remaining steadfast to our promise to be an investor-first firm dedicated to building a robust business that compounds value over the long term. With that, thank you for your time today. Operator, please open up the lines for questions.

Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1-1. If your question has been answered and you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, please press star 11 again. And our first question comes from Brian McKenna with Citizens. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Josh, I'm curious how you think about portfolio diversification as it relates to risk. Some of your larger peers have average position sizes of 20, 30, 40 plus basis points. I look at the average position at TSLX continues to be around 90 basis points. How do you balance managing risk through diversification, but also sizing positions appropriately in order to match your conviction in an investment?

Yeah. Hey, it's a good question. Look, we are, I think we've done a really good job of managing risk on an idiosyncratic basis. At the end of the day, this is all about idiosyncratic underwriting. And when you look at SLX's loss history data, and the inverse of that NAV growth over time compared to the rest of the industry, I think it speaks for itself as it relates to our risk management, set of risk management parameters, to be honest with you. At the end of the day, this business is about originating and underwriting credits that have an asymmetrical skew where you cut off the left tail and minimizing losses. That is your, as we mentioned in the script, that is the only path at the end of the day to outperformance because of the regulatory framework of the industry, you don't have the ability to do it through capital structure or financing costs. It's just about your portfolio yields compared to your losses. and your risk management. And, you know, I think we have the best in class track record of that.

Okay. That's super helpful. Thanks. And then one of your partners was speaking in a public forum recently. He talked about how an investable theme typically lasts about one to three years at Sixth Street. So, you know, what are some of the more attractive themes you're investing into right now? You know, and really what areas of the market have the best return opportunities per unit of risk? And then, you know, what are some of the sectors or themes you're shying away from?

Yeah. So, look, I think the most challenged, you know, although we still pick our spots as the on-the-run sponsor finance business, that tends to be the most crowded at the moment, although we still pick our spots in that space if we have industry overlap. But generally, we like more off-the-run, non-sponsor stuff today, most definitely harder to source and harder to underwrite. for sure, but has generally led to a whole bunch of excess return. And so that could be spec pharma, that could be asset-based lending, that could be energy, you know, those tend to be less picked over spaces with less capital, and generally they tend to have less, you know, kind of traditional private equity sponsorship. Bo, do you have anything to add there?

The other thing I'd say is we continue to build out sector capabilities across the platform, and our shareholders are beneficiaries of that as they source deals across the capital structure. And, you know, we still are active in the sponsor space, but it's going to be where our themes overlap. and we're not competing with commodity providers of capital.

Okay. I'll leave it there. Thank you, guys.

Thanks, Brian.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mickey Schleen with Clear Street. Your line is open.

Yes. Good morning, everyone. Josh, a high-level question to start about the sector in general. The growth of non-traded BDCs and other funds investing in private credit continues to broadly pressure loan spreads and we saw a little bit of that in your portfolio. Do you think that process is a secular trend and do you expect spreads for debt liabilities in the space to also compress or maybe for fee structures to come down and allow listed BDCs to maintain their arbitrage or You know, do you think investors need to begin to accept lower ROEs in the sector? I realize 6th Street may not be as exposed to these trends, but I think everyone would like to hear your views.

Yeah, yeah. By the way, Mickey, congrats on the new seat. Glad you joined the call. Thank you. You have an important voice in this. So thank you. Look, I wrote. extensively about this last quarter. So, I would point people to my letter on this subject last quarter. About 90 percent of the asset growth, which I think you're referring to, and flows came from the perpetually offer non-traded space. And I would, you know, I would include, you know, interval funds, emerging interval funds in that category as well. So I think the challenge you have is in this particular time, and we talk about this in this letter, I mean, in this earnings script, is there's complacency, which is we think investors are looking at the historical return, backward-looking LTM, which is higher than the forward given both the combination of the higher spread in the back book compared to reinvestment spreads today, plus the difference between the downward sloping SOFR curve. And so you have spot SOFR, which is somewhere between 80 and 90 basis points above the SOFR swap curve. And so, you know, As people do they kind of look at things and fail with with the return profile bed, but we think the return profile is going lower, and that is a that that that needs to shake out, I would expect. that that will shake out and the flows will change, flow, get reallocated to those managers that have been able to continue to produce in the new environment an attractive ROE. When you historically look at balance sheet heavy financials, we were hard to find a balance sheet heavy financial that had an ROE requirement less than 9%. And so if it's banks or FinCos or BDCs, so I'm not super hopeful that the market's going to wake up, especially in an environment where treasuries the 30 year treasury is near five that they're going to, you know, require, you know, a, you know, six or 7% ROE. That doesn't seem like a spread that's super competitive, the risk adjusted returns. So I think, I think we're in this moment of time where the, the back book and the spot forward is hiding some of the economics of where the industry is going. And as I wrote about, I'm pretty concerned about that. And I think there's been a lot of complacency about that. As it relates to your other two levers, which is the liability level lever, like, it doesn't make a difference. I mean, you know, it would be nice, like, if, you know, our investment grade spreads rally, you know, they kind of trade somewhere between investment grade and high yield. And, you know, they tied them by 20 or 30 basis points, but at one to one or 1.15 times lever, it's not a real pickup and additional excess, excess return to investors. And the last lever is obviously, you know, fees. And, you know, if the industry can't generate means ROE, you know, capital will get reallocated or, you know, people will be forced to get more efficient. And, you know, that's the way capitalism works. But I would point, I wrote too long about this subject and probably spoke too long about this subject on this call. But it is the right topic.

Yeah, I agree. And, you know, I share all of your concerns. That's why I asked. Couple more questions, simpler ones. There was some migration in your internal risk ratings from one to two. At a high level, can you tell us what drove that decline?

There were, so we had a couple names that actually were lower rated that came up non-accrual and moved up or were refinanced out. And then we had two specific names that went from one to two. Those are businesses that are not performing to our original plan. However, they have, you know, strong interest coverage. And, you know, so we moved them to one to two, but they're, you know, the general trend was down a bit, but it was two specific names.

But not, I mean, you're not seeing sort of that trend across the portfolio based on, you know, what I heard at the beginning of the call.

No, in fact, you know, earnings for the quarter across the book were actually very strong. Quarter over quarter, I think, you know, Kami, you know, the earnings growth quarter over quarter. So when you look at Q1 earnings for 2025 over last year's earnings, they were up in the low to mid teens on an earnings basis. On an LTM basis, they're around 8%. So the portfolio is in very good shape. These were two idiosyncratic names. And again, still performing. still have strong interest coverage. They're not performing to our original plan.

Okay, I appreciate that. Look, Mickey, I would say generally one of our big themes is we think We've been pretty good about calling stuff, by the way. I just want to point it out to the team. But I think the theme is that credit quality, you know, we talked about this last quarter, probably quarters have kind of bottomed out. It's probably slightly gets better. It's slightly got better for us, at least on the non-inclusive line. And that now the focus is going to be to dividend coverage. And, you know, which we think, you know, for the first time – between the combination of reinvestment spreads and the SOFR swap curve that there might be some dividend cuts in this space. Our dividend coverage happens to be really, really strong due to A, we have excess economics in our book, and two, we size our dividend. We think about the liability. But we think credit quality should, like the economy is growing, credit quality should be pretty good. And so we feel pretty good about credit quality, but we think the shift should be focused now on ROEs and ROEs compared to the promises people made as it relates to their dividend.

Yeah, I agree with that as well. And I do expect to see some dividend cuts. My last question, just a housekeeping question, maybe for Ian. What was the nature of the increase in the prepaid expenses and other assets on the balance sheet? It did move pretty meaningfully. I suspect it might be receivable for investments you sold.

Yeah, that's right, Mickey. We had one name that paid off on June 30, but the cash didn't come in until post-quarter end, so it was shown in the receivable rather than kept in the SOI.

Okay, thank you. I appreciate your time this morning. That's it for me.

Thank you. Thanks, Mickey. Our next question comes from Finian O'Shea with Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Good morning, everyone. I guess going back to the high level, Josh, I was interested in some of your opening remarks on credit. You described them as idiosyncratic, but also likely behind us. So I was wondering why idiosyncratic can mean a few things, basically one-off, but I would kind of think of it as coming from from looser underwriting and seeing if you think that's something that's changed.

Yeah, look, so, look, I always look at our book and say things are mostly behind us or, you know, we think behind us. I would also say that when you look at the shock of the rate hike cycle in mid-2022, it takes, there's a lag As it relates to defaults, that lag is a function of historically that companies have cash on their balance sheet and some flexibility to manage things. And so, although there's a shock, there's a shock absorber, but that absorber gets worn out over time. and shows up two years later. And so if you think about 2022, we're in mid 2025. I think generally my feeling is like a lot of credit issues have shown themselves as it relates to what we call idiosyncratic. When you look at what we got wrong, what we got wrong was the specifically on lithium. was it was a business where it benefited from COVID. We clearly did not see that. And as the COVID kind of ran off and the industry structure in that business changed, we missed it. And so, it wasn't generally because of high rates, it wasn't generally because of commodity prices, it was a very idiosyncratic credit issue with that business model.

It's been the only thing I'd say We never compromise our underwriting standards, as you know, but we sometimes get things wrong. That's something we missed.

You know, absolutely, and I was referring to the industry at large. I was interested in the – it makes sense, so the answer is helpful. Just as a small follow-up, can you touch on the changes in the latest co-investment order and if the BDCs still have priority on direct lending origination?

Yeah, they do. They do. I mean, the co-investment order just made co-investment slightly, quite frankly, easier and more manageable. But, yes, you will see nothing different.

Okay. Great. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Kenan. Okay.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kenneth Lee with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I think in the prepared remarks, you mentioned that about 30% of the originations in the quarter were driven by non-sponsored transactions. Wondering what your outlook is for the so-called lane two or lane three investments over the near term. Are you seeing more opportunities given the macro backdrop? Thanks. Oh, go ahead.

Yeah, sure. I'll take that. Yeah, this quarter it was about 70% sponsor and 30% non-sponsor. That's, you know, fairly close to what our historical levels have been over time. You know, it's usually about 65% sponsor and 35% non-sponsor. Some quarters, like last quarter, you'll have more thematic non-sponsor coverage. We're, you know, I think generally... We're generally positive in second half activity being stronger than it was last year, given last year the election cycle probably paused some demand. The pipeline feels pretty robust. Now it's a competitive environment. We're going to continue to be thoughtful on how we allocate capital. But we're seeing pretty strong demand across both sponsor and non-sponsor activities. So I'm not going to make a prediction on what that's going to look in the second half. It generally follows over the long arc of that 65-35, but we seem to be seeing good activity across each of our thematic areas.

Great. Very helpful there. And just one follow-up, if I may. I think you touched upon this briefly. You mentioned the covenants and some of the documentation on the new investments. Just curious, for the more recent and new investments in the current environment, have you been seeing any kind of changes in terms of terms and documentation? Thanks.

We have not seen a change over the last few quarters. In fact, probably the last year in, you know, the document standards or covenant packages, they've remained stable. I think, you know, in part because how these source deals away from some of, you know, the more combed over areas. But we have not seen a change in that.

Gotcha. Very helpful there. Thanks again. Thanks, Kim.

Thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from Aaron Siganovich with Truist Securities. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your thoughts on the push to open up retirement vehicles to private investment assets and if you have any expectations of how that might impact the direct lending market.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a little too early to tell. I think... I think it's a very complicated issue. I like the idea of giving access to returns and alternatives to individual investors. um they've obviously had some of that through the bdc sector on the private credit side uh to be honest i'm a little concerned that the incentives are not exactly right and that the that you know there was a decent prophylactic around alternatives where you had either super sophisticated individual investors or institutions that could do the work. And I'm a little concerned about their ability to do the work and individual investor protections. you know, hopefully that gets cleared through and people are responsible in that way. I mean, I can tell you, roll back 15 years when we started in the BDC industry and you talk to individual investors, and I think this is not supposed to be snarky at all, but the vast majority did not understand the difference between return on capital and return of capital and dividend yield and ROE. And so there was a whole individual investor that was chasing high dividend paying stocks, not realizing that it was return of capital, not return on capital. And by the way, some of that still exists. And so the people on this call, which has been significant upgrading contributions to the space, have been doing that work on the research side to make sure that people understand that. So I have mixed feelings. I'm concerned. I understand why GPs want access because it's a big TAM and big growth. But, you know, at the end of the day, we got to take care of our clients and our job is to provide something of value of clients. And, you know, that focus still needs to be, you know, should remain, which is everything works well when you provide value to your customers. The entire ecosystem takes care of itself, and I would urge the space to keep that at the most, as their North Star.

Got it. That's helpful. Thanks. And then just a quick one on new investments. There was an 8% stake in what looks like a structured credit. Can you just talk a little bit about what that is and what kind of the underlying assets are in that?

Yeah, I'll hit that real quick. On occasion, we buy a structured credit portfolio, which is of corporate loans, the underlying of corporate loans, and typically probably syndicated loans. Those securities are rated securities, typically BBB or BBB. They offer competitive... uh, uh, the office, you know, competitive risk adjusted returns with subordination. Uh, and so we, we, we've, uh, you know, come in and out of that market, uh, uh, through the years. So I think, you know, and we sold eight structured credit investors in Q2 that we'd bought for a price of 97 and a half. And it had a whole bunch of carry that we sold for one or two, uh, I think, and so we've come in and out of that market.

Okay, so these are just more opportunistic then.

Tough. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Melissa Waddell with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I appreciate the context that you provided around sort of second half activity levels that you might expect to see. I'm curious if you're also expecting sort of repayment activity to remain elevated in the second half to sort of match that. Just looking at the net repayments over the last couple of quarters, they've been pretty sizable, and I know you don't manage to that necessarily on a quarterly basis, but just trying to put a framework around that.

Yeah, I mean, look, the good news, I think, for SOF shareholders is that we have outside exposure to Vintage's post-22 rate hiking cycle. So those were higher spread assets. As you know, how our accounting works is we don't recognize any of the upfront fee day one unless there's a syndication involved. and they typically have call protection, so those get called away from us early, they produce excess income, and so you have activity-based fees when repayments pick up. And so, I would expect on the margin, repayments stay elevated given that exposure that we have that others do not have or don't have as much of. because we kept on investing through that rate hiking cycle. And so I think that in the short term is good for net investment income because there will be excess returns and fees. And then, you know, we're going to, as I said at the end of our script, we got to like, you know, we do it for a living. We have a large top of the funnel and we'll go replace it with stuff we really, really like.

Right. Okay. Thank you for that. And then just wanted to follow up on sort of looking across the portfolio. Now that you've had a few more months after some tariff announcements, I'm just curious if you're still seeing low exposure across the portfolio. Has your view changed on that at all?

No. I mean, look, I'll let Beau hit it. I think the answer is No, and I think our tariff exposure is actually reduced post-quarter end, but go ahead.

That's exactly right. If you remember, right, we had very low exposure, you know, less than, you know, 1% of the portfolio on a fair market value basis. It was really three names that we thought had direct exposure. We didn't know exactly what the impact was going to be. Since last recording, that's actually one of the names. one of those three names has actually been paid off. So we, you know, business was performing well, it was paid off into cheaper financing. So it's down to two small names at this point.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Paul Johnson with KBW. Your line is open.

Yeah, good morning. Congrats on the good quarter. Can I just ask, so what drove the higher other income this quarter versus last? Was that just the repayment activity in the quarter?

Sorry, Paul, you cut out again. I think the question was what drove higher other income?

Yeah, correct.

Yeah.

All right. I'll take that one. It's really just a number of miscellaneous that were embedded in transactions that paid off during the quota.

Got it. And sorry if I didn't catch it, but did you guys disclose what the prepayment income was, the accelerated prepayment income for share this quarter?

From a per-share basis, the prepayment income was about a third of activity-based fees, so around $0.06 per share was specific to prepayment fees.

Yeah, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. In the other income line, there was exit fees, which is like a very close cousin to prepayment fees. So the other income line was how much? Other income was about seven cents per share. Yeah, so I think it's fair to think of like prepayment and exit fees being pre on a growth basis somewhere between 11 and 13 cents per share. They're pretty, they were pretty close cousins. You know, the question, the difference is technically is, you know, a prepayment, a prepayment income what existed in the contract from day one where an exit fee might have existed in the contract along the way. Right, Ian? That's right.

Okay. Got it. That makes sense. Very helpful. And then in terms of... Sorry, go ahead. I didn't know if I cut someone off there.

No, no.

I'm just saying the same thing.

Go ahead.

Okay. So, in terms of the structuring fee income, though, I mean, from the kind of sponsor portfolio optimization that you mentioned with some transactions or add-on activity there, is there any sort of structuring fee income that would come along with that?

No, I mean, take a little bit of a deep dive on this, because I think people in the industry do it different. There are people in the industry that take some of their upfront fees and split it between a structuring fee and OID. And the issuer doesn't really care if the two points you get up front and half of the structuring fee and half is OID, you know, and ultimately then what happens is, is that you have smaller OID that gets amortized over time. So something, if you take more of the income upfront, And when something prepays, you have less accelerated OID because you've already taken the income. And that is not how we do our accounting. How we do our accounting, unless there is a syndication fee, we don't take a structuring fee. It all goes into OID. And so when the portfolio churns, there's more accelerated OID and there is, then would have been a case if we took a structured fee. So all of our fees are effectively deferred and put in OID, at least from a structuring perspective. So people do it different. It's a really important nuance. So in the former case, new activity will drive NII on a marginal basis. In the latter case, our case, is that repayment activity and portfolio churn will drive NII. Sorry for the deep dive.

No, I got it. That makes sense. And again, helpful answer there. Last one for me, just on the... the lithium restructuring positive to see that that was done without any additional write-down or loss on the investment this quarter. But can I just ask this on the earn-out security? So what exactly, I guess, is kind of triggering the payout there? Is it just based on revenue, or is there any sort of sales that are taking place within the company? And also just kind of what's maybe the expected kind of realization timeline there. And that's all for me. Thanks.

Yeah, sure. So again, this was split into two securities, which was an interest earning debt security that is smaller, and then an equity participation and all cash flows that are generated beyond that. The expectation is that the duration will be about three years. to fully realize the value on that equity. And, you know, there's a chance that we can overperform that. We took a view of what those cash flows would look like over the three years, and that's how we valued the equity security.

You know, loan amortizers, right, Beau? Correct. Correct. I appreciate the help from me. Congrats on a good quarter. Thank you.

Thank you. And our last question comes from Robert Dodd with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Hi, guys, and congrats on the quarter. If I can go back to the repayment issue briefly, and then I've got a different one. To quote Ian, you know, expect full-year NII, LOE, and obviously to be in the top half of previous guidance. But if fees remain elevated, could be above that. To quote Josh, expect repayments to remain elevated. And then if we look at your fair value to call pro, which ticked up fairly meaningfully this quarter, tends to imply that you're expecting less call protection in certainly Q3, maybe the second half than you got in the first half, or less of that's built into NAV. So can you reconcile, like, You know, you can have high repayments without having high repayment fees, depending on the vintage of the asset, et cetera, et cetera. But can you kind of reconcile those bits? Like if repayments are elevated, why wouldn't fees be elevated too? But that doesn't seem to be factored into your fair value to call pro ratio from the presentation.

Yeah, so what I would say is, look, my comment as it relates to repayments is a Q3 look. Ian's comment was a full-year look. So let's start with that, right? Like there is a, you know, Ian was talking about full-year guidance. I was talking about, you know, in the next, you know, quarter, that's kind of what we have, as much visibility as we have. You know, and then obviously, fees and the amount of fees is a little bit of a function of what vintage. And, you know, we don't control that. But so I'm not sure there's a huge disconnect of what we all said. We're just trying to round it out.

No, no, no, no. I appreciate that. And that little breakdown does help put it down for me. So thanks for that. On the second question, if I can, I mean, I was going to ask you about the retro peak oil model, but something simple. To your point, Josh, typically balance sheet financials, you know, you need an ROE greater, balance sheet heavy financials, you need an ROE greater than nine to trade at book or better. if institutional investors are the primary ones driving valuation. I think that's my addendum to that. So how do you think, given a huge amount of capital raised, obviously, as these evergreen funds, which are, it is not institutional capital. So, you know, and obviously those are, for a lot of the market, the actual kind of drivers of spreads and volume more so than the public vehicles are. So how do you think to that point, like that 9%, is that what the industry is going to be satisfied with given what the evergreen funds are doing and who the primary capital comes from on that front?

Yeah, I mean, I'm a big believer that markets are typically not very efficient in the short term, but very efficient in the long term. And what I would say is, if you have an individual investor or an RIA who's sitting in front of an individual investor, they should at some point are going to pick their head up and say, I can earn, I can buy something at a discount to book in the public markets and earn, you know, a nine, you know, versus buying something at par and have daily liquidity versus buying something at NAV and rebuying Savannah because I'm not redeeming that I'm earning a seven and that I may or may not have liquidity when I put in at the end of the quarter, like that will work its way through if people are doing their job as fiduciaries. And, you know, and so in the short term that, you know, that disconnect might exist, but in the long term, my hope and belief if markets are doing their job and people are acting as fiduciaries, they will put their clients in the best risk-adjusted return on capital and look at alternatives and look at liquidity premiums and, you know, optionality and discounts a book and all that stuff. So I think ultimately it will come out in the wash. You would, I think, all things being equal, want to own something, will you have daily liquidity versus not, and where you might get gated, you know, and that, you know, people have to experience that firsthand to kind of realize it, but at some point they will, and it will work its way through.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to Josh Easterly for closing remarks.

Look, you know, two things have gone. Look, we live in, the team's in New York City. Most of us live in New York City except for Fish and Cammie. And I would say it's hard not to end any type of call this week without saying that it is, life is fragile and random and, you know, like, you know, what happened this week was on nobody's bingo board and people should make sure they, you know, are present with the people they care about and give them lots of hugs. I will say that because that's top of mind for me. The other thing that's top of mind for me is I look back at what Sixth Street Specialty Lending has accomplished pre-public and post-public since 2014. And it's about the team. The team has just done an incredible job over market cycles, navigating difficult times. And I couldn't be prouder of the people that I work with. And the platform is a special place. where we have the ability to really find unique investments for our investors with a big top on the funnel, and it's a pleasure working with the people I work with. So those two things are top of mind to me, and I thank everybody for attending the call, and I hope people have a peaceful rest of the summer.

Thanks, everyone. Thank you.

Thank you for your participation. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.