FS KKR Capital Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

FS KKR Capital (NYSE:FSK) reported third-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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View the webcast at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/upuop9i6/

Summary

FS KKR Capital Corp. reported net investment income of $0.46 per share for Q3 2026, with a net asset value per share of $18.28 as of September 30, 2026.

The company announced a fourth-quarter 2026 distribution of $0.44 per share and a special distribution of $0.20 per share, reflecting its policy of distributing accumulated spillback income.

FS KKR Capital has repurchased $90 million worth of common stock, representing 30% of its $300 million buyback program, and aims to maintain per-share annualized dividend rates between 8% and 9% of NAV.

A one-time $25 million dividend from portfolio company Belk significantly boosted Q3 net investment income, adding $0.08 per share.

Investment activity in Q3 resulted in a net portfolio decrease of $107 million, with new investments totaling $335 million and sales/repayments at $442 million.

Non-accruals decreased slightly to 6.4% on a cost basis and 3.4% on a fair value basis, though new non-accruals from Three Pillar Global and New Era Technology added pressure.

The company is focusing on senior secured investments, comprising 63% of its portfolio, and maintaining a leverage target of 1.0 to 1.25.

Future guidance indicates a GAAP net investment income per share range of 8% to 9% of NAV annually, with caution advised regarding non-recurring income impacts.

Management is optimistic but acknowledges the need for continued work on portfolio optimization and strategic goals.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR (Moderator)

Lines will be in a listen-only mode during remarks by FS KKR’s management. At the conclusion of the company’s remarks, we will begin the question-and-answer session, at which time I will give you instructions on entering the queue. Please note that this conference call is being recorded at this time. Anna Kleinan, Head of Investor Relations, will proceed with the introduction. Ms. Kleinan, you may begin.

Anna Kleinan (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to FS KKR Capital Corp.’s third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Please note that FS KKR Capital Corp. may be referred to as FSK, the fund or the company throughout the call. Today’s conference call is being recorded and an audio replay of the call will be available for 30 days. Replay information is included in a press release that FSK issued this morning. In addition, FSK has posted on its website a presentation containing supplemental financial information with respect to its portfolio and financial performance for the quarter ended September 30, 2026.

A link to today’s webcast and the presentation is available on the For Investors section of the company’s website under Events and Presentations. Please note that this call is the property of FSK. Any unauthorized rebroadcast of this call in any form is strictly prohibited. Today’s conference call includes forward-looking statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation statements with regard to future events or our future performance or financial condition, statements regarding share repurchase activity, distribution levels and frequency, expectations for net investment income levels in future quarters, and the financial position, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for FSK’s future operations.

Words such as anticipate, believe, expect, intend, project and future or similar expressions indicate a forward-looking statement. Although not all forward-looking statements include these words, these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance or events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause our actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements.

For any reason, we ask that you refer to FSK’s most recent filings with the SEC for important factors and risks that could cause actual results or future events to differ materially from these statements. The forward-looking statements included on this call are based on information available to FSK today and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Except as required by the federal securities laws, FSK undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

In addition, this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. These non-GAAP financial measures are not in accordance with or an alternative to measures prepared in accordance with GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles.

These measures should only be used to evaluate FSK’s results of operations in conjunction with their corresponding GAAP measures. For such non-GAAP measures, reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in FSK’s third quarter earnings release that was furnished with the SEC on November 5, 2026 and in the presentation posted on our website. To obtain copies of the company’s latest SEC filings, please visit FSK’s website.

Speaking on today’s call will be Michael Forman, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Daniel Pietrzak, Chief Investment Officer and President, and Steven Lilly, Chief Financial Officer. Also joining us on the call today are Co-Chief Operating Officers Drew O’Toole and Ryan Wilson. I’ll now turn the call over to Michael.

Michael Forman (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you, Anna, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining FSK’s third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. During the third quarter, FSK generated net investment income totaling $0.46 per share and adjusted net investment income totaling $0.46 per share. As of September 30th, our net asset value per share was $18.28. On October 8th, we announced that our board declared a fourth quarter 2026 distribution of $0.44 per share to common stockholders and a special distribution of $0.20 per share to common stockholders. Both distributions will be paid in December of this year.

As we have indicated on prior earnings calls, we expect our quarterly distribution level will fluctuate as our net investment income varies on a quarter-to-quarter basis. The special distribution amount represents a portion of FSK’s estimated accumulated spillback income and is intended to distribute additional taxable income to shareholders in connection with the company’s maintenance of its treatment as a regulated investment company under the Internal Revenue Code.

Our third quarter net investment income was positively impacted by a one-time portfolio company dividend, which Dan will discuss during his portion of the call. In terms of FSK strategic objectives, while we recognize there is more work to be done, we are pleased with the progress we are making. Since the stock buyback plan’s inception on June 29 through October 30, we have purchased $90 million worth of common stock representing 30% of our $300 million program.

The activity has resulted in the company’s repurchasing approximately 8 million shares of common stock. We are continuing to achieve our goal of delivering a per share annualized dividend rate of 8% to 9% of net asset value per share to our common shareholders. We are continuing to work through certain non-income producing assets and investments facing challenges within our portfolio, and we are continuing our longer-term focus of transitioning our investment portfolio to more first lien senior secured positions.

As we move into the fourth quarter of 2026 and begin contemplating the year ahead, we remain focused on achieving our strategic objectives. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Dan.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Thanks, Michael. The market environment continues to be shaped by uncertainty surrounding geopolitical tensions, monetary policy and the evolution and capital requirements of AI. Against this backdrop, we believe economic and corporate fundamentals continue to demonstrate resilience. We believe private credit portfolios offer attractive characteristics in the current environment, including directly negotiated transactions, predominantly floating rate structures, and diversified exposure across issuers and industries.

During the third quarter we continued making progress on the strategic actions the FS/KKR Advisor announced earlier this year to help enhance the financial profile of FSK. During the third quarter we repurchased 6.2 million shares of common stock, or approximately $69 million, at an average price of $11.24 per share. Our third quarter share repurchases were accretive to our net asset value per share by $0.16. Since the beginning of the fourth quarter, through October 30, we have repurchased 1.5 million shares, or approximately $17 million, bringing the cumulative value of share repurchases to $90 million since the $300 million common stock repurchase program commenced on June 29. And as a reminder, beginning in the second quarter of 2026, KKR agreed to waive its portion of the subordinated income incentive fee for four consecutive quarters. This waiver had a positive $12 million impact on our third quarter net investment income.

As Michael mentioned, during the third quarter FSK’s net investment income was positively impacted by a $25 million nonrecurring dividend from our portfolio company, Belk. This dividend increased our third quarter net investment income per share by $0.08. Turning to our investment activity, during the third quarter we originated approximately $335 million of new investments. Our new investments, combined with $442 million of sales and repayments, equates to a net portfolio decrease of $107 million during the third quarter. We continue to focus on upper middle market companies with EBITDA in the $50 to $150 million range across a diverse set of industries and sectors. As of September 30, the weighted average EBITDA of our portfolio was $235 million and the median EBITDA was $131 million.

Our portfolio companies reported a weighted average year-over-year EBITDA growth rate of approximately 4% across companies in which we have invested since April of 2018. Interest coverage levels remain healthy with median third quarter coverage of 2 times. In August, Velocity Financial publicly announced its intention to acquire Toorak, a business purpose real estate lending platform. KKR originally invested in Toorak in 2016 and since that time has worked closely with Toorak’s management team to scale the platform considerably. As of September 30, Romanu, Toorak’s holding company, was FSK’s eighth largest investment. The acquisition is currently expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to satisfactory closing conditions.

As of September 30th, non-accruals represented 6.4% of our portfolio on a cost basis and 3.4% of our portfolio on a fair value basis, as compared to 7.1% of our portfolio on a cost basis and 3.8% of our portfolio on a fair value basis as of June 30. During the third quarter, two investments, Three Pillar Global and New Era Technology, were added to non-accrual status. These new non-accruals total approximately $142 million of cost and $102 million of fair value across our investment portfolio.

Medallia was restructured during the third quarter into a new $66 million first lien loan and a new $42 million preferred equity investment and a new $14 million common equity investment. Following the restructuring, Medallia was removed from non-accrual status during the third quarter. We’d like to remind investors, as with any restructuring, risks and uncertainties remain with respect to future performance and with that I’ll turn the call over to Steven to go through our

Steven Lilly (Chief Financial Officer)

Thanks, Dan. As of September 30, 2026, FS KKR Capital’s investment portfolio had a fair value of $11.3 billion, consisting of 234 portfolio companies. At the end of the third quarter, our 10 largest portfolio companies represented approximately 21% of the fair value of our portfolio, which is in line with prior quarters. We remain focused on senior secured investments as our portfolio consisted of approximately 59% first lien loans and 63% senior secured debt as of September 30th.

In addition, our joint venture represented approximately 14% of the fair value of our portfolio as of the end of the third quarter. As a result, when looking through to the investments in our joint venture, first lien loans total approximately 69% of our total portfolio and senior secured investments total approximately 73% of our total portfolio as of September 30th. The weighted average yield on accruing debt investments was 10% as of September 30th as compared to 9.8% during the second quarter.

Turning to our quarterly operating results, our total investment income was $294 million for the third quarter, an increase of $4 million compared to the second quarter. The primary components of our total quarterly investment income were as follows. Total interest income was $206 million, representing a decrease of $11 million quarter over quarter. The decline in interest income primarily was due to a reduction in the size of our investment portfolio and assets placed on non-accrual during the second and third quarters.

Dividend and fee income totaled $88 million, an increase of $15 million quarter over quarter. Our total dividend and fee income is summarized as $44 million of dividend income from our joint venture, other dividends from various portfolio companies totaling approximately $40 million during the quarter, which includes the $25 million one-time dividend from Belk, and fee income totaling approximately $4 million during the quarter. Our net expenses were $167 million during the third quarter, which is a decrease of $1 million compared to the second quarter. The primary components of our net expenses were as follows. Our interest expense totaled $99 million, a decrease of $2 million quarter over quarter. Our weighted average stated interest rate on borrowings was 5.6% as of September 30th. Management fees totaled $42 million, a decrease of $2 million quarter over quarter. As Dan mentioned, for the second of four consecutive quarters, KKR waived 100% of its portion of the subordinated income incentive fee.

This waiver applies to 50% of the subordinated income incentive fee that otherwise would be paid. Net of this waiver, income incentive fees totaled $11 million, a decrease of $1 million compared to the second quarter. Other expenses totaled $13 million, an increase of $2 million quarter over quarter, primarily due to an increase in certain deal costs and professional expenses. Lastly, we incurred $2 million of excise tax during the third quarter in conjunction with the finalization of 2025 tax items related to certain international and ABF investments.

The detailed bridge in our net asset value per share on a quarter-over-quarter basis is as follows. Our ending 2Q 2026 net asset value per share of $18.30 was increased by GAAP net investment income of $0.46 per share and was decreased by $0.19 per share due to a decrease in the overall value of our investment portfolio. Our net asset value per share was reduced by our $0.44 per share quarterly common stock distribution and our $0.01 per share quarterly preferred stock distribution on a common stock equivalent basis paid during the quarter.

Our net asset value per share was increased by $0.16 per share due to share repurchases. The sum of these activities results in our September 30, 2026 net asset value per share of $18.28. From a forward-looking perspective for the fourth quarter of 2026, we currently expect our GAAP net investment income per share to be in the range of 8% to 9% of net asset value per share on an annualized basis. We encourage investors to consider that the third quarter Belk dividend was non-recurring and that the fourth quarter is when FS KKR Capital typically recognizes its annual excise tax provision. In addition to these items, we expect the fourth quarter will be positively impacted by a dividend from a portfolio company, JW Aluminum, approximating $17 million.

We remind investors that the portfolio activity Dan described as well as market-based future risks and uncertainties could cause our anticipated fourth quarter 2026 results to differ from this guidance. As of September 30, our debt-to-equity and net debt-to-equity levels were 127% and 125% respectively, compared to 127% and 122% as of June 30th. At the end of the third quarter our available liquidity was $3.4 billion and approximately 73% of our drawn balance sheet and 49% of our committed balance sheet was comprised of unsecured debt. And with that I’ll turn the call back to Michael for a few closing remarks before we open the call for questions.

Michael Forman (Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks, Steven. We believe the third quarter represents another step forward in the goals we outlined earlier this year. We’re encouraged by our progress, but we recognize there is still more work to do. Looking ahead, we remain focused on advancing our portfolio rotation efforts, repurchasing shares, and delivering long-term value for shareholders. As always, we appreciate your participation in the call today and for your interest in FS KKR Capital.

Operator, we’d now like to open the line for questions.

OPERATOR (Moderator)

Thank you. At this time we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you’ll need to press star-11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star-11 again. Please stand by. We will compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of John Hecht of Jefferies. Your line is now open.

John Hecht (Analyst)

Morning, guys, and thanks for taking my questions. And Steven, thanks for the detail about Q4. First question is, within your portfolio, what’s the maturity cadence over the next two years, and is there any industry-specific composition you can call out? I guess software would be of interest predominantly, but anything else in terms of the industry composition during that period of time.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Good morning, John, thanks for the question. Ballpark, 25% of the portfolio would be sort of between now and kind of ’28 you probably expect, considering when tied that back to origination dates. I think from a conceptual perspective, I’m probably a little bit less worried about the maturity wall concept in general, but I think we are focused on that. On the software space, obviously there’s been a seismic shift there in terms of valuations, where the debt market is going to take sort of new deals or refis of existing deals.

So, you know, I think outside of software probably not that worried; inside of software, I think it’s clearly on our mind and I suspect it’s on the mind of many others.

John Hecht (Analyst)

Okay. And then I guess thinking about your pipeline and outlook for deployment activity, anything moving with, you know, bid-ask spreads or terms, you know, I guess particularly in light of, you know, interest rate uncertainty and geopolitical uncertainty.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah, I’ll take that in a couple different pieces. Right. I think the market is definitely, I would say, wider than it was at the start of the year. Right. I would attribute that mainly to the activity or the redemption activity in the non-traded BDC space. I think, at least in our opinion, I think spreads probably gone 100 basis points wider including OID or sort of upfront fees, and it’s since given sort of some of that back but probably 50 basis points wider versus the start of the year.

And I would say overall tone a little bit more lender-friendly than sort of borrower-friendly. And obviously, you know, not just the redemptions but the rest of the stuff gone on kind of macro geopolitical helps that. You know, I think in terms of FS KKR Capital specifically, obviously we’re a little less focused on deployment, you know, more focused on getting the buyback plan done, more focused on getting leverage inside the target sort of number. You know, even our new deals or kind of new deployment this quarter was a little bit skewed by one transaction was committed to in ’25 that actually funded this quarter. So, you know, I think market a little bit better.

I think where we’re at now is we’re focused on the things we sort of talked about. You know, at some point that dynamic will change. We’ll get a little bit more kind of fresh new deal flow in here, hopefully generate a little more on the upfront fee side as well.

John Hecht (Analyst)

Great, thanks very much.

OPERATOR (Moderator)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rick Shane of JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Rick Shane (Analyst)

Hey guys, thanks for taking my questions. John really stuck to landing in terms of what I wanted to ask. But the comment about focusing on continuing to delever and at the same time buy back stock through paydowns makes sense. I am curious, now that we’re starting to see book value stabilize. You realized a lot of losses in the third quarter but did not hit book, so suggesting your reserve levels, or your reserve levels, your marks are appropriate.

That’s good execution. What do you think the time frame, realistically, to starting to deploy capital again on sort of a net basis looks like? Is that a ’28 time frame?

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah, it’s a fair question. I appreciate the question. I think we’ve been pretty consistent in either conversations or talking about it on the last couple of calls, it’s important for us to get the buyback done. I think we want to manage that buyback with also kind of being in the right leverage kind of zip code. Right. I think we’ve talked about our leverage target. It’s kind of one to one and a quarter. We’ve gotten it down at least versus, say, two quarters ago, you know, so that’s probably playing out, you know, John, over the course of ’27 is my guess.

Right. You think about both getting the repurchase program done as well as getting within that leverage number. Now there are things that I think are, you know, good results. Like we had a very good investment or experience with the Torak investment. You know, we started that in 2016. The company grew meaningfully well beyond anybody’s expectations in terms of value. But it felt like a good time for that company to take its next step and sort of monetize.

So I probably think about it over the course of the next five years.

Rick Shane (Analyst)

Got it. And Dan, I do realize the irony of me asking questions about growth and sort of glossing over the commitment on the buyback. So I do appreciate, you know, where you guys are sort of what you’re moving through.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

I appreciate that comment. Thank you.

Rick Shane (Analyst)

Thanks, guys.

OPERATOR (Moderator)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Finian O’Shea of Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open.

Finian O’Shea (Analyst)

Hey everyone. Good morning, Stephen. I think you mentioned you had a more complete picture of spillover from the ABF vehicles. Any color you could give on that as to where you are, if we might expect future specials or this is it, and, if you will, maybe a range on the fourth quarter tax item.

Steven Lilly (Chief Financial Officer)

Ben, good morning. I think when you consider in our last 10-K, I think we said spillover was $464 million, you know, we paid $2 million of excise in this quarter. So that would imply that, you know, that balance is a little bit higher when you do that math. And then we also paid the, announced the special distribution of $0.20 a share. So you’re sort of settling still in the top end of the range, you know, and we will publish the spillover for the end of 2026, you know, when we file our 10-K in February.

So that number will come out then. But still would say from a guidance standpoint, you’re more the top end of the range, you know, so I’d probably just leave it there for now.

Ben

Okay, that’s helpful, thanks. And then just a follow up on sort of the overall progress that continues. You guys talked a bit about should we think about the fee waivers as more straightforwardly this one-time, one-year event or as they lapse. Do you all contemplate a more permanent change after that?

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah. Good morning, Ben. I’ll take that one. Obviously we’re in the second quarter of that, the second quarter of the announced sort of four quarters. You know, I think we’re, you know, happy we sort of did that. I think we’re happy with the overall package of, you know, items we did, you know, going back now sort of 2/4. I think we’ll obviously, you know, have that conversation with the board kind of as appropriate as kind of required on that annual basis.

But right now I think we’re only two quarters in and I think we’re happy with some of the progress that we’ve been able to make across the portfolio. But I think we acknowledge that there is more work to do and that’s what we’re focused on.

Ben

So it ties to the portfolio progress as to whether it’s sort of just this one time.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

You know, obviously I think it’s in some ways the entirety of the situation. Right. I wouldn’t say it ties directly to the portfolio process. My point being more that we’re 2/4 into the 4/4 being announced. We obviously discuss fees with the board on an annual basis, but I think we singularly on our side as a team are focused on the portfolio and the work we have to do.

Ben

Very good. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Thanks. Have a good day.

OPERATOR (Moderator)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aaron Saganovich of Truist Securities. Your line is now open. We can’t hear you.

Aaron Saganovich (Analyst)

Yes, thank you. Apologies. I want to touch on the portfolio management and non-accruals that have already come through. You had a couple new ones this quarter. What’s in the watch list? I know it’s hard to say when things go bad or not, but do you feel like you’ve gotten a good handle in terms of, you know, maybe limiting some of these new non-accruals as you’re kind of working through the portfolio and going forward?

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah, I’m happy to take that. I think. I mean you are correct, right. A credit book does move and does sort of change quarter on quarter. So that said, I think you can look at kind of our risk rating, threes and fours as probably a fair description of watch list names. I think if you think about some of the specific events of the quarter, I think speaking for ourselves, but I suspect the other lenders as well, we were happy to get Medallion restructuring done to try to get to the next phase for that company.

Repiller is one of the names that would be kind of in that software space with some AI risk around it. The team is very active in trying to work on sort of next steps there. You know, New Year’s more of a, of an IT integration kind of managed services business. You know, I think there’s really operational points there more than anything else. But again, kind of team and other lenders in that kind of position focused on that. So, you know, I think, you know, active across the board.

Feel like we’ve had some good progress on some of the other names that we may have talked about in the past. But I think we are mindful that things can change or the world is a pretty volatile place right now and we got to get some of these positions to the other side.

Aaron Saganovich (Analyst)

And maybe just to talk about it from the standpoint of your platform beyond this BDC, what are you seeing? I imagine that you’re still originating and you’re still doing all of the more forward-looking and forward actions in other vehicles. What are you seeing from the market from that standpoint and maybe just some thoughts on some of the trends you’re seeing currently?

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah, maybe a couple of points. I mean you are correct, right. I mean we are quite active in the market through other pools of capital that FS KKR Capital has historically invested alongside of or still does, maybe just in much, much smaller size. I do go back to what I said on, I think it was John’s question, the overall tone of the market, definitely a little bit more lender-friendly than it was sort of prior. I think that’s good to see. I think the team for most of this year probably felt pretty light in terms of new deal flow, kind of broad stroke across the board.

I’m not sure that’s entirely surprising considering Iran and still this lingering inflation. I think we’re getting a bit busier or there’s a bit more kind of activity, more kind of inbounds on books being prepared, companies trying to be sold. But I think the market is still missing what I think we’ve all been expecting, a healthy amount of deal flow of sponsors selling businesses, and I think that’s just going to take some time or it’s going to.

The kind of bid-ask of price is going to sort of narrow or need to narrow, you know. So I think we’re out of the business of forecasting when M&A is going to come back in a normal sort of sense. But at some point I think some of these things will have to come to market. You’ll have to see some of the activity stuff. And maybe the only other comment just for your benefit, we have seen, you know, even, you know, we’ll call it the opposite side of maybe the redemptions in the retail space, we have seen a strong either continued interest or maybe even a little bit greater interest from the institutional side on investing in the space.

On the investor side

Aaron Saganovich (Analyst)

On that last comment, is the institutional interest remaining kind of at that level? I know it kind of picked up in the summer and early fall whenever spreads were…

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah, I think it’s remaining…

Aaron Saganovich (Analyst)

Okay, great, thank you.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

It’s remaining. Obviously there’s a little bit of a tailwind too of rates ticking up, right?

Aaron Saganovich (Analyst)

Yep, absolutely. Thank you.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Thanks for your questions. Have a good day.

OPERATOR (Moderator)

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Robert Dodd of Raymond James. Your line is now open.

Robert Dodd (Analyst)

Hi guys. And congratulations on the stable quarter. I got a question on the asset-backed finance side of the book. Right. I mean if I look at it in the—just do the math, right? You had 11.6% of the portfolio at the end of Q3, but with Torak Romano, whatever I’m supposed to currently call it, getting acquired in Q4, I mean you could end the year potentially in the single digits on that side of the business, but call it 10%-ish. Is that the new plan?

You’ve talked about going to more first lien. I mean, is the plan to shrink the ABS component in the book, which may not be as well understood by investors because it is different from a lot of other BDCs do. Is it the plan to shrink that or is this just a temporary low in terms of allocation to the ABF strategy?

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah. Good morning. I wouldn’t classify it as an active focus on shrinking it. I think we’ve historically talked about it in the range of 10 to 15%. I think you should expect that range to sort of continue. Obviously we’re constantly managing like any other BDC, the 30% bucket as well. And as we are kind of shrinking certain assets or taking repayments to buy back shares and sort of delever. So I think it’s part of the whole calculus. But I wouldn’t think about it as an active sort of piece.

I think we’ve seen good performance in that part of our portfolio. We think that marketplace itself remains quite interesting from a risk-adjusted return perspective. But I just constantly have that 10 to 15% range.

Robert Dodd (Analyst)

Got it, got it. Thank you. Just on Romana, I mean obviously there’s about a $40 million gap between your fair value and your cost basis this quarter. I mean on the acquisition price, is that basically that’s baked into the fair value or is the acquisition price potentially higher than you have had it marked at Q3?

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah, I will actually go check the specifics on that and circle back. I think the business has historically been a strong sort of dividend payer for us. So I’d want to check on some of that sort of piece. But I think kind of overall result of the investment, considering when we started that business, I think we thought we would have originated a billion dollars of assets. I think the company’s done 14 or 15 billion dollars by this point. They’ve done a good job.

I think it was just we’ve owned it for 10 years. I think both for the company’s benefit, I think from time to time it’s good to rotate out of these things. It was sort of proper to sell. But I’ll come back on that sort of specific point here.

Robert Dodd (Analyst)

Got it. Thank you. One more if I can real quick, flipping the other end on what’s normally non-income producing equity, JW Aluminum. But it’s going to pay a dividend in the fourth quarter. I mean that business continues to do very well. I know I’ve asked you about this before but like, you know, yes, the M&A market’s slow, but that’s a good business. It’s not AI exposed. Maybe it’s going to—you’re going to use aluminum to build the skeletons for robot overlords.

But you know, that seems like exactly the kind of business that would be attractive to a buyer right now. Is there any—have there been any inquiries or any interest more recently in you monetizing that business?

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Yeah. Your points are not unfair. I think we’ve been very happy with performance there. I think the team has done a good job over a long period of time. You know, and the management team today is doing a good job. There is kind of tailwinds there to your point. You know, probably difficult to comment on if there’s any, you know, inbound interest, but I don’t think you’re incorrect in the sense that, you know, with those tailwinds, with it not being AI, it’s probably not a bad fact.

I would note this is the fourth or fifth dividend the business has paid in the last handful of years. It’s not necessarily every quarter, but considering performance, it is becoming a little bit more of a consistent fact or recurring fact than sort of a one-off fact. I just would note that.

Robert Dodd (Analyst)

Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. Thank you.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Okay. Have a good day.

OPERATOR (Moderator)

Thank you. I am showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Dan Pietrzak for closing remarks.

Daniel Pietrzak (Co-President and Chief Investment Officer)

Thank you. And thank you everyone for your time today. If there are any follow up points, please do not hesitate to reach out to the team. We look forward to speaking with you on our next quarterly call. Have a good day.

OPERATOR (Moderator)

Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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