SLR Investment Corp

NASDAQ:SLRC

Earnings Call Analysis

Robust Q3 Earnings and Positive Outlook for SLRC

In Q3 2023, SLRC's net investment income grew 16% year-over-year to $0.43 per share. The net asset value per share increased slightly to $18.06. As a capital provider to private equity, SLRC benefits from stable interest rates and rising M&A volume. The predominantly first lien senior secured loans portfolio is defensively positioned against inflation and interest rate hikes. SLRC's broad origination capabilities give flexibility and pricing power, with $600+ million prepared for investment. An impressive $13 billion investable capital is available for co-investment opportunities, and the company expects continued earnings growth in Q4 and into 2024. The board declared a $0.41 per share quarterly distribution, and a waiver of $2 million in incentive fees is noted, reflecting a strong commitment to shareholder value.

Strong Fundamentals Despite Economic Volatility

Despite facing a turbulent economic environment, the company demonstrated strong fundamentals in the earnings call. It was highlighted that approximately $175,000 of merger-related incentive fees were waived during the third quarter, contributing to a cumulative total of approximately $2 million in waivers related to the merger. This helped the company post a net investment income of $23.4 million, or $0.43 per average share, a slight improvement from the previous quarter's $22.7 million, or $0.42 per average share. Moreover, an upward movement from a net loss to a net gain in realized and unrealized gains was noted, resulting in a net increase in net assets from operations of $26.9 million.

Portfolio Resilience and Asset Allocation Strategy

The earnings call provided reassurance about the defensive approach to portfolio construction. The company maintains a comprehensive portfolio valued at around $3.1 billion across various industries, dominated by senior secured loans that offer a relatively secure position against economic downturns. The portfolio's weighted average asset-level yield increased to 12.3%, from 12.1% the previous quarter, supporting the overall strong credit quality of the portfolio. This defensive posture is strategic for the company, ensuring resilience through economic cycles and maintaining an investment risk rating of just under 2, with the majority of the investments performing well.

Outlook and Strategic Focus for Future Growth

The company's flexibility in capital allocation within its lending verticals positions it for potential growth in the coming quarters. With significant available capital, the company expects to continue growing earnings. Acknowledging ongoing market volatility, the company emphasized the relative stability of its specialty finance spreads and returns, contrasting with the more volatile sponsor finance investments. The lending landscape is anticipated to change in favor of middle market lenders like the company, driven by a confluence of regulatory changes, increased M&A activity, and loan maturities.

Selective Investment in High-Quality Life Science Ventures

The company has strategically focused on investing in late-stage life science ventures with strong revenue streams, moving towards cash flow breakeven. The life science portfolio carried significant value, as all companies have revenues, and none of the loans were indicated to be at substantial risk. Such targeted investments bolster the company's risk-adjusted return profile, as a conservative approach is being exercised in an industry undergoing valuation adjustments due to broader market influences.

Closing Remarks and Future Considerations

To conclude, the company ended the earnings call with a sense of optimism about its future prospects. The demonstrated strength of its investment strategies, including managing a diversified and defensive portfolio, suggests that the company is well-positioned to weather economic turbulence and continue to provide value for its shareholders. While specific growth numbers or projections for future quarters weren't disclosed in the call, the comprehensive analysis of its current standing and the proactive measures being taken highlight the company's readiness to capitalize on upcoming opportunities.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q3

[Operator]

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Q3 2023 SLR Investment Corporation Earnings Conference. [Operator Instructions] Please note this call may be recorded. I'll be standing by if you should need any assistance.

It is my pleasure to turn the conference over to Chairman and Co-CEO, Michael Gross.

[Michael Gross, executive]

Thank you very much, and good morning. Welcome to SLR Investment Corp.'s earnings call for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. I'm joined today by Bruce Spohler, our Co-Chief Executive Officer; and our Chief Financial Officer, Shiraz Kajee.

Shiraz, before we begin, would you please start by covering the webcast and forward-looking statements?

[Shiraz Kajee, executive]

Thank you, Michael. Good morning, everyone. I would like to remind everyone that today's call and webcast are being recorded. Please note that they are the property of SLR Investment Corp. and that any unauthorized forecast in any form is strictly prohibited.

The conference call is also being webcast from the Event Calendar in the Investors section on our website at www.slrinvestmentcorp.com. Audio replays of this call will be made available later today as disclosed in our November 7 earnings press release. I'd also like to call your attention to the customary disclosures in our press release regarding forward-looking statements.

Today's conference call and webcast may include forward-looking statements and projections. These statements are not guarantees of our future performance or financial results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Actual results may differ materially as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements unless required to do so by law. To obtain copies of our latest SEC filings, please visit our website or call us at [phone].

At this time, I would like to turn the call back over to our Chairman and Co-CEO, Michael Gross.

[Michael Gross, executive]

Thank you, Shiraz. We are pleased to report that for the third quarter of 2023, SLRC generated net investment income of $0.43 per share, representing a 16% increase year-over-year, which once again exceeded our distribution for the quarter. The increase in our NII per share over the past year has been driven by portfolio growth and increases in reference rates which have flowed through to our floating rate portfolio. At September 30, our net asset value per share was $18.06, up from $17.98 per share at June 30, reflecting stable credit performance and the over-earning of our distribution.

Before digging into our third quarter performance, I'd like to touch on the overall investment climate. We are living in a period of heightened market volatility resulting from geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties with sadly no near-term end in sight. Inflationary pressures from elevated energy, labor and capital costs are proving to be persistent and interest rates are expected to stay higher for longer. Growth may slow as a result, but the U.S. economy has remained remarkably resilient despite these multiple shocks.

The performance of our portfolio companies has equally remained resilient. In sponsor finance, our portfolio companies largely continue to exhibit both revenue and EBITDA growth. While the rapid increase in rates impacted valuations and diminished M&A volume this year, there are attractive opportunities to finance quality borrowers with resilient cash flows or stable assets supporting borrowing bases.

SLR has been an important provider of capital to the private equity community as some private credit managers grapple with hold limitations. Importantly, M&A volume has begun to pick up and is expected to continue expanding next year given substantial PE dry powder and projected stable interest rates.

Given uncertainties associated with the economy and geopolitical events, we believe that maintaining a defensive approach via asset selection to be critical to maintain our long-term strong performance. Across our platform, we are seeing some of the most attractive investment opportunities in years, and we believe the private credit asset class remains highly attractive, both in the absolute and relative return basis.

The current market environment creates opportunities for firms like SLR who have deep experience and expertise in investing throughout market cycles. SLR will be opportunistic in leveraging its diversified platform across sponsor and specialty finance investment strategies to generate attractive returns while protecting our capital.

The overall health of our portfolio remains solid with a nonaccrual rate based on cost at just 0.7% and 0.3% at fair value at quarter end. The weighted average interest coverage on our sponsor finance loans is just under 2x. We believe these healthy metrics are a result of our focus in sponsor finance on recession resilient industries, high recurring free cash flow such as health care and business services.

As a reminder, our specialty finance businesses enable us to be highly selective in our sponsor finance strategy. At quarter end, approximately 98% of our portfolio was comprised of first lien senior secured loans. Our long-term investment in first lien loans has resulted in a portfolio we believe is better equipped to withstand continued inflationary pressures and high interest rates and portfolios with second lien and unitranche loans.

Additionally, with 72% of our comprehensive investment portfolio invested in specialty finance assets, which are borrowing bases and full covenant structures supporting our investments, we are defensively positioned. Our differentiated investment approach of coupling cash flow loans and specialty finance loans provides us with enhanced portfolio diversification and additional downside protection in periods of tightening economic conditions. Importantly, our broad set of origination capabilities allows us greater flexibility in allocating capital to our various private credit investment strategies with the best risk/reward opportunities across economic cycles.

Firms with significant available capital, such as the SLR platform, are able to fill the void left as regional banks retreat and the syndicated loan market grapples with structural challenges from the end investor base. Borrowers value our speed and certainty of execution and our flexibility and ability to invest $150 million to $200 million in a given upper middle market financing, which gives us greater pricing power and influence over terms. With $13 billion of total investable capital across the platform, inclusive of anticipated leverage, SLR has the scale to provide full financing solutions, which benefits SLRC through co-investment.

As SLR has increased its capital base, we have continued to invest in the firm's infrastructure and origination capabilities. Recent hires in the third quarter included investment professionals, a strategic operating partner focused on growth initiatives, a Chief Business Development Officer and a former BDC equity research analyst. We believe these human capital investments significantly enhance our strategic focus of being a rightsized and differentiated private credit manager with a scale to access a deep and broad opportunity set to generate alpha through security selection rather than producing index like returns of a cash flow loan only approach.

Additionally, our specialty finance businesses are benefiting from the regional banking turmoil as borrowers seek alternative financing to replace their existing credit lines from banks who retreated from the market. Our in-place teams of approximately 300 professionals across SLR included specialty finance affiliates owned by SLRC, provides us local market knowledge and relationships that lead to competitive sourcing and information advantages.

Importantly, we have ample dry powder to capitalize on the favorable investment environment. At September 30, including available credit facility capacity at the SSLP and our specialty finance portfolio companies, SLRC had over $600 million of available capital to take advantage of the current attractive investment environment.

I'll now turn the call back over to Shiraz, our CFO, to take you through the third quarter financial highlights.

[Shiraz Kajee, executive]

Thank you, Mike. SLR Investment Corp.'s net asset value at September 30, 2023, was $985 million, or $18.06 per share, compared to $981 million, or $17.98 per share, at June 30, 2023. At quarter end, SLRC's on-balance sheet investment portfolio had a fair market value of approximately $2.2 billion in 154 portfolio companies across 43 industries, compared to a fair market value of $2.2 billion in 156 portfolio companies across 45 industries at June 30.

September 30, the company had approximately $1.2 billion of debt outstanding with leverage of 1.21x net debt to equity. At this point in time, the level of leverage doesn't fully reflect planned loan asset contributions from our balance sheet to the SSLP as we continue to ramp that vehicle. September 30, the SSLP portfolio consisted of $134 million of senior secured floating rate loans. We complete the SSLP ramp, we expect our leverage ratio to once again be in the middle of our target leverage range of 0.9x to 1.25x.

SLRC's funding profile is in a strong position to weather a rising rate environment. Our existing $470 million of senior secured -- unsecured fixed rate notes have a weighted average annual interest rate of 3.8%, and we did not have the maturity until the end of 2024.

Moving to the P&L. For the 3 quarters ended September 30, gross investment income totaled $59.6 million versus $56.3 million for the 3 months ended June 30. Net expenses totaled $36.3 million for the 3 months ended September 30. This compares to $33.7 million in the prior quarter.

As a reminder, at the time of the merger of SLR Senior Investment Corp., or SUNS, into the company last year, the investment advisor agreed to waive incentive fees resulting from income earned due to the accretion of purchase discounts allocated to investments acquired as part of the merger. During the third quarter, the company waived approximately $175,000 of merger-related incentive fees, which now totals approximately $2 million in cumulative waivers by the manager related to the merger.

Accordingly, the company's net investment income for the 3 months ended September 30 totaled $23.4 million, or $0.43 per average share, compared to $22.7 million, or $0.42 per average share, for the 3 months ended June 30. [ Over the line ], the company had net realized and unrealized gains for the third quarter totaling $3.6 million versus a net realized and unrealized loss of $3.7 million for the second quarter of 2023. As a result, the company had a net increase in net assets resulting from operations of $26.9 million for the 3 months ended September 30, 2023, compared to a net increase of $19 million for the 3 months ended June 30, 2023.

As we mentioned on the previous call, the company has returned to making quarterly rather than monthly distributions and on November 7, the Board of SLRC declared a quarterly distribution of $0.41 per share payable on December 28, 2023, to holders of record as of December 14, 2023. We estimate this change will slightly reduce our annual operating expenses and is one change that is consistent with our objective defined solutions to maximize shareholder value.

With that, I'll turn the call over to our Co-CEO, Bruce Spohler.

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

Thank you, Shiraz. Before I provide an overview of our portfolio, I'd like to discuss our approach to portfolio construction. Over 17 years of expanding our lending strategies as a diversified commercial finance company has provided us with a financing platform well suited for the current volatile market environment. We are seeing the dispersion in the opportunity set across segments of the private debt markets. As a result, we believe that asset selection will be critical to achieving strong performance during this vintage.

Business model provides us with flexibility and capabilities to capitalize on the most attractive lending opportunities in today's market. We take a fundamental bottom-up approach to our portfolio construction based upon the relative attractiveness and risk-adjusted returns across our investment verticals. Today, we are more active in sponsor finance. However, we expect to see increased opportunities in both ABL and life science lending as we get into next year. At that point, we will readjust our deployment accordingly. We believe having the flexibility to play offense and defense at the right moments across cycles is key to long-term consistent investment performance.

Now let me discuss the portfolio. At quarter end, the comprehensive portfolio consisted of approximately $3.1 billion of senior secured loans to approximately 790 borrowers. This is across 110 industries with $4 million or 0.1% average position exposure. Measured at fair value, 99.2% of our portfolio consisted of senior secured loans with approximately 98% invested in first lien loans, including investments through our SSLP attributable to the company. Only 0.2% was invested in second lien cash flow loans with the remaining 1.2% invested in second lien asset-based loans. Our specialty finance investments account for approximately 73% of the comprehensive portfolio, with the remaining 26.5% in senior secured cash flow loans to upper mid-market sponsor-owned companies.

We believe that this defensive approach to portfolio construction positions us well for potential economic weakness and provides a differentiated risk return profile for our shareholders. At quarter end, our weighted average asset level yield was 12.3%, up from 12.1% last quarter. Our portfolio of credit quality remains strong. At quarter end, the weighted average investment risk rating was just under 2 based on our 1 to 4 risk rating scale, with 1 representing the least amount of risk. 99.3% of the portfolio on a cost basis was performing.

Now let me touch on each of our 4 investment verticals. I'll start with our sponsor finance cash flow business. Here, we originated first lien senior secured loans to upper mid-market companies in noncyclical industries such as health care providers and diversified financials, which helped to mitigate the impact on our portfolio from cyclical economic factors. At quarter end, our cash flow portfolio was approximately $824 million, including loans in our SSLP attributable to the company. We invested across 51 borrowers with approximately 99% of the cash flow portfolio invested in first lien loans. We believe that this portfolio is well positioned to withstand liquidity pressures that individual borrowers may face.

Additionally, we believe we have a defensively positioned portfolio. Our borrowers have a weighted average EBITDA of over $130 million. We have low LTVs of approximately 41% and interest coverage ratios of just under 2x. Our portfolio is comprised of businesses that perform essential services with either recurring or reoccurring revenues, and they have low capital intensity which results in high free cash flow. Overall, our portfolio has exhibited solid credit metrics that have remained relatively steady throughout this year.

During the third quarter, we originated $115 million and experienced repayments of $34 million. Our third quarter investments have an average yield to expected maturity of 12.9%. Leverage of approximately 5x through our investment and interest coverage of just under 2x. Importantly, these investments carry less leverage than the historical average for new cash flow issuance. As Michael mentioned, our sponsor finance deal flow continues to be lower overall as valuation expectations result in higher base rates, but we have found pockets of opportunities to make loans at very attractive risk-adjusted yields. At quarter end, the weighted average yield on this cash flow portfolio was 11.8%.

Now let me turn to the ABL segment. Historically, this segment has performed well during periods of market volatility when borrowers that are asset-rich but have cash flow pressures seek to raise capital backed by their liquid assets. The opportunity set has increased for ABL as borrowers seek working capital financing against the backdrop of increased bank regulation, fallout from the regional banking crisis, and tightening credit in the ABL segment. Given the economic headwinds, we are very conservative in our approach to underwriting.

The increase in deal volume, however, is enabling us to remain active while being extremely selective. At quarter end, our senior secured ABL portfolio totaled $976 million, representing 31% of the comprehensive portfolio, and it was invested across 159 borrowers. The weighted average asset level yield of this portfolio was 15.3%, up from 14.6% in the second quarter. The average LTV was approximately 60%. For the third quarter, we had $85 million of new investments and repayments of roughly the same, $87 million.

Now let me turn to equipment finance. At quarter end, this portfolio totaled $955 million and was highly diversified across 550 borrowers. The credit profile continues to be strong. Our weighted average asset level yield was 9.6% on the equipment portfolio. During the third quarter, we originated $122 million of new investments and had repayments of $144 million. Our investment pipeline in equipment finance has increased significantly this quarter. We have expanded our vendor financing business for non-OEM distributors and finding attractive risk-adjusted return profiles. We expect to provide -- which we expect to provide portfolio and income growth for this segment in 2024.

Now let me finally turn to life sciences. Ripple effect of the Silicon Valley Bank failure has had a profound impact on the life science sector. With a decline in investment valuations evidenced by public market caps, borrowers are seeking to extend the cash runway via debt financings without corresponding equity cushions provided by incremental equity investment.

This dynamic has resulted from borrowers' reluctance to issue equity at today's lower valuations. As a result, our team is seeing signs of distress in the earlier riskier stage of the life science issuance market, which is where we don't play. We are pleased to report that our $325 million portfolio remains fundamentally strong. Over 95% of the portfolio is invested in loans to borrowers that have over 12 months of cash runway.

Additionally, all of our portfolio companies have revenues with at least 1 product in the commercialization stage, which significantly derisks our investment. As a result, none of our life science loans are on a watch list or have migrated lower in our risk rating system during 2023. Life science loans represent just over 10% of the portfolio and contributed just over 20% of our gross investment income in the third quarter.

During the quarter, the team committed $39 million to new investments and funded $25 million of those commitments. In addition, we had repayments of $42 million. We have just under $110 million of unfunded commitments, which may be accessed by borrowers based on reaching milestones such as FDA approval, revenue levels or liquidity milestones. At quarter end, the weighted average yield on this portfolio was 13%. This excludes any success fees and warrants, which takes our yield higher.

While we expect valuations in the life science market to take another quarter or two to stabilize before we see equity issuance pick up, we do continue to see several new issue opportunities that we find extremely attractive. Given SLRC's ability to allocate capital to the best reward -- risk/reward segments, we have the luxury of being highly selective in our capital deployment in the life science sector, while still generating positive originations for the company overall. As the life science market continues to stabilize, we expect the opportunity set to increase, hopefully, with less competition from lenders who were risk-on during this current volatile environment.

Now I'll turn the call back to Michael.

[Michael Gross, executive]

Thank you, Bruce. SLRC's portfolio reflects stable fundamentals and benefits from the flexibility to allocate capital to investments across our lending verticals that we believe offer the most attractive risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders. We have available capital and an opportunity for continued earnings growth in Q4 and in 2024.

While the directive is straight to remain volatile, it is important to remember that specialty finance spreads and returns are not as volatile as cash flow sponsor finance investments across cycles. Importantly, we would not expect yield contraction for specialty finance assets to the same extent as sponsor finance when markets return to a more normal state.

Looking forward, we expect broad origination opportunities to be driven by a combination of increased M&A activity, loan maturities and regulatory/credit contraction forces impacting regional banks to the benefit of middle market lenders such as SLRC. In addition, as the regional banker's location continues to unfold, we are seeing increased opportunities to expand our specialty finance capabilities through tuck-in acquisitions for existing commercial finance portfolio companies, to add or acquire portfolio teams, partner or to acquire portfolio of specialty finance assets.

SLRC's broad foundation of diversified commercial finance businesses have the resources and experience to acquire portfolios and service loans on an opportunistic basis. We continue to believe that a diversified portfolio approach across sponsor and commercial finance assets is the most effective strategy to generate income and manage risk across economic cycles.

In closing, our investment advisor's alignment of interest with the company's shareholders continues to be one of our guiding principles. The SLR team owns over 8% of the company's stock, including a significant percentage of our annual incentive compensation invested in the stock. Team's investment alongside fellow SLRC shareholders demonstrates our confidence in the company's defense portfolio, stable funding and favorable position.

We thank you very much for your time today, and we'll now open up the line for questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our question -- first question from Erik Zwick of Hovde Group.

[Erik Zwick, analyst]

I wanted to start, maybe if you could just provide a little bit of color into the type of investments, the characteristics of those that you're selecting to put into the SSLP at this point?

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

Just to refresh for a minute, Erik. You may recall, we merged Solar and Solar Senior, which closed in April of '22. And Solar Senior had a portfolio of lower yielding cash flow-backed sponsor loans in addition to some ABL assets. And the strategy for the SSLP was to migrate the solar senior lower yielding cash flow assets into the SSLP. So that's primarily what's been moving in there. There has been 1 or 2 assets where we've originated direct cash flow loans into the SSLP, but it's been predominantly migrating the SUNS portfolio down there.

[Erik Zwick, analyst]

That's helpful. And then just curious a little bit on your commentary for the life sciences kind of segment. You mentioned that in some of the areas where you don't win, they're starting to see a little bit of pressure. Curious if you could just add a little bit of maybe detail into what issues are rising there and your confidence that those would not spread to kind of the areas of the life science that you do lend to in those companies?

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

Sure. I think just from 30,000 feet, the life science segment is dictated in large part by capital raising as they continue to fund the development of drugs and devices through the FDA approval process. And where we are starting to see some stress is in the early stages, because valuations have come off on the equity side, we're finding that issuers and borrowers are waiting as long as possible in the hopes that, that equity value will recover to fund that continued cash burn needed to move through the FDA approval process.

We have always been late stage. As you may recall, our business -- our team in life sciences has been doing this for over 25 years. They've never had a default or a loss throughout their career. Knock on wood. But we are focused on late stage and the best evidence for that is that the burn is lower and we have revenues. As I mentioned, 100% of our companies have revenues in one product at a minimum across their portfolio of products that may be moving through the FDA. So what that means is that there is value there, you can put a multiple on those revenues. They're moving towards cash flow breakeven and so the ability to raise capital still exists on the equity side.

They are waiting in the hopes that they can raise it at a more attractive valuation but they have been able to tap the equity markets, both private and public. So that's why, as I mentioned, we have over 95% of the portfolio has cash runway over a year to fund that continued burn as they move towards cash flow breakeven. So that's what's been insulating our companies from the earlier stage companies that are struggling to raise capital to fund moving through clinical trials to Phase III and commercialization with the FDA.

[Erik Zwick, analyst]

That's great detail. And last one for me, and I'll step aside. If you could just kind of refresh me on your current interest rate sensitivity as well as maybe your expectation if rates are going to stay here longer or if we might see some changes in the near term?

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

I don't think we have a unique crystal ball on that. Our focus is really on for our borrowers and across our portfolios, making sure that we have the liquidity as well as the free cash flow to cover interest rates today. We are stressing them to be 50 to 100 basis points higher when we look at our stress tests across the individual portfolio companies. And that's where we're very comfortable. I don't think anyone is underwriting an increase much above that.

[Erik Zwick, analyst]

I realize the second part of that question was more speculative, but just curious. So I appreciate your thoughts today.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Sean-Paul Adams of Raymond James.

[Sean-Paul Adams, analyst]

Could you just give a little bit of color about the status of the JV and the facility where the revolving period ends in June 2024.

[Michael Gross, executive]

For the SSLP?

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

For the SSLP?

[Sean-Paul Adams, analyst]

Yes.

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

The JV is in the process of ramping.

[Michael Gross, executive]

We combined $57 million of equity between the two of us, so $28.5 million each so far.

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

And the assets, just to track that for you, it started in the fourth quarter of last year. We had about $18 million of commitments and have been moving assets steadily in each quarter. That was $46 million of commitments in Q1, $79 million in Q2, and now we're up to $140 million. As we stated previously, we continue to expect to get in that $230 million to $250 million by year-end. And the maximum should be about $300 million when we continue to complete the ramp in Q1. And the credit facility really just opened a year ago. So we have the ability to continue to extend that forward. The maturity is '27, just to give you that date.

[Operator]

We'll take our next question from Ryan Lynch of KBW.

[Ryan Lynch, analyst]

First question I had was just on the chart that you guys have regarding the asset-based loans, weighted average yield. It's like 15.3% in the quarter. And so what I'm trying to reconcile is that's a very high yield on those asset-based loans. But then when I look at the underlying businesses that are holding those loans besides any sort of finance that are on your balance sheet, one being like SLR Credit Solutions. That entity only generated about a 6.9% yield to SLRC over the first 9 months of 2023.

It looks like it's about levered 1:1, that entity. And so I'm just trying to understand and reconcile very high underlying asset yields on those asset-based financings, but yet the overall entity of SLR Credit Solutions has a yield of less than half of that, that is generated for SLRC. So can you reconcile those two?

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

Yes. Without getting to the specific numbers, just thematically, Ryan, as you know, the asset-based loan category that references the 15.3% asset level yield is a combination of Credit Solutions to your point as well as Business Credit and Healthcare ABL, both of which came into SLR in connection with the merger with SUNS last year. And their asset level yields are higher than Credit Solutions where they are focused, as you know, predominantly on receivable-backed financing and factoring of receivables across a variety of industries, including the health care-dedicated segment.

So that's just a little color on the components. And then -- so Credit Solutions does have lower asset yields in that blend to 15.3%. But we are ramping credit solutions and the return on equity there is burdened by obviously being underinvested, which we're in the process of rebuilding that portfolio together with the cost of the business, which is more fixed. And so we expect to see improved returns there as we continue to ramp that portfolio.

[Ryan Lynch, analyst]

I mean have there been -- because it's hard to tell. Have there been underlying credit issues that have pressured the net returns of some of these entities because from a high level, because you're right, there's different pieces here. But from a high level, if I just look at your controlled investments, they represent about 38% of your overall portfolio that SLRC holds. When I look at the returns that they've generated for the first 9 months, it's an annualized return of about 7.1%. So there's a very low return on these investments relative to the overall weighted average yield on your portfolio of 12.3%.

So the underlying assets that are going into these entities seem like they're very high and very healthy, meanwhile, these controlled investments, the ultimate returns that they're generating for SLRC are very low. And so it would be helpful if you could kind of piece together where reconcile, what that difference is coming from and how to improve the returns on those entities, given the asset yield in them are already really strong.

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

Sure. I think, to your first question, Credit Solutions did have an asset impairment earlier this year, which we talked about, was on our balance sheet as well, AmeriMark, which we're working through, and without spending too much time on that one, are optimistic that it's marked for recovery at both Credit Solutions and us, but that's not the full story to your point and to your question. It's really about re-ramping that portfolio.

The Credit Solutions, in particular, does have high churn. As you know, that is lending to companies that are cash flow in transition. So it is not an easy portfolio to keep fully invested although in times like this is a time that we expect that to continue to ramp that portfolio. So we do expect to be able to build that ROE up, in particular, in Credit Solutions.

Away from that, we're also exploring some opportunities to dramatically increase the portfolio at our other ABL business, which is focused more on factoring and ABL receivables. But I think the short story is it's about expanding those portfolios to a larger scale.

[Michael Gross, executive]

And I think it's notable that we discussed the fact we have $600 million of dry powder, the vast majority of that or substantially all of it is within the finance companies and the SSLP. So we have the opportunity, as we deploy that capital, to really drive the ROE of those entities and SLRC as a whole.

[Ryan Lynch, analyst]

Okay. So it sounds like it's more of a capital deployment further leverage within the entities. It would be the biggest driver that you guys could see to drive returns there. Because the yields, it looks like the underlying yields are already pretty healthy.

[Michael Gross, executive]

Yes. We [ don't ] expect yields to get better. We do expect to deploy more capital.

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

And the backdrop of the regional banking crisis, as you know, earlier this year, that sort of froze those markets. I would have told you, though, that they are starting to reopen. A year ago, when we lost a transaction in that segment, it would be to a regional bank. And now they're just not showing up to bid for transactions. But these are more working capital relationship loans and it takes a while to launch them.

The good news is they are stickier away from Credit Solutions, which is transactional. So we think as we build that business and the backdrop of the regional banking prices works through the system, we're already seeing increased pipeline opportunities to expand the platform.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We'll move next to Casey Alexander of Compass Point.

[Casey Alexander, analyst]

Yes. Just one question. And I apologize there's a lot of calls going on at the same time, so I'm in late. So if you already answered this, I appreciate it. I'm just wondering why go back to a quarterly dividend? You went to a monthly dividend presumably for a good reason. I'm just curious why you're going back to a quarterly dividend pay.

[Michael Gross, executive]

A couple of reasons. One is, pretty much all the BDCs are quarterly with just 1 or 2 exceptions. And at the end of the day, it also -- it saves us money. It saves probably $0.01 or $0.02 a share annually in earnings to go back to quarterly and that for us was reason enough to do it.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up from Sean-Paul Adams of Raymond James.

[Sean-Paul Adams, analyst]

One quick follow-up about base side. A couple of other BDCs actually just put them on nonaccrual. Is there any commentary on their status within your portfolio?

[Bruce Spohler, executive]

Yes. So base side is a restructured loan from earlier this year and it has been restructured into a combination of debt and equity. And the company itself is in a period of very positive transition with a meaningful strategic joint venture that is underway as we speak. So there's a new -- the old security was converted to a new debt and equity security. I can't speak to how others are treating it, but we think that the debt will accrue interest and the company is performing better than expectations.

[Operator]

And it appears that we have no further questions at this time.

[Michael Gross, executive]

Thank you, everybody. We appreciate your time. And as always, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to call any of us. Thank you.

[Operator]

This does conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect your lines, and everyone, have a great day.