(17) | Loan was on non-accrual status as of December 31, 2023. |
(18) | These loans are “last-out” portions of loans. The “last-out” portion of the Company’s loan investment generally earns a higher interest rate than the “first-out” portion, and in exchange the “first-out” portion would generally receive priority with respect to payment principal, interest and any other amounts due thereunder over the “last-out” portion. |
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The information in “Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements—Note 11—Financial Highlights and Senior Securities” of the Company’s Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 is incorporated herein by reference. Such information should be read in conjunction with Part I, Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations of the Company’s Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 as incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement.
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We have entered into separate equity distribution agreements with Truist Securities, Inc., RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Compass Point Research & Trading, LLC, Raymond James & Associates, Inc., BTIG, LLC and Drexel Hamilton, LLC, under which each will act as our sales agent in connection with the offer and sale of our common shares pursuant to this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus.
Upon written instructions from us, a sales agent will use its commercially reasonable efforts consistent with its normal sales and trading practices to sell, as our sales agent, our common shares under the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the respective equity distribution agreement. We will instruct each sales agent as to the amount of our common shares to be sold by it. We may instruct a sales agent not to sell our common shares if the sales cannot be effected at or above the price designated by us in any instruction. The sales price per share of our common shares offered by this prospectus supplement and
th
e accompanying prospectus, less the sales agent’s commission, discount or other compensation for such sales payable under the applicable equity distribution agreement, will not be less than the NAV per share of our common shares as determined within 48 hours of such sale unless we have received requisite approval of a majority of our shareholders (including a majority of our unaffiliated shareholders) and our Independent Trustees, in accordance with the applicable equity distribution agreement. We or the sales agents may suspend this offering of our common shares upon proper notice and subject to other conditions. We cannot predict the number of such shares of common shares that we may sell hereby or if any such shares will be sold.
Sales of our common shares, if any, under this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus may be made in negotiated transactions or transactions that are deemed to be “at the market” offerings, as defined in Rule 415(a)(4) under the Securities Act, including, without limitation, sales made directly on the NYSE or a similar securities exchange or sales made to or through a market maker other than on an exchange at prices related to the prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices.
If sales of our common shares are sold by one or more of the sales agents, the applicable sales agent will provide written confirmation of a sale to us following the close of trading on the NYSE each trading day on which our common shares are sold under such sales agent’s equity distribution agreement. Each confirmation will include the number of our common shares sold that day, the net proceeds to us and the compensation payable by us to such sales agent in connection with the sales.
Under the terms of the equity distribution agreements, each of the sales agents will be entitled to compensation of up to 1.00% of the gross sales price of any common shares sold through it as sales agents. We estimate that the total expenses for this offering, excluding compensation payable to the sales agents under the terms of each equity distribution agreement, will be approximately $0.7 million.
Settlement for sales of our common shares will occur on the second trading day following the date on which such sales are made, or on some other date that is agreed upon by us and the applicable sales agent in connection with a particular transaction, in return for payment of the net proceeds to us. There is no arrangement for funds to be received in an escrow, trust or similar arrangement.
Under the terms of the equity distribution agreements, we also may sell our common shares to the sales agents as principal for their own accounts at a price agreed upon at the time of sale. The sales agents may from time to time offer the common shares sold to them as principal through public or private transactions at market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at fixed prices, at negotiated prices, at various prices determined at the time of sale or at prices related to prevailing market prices. If we sell shares to a sales agent as principal, we will enter into a separate terms agreement with the applicable sales agent, setting forth the terms of such transaction, and we will describe the agreement in a separate prospectus supplement to the extent required by law.
We will report in a prospectus supplement and/or our filings under the Exchange Act, at least quarterly, the number of our common shares sold through the sales agents under the equity distribution agreements and the net proceeds to us.
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In connection with the sale of our common shares on our behalf, each of the sales agents may be deemed to be an “underwriter” within the meaning of the Securities Act, and the compensation of the sales agents may be deemed to be underwriting commissions or discounts. We have agreed to provide indemnification and contribution to the sales agents with respect to certain civil liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act.
If we have reason to believe that our common shares are no longer an “actively traded security” as defined under Rule 101(c)(1) of Regulation M under the Exchange Act we will promptly notify the sales agents and sales of our common shares pursuant to the equity distribution agreements will be suspended until in our collective judgment Rule 101(c)(1) or another exemptive provision has been satisfied.
The offering of our common shares pursuant to the equity distribution agreements will terminate upon the earlier of (i) the sale of all of the our common shares subject to the equity distribution agreements or (ii) the termination of the equity distribution agreements as permitted therein.
The sales agents and their respective affiliates are full service financial institutions engaged in various activities, which may include sales and trading, commercial and investment banking, financial advisory, investment management, investment research, principal investment, hedging, market making, brokerage and other financial and
non-financial
activities and services. The sales agents and their respective affiliates have provided in the past and may provide from time to time in the future in the ordinary course of their business certain commercial banking, financial advisory, investment banking and other services to, and their respective affiliates have provided, and may from time to time in the future provide, a variety of these services to the Company and to persons and entities with relationships with the Company, for which they received or will receive customary fees and expenses. In particular, the sales agents or their respective affiliates may execute transactions with the Company or on behalf of the Company, the Adviser, Blackstone and/or its affiliates or any of our or their portfolio companies, affiliates and/or managed funds. In addition, the sales agents or their affiliates may act as arrangers, underwriters or placement agents for companies whose securities are sold to or whose loans are syndicated to the Company, the Adviser, Blackstone and their affiliates and managed funds.
The sales agents or their affiliates may also trade in our securities, securities of our portfolio companies or other financial instruments related thereto for their own accounts or for the account of others and may extend loans or financing directly or through derivative transactions to the Company, the Adviser, Blackstone or any of our portfolio companies.
We may purchase securities of third parties from the sales agents or their affiliates. However, we have not entered into any agreement or arrangement regarding the acquisition of any such securities. We would purchase any such securities only if, among other things, we identified securities that satisfied our investment needs and completed our due diligence review of such securities.
After the date of this prospectus supplement, the sales agents and their affiliates may from time to time obtain information regarding specific portfolio companies or us that may not be available to the general public. Any such information is obtained by the sales agents and their affiliates in the ordinary course of their business and not in connection with this offering. In addition, the sales agents or their affiliates may develop analyses or opinions related to the Company, the Adviser or our portfolio companies and buy or sell interests in one or more of our portfolio companies on behalf of their proprietary or client accounts and may engage in competitive activities. There is no obligation on behalf of these parties to disclose their respective analyses, opinions or purchase and sale activities regarding any portfolio company or regarding the Adviser to our shareholders or any other persons.
In the ordinary course of their business activities, the sales agents and their respective affiliates, officers, directors and employees may purchase, sell or hold a broad array of investments and actively traded securities,
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derivatives, loans, commodities, currencies, credit default swaps and other financial instruments for their own accounts and for the accounts of their customers, and such investment and trading activities may involve or relate to the Company’s assets, securities or instruments (directly, as collateral securing other obligations or otherwise) or persons and entities with relationships with the Company. The sales agents and their respective affiliates may also communicate independent investment recommendations, market color or trading ideas or publish or express independent research views in respect of such assets, securities or instruments and may at any time hold, or recommend to clients that they should acquire, long and/or short positions in such assets, securities and instruments. Such investment and securities activities may involve our securities and instruments. In addition, affiliates of Blackstone own interests in the controlling entity of BTIG, LLC.
Proceeds of the sale of our common shares pursuant to this offering may be used to repay or repurchase outstanding indebtedness under the Revolving Credit Facility. Affiliates of certain sales agents are lenders under the Revolving Credit Facility and may receive proceeds of this offering to the extent proceeds are used to repay or repurchase outstanding ind
ebt
edness under the Revolving Credit Facility.
The principal business address of Truist Securities, Inc. is 3333 Peachtree Road, NE, 11
th
Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30326. The principal business address of RBC Capital Markets, LLC is 200 Vesey Street, New York, New York 10281. The principal address of Compass Point Research & Trading, LLC is 1055 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW, Suite 303, Washington, DC 20007. The principal address of Raymond James & Associates, Inc. is 880 Carillon Parkway, St. Petersburg, FL 33716. The principal address of BTIG, LLC is 65 East 55th Street, New York, New York 10022. The principal address of Drexel Hamilton, LLC is 110 East 42
nd
Street, Suite 1502, New York, New York 10017.
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Certain legal matters in connection with this offering will be passed upon for us by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Washington, D.C. and New York, New York and by Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A., Wilmington, Delaware. Certain legal matters in connection with this offering will be passed upon for the sales agents by Ropes & Gray LLP.
The financial statements of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement, and the effectiveness of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund’s internal control over financial reporting have been audited by Deloitte & Touche LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their reports. Such financial statements are incorporated by reference in reliance upon the reports of such firm given their authority as experts in accounting and auditing.
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INCORPORATION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION BY REFERENCE
This prospectus supplement is part of a registration statement that we have filed with the SEC. The information incorporated by reference is considered to be part of this prospectus supplement. Any reports filed by us with the SEC subsequent to the date of this prospectus supplement will automatically update and, where applicable, supersede any information contained in this prospectus supplement and any document incorporated by reference herein.
We incorporate by reference into this prospectus supplement our filings listed below and any future filings that we may file with the SEC under Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, subsequent to the date of this prospectus supplement until all of the securities offered by this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus have been sold or we otherwise terminate the offering of these securities; provided, however, that information “furnished” under Item 2.02 or Item 7.01 of Form
8-K
or other information “furnished” to the SEC that is not deemed filed is not incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement.
This prospectus supplement incorporates by reference the documents set forth below that have been previously filed with the SEC:
| • | | our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC on February 28, 2024; and |
| • | | the description of our common shares referenced in our Registration Statement on Form 8-A (No. 001-40966), as filed with the SEC on October 26, 2021, including any amendment or report filed for the purpose of updating such description prior to the termination of this offering of our common shares. |
See “
” in the accompanying prospectus for information on how to obtain a copy of these filings.
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