PennantPark says well-positioned to confront COVID-19 downturn

PennantPark Investment announced that it issued an open letter to its stakeholders regarding a business update amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The company said, "We felt it important to provide an update on PennantPark Investment Corporation in light of the massive economic and capital markets disruptions caused by COVID-19. First and foremost, we hope that you are safe and healthy in these difficult times. Fortunately, our entire PennantPark team is safe and healthy and has been successfully working remotely from home for the past three weeks. Our contingency planning has functioned effectively and as intended. As a result, the transition of our entire team to remote work has been smooth, and we are currently fully capable of maintaining our normal functionality to complete our operational requirements. We have also taken several measures to maintain the strong culture that we cherish despite the distance. We have always believed in open and transparent communication with all of our stakeholders and remain committed to those principles today. While it is too early to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on PNNT, we want to take this opportunity to share certain observations as we navigate through these unprecedented circumstances. We have an experienced investment team that has managed through multiple economic cycles, including the Global Financial Crisis. Our principal focus has been on our existing portfolio. Because we believe in proactive communication, we have been in frequent dialogue with our portfolio companies' management teams and their sponsor owners over the last month. In addition, we have strong analytics around the portfolio, so that we can understand and assess the likely impacts of the ongoing disruption caused by COVID-19 on our portfolio companies, as well as their ability to withstand those likely impacts. We have built resilience into the PNNT portfolio through a disciplined, diversified investment strategy. The PNNT portfolio includes investments in 78 companies, representing 30 different industries. Our value-oriented investment philosophy focuses on preserving capital and ensuring that our investments have an appropriate return profile in relation to risk. We have positioned our portfolio away from direct exposure to areas of the economy that we believe, based on currently available information, are likely to be most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we have generally avoided direct investments in more cyclical industries that have been hard hit by the spread of COVID-19, including restaurants, retail, apparel, and airlines. Nevertheless, there are some companies in our portfolio that have seen a significant drop in revenues during March given the impact of COVID-19, such as those in the events and gaming industries, and we know that others are likely to suffer declines as economic disruptions continue. As of December 31, 2019, gaming represented approximately 3.5% of the portfolio and its subsidiaries, across four investments. Fortunately, one of these investments was substantially refinanced in the last 10 days, and another portfolio company is undertaking a construction-phase project which provides it with interest reserves into mid-2021. Energy represents approximately 10% of the portfolio, across three names. RAM Energy Holdings LLC's operating performance on its oil and gas wells has been strong, and more than 60% of its production is hedged at over $50 per barrel through October 2022. Further on the positive side, many of our portfolio companies are in businesses such as government services, defense contracting, software/communications, and cybersecurity, which we believe, based on current circumstances, will be less impacted by COVID-19 and its associated economic disruptions. Our portfolio is also made more robust by our reasonable leverage ratios, with leverage through our security of approximately 4.7x as of December 31, 2019. Moreover, we have focused our lending activity on the U.S. middle market, which we believe represents a highly dynamic segment of the economy and benefits from terms, structures and yields that are more attractive to lenders than those of larger companies. PNNT has a strong capital structure with diversified funding sources and no near-term maturities, including a $475 million revolving credit facility maturing in 2024 with a syndicate of 14 banks; a separate $250 million revolving credit facility maturing in 2024; $134 million of SBA debentures maturing in 2026; and $86 million of unsecured notes maturing in 2024. We have been in consistent dialogue with our lenders since the beginning of the COVID-19 disruption and are thankful for their support. Based on all of these factors, we believe PNNT is well positioned to confront the COVID-19 downturn and to prosper when the economy eventually recovers. Our management team has sought to align interests closely with investors. As previously disclosed, since mid-February, officers, directors and employees have purchased over 200,000 additional shares of PNNT common stock."