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SuRo Capital Corp. 6.00% Notes due 2026 (SSSSL)

Q4 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 16, 2017

$25.05

+0.10%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to GSV Capital's Fourth Quarter 2016 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. This call is being recorded today, Thursday, March 16, 2017. I would now like to turn the call over to Nicholas Franco of GSV Capital. Please go ahead.

Nicholas Franco

Management

Thank you for joining us on today's call. I'm joined today by GSV Chairman and CEO, Michael Moe; and Chief Financial Officer, William Tanona. Please note that a slide presentation that corresponds to today's prepared remarks by management is available on our website at www.gsvcap.com under Investor Relations, Presentations. Today's call is being recorded and broadcast live on our website, gsvcap.com. Replay information is included in our press release issued earlier today. This call is the property of GSV Capital Corporation and the unauthorized reproduction of this call in any form is strictly prohibited. I'd also like to call your attention to customary disclosures in today's earnings press release regarding forward-looking information. Statements made in today's conference call and webcast may constitute forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or our future performance or financial condition. These statements are not guarantees of our future performance or future financial condition or results, involve a number of risks, estimates, and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors including, but not limited to 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 our website at gsvcap.com or the SEC's website at sec.gov. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Michael Moe.

Michael Moe

Management

Thank you, Nick. We are pleased to share the results of GSV Capital's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2016. First, I will review the recent quarter and comment on the market fundamentals that are defining GSV Capital's opportunity moving forward. Then I'll share an update on our top positions and notable developments in the portfolio. I'll then turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Bill Tanona who will provide a brief financial overview. Then we'll open up the call for questions. Let's start with Slides 3 through 7. Net assets totaled approximately $192.1 million or $8.66 per share as of December 31, 2016 as compared to $10.08 per share at September 30, 2016. At the end of 2016, we applied a vigorous analysis to GSV Capital's already robust valuation process, metrics and investment priorities to reflect an environment over the past year where it's been increasingly difficult to finance non-unicorn companies. Even with the marquee names, financings have typically been flat to slightly up over the past 18 months. Recently coupled with the dynamic of the GSV Capital's portfolio include a complete write-down of our investment in Beamreach Solar, and a near complete write-down of our investment in PayNearMe in the fourth quarter, which together accounted for approximately 62% of our total net unrealized gains and losses in the quarter. As always, we believe our current NAV reflects ongoing evaluation of the market dynamics and we will continue to comprehensibly monitor our position and marks. Additionally, as part of an ongoing steps we are taking to prove and strengthen the GSV Capital platform. We are announcing today that two members of the Board of Directors Cathy Friedman and Brad Koenig will be transitioning from their roles as of tomorrow, Friday, March 17 as we bring on two new…

William Tanona

Management

Thank you, Michael. Today, I will briefly provide a financial overview followed by an update on our current liquidity position. We ended the quarter within NAV per share of $8.66. A quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year breakdown of the change in NAV is shown on Slide 11 and 12 in the presentation deck that we provided, which is consistent with our financial reporting. In sum, [$1.14] per share quarter-over-quarter decline in NAV was driven by $1.65 per share of net changes in unrealized depreciation of investments and $0.01 of net realized losses. These items were partially offset by $0.17 per share of net investment income in $0.07 per share benefit on taxes from unrealized depreciation of investments. On a year-over-year basis, the $3.42 per share decline in NAV was driven by $3.30 per share net change in unrealized depreciation of investments, $0.06 per share of net investment losses and $0.12 per share of net realized losses. These items were partially offset by $0.10 per share of the benefit from taxes on unrealized depreciation of investments. During the fourth quarter of 2016, we sold our full position in Upwork Global at an average net price of $4.31 per share resulting in roughly $78,000 of net realized losses in the quarter, those were the only realized gains or losses in the quarter for GSV Capital. Our liquid assets ended the quarter at approximately $17.1 million, consisting of approximately $8.3 million of cash and $8.7 million of public securities not subject to lock-up agreements, none of which are subject to any periodic sales restrictions. We appreciate your support of GSV Capital and we continue to strive to add value to our stockholders. That concludes my comments, and we would like to thank you for your interest. I'll now turn the call back over to the moderator to start the Q&A session.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We'll go first to Alex Paris with Barrington Research.

Christopher Howe

Analyst

Good afternoon. This is Chris Howe, sitting in for Alex Paris. At one point in time, I think you had held stocks that went public indefinitely and now your position is to exit within 12 months of the lock-up expiration. I guess these thoughts are all related to the recent IPO of Snap and what's your plan moving forward with that? Thank you.

Michael Moe

Management

Thank you. So the guidance that we've given, it's our intent that we will liquidate positions in companies that are gone public as you stated 12 months of the lock-up period, which is typically six months and that can be adjusted by the underwriter and as it relates to Snap, what will be evaluating is where Snap is at that point vis-à-vis on our price target and what we consider to be the fundamentals at the time. Ultimately it's our responsibility to make the best returns for our shareholders and so while the guidance we've given is that we would liquidate within 12 months after a lock-up period and that is what our full intent is. It will depend on where the stock is at the time and what the circumstances are. We do continue to hold one position that is public for a much longer than its lock-up period that [check]. It's our strong view and it has to be our strong view because otherwise we'd sell and we'd invest in private companies that the risk rewarding situation for [check] today is super compelling for us to keep the shares right now. We're very close to the Company, what's going on and we think the stock is dramatically undervalued vis-à-vis those fundamentals. So we kept that with outside of the guidance that we provided is what our attempt is. So as relates to Snapchat that's really going to be a function where it's trading and what the fundamentals are with the environment. But I think it's 90% plus probable that we will liquidate that position within 12 months of the lock-up.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Michael Moe

Management

If there are no more questions, we just wanted to tell, again thank you for tuning in. We appreciate the interest in GSV Capital. We do believe we have a portfolio that is overall performing quite well. We think we're entering the environment that should be favorable for GSV Capital and shareholders. So I will continue and we're going to work very, very hard to create the kind of returns that our shareholders deserve, and again we look forward to talking between now and our next call. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today's conference. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.