We are a Delaware limited liability company formed on November 30, 2022 and structured as a non-diversified, externally managed specialty finance company focused on lending to middle-market companies. We have elected to be regulated as a BDC under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the 1940 Act. In addition, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we intend to elect to be treated, and to comply with the requirements to qualify annually, as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. We are a private, perpetual-life BDC, which is a BDC whose units are not listed for trading on a stock exchange or other securities market. We use the term “perpetual-life BDC” to describe an investment vehicle of indefinite duration whose units are intended to be sold by us monthly on a continuous basis at a price generally equal to our monthly net asset value per Unit. We are classified as a non-diversified investment company within the meaning of the 1940 Act, which means that we are not limited by the 1940 Act with respect to the proportion of our assets that we may invest in securities of a single issuer. We are externally managed by the Adviser, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley. We are not a subsidiary of, or consolidated, with Morgan Stanley.
Our investment objective is to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns via current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by investing primarily in directly originated senior secured term loans issued by U.S. middle-market companies in which private equity sponsors have a controlling equity stake in the portfolio company. For the purposes of this report, “middle-market” companies refers to companies that, in general, generate annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, in the range of approximately $15 million to $200 million, although not all of our portfolio companies will meet this criterion.
We invest primarily in directly originated senior secured term loans including first lien senior secured term loans (including unitranche loans) and, second lien senior secured term loans, with the balance of our investments expected to be in higher-yielding assets such as mezzanine debt, unsecured debt, equity investments and other opportunistic asset purchases. Typical middle-market senior loans may be issued by middle-market companies in the context of leveraged buyouts, or LBOs, acquisitions, debt refinancings, recapitalizations, and other similar transactions. We generally expect our debt investments to have a stated term of five to eight years and typically to bear interest at a floating rate usually determined on the basis of a benchmark such as the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR. We also make investments in traded bank loans and other liquid debt securities of U.S. corporate issuers, including broadly syndicated loans, which may provide more liquidity than our private credit investments, for cash management purposes, including to manage payment obligations under our unit repurchase program. Depending on various factors, including our cash flows and the market for middle-market company debt investments, we expect that our liquid loan portfolio could represent a material portion of our investments from time to time.
We generate revenues primarily in the form of interest income from investments we hold. In addition, we generate income from dividends or distributions of income on any direct equity investments, capital gains on the sale of loans and debt and equity securities, and various other loan origination and other fees, including commitment, origination, amendment, structuring, syndication or due diligence fees, fees for providing managerial assistance and consulting fees.
The middle-market loans in which we generally invest are typically not rated by any rating agency, but we believe that if they were rated, they would be below investment grade (rated lower than “Baa3” by Moody’s Investors Service, lower than “BBB-” by Fitch Ratings or lower than “BBB-” by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services), which under the guidelines established by these rating agencies is an indication of having predominantly speculative characteristics with respect to the issuer’s capacity to pay interest and repay principal. Debt instruments that are rated below investment grade are sometimes referred to as “high yield bonds” or “junk bonds.”
Our investment approach is focused on long-term credit performance, risk mitigation and preservation of principal. Utilizing our proprietary investment approach, we intend to execute on our investment objective by (1) drawing upon the Adviser’s and the Firm’s longstanding and deep relationships with middle-market companies, private equity sponsors, commercial and investment banks, industry executives and financial intermediaries to provide a strong pipeline of investment opportunities, (2) implementing the Adviser’s rigorous, fundamentals-driven and disciplined investment and risk management process, (3) drawing on the investment committee’s extensive experience in credit and principal investing, credit analysis and structuring and (4) accessing Morgan Stanley’s global resources.
By leveraging the established origination and underwriting capabilities within the MS Private Credit platform and targeting an attractive investing area in the U.S. middle-market, we believe we are able to offer attractive risk-adjusted returns to our investors. Despite recent market volatility, we believe the middle-market direct lending market environment continues to be attractive. We remain highly focused on conducting extensive due diligence and leveraging the Morgan Stanley platform. We continue to seek to invest in companies that are led by strong management teams, generate substantial free cash flow, have leading market positions, benefit from sustainable business models, and are well positioned to perform well despite the impact of recent market volatility. We believe the current market environment offers opportunities to seek compelling risk adjusted returns. Our investment pace will depend on several factors including the market environment, including the current inflationary economic environment, and deal flow.
The Adviser
We entered into an Investment Advisory Agreement with our Investment Adviser on January 31, 2023 (the “Investment Advisory Agreement”). Pursuant to the Investment Advisory Agreement, we pay our Investment Adviser a fee for investment advisory and management services consisting of two components — a base management fee and an incentive fee. The Investment Advisory Agreement had an initial term of two years and continues thereafter from year to year if approved annually by a majority of our unitholders or a majority of the Board of Directors, including a majority of the directors who are not “interested persons” as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the 1940 Act (the “Independent Directors”). For more information, see “ — Investment Advisory Agreement” below.
Morgan Stanley launched its private credit platform in 2010. The private credit platform includes dedicated strategies targeting different credit products, asset yields and issuer sizes, resulting in a platform that we believe is well positioned to provide scale and flexible financing solutions to borrowers, maximize deal origination and enhance the ability to generate attractive risk adjusted returns for our unitholders. These strategies include U.S. private credit (referred to herein as MS Private Credit), European private credit and tactical credit.
Our Adviser, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, was established in 2007 and serves as the investment adviser for various funds, accounts and strategies, including the funds and accounts on the MS Private Credit platform, including the MS BDCs, and managed approximately $18.5 billion in committed capital1 as of January 1, 2024.
1Committed capital is calculated as aggregate capital commitments received and total committed leverage within each of the funds or accounts with exception for funds past their investment period, where committed capital is calculated as invested capital.
MS Private Credit’s primary areas of focus include:
•Direct Lending. As of December 31, 2023, the Direct Lending strategy includes us and the other MS BDCs advised by our Adviser and other funds and separately managed accounts. Investments made primarily in directly originated first lien senior secured and second lien senior secured loans, mezzanine notes, unsecured debt, preferred stock, and common stock issued by U.S. middle-market companies owned by private equity firms, typically, although not always, with annual EBITDA of up to $200 million. As of January 1, 2024, Direct Lending managed approximately $15.6 billion in committed capital.
•Opportunistic Credit. Investments made primarily in complex assets, unusual credit situations or companies experiencing difficulties in sourcing capital. Other potential investments included in this category may include purchasing public or private securities in the open market at deep discounts to their fundamental value. Investments are made primarily in first lien senior secured and second lien senior secured loans, mezzanine notes, unsecured debt, preferred stock and common stock issued by U.S. middle-market companies, typically, although not always, with annual EBITDA of $10 million to $100+ million. As of January 1, 2024, Opportunistic Credit managed approximately $2.9 billion in committed capital.
Our Adviser’s investment committee servicing us, or the Investment Committee is comprised of ten senior investment professionals of IM and is chaired by Jeffrey S. Levin, our Chief Executive Officer and President and a member of our Board of Directors. The Investment Committee members have an average of over 23 years of relevant industry experience and have experience investing across multiple credit cycles and different investing environments, including the global financial crisis of 2008. All investment decisions are reviewed and approved by the Investment Committee, which has principal responsibility for approving new investments and overseeing the management of existing investments.
Our Adviser is served by experienced investment professionals, or the Investment Team, within the MS Private Credit platform. The Investment Team is responsible for origination, due diligence, underwriting, structuring and monitoring each investment throughout its life cycle. In addition, to our executive officers and their support teams, the MS Private Credit platform is supported by numerous professionals in legal, compliance, risk management, finance, accounting and tax who help support the platform by providing guidance on our operations.
Morgan Stanley, the parent of our Adviser, is a global financial services firm whose predecessor companies date back to 1924 and, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, advises, originates, trades, manages and distributes capital for governments, institutions and individuals. Morgan Stanley maintains a significant market position in each of its business divisions – Institutional Securities Group,
or ISG, Wealth Management, or WM, and IM. We are not a subsidiary of or consolidated with Morgan Stanley and Morgan Stanley does not guarantee any of our financial obligations.
IM is a global investment manager, delivering innovative investment solutions across public and private markets. As of December 31, 2023, IM managed approximately $1.5 trillion in assets under management across its business lines, which include equity, fixed income, liquidity, real assets and private investment funds.
Expense Support and Conditional Reimbursement Agreement
We have entered into the Expense Support and Conditional Reimbursement Agreement (the “Expense Support Agreement”) with the Adviser. The Adviser may elect to pay certain of our expenses on its behalf (each, an “Expense Payment”), provided that no portion of the payment will be used to pay any of our interest expense and/or distributions. Any Expense Payment that the Adviser has committed to pay must be paid by the Adviser to the Company in any combination of cash or other immediately available funds no later than 45 days after such commitment was made in writing, and/or offset against amounts due from the Company to the Adviser or its affiliates. Any reimbursement to the Adviser pursuant to the terms of the Expense Support Agreement would be our expense and would ultimately be borne by our unitholders.
The Administrator
Our Administrator, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, provides the administrative services necessary for us to operate pursuant to an administration agreement (the “Administration Agreement”). On January 31, 2023, our Board of Directors approved the Administration Agreement for an initial two-year term.
We do not currently have any employees. We pay no compensation directly to any interested director or executive officer of the Company. We pay our Administrator our allocable portion of certain expenses incurred by our Administrator in performing its obligations under the Administration Agreement, including our allocable portion of the cost of our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer. Our Administrator is reimbursed for certain expenses it incurs on our behalf, which expenses are ultimately borne by our unitholders. Our Administrator reserves the right to waive all or part of any reimbursements due from us at its sole discretion. See “–Administration Agreement” below for a discussion of the expenses that we reimburse to the Administrator (subject to the review and approval of our Independent Directors).
Investment Strategy
Our primary investment strategy is to make privately negotiated senior secured credit investments in U.S. middle-market companies that have leading market positions, enjoy high barriers to entry, such as high startup costs or other obstacles that prevent new competitors from easily entering the portfolio company’s industry or area of business, generate strong and stable free cash flow and are led by a proven management team with strong private equity sponsor backing. Our investment approach is focused on long-term credit performance, risk mitigation and preservation of capital. Our Adviser employs a highly rigorous, fundamentals-driven and disciplined investment process developed and refined by the investment professionals of the MS Private Credit platform. The Investment Team works on a particular transaction from origination to close and continues to monitor each investment throughout its life cycle.
We invest primarily in companies backed by leading private equity sponsors with strong track records. We believe lending to sponsor-backed companies (or companies where private equity sponsors hold a controlling equity position) versus non-sponsor-backed companies (or companies where private equity sponsors do not hold a controlling equity position) has many distinct potential advantages including: