We are pleased to present the June 30, 2014 Quarterly Report of Babson Capital Corporate Investors (the “Trust”).
The Board of Trustees declared a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share, payable on August 15, 2014 to shareholders of record on August 1, 2014. The Trust paid a $0.30 per share dividend for the preceding quarter. The Trust earned $0.28 per share of net investment income, including $0.03 per share of non-recurring income, for the second quarter of 2014, compared to $0.31 per share in the previous quarter. The previous quarter’s earnings included $0.06 per share of non-recurring income.
During the second quarter, the net assets of the Trust increased to $287,553,809 or $14.77 per share compared to $277,298,835 or $14.27 per share on March 31, 2014. This translates into a 5.7% total return for the quarter, based on the change in the Trust’s net assets assuming the reinvestment of all dividends. Longer term, the Trust returned 16.1%, 14.3%, 15.7%, 13.0%, and 13.4% for the 1, 3, 5, 10, and 25-year time periods, respectively, based on the change in the Trust’s net assets assuming the reinvestment of all dividends.
The Trust’s share price increased 0.7% during the quarter, from $15.17 per share as of March 31, 2014 to $15.27 per share as of June 30, 2014. The Trust’s market price of $15.27 per share equates to a 3.4% premium over the June 30, 2014 net asset value per share of $14.77. The Trust’s average quarter-end premium for the 3, 5 and 10-year periods was 18.5%, 14.6% and 12.8%, respectively. U.S. equity markets, as approximated by the Russell 2000 Index, increased 2.1% for the quarter. U.S. fixed income markets, as approximated by the Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate High Yield Index, increased 2.4% for the quarter.
Although middle market merger and acquisition activity picked up during the second quarter of 2014, purchase price and leverage multiples continued to increase. The Trust closed one new private placement investment during the second quarter. This investment was in ERG Holding Company LLC. A brief description of the investment can be found in the Consolidated Schedule of Investments. The total amount invested by the Trust in this transaction was $2.0 million. On a year-to-date basis, we have invested $15.7 million of capital, down 13% from the $18.0 million of capital we invested in the first half of 2013. The principal reason for the decline in our investment activity is simple – we are not willing to provide financial leverage at levels that we believe are imprudent. Depending upon the data source, market leverage levels are at or above the peak levels we last saw in 2007. Similarly, purchase price multiples are at or above 2007 levels, leading many private equity sponsor groups to be unwilling to pay such high prices for companies. We are troubled by current market conditions and are approaching new investment opportunities cautiously and with discipline, consistent with our longstanding investment philosophy of seeking to take prudent levels of risk and getting paid appropriately for the risk taken. While our investment volume has typically suffered during very aggressive market conditions such as we have today, this approach has served us well over the long term and through all kinds of market cycles.
The condition of the Trust’s existing portfolio remained solid through the second quarter. Sales and earnings for the Trust’s portfolio as a whole continued their upward momentum. We only had a few credit downgrades during the quarter. The number of companies on our watch list and in default continues to be at or near the lowest level we have seen over the last five years. We successfully exited six investments during the second quarter and realized significant gains from these transactions. We continue to have a large backlog of portfolio companies that are in the process of being sold, with closings expected this year. We only had one portfolio company prepay its debt instruments held by the Trust during the second quarter. This low level of prepayment activity is welcome after the unprecedented levels of prepayments we experienced in 2013, when 32 of the Trust’s portfolio companies fully or partially prepaid their debt obligations to the Trust.
The Trust was able to maintain its $0.30 per share quarterly dividend for the second quarter. However, net investment income, excluding non-recurring income, has been below the dividend rate since the third quarter of 2013. As we have discussed in prior reports, income is down due principally to the considerable reduction in the number of private debt securities in the portfolio resulting from the high level of prepayment and exit activity that has occurred since the beginning of 2012. We have not been