news-10k_20151231.htm

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 10-K

 

x

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015

OR

o

TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from             to

Commission file number 001-33211

 

NewStar Financial, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

Delaware

 

54-2157878

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

 

 

 

500 Boylston Street, Suite 1250, Boston, MA

 

02116

(Address of principal executive offices)

 

(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (617) 848-2500

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of each class

 

Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share

 

The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes  o    No  x

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes  o    No  x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  x    No  o

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K    o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “accelerated filer”, “large accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Large Accelerated Filer

 

o

Accelerated Filer

 

x

 

 

 

 

 

 

Non-Accelerated Filer

 

o

Smaller reporting company

 

o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  o    No  x

As of June 30, 2015, the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates was $257,119,775, based on the number of shares held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2015, and based on the reported last sale price of common stock on June 30, 2015. This calculation does not reflect a determination that persons are affiliates for any other purposes.

As of February 29, 2016, 47,369,046 shares of common stock, par value of $0.01 per share, were outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the Registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), relating to the Registrant’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders scheduled to be held May 11, 2016 are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K. With the exception of the portions of the Proxy Statement specifically incorporated herein by reference, the Proxy Statement is not deemed to be filed as part of this Form 10-K.

 

 

 


TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

Page

 

 

 

 

PART I

Item 1.

 

Business

 

2

 

 

 

 

 

Item 1A.

 

Risk Factors

 

14

 

 

 

 

 

Item 1B.

 

Unresolved Staff Comments

 

24

 

 

 

 

 

Item 2.

 

Properties

 

24

 

 

 

 

 

Item 3.

 

Legal Proceedings

 

24

 

 

 

 

 

Item 4.

 

Mine Safety Disclosures

 

24

 

 

 

 

PART II

Item 5.

 

Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

 

25

 

 

 

 

 

Item 6.

 

Selected Financial Data

 

27

 

 

 

 

 

Item 7.

 

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

 

30

 

 

 

 

 

Item 7A.

 

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

 

56

 

 

 

 

 

Item 8.

 

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

 

58

 

 

 

 

 

Item 9.

 

Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

 

112

 

 

 

 

 

Item 9A.

 

Controls and Procedures

 

112

 

 

 

 

 

Item 9B.

 

Other Information

 

112

 

 

 

 

PART III

Item 10.

 

Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

 

113

 

 

 

 

 

Item 11.

 

Executive Compensation

 

114

 

 

 

 

 

Item 12.

 

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

 

114

 

 

 

 

 

Item 13.

 

Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

 

114

 

 

 

 

 

Item 14.

 

Principal Accounting Fees and Services

 

114

 

 

 

 

PART IV

Item 15.

 

Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

 

115

 

 

 

 

 

Signatures

 

115

 

 

 


Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this Annual Report about our anticipated financial condition, results of operations, and growth, as well as about the future development of our products and markets and the future performance of the financial markets in general, are forward-looking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They may include words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “plan,” “intend,” “believe,” “may,” “should,” “can have,” “likely” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events and circumstances. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that we have made in light of our industry experience and on our perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors. As you read this Annual Report, you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. They involve risks and uncertainties that are beyond our control. Important information about the bases for our assumptions and factors that may cause our actual results and other circumstances to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements are discussed in Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and generally throughout this Annual Report.

 

 

Item 1.

Business

Overview

NewStar Financial, Inc. (which is referred to throughout this Annual Report as “NewStar”, “the Company”, “we” and “us”) is an internally-managed, commercial finance company with specialized lending platforms focused on meeting the complex financing needs of companies and private investors in the middle market. The Company and its wholly owned investment management subsidiary, NewStar Capital LLC, are registered investment advisers and provide asset management services to institutional investors. The Company manages several private credit funds that co-invest in loan origination through its leveraged finance lending platform.  Through NewStar Capital, the Company also manages a series of funds structured as CLOs that invest primarily in broadly syndicated loans, as well as other sponsored funds and managed accounts that invest across various asset classes, including broadly syndicated loans, high yield bonds and distressed credits. Through its specialized lending platforms, the Company provides a range of senior secured debt financing options to mid-sized companies to fund working capital, growth strategies, acquisitions and recapitalizations, as well as, purchases of equipment and other capital assets.

We believe these lending activities require specialized skills and transaction experience, as well as, a significant investment in personnel and operating infrastructure. To meet these demands, our loans and leases are originated directly by teams of credit-trained bankers and experienced marketing officers organized around key industry and market segments. These teams represent specialized lending groups that are supported by centralized credit management and operating platforms. This structure enables us to leverage common standards, systems, and industry and professional expertise across multiple businesses.

We target our marketing and origination efforts at private equity firms, mid-sized companies, corporate executives, banks, real estate investors and a variety of other referral sources and financial intermediaries to develop new customer relationships and source lending opportunities. Our origination network is national in scope and we target companies with business operations across a broad range of industry sectors. We employ highly experienced bankers, marketing officers and credit professionals to identify and structure new lending opportunities and manage customer relationships. We believe that the quality of our professionals, the breadth of their relationships and referral networks, and their ability to develop creative solutions for customers position us to be a valued partner and preferred lender for mid-sized companies and private equity funds with middle market investment strategies.

Our emphasis on direct origination is an important aspect of our marketing and credit strategy. Our national network is designed around specialized origination channels intended to generate a large set of potential lending opportunities. That allows us to be highly selective in our credit process and to allocate capital to market segments that we believe represent the most attractive opportunities. Our direct origination network also generates proprietary lending opportunities with yield characteristics that we believe would not otherwise be available through intermediaries. In addition, direct origination provides us with direct access to management teams and enhances our ability to conduct detailed due diligence and credit analysis of prospective borrowers. It also allows us to negotiate transaction terms directly with borrowers and, as a result, advise our customers on financial strategies and capital structures, which we believe benefits our credit performance.

The Company typically provides financing commitments to companies in amounts that range in size from $10 million to $50 million. The size of financing commitments depends on various factors, including the type of loan, the credit characteristics of the borrower, the economic characteristics of the loan, and our role in the transaction. We also selectively arrange larger transactions that we may retain on our balance sheet or syndicate to other lenders, which may include funds that we manage for third party institutional investors. By syndicating loans to other lenders and our managed funds, we are able to provide larger financing commitments to our customers and generate fee income, while limiting our risk exposure to single borrowers. From time to time, however, our balance sheet exposure to a single borrower exceeds $35 million.

2


NewStar offers a set of credit products and services that have many common attributes, but which are highly specialized by lending group and market segment. Although both the Leveraged Finance and Business Credit lending groups structure loans as revolving credit facilities and term loans, the style of lending and approach to credit management is highly specialized. The Equipment Finance group broadens our product offering to include a range of lease financing options. The operational intensity of each product also varies by lending group.

Although NewStar operates as a single segment, the Company derives revenues from its asset management activities and four specialized lending groups that target market segments in which we believe that we have competitive advantages:

 

·

Leveraged Finance, provides senior, secured cash flow loans and, to a lesser extent, first out, second lien and unitranche loans, which are primarily used to finance acquisitions of mid-sized companies with annual cash flow (EBITDA) typically between $10 million and $50 million by private equity investment funds managed by established professional alternative asset managers;

 

·

Business Credit, provides senior, secured asset-based loans primarily to fund working capital needs of mid-sized companies with sales revenue typically totaling between $25 million and $500 million;

 

·

Real Estate, provides first mortgage debt primarily to finance acquisitions of commercial real estate properties typically valued between $10 million and $50 million by professional commercial real estate investors;

 

·

Equipment Finance, provides leases, loans and lease lines to finance purchases of equipment and other capital expenditures typically for companies with annual sales of at least $25 million; and

 

·

Asset Management, provides opportunities for qualified institutions to invest in a range of credit funds managed by the Company that employ credit-oriented strategies focused on middle market loans and liquid, tradeable credit.  

Information regarding revenues, profits and losses and total assets of this single segment can be found in the financial statements in Item 8.

NewStar is a Delaware corporation that was incorporated in 2004. Our principal executive office is located at 500 Boylston Street, Suite 1250, Boston, Massachusetts 02116, and our telephone number is (617) 848-2500. We maintain a website at www.newstarfin.com.

NewStar Capital

On October 7, 2015, NewStar acquired Boston‑based Feingold O’Keeffe Capital, LLC (“FOC Partners”), a boutique credit manager with $2.3 billion of assets under management, to expand its existing asset management capabilities.  The Company operates FOC Partners as NewStar Capital, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.  The assets and liabilities of FOC Partners were recorded at their estimated fair values as of the date of the acquisition and resulted in goodwill of $17.9 million.  The acquisition was accounted for as a business combination and is consolidated in the Company’s financial statements effective October 7, 2015.  

Strategic Relationship

In December of 2014, NewStar formed a strategic relationship with GSO Capital (“GSO”), the credit division of Blackstone, and Franklin Square Capital Partners (“Franklin Square”), one of the largest managers of business development companies, to expand the Company’s lending and asset management platforms. The relationship combined a series of initiatives to accelerate our loan growth and expand the Company’s asset management platform, with a long-term strategic investment to partially fund the related growth strategy. Under the terms of the investment, funds managed by Franklin Square and sub-advised by GSO committed to purchase $300 million of 8.25% subordinated notes due 2024 with warrants exercisable for 12 million shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $12.62 (the "warrants"). The Company issued $200 million in principal amount of the notes in December 2014. The warrants were issued in two tranches in December 2014 and January 2015. We issued $75 million of the remaining $100 million of notes during 2015, and the remaining $25 million notes were issued in January 2016. The Company used the proceeds from these issuances to enhance its ability to originate and lead transactions across all of its specialized lending groups. As a result, we significantly increased our origination volume and facilitated the growth of our asset base. In addition, our relationship with GSO has resulted in cross-referral and co-lending opportunities, provided us with access to new channels of origination, and enabled us to provide larger capital commitments and a more complete set of financing options to our clients.

Lending Groups

Our lending activities are organized into four specialized lending groups: Leveraged Finance, Business Credit, Real Estate, and Equipment Finance.

3


Leveraged Finance

Through our Leveraged Finance group, the Company provides senior, secured cash flow loans and, to a lesser extent, first out, second lien and unitranche loans, to middle market companies. These companies are typically backed by established private equity groups that manage large investment funds and have proven investment track records. The proceeds of these loans are used primarily for acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing or other general corporate purposes. The Leveraged Finance group also provides senior secured loans to larger middle market companies with greater financing needs by participating in larger credit facilities with other lenders as a member of a syndicate.

We believe that private equity backed companies represent an attractive segment of the overall market for financing middle market companies. Commonly known as sponsored lending, this financing segment is large, often representing 30-40% of total middle market lending measured by new loan volume. Transaction activity in this financing segment is driven by an estimated 600 private equity firms in the US that specialize in investing in middle market companies. By focusing our origination activity on this universe of firms, the Company seeks to leverage its direct origination effort into significant transaction flow, as each firm typically completes several transactions per year.

We believe that NewStar is among the most active lenders focused on financing private equity backed companies in the middle market.  We have established a recognized brand in the market with a reputation as a smart, reliable lender that is responsive, consistent and constructive. Since inception, the Company has funded loans totaling more than $8.8 billion to approximately 618 companies backed by nearly 239 different financial sponsors. The Company’s national lending strategy is supported by a network of offices located across the country. We develop new customer relationships and source our loans primarily through the direct marketing and origination efforts of our bankers. The Company’s bankers call directly on prospective clients and referrals sources from this network of offices. They have established relationships with a wide range of prospective customers and referral sources, including approximately 239 private equity groups with investment strategies focused on the middle market, mid-sized companies, corporate executives, banks, other non-bank “club” lenders, and investment banks. To a lesser extent, we may also source loans and other debt products by participating in larger credit facilities syndicated by other lenders.

We generally compete for lending opportunities on the basis of our reputation and transaction experience. Through our strategic relationship, we also originate financing opportunities from referrals of transactions in which we co-lend with Franklin Square or other affiliates of GSO. We believe that our strategic relationship will continue to help us compete more effectively for lending opportunities by enabling us to provide larger credit commitments and “one-stop” financing solutions to customers comprised of unitranche loans or a combination of senior and junior debt capital in partnership with GSO or Franklin Square.

NewStar offers a range of senior debt financing options, including revolving credit facilities, term loans and other debt products secured by a variety of business assets. Loans are typically structured to mature in five to six years and require monthly or quarterly interest payments at variable rates based on a spread to LIBOR or the prime rate, many with interest rate floors. Through our strategic relationship, we also seek to offer a more complete range of debt financing options, including second lien term loans, unitranche term loans, subordinated notes and, to a lesser extent, private equity co-investments.

We target mid-sized companies operating in a broad range of industries and market segments where we believe that we have competitive advantages and significant lending and underwriting experience, including:

 

·

healthcare;

 

·

manufacturing and industrial;

 

·

financial services;

 

·

energy/chemical services;

 

·

printing/publishing;

 

·

consumer, retail and restaurants; and

 

·

business and technology services.

Our loans and other debt products, which may be part of larger credit facilities, typically range in size from $10 million to $50 million, although we generally limit the size of the loans that we retain to $25 million. In certain cases, however, our loans and debt products exceed $35 million. We also have the capability to arrange significantly larger transactions which we syndicate to other lenders, including funds that we manage. As a result of syndication and asset management activities, our exposure to certain loans and other debt products exceeds $35 million from time to time through “Loans held-for-sale,” which represent amounts in excess of our target hold for investment position.

4


The Company has well established lending guidelines and transaction parameters. We focus on transactions with established companies that have strong market positions in targeted industry sectors. Our borrowers are typically unrated, but have credit profiles that we believe are comparable to B1/B2/B3 rated companies due to their limited size and use of leverage. The Company’s preference is generally to finance acquisitions and other productive uses of capital subject to structural parameters, such as maximum leverage, that can vary significantly depending on the facts and circumstances of each situation. Substantially all the Company’s loans have significant lender protections, including financial covenants that are set at levels with cushions to projected financial performance. They also typically include restrictive covenants and mandatory prepayment provisions that limit borrowers’ ability to incur additional indebtedness and make acquisitions.  Many transactions also include an excess cash flow recapture provision, which is designed to accelerate debt repayment and de-leveraging.

NewStar is also selective in targeting transaction sponsors, focusing on more established firms with between $500 million and several billion dollars of committed capital managed across multiple funds. The Company invests significant resources in developing relationships with target sponsors and understanding their respective investment strategies, performance track records, access to capital, and industry focus, as well as the backgrounds of their investment professionals. Our management believes that a significant factor in the Company’s success has been the quality of its private equity franchise and the breadth of relationships it has developed with private equity firms. In many cases, the relationships that members of our management have with investment professionals at these firms extend from early in their professional careers. We believe the value created by our private equity relationships is reflected in the transaction flow that the Company generates and in the repeat business we have experienced with targeted sponsors.

NewStar’s origination and credit strategies are strongly influenced by industry dynamics. The Company has invested in the development of an experienced staff of portfolio managers with deep industry expertise responsible for covering nine broad industry sectors. These portfolio managers maintain extensive networks of industry contacts in their respective industries and employ a research-driven framework to develop insights into these sectors intended to guide origination strategy and credit selection.

As of December 31, 2015, our Leveraged Finance loan portfolio totaled $3.5 billion in funding commitments and $3.2 billion in balances outstanding, representing 83.9% of our loan portfolio. This represented 227 transactions with an average balance outstanding of approximately $14.2 million. During 2015, we originated $2.7 billion of new Leveraged Finance loans, of which we retained $1.7 billion and originated $1.1 billion for credit funds. As of December 31, 2015, our exposure to energy (oil & gas) was approximately $82.6 million or 2.1% of balance sheet assets (inclusive of loans within our total return swap). Two of these credits with a total balance of $20 million have been designated as high attention credits.

Business Credit

Through its Business Credit lending group, NewStar provides working capital financing to asset-intensive companies that typically borrow against the value of their inventory and accounts receivable. These asset-based loans may also be used to support other business purposes, including acquisitions and recapitalizations, as well as growth strategies. Typical borrowers generate sales revenue between $25 million and $500 million and operate across a range of industry sectors. The Company generally provides revolving credit facilities in amounts linked to borrowers’ expected working capital needs and may also provide term loans backed by longer term assets and other excess collateral.

This type of fully-followed, asset-based lending is highly credit and operationally intensive. As part of the underwriting process and ongoing management of credit relationships, Business Credit tracks collateral values and performs regular field audits to confirm financial and borrowing base reporting. Audit results and appraisals are used to determine collateral eligibility and advance rates. Collateral values are tracked by specialized collateral analysts and daily borrowing activity is managed by collateral analysts and experienced account executives.

Nearly all of our asset-based lending relationships require dominion over borrowers’ cash. Cash dominion gives us significant control of a borrowers’ cash flow, including collections of all accounts receivable through lock-boxes controlled by the Company. This also facilitates subsequent disbursements of cash to repay advances under the credit line or for other corporate purposes including paying vendors, employees and others. We also verify receivables in certain circumstances, which involves verification specialists contacting account debtors of borrowers to confirm the existence and amount of receivables pledged as collateral.

Business Credit develops lending opportunities and sources transactions through an extensive network of long-standing relationships with corporate executives, private equity firms, intermediaries, turnaround consultants, banks and other referral sources. With our main Business Credit office in Dallas and marketing offices in Boston, Chicago, Portland and San Francisco, we have a national asset-based lending origination platform capable of originating significant loan volume.  The group’s centralized marketing effort combined with regional sales coverage is designed to generate a significant flow of prospects and capitalize on the most attractive lending opportunities in the market.

5


The Business Credit group also benefits from the strategic relationship with Franklin Square and GSO by offering asset-based revolving credit facilities as a co-lender with them. We also expect to continue to provide financing for companies referred to us by GSO or Blackstone that are experiencing some financial stress or completing turnarounds.

Asset-based loans originated by this group typically range in size from $5 million to $50 million. We also have the ability to arrange significantly larger transactions that we may syndicate to others.

Business Credit targets mid-sized companies in a variety of asset-intensive industries for our asset-based loans including:

 

·

business services;

 

·

auto/transportation;

 

·

marketing;

 

·

retail;

 

·

general manufacturing;

 

·

wholesale distribution; and

 

·

technology.

Our asset-based credit products include the following:

 

·

revolving lines of credit; and

 

·

senior secured term loans.

In determining our borrowers’ ability and willingness to repay loans, our Business Credit group conducts a detailed due diligence investigation to assess financial reporting accuracy and capabilities as well as to verify the values of business assets among other things. We employ third parties to conduct field exams to audit financial reporting and to appraise the value of certain types of collateral in order to estimate its liquidation value. Financing arrangements with our customers also typically include substantial controls over the application of borrowers’ cash and we typically retain discretion over collateral advance rates and eligibility among other key terms and conditions.

As of December 31, 2015 our Business Credit loan portfolio totaled $646.0 million in funding commitments and $342.3 million in balances outstanding, representing 9.0% of our loan portfolio. This represented 49 transactions with an average balance outstanding of approximately $7.0 million. During 2015, we originated $119.9 million of new asset-based loans.

Real Estate

Our Real Estate group provides first mortgage, transitional financing to professional real estate investors and developers to acquire and reposition commercial properties typically valued between $10 million and $50 million. We source our commercial real estate loans primarily through property investors, specialized commercial real estate brokers, regional banks and other financial intermediaries, as well as through our strategic partners.

Approximately $100.7 million of our aggregate loan portfolio is comprised of loans secured by first mortgages on commercial properties. The collateral to the commercial real estate loan portfolio consists of a range of property types located across the US in significant metropolitan statistical areas with a modest concentration in loans secured by suburban office buildings.

The Company typically finances the acquisition of properties valued between $10 and $50 million as the sole lender without recourse to the sponsor. Loans are most often structured with an initial term of three years with two one year extension options. These loans generally do not provide for scheduled amortization and the primary source of repayment is refinancing upon stabilization of the property or sale. We generally hold back a portion of loan proceeds to fund improvements, tenant build-outs, and interest reserves.

After curtailing new lending activity in this group due to the dislocation in the real estate market during the financial crisis and ensuing recession, we have been extremely selective in our real estate lending activity in connection with our new strategic relationships.

6


We have a selective focus on property types where we have significant lending and underwriting experience, including:

 

·

office;

 

·

multi-family;

 

·

retail; and

 

·

industrial.

Our focus on property types may vary by geographic region based on both economic fundamentals and underlying local market conditions that impact the demand for real estate. Our loans typically range in size from $10 million to $35 million. Although we generally limit loan sizes to $25 million, our exposure to certain loans and other debt products exceeds $30 million from time to time.

For our commercial real estate loans, we perform due diligence and credit analyses that focus on the following key considerations:

 

·

the sponsor’s history, capital and liquidity, and portfolio of other properties;

 

·

the property’s historical and projected cash flow as a primary source of repayment;

 

·

tenant creditworthiness;

 

·

the borrower’s plan for the subject property, including refinancing options upon stabilization as a secondary source of repayment;

 

·

the property’s condition;

 

·

local real estate market conditions;

 

·

loan-to-value based on independent third-party appraisals;

 

·

the borrower’s demonstrated operating capability and creditworthiness;

 

·

licensing and environmental issues related to the property and the borrower; and

 

·

the borrower’s management.

As of December 31, 2015 our Real Estate loan portfolio totaled $105.8 million in funding commitments and $100.7 million in balances outstanding, representing 2.6% of our total loan portfolio. This represented 7 lending relationships with an average balance outstanding of approximately $14.4 million. During 2015, we originated $13.3 million new commercial real estate loans.

Equipment Finance

Our Equipment Finance group provides a range of equipment loan and lease financing options to mid-sized companies to fund various types of capital expenditures. We originate equipment loans and leases through a team of experienced marketing officers who develop new business directly with prospective lessees. We continue to expand our internal sales and marketing efforts to cross-sell leases to our existing customers and call directly on other end-users in the market, including portfolio companies owned by private equity investment firms with whom we have established relationships through our Leveraged Finance group.

We finance essential-use equipment for mid-sized businesses nationwide. Our Equipment Finance group offers a variety of leases and loan products with various end-of-term options to fund a wide range of equipment types, including manufacturing, technology, healthcare, transportation, and telecom equipment. Targeted transaction sizes range from $1 million to $20 million. We also offer lease lines to meet customers’ needs for planned capital expenditures. We focus on companies with annual sales of at least $25 million across a broad array of industries, including business services, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, education, retail and manufacturing.

As of December 31, 2015, our Equipment Finance portfolio totaled $173.3 million in funding commitments and balances outstanding, representing 4.5% of our loan portfolio. This represented 52 transactions with an average balance outstanding of approximately $3.2 million. During 2015, we originated $99.5 million of new equipment finance products.

7


Asset Management

As a registered investment adviser since 2012, NewStar offers investment products for qualified institutions to invest in private credit funds managed by the Company that employ credit oriented strategies, focused on middle market loans and liquid tradeable credit.

The Company’s asset management activities provide important financial and strategic benefits.  We earn management fees for our role as the investment manager for funds that we manage.  Compensation as investment manager is comprised of both base management fees and incentive fees. We also enjoy important strategic benefits from the management of certain types of credit funds because they allow us to provide more capital to our customers, while limiting our direct balance sheet risk.  As a result, we believe this enhances our competitive position.

We believe that NewStar was among the first independent commercial finance companies to develop an asset management platform to provide investment strategies targeting middle market loans. The Company launched its first fund in 2005, which was called NewStar Credit Opportunities Fund ("NCOF”) to co-invest in loans originated by the Company. The fund was capitalized with $150 million of equity from third party investors. This equity commitment was then levered to support an investment portfolio of $600 million using bank credit facilities to support the initial ramp-up followed by a securitization, to provide long-term match funding for the fund’s assets. The Company launched the $300 million Arlington Fund in 2013. It was increased to $400 million in 2014, and also employed leverage through a loan securitization. The Company closed its third fund, a $400 million levered fund known as the Clarendon Fund in 2014, with an anchor equity investment from funds sponsored by Franklin Square and sub-advised by GSO. As part of our strategic relationship, we intend to continue to offer GSO and Franklin Square opportunities to invest additional capital in future lending vehicles managed by NewStar.  

In October 2015, we acquired Boston-based FOC Partners, a boutique credit manager and also a registered investment adviser. We operate FOC Partners as a wholly owned subsidiary under the name NewStar Capital.  NewStar Capital manages two private debt funds with direct lending strategies totaling more than $79 million, six broadly syndicated CLOs with liquid loan strategies totaling about $1.9 billion, and a series of other funds and accounts representing approximately $111 million. 

The Company’s managed funds are allocated a portion of the loans we originate based on an established allocation policy that defines a set of rules for managing this activity.  We are currently allocating loans to the Clarendon and Arlington Funds.

As of December 31, 2015, NewStar’s managed assets totaled $6.9 billion with $4.7 billion managed within middle market direct lending and $2.3 billion within liquid, tradeable credit.  

Our asset management income was approximately $6.7 million in 2015 and $1.0 million in 2014.

Loans and Other Debt Products

Senior secured cash flow loans

Our senior secured cash flow loans are provided by our Leveraged Finance group. We underwrite these loans based on the cash flow, profitability and enterprise value of the borrower, with the value of any tangible assets as secondary protection. These loans are generally secured by a first-priority security interest in all or substantially all of the borrowers’ assets and, in certain transactions, the pledge of their common stock.

As of December 31, 2015, senior secured cash flow loans totaled $3.3 billion in funding commitments and $3.0 billion in balances outstanding, representing 78.6% of our loan portfolio.

Senior secured asset-based loans

Our senior secured asset-based loans are provided primarily by our Business Credit group, and to a lesser degree by our Leveraged Finance group, and are secured by a first-priority lien on tangible assets and have a first-priority in right of payment. Senior secured asset-based loans are typically advanced under revolving credit facilities against a borrowing base comprised of collateral, including eligible accounts receivable, inventories and other long-term assets.

As of December 31, 2015, senior secured asset-based loans totaled $842.8 million in funding commitments and $535.0 million in balances outstanding, representing 14.0% of our loan portfolio.

8


First mortgage loans

Our first mortgage loans are provided by our Real Estate group and are secured by a mortgage bearing a first lien on the real property serving as collateral. Our first mortgage loans require borrowers to demonstrate satisfactory collateral value at closing through a third party property appraisal and typically contain provisions governing the use of property operating cash flow and disbursement of loan proceeds during the term of the loan.

As of December 31, 2015, first mortgage loans totaled $105.9 million in funding commitments and $100.7 million in balances outstanding, representing 2.6% of our loan portfolio.

Other

Our other loans and debt products are categorized as $81.7 million of senior subordinated asset-based (which are equal as to collateral and subordinate as to right of payment to other senior lenders), $97.6 million of second lien (which are second liens on all or substantially all of a borrower’s assets, and in some cases, junior in right of payment to senior lenders), and $6.6 million of mezzanine/subordinated (which are subordinated as to rights to collateral and right of payment to senior lenders).

Loan Portfolio

The Company’s loan portfolio is comprised of loans, leases and other debt products.  As of December 31, 2015, the loan portfolio totaled approximately $4.5 billion of funding commitments, representing $3.8 billion of balances outstanding and $602 million of funds committed but undrawn as of December 31, 2015. Loans originated by our Leveraged Finance group comprised 83.9% of the portfolio, while 9.0% of the loan portfolio was originated by our Business Credit lending groups, 2.6% comprised of commercial mortgages originated by our Real Estate lending group, and the remaining 4.5% was originated by our Equipment Finance group as of December 31, 2015. Consistent with our strategy to focus on senior secured lending, first lien senior debt represented 95.1% of the portfolio.

As of December 31, 2015, we had 27 loans with outstanding balances greater than $25.0 million. In most of these cases, we either sought to maximize our potential recovery of the outstanding principal by adding to our position through a workout or our hold size increased as a result of a portfolio purchase, syndication or through asset management activities. As of December 31, 2015, we had two impaired loans that had an outstanding balance greater than $30 million. As of December 31, 2015 our largest outstanding loan was 1.1% of our loan portfolio, and the top ten outstanding loans comprised 9.3% of our loan portfolio.

Loan Portfolio Overview

The following tables present information regarding the outstanding balances of our loans and other debt products (net of unrealized gain/(losses):

 

 

 

December 31,

 

 

 

2015

 

 

2014

 

 

2013

 

 

 

($ in thousands)

 

Composition Type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Senior secured cash flow

 

$

3,008,829

 

 

 

78.6

%

 

$

2,044,126

 

 

 

77.9

%

 

$

1,948,965

 

 

 

82.5

%

Senior secured asset-based

 

 

534,980

 

 

 

14.0

 

 

 

383,584

 

 

 

14.7

 

 

 

237,016

 

 

 

10.0

 

First mortgage

 

 

100,732

 

 

 

2.6

 

 

 

105,394

 

 

 

4.0

 

 

 

123,029

 

 

 

5.2

 

Other

 

 

185,856

 

 

 

4.8

 

 

 

90,333

 

 

 

3.4

 

 

 

55,027

 

 

 

2.3

 

Total

 

$

3,830,397

 

 

 

100.0

%

 

$

2,623,437

 

 

 

100.0

%

 

$

2,364,037

 

 

 

100.0

%

 

 

 

December 31,

 

 

 

2015

 

 

2014

 

 

2013

 

 

 

($ in thousands)

 

Composition by Lending Group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leveraged Finance

 

$

3,214,131

 

 

$

2,134,459

 

 

$

2,004,023

 

Business Credit

 

 

342,281

 

 

 

286,918

 

 

 

182,633

 

Real Estate

 

 

100,732

 

 

 

105,394

 

 

 

123,029

 

Equipment Finance

 

 

173,253

 

 

 

96,666

 

 

 

54,352

 

Total

 

$

3,830,397

 

 

$

2,623,437

 

 

$

2,364,037

 

9


 

 

 

December 31, 2015

 

 

 

Percentage of

Leveraged

Finance

 

 

Percentage of

Loan Portfolio

 

Leveraged Finance by Industry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Industrial/other

 

 

14.7

%

 

 

12.3

%

Other business services

 

 

13.5

 

 

11.3

 

Financial services

 

 

11.9

 

 

 

10.0

 

Auto/Transportation

 

 

8.8

 

 

7.4

 

Consumer services

 

 

6.4

 

 

5.4

 

Manufacturing—consumer non-durable

 

 

5.9

 

 

4.9

 

Manufacturing—consumer durable

 

 

4.5

 

 

3.8

 

Tech services

 

 

4.3

 

 

3.6

 

Marketing services

 

 

4.2

 

 

3.5

 

Cable/Telecom

 

 

4.1

 

 

3.4

 

Healthcare

 

 

4.0

 

 

3.4

 

Energy/Chemical Services

 

 

3.5

 

 

2.9

 

Restaurants

 

 

3.3

 

 

2.8

 

Environmental services

 

 

3.2

 

 

2.7

 

Retail

 

 

2.7

 

 

2.2

 

Printing/Publishing

 

 

2.2

 

 

1.9

 

Building materials

 

 

2.0

 

 

1.7

 

Entertainment/Leisure

 

 

0.7

 

 

0.6

 

Broadcasting

 

 

0.1

 

 

0.1

 

Total

 

 

100.0

%

 

 

83.9

%

 

 

 

December 31, 2015

 

 

 

Percentage of

Business Credit

 

 

Percentage of

Loan Portfolio

 

Business Credit by Industry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Business Services

 

 

33.6

%

 

 

3.2

%

Manufacturing—consumer non-durable

 

 

15.0

 

 

 

1.3

 

Industrial/other

 

 

11.6

 

 

 

1.0

 

Retail

 

 

9.9

 

 

 

0.9

 

Manufacturing—consumer durable

 

 

9.1

 

 

 

0.8

 

Auto/Transportation

 

 

7.5

 

 

 

0.7

 

Building materials

 

 

7.3

 

 

 

0.6

 

Cable/Telecom

 

 

1.6

 

 

 

0.1

 

Entertainment/Leisure

 

 

1.6

 

 

 

0.1

 

Healthcare

 

 

1.6

 

 

 

0.1

 

Printing/Publishing

 

 

1.0

 

 

 

0.1

 

Marketing services

 

 

0.2

 

 

 

0.1

 

Total

 

 

100.0

%

 

 

9.0

%

 

 

 

December 31, 2015

 

 

 

Percentage of

Real Estate

 

 

Percentage of

Loan Portfolio

 

Real Estate by Property Type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Office

 

 

73.2

%

 

 

1.9

%

Retail

 

26.8

 

 

0.7

 

Total

 

 

100.0

%

 

 

2.6

%

10


 

 

 

December 31, 2015

 

 

 

Percentage of

Equipment

Finance

 

 

Percentage of

Loan Portfolio

 

Equipment Finance by Industry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Industrial/other

 

 

30.6

%

 

 

1.5

%

Auto/Transportation

 

 

27.4

 

 

 

1.2

 

Printing/Publishing

 

 

12.1

 

 

 

0.5

 

Energy/Chemical Services

 

 

11.6

 

 

 

0.5

 

Other business services

 

 

5.1

 

 

 

0.2

 

Environmental services

 

 

5.0

 

 

 

0.2

 

Cable/Telecom

 

 

2.3

 

 

 

0.1

 

Financial services

 

 

1.9

 

 

 

0.1

 

Building materials

 

 

1.7

 

 

 

0.1

 

Healthcare

 

 

1.3

 

 

 

0.1

 

Restaurants

 

 

0.9

 

 

 

0.0

 

Marketing services

 

 

0.1

 

 

 

0.0

 

Retail

 

 

0.0

 

 

 

0.0

 

Manufacturing - consumer non-durable

 

 

0.0

 

 

 

0.0

 

Tech services

 

 

0.0

 

 

 

0.0

 

Total

 

 

100.0

%

 

 

4.5

%

 

The table below shows the final maturities of our loan portfolio as of December 31, 2015:

 

 

 

Due in One

Year or Less

 

 

Due in One to

Five Years

 

 

Due After

Five Years

 

 

Total

 

 

 

($ in thousands)

 

Senior secured cash flow

 

$

113,061

 

 

$

1,675,076

 

 

$

1,220,692

 

 

$

3,008,829

 

Senior secured asset-based

 

 

62,833

 

 

 

433,091

 

 

 

39,055

 

 

 

534,979

 

First mortgage

 

 

49,111

 

 

 

51,621

 

 

 

 

 

 

100,732

 

Other

 

 

25,406

 

 

 

33,729

 

 

 

126,720

 

 

 

185,857

 

Total

 

$

250,411

 

 

$

2,193,517

 

 

$

1,386,467

 

 

$

3,830,397

 

 

The table below shows the outstanding balances of fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans and other debt products as of December 31, 2015:

 

 

 

Fixed-

Rate(1)

 

 

Adjustable-

Rate(2)(3)

 

 

Total

 

 

 

($ in thousands)

 

Senior secured cash flow

 

 

294

 

 

 

3,008,535

 

 

 

3,008,829

 

Senior secured asset-based

 

 

161,453

 

 

 

373,527

 

 

 

534,980

 

First mortgage

 

 

 

 

 

100,732

 

 

 

100,732

 

Other

 

 

 

 

 

185,856

 

 

 

185,856

 

Total

 

 

161,747

 

 

 

3,668,650

 

 

 

3,830,397

 

 

(1)

As of December 31, 2015, we did not have any interest-rate protection products against the $161.7 million of fixed-rate loans and other debt products outstanding.

(2)

As of December 31, 2015, we had interest rate floors on $3.7 billion of adjustable-rate loans outstanding.

(3)

As of December 31, 2015, adjustable-rate loans include $111.3 million of non-accrual loans.

Recent Developments

NewStar Capital

On October 7, 2015, NewStar acquired Boston‑based FOC Partners, a boutique credit manager with $2.3 billion of assets under management, to expand its existing asset management capabilities.  The Company operates FOC Partners as NewStar Capital, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.  The assets and liabilities of FOC Partners were recorded at their estimated fair values

11


as of the date of the acquisition and resulted in goodwill of $17.9 million.  The acquisition was accounted for as a business combination and is consolidated in the Company’s financial statements effective October 7, 2015.  

Liquidity

On January 27, 2016 the Company issued the final $25 million of subordinated notes under the existing commitment from funds managed by GSO Capital and Franklin Square, bringing the outstanding to $300 million.

On January 26, 2016 and February 11, 2016, we entered into amendments to our credit facility with Wells Fargo Bank, National Association to fund leveraged finance loans. The amendment increased the commitment amount under the credit facility from $475.0 million to $565.0 million.  

On March 2, 2016, we closed a $348.0 million term debt securitization. The notes offered in the collateralized loan obligation (the “Notes”) were issued by NewStar Commercial Loan Funding 2016-1 LLC, a subsidiary of the Company (“NCLF”), and are backed by a diversified portfolio of commercial loans originated and serviced by the Company. We offered approximately $255.8 million of the asset-backed Notes, representing approximately 74% of the value of the collateral pool. The Company retained the Class D Notes, Class E Notes and all of the equity which totaled approximately $92.2 million, representing approximately 26% of the value of the collateral pool. Excluding the fixed rate A-2 Notes, the blended pricing of the variable rate Notes was LIBOR plus 2.78% at closing. The reinvestment period is expected to end on February 25, 2020 and the Notes are expected to mature on February 25, 2028.

Stock Repurchase Program

On October 7, 2015, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $5.0 million of the Company’s common stock from time to time on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions.  As of December 31, 2015, we had repurchased 7,167 shares of our common stock under this program at a weighted average price per share of $8.84.  On February 10, 2016, our Board of Directors authorized an increase to this stock repurchase program, of which approximately $4.9 million remained available for repurchase, to authorize the repurchase of up to an aggregate of $30.0 million of the Company’s common stock (inclusive of the amount remaining under the existing program). The timing and amount of any shares purchased under the repurchase program will be determined by our management based on its evaluation of market conditions and other factors. The repurchase program, as amended, will expire on December 31, 2016 unless extended by the Board and may be suspended or discontinued at any time without notice.

Competition

Our markets are highly competitive and are characterized by competitive factors that vary based upon product and geographic region. We currently compete with a large number of financial services companies, including:

 

·

specialty and commercial finance companies, including business development companies;

 

·

private investment funds and hedge funds;

 

·

national and regional banks;

 

·

investment banks; and

 

·

insurance companies.

The markets in which we operate are fragmented. We compete based on the following factors, which vary by industry, asset class and property types:

 

·

the interest rates and other pricing and/or loan or other debt product terms;

 

·

the quality of our people and their relationships;

 

·

our knowledge of our customers’ industries and business needs;

 

·

the flexibility of our product offering;

 

·

the responsiveness of our process; and

 

·

our focus on customer service.

12


Regulation

Some aspects of our operations are subject to supervision and regulation by state and federal governmental authorities and may be subject to various laws and regulations imposing various requirements and restrictions, which, among other things:

 

·

regulate credit granting activities, including establishing licensing requirements in some jurisdictions;

 

·

establish the maximum interest rates, finance charges and other fees we may charge our customers;

 

·

govern secured transactions;

 

·

require specified information disclosures to our customers;

 

·

set collection, foreclosure, repossession and claims handling customer procedures and other trade practices;

 

·

regulate our customers’ insurance coverage;

 

·

prohibit discrimination in the extension of credit and administration of our loans; and

 

·

regulate the use and reporting of information related to a customer’s credit experience.

Many of our competitors are subject to more extensive supervision and regulation. If we were to become subject to similar supervision or regulation in the future, it could impact our ability to conduct our business.

During 2012, we registered as an investment adviser under the Investment Adviser Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) as a result of SEC rules promulgated under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”). The Advisers Act imposes numerous obligations on registered investment advisers including fiduciary duties, disclosure obligations and record-keeping, operational and marketing requirements. Registered investment advisers are required by the SEC to adopt and implement written policies and procedures designed to prevent violations of the Advisers Act and to designate a chief compliance officer responsible for administering these policies and procedures. The SEC is authorized to institute proceedings and impose sanctions for violations for the Advisers Act, which may include fines, censure or the suspension or termination of an investment adviser’s registration.

Employees

As of December 31, 2015, we employed 122 people compared to 98 people at December 31, 2014, including 15 employees added through our FOC Partners acquisition. At December 31, 2015, our origination group had 35 employees, including 27 bankers who were either managing directors, directors or vice presidents, and eight associates and analysts. Our credit organization had 22 employees, including eight managing directors. We employed 50 people who were involved in operational or administrative roles.  NewStar Capital employs 15 employees, including 10 investment management professionals and five people with operational roles.  We believe our relations with our employees are good. We had 122 employees as of February 29, 2016.

Available Information

NewStar files Annual, Quarterly and Current Reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These documents are available free of charge at www.newstarfin.com shortly after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. In addition, NewStar’s codes of business conduct and ethics as well as the various charters governing the actions of certain of NewStar’s Committees of its Board of Directors, including its Audit Committee, Risk Policy Committee, Compensation Committee and its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, are available at www.newstarfin.com. References to our website are not intended to incorporate information on our website into this Annual Report by reference.

The public may read and copy any materials that we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers, including NewStar, that file electronically with the SEC, which is available at www.SEC.gov.

We will provide to any shareholder, upon request and without charge, copies of these documents (excluding any applicable exhibits unless specifically requested). Written requests should be directed to: Investor Relations, NewStar Financial, Inc., 500 Boylston St., Suite 1250, Boston, Massachusetts 02116.

 

 

13


Item 1A.

Risk Factors

The following are important risks and uncertainties we have identified that could materially affect our future results. You should consider them carefully when evaluating forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report and otherwise made by us or on our behalf because these contingencies could cause actual results and circumstances to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. The Company’s actual future results and trends may differ materially depending on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, the risks and uncertainties discussed below. If any of those contingencies actually occurs, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be negatively impacted and the trading price of our common stock could decline.

Risks Related to Our Loan Portfolio and Lending Activities

We may not recover all amounts contractually owed to us by our borrowers resulting in charge-offs, impairments and non-accruals, which may exceed our allowance for credit losses and could negatively impact our financial results and our ability to secure additional funding.

We charged off $3.4 million of loans during 2015, and expect to have additional credit losses in the future through the normal course of our lending operations. If we were to experience a material increase in credit losses exceeding our allowance for loan losses in the future, our assets, net income and operating results would be adversely impacted, which could also lead to challenges in securing additional financing.

As of December 31, 2015, we had delinquent loans of $27.2 million and had loans with an aggregate outstanding balance of $193.2 million classified as impaired. Of these impaired loans, loans with an aggregate outstanding balance of $111.3 million at December 31, 2015 were also on non-accrual status.

Like other commercial lenders, we experience delinquencies, impairments and non-accruals, which may indicate that our risk of credit loss for a particular loan has materially increased. When a loan is over 90 days past due or if management believes it is probable that we will be unable to collect principal and interest contractually owed to us, it is our policy to place the loan on non-accrual status and classify it as impaired. In certain circumstances, a loan can be classified as impaired, but continue to be performing as a result of a troubled debt restructuring.

As of December 31, 2015, we had an allowance for credit losses of $58.7 million, including specific reserves of $26.8 million. Management periodically reviews the appropriateness of our allowance for credit losses. However, the relatively limited history of our loans and leases makes it difficult to judge the expected credit performance of our loans and leases, as it may not be predictive of future losses. Our estimates and judgments with respect to the appropriateness of our allowance for credit losses may not be accurate, and the assumptions we use to make such estimates and judgments may not be accurate. Moreover, the estimates and judgments we make regarding workout loans are more sensitive to our assumptions regarding the appropriateness of our allowance for credit losses. Our allowance may not be adequate to cover credit or other losses related to our loans and leases as a result of unanticipated adverse changes in the economy or events adversely affecting specific customers, industries or markets. If we were to experience material credit losses related to our loans, such losses could adversely impact our ability to fund future loans and our business and, to the extent losses exceed our allowance for credit losses, our results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.

We may have hold positions that exceed our targets which may result in more volatility in the performance of our loan portfolio.

Our loans and other debt products, which may be part of larger credit facilities, typically range in size from $10 million to $50 million, although we generally limit the size of the loans that we retain to $25 million. In certain cases, however, our loans and debt products exceed $35 million. We also have the capability to arrange significantly larger transactions that we syndicate to other lenders, including funds that we manage. As a result of syndication and asset management activities, our exposure to certain loans and other debt products will exceed $35 million from time to time through “Loans held-for-sale,” which represent amounts in excess of our target hold for investment position. As of December 31, 2015, we had 27 loans that had an outstanding balance greater than $25 million. In each of these cases, we either sought to maximize our potential recovery of the outstanding principal by adding to our position through a workout or our hold size increased as a result of a portfolio purchase, syndication or through asset management activities. As of December 31, 2015, we had two impaired loans that had an outstanding balance greater than $30 million. If a borrower in one of these larger hold positions were to experience difficulty in adhering to the repayment terms of its loan with us, the negative impact to our results of operations and financial condition could be greater than a loan within our general size limits.

14


Disruptions in global financial markets have increased and may in the future cause additional charge-offs, impairments and non-accruals in our loan portfolio, which may exceed our allowance for credit losses and could negatively impact our financial results.

Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by the economic and business conditions in the markets in which we operate. Delinquencies, non-accruals and credit losses generally increase during economic slowdowns or recessions. Our Leveraged Finance, Business Credit and Equipment Finance groups primarily consist of loans and leases to medium-sized businesses that may be particularly susceptible to economic slowdowns or recessions and may be unable to make scheduled payments of interest or principal on their borrowings during these periods. In our Real Estate group, the recent economic slowdown and recession led to increases in payment defaults on the underlying commercial real estate. Therefore, to the extent that economic and business conditions are or become unfavorable, our non-performing assets are likely to remain elevated and the value of our loan portfolio is likely to decrease. Adverse economic conditions also may decrease the estimated value of the collateral, particularly real estate, securing some of our loans or other debt products. As a result, we may have certain commercial real estate loans that we have not classified as impaired with outstanding balances greater than the estimated value of the underlying collateral. Further or prolonged economic slowdowns or recessions could lead to financial losses in our loan portfolio and a decrease in our net interest income, net income and book value.

We make loans primarily to privately-owned, medium-sized companies that may carry more inherent risk and present an increased potential for loss than loans to larger companies.

Our loan portfolio consists primarily of loans to medium-sized, privately-owned companies, most of which do not publicly report their financial condition. Compared to larger, publicly-traded firms, loans to these types of companies may carry more inherent risk. The companies that we lend to generally have more limited access to capital and higher funding costs, may be in a weaker financial position, may need more capital to expand or compete, and may be unable to obtain financing from public capital markets or from traditional sources, such as commercial banks. Accordingly, loans and leases made to these types of customers involve higher risks than loans and leases made to companies that have larger businesses, greater financial resources or are otherwise able to access traditional credit sources. Numerous factors may make these types of companies more vulnerable to variations in results of operations, changes impacting their industry and changes in general market conditions. Companies in this market segment also face intense competition, including from companies with greater financial, technical, managerial and marketing resources. Any of these factors could impair a customer’s cash flow or result in other adverse events, such as bankruptcy, which could limit a customer’s ability to make scheduled payments on our loans and leases, and may lead to losses in our loan portfolio and a decrease in our net interest income, net income and book value.

Additionally, because most of our customers do not publicly report their financial condition, we are more susceptible to a customer’s fraud, which could cause us to suffer losses on our loan portfolio. The failure of a customer to accurately report its financial position, compliance with loan covenants or eligibility for additional borrowings could result in our providing loans, leases or other debt products that do not meet our underwriting criteria, defaults in loan and lease payments, the loss of some or all of the principal of a particular loan or loans, including, in the case of revolving loans, amounts we may not have advanced had we possessed complete and accurate information.

Our concentration of loans and other debt products within a particular industry or region could impair our financial condition or results of operations if that industry or region were to experience adverse changes to economic or business conditions.

We specialize in certain broad industry segments, such as business services, industrial, manufacturing and healthcare in which our bankers have experience and strong networks of proprietary deal sources and our credit personnel have significant underwriting expertise. As a result, our portfolio currently has and may develop other concentrations of risk exposure related to those industry segments. If industry segments in which we have a concentration of investments experience adverse economic or business conditions, our delinquencies, default rate and loan charge-offs in those segments may increase, which may negatively impact our financial condition and results of operations.

Our balloon and bullet transactions may involve a greater degree of risk than other types of loans.

As of December 31, 2015, balloon and bullet transactions represented 89% of the outstanding balance of our loan portfolio. Balloon and bullet loans involve a greater degree of risk than other types of transactions because they are structured to allow for either small (balloon) or no (bullet) principal payments over the term of the loan, requiring the borrower to make a large final payment upon the maturity of the loan. The ability of our customers to make this final payment upon the maturity of the loan typically depends upon their ability either to refinance the loan prior to maturity or to generate sufficient cash flow to repay the loan at maturity. The ability of a customer to accomplish any of these goals will be affected by many factors, including the availability of financing at acceptable rates to the customer, the financial condition of the customer, the marketability of the related collateral, the operating history of the related business, tax laws and the prevailing general economic conditions. Consequently, the customer may not have the ability to repay the

15


loan at maturity, and we could lose all or most of the principal of our loan. Given their relative size and limited resources and access to capital, our small and mid-sized customers may have difficulty in repaying or financing their balloon and bullet loans on a timely basis or at all.

Our cash flow transactions are not fully covered by the value of tangible assets or collateral of the customer and, consequently, if any of these transactions become non-performing, we could suffer a loss of some or all of our value in the assets.

Cash flow lending involves lending money to a customer based primarily on the expected cash flow, profitability and enterprise value of a customer, with the value of any tangible assets as secondary protection. In some cases, these loans may have more leverage than traditional bank debt. As of December 31, 2015, cash flow transactions comprised $3.0 billion, or 78.6%, of the outstanding balance of our loan portfolio. In the case of our senior cash flow loans, we generally take a lien on substantially all of a customer’s assets, but the value of those assets is typically substantially less than the amount of money we advance to the customer under a cash flow transaction. In addition, some of our cash flow loans may be viewed as stretch loans, meaning they may be at leverage multiples that exceed traditional accepted bank lending standards for senior cash flow loans. Thus, if a cash flow transaction becomes non-performing, our primary recourse to recover some or all of the principal of our loan or other debt product would be to force the sale of all or part of the company as a going concern. Additionally, we may obtain equity ownership in a borrower as a means to recover some or all of the principal of our loan. The risks inherent in cash flow lending include, among other things:

 

·

reduced use of or demand for the customer’s products or services and, thus, reduced cash flow of the customer to service the loan and other debt product as well as reduced value of the customer as a going concern;

 

·

inability of the customer to manage working capital, which could result in lower cash flow;

 

·

inaccurate or fraudulent reporting of our customer’s positions or financial statements;

 

·

economic downturns, political events, regulatory changes, litigation or acts of terrorism that affect the customer’s business, financial condition and prospects; and

 

·

our customer’s poor management of their business.

Additionally, many of our customers use the proceeds of our cash flow transactions to make acquisitions. Poorly executed or poorly conceived acquisitions can tax management, systems and the operations of the existing business, causing a decline in both the customer’s cash flow and the value of its business as a going concern. In addition, many acquisitions involve new management teams taking over control of a business. These new management teams may fail to execute at the same level as the former management team, which could reduce the cash flow of the customer available to service the loan or other debt product, as well as reduce the value of the customer as a going concern.

If interest rates rise, demand for our loans or other debt products may decrease and some of our existing customers may be unable to service interest on their loans or other debt products.

Most of our loans and other debt products bear interest at floating interest rates subject to floors. To the extent interest rates increase, monthly interest obligations owed by our customers to us will also increase. Demand for our loans or other debt products may decrease as interest rates rise or if interest rates are expected to rise in the future. In addition, if prevailing interest rates increase, some of our customers may not be able to make the increased interest payments or refinance their balloon and bullet transaction, resulting in payment defaults and loan impairments. Conversely if interest rates decline, our customers may refinance the loans they have with us at lower interest rates, or with others, leading to lower revenues.

Errors by, or dishonesty of, our employees in making credit decisions or in our loan and other debt product servicing activities could result in credit losses and harm our reputation.

We rely heavily on the performance and integrity of our employees in making our initial credit decisions with respect to our loans and other debt products and in servicing our loans and other debt products after they have closed. Because there is generally little or no publicly available information about our customers, we cannot independently confirm or verify the information our employees provide us for use in making our credit and funding decisions. Errors by our employees in assembling, analyzing or recording information concerning our customers could cause us to originate loans or fund subsequent advances that we would not otherwise originate or fund, which could result in loan losses. Losses could also arise if any of our employees were dishonest, particularly if they colluded with a customer to misrepresent the creditworthiness of a prospective customer or to provide inaccurate reports regarding the customer’s compliance with the covenants in its loan or other debt products agreement. If, based on an employee’s dishonesty, we made a loan or other debt product to a customer that was not creditworthy or failed to exercise our rights under a loan or other debt product agreement against a customer that was not in compliance with covenants in the agreement, we could lose some or all of the principal of the loan or other debt product. Fraud or dishonesty on the part of our employees could also damage our reputation which could harm our competitive position and adversely affect our business.

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We are not the sole lender or agent for most of our leveraged finance loans or other debt products. Consequently, we do not have absolute control over how these loans or other debt products are administered or have control over those loans. When we are not the sole lender or agent, we may be required to seek approvals from other lenders before we take actions to enforce our rights.

Our loan originations are comprised of a larger percentage of broadly syndicated deals. As such, a majority of our leveraged finance loan portfolio consists of loans and other debt products in which we are neither the sole lender, the agent for the lending group that receives payments under the loan or other debt product nor the agent that controls the underlying collateral. These loans may not include the same covenants that we generally require of our borrowers. For these loans and other debt products, we may not have direct access to the customer and, as a result, may not receive the same financial or operational information as we receive for loans or other debt products for which we are the agent. This may make it more difficult for us to track or rate these loans or other debt products. Additionally, we may be prohibited or otherwise restricted from taking actions to enforce the loan or other debt product or to foreclose upon the collateral securing the loan or other debt product without the agreement of other lenders holding a specified minimum aggregate percentage, generally a majority or two-thirds of the outstanding principal balance. It is possible that an agent for one of these loans or other debt products may choose not to take the same actions to enforce the loan or other debt product or to foreclose upon the collateral securing the loan that we would have taken had we been the agent for the loan or other debt product.

Our commitments to lend additional sums to customers may exceed our resources available to fund these commitments, adversely affecting our financial condition and results of operations.

Our contractual commitments to lend additional sums to our customers may exceed our resources available to fund these commitments. Some of our funding sources are only available to fund a portion of a loan and other funding sources may not be immediately available. Our customers’ ability to borrow these funds may be restricted until they are able to demonstrate, among other things, that they have sufficient collateral to secure the requested additional borrowings or that the borrowing conforms to specific uses or meets certain conditions. We may have miscalculated the likelihood that our customers will request additional borrowings in excess of our readily available funds. If our calculations prove incorrect, we will not have the funds to make these loan advances without obtaining additional financing. Our failure to satisfy our full contractual funding commitment to one or more of our customers could create breach of contract or other liabilities for us and damage our reputation in the marketplace, which could then adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Because there is no active trading market for most of the loans and other debt products in our loan portfolio, we might not be able to sell them at a favorable price or at all. The lack of active secondary markets for some of our investments may also create uncertainty as to the value of these investments.

We may seek to dispose of one or more of our loans and other debt products to obtain liquidity or to reduce or limit potential losses with respect to non-performing assets. There is no established trading market for most of our loans and other debt products. In addition, the fair value of other debt products that have lower levels of liquidity or are not publicly-traded may not be readily determinable and may fluctuate significantly on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Because these valuations are inherently uncertain, may fluctuate over short periods of time and may be based on estimates, our determinations of the fair value of our other debt products may differ materially from the values that we ultimately attain for these debt products or would be able to attain if we have to sell our other debt products. Our determinations regarding the fair value of these investments may be materially higher than the values that we ultimately realize upon their disposal. In addition, given the limited trading market for our loans and other debt products and the uncertainty as to their fair value at any point in time, if we seek to sell a loan or other debt product to obtain liquidity or reduce or limit losses, we may not be able to do so at a favorable price or at all.

We selectively underwrite transactions that we may be unable to syndicate or sell to our credit funds.

On a selective basis, we commit to underwrite transactions that are significantly larger than our internal hold targets and we then seek to syndicate amounts in excess of our target to other lenders or plan to season the loan on our balance sheet to satisfy tax requirements and then sell the excess amounts to our credit funds. If we are unable to syndicate or sell these commitments, we may have to sell the additional exposure to third parties on unfavorable terms, which could adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations. In addition, if we must hold a larger portion of a transaction than we would like, we may not be able to complete other transactions and our loan portfolio may become more concentrated, which could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We provide second lien, subordinated / mezzanine loans, other debt products and equity-linked products that may rank junior to rights of other lenders, representing a higher risk of loss than our other loans and debt products in which we have a first priority position.

Although our loans are usually senior in right of payment, we also provide second lien, subordinated / mezzanine loans, other debt products and equity-linked products, which are often junior in right of payment to obligations to customers’ senior secured

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lenders and contain either junior or no collateral rights. As a result of their junior nature, we may be limited in our ability to enforce our rights to collect principal and interest on these loans and other debt products or to recover any of their outstanding balance through a foreclosure of collateral. For example, typically we are not contractually entitled to receive payments of principal on a junior loan or other debt product until the senior loan or other debt product is paid in full, and we may only receive interest payments on a second lien or subordinated / mezzanine asset if the customer is not in default under its senior secured loan. In many instances, we are also prohibited from foreclosing on collateral securing a second lien, subordinated / mezzanine loan or other debt product until the senior loan is paid in full. Moreover, any amounts that we might realize as a result of our collection efforts or in connection with a bankruptcy or insolvency proceeding involving a customer under a second lien, subordinated / mezzanine loan or other debt product must generally be turned over to the senior secured lender until the senior secured lender has realized the full value of its own claims. These restrictions may materially and adversely affect our ability to recover the principal of any non-performing senior subordinate, second lien, subordinated / mezzanine loans and other debt product. In addition, on occasion we provide senior loans or other debt products that are contractually subordinated to one or more senior secured loans for the customer. In those cases we may have a first lien security interest, but one or more creditors have payment priority over us. As of December 31, 2015, our second lien and, subordinated/mezzanine loans totaled $185.9 million.

Risks Related to Our Funding and Leverage

Our ability to grow our business depends on our ability to obtain external financing. If our lenders terminate any of our credit facilities or if we default on our credit facilities, we may not be able to continue to fund our business.

We require a substantial amount of cash to provide new loans and other debt products and to fund our obligations to existing customers. In the past, we have obtained the cash required for our operations through the issuance of equity interests and by borrowing money through credit facilities, term debt securitizations and repurchase agreements. We may not be able to continue to access these or other sources of funds.

 

During 2015, we completed term debt securitizations of $496.1 million and $397.8 million and a $100.1 million asset-backed securitization, issued $380 million of senior notes, issued $75 million of subordinated notes, added a new $175.0 million credit facility to fund leveraged finance loans which was subsequently increased to $250.0 million.  We also increased the commitment amount of one of our credit facilities to fund leveraged finance loans from $275.0 million to $475.0 million, and increased the commitment amounts of two of our credit facilities to fund asset-based loans from $125.0 million to $175.0 million and from $110.0 million to $165.0 million. A portion of the net proceeds from our issuance of senior notes was used to repay our corporate credit facility with Fortress Credit Corp.    

Our credit facilities contain customary representations and warranties, covenants, conditions, events of default and termination events that if breached, not satisfied or triggered, could result in termination of the facility. These events of default and termination events include, but are not limited to, failure to service debt obligations, failure to meet liquidity covenants and tangible net worth covenants, and failure to remain within prescribed facility portfolio delinquency and charge-off levels. Further, all cash flow generated by our loans and other debt products subject to a particular facility would go to pay down our borrowings thereunder rather than to us if we are in default. Additionally, if the facility were terminated due to our breach, noncompliance or default, our lenders could liquidate or sell all or a portion of our loans and other debt products held in that facility. Also, if we trigger a default or there is a termination event under one facility and that default or termination results in a payment default or in the acceleration of that facility’s debt, it may trigger a default or termination event under our other facilities that have cross-acceleration or payment cross-default provisions. Consequently, if one or more of these facilities were to terminate prior to its expected maturity date, our liquidity position would be materially adversely affected, and we may not be able to satisfy our undrawn commitment balances, originate new loans or other debt products or continue to fund our operations. Even if we are able to refinance our debt, we may not be able to do so on favorable terms. If we are not able to obtain additional funding on favorable terms or at all, our ability to grow our business will be impaired.

Our deferred financing fees amortize over the contractual life of credit facilities and over the weighted average expected life of our term debt securitizations.

We have recorded deferred financing fees associated with most of our financing facilities. These deferred financing fees amortize over the contractual life of our credit facilities and over the weighted average expected life of our term debt securitizations. If a credit facility were to terminate before its contractual maturity date or if a term debt securitization were to terminate before its weighted average expected life, we would be required to accelerate amortization of the remaining balance of the deferred financing fees which could have a negative impact our results of operations and financial condition.

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Our lenders and noteholders could terminate us as servicer of our loans, which would adversely affect our ability to manage our loan portfolio and reduce our net interest income.

Upon the occurrence of specified servicer termination events, our lenders under our credit facilities and the holders of the notes issued in our term debt securitizations may elect to terminate our role as servicer of the loans and other debt products under the applicable facility and appoint a successor servicer. These servicer termination events include, but are not limited to, maintenance of certain financial covenants and the loss of certain key members of our senior management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. We do not maintain key man life insurance on any of our senior management nor have we taken any other precautions to offset the financial loss we could incur as a result of any of their departures, however, we do have employment contracts with our senior management. Certain of our credit facilities include cure rights which would enable us to correct the event of default and maintain our status as servicer.

If we are terminated as servicer, we will no longer receive our servicing fee, but we will continue to receive the excess interest rate spread as long as the term debt securitization does not need to trap the excess spread as a result of defaulted loan collateral. In addition, because any successor servicer may not be able to service our loan portfolio according to our standards, any transfer of servicing to a successor servicer could result in reduced or delayed collections, delays in processing payments and information regarding the loans and other debt products and a failure to meet all of the servicing procedures required by the applicable servicing agreement. Consequently, the performance of our loans and other debt products could be adversely affected and our income generated from those loans and other debt products significantly reduced.

Our liquidity position could be adversely affected if we were unable to complete additional term debt securitizations in the future, or if the reinvestment periods in our term debt securitizations terminate early, which could create a material adverse affect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We have completed ten term debt securitizations to fund our loans and other debt products, all of which we accounted for on our balance sheet, through which we issued $2.3 billion of rated notes. Seven of these balance sheet term debt securitizations were outstanding as of December 31, 2015. Our term debt securitizations consist of asset securitization transactions in which we transfer loans and other debt products to a trust that aggregates our loans and, in turn, sells notes, collateralized by the trust’s assets, to institutional investors. The notes issued by the trusts have been rated by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. At December 31, 2015, the ratings range from AAA to B by Standard & Poor’s, Inc. and Fitch Ratings, Inc. and Aaa to B2 by Moody’s Investors Service, Inc., depending on the class of notes.

We intend to complete additional term debt securitizations in the future. Several factors will affect demand for, and our ability to complete additional term debt securitizations, including:

 

·

disruptions in the capital markets generally, and the asset-backed securities market in particular;

 

·

disruptions in the credit quality and performance of our loan portfolio, particularly that portion which has been previously securitized and serves as collateral for existing term debt securitizations;

 

·

regulatory considerations;

 

·

changes in rating agency methodology;

 

·

our ability to service our loan portfolio and that ability continuing to be perceived as adequate to make the issued securities attractive to investors; and

 

·

any material downgrading or withdrawal of ratings given to securities previously issued in our term debt securitizations.

If we are unable to complete additional term debt securitizations, our ability to obtain the capital needed for us to continue to operate and grow our business would be adversely affected. In addition, our credit facilities are only intended to provide short-term financing for our transactions. If we are unable to finance our transactions over the longer term through our term debt securitizations, our credit facilities may not be renewed. Moreover, our credit facilities typically carry a higher interest rate than our term debt securitizations. Accordingly, our inability to complete additional term debt securitizations in the future could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Market Conditions.”

If a specified default event occurred in a term debt securitization, the reinvestment period would be terminated. This could have an adverse effect on our ability to fund new assets.

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The cash flows we receive from the interests we retain in our term debt securitizations could be delayed or reduced due to the requirements of the term debt securitization.

We have retained 100% of the junior-most interests issued in our balance sheet term debt securitizations, totaling $416.9 million in principal amount, issued in each of our seven outstanding balance sheet term debt securitizations as of December 31, 2015. Also, as of December 31, 2015, we have repurchased $6.2 million of outstanding notes of our balance sheet term debt securitizations that were outstanding as of December 31, 2015. The notes issued in the term debt securitizations that we did not retain are senior to the junior-most interests we did retain. Our receipt of future cash flows on the junior-most interests is governed by provisions that control the distribution of cash flows from the loans and other debt products included in our term debt securitizations. On a quarterly basis, interest cash flows from the loans and other debt products must first be used to pay the interest on the senior notes and expenses of the term debt securitization. Any funds remaining after the payment of these amounts are distributed to us.

Several factors may influence the timing and amount of the cash flows we receive from loans and other debt products included in our term debt securitizations, including:

 

·

if any loan or other debt product included in a term debt securitization becomes (a) delinquent for a specified period of time as outlined in the indenture, (b) is classified as a non-performing asset, or (c) is charged off, all funds, after paying expenses and interest to the senior notes, go to a reserve account which then pays down an amount of senior notes equal to the amount of the delinquent loan or other debt product or if an overcollateralization test is present, is diverted, and used to de-lever the securitization to bring the ratio back into compliance . Except for specified senior management fees, we will not receive any distributions from funds during this period; and

 

·

if other specified events occur to the trusts, for example an event of default, our cash flows would be used to reduce the outstanding balance of the senior notes and would not be available to us until the full principal balance of the senior notes had been repaid.

We have obtained a significant portion of our debt financing through a limited number of financial institutions. This concentration of funding sources exposes us to funding risks.

We have obtained our credit facility financing from a limited number of financial institutions. Our reliance on the underwriters of our debt financing and their affiliates for a significant amount of our funding exposes us to funding risks. If these participating lenders decided to terminate our credit facilities, we would need to establish new lending relationships to satisfy our funding needs.

We bear the risk of loss for our total return swap and other off balance sheet obligations.

The term “off-balance sheet risk” refers to an unrecorded potential liability that, even though it does not appear on our balance sheet, may result in future obligation or loss.  We are party to financial instruments with off balance sheet risk in the normal course of business to meet the financing needs of our borrowers, including unfunded commitments and standby letters of credit.  In addition, we enter into derivative instruments and hedging activities from time to time that are not on our balance that also subject us to off-balance sheet risk.

As of December 31, 2015, for example, we had approximately $161.4 million in loans, based on book value, held off balance sheet in a total return swap, which constituted approximately 4% of our assets.  These off-balance loans are valued on a mark-to-market basis, using the midpoint of the bid-ask spread derived from Markit Loan Pricing Service, and are subject period over period fluctuations.  At December 31, 2015, the fair value of the underlying loan portfolio was $155.6 million, resulting in the swap being in an unrealized loss position of $5.8 million compared to an unrealized loss position of $0.9 million at December 31, 2014.

Because certain of our loans are subject to period over period fluctuations due to mark-to-market valuations of the underlying loans, we may be subject to material fluctuations in our consolidated results of operations due to unrealized gains or losses.   In addition, unrealized losses in our off-balance sheet obligations may be realized if we are in a loss position at the time of sale or other disposition.

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Risks Related to Our Operations and Financial Results

Our quarterly net interest income and results of operations are difficult to forecast and may fluctuate substantially.

Our quarterly net interest income and results of operations are difficult to forecast. We have experienced and may continue to experience substantial fluctuations in net interest income and results of operations from quarter to quarter. You should not rely on our results of operations in any prior reporting period to be indicative of our performance in future reporting periods. Many different factors could cause our results of operations to vary from quarter to quarter, including:

 

·

the success of our origination activities;

 

·

pre-payments on our loan portfolio;

 

·

credit losses on recent transaction and legacy workouts

 

·

default rates;

 

·

our ability to enter into financing arrangements;

 

·

competition;

 

·

seasonal fluctuations in our business, including the timing of transactions;

 

·

costs of compliance with regulatory requirements;

 

·

private equity activity;

 

·

the timing and affect of any future acquisitions;

 

·

personnel changes;

 

·

changes in accounting rules;

 

·

changes in allowance for credit losses methodology;

 

·

changes in prevailing interest rates;

 

·

general changes to the U.S. and global economies

 

·

political conditions or events; and

 

·

LIBOR floors.

We base our current and future operating expense levels and our investment plans on estimates of future net interest income, transaction activity and rate of growth. The majority of our loans have LIBOR floors; until the 90 day LIBOR exceeds the level of these floors our net interest margin will be negatively impacted during the early phase of a rising interest rate environment.  We expect that our expenses will increase in the future, and we may not be able to adjust our spending quickly enough if our net interest income falls short of our expectations. Any shortfalls in our net interest income or in our expected growth rates could result in decreases in our stock price.

Our business is highly dependent on key personnel.

Our future success depends to a significant extent on the continued services of our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Investment Officer as well as other key personnel. Our employment agreements with each of these officers will terminate in October of 2016. Although we intend to enter into new employment agreements with these officers, if we were to lose the services of any of these executives for any reason, including voluntary resignation or retirement, we may not be able to replace them with someone of equal skill or ability and our business may be adversely affected. Moreover, we may not function well without the continued services of these executives.

We may not be able to attract and retain the highly skilled employees we need to support our business.

Our ability to originate and underwrite loans and other debt products is dependent on the experience and expertise of our employees. In order to grow our business, we must attract and retain qualified personnel, especially origination and credit personnel who have relationships with referral sources and an understanding of middle-market businesses and the industries in which our borrowers operate. Many of the financial institutions with which we compete for experienced personnel may be able to offer more attractive terms of employment. If any of our key origination personnel leave, our new loan and other debt product volume from their business contacts may decline or cease, regardless of the terms of our loan and other debt product offerings or our level of service. In addition, we invest significant time and expense in training our employees, which increases their value to competitors who may seek

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to recruit them and increases the costs of retaining them. As competition for qualified employees grows, our cost of labor could increase, which could adversely impact our results of operations.

Maintenance of our Investment Company Act exemption imposes limits on our operations.

We intend to conduct our operations so that we are not required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, which we refer to as the Investment Company Act. Section 3(a)(1)(C) of the Investment Company Act defines as an investment company any issuer that is engaged or proposes to engage in the business of investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading in securities and owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40.0% of the value of the issuer’s total assets (exclusive of government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Excluded from the term “investment securities” are, among other things, securities issued by majority-owned subsidiaries that are not themselves investment companies and are not relying on the exception from the definition of investment company in Section 3(c)(1) or Section 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act.

We expect that many of our majority-owned subsidiaries, including those which we have created (or may in the future create) in connection with our term debt securitizations, will rely on exceptions and exemptions from the Investment Company Act available to certain structured finance companies and that our interests in those subsidiaries will not constitute “investment securities” for purposes of the Investment Company Act. Because these exceptions and exemptions may, among other things, limit the types of assets these subsidiaries may purchase or counterparties with which we may deal, we must monitor each subsidiary’s compliance with its applicable exception or exemption.

We must also monitor our loan portfolio to ensure that the value of the investment securities we hold does not exceed 40.0% of our total assets (exclusive of government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. If the combined value of the investment securities issued by our subsidiaries that are investment companies or that must rely on the exceptions provided by Section 3(c)(1) or Section 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act rather than another exception or exemption, together with any other investment securities we may own, exceeds 40.0% of our total assets on an unconsolidated basis, we may be deemed to be an investment company. Because we believe that the interests we hold in our subsidiaries generally will not be investment securities, we do not expect to own nor do we propose to acquire investment securities in excess of 40.0% of the value of our total assets on an unconsolidated basis. However, the SEC is considering proposing amendments to Rule 3a-7 under the Investment Company Act and issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in August 2011 (Release No. IC-29779) to solicit public comment on the treatment of asset-backed issuers under the Investment Company Act. Under consideration are changes that could amend or eliminate the provision upon which we currently rely to ensure that our interests in certain of our subsidiaries do not constitute investment securities for purposes of the Investment Company Act. If adopted, such changes could, among other things, require us to register as an investment company or take other actions to permit us to continue to be excluded from the definition of investment company. These actions could involve substantial changes to our operations and organizational structure.

We monitor for compliance with the Investment Company Act on an ongoing basis and may be compelled to take or refrain from taking actions, to acquire additional income or loss generating assets or to forgo opportunities that might otherwise be beneficial or advisable, including, but not limited to selling assets that are considered to be investment securities or foregoing sale of assets which are not investment securities, in order to ensure that we (or a subsidiary) may continue to rely on the applicable exceptions or exemptions. These limitations on our freedom of action could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to maintain an exemption, exception or other exclusion from registration as an investment company, we could, among other things, be required to substantially change the manner in which we conduct our operations either to avoid being required to register as an investment company or to register as an investment company. If we were required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we would become subject to substantial regulation with respect to, among other things, our capital structure (including our ability to use leverage), management, operations, transactions with affiliated persons (as defined in the Investment Company Act), portfolio composition, including restrictions with respect to diversification and industry concentration, and our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. If we did not register despite being required to do so, criminal and civil actions could be brought against us, our contracts would be unenforceable unless a court was to require enforcement, and a court could appoint a receiver to take control of us and liquidate our business.  In addition, we may be required to prepay certain of our indebtedness if we were required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.

The asset management business in extremely competitive, which could materially adversely impact us.

The asset management business is very competitive; we face competition in the pursuit of capital for our funds and in sourcing attractive yielding assets for our managed funds.  It is possible that we may experience difficulty in raising capital as funds compete for a limited number of qualified investors.  Economic downturns, poor returns in alternative assets and increased volatility may

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temporarily stop new fund investments, resulting in a smaller pool of available capital.  This may cause investors to seek or negotiate reduced fee structures or other modifications to our fund structures before making an investment.

A decline in the growth of our funds or an increase in the amount of transaction and advisory fees we share with our fund investors could result in a reduction in our management fee revenue.

Many factors could cause a decline in the growth of our asset management business, including the ability of our investment professionals to identify attractive investment opportunities, decreased availability of capital on attractive terms, increased regulatory of legal oversight, or a turndown in the U.S. or global economy any of which may significantly limit our ability to grow our asset management business and generate fee revenue.

Full realization of asset management fee income is dependent upon the performance of underlying funds.

We earn both base management fees and incentive fees on our managed funds.  While the base fee is calculated as a percentage of assets managed, the incentive fees are based upon the performance of the individual funds.  Economic conditions along with other factors beyond our control may impact our ability to earn these incentive fees.  

Risks Related to Our Operating and Trading History

We have incurred losses in the past and may not achieve profitability in future periods.

For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, we recorded net income of $16.9 million, $10.6 million, and $24.6 million, respectively. We may not, however, be profitable in future periods for a variety of reasons. If we are unable to achieve, maintain and increase our profitability in the future, the market value of our common stock could decline.

We are in a highly competitive business and may not be able to compete effectively, which could impact our profitability.

The commercial lending industry is highly competitive and includes a number of competitors who provide similar types of loans to our target customers. Our principal competitors include a variety of:

 

·

specialty and commercial finance companies, including business development companies and real estate investment trusts;

 

·

private investment funds and hedge funds;

 

·

national and regional banks;

 

·

investment banks; and

 

·

insurance companies.

Some of our competitors offer a broader range of financial, lending and banking services than we do and can leverage their existing customer relationships to offer and sell services that compete directly with our products and services. In addition, some of our competitors have greater financial, technical, marketing, origination and other resources than we do. They may also have greater access to capital than we do and at a lower cost than is available to us. For example, if national and regional banks or other large competitors seek to expand within or enter our target markets, they may provide loans at lower interest rates to gain market share, which could force us to lower our rates and result in decreased returns. As a result of competition, we may not be able to attract new customers, retain existing customers or sustain the rate of growth that we have experienced to date, and our ability to expand our loan portfolio and grow future revenue may decline. If our existing clients choose to use competing sources of credit to refinance their debt, our loan portfolio could be adversely affected.

We are subject to regulation, which limits our activities and exposes us to additional fines and penalties, and any changes in such regulations could affect our business and our profitability.

We are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations that govern non-depository commercial lenders and businesses generally. In response to SEC rules promulgated under the Dodd-Frank Act, we have registered with the SEC as an investment adviser and conformed our activities to regulation under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Each of the regulatory bodies with jurisdiction over us has regulatory powers dealing with many aspects of financial services, including the authority to grant, and, in specific circumstances to cancel, permissions to carry on particular businesses. Our failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations could result in fines, censure, suspensions of personnel or other sanctions, including revocation of any registration that we may be required to hold. Even if a sanction imposed against us or our personnel is small in monetary amount, the adverse publicity arising from the imposition of sanctions against us by regulators could harm our reputation and impair our ability to retain clients and develop new client relationships, which may reduce our revenues.

23


Furthermore, the regulatory environment in which we operate is subject to further modifications and regulation. Any changes in such laws or regulations could affect our business and profitability. In addition, if we expand our business into areas or jurisdictions that are subject to, or have adopted, more stringent laws and regulations than those that are currently applicable to us and our business, we may have to incur significant additional expense or restrict our operations in order to comply, which could adversely impact our business, results of operations or prospects.

Our common stock may continue to have a volatile public trading price.

Historically, the market price of our common stock has been highly volatile, and the market for our common stock has experienced significant price and volume fluctuations, some of which are unrelated to our company’s operating performance. Since our common stock began trading publicly on December 14, 2006, the trading price of our stock has fluctuated from a high of $20.85 to a low of $0.61. It is likely that the market price of our common stock will continue to fluctuate in the future. Factors which may have a significant adverse effect on our common stock’s market price include:

 

·

the rate of charge-offs, impairments and non-accruals in our loan portfolio;

 

·

fluctuations in interest rates and the actual or perceived impact of these rates on our current customers and future prospects;

 

·

changes to the regulatory environment in which we operate;

 

·

our ability to raise additional capital and the terms on which we can secure such capital;

 

·

general market and economic conditions; and

 

·

quarterly fluctuations in our revenues and other financial results.

The reported average daily trading volume of our common stock for the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2015 was approximately 39,215 shares, however our trading volume has exceeded 1,000,000 shares on several occasions since our initial public offering. Such a low average trading volume may impact our shareholders’ ability to buy and sell shares of our common stock.

 

 

Item 1B.

Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

 

 

Item 2.

Properties

Our headquarters is located at 500 Boylston Street, Suite 1250, Boston, Massachusetts 02116, where we lease 18,628 square feet of office space under a lease that is scheduled to terminate on February 28, 2020. We also maintain additional leased offices in Boston, Massachusetts, Darien, Connecticut, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Dallas, Texas, New York, New York, Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California. We believe our office facilities are suitable and adequate for us to conduct our business.

 

 

Item 3.

Legal Proceedings

The Company from time to time is involved in litigation in the ordinary course of business. We are not currently subject to any material pending legal proceedings.

 

 

Item 4.

Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

 

 

24


PART II

Item 5.

Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

As of February 29, 2016, there were approximately 79 stockholders of record. The number of stockholders does not include individuals or entities who beneficially own shares but whose shares are held of record by a broker or clearing agency, but does include each such broker or clearing agency as one stockholder. American Stock Transfer & Trust Company serves as transfer agent for our shares of common stock.

Our common stock has traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “NEWS” since December 14, 2006. The quarterly range of the high and low sales price for our common stock during 2015 and 2014 is presented below:

 

 

 

2015

 

 

2014

 

 

 

High

 

 

Low

 

 

High

 

 

Low

 

Quarter ended:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 31

 

$

10.99

 

 

$

7.85

 

 

$

13.98

 

 

$

9.73

 

September 30

 

12.55

 

 

8.12

 

 

 

14.35

 

 

 

10.25

 

June 30

 

12.86

 

 

9.38

 

 

 

14.35

 

 

 

10.20

 

March 31

 

12.88

 

 

9.43

 

 

 

17.95

 

 

 

13.78

 

 

On February 29, 2016, the last reported closing price of our common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market was $6.86 per share.

The following graph shows a comparison from December 31, 2010 through December 31, 2015 of cumulative total return for our common stock, the S&P 500 Index and the S&P Financials Index. The graph assumes a $100 investment at the closing price on December 31, 2010. Such returns are based on historical results and are not intended to suggest future performance. The following information in this Item 5 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is not deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, except to the extent we specifically incorporate it by reference into such a filing.

 

 

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock. We have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock. We intend to retain available funds and any future earnings to reduce debt and fund the development and growth of our business.

25


Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The following table sets forth the repurchases of our Common Stock that we made for the three-month period ending on December 31, 2015:

 

Period

 

Total

Number  of

Shares

Purchased (1)(2)

 

 

Average

Price Paid

Per Share (1)(2)

 

 

Total Number

of Shares

Purchased

as Part of

Publicly

Announced

Plans or

Programs

 

 

Approximate

Dollar Value  of

Shares that May

Yet Be

Purchased

Under the Plans

or Programs

 

October 1-31, 2015

 

 

7,421

 

 

 

8.86

 

 

 

7,167

 

 

$

4,936,635

 

November 1-30, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4,936,635

 

December 1-31, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4,936,635

 

Total: Three months ended December 31, 2015

 

 

7,421

 

 

8.86

 

 

 

7,167

 

 

 

4,936,635

 

 

(1)

The Company repurchased 7,167 shares during the period pursuant to the share repurchase program that we announced on October 7, 2015 (the “October Repurchase Program”). Certain of these shares were repurchased on the open market pursuant to a trading plan under Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act.

(2)

Includes an aggregate of 254 shares of Common Stock acquired from individuals in order to satisfy tax withholding requirements in connection with the vesting of restricted stock awards under equity compensation plans during the fourth quarter.

26


Item 6.

Selected Financial Data

Selected consolidated financial and other data for the periods and at the dates indicated and should be read in conjunction with the consolidated audited financial statements, related notes and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included herein.

 

 

 

Years Ended December 31,

 

 

 

2015

 

 

2014

 

 

2013

 

 

2012

 

 

2011

 

 

 

($ in thousands, except for share and per share data)

 

Statement of Operations Data:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interest income

 

$

201,785

 

 

$

136,171

 

 

$

127,684

 

 

$

123,945

 

 

$

115,680

 

Interest expense

 

 

120,986

 

 

 

57,775

 

 

 

42,971

 

 

 

35,591

 

 

 

34,953

 

Net interest income

 

 

80,799

 

 

 

78,396

 

 

 

84,713

 

 

 

88,354

 

 

 

80,727

 

Provision for credit losses

 

 

18,387

 

 

 

27,108

 

 

 

9,738

 

 

 

12,651

 

 

 

17,312

 

Net interest income after provision for credit losses

 

 

62,412

 

 

 

51,288

 

 

 

74,975

 

 

 

75,703

 

 

 

63,415

 

Fee income

 

 

13,508

 

 

 

2,467

 

 

 

3,670

 

 

 

4,619

 

 

 

3,070

 

Asset management income

 

 

6,661

 

 

 

1,054

 

 

 

2,482

 

 

 

2,984

 

 

 

2,635

 

(Loss) gain on derivatives, net

 

 

(29

)

 

 

(39

)

 

 

(143

)

 

 

(315

)

 

 

242

 

Gain (loss) on sale of loans, net

 

 

467

 

 

 

(230

)

 

 

72

 

 

 

335

 

 

 

128

 

Other (loss) income

 

 

(2,250

)

 

 

7,964

 

 

 

7,431

 

 

 

3,948

 

 

 

(2,008

)

Total non-interest income

 

 

18,357

 

 

 

11,216

 

 

 

13,512

 

 

 

11,571

 

 

 

4,067

 

Compensation and benefits

 

 

35,909

 

 

 

30,383

 

 

 

32,672

 

 

 

31,139

 

 

 

30,144

 

General and administrative expenses

 

 

16,019

 

 

 

15,133

 

 

 

16,726

 

 

 

15,158

 

 

 

13,787

 

Total operating expenses

 

 

51,928

 

 

 

45,516

 

 

 

49,398

 

 

 

46,297

 

 

 

43,931

 

Operating income before income taxes

 

 

28,841

 

 

 

16,988

 

 

 

39,089

 

 

 

40,977

 

 

 

23,551

 

Results of Consolidated VIE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interest income

 

 

 

 

 

5,268

 

 

 

5,321

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interest expense—credit facilities

 

 

 

 

 

2,865

 

 

 

1,879

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interest expense—Fund membership interest

 

 

 

 

 

1,292

 

 

 

1,353

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other income

 

 

 

 

 

229

 

 

 

51

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operating expenses

 

 

 

 

 

249

 

 

 

78

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net results from consolidated VIE

 

 

 

 

 

1,091

 

 

 

2,062

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Income before income taxes

 

 

28,841

 

 

 

18,079

 

 

 

41,151

 

 

 

40,977

 

 

 

23,551

 

Income tax expense

 

 

11,951

 

 

 

7,485

 

 

 

16,556

 

 

 

17,000

 

 

 

9,403

 

Net income attributable to NewStar Financial, Inc. common stockholders

 

$

16,890

 

 

$

10,594

 

 

$

24,595

 

 

$

23,977

 

 

$

14,148

 

Earnings per share:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic

 

$

0.37

 

 

$

0.22

 

 

$

0.51

 

 

$

0.51