WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. (WHF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. I am Stuart Aronson, the Chief Executive Officer and Director of WhiteHorse Finance. As presiding officer, I hereby call to order and welcome you to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. On behalf of management, I would like to thank all stockholders who are present virtually today for your attendance and interest. I also want to thank the many stockholders who sent in proxies. I would now like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the other members of the Board of Directors of the company who are in attendance at the meeting. They are John Bolduc, Chairman of the company's Board of Directors and Executive Manager Director of H.I.G. Capital; Kevin Burke, Senior adviser to Churchill Asset Management and Consultant to Encina Private Credit; Jay Carvel, Managing Director at an investment adviser affiliated with H.I.G. Capital; Rick Frier, Director of Trivium Corporation; Rick Puckett, Director of Pet Retail Brands, Inc., Driven Brands, Inc. and SPX Corporation; and G. Stacy Smith, Co-Founder and partner of Trinity Investment Group. Also present today are the company's Chief Financial Officer, Joyson Thomas; the company's Chief Compliance Officer, Marco Collazos; who is serving as Secretary of the meeting; the company's outside Council, Thomas Friedmann; and the company's outside Council, Michael Darby. The directors of the company and I will be available today to talk to you about the financial performance of the company in the past year and answer any questions you may have. In addition, present today from Crowe LLP, the company's independent audit firm, is Timothy Boehmer, who will be available at a later point in the meeting to respond to any questions you may have regarding the company's financial statements. The company has appointed Peter Descovich, a representative of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. to act as the inspector of election. A copy of the inspector's oath of office will be filed with and made a part of the minutes of the meeting. We will now begin the meeting. A list of stockholders of record who are entitled to vote at the meeting, which has been prepared in accordance with Delaware corporate law and the company's bylaws, is available on this virtual meeting website. Other key documents such as the notice of meeting, the proxy statement, the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, and the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the 3 months ended March 31, 2020, are also available on the company's website at www.whitehorsefinance.com. An affidavit of distribution of stockholders of record is also available and will be filed with and made part of the minutes of the meeting. If you have any questions or comments during the meeting, please submit them via our virtual stockholders' meeting website. For purposes of voting in the meeting, proxies have been solicited by the Board of Directors of the company. And the shares owned by these stockholders may be voted and represented at the meeting pursuant to these proxies. Mr. Descovich has informed me that we have a quorum present today for the conduct of business. We will now move to the actual business of the meeting. I now declare the meeting duly convened, properly organized and competent to transact business. I will now open the floor to the consideration of the two items of business described in the notice of the meeting. The first order of business is the proposal to elect 3 Class II directors to hold office subject to the provisions of the company's bylaws for a term expiring at the 2023 annual meeting of stockholders or until his successor is duly elected and qualifies. The persons recommended by the company's nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and nominated by the company's Board of Directors are Rick P. Frier, myself, Stuart Aronson; and Jay Carvel. The second order of business is the proposal to ratify the selection of Crowe LLP. as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. Is there any discussion or are there any comments or questions on the two proposals, which were set forth in the company's proxy statement? Hearing none, I'll continue. Those of you who have not submitted a proxy may vote. And those of you who have submitted a proxy, but would like to change your vote may do so now online. Information regarding the election of the directors and ratifying the selection of Crowe LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm, is provided in the proxy statement that accompanies the notice of the meeting. And accordingly, I will dispense with any preliminary explanation. Since the discussion is now complete, I declare the polls open for balloting. [Voting]

Thee pools are now closed. We will take a moment while the inspector of election counts the ballots and proxies. Inspector of election, would you please present the results of the balloting when you have it. Marco?

I report that the results of the balloting as provided by the inspector of election are as follows: One, the following individuals have each been elected as a Class II Director, Rick P. Frier, Stuart Aronson and Jay Carvel. Two, the selection of Crowe LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, has been ratified.

Thank you, Marco. On the basis of the reports provided by the inspector of election and the Secretary of the annual meeting, I declare that all the proposals have been presented at this time have been accepted by the [ stockholders ] of the company. At this time, I'm prepared to take any questions that have been submitted for any of the folks on our line, please let me know if we have any questions.

There are no questions.

There being no further official business, I declare the annual meeting of stockholders of Whitehorse Finance, Inc. is hereby adjourned. Thank you very much, everybody.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.