Horizon Technology Finance Corporation Price & Performance (HRZN)

And some of these factors are detailed in the risk factor discussion in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including the company's Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2024. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Rob Tomeroy. Welcome, everyone. And thank you for your interest in Horizon. Today, we will update you on our quarterly and annual performance Dan Dvoritz will take us through recent business and portfolio developments, Jerry will then discuss the current status of the venture lending market and Dan Trulia will detail our operating performance and financial condition. We will then take some questions. We ended 2024 with our portfolio growing for the second consecutive quarter. We expect this trend will continue in 2025. While the net investment income we earned in the fourth quarter resulted in our 2024 NII, covering our regular monthly distributions, our net asset value was lower at the end of twenty twenty four. This resulted from the underperformance of our stressed investments Due to the continuance in 2024 of many of the same conditions that were present in 2023.

Namely ongoing stress in the venture capital ecosystem, tightened capital availability, a muted IPO and M and A market, and continued pressure on portfolio company valuations. Our advisor and its experience and expert team remain focused on our portfolio's credit quality and originating high quality investments in order to maximize the value of our portfolio. Over the long term. Recapping our full year 2024 results, we generated net investment income of $1.32 per share, once again covering our declared and paid regular monthly distributions for the year. We achieved a portfolio yield of nearly 16% on our debt investments for the full year remaining at or near the top of the BDC industry. We finished the year with a committed and approved backlog of $2.00 $7,000,000 We ended the year with a net asset value of $8.43 per share primarily the result of the fair value markdowns of our investments. Continued to strengthen our balance sheet during the year by closing a new $100,000,000 senior secured credit facility with New Bean, raising additional capital through a $20,000,000 convertible debt offering, and raising over $66,000,000 at a premium to our NAV from the sale of equity through our at the market program.

Finally, based on our outlook and our undistributed spillover income of $1.06 per share as of year end, last week, our Board of Directors declared regular monthly distributions of $0.11 per share payable through June of twenty twenty five. To further align our advisor with shareholders, our advisor agreed this week if after the payment of such portion, the company's net investment income for such quarter would be less than the distributions declared in such quarter. As the macro environment improves and the venture ecosystem recovers, We continue to support and work closely with our portfolio companies as we focus on maximizing the value of our stressed investments and seeking to increase our NAV. As we progress through 2025, we remain optimistic about Horizon's prospects for the following reasons. Our portfolio continues to grow, and our portfolio yield remains among the industry's highest. Which we expect will lead to increased NII. Our pipeline is full with quality opportunities to invest in new companies. Our liquidity and balance sheet remains strong. And finally, our markets are active and demand for venture debt capital is growing. We look forward to being a key supplier of such capital. [indiscernible] Again, we appreciate your continued interest and support in the Horizon Technology Finance platform.

I will now turn the call over to Dan, Jerry and Dan.

To give you the details of our fourth quarter results and progress. Dan? Thanks, Rob, and good morning to everyone. We grew our portfolio in the fourth quarter to $698,000,000 as we continue to originate high quality loans that more than offset In the fourth quarter, we funded seven debt and one equity investment of $2,000,000 $55,000,000 of the new debt investments were to four new portfolio companies, all well sponsored companies with growing revenue in our core life science and technology markets. We continue to see an increasing and healthy volume of high quality opportunities like these and are well capitalized to execute on these opportunities and originate new loans. We also continue to build a sizable pipeline across our target sectors. Which we expect will ensure we continue growing our portfolio throughout 2025.

Looking ahead to Q1, we expect another quarter of portfolio growth. In January and February, we funded seven debt investments totaling $79,400,000 and one equity investment of $2,000,000 were awarded four new venture loan transactions representing $75,800,000 in total commitments, which will fund over the coming quarters.

As we seek growth, we will always be disciplined in our approach to originating loans.

During the fourth quarter, we experienced five loan prepayments totaling $13,000,000 in prepaid principal. Net prepayment activity and the associated fee income in the quarter was at the lower end of our recent historical levels, which impacted NII. Based on prepayment activity already realized in Q1, and anticipated additional prepayment activity in the quarter, we expect a more positive impact on NII in Q1. Especially when combined with portfolio growth from Q4. Our on boarding debt investment yield of 12.6% during the fourth We expect to continue to generate strong on boarding yields with our current pipeline of opportunities, further demonstrating our capabilities to grow our portfolio. Generate strong net investment income. Our debt portfolio yield of 14.9% for the quarter was once again one of the highest yielding debt portfolios in the BDC industry. Our ability to generate these industry leading yields continues to be a testament to the profitability of our venture lending strategy. And their execution of that strategy across various market cycles and interest rate environments. As of December 31, we held warrant and equity positions in 104 portfolio companies a fair value of $44,000,000 I again remind you that structuring investments with warrants and equity rights is a key component of our venture debt strategy and a potential generator of shareholder value.

In the fourth quarter, we closed 106 and ended the year with a committed and approved backlog of $2.00 $7,000,000 compared to $190,000,000 at the end of the third quarter. We believe our pipeline combined with our committed backlog, with most of our funding commitments subject to companies achieving certain key milestones, provides solid base to prudently grow our portfolio. As of year end, 91% of the fair value of our debt portfolio consisted of three and four rated debt investments. Comparable with the prior quarter end. While 9% of the fair value of our portfolio continued to be rated to World one. As we continue to manage our stressed investments, continue to collaborate closely with all of our portfolio companies and utilize a variety of strategies to seek to optimize returns and create opportunities for potential future value. To summarize, we believe we are well positioned to further grow our portfolio in 2025 and to continue to generate NII that covers our regular monthly distribution over time. With that, I'll turn it over to Jerry for a look at the overall venture industry and current environment. Thank you very much, Dan.

Turning to the venture capital environment, According to PitchBook, approximately $75,000,000,000 was invested in VC backed companies in the fourth quarter a nice spike from the prior quarters and resulting in total investment for the year above twenty twenty three's total but still off the highs of 2021 and 2022. We are pleased to see continued signs of improvement in the BC investment environment that the road to a full investment recovery will require exit markets for VC backed tech companies to improve. Which will lead to a meaningful return of capital to VC funds in their OPs. The higher investment level in 2024 was mainly driven by a few outsized AI related deals Thus, there continues to be a backlog of venture capital backed technology and life science companies that are positioned for an exit by way of M and A or an IPO. While Q4's total exit value of 37,000,000,000 resulted in twenty twenty four's exit value surpassing the prior years total number of exits and exit value in 2024 remained well below the level achieved from 2019 to 2021.

On the positive side, the life science exit markets continues to show significant activity with five IPOs already completed 2025 and more in the queue. This improvement combined with investors lowering valuations on many private technology and life science companies over the past two years, is creating an M and A market it is more attractive to potential buyers who have been on the sidelines for the past In addition, royalty transaction activity in the life science market is reemerging As examples, Biogen closed at $250,000,000 transaction with Royalty Pharma and Castle Creek Biosciences, a Horizon portfolio company closed a $75,000,000 royalty transaction with Lydian Pharmaceuticals in Q1. As we progress through 2025, there seems to be a clear flight to quality for investors in technology and life science companies.

Particularly as AI continues to disrupt industries, such as healthcare, fintech, manufacturing, consumer related markets, Based on our existing pipeline of more than $1,000,000,000 of debt investment opportunities, Horizon believes there remains a strong opportunity in the coming quarters to provide venture debt financing to high quality technology and life science companies while preparing for the exit markets to open up.

While the overall VC ecosystem is showing some improvement, believe that the improving conditions in the VC backed company exit markets will result in return of capital to VCs and their LPs in 2025 creating a better environment for new VC fundraising.

Other positive factors include the overall macro environment and big pharma companies seeking to acquire new drug candidates as their own drug products come off patent over the next few years.

Accordingly, remain optimistic about originating new high quality venture debt investments in the weeks and months ahead. Our optimism is bolstered by our robust pipeline of $1,400,000,000 of opportunities, a testament to our reputation [indiscernible] and sourcing capabilities To sum up, we remain committed to sourcing high quality well priced investments as we expect to grow our portfolio throughout 2025. Which when combined with more historically normalized prepayment activity should generate NII will continue to cover our monthly distributions over time consistent with our historic distribution performance. With that, will now turn the call over to Dan Troleo. Thanks, Jerry, and good morning, everyone.

As Rob and Jerry noted, in 2024, we generated NII that covered our regular monthly distributions while actively strengthening our balance sheet. In addition, we continue to diligently work with all of our companies in order to optimize our outcomes for our portfolio further enhance our credit quality. To recap 2024, our portfolio at the end of the year compared to $684,000,000 as of 09/30/2024. We further strengthened our balance sheet in June by closing a new 100,000,000 senior secured credit facility with Nuveen, which contains an accordion feature to expand the facility to $200,000,000 In October, we raised $20,000,000 of debt cap unsecured convertible notes due 02/1931. The notes may only be converted into common stock at a price greater or equal to our NAV. We always seek to add flexibility and diversity to our capital sources and we believe the convertible notes achieve that. [indiscernible] Finally, we successfully and accretively sold over 6,300,000.0 shares through our ATM program during the year, raising over $66,000,000 further demonstrating our continued ability to opportunistically act As a result of our actions and our stronger balance sheet, we believe we remain well positioned to further grow our portfolio and create additional value for shareholders in 2025.

As of December 31, we had $131,000,000 in available liquidity. Consisting of $101,000,000 in cash and $30,000,000 in funds available to be drawn under our existing credit facility. We currently have no borrowings outstanding under our $150,000,000 KeyBank credit facility, $181,000,000 outstanding on our $250,000,000 New York Live credit [indiscernible] and $75,000,000 outstanding on our $100,000,000 New Bean credit facility. Leaving us with ample capacity to grow our portfolio of debt investments.

Our net to equity ratio stood at 1.4 to one at December 31, and netting out cash on our balance sheet, our net leverage was approximately 1.1:one. Which is well within our target leverage. Based on our cash position and our borrowing capacity, our potential new investment capacity as of December 31 was $342,000,000 Turning to our operating results for the fourth quarter. We earned investment income of $24,000,000 compared to $28,000,000 in the prior year period. Primarily due to lower interest income and fee income on our debt investment portfolio. Our net investment portfolio on a net cost basis stood at $678,000,000 as of December 31, up 4% compared to $654,000,000 as of 09/30/2024. For the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four, we achieved onboarding yield of 12.6% compared to 13.2% achieved in the third quarter.

Our loan portfolio yield was 14.9% for the fourth quarter compared to 16.8% for last year's fourth quarter.

Total expenses for the quarter were 12,800,000.0 compared to $12,200,000 in the fourth quarter of 'twenty three.

Our interest expense increased to $8,200,000 from $7,600,000 in last year's fourth quarter due to an increase in our average borrowings. Our base management fee was 3,100,000.0 down from $3,200,000 in the prior year period. We received no performance based incentive fees in the fourth quarter we continue to experience the deferral of incentive fees otherwise earned by our advisor under our incentive fee cap and deferral mechanism The deferral in the quarter was driven by net realized and unrealized losses on [indiscernible] While we expect the advisor will return to earning incentive fees, as Rob mentioned, the advisor has agreed to waive a portion of any incentive fee in a quarter where we do not earn our distribution. Net investment income for the fourth quarter of twenty four was $0.27 per share compared to $0.32 per share in the third quarter of twenty and $0.45 per share for the fourth quarter of twenty twenty three. For the full year of 2024, we generated NII of $0.32 per share covering our regular monthly distributions during 2024 of the same amount. The company's undecivious billover income as of December 31 was $1.06 per share.

We anticipate that the size of our portfolio along with our portfolio's higher interest rate and our predictive pricing strategy will enable us to continue generating NII that covers our distribution over time. While the macro environment is gradually improving, we expect prepayment activity will remain modest in the near term. To summarize our portfolio activities for the fourth quarter, new originations totaled 61,000,000 which were partially offset by $12,000,000 in scheduled principal payments and $13,000,000 in principal prepayments and partial paydowns. We ended the year with a total investment portfolio of $698,000,000 We expect to further grow our portfolio during the first quarter. At December 31, the one, 39,000,000 and a portfolio of warrant, equity and other investments in 109 companies with an aggregate fair value of $59,000,000 Based upon our outlook, our Board declared monthly distributions of $0.11 per share for April, May and June 2025. We remain committed to providing our shareholders with distributions that are covered by our net investment income over time. Our NAV as of December 31 was $8.43 per share compared to $9.06 as of 09/30/2024, and $9.71 as of 12/31/2023. The $0.63 reduction in NAV on a quarterly basis was primarily due to adjustments to fair value and our paid distributions, partially offset by net investment income and accretive sales of equity.

As we've consistently noted, nearly 100% of the outstanding principal amount of our debt investments fair interest at floating rates, but coupons that are structured to increase if interest rates rise with interest rate floors that will mitigate the impact of decreasing interest rates. This concludes our opening remarks. We'll be happy as they questions you may have at this time.

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. Thank you. And our first question is from the line of Doug Carter with UBS. Sure. Thank you. Hoping you could walk through what you think the key drivers to get from the the $0.27 back above the $0.33 dividend rate. How do you think about that that path to back to covering the dividend? [indiscernible] When we look at the NII and we project it over through the entire year, one thing we comment probably every quarter is with a venture debt portfolio, we always will receive some prepayments throughout the year. How they happen each quarter will fluctuate. As we noted in our remarks, the fourth quarter was very light on the amount of prepayments and the associated fee income that related to those prepayments and tied kind of drove the lower NII this quarter. So we look to harvest the prepayments and we look to grow the balance as we have over the past two quarters and continue to do that through 2025. And those will be really the key drivers to getting back to covering the distribution for on a quarterly basis, Got it. Appreciate that.

I guess how do you think about what is obviously there's no one period that is normal, but what is a normalized level of contribution from kind of that That's [indiscernible] Yes. Like I mentioned, each quarter, very different. Normalized probably about anywhere between $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 of accelerated fee income.

Great. Appreciate that. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Paul Johnson with KBW. Please proceed with your question. Yes, thanks. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions.

I was just wondering if you can kind of comment on kind of what primarily drove the portfolio marks this quarter in terms of investments as well as just kind of maybe more broadly if you can, what how much of that's from the debt portfolio versus the equity?

Sure. Hi, Paul. This is Dan Divorce. That's The marks were we go through our fair value process and look at each asset, of course. There are several a couple that are in the process of either fundraising or getting themselves acquired. And there is a couple that are in positions where we're unsure of what that outcome is going to be. And took some sizable markdowns primarily on the debt investments in the portfolio. That's a high level answer to the question. It's really a matter of a continued fundraising and exit market that is a challenge for some companies in our stage We are seeing, a good deal. We're seeing anecdotal evidence of positive developments in fundraising, but there are still several in the portfolio that are in situations where the markdown was appropriate And then if I can ask just about two specific credits. I noticed last quarter in the Q, I think that portion of Evolosciences was on PIK accrual I noticed that was taken off this quarter Just wondering what happened there and if there was any income recorded at all from Evolow? The fourth quarter? Yes. Hi, this is Jared.

So yes, we've moved available to the other asset. Bucket of our assets. The company any recovery on Avelo going forward is based on basically the sale or [indiscernible] that Evol can do relative to its assets, which would be its intellectual property and some other assets its own. So it's no longer an active loan. It's more of a recovery asset at this point. And there was some expectation based on contracts that are in place there will be further recovery on that over the coming quarters. And coming years actually.

Appreciate that. And then the other one, just the was on non accrual last quarter, Swift Health Systems. Looked like it might have been restructuring. I'm wondering if you could just kind of talk about what the outcome of that was and how you were able to resolve that company.

Sure. That one, it's not resolved. That's one of the ones that did take a bit of a further down and it's an example of what I was talking about earlier that they are in an extended fundraising process. Able to bring in capital last year with some new investors, some new high quality investors. That was the first step in an ongoing process of capital raising, which they are still in. So it is not yet resolved. And is an active fund raise as we speak.

Thanks for that. And then, how are you guys feeling, I guess, about the portfolio maybe particularly like in the life sciences about any sort of Doge risk or spending cuts from the federal government?

Great. Interesting question.

And it's based on everything that we have seen on other people in the industry that we know well who have a great deal of experience talked about. It's not a clear cut one way or the other. Clearly, companies that might be involved in vaccine discovery certainly have some reasons for concern.

Based on who the new HHS Secretary is.

On the other hand, there does seem to be a more open and aggressive posture with the the HHS relative to drug and getting those drugs to market both sooner and cheaper. And so the school is definitely still out relative to to how all that's going to play out. I think on balance, probably a favorable environment, certainly in the near term.

Overall, I think regulatory issues also play into that. I think we could definitely see more M and A activity The other thing I would just mention relative to that is between now and 2030, there is I think the number I heard was $50,000,000,000 of drugs that are going to be coming off of patent by big pharma companies and those drugs need to be replaced and they generally replaced historically by new drug development by biotech companies.

So we think that there could be significant activity in that market over the next couple of years.

So on balance probably a little bit favorable, but like many other things in the market today, it's a lot of people are just kind of holding their breath and waiting to see how this all works out.

Certainly understand things are still in development. And then, just last question from me. I was wondering if I could just kind of ask about core sort of debt portfolio yields in the portfolio how those have kind of held up, I guess, over the last year. We certainly seen a certain amount of spread compression in the market.

Just wondering how much of kind of the portfolio yield decline this quarter was maybe kind of due to the base rates and sort of what your expectation is for spreads going forward this year?

Yes. So again, Dan Dvoros, the onboarding yield is still kind of within our normalized range. It's small sample size on a quarter to quarter basis, so you have to look at trends. There is some spread compression due to competitive competition particularly in the flight to quality that Jerry was talking about, which is normal. But the overall yields are still well within normalized venture portfolio We benchmark that on a quarterly basis and I think that the yield particularly when you factor in some of the prepayment activity that's Dan talked about and that we referenced in our prepared remarks. That we expect and have visibility into that the portfolio yield will be within the range that we've been achieving over the past Yes. And I'll just add to that. As far as the portfolio yield and where rates are, We mentioned every quarter our rates float up but have floors. Today, after the 100 basis points moved down last year, 43% of our portfolio are either at or above today's prime rate. And so any continued movement down in overall rates which seemed like it will be towards the latter half of this year will have a smaller impact on our portfolio.

Thank you. That's very helpful. And then curious, I mean, end of term fees has Has that if portfolio spreads have been kind of within the normal context, how have end of term fees held up, I guess, versus kind of historically?

Those are those really haven't changed a whole lot. Over the last several years.

Okay. Thank you very much. That's all for me. Our next question is from the line of Christopher Nolan with Ladenburg Thalmann.

Please proceed with your question.

Hi, apologies, I joined call late. I have a follow-up to Paul's question on the yields. How much did the Fed easings in the fourth quarter affect your yields?

Definitely had an impact, but I would say the third quarter Rate cut had a bigger impact in the fourth quarter. If you look at our pays and our Qs, it'll show you rate movement and the overall impact of everything is static and all the rates happened at the beginning of the quarter. But obviously, that's not how it normally happens. I would get you about 100 basis points. We show it's about $0.02 a quarter. So that's kind of roughly a static state, but with the cuts in the fourth quarter a little bit towards the latter half of the quarter had a smaller impact Great. And then also back to the whole doge thing. Given the prospect of tariffs And then the HHS basically looking to improve transparency, at least say down the sides, but it very well might be on pricing too for drugs. Anecdotally, I hear stories where American consumers are paying a multiple for a drug which is priced otherwise overseas. And how is that affecting how some of these portfolio companies you guys have are thinking about their business model. I mean, is there a lot more uncertainty? Is this affecting their ability to raise new equity?

I mean, just a little color around that would be great. Sure. Hi, this is Jerry. So first of all, the life science industry over the last couple of years, irrespective of who the President was, has had kind of a tough go relative to raising capital for a whole host of reasons. As it As we look at the market, today, there are certain things that are definitely actually providing a tailwind. One is the lower the cost of developing drugs is coming down significantly relative to the technology that can be used today including AI technology that is reducing the overall costs So there is definitely going to be going forward some benefit relative to the cost of developing drugs. And then on the regulatory side, at least again, it's very early. We're in the early days here.

They're talking about being able to streamline regulatory approval relative to drug development, which for one drug can cost $300,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 to develop depending on the size of the market. The kind of clinical trials that are needed. So that is kind of all on the positive side.

But you're correct. The cost of the consumer is definitely kind of an anchor.

That's weighing all of this down and how these costs are going to be managed going forward, specifically Medicare Medicaid costs. That is the uncertainty there, just the level of uncertainty there definitely causes significant issues relative to being a drug discovery company and trying to determine how you're going to get paid for this $150,000,000 investment you're about to make going forward? [indiscernible] unfortunately, we're just in that that very uncertain period right now.

And everyone is trying to, as best they can, figure out what to do about it. The only thing I would say that is certain is we have seen more IPO activity in the life science sector over the last two quarters, which is a good sign. The market there are participants in the market who are saying they want to buy into these higher risk biotech companies and that's a positive sign. And as I mentioned, there are other kinds of financing now on the life science side that we have historically seen, but haven't really seen much of in the last two years. That seemed to be also picking up some momentum. So It's an interesting market that has to be carefully thought through literally for every company depending on where they are in the market relative to the kind of drugs they're developing and the necessity of them.

Them. Great. That's great color. Thank you. I guess just for Dan, what how much did share repurchases add to fourth quarter NAV per share, please?

It's about $0.02 And the remaining spillover, please? $1.06 Good.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. The this time, I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Pomeroy for closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining us this morning. We appreciate your continued interest and support in Horizon This will conclude our call.

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