Earnings Labs

SuRo Capital Corp. (SSSS)

Q1 2014 Earnings Call· Fri, May 9, 2014

$13.26

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the GSV Capital First quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. During today’s presentation all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be opened for questions. (Operator Instructions) this conference is being recorded today May 8, 2014. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Kristen Papke, Investor Relations for GSV Capitals. Please go ahead.

Kristen Papke

Management

Thank you for joining us on today’s call. I’m joined today by Michael Moe, GSV’s Founder and CEO; and Steve Bard, the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Please note that a slide presentation that corresponds to today's prepared remarks by management is available on the company’s website at www.gsvcap.com under Investors Events & Presentations. We are also live tweeting segments of this earnings call via the Twitter handle@gsvcap. Today's call is being recorded and webcast on gsvcap.com. replay information is included in our press release that was issued this afternoon. This call is the property of GSV Capital Corp and the authorized rebroadcast of this call at any form is strictly prohibited. I would also like to call your attention to customary disclosure in our press release today regarding forward-looking information. Statements made in today's conference call and webcast may constitute forward-looking statements which relate to future events or future performance or financial condition. These statements are not guarantees of our future performance, condition 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 the company's filings with the SEC. Management does not undertake to update such forward-looking statements unless required to do so by law. To obtain copies of GSV Capital's latest SEC filings, please visit the website at gsvcap.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Moe. Michael.

Michael T. Moe

Management

Thanks Kristen and good afternoon. I'm going to begin today with a review of our portfolio as of March 31, 2014 and recent key developments. Then Steve Bard will provide a brief financial overview and we'll take your questions. So, let's start with Slide 3. I’m pleased to inform you that net assets totaled 288 million or $14.91 per share as of March 31, 2014 which despite the tumultuous market environment is unchanged from the $14.91 per share reported as of December 31, 213. Twitter our largest position at 28% of NAV was $22 million since December 31, but this was offset by positive appreciation in companies such as Palantir, Dropbox and 2U, which are second, third and fourth largest positions respectively. Additionally we sold shares of Facebook and Control4 resulting in a $7.4 million of net unrealized gains. Overall the portfolio is performing very strongly with average revenue growth of our 52 investments up over 90% year-over-year. While its very frustrating for everybody to have a stock price fall, we have confidence based on 25 years of experience that ultimately the stock price will correlate with the fundamentals of the business and as I mentioned the fundamentals of our portfolio are robust. Given the significant discount of GSV share price $14.91 NAV and strong fundamentals our board of directors has authorized the repurchase of as much as 10 million of GSV Capital Corp’s common stock over the next 12 months. We have also said historically that it’s our intent to monetize public positions at the earliest appropriate time. So they were going to even be more specific, its that’s our intent is that our intent is to liquidate a position within 18 months of going public, but 12 months after the lock up is expired. Additionally to be clear…

Mark W. Flynn

Management

Hey, thanks, Mike. Let me lead off with just a comment, I think our second largest position is Palantir. And a number of years ago for making that investment we executed a non-disclosure agreement, so we wouldn’t comment on the company publicly. Though there’s a terrific cover story written in full poor plus fall, but I think would clearly explain the business and their model and their strategy. So Palantir represents a fair value of $42 million, roughly 14.7% of our existing portfolio. If I have you move on to Slide 8, Dropbox is a company we’re very excited about it, it’s a leader in the premium model, which basically allowed people to store their files anywhere from any device or any platform. What’s exciting to us is if you think back to July of 2013, they announced a phenomenal user phase of 175 million individuals using Dropbox. In April last month, they announced there were 275 million users and four million enterprise customers. These are customers saving hundreds of millions of files every year on their platform from our advantage point growing the customer base by 100 million over the past nine months is running short of phenomenal. Also in the past quarter, Dropbox continued their strong momentum raising roughly $350 million of equity and announced a $500 million credit facility as well as announced that Former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice was joining the Board. Dropbox is a world-class syndicative investors were delighted to be included along with sides of some of the best venture firms including Sequoia, Benchmark, IVP, Greylock and many of the great institutional investors such as Tivo, Price, Goldman Sachs and Blackrock. As of March 31, Dropbox is the third largest position of portfolio roughly $25.1 million or 8.7% of net assets. If I…

Michael T. Moe

Management

Yes, I’ll just ask this way, I turn it over to CFO Steve Bard, I want to let people know in conjunction with our annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday June 4, we are going to have first annual Investors Day from 1 clock to 5 Clock. And we are going to host this at nestGSV which is our portfolio company, which is incubator of over 70 young star businesses nestGSV is located in Redwood City, California and we welcome any shareholders, analysts, investors that have an interest and learning much more detail what we do GSV be introduced to some of our key portfolio companies. With that I’ll turn it over to Steve.

Stephen D. Bard

Management

Thank you, Michael. Let’s turn our attention to Slide 12, and as Michael indicated our – are any of these for March 31 is $288 million, and $14.91 per share which is exactly where we left of on December 31. So let’s take a look at the changes that the three major components that they impact NAV and how that factored into the calculation. The first major component that we want to look at is the net realized gain on our investments which was $7.5 million or $0.41 per share for the quarter, and this gain reflects the sales that Michael had referenced, our shares at Facebook and Control4. The next major component of NAV that we want to look at in operating expenses those were $4.9 million this quarter or $0.25 per share. As a reminder the operating expenses include management fees, accrued incentive fees, cost incurred under our administration agreement, director’s fees, legal and audit fees, insurance, investor relations and also expenses associated with our credit and debt facilities. Again that translated to $0.41 per share. And the third component that we want to look at is unrealized depreciation on investments which represented about $3 million loss or $0.16 per share for the first quarter, and this was primarily attributable to the decrease in fair value of Twitter and our Facebook position for the quarter ended 3/31. So again when you combine these three major components net operating expenses, net realized gains, the net changed in unrealized depreciation there was no net change to net asset value per share, and so we remained at $14.91 per share for the period ended March 31. So thank you for your attention. With that I’ll turn the call over to the operator to start the Q&A session. Operator?

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Jeff Houston with Barrington Research. Please go ahead. Jeff L. Houston – Barrington Research Associates, Inc.: Hey, thanks for taking my question. As you look to exit your Twitter position, should we expect it to be in a manner that’s similar to how you exit Facebook that is gradually a certain percentage over time or just few thoughts there? And then second quick question is when do you expect to file your 10-Q? Thanks.

Michael T. Moe

Management

Sure, in terms of Twitter position, we have a game plan with the stock as we have with every position that we own. We believe today that Twitter is significantly under valued to what we believe its worth. And as the shares approach what we believe fair value is we look to exit the position and deploy it into new promising opportunities. I will make the point as – Facebook is exactly what we have with Facebook, we had a game plan, we had our analysis in terms of what we felt Facebook was worth and what catalyst were and how we played out different scenario, and as you mentioned, we’re still in a position with just a little bit remaining as it continue to rise. And so, in terms of filing their 10-Q, Steve?

Stephen D. Bard

Management

Sure. That will be – well, it’s due Monday after the call, so it will be filed tomorrow on Monday, Jeff. Jeff L. Houston – Barrington Research Associates, Inc.: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jerry Tang with ROTH Capital Partners. Please go ahead. Jerry Tang – ROTH Capital Partners LLC: Hey, good afternoon. Any new verticals you think about expanding to as we head into the back half of 2014 ended 2015? And I guess applying that same metric to geographic regions kind of getting less concentrate in the U.S., any thoughts there?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

A couple of things. We’re constantly looking at mega trends growth themes, studying also we see going on in the growth economy, as well as what our leading VCs purpose start, because they’re often accrued to emerging areas bubbling up. One area that we have a significant interest in, but we haven’t made any material investments today is what we call the digital doctor. And looking at the mega trends of the digitization of the healthcare system, which is obviously, there is number of interesting opportunities that have developed in that space, but we think that’s going to be a huge area of opportunity for sometime to come. As it relates to investments outside of the United States are named GSV stands for Global Silicon Valley. And while we’re located in Silicon Valley, and Silicon Valley remains the heart of innovation with amazing opportunities in between San Francisco and San Jose. We’ll look to invest in the most promising growth companies anywhere, where we can find that we think that we have advantage to access here and can see the potential. With our structure we’re prohibited from investing more on 30% of our assets outside of the United States. To-date, we’ve made investments in Spotify, which is a company that’s outside of the United States. We’ve invested in a company called Sino Lending, which a Shanghai-based company that sort of the lending club of China. And we think that’s a really exciting company as you maybe familiar with lending club in China’s, you may have heard well, it’s interesting opportunities,, and again, we’re interested in the greatest opportunities we can find. So and they were constantly looking at themes that we think have legs, but thanks for the question. Jerry Tang – Roth Capital Partners LLC: Thanks for taking my question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Ray with [Kincel & Company] (ph). Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

As of to-night, I think quarter is approximately 22% doubt from 28 at the end of the quarter and it’s still a very large position, I think contributes to the market discount to your net asset value. I would hope that you would recognize and begin to reduce that position?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Yes, thank you. We – the size of total position – overall portfolios is good probably, because it represents the fact that we’ve had nice appreciation this year. We have a tremendous confidence in the long-term Twitter’s story in terms of the credit balance of the business. And, yes, as I said, we look at Twitter today it’s a public company as we said earlier in our statements, once the company is public, we’ll look to exit the position at the earliest appropriate time. We have also referenced that we’re looking at as a guide post to our investors of that period, should be within 18 months and again it depends where the shared price is. So we watched Twitter shares decline with the overall decline in many high growth names, but yet the fundamentals are extremely strong. And so with our experience to (indiscernible) is that ultimately fundamental the drive stock price and still we will be continue monitor that with the eye towards reducing that position, as we think it better fit to shareholders, but I appreciate that comment. Thank you.

Stephen D. Bard

Management

This is Steve Bard. I would just add that our cost basis in Twitter is about $17 in change and so even in light of the downturn; we’re in a good position. Thank you for the question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Christopher Nolan with MLV & Co. Please go ahead. Christopher Nolan – MLV & Company: Hey guys thanks for taking my question. A quick question, the concentration between the various areas seems sort of shifted around since the last quarter, does this simple reflects like social media is down; big data is up, so that’s simply just reflect incremental investments as well as the change in value in Twitter?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

It’s a combination. I mean the Twitter investment is a meaningful. It was 35% on overall portfolio last quarter, down $22 million in value during the quarter at the same time companies like Dropbox and Palantir had finances done that were up from where they were in the previous quarter. We don’t – we absolutely one of the reasons we – we talk about the five teams and we talk about the – the representation within those five teams, because we look at that because we don’t want to be over weighted in anything that we – we look at this in a careful manner. The fact of the matter is what we really want is to access the best companies and big data; there is just an explosion of growth in opportunities in that space. And by the way, there are companies that we would have like to participate in and we feel proud of our bagging average of getting in the names that we focused on, but there is some major names in the big data and cloud area though we didn’t get in that we don’t like to. So we’re just looking for the best companies. We have an eye towards with the way we think the growth, best growth prospects. We have an eye towards not being over concentrated in any area, but we’re going to still focus on work we get access to the very best companies with the best growth fundamentals. Christopher Nolan – MLV & Company: Great.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

When you see that shift does not so much strategic, but more of a reflection of what happened in the market... Christopher Nolan – MLV & Company: Got it. Is it fair to say that these $7 million in realized gains was basically redirected to new investments?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

I mean – but I mean I think that – yes, Chris – yes. I think that’s the right way to think about it. The dollars are somewhat fungible but that’s the right way to think about it. Christopher Nolan – MLV & Company: Okay. And then following up on the comment earlier in your prepared remarks, talking about maybe expectations of having realized gains, generate dividends for shareholders. Do you have any timing associated with that?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Well, I mean, first of all that we – absolutely we would look at that at the end of the year, but there is a possibility that we could do that before that. And so we just have to – that’s something that we’re looking at carefully and some of that just fraction of – where certain monetization events are with certain portfolio positions that we have, but for sure something that by end of the year we would do if we have – if we have realized gains and it’s something that we could do in the interim if felt that was the appropriate thing to do.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Adam Gold with Espial Capital. Please go ahead. Adam S. Gold – Espial Capital Management LLC: I want to ask about the management of the buyback, I’m very encouraged to see, do you guys are stepping up given the massive discount to stated book value. So first question is the logic behind the size of it given it sort of $10 million stocks (indiscernible) about a million shares out of 19 is about 5% to 7%, why not larger than that? So what was the logic behind the dollar size?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

Thanks Adam, a couple of things. One, we believe that our own shares do represent tremendous value and that’s meant to the indicated by stock buyback that – that we haven’t done before. We also think there is tremendous – the fact that what we think ultimately people are looking for us to do is to get into the next Dropbox in Facebook and Twitter and we want to make sure that we have the opportunity, particularly by the way as we’ve seen. I mean this is – on one-hand our stocks impacted, but it gives what the overall growth world has impacted and then if we can buy shares and companies that we think have potential to make manifold returns to our shareholders, we want to have the opportunity to that. And again just – what we’ve announced, we obviously would have the flexibility depend on what happens to – to meant that depending on what’s going on the market, what’s going on with liquidity, what’s going on with opportunities, and what we’re really focused on, Adam, is how we can optimize shareholder value for shareholders. And that’s – so it’s a mix. We think this is a great start. We think that’s now a good message and we’ll just keep after. Adam S. Gold – Espial Capital Management LLC: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And at this time, I’m showing no further – actually we do have a follow-up from the line of Christopher Nolan with MLV & Co. Please go ahead. Christopher Nolan – MLV & Company: Michael the given discount of where the stock is right now? Do you attribute that all to the correction in the values for venture equity, that’s happened over the last few months or is there something else in play here for GSVC shares?

Michael T. Moe

Management

We’re confident when you look, when people get a appreciation, before that. I hope it gives them a lot of confidence in the way that we do things the companies that we are investing in, the people that are shrouding us. And what the long-term outlook is and they ultimately stock prices reflect confidence, and we think as people get to really see what’s under the hood, what’s going on here? Or it should be growing confidence. That’s everything we are doing is meant to provide that. We’re confident when you look, when people get a appreciation, before that. I hope it gives them a lot of confidence in the way that we do things the companies that we are investing in, the people that are shrouding us. And what the long-term outlook is and they ultimately stock prices reflect confidence, and we think as people get to really see what’s under the hood, what’s going on here? Or it should be growing confidence. That’s everything we are doing is meant to provide that.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s all the time we have for questions today. I would like to turn the conference back to Mr. Moe for any closing remarks at this time.

Michael T. Moe

Management

Yes, thank you, I appreciate everybody tuning in for this call. We are feeling very good about what’s going on with the portfolio and what’s going on with our team and ability to deliver great returns for shareholders, while the stock prices where it is, we’re doing things about that. We believe to reconcile that, more confident, that if we execute on the portfolio side, the stock is going to do very, very well for our shareholders. So, with that, again thank you. We look forward to any follow-ups that people have. We hope we see you all in Silicon Valley on June 4. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the GSV Capital’s first quarter 2014 earnings conference call. If you would like to listen to a replay of today’s conference, you can do so by dialing 303-590-3030, or 1-800-406-7325 and entering the access code of 4681236 followed by the pound sign. We thank you for your participation today. And you may now disconnect.