Trinity Cap (NASDAQ:TRIN) held its first-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.
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The full earnings call is available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/sgi8vvqk/
Summary
Trinity Cap reported a 7% quarter-over-quarter and 40% year-over-year growth in net asset value, reaching $1.2 billion.
The company’s assets under management increased to over $2.9 billion, marking a 36% increase year-over-year.
Trinity Cap achieved $306 million in fundings and $396 million in commitments, with nonaccruals at 1% of the portfolio.
A new joint venture with Capital Southwest was announced, focusing on lower middle market senior secured loans.
The company’s managed funds platform contributed $0.04 to the $0.53 per share net investment income in Q1.
Trinity Cap’s total investment income increased by 38% year-over-year to $90.1 million, with net investment income at $44.5 million or $0.53 per share.
The company raised $78.4 million through its Equity ATM program, with total platform liquidity over $500 million.
Trinity Cap plans to leverage its SBIC fund and joint ventures to expand its managed funds platform without diluting shareholders.
Management emphasized a strong focus on disciplined underwriting, diversified portfolio management, and shareholder alignment.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Thank you and welcome to Trinity Capital’s first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Speaking on today’s call are Kyle Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Sarah Stanton, General Counsel, and Chief Compliance Officer, Michael Testa, Chief Financial Officer, and Jerry Harder, Chief Operating Officer. Also joining us for the Q&A portion of the call is Ron Kundich, Chief Credit Officer. Earlier today we released our financial results which are available on our website at ir.trinitycapital.com Before we begin, please note that certain statements made during this call may be considered forward looking under federal securities laws. Please review our most recent SEC filings for further information on the risks and uncertainties related to these statements. With that, allow me to turn the call over to Trinity Capital CEO Kyle Brown. Thanks Ben and thank you everyone who’s joining us today. Trinity Capital continues to perform because of our diversified lending platform of five complementary verticals, our ever expanding managed funds platform that delivers incremental income to trend shareholders, and our internally managed structure that ensures total alignment between investors and employees. To start off, here’s some highlights from Trinity Capital’s performance. During the first quarter, our net asset value grew 7% quarter over quarter and 40% year over year to a record $1.2 billion platform. AUM increased to more than $2.9 billion, up 36% year over year. Our originations engine remained robust, achieving $306 million of fundings and $396 million of commitments. We maintain strong credit with nonaccruals at 1% of the portfolio at fair value. Furthermore, I’d like to spotlight some shareholder focused results from Q1. We’re paying a 17 cent monthly dividend through the end of Q2 and Trinity Capital shareholders have now been the beneficiaries of more than six consecutive years of a consistent distribution. Also, we are scheduled to announce our Q3 dividend in June, subject to board approval. Trinity Capital’s year to date total return leads the BDC space and since our IPO five plus years ago, Trinity Capital stock has delivered a cumulative return of 199.19%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 86% over the same time period. Our return on equity remains one of the best in the BDC space, achieving 15.8% in Q1. Our managed funds platform continues to grow at a calculated pace and income generated from that platform contributed $0.04 to our $0.53 per share net investment income in Q1. And looking forward, we have 197 warrant positions in 127 portfolio companies which have the potential to provide incremental upside to our shareholders, we continue to grow strategically and thoughtfully. In Q1 we funded $306 million, 39% more than the first quarter of 2025. Our investment pipeline remains robust with $1.2 billion in total unfunded commitments and $300 million of term sheets accepted as of March 31. As a point of emphasis, 94% of our unfunded commitments remain subject to rigorous ongoing diligence and investment committee approval, while only 6% of these commitments are unconditional. Our originations activity reflects consistent performance across the lending verticals within the Trinity Capital Platform driven by our experienced team of originators and underwriters. As a direct lender with a proprietary pipeline, we do not rely on syndicated deals and maintain immaterial overlap with other Business Development Companies (BDCs), providing our investors with access to a highly differentiated portfolio across our five complementary lending verticals. At the same time, we remain firmly committed to disciplined underwriting and strong credit performance which are essential to our long term success. The only notable intersect with some other Business Development Companies (BDCs) is through our newly announced joint venture with Capital Southwest, a co investment vehicle that is focusing on first out senior secured loans in the lower middle market. This partnership with a fellow internally managed BDC allows us to diversify into a new segment of a lower middle market with a proven partner while minimizing risk and providing stable income for our investors. To briefly touch on the AI and software topic, enterprise SaaS is currently 10% of our portfolio. Many of those are PE backed lower middle market companies that have successfully integrated AI to enhance their offerings, increasing their value, not eroding it. The strongest companies continue to adapt and execute. We are not seeing deterioration in our software exposure. Rather, companies with top tier management teams, durable moats and flexible strategies are increasingly distinguishing themselves with respect to AI itself. We are not trying to pick winners at the application layer. Our exposure is focused on the infrastructure side through our Equipment financing platform which has deep experience financing data centers, GPUs, CPUs and power assets. That’s the backbone of the AI ecosystem and it benefits regardless of which applications win. We remain focused on building a diversified portfolio that consistently delivers strong returns through all macroeconomic cycles. Our consistent performance is driven by three defining strengths, our differentiated structure, Disciplined Underwriting and world class team. Our five complementary verticals Sponsored Finance Equipment Finance Tech Lending, Asset Based Lending and Life Sciences providing meaningful diversification while keeping us firmly within our core competencies. Each vertical is powered by dedicated teams of originators, underwriters and portfolio managers forming a scalable highly efficient operating model that drives results. Structurally, as an internally managed BDC, there is no external manager collecting fees and our employees, management and board all own the same shares as our investors, increasing alignment and a shared commitment to consistent dividends and long term value creation. We operate like shareholders because we are shareholders. Our structure also supports premium valuation because investors own the management company and the underlying assets. The management incentive fees generated through our managed fund business flow to the BDC, creating incremental income and enhancing value and fueling growth, all for the benefit of our shareholders. Our people are the foundation of everything we’ve built at Trinity Capital. Our high performance culture is rooted in humility, trust, integrity, uncommon care and continuous learning with an entrepreneurial spirit. This culture enables us to consistently attract and retain the best people who are the driving force behind our sustained growth. Since we started Trinity Capital, the goal has never changed out. Earn the dividend, grow the business and do it the right way. That means originating our own deals, underwriting them to our own vigorous standards and making important decisions as one internally managed team whose interests fully align with our shareholders, not third party managers. What we have built and continue to build is a platform with real breadth and growing scale. And with our managed funds platform continuing to expand, we are adding scale and diversification in ways that few Business Development Companies (BDCs) can replicate. That’s not an accident, it’s structural. We did not stumble into this position, we have strategically built it. The pipeline is active, our underwriting discipline is intact. We believe our capitalization strategy positions us well to grow earnings power as the market continues to evolve. Trinity Capital is not your typical BDC and that is precisely the point. We are differentiated by design and built to last regardless of market conditions. Now, to provide a more fulsome update on our managed funds platform, I’d like to turn the call over to our General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Sarah Stanton, who’s spearheading many of our corporate development initiatives.
Sarah Stanton (General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer)
Sarah thank you, Kyle. We are encouraged by the strategic and steady growth of our managed funds business which diversifies our capitalization sources and generates fee income that benefits Trinity Capital shareholders. AUM for our managed funds now sits at $400 million across four vehicles, with meaningful new funding capacity coming from our recently announced SBIC fund as well as expansion into the lower middle market with the addition of our Capital Southwest joint venture. I’ll discuss in a moment. Our managed funds platform continues to enhance returns for Trinity Capital, contributing $0.04 per share to NII in Q1, roughly 8% of the $0.53 total. We continue to thoughtfully raise managed funds to fuel our growth and minimize public shareholder dilution. Q1 brought two noteworthy developments in our managed funds platform. First, we held an initial close of $45.3 million in equity commitments to our new SBIC fund, constituting more than half of our target of $87.5 million of equity commitments. The SBIC Fund will benefit from attractive low cost leverage from the Small Business Administration at a 2 to 1 debt to equity ratio and is expected to add more than $260 million of incremental …
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