Why Leveraged Loans?

As the underlying collateral portfolio, corporate loans form the building blocks of CLOs. Leveraged loans are senior to bonds and equity, having first claim on the assets of a corporation in the event of a bankruptcy or insolvency.

Typical Loan Characteristics

Senior: First position in corporate capital structure
Secured: First lien interest on the corporation’s assets
Floating Rate: Hedged against interest rate risk

Representative Corporate Capital Structure

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Typical loan characteristics and representative corporate capital structure are provided for illustrative purposes only and is a generalization of the structure of the CLOs in which SPMC intends to invest. The actual terms of any CLO in which SPMC invests may vary.

Loan Default Rate by Year

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Source: J.P. Morgan Default Monitor; PitchBook Data, Inc, May 1, 2024.

Recovery Rate by Seniority

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Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence's CreditPro and S&P Global Ratings Credit Research & Insights. Data calculated as the dollar-weighted rate from 1987 through September 2023. Includes only debt instruments that defaulted from U.S. issuers.

Leveraged loans have attracted increasing interest from retail and institutional investors over the past two decades, resulting in a liquid and robust asset class. Both loans and CLOs are a trillion-dollar asset class. As the largest buyer of senior secured, corporate loans, CLOs play an integral role in the market.

Growth of the Loan Market ($ Millions)

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Source: PitchBook Data, Inc., Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan TR USD, 12/31/2023.

Growth of CLOs ($ Millions)

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Source: J.P. Morgan North American Credit Research: Securitized Products Weekly, February 23, 2024.

Institutional Demand for Leveraged Loans

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Source: PitchBook | LCD, December 31,2022.

Low historical defaults and higher recoveries have contributed to leveraged loans generating positive total returns for 24 of the past 27 years.

Morningstar Leveraged Loan Index Performance Since Inception

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Source: PitchBook Data, Inc. The performance of the Morningstar LSTA Leveraged Loan Index (the "MLLI"), is provided for illustrative purposes only. The MLLI is a market value-weighted index designed to measure the performance of the U.S. leveraged loan market and is based upon weightings, spreads and interest payments. The MLLI is unmanaged and does not reflect the impact of advisory fees. Investors cannot invest directly in the MLLI. Please note that comparisons to the MLLI and other indices has limitations because these indices have volatility and other material characteristics that may differ from SPMC.

Why CLOs?

A CLO is a long-term, special purpose vehicle which funds the purchase of leveraged loans through issuance of CLO debt and equity securities.

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Structural benefits of CLOs typically include:

1. Long-term maturity (10+ years) on CLO debt financing, with limited ability to force a CLO liquidation
2. Asset quality tests, resulting in a diversified portfolio of leveraged loans (typically 200-300 unique loan issuers in the CLO)
3. Three-to-five-year reinvestment period, allowing the CLO manager to reinvest loan prepayments and actively trade to optimize the portfolio

Typical loan characteristics and CLO structural features are provided for illustrative purposes only and is a generalization of the structure of the CLOs in which SPMC will likely invest. The actual terms of any loan SPMC actually invests in may vary.

CLO equity has historically generated robust quarterly distributions and double-digit annualized return.

CLO Equity Historical Distribution % by Quarter (LHS) and Citi Average CLO Equity Index, Value of $1 Invested (RHS)

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Sources: BofA Global Research, Intex; Citigroup Average CLO Equity Tranche performance is published by Citigroup Research. Citigroup calculated actual CUSIP-level CLO equity total returns, using month-end prices from Citi's trading desk, and took the average total return after excluding the outliers (top and bottom 5% percentile). Performance of the CLO Equity Index does not reflect fees and expenses incurred by investors in SPMC.

Information provided for illustrative purposes only and is not indicative of future performance. There can be no assurance that the trends and/or performance illustrated will continue or that future investments in CLO equity will perform comparably. Past performance is not indicative of future results.