Runway Gwth Fin Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Benzinga · 22h ago

Runway Gwth Fin (NASDAQ:RWAY) reported third-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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Summary

Runway Growth Finance reported strong third-quarter earnings with NII of $0.38 per share and an improved NAV of $11.94 per share, reflecting strong execution and active portfolio management.

The company is focusing on optimizing its portfolio by increasing diversification, lowering risk, and maintaining competitive positioning, aided by the acquisition of SWK, which expanded its exposure to the healthcare and life sciences sector.

The leadership team has been strengthened with key promotions and new appointments, including Mike Groer as Co-CEO and Co-CIO, reflecting stability and continuity within the organization.

Runway Growth Finance announced an expansion of its share repurchase program to $30 million, aiming to take advantage of the undervalued stock price and return capital to shareholders.

The capital allocation strategy remains cautious with a measured approach to new originations and an emphasis on maintaining high credit standards amid an evolving macroeconomic backdrop.

Despite moderated originations, the deal pipeline remains active, and the company continues to engage with sponsors and founders to support portfolio growth.

The company reported a weighted average risk rating improvement to 2.26, indicating enhanced portfolio quality and effective risk management.

Management expressed confidence in sustaining long-term demand for venture debt and the company’s ability to capitalize on opportunities while maintaining a disciplined risk management approach.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Runway Gwth Fin third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Quinlan Abel, Assistant Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Quinlan Abel (Assistant Vice President, Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Runway Gwth Fin conference call for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026. Joining us on the call today are David Spreng and Michael Rovner, Co‑Chief Executive Officers of Runway Gwth Fin and Co‑Chief Investment Officers of Runway Growth Capital LLC, our investment advisor, and Carmela Thomson, Chief Financial Officer. Our investment advisor’s Chief Credit Officer, Avisha Khubani, will join us for Q&A. Runway Gwth Fin’s third quarter 2026 financial results were released just after market close today and can be accessed from Runway Gwth Fin’s investor relations website at investors.rwaygrowth.com. We have arranged for a replay of the call to be available on the Runway Gwth Fin webpage.

During this call, I want to remind you that we may make forward‑looking statements based on current expectations. The statements on this call that are not purely historical are forward‑looking statements. These forward‑looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward‑looking statements, including, without limitation, market conditions caused by uncertainty surrounding interest rates, changing economic conditions, and other factors we identify in our filings with the SEC.

Although we believe that the assumptions on which these forward‑looking statements are based are reasonable, any of those assumptions can prove to be inaccurate and, as a result, the forward‑looking statements based on those assumptions can be incorrect. You should not place undue reliance on these forward‑looking statements. The forward‑looking statements contained on this call are made as of the date hereof, and Runway Gwth Fin assumes no obligation to update the forward‑looking statements or subsequent events.

To obtain copies of SEC‑related filings, please visit our website. With that, I will turn the call over to David.

R. David Spreng (President)

Thank you, Quinlan, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this evening to discuss our third quarter 2026 results. Today I will discuss our strategy and notable developments for the quarter. Mike will reflect on our portfolio activity and Carmela will unpack our financial results. Before I dive into the quarter, I want to provide additional color on our recent leadership appointments and how we structure our team. Earlier this year, we were thrilled to promote two long‑standing members of our leadership team, Carmela Thomson and Avisha Khubani, to Chief Financial Officer and Chief Credit Officer, respectively. Carmela has been with Runway since before our IPO and has overseen the company’s financial operations for several years.

Avisha has played an integral role in our investment advisor’s portfolio and credit monitoring team for the past eight years. In August, we also welcomed Mike Groer as Co‑CEO of the BDC and Co‑CEO and Co‑CIO of our advisor. Mike brings with him an expansive network and unique perspective shaped by his career as a founder, investor, and venture lender, as well as his time as a Managing Director at BC Partners. These appointments represent a meaningful expansion and strengthening of the leadership team at the BDC and our investment advisor as we’ve grown the company and continue to promote from within.

Our evolution reflects the stability and continuity of our organization, the depth of our existing talent, and our commitment to maintaining strong underwriting and high credit standards. I look forward to working alongside this team in the months ahead as we continue to execute upon the disciplined investment strategy that has guided Runway since our founding. Turning now to the quarter, in the third quarter we continued to make progress on our objectives related to optimizing the portfolio, increasing diversification, lowering our risk profile, and maintaining the competitive positioning of our business. As we’ve previously discussed, our acquisition of SWK, which closed in Q2 of this year, was an important step in advancing these objectives, increasing our exposure to the healthcare and life sciences sector, lowering our software concentration, and reducing our average loan size.

Beyond the positive impacts of the acquisition, we also had multiple levers available to us as we continue to optimize our portfolio, including sourcing new and attractive loans, refinancing loans, and selectively syndicating portions of new originations. We posted a strong earnings quarter, delivering NII of $0.38 per share and an improved net asset value of $11.94 per share. Carmela will discuss our results in greater detail shortly, but we believe our performance reflects strong execution and a commitment to active portfolio management.

Let’s turn to our capital allocation strategy. During the third quarter, we operated against a continuation of the market dynamics we observed in the first half of the year, including an evolving macroeconomic backdrop that has put pressure on the BDC sector as a whole. As a result, we continue to believe current trading levels of our shares do not accurately reflect the fundamentals of our business, and they misprice our credit profile. In addition to portfolio optimization, we are continuing to take a thoughtful approach to capital allocation.

This includes a measured approach to new origination and a greater focus on capital return, including affiliate purchases and stock buybacks. Last quarter, BC Partners and its affiliates made a commitment to potentially purchase up to 10% of the company’s outstanding stock over the next two years. In line with that approach, today we’ve announced that our board has expanded our share repurchase program to $30 million. This expanded program is authorized through September 30, 2027.

The management team also continues to purchase shares independently of these initiatives, underscoring our deep confidence in the Runway platform and its ability to deliver results over time. While originations were intentionally moderated during the quarter, our deal pipeline remains active. That said, we remain highly selective, with a continued focus on credit quality and prudent balance sheet management. We believe patience is a virtue, particularly in the current venture lending environment where we are seeing some loosening of underwriting standards in certain parts of the market.

Looking ahead, I remain highly confident in our team, our strategy, the strength of our portfolio, and our ability to deliver strong, consistent results. Now I will turn it over to Mike for more detail on portfolio activity during the quarter.

Michael Rovner (Co-Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chief Investment Officer)

Thank you, David. It’s a pleasure to participate in my first official earnings call as Co-CEO and Co-CIO. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from leading organizations over the years is that setting the right goals is important, but execution is what ultimately matters. Under David’s leadership, Runway Gwth Fin established a clear set of priorities to strengthen the portfolio, position the business for sustainable earnings power and create value for our shareholders.

Through the commitment and hard work of the broader Runway Gwth Fin team, we’ve made notable progress this year on each of those priorities. We have broadened and diversified our portfolio over the last several quarters, with a key catalyst being our acquisition of SWK earlier this year. As a result, our concentration metrics have shown marked improvement, with our average principal loan size decreasing by 21% since the beginning of 2025. Our efforts as active managers have also led to the improvement of the average risk rating of our portfolio. As we committed to earlier in the year, we have reduced the leverage level in our portfolio.

We ended Q3 at approximately 1.1 times debt to equity after running it nearly 1.4 times during Q2 after using debt to help fund the SWK acquisition. We believe this deleveraging, funded largely by repayments from our borrowers, demonstrates the overall quality of our portfolio. Though there may be quarterly variances, we are actively managing our balance sheet to ensure we operate within our target range over time to maintain optionality as we ramp origination activities.

Finally, we have initiated and expanded our share repurchase program, which further aligns our capital allocation strategy with shareholders and takes advantage of a very attractive valuation in our shares. We know there is more work ahead, but the progress we have made reinforces my confidence in the foundation we are building and in our ability to execute on the priorities that matter most to our shareholders. While we cannot control every market outcome, we can control how we allocate capital, underwrite risk and manage the business.

The areas we can control will continue to be our focus. Now turning to portfolio activity for the quarter, as David touched on, we deliberately paced new originations and focused on portfolio optimization. Our deployments in Q3 were comprised of follow-on investments in an aggregate amount of $8.5 million to four existing portfolio companies. We also generated liquidity events totaling $140 million, including four full repayments totaling $130.7 million, $8.7 million in other scheduled loan principal amortization payments and $600,000 in equity proceeds.

Notably, this quarter we experienced the full repayment of our loan to 3PL after the company was acquired by Descartes. This was the largest loan in our portfolio totaling $72.3 million. This full repayment marked an important step forward in our ongoing efforts to reduce concentration, contributing to a lower average principal loan size and a lower proportion of the top 10 loans in our portfolio. The repayment also contributed to a lower weighted average risk rating of 2.26 compared to 2.33 last quarter. 3PL is just one example of how our active portfolio management and close engagement with borrowers help support positive outcomes for both our portfolio companies and our investors. We believe a healthy level of repayment activity demonstrates the underlying strength of our portfolio.

I would also like to provide an update on our loan to Marley Spoon. During the quarter, we amended our facility to eliminate approximately $28.9 million of unfunded commitments, reducing our exposure. As of quarter end, we had also provided access to an approximately $9.6 million bridge loan and, subsequent to quarter end, we increased the bridge facility by approximately $4.1 million. The bridge is intended to preserve value and protect our position while the company executes a revised operating plan focused on cost reduction and financial sustainability.

We remain actively engaged with the management team as the restructuring process evolves and we continue to evaluate multiple paths to maximizing our recovery. Looking more closely at SWK’s contributions since the acquisition closed, the portfolio continues to create value through both liquidity events and the opportunity to upsize existing commitments. For example, since the deal closed, we upsized loans to three strong SWK borrowers with a total upsize value of $34 million and had a realized gain of $3.4 million on $10 million in proceeds from our Eaton warrants. Subsequent to quarter end, we also experienced the full repayment of a $25 million senior secured first lien loan to MedMinder, generating a 36.7% IRR.

In our view, there is sustained long-term demand for venture debt and Runway Gwth Fin is well positioned to capitalize on that opportunity. While we moderated originations during the quarter, we remain in active dialogue with sponsors and founders across the ecosystem. Over the next 12 months, we believe our expanded sourcing channels can support continued pipeline growth. Though the pace of new investment may not always match the timing of portfolio repayments, we believe that the continued performance of our portfolio, combined with disciplined loan origination and our commitment to repurchase shares while they remain undervalued, collectively represent the most balanced approach to creating long-term shareholder value while narrowing the discount to NAV. Now I’ll turn it over to Carmela to provide a deeper dive into our financial results and portfolio performance.

Carmela Thomson (Chief Financial Officer)

Thank you, Mike, and thank you everyone for joining us today. Turning to the third quarter financial performance, we generated total investment income of $40.6 million and net investment income of $15.9 million compared to $37 million and $18.2 million, respectively, in the second quarter of 2026. Our total investment portfolio had a fair value of $1.1 billion compared to $1.2 billion in the second quarter. The change primarily reflects the impact of repayments.

As of September 30, 2026, Runway Gwth Fin had net assets of $494.7 million, down 2% from $502.6 million in the second quarter of 2026. NAV per share was $11.94 compared to $11.91 as of June 30, 2026. The quarter’s NAV per share growth was driven by share repurchases and repayments, but was offset by an additional write-down on Marley Spoon. We delivered $0.38 per share of net investment income and a base dividend of $0.33 per share. At quarter end, we had spillover income of approximately $0.76 per share.

NII during the quarter was positively impacted by prepayment fees and accelerated end-of-term payments related to prepayments. This quarter our debt portfolio generated a dollar-weighted average annualized yield of 15.8%, up from 14.2% in the second quarter of 2026. We expect the recent Fed rate hike to benefit portfolio yields in Q4, with further hikes as currently priced by the market providing additional upside. With more than 50% of our borrowings at fixed rates, we expect higher base rates will also support our earnings power.

Looking at our weighted average risk rating, our system is based on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents the most favorable credit rating within our scale. A category 3 loan represents a situation where we have identified early indicators that warrant enhanced oversight, such as performance trending below plan, increased monitoring requirements or higher loan-to-value levels while the collateral remains intact. Importantly, a category 3 designation reflects our proactive monitoring framework rather than an impaired credit.

Our weighted average risk rating during the quarter improved to 2.26 compared to 2.33 in the second quarter and 2.66 in the first quarter, as 3PL paid off and we saw improvements in risk ratings across other names in the portfolio. As of September 30, 2026, 94% of the portfolio at fair value had a risk rating of 3 or better, underscoring the quality of the names in our portfolio and our confidence in their performance. The consistent improvement in our weighted average risk rating, which is the lowest it has been since September 30, 2023, is a testament to the quality of the names in our portfolio, the strength of our monitoring framework and the hard work our team has done to create a more balanced portfolio. We believe our disciplined risk and valuation process provides a clear, consistent framework for evaluating our portfolio, which reinforces our confidence in its underlying credit quality and long-term performance.

Looking at expenses, total operating expenses were $24.7 million compared to $18.8 million for the second quarter of 2026. The sequential increase in our operating expenses primarily reflected the absence of a one-time incentive fee reversal that benefited the second quarter of 2026 as well as a higher management fee base in the third quarter that now includes the acquired SWK assets. We recorded a net realized gain of $10,000 during the third quarter of 2026 compared to a net realized loss of $45.3 million during the second quarter of 2026.

We recorded a net change in unrealized losses of $5.2 million compared to a net change in unrealized gains of $54.3 million in the second quarter of 2026. The change in net unrealized losses was driven by a $10.8 million write-down on our investment in Marley Spoon, which offset net unrealized gains of $5.6 million across the rest of the portfolio, primarily related to the repayment of our loan to 3PL. During the third quarter, we experienced total liquidity events of $140 million, including $139.4 million in repayments. As Mike mentioned, the most significant component of this figure was 3PL. We currently expect elevated prepayments to continue through the fourth quarter, although some could be pushed into subsequent periods. As of September 30, 2026, our leverage ratio and asset coverage were 1.10 and 1.91 times, respectively, compared to 1.36 and 1.74 times at the end of the second quarter.

Our leverage is now back within its target range after running at elevated levels during the second quarter. Our total available liquidity was $216.6 million, including unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, and we had borrowing capacity of $213 million under our credit facility. To further strengthen our balance sheet and lower our cost of capital, subsequent to quarter end we issued 7.75% baby bonds, generating net proceeds of approximately $43.7 million.

We are pleased with the pricing on the baby bonds, which reflects a narrower spread than the baby bonds we issued earlier in the year. We primarily used the proceeds to repay our $33 million 9% SWK notes due January 2027, which we redeemed in full on November 3, 2026. In line with our capital allocation strategy and increased emphasis on share repurchases, we repurchased $4.8 million of shares during the quarter. In addition, as previously noted, today we announced that our Board has authorized an expanded share repurchase program of $30 million, which will run through September 30, 2027. We have $22.1 million in share repurchases remaining as of today. We believe the expanded share repurchase program presents an attractive option to reallocate capital towards repurchasing shares while they trade at a significant discount to NAV.

Finally, on November 4, 2026, our Board declared a regular distribution for the fourth quarter of 2026 of $0.33 per share. With that, operator, we can open the line for Q&A.

OPERATOR

If you’d like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1-1 on your touchtone phone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Our first question comes from Mickey Schleyen with Clear Street.

Mickey Schleyen (Analyst)

Yes, good afternoon everyone. The weighted average debt investment yield increased nicely from 14.2 to 15.8 despite the significant repayments, which I assume would be repayments on higher-yielding investments. So how much of the improvement reflected accelerated OID and end-of-term payment income from those repayments versus higher recurring portfolio yields?

Carmela Thomson (Chief Financial Officer)

Hi, Nikki. So our yield does incorporate some non-recurring income. So our $0.38 of NII per share incorporates $0.10 per share of non-recurring, and this is comprised of prepayment fees of $0.08 and then another $0.02 related to other fees such as amendment fees, commitment fees, and such. And while that’s non-recurring in nature, we do tend to have $0.01 to $0.02 per share each quarter in other fees, so not as unique as the prepayment fees that tend to be more one-off each quarter.

And so with that, that brings us down to a net $0.10. And then this is partially offset by a one-time $0.02 expense related to debt costs. And so the net one-time impact would likely be around $0.06 per share, comprised of the $0.08 of prepayment and the $0.02 of one-time debt cost, in terms of the yield. So that’s what you’ll see with the yield of the 15.8—so that incorporates those non-recurring debt fees that I just mentioned. And then the core yield, which I also believe is in our presentation, is 14%.

So that’s more of the core portfolio yields not including the non-recurring fees, to get a better comparison quarter over quarter.

Mickey Schleyen (Analyst)

I understand. I appreciate your explanation. And if I could, just one follow-up: you received approximately $140 million of proceeds in the quarter, you funded only $9 million, and I think you received another $55 million of prepayments this quarter. How much of this runoff was anticipated? What does the pipeline look like, and when do you think the portfolio might resume growth on a net basis?

Michael Rovner (Co-Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chief Investment Officer)

Sure, Mickey, I’ll go ahead and handle that question. Well, you know, obviously we’ve had a very strong repayment quarter in Q3. And as you noted, Q4 is also off to a strong start. It’s a little early to be able to predict where we would end up in Q4—obviously we have two months left—but we are certainly on pace to achieve or even outpace what we saw in Q3. The pipeline is building and we remain actively engaged with sponsors and founders. We’re working on our sourcing.

And though I think it may be a little while before we see net growth in the portfolio, given the size of the repayments. Carmela, I don’t know if you wanted to add anything.

Carmela Thomson (Chief Financial Officer)

No, I think that’s right. I think as repayments come in in the coming quarter, and in our prepared remarks we noted elevated prepayments, we will use that also to balance repurchases of shares as well as new loans, but obviously keeping in mind our credit strategy and making sure that we’re bringing on loans that still continue to meet that high credit mark.

Mickey Schleyen (Analyst)

I understand. I appreciate your time this evening and thank you for taking my questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Richard Shane with JPMorgan.

Hong (Analyst)

Yeah, hey, this is Hong on for Rick. I guess just thinking about the SWK accretion, you talked about how it was $0.05 accretive to quarterly NOI. Going forward, do you expect any incremental benefits to the run rate?

Carmela Thomson (Chief Financial Officer)

I think the $0.05 is pretty much what you should expect. I think the difference that you may see, as loans mature that could taper off, or prepayments on any SWK loans, but $0.05 is still currently what we’re projecting and what we see in the portfolio today.

Hong (Analyst)

Got it. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Our next question comes from Eric Zwick with Lucid Capital Markets.

Eric Zwick (Analyst)

Good afternoon, everyone. I guess maybe starting with a bit of a follow-up to one of Mickey’s questions, and you mentioned it may be a little bit before we start to see net portfolio growth again, just given the pace of prepayments as well as the balance between new investments and share buyback. And I know you said you’ll kind of take a measured approach to new investments. If I understood Carmela’s math correctly, it sounds like there was a $0.06 kind of net benefit to the results this quarter, so without those, you’d be at about a $0.32 run rate, so a penny below the current dividend level.

So obviously the opportunity to repurchase shares at a massive discount where the stock’s trading today is very compelling and the math there is strong with measured investments—kind of a measured approach to investment. And I realize it’s a long-winded question, so I guess the crux of it is: how do you feel about the sustainability of the dividend at this level as you approach 2027, given the fact that the portfolio may shrink again and you’re devoting repayment dollars toward the buyback as well?

Carmela Thomson (Chief Financial Officer)

Sure. So we do expect to cover our base dividend in the following quarter and full year. Beyond that, for 2027, it’s hard to predict at this point in time because it does depend on a few variables—you noted that as well—so how much and how quickly our loans repay, and then also how fast we deploy that capital into high-quality new loans, and then also the level of share repurchases. So we’re anticipating picking up the pace of our share repurchases as well, as our loans prepay; then we’ll use those funds towards that as well. So it really depends on that mix and where we’ll land towards that end of the year going into ’27.

Eric Zwick (Analyst)

Thanks, Carmela. And then just my other question, Mike: I think you used the language “sustained long-term demand” referring to the venture lending market. Just curious, does higher rates now and the prospect for rates potentially even going higher—how does that impact the opportunity there? Do certain borrowers tend to back away or wait? But just kind of curious, and maybe a question for David as well, just in his experience, how do higher rates impact the venture lending opportunities?

Michael Rovner (Co-Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chief Investment Officer)

I was pausing to see if David wanted to take that one, but my view is it’s obviously going to be difficult to predict what we see in the coming 12 months. I will say that higher rates can dampen deal flow, but as things stand right now, we’re feeling pretty good about the growth in our pipeline and the number and diversification of opportunities that we’re seeing.

Eric Zwick (Analyst)

Thanks, Mike. That’s all for me.

OPERATOR

As a reminder, if you’d like to ask a question at this time, please press star-1-1 on your touchtone phone. Our next question comes from Meryl Ross with Compass Point Research and Trading.

Meryl Ross (Analyst)

Thank you and good evening. Just thinking about how you hold your pipeline together when you’re funding so few loans. It seems like that’s part of your franchise value, that you continue to meet the needs of your borrowers. And with your activity so subdued, I’m wondering when you feel concerned that you’re not funding enough loans to stay in the mix.

Michael Rovner (Co-Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chief Investment Officer)

That’s a great question. Obviously it’s a bit of a balancing act. As we’ve said in prior quarters, we want to take a measured approach to new loan origination while we focus on seeing repayment in our current portfolio, looking to add diversification while supporting our existing borrowers. And I think we’ve at least done a good job so far of that balancing act. We were active in a smaller way this quarter, looking more to focus on liquidity generation and also support for our existing borrowers.

But I do think that it is important for us to continue to be active in the market and to continue to build our pipeline. So a good question to watch as we execute in Q4 and beyond.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Christopher Nolan with Ladenburg Thalmann.