Prepared remarks
Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Nishil Mehta, Head of Shareholder Relations. Sir, please go ahead.
Good morning and welcome to Carlyle Secured Lending second quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm joined by Alex Chi, CGBD's Chief Executive Officer, and Tom Hennigan, our President and Chief Financial Officer. Last night, we filed our Form 10-Q and issued a press release with a presentation of our results, which are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Following our remarks today, we will hold a question-and-answer session for analysts and institutional investors. The call is being webcast and a replay will be available on our website. Today's earnings call may include forward-looking statements reflecting our views with respect to, among other things, our future operating results and financial performance. Any forward-looking statements made today do not guarantee future performance, and undue reliance should not be placed on them. These statements are based on current management expectations, estimates, and projections that involve inherent risk and uncertainties, including those identified in the risk factors and cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements sections of our Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements. CGBD assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements at any time. During this call, the company may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G, such as adjusted net investment income or adjusted NII. The company's management believes adjusted net investment income, adjusted net investment income per common share, adjusted net income, and adjusted net income per common share are useful to investors as additional tools to evaluate ongoing results and trends and to review our performance without giving effect to the amortization or accretion resulting from the new cost basis of the investments acquired and accounted for under the acquisition method of accounting in accordance with ASC 805 and the one-time purchase or non-recurring investment income and expense events, including the effects on incentive fees, and are used by management to evaluate the economic earnings of the company. A reconciliation of GAAP net investment income per share, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure to adjusted NII per common share, can be found in the accompanying slide presentation for this call that is available on our website. In addition, a reconciliation of these measures may also be found in our earnings press release filed last night with the SEC on Form 8-K. With that, I'll turn the call over to Alex.
Thanks, Nishil, and good morning. On today's call, I'll give an overview of our second quarter results, including the quarter's investment activity and portfolio positioning, and provide an update on our investment outlook. I'll then hand the call over to our President and CFO, Tom Hennigan. During the second quarter, macroeconomic and geopolitical factors led to a complicated market backdrop for new deal activity. However, we continue to be very pleased with the strength of Carlyle Direct Lending's origination platform and the consistent credit performance of CGBD. In total, we closed $1.5 billion of new and incremental commitments at the platform level, and excluding joint venture activity, funded $248 million of investments at CGBD, reflecting a strong quarter of originations. Our platform originations were up over 20% versus the first quarter, while platform selectivity continued to increase with a commitment rate on second quarter pipeline deals of less than 5%. On our new originations, weighted average spreads held steady in line with the first quarter, while weighted average leverage on entry continued to decrease. Our enhanced origination team continued to drive several wins, and Carlyle played a lead role in nearly 90% of platform originations. Repayments decreased in the quarter to $68 million of activity. Combined with $123 million in sales to our MMCF joint venture and $50 million of equity funding at SCP, net investment activity drove total investments at CGBD to increase from $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion during the quarter. Moving to our investment funds, both of our JVs, MMCF and SCP, continue to scale and generate attractive returns to CGBD. Total investments at our MMCF joint venture increased to $1.2 billion, with the annualized dividend yield increasing by over 200 basis points to 17.6% in the quarter. At SCP, the portfolio grew to $1.7 billion and produced an annualized dividend yield of 18.7% to CGBD. During the quarter, we generated $0.35 per share of net investment income on both a GAAP and adjusted basis. In line with our revised dividend policy, our Board of Directors declared a third quarter dividend of $0.35 per share, which is fully covered by net investment income in the quarter. Our net asset value as of June 30th was $15.61 per share compared to $15.89 per share as of March 31st. Although the market remains focused on the software sector, we continue to see strong fundamental performance from the software borrowers in our book. As I've mentioned in prior quarters, our underwriting approach to borrowers in the software space remains highly disciplined and our platform's software track record is exemplary, with zero defaults on $7 billion in commitments to software deals over the last six years. Turning to portfolio construction, we remain focused on portfolio diversification while managing target leverage. As of June 30th, our portfolio grew to 177 companies across more than 25 industries. The average exposure to any single portfolio company was less than 60 basis points of total investments, and 95% of our investments were in senior secured loans. The median EBITDA across our portfolio was $101 million. As always, discipline and consistency drove performance in the second quarter, and we expect these tenets to drive performance in future quarters. Looking ahead, despite the complicated market backdrop mentioned earlier, we continue to expect strong activity in our market over the medium and long term, and we're well positioned with a revitalized origination platform to take advantage of increasing market activity and to continue taking share. Looking at our pipeline, a significant majority of deals continues to be in old economy sectors, including industrials, aerospace and defense, healthcare, and consumer products. As manager performance dispersion increases, we expect the breadth of the Carlyle platform and the consistency of our performance to differentiate us through our ability to leverage Carlyle's scale, scope of investment capabilities, and dedicated in-house investing, portfolio management, and restructuring resources. With that, I'll now hand the call over to our President and CFO, Tom Hennigan.
Thank you, Alex. Today, I'll begin with an overview of our second quarter financial results. Then I'll discuss portfolio performance before concluding with detail on our balance sheet positioning. Total investment income for the second quarter was $62 million, below the prior quarter, primarily driven by a decline in interest income due to lower OID accretion from reduced repayment activity, as well as a decrease in fee income, partially offset by increased dividend income from both the MMCF and SCP JVs. Total expenses of $38 million also decreased versus the prior quarter, primarily as a result of lower interest expense due to a lower outstanding debt balance. The result was net investment income for the second quarter of $24 million, or $0.35 per share, on both a GAAP basis and after adjusting for the impact of asset acquisition accounting. Achieving NII of $0.35 per share means we fully earned our new base dividend. Our Board of Directors declared the dividend for the third quarter of 2026 at that $0.35 per share base dividend level, which is payable to stockholders of record as of the close of business on September 30th. As a reminder, we're maintaining our existing supplemental dividend policy, which targets paying out at least 50% of excess earnings above the base dividend, allowing us to deliver additional value to shareholders as earnings grow. As mentioned on prior earnings calls, we still expect the second quarter will be the near-term earnings trough, which means we not only expect to maintain full dividend coverage in future quarters, but we anticipate an increase in earnings and supplemental dividends as we ramp the portfolios and earnings of both JVs over the course of the next four to six quarters. In addition, we currently estimate we have $0.70 per share of spillover income to support the quarterly dividend. Given CGBD shares continued to trade at a compelling discount, we repurchased $12.5 million of shares at an average discount of 29% during the second quarter, resulting in $0.07 of accretion to NAV per share, and total purchases since inception of the program now exceed $200 million. On valuations, our total aggregate realized and unrealized net loss for the quarter was about $24 million, or $0.35 per share, partially driven by markdowns on a limited number of investments. To highlight a couple of the larger movers, on our investment in SPF debt and equity, we expect a successful exit later this year. However, we did adjust the mark on a residual equity position down to align with updated expectations on total recovery to lenders, given higher than anticipated proceeds to management and doctors. But overall, it remains a very positive story with an expected MOIC of 1.4x and highlights the impact of our dedicated workouts team. On U.S. Infra, which is a provider of inspection, maintenance, and rehabilitation services for critical infrastructure, based on our expectation of lower earnings for fiscal year '26, we lowered our valuation as of 6/30. Our workout team is closely working with the sponsor and management team to right-size the capital structure and provide additional liquidity to support the business to best position the company for recovery. Turning to credit performance, we continue to see overall stability in credit quality across the portfolio. The fair value of loans utilizing PIK provisions decreased during the second quarter, and the majority of our PIK is underwritten at origination or for performing borrowers and is what we would consider to be good PIK. Non-accruals continue to remain low as of June 30th and represent only 0.6% of investments at fair value and 1.2% at amortized cost. The restructuring of DCA closed the second quarter, so that investment was placed back on accrual status, while U.S. Infra and Project Castle, also known as Material Handling Systems, were added to non-accrual status. Moving to the Middle Market Credit Fund, our longstanding JV, we continue to focus on maximizing both asset growth and returns. During the second quarter, we closed a $400 million upsize to our main credit facility, increasing total commitments to $1.2 billion at an attractive spread of SOFR plus 170 basis points. During the second quarter, MMCF achieved a 17.6% dividend yield, an increase of over 200 basis points quarter over quarter, generated from $1.2 billion of investments with no fees at the joint venture. The increases in both debt and equity commitments that closed earlier this year position us to continue asset growth and income generation at the JV. In addition, our newer JV, Structured Credit Partners, or SCP, ramped to $1.7 billion of investments and produced a dividend yield of 18.7%. In April, we were able to capitalize on market volatility and accelerated the timeline for the first two CLOs to price and close, benefiting from lower loan prices and tight liability pricing. We expect SCP to price and close two additional CLOs in 2026, subject to market conditions, in line with our plan to ramp at a cadence of four CLO issuances per year to ensure vintage diversification. And over time, the JV is expected to manage approximately $6 billion to $7 billion of assets fee-free at SCP. I'll finish by touching on our financing facilities and leverage. Our debt stack is 100% floating rate, matching our primarily floating rate assets, meaning CGBD is well-positioned in advance of any additional interest rate movement. At quarter end, statutory and net financial leverage were both 1.2x. Given our current strong liquidity profile, we believe we're well positioned to benefit from both more attractive terms for new investments and the expected pickup in deal volume in future quarters. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Alex.
Thanks, Tom. As we approach the middle of the third quarter, our portfolio remains resilient and our strategy remains unchanged. We continue to focus on sourcing transactions with significant equity cushions, conservative leverage profiles, and attractive spreads relative to market levels, and expect to take advantage of improved conditions in the market with a revitalized origination platform. The pipeline of new originations is active, and with a stable, high-quality portfolio, CGBD stockholders are benefiting from the continued execution of our strategy. As always, we remain committed to delivering a resilient, stable cash flow stream to our investors through consistent income and solid credit performance. I'd like to now hand the call over to the operator to take your questions.
Questions and answers
Our first question is going to come from the line of Rick Shane with J.P. Morgan.
Really just curious right now as you look at the deal market, we're starting to see underlying equity values improve in some sectors, and at the same time, M&A activity remains pretty muted. I am curious what you are seeing in terms of pricing and terms related to new transactions versus refinanced transactions and opportunities to rotate the portfolio.
Sure. Thanks, Rick, for the question. As you can see from the results, we were able to find some attractive new investments in the second quarter, and the pipeline for the third quarter also continues to be pretty robust. The overall landscape for M&A continues to be a bit muted. That's driven by continued geopolitical uncertainty and macroeconomic uncertainty. Once there is a clearer picture of those factors, that should unleash more M&A activity. In terms of the pipeline, these are companies that are more shielded from broader economic swings, clearly away from software. Most of the deals in our pipeline are within industrials, aerospace and defense, healthcare, and basic consumer products. In terms of pricing, as you can see from our results, the weighted average spread held steady from the first quarter. We didn't see much more spread widening. It depends on the sector: very attractive industrial deals can draw competition and lead to tighter pricing. Doc standards have continued to improve. That's one of the advantages of being in the middle market where you see more consistent deal flow and spreads holding steady.
Yes, no, it's an interesting observation in terms of spreads. Obviously, base rates are a tailwind for the industry, but with rising non-accruals in many portfolios, there's an offset and it does look like you picked up a little bit of yield. You were able to benefit efficiently from the pickup in base rates it looks like.
Yes, we saw some nice benefit. We also benefit from the fact that our non-accruals are quite low, which allows us to be on offense with deployment and seek the best opportunities to invest. Given where we've landed on that front as well as our leverage, we were able to deploy into attractive opportunities and also take advantage of the discount to repurchase shares.
Got it. We saw that as well. Pretty straightforward quarter. We appreciate you guys taking our questions.
Our next question will come from the line of Erik Zwick with Lucid Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
This is Justin, I'm in for Erik. I wanted to go back to yields a little bit. It held steady from the first quarter. Can you talk about the spread environment thus far in the second half of the year? And how are you thinking about balancing capital deployment in terms of new loans versus share repurchases given the current discount to NAV?
Hey, good morning, Justin. Thanks for the question. We continue to be active with repurchasing shares, but we're trying to find the right balance and remain active in deploying new capital. Where we've been focused is increasing yields at both JVs, so we're focused on deploying at the JV when spreads on individual investments are accretive for investors. We've been ramping the SCP JV. We're trying to find the right balance between continuing to be active on new deals and on share purchases.
Okay. And then just a follow-up. On the other income line, I was curious about the quarter-over-quarter decline. Was that due to lower refinancing and amendment activity? What drove that decrease?
Yes, it was. Last quarter we had outsized one-time income from repayment activity, including one particular repayment that had a large repayment fee. This quarter was more normalized and actually lower than a typical baseline because we had very limited other income this quarter. So, last quarter was atypically high, and this quarter was lower than our steady baseline.
Okay. All right. Great. Thanks for the color there. I appreciate it.
Our next question is going to come from the line of Robert Dodd with Raymond James.
On your comments about macro and geopolitical factors, there's a lot going on. Many competitors have given a generally hopeful and optimistic view about the back end of this year. It sounds like that optimism is not necessarily tied to the M&A pipeline building right now, but they're hopeful it will. How would you characterize your view? Do we need flat-out stability before you get more optimistic about the back half of the year, or how are you thinking about that?
Thanks for the question. There is a lot going on. For M&A to come back in full force, I think you need more clarity on the inflation picture and what will happen to rates. That is linked to developments in the Middle East and implications for oil prices. If a business is linked to those impacts, it's difficult to forecast near-to-medium-term performance, which affects valuation. Sellers who can wait often will until conditions are clearer. That could push activity to later in the year or early next year. At the same time, we are still seeing healthy flow in businesses that can be boxed off from those risks or are non-cyclical and recession-resistant, and we're seeing healthy multiples in those areas. M&A is seasonal, and the top of the funnel has expanded. As deals are signed, the closing and funding process takes another quarter or two. That's why some peers are optimistic about the fourth quarter: the top of the funnel has expanded across the board. But given the forces at play, we must remain quite selective in what we invest in.
Got it. On the Structured Credit Partners, you indicated plans to do another two CLOs this year and a plan to do four a year for vintage diversification. If the market is much hotter in 2027, would you change that plan? Is the focus on vintage diversification strong enough that you would stick to four a year even if the market gets hot?
When we talk with Lauren Basmadjian, who runs our liquid business, she is laser-focused on vintage diversification. That focus was central when we started the program. We do consider market conditions and have conversations based on them, but we're very focused on vintage diversification. We anticipate a four CLO cadence. Timing could result in one year having three CLOs and another having five, but we'll aim to deploy evenly over the horizon.
I agree that vintage diversification matters. One more: on the sectors you find attractive now—industrials, aerospace—any particular niches within those broad categories? I assume you are not targeting deep cyclical OEM new-install businesses. Could you give insight into where you're looking specifically within those categories?
You're right that we stay away from more cyclical OEM new-install type industrial businesses. We gravitate toward aftermarket, repair, replacement, and short-cycle maintenance businesses. That overlay applies across many parts of the economy. We are more careful within areas that were considered recession-resistant, such as home and residential services, which have been popular for buy-and-build strategies. We're seeing some top-line volume deceleration in parts of those markets and margin pressure, so we need to be selective and may avoid some platforms where those trends are more pronounced.
Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference back over to Alex Chi for closing remarks.
Great. Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. We appreciate your support. Please reach out if you have any further questions, and enjoy the rest of your summer.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. Goodbye.