need to dispose of such investments quickly, it may be difficult to dispose of such investments on favorable terms. For example, we may have difficulty in finding a buyer and, even if we do find a buyer, we may have to sell the investments at a substantial loss.
Shareholder Agreements.
Consistent with applicable law (including the 1940 Act), the Company, the Investment Adviser and/or affiliates of the Investment Adviser may negotiate certain agreements (“Shareholder Agreements”) with certain shareholders who participate in the Private Offering, without the approval or vote of any other shareholder, which provide certain rights to such shareholders that will result in different investment terms with respect to such shareholders than the investment terms applicable to other shareholders that may have the effect of establishing rights under, or altering or supplementing the terms of the Organizational Documents (without creating a separate class of shares) or any such shareholder’s Subscription Agreement solely as it relates to such shareholder. As a result of the Shareholder Agreements, certain shareholders may receive additional benefits that other shareholders will not receive. Such rights or terms in any such Shareholder Agreement or other similar agreement may include, without limitation: (i) the Company and/or the Investment Adviser’s agreement to extend certain information rights or additional reporting to any such shareholder, including, without limitation, to accommodate special regulatory or other circumstances, or (ii) board observation rights. Unless agreed otherwise in the Shareholder Agreement, in general, the Company, the Investment Adviser and affiliates of the Investment Adviser will not be required to notify any or all of the other shareholders of any such Shareholder Agreements or any of the rights and/or terms or provisions thereof, nor will the Company, the Investment Adviser or affiliates of the Investment Adviser be required to offer such additional and/or different rights and/or terms to any or all of the other shareholders. The Company, the Investment Adviser and/or affiliates of the Investment Adviser may enter into such Shareholder Agreements with any shareholder, subject to certain restrictions.
Risks Related to Debt Financing
We borrow money, which may magnify the potential for gain or loss and may increase the risk of investing in us.
As part of our business strategy, we will borrow from, and may issue senior debt securities to, banks, insurance companies and other lenders or investors. Holders of these senior securities or other credit facilities will have claims on our assets that are superior to the claims of shareholders. If the value of our assets decreases, leveraging would cause NAV to decline more sharply than it otherwise would have if we did not employ leverage. Similarly, any decrease in our income would cause net income to decline more sharply than it would have had we not borrowed. Such a decline could negatively affect our ability to make distributions to shareholders. Our ability to service any debt that it incurs will depend largely on its financial performance and will be subject to prevailing economic conditions and competitive pressures.
Also, if we have senior debt securities or other credit facilities, any obligations to such creditors may be secured by a pledge of and security interest in some or all of our assets, including our portfolio of Investments, our cash and/or our right to call undrawn Commitments from the shareholders. If we enter into a subscription credit facility, the lenders (or their agent) may have the right on our behalf directly to call undrawn Commitments and enforce remedies against the shareholders. In the case of a liquidation event, those lenders would receive proceeds to the extent of their security interest before any distributions are made to shareholders. Any credit agreement or other debt financing agreement into which we may enter may impose financial and operating covenants, remedies on default, and similar matters.
We may, to the extent permitted by applicable law including the Investment Company Act, become co-liable (as a joint borrower, guarantor, or otherwise) for borrowings or other types of leverage of our subsidiaries or other entities in which we have an interest, including joint ventures.
In addition, we may be unable to obtain our desired leverage, which would, in turn, affect an investor’s return on investment.
We currently do not intend to enter into any collateral and asset reuse arrangements, but may decide to enter into such an arrangement in the future.
We will be exposed to risks associated with changes in interest rates.
Debt Investments that we make may be based on floating rates, such as SOFR (as defined below), LIBOR, the Euro Interbank Offered Rate, the Federal Funds Rate or the Prime Rate. General interest rate fluctuations may have a substantial negative impact on our Investments, the value of our securities and our rate of return on invested capital. It is unclear how increased regulatory oversight and the future of LIBOR may affect market liquidity and the value of the financial obligations to be held by or issued to us that are linked to LIBOR, or how such changes could affect our Investments and transactions and financial condition or results of operations.
Central banks and regulators in a number of major jurisdictions (for example, the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Switzerland and Japan) have convened working groups to find, and implement the transition to, suitable replacements for interbank offered rates. On March 5, 2021, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates the publisher of LIBOR (ICE Benchmark Administration), and ICE Benchmark Administration announced that the publication of all EUR and CHF LIBOR settings, the Spot Next/Overnight, 1 week, 2 month and 12 month JPY and GBP LIBOR settings, and the 1 week and 2 months U.S. dollar (“USD”) LIBOR settings ceased to published as of December 31, 2021, while the publication of the overnight, 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, and 12 months USD LIBOR settings ceased after June 30, 2023. In addition, while USD LIBOR (other than 1 week and 2 months) were published through June 30, 2023, banks cannot use USD LIBOR in new contracts after December 31, 2021 (nor in extensions of existing contracts), and, therefore, USD LIBOR will be limited to those investments that were inexistence prior to December 31, 2021.
The Alternative Reference Rates Committee (“ARRC”), a U.S.-based group convened by the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, identified the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) as its preferred alternative rate for LIBOR. SOFR is a measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight, collateralized by the U.S. Treasury securities, and is based on directly observable U.S. Treasury-backed repurchase transactions. On December 6, 2021, the ARRC released a statement selecting and recommending forms of SOFR, along with associated spread
67