SuRo Capital Corp

NASDAQ:SSSS

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Operator]

Hello, and welcome to SuRo Capital's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Melissa, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]. I'll now turn the call over to Evan Schlossman. Please go ahead.

[Evan Schlossman, executive]

Thank you for joining us on today's call. I'm joined today by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SuRo Capital, Mark Klein; and Chief Financial Officer, Allison Green. Please note that a slide presentation corresponding to today's prepared remarks by management is available on our website at www.surocap.com under Investor Relations, Events and Presentations. Today's call is being recorded and broadcast live on our website, www.surocap.com. Replay information is included in our press release issued today. This call is the property of SuRo Capital and the unauthorized reproduction of this call in any form is strictly prohibited.

I would 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 and involve a number of risks, estimates and uncertainties, including the impact of any market volatility that may be detrimental to our business, our portfolio companies, our industry and the global economy that could cause actual results to differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements.

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 SuRo Capital's latest SEC filings, please visit our website at www.surocap.com or in the SEC's website at sec.gov.

Now I would like to turn the call over to Mark Klein.

[Mark Klein, executive]

Thank you, Evan. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. We would like to share the results of SuRo Capital's second quarter 2024. The second quarter was a broadly positive quarter for U.S. economy and equity markets as investors became increasingly confident in the prospect of rate cuts later in the year. But as of last week, the market has become volatile, with the VIX spiking to levels not seen since the onset of COVID in March of 2020. A confluence of domestic and global factors led to the sharp change in investor sentiment.

Last Thursday's disappointing data on employment, manufacturing and construction, pushed 10-year treasury yields below 4% for the first time since February. Investor fears were exacerbated on Friday when a weak jobs report showed decelerating U.S. job growth and rising unemployment. We also saw some large-cap technology companies issue weaker-than-expected forward guidance driving investor skepticism on monetization time lines for their investment in AI. Outside of the U.S., an unexpected rate hike for Bank of Japan last week fueled investor uncertainty as the ongoing geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East.

With that said, in Q2, private technology companies saw increasing interest from investors. According to the PitchBook-NVCA Q2 2024 Venture Monitor, both venture deal count and value reached their highest quarterly levels since Q2 of 2022. With several multibillion-dollar capital raises, AI continued to see significant investor interest. In fact, according to the same source, xAI's $6 billion Series B financing along with CoreWeave's $8.6 billion Series C and debt financing made up over 26% of the second quarter's total deal value.

As previously announced, we are pleased to have invested $15 million into the CoreWeave funding round via an SPV. In addition to a $10 million investment in Canva, which continues to integrate AI across its product suite. While volatility has increased, we are encouraged that despite the recent technology set to struggling performance of the public markets, we have started to see the public markets broadened with the recent positive performance of mid and small cap companies and early indications of potential upcoming IPOs from companies such as [ Kardashian's ] Skims and Chime signaling investor increasing appetite for marquee names.

For the last several quarters, we have deployed capital into late-stage technology companies such as CoreWeave, Canva and Liquid Death at compelling entry prices. We believe that these investments strengthening are already well positioned the existing portfolio for the reopening of the IPO window.

I would now like to discuss our note repurchase program approved yesterday by our Board of Directors. Under the program, we are authorized to repurchase in the open market up to $35 million in aggregate principal amount of our 6% notes due in 2026. Allison will discuss the note repurchase program during her prepared remarks. I would also like to announce that we have entered into a note purchase agreement with an institutional investor via private placement, which allows us to issue up to $75 million in aggregate principal amount of 6.5% convertible notes due in 2029 with an initial issuance of up to $25 million.

We believe the convertible notes position us well for a number of reasons. First, the notes are initially convertible at $7.75 per share, approximately 104% premium from today's closing price, signaling significant confidence in our portfolio from our investor. If converted, this would be a meaningfully accretive transaction to our shareholders. Second, the notes will extend the maturity of a portion of our debt by 3 years, strengthening our ability to deploy capital.

Finally, given prevailing interest rates, we believe the interest rate of 6.5% is highly favorable. Allison will discuss the note purchase agreement during her prepared remarks.

Turning to our second quarter results. We ended the quarter with a net asset value of $162.3 million or $6.94 per share. This NAV compares to a net asset value of $7.17 per share in Q1 and $7.35 per share in Q2 of last year.

Please turn to Slide 4. Turning to our top 5 positions, I will first want to highlight our cash position. As of quarter end, our cash available for investment is approximately $54.4 million, representing 22% of our gross assets. SuRo Capital's top 5 positions as of June 30 were Learneo, Blink Health, CoreWeave SPV, ServiceTitan and Locus Robotics. These positions accounted for approximately 49% of the investment portfolio at fair value. Additionally, as of June 30, our top 10 positions accounted for approximately 75% of the investment portfolio.

I would now like to discuss some of our larger investments in greater detail, starting with Blink Health. Blink Health's Quick Save and [ BlinkRx ] product lines create a significant value proposition for the entire value chain from pharma manufacturers looking to increase first bill rates all the way to consumers looking to find the best price on their medications. Blink Health continues to increase their customer base and signed additional partnerships with pharmaceutical manufacturers while maintaining relationships with pharmacies around the U.S. to distribute its Quick Save product. We remain excited about Blink Health's positioning with the pharmaceutical SaaS market and believe the company is well positioned to expand significantly in the coming months and years.

Next, I would like to discuss our investment in WHOOP, one of our 10 largest position. The WHOOP brand provides actionable insights to users to optimize performance by operating metrics like heart rate variability and resting heart rate. The combination of WHOOP's best-in-class software and wearable band allows a user to understand how specific lifestyle and [ training ] behaviors may affect the recovery and ability to perform on a given day.

WHOOP announced a global partnership with an investment from Soccer Star, Cristiano Ronaldo, according to a press release in May. Ronaldo is one of several of WHOOP's internationally recognized ambassador investors, including Patrick Home's, Michael Phelps, Eli Manning, Rory Mcllroy, Scottie Scheffler and more. WHOOP continues to cement itself as a leader in the health and wellness space, most recently announcing the launch of its Body Composition and Weight trends feature in partnerships with Withings, another leader in Connected Health. These features create an even greater value proposition for WHOOP as consumers continue to find more fitness and sleep wearables to choose from. We remain incredibly excited about WHOOP'S success and path to becoming the dominant wearable category.

Please turn to Slide 5. As previously discussed, during the second quarter, we made a $10 million investment in Canva on similar terms as the reported company tender. According to Bloomberg, the valuation of the tender came at a significant discount to Canva's last primary financing. Canva is an online productivity design software collaboration platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design. Since our initial investment in Canva, the company has made significant strides to further integrate itself into the broader design ecosystem. For example, in May, the company announced a partnership with HP to expand its design to print services worldwide through localized printing options.

In July, the company announced a partnership with Artlist allowing creators to integrate royalty-free digital assets from Artlist collection directly into the Canva platform. According to Bloomberg, Canva has surpassed $2.3 billion in annualized revenue with sales growing at a rate of 50% year-over-year. According to PitchBook, Canva has raised over $581 billion in equity financing from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Iconiq and more. We are excited about Canva's traction and positioning the market as it expands its enterprise footprint and further captures in international markets.

Please turn to Slide 6. Additionally, during the second quarter, we made a $15 million investment in CW Opportunity 2 LP and SPV that is invested in CoreWeave's Series C preferred shares. CoreWeave is a specialized cloud provider delivering access to a suite of NVIDIA GPUs, coupled with its fast and flexible cloud computing infrastructure. CoreWeave is a critical foundation for AI and machine learning use cases from the initial stages of training and model to ultimately providing [indiscernible] output for end users.

To serve the training phase, CoreWeave offers distributed clusters or connected computers using NVIDIA's groundbreaking Quantum InfiniBand networking solution. Additionally, with speed up times as short as 5 seconds. CoreWeave offers one of the most powerful networking solutions using NVIDIA GPUs. In fact, according to a company blogpost, CoreWeave Inference Service platform is 8 to 10x faster than a major generalized cloud provider.

Since our investment in early May, CoreWeave has continued its impressive momentum. Later that month according to a company press release CoreWeave announced an agreement for $7.5 billion debt facility led by funds managed by Blackstone with participation from Magnetar and Coatue. This debt financing will be used to further grow CoreWeave's capacity to serve large enterprises at the forefront of AI, both in the U.S. and internationally.

In early June, according to a company press release, CoreWeave announced its plans to invest $2.2 billion to expand and open 3 new data centers in Norway, Sweden and Spain by the end of 2025. This EU expansion is in addition to their $1.3 billion U.K. expansion announced in May. According to PitchBook, CoreWeave has raised over $9 billion in debt and equity financing from investors such Coatue, Fidelity, Magnetar and others. With its best-in-class cloud inference, we believe CoreWeave will continue its exponential growth and capitalize on accelerated AI adoption.

Please turn to Page -- Slide 7. One additional portfolio company we'd like to highlight again is our investment in AltC Sponsor LLC, the sponsor of the SPAC led by Sam Altman. As previously discussed, during Q2, AltC acquisition, shareholders approved the business combination with Oklo, a fast vision clean power company. While we are always happy with our SPAC sponsors completed a business combination, this one is particularly exciting for a few reasons. Oklo is on the cutting edge of nuclear fuel recycling, which has many uses, including the potential to add clean power to AI-related data centers.

In late May, according to a company press release, Oklo announced its partnership with Wyoming Hyperscale to supply 100 megawatts of clean energy to a state-of-the-art data center campus as part of the 20-year power purchase agreement. Last month, according to the company press release, Oklo announced the successful demonstration of its advanced fuel recycling process, marking a significant step forward in enhancing fuel cost effectiveness and sustainability.

Our investment thesis around AI has been delivered, first focusing specifically on the infrastructure of AI. Our new investment in CoreWeave through the CW Opportunity 2 LP plus the business combination between AltC and Oklo, now gives us further exposure to the structural foundations of the AI units.

Transitioning to our public investments. As previously stated, it is our objective to sell our public positions when lockup restrictions expire, and there is relative stability in a given public position's trading. In line with this approach, we began to monetize our position in PublicSquare holding shares as their lockup restrictions expire subsequent to quarter's end.

I would like to also further reiterate SuRo's commitment to initiatives that enhance shareholder value. Given the discount our stock is traded at compared to net asset value per share, we believe our recent modified Dutch auction tender offer was an efficient and accretive deployment of capital. Allison will discuss the results of the tender offer in her prepared remarks. Given our recent investments and broader portfolio, we believe we are well positioned to drive shareholder return.

Thank you for your attention. And with that, I will hand it over to Allison, our Chief Financial Officer.

[Allison Green, executive]

Thank you, Mark. I would like to follow Mark's update with a more detailed review of our second quarter investment activity and financial results as of June 30, including results of the modified Dutch auction tender offer announced during Q1 and executed during Q2. Additionally, I'll provide more detail on the 6.5% note repurchase agreement and Board approved note repurchase program and our current liquidity.

Please turn to Slide 8. As Mark mentioned, during the second quarter, we completed a $10 million investment in Canva's common shares through a secondary transaction and a $15 million investment in the Class A interest of CW Opportunity 2 LP, an SPV that is invested in CoreWeave's Series C preferred shares.

During the second quarter, we redeemed our membership interest in Architect Capital PayJoy SPV resulting in net proceeds of approximately $10 million. We also received a distribution of approximately $233,000 related to our limited partner fund investment and True Global Ventures 4 Plus.

Please turn to Slide 9. Subsequent to quarter end, we began to sell our public common shares in PublicSquare following their lockup expiration on July 19. To date, we have sold 220,000 shares of PublicSquare for approximately $632,000 in net proceeds, resulting in a realized gain of approximately $458,000.

Please turn to Slide 10. Segmented by 6 general investment themes, the top allocation of our investment portfolio at quarter end was AI, cloud and Big Data, representing approximately 34% of the investment portfolio at fair value. Marketplaces and education technology were the next largest categories with approximately 22% and 21% of our portfolio, respectively. Approximately 13% of our portfolio was invested in social, mobile and consumer companies. And the financial technology category accounted for approximately 9% of the fair value of our portfolio. Sustainability and alternative energy accounted for 1% of the fair value of our portfolio as of June 30.

Please turn to Slide 11. We ended the second quarter 2024 with an NAV per share of $6.94, which is consistent with our financial reporting. The decrease in NAV per share from $7.17 in Q1 to $6.94 as of June 30, was primarily driven by $0.30 per share decrease resulting from unrealized depreciation of our portfolio investments during the quarter and a $0.16 per share decrease due to net investment loss. The decrease in NAV per share was partially offset by a $0.20 per share increase from the repurchase of common stock related to our recent tender offer and a $0.03 per share increase from the impact of stock-based compensation during the quarter.

As mentioned by Mark, SuRo Capital is committed to initiatives that enhance shareholder value. Accordingly, on February 14, our Board of Directors approved a modified Dutch auction tender offer, which commenced on February 20 to purchase up to 2 million shares of our common stock at a price per share not less than $4 per share and not greater than $5 per share and $0.10 increments using available cash.

Pursuant to the terms of the tender offer, following the expiration of the tender offer on April 1, 2024, we repurchased 2 million shares of our common stock at a price of $4.70 per share, representing 7.9% of outstanding shares. The per share purchase price of properly tendered shares represented 65.6% of the net asset value per share as of March 31, 2024. We use available cash to fund the purchase of shares, common stock in the tender offer and to pay for all related fees and expenses. I would also like to note that the dollar value of shares that may yet be purchased by SuRo Capital under the share repurchase program is approximately $20.7 million. The share repurchase program is authorized through October 31, 2024.

Next, I'd like to provide more detail on the executed note purchase agreement for 6.5% convertible notes due 2029. On August 6, 2024, SuRo Capital entered into a note purchase agreement pursuant to which we may issue up to a maximum of $75 million in aggregate principal amount of 6.5% convertible notes due 2029. Pursuant to the note purchase agreement, we initially agreed to issue and sell and the purchaser agreed to purchase up to $25 million an aggregate principal amount of the convertible notes. Thereafter, upon mutual agreement between the purchaser and us, we may issue additional convertible notes for sale and subsequent offerings or issue additional notes with modified pricing terms and the aggregate for both the additional notes and the new notes up to a maximum of $50 million in one or more private offerings. The purchaser will acquire and we will issue up to $25 million of the initial notes on or about August 14, 2024, and thereafter at such time and date, as the purchaser and we mutually agree to purchase and sell any additional notes.

Interest on the convertible notes will be paid quarterly in arrears on March 30, June 30, September 30 and December 30 at a rate of 6.5% per year beginning September 30, 2024. The convertible notes will mature on August 14, 2029, and may be redeemed in whole or in part at any time or from time to time at our option on or after August 6, 2027, upon the fulfillment of certain conditions. The convertible notes will be convertible into shares of our common stock at the purchaser's sole discretion at an initial conversion price of $7.75 per share, equating to a conversion rate of 129.0323 shares of our common stock per $1,000 principal amount of the convertible notes subject to adjustment as provided in the note purchase agreement. The net proceeds from the offering will be used to repay outstanding indebtedness, make investments in accordance with our investment objective and investment strategy and for other general corporate purposes. The note purchase agreement includes customary representations, warranties and covenants by the company.

Additionally, I'd like to provide more detail on the note repurchase program. On August 5, 2024, SuRo Capital's Board of Directors approved a discretionary note repurchase program, which allows us to repurchase up to 46.67% or $35 million in aggregate principal amount of our 6% notes due 2026 through open market transactions, including block purchases in such manner as will comply with the provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940 as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. As of August 7, 2024, we had not yet repurchased any of the 6% notes due 2026 under the note repurchase program.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to review SuRo Capital's liquidity position as of June 30. We ended the quarter with approximately $57.6 million of liquid assets, including approximately $54.4 million in cash and approximately $3.2 million in unrestricted public securities. At June 30, 2024, and currently, there are 23,378,002 shares of the company's common stock outstanding.

That concludes my comments. We would like to thank you for your interest and support of SuRo Capital. Now I'll turn the call over to the operator for the start of the Q&A session. Operator?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from Mac Sykes of Gabelli Fund.

[Macrae Sykes, analyst]

I just wanted to wish you congratulations on the team for rebuilding the portfolio. Certainly some innovative companies in the mix.

[Mark Klein, executive]

Thank you, Mac. Go ahead.

[Macrae Sykes, analyst]

Actually, I know I'm limited to one question, but I wanted to just -- since it's been a while, I wanted to ask about the IPO cycle and I have 3 sub questions from that. So just ask them. First, typically for an IPO, what is the percentage that you may typically realize kind of on the opening? And then how long is the lockup typical for the balance of that realization?

And then assuming a $10 million gain on XYZ company, what is retained by the company and what is paid out to investors? And then typically, what's the timing of dividends following some realizations? And then my last question is around is the company at this point carrying any tax shield to offset potential gains?

[Mark Klein, executive]

That's the best way to ask one question. So -- first of all, thanks for the kind words and thanks for being a supportive shareholder. I think it's kind of pretty well documented in the press right now, the IPO cycle, certainly before last week was gearing up and the expectations as we entered -- sort of exited the summer into the early part of September, you would see the ramp-up in the IPO market, which I still think we're going to see in the end of Q3 anyhow. So I think that's consistent with broadly what's out there. Specifically or what's typical is in any traditional IPO shares are typically locked up for additional 6 months. So we don't have liquidity towards 6 months after the IPO occurs. Typically -- there's [ direct listing ] in that way, but on traditional IPOs that would be.

As far as our distributions are concerned, generally speaking, as a BDC, we're required to distribute on a capital gains basis, functionally, all of the gains. So those would be distributed.

As far as the tax shield, I don't think we actually look at anything as a tax shield. But we carried into this year some amount of capital losses. So the first application of capital gains would be against those capital losses. When those capital losses have exhausted, then we would be in a dividend position. And we would obviously pay out the dividends. We are very communicative about our dividend strategy we have been in the past, and we will lay it out for our investors as we find ourselves in the position to pay dividends. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you very much. As we have no further questions in the queue, I would like to turn it back over to Mark Klein for any closing remarks.

[Mark Klein, executive]

I want to thank everybody from the SuRo team, thank all of our investors. Thank you for joining the call today. I know the markets have been a bit chaotic. So I appreciate that you took the time to listen to us today, hear our story and be supportive. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you very much. That concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect.