Regulators and market participants are working to establish adequate replacement rates and LIBOR replacement mechanisms. In April 2018, the Bank of England began publishing SONIA, its alternative Benchmark Rate for GDP-LIBOR. In March 2020, the Federal Reserve began publishing 30-, 90- and 180-day tenor SOFR Averages and a SOFR Index for SOFR, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee’s (“ARRC”) nominated replacement for USD-LIBOR. LIBOR, which is a forward-looking, unsecured, credit-sensitive rate, differs significantly from SOFR, which is an overnight rate, secured by U.S. Treasury Notes, akin to risk-free and, at least historically, discounted to LIBOR. Various permutations of SOFR emerged, including “Term SOFR” and “Daily Simple SOFR”, as well as credit-spread adjustments (“CSAs”) to compensate lenders for the difference in economic value. On July 29, 2021, the ARRC formally recommended the forward-looking Term SOFR Rate published by CME Group, the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, as the Benchmark Rate replacement for USD-LIBOR. The forward-looking Term SOFR is widely expected to be the replacement Benchmark Rate for USD-LIBOR and many credit facilities and financial instruments have already transitioned to (or are issued with) SOFR. Nevertheless, credit markets (especially private credit) are still developing, with continuing focus on minimizing lenders’ economic value transfer at the time of transition. On December 3, 2021, the ARRC released a statement selecting and recommending forms of SOFR, along with associated spread adjustments and conforming changes, to replace references to one-week and two-month USD-LIBOR.
The transition from LIBOR may involve, among other things, increased volatility or illiquidity in markets for loans, instruments or securities that, either directly or indirectly use, or are based on or calculated with reference to LIBOR. In March 2022, Congress passed the Adjustable Interest Rate (LIBOR) Act (the “LIBOR Act”) to establish a uniform, federal solution to replace LIBOR as the applicable rate or reference for certain contracts, agreements, securities, instruments or other assets that use or reference USD-LIBOR and lack fallback provisions, or contain insufficient fallback provisions (i.e., identify neither a specific replacement Benchmark Rate nor a determining person with authority to determine such replacement) (the “Covered Contracts”). The LIBOR Act provides that, as of the first London banking day after June 30, 2023 (or such other date as the Federal Reserve Board determines that any LIBOR tenor will cease to be published or cease to be representative), the Benchmark Rate (including the applicable tenor spread adjustment) identified by the Federal Reserve Board will be the applicable replacement Benchmark Rate, and all conforming technical, administrative, operational, and other modifications necessary to implement such replacement will be effective automatically for such Covered Contracts. The LIBOR Act expressly supersedes any state-level LIBOR transition legislation and provides that the Federal Reserve Board will promulgate regulations to carry out the LIBOR Act within 180 days after its enactment.
Even if one or more replacement Benchmark Rates (e.g., Term SOFR) is adopted uniformly across all public and private credit markets (including direct lending markets), the transition away from LIBOR is complex and could have a material adverse effect on our investments, and/or our business, financial condition and results of operations, including, without limitation, as a result of: (i) adverse changes in (a) pricing and/or availability of existing or prospective investments, (b) the value of our investments, (c) the anticipated hold time of an investment prior to its repayment or refinancing, and/or (d) the ability to buy, sell, or otherwise transfer our investments in secondary markets, (ii) increased our cost of borrowing, or decrease to the interest rate (or anticipated interest rate) earned by us as a holder of our investments for any number of reasons, including due to a Benchmark Rate that is not reflective of the then-current (or anticipated) market interest rates during any one or more calculation periods, increased basis risk, or otherwise, (iii) reductions in the effectiveness of certain transactions, such as hedges, adverse changes in basis risk between investments and hedges, and/or basis risks within investments (e.g., securitizations), (iv) changes to valuation measurements that use or reference LIBOR, whether directly or indirectly, (v) increased operational complexities and related costs, including among others, costs of modifying Adviser processes and systems (including IT, controls, monitoring, compliance, risk, and valuation models, systems, and processes, among others) associated with the transition to, or tracking/monitoring of, one or more Benchmark Rates and any adjustment or component thereof, (vi) costs incurred by portfolio companies to manage the transition away from LIBOR. In addition, future reforms and other pressures could cause other Benchmark Rates to disappear entirely, to perform differently than in the past (as a result of a change in methodology or otherwise), create disincentives for market participants to continue to administer or participate in certain benchmarks, require amendments to debt documents, result in rates being determined for a period by applicable fallback provisions which may not operate as intended (including through rate changes and volatility), or have other consequences which cannot be predicted.
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