Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. ("Sixth Street Specialty Lending") is an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment company. Founded in 2010, we have elected to be regulated as a business development company, or BDC, under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and treated as a regulated investment company, or RIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. For more information, please visit our Company Profile page.
Sixth Street Specialty Lending was founded in 2011 under the name TPG Specialty Lending. The name of the business was changed following the completion of the agreement for Sixth Street to become independent from TPG in May 2020. Sixth Street Specialty Lending continues to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TSLX as it has since becoming a publicly listed company in 2014. For more information, see here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200501005457/en/TPG-Sixth-Street-Partners-Announce-Completion-Agreement and https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200605005012/en/
Our investment objective is to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation primarily in U.S.-domiciled middle-market companies through direct originations of investments. These directly originated investments primarily include senior secured loans and, to a lesser extent, originations of mezzanine loans and investments in corporate bonds, equity securities, and structured products.
Our common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TSLX. For more detailed stock information, please visit our Stock Information page.
No. Investors may purchase Sixth Street Specialty Lending's shares only through a broker.
The CUSIP number for Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s common stock is 83012A109.
The CUSIP number for Sixth Street Specialty Lending’s senior unsecured notes due 2026 is 83012AAA7, senior unsecured notes due 2028 is 83012AAB5 and senior unsecured notes due 2029 is 83012AAC3
Our transfer agent, dividend paying agent and registrar is Equiniti Trust Company, LLC.
The quarterly net asset value per share may be obtained in our public filings (i.e., Forms 10-Q and 10-K) with the Securities and Exchange Commission via its website www.sec.gov or by visiting our SEC Filings page.
You are a registered shareholder if you hold shares of Sixth Street Specialty Lending common stock registered in your name and you either hold a certificate representing such shares or such shares are held in book-entry form with our transfer agent, American Stock Transfer & Trust Company LLC (AST). If your shares are not registered in your name but instead are held in the name of your bank, broker or other intermediary, your securities are considered to be held in "street name".
Yes. Sixth Street Specialty Lending intends to pay dividends or make distributions to shareholders of record on a quarterly basis. Please note that dividends may not continue at the current level, if at all. To view our historical dividends, please visit our Dividends page.
Yes. We have adopted a dividend reinvestment plan ("DRIP"), pursuant to which we will reinvest in common stock all cash dividends declared by the Board on behalf of all registered shareholders who do not "opt out" of the DRIP, electing to receive their dividends in cash. The number of shares issued pursuant to the DRIP will be determined based on the market price of shares of our common stock, except in circumstances where the market price exceeds our most recently computed net asset value ("NAV") per share, in which case we will issue shares at the greater of (i) the most recently computed net asset value per share and (ii) 95% of the current market price per share or such lesser discount to the current market price per share that still exceeds the most recently computed NAV per share; any fractional shares will be paid in cash. Accordingly, participants in the DRIP may receive a greater number of shares of our common stock than the number of shares associated with the market price of our common stock. Shareholders who "opt out" of our DRIP may experience dilution in their ownership percentage of our common stock over time.
If you hold your shares through a bank, broker or other intermediary, please contact your bank, broker or other intermediary to inquire about dividend reinvestment options. Note that even if you have elected to automatically reinvest your TSLX stock with your broker, your broker may have “opted out” of our DRIP (which utilizes DTC’s dividend reinvestment service), and you may therefore not be receiving the 5% pricing discount when applicable. We encourage any shareholder interested in participating in our DRIP to contact his or her broker to make sure such DRIP participation election has been made for the benefit of such shareholder through DTC. In making such DRIP election, be sure to specify to your broker the desire to participate in the "Sixth Street Specialty Lending DRIP through DTC" that issues shares based on 95% of the market price (a 5% discount to the market price) when applicable, and not the broker's own "synthetic DRIP” (if any) with no such discount. Do not assume your broker will automatically place you in our DRIP through DTC; you will need to make this election proactively with your broker. The Sixth Street Specialty Lending DRIP only applies to registered shareholders.
Please check with your brokerage firm for more details on their participation.
Dividends are generally taxable in the year in which they are declared by Sixth Street Specialty Lending. Following the end of each year we provide our US-based investors a Form 1099-DIV, and in relation to our non-US investors a Form 1042-S, and a tax status letter to shareholders that describes the taxability of the dividends paid in the preceding year, including a breakdown between ordinary and capital gain dividends. DRIP participants are taxed as if they had received cash dividends. For information about taxes in respect of dividends received by you, you should consult your own tax advisor.
No. Sixth Street Specialty Lending's dividend is generally not a "qualified dividend' for tax purposes and therefore generally is not eligible for the lower qualified dividend tax rate. As a regulated investment company, Sixth Street Specialty Lending generally does not pay income taxes on its earnings at the corporate level, but passes its income through to shareholders in the nature that it was earned. Therefore, a portion of our dividend is usually taxable to our shareholders at their ordinary income tax rates and a portion may qualify for the long-term capital gains tax rates. For information about taxes in respect of dividends received by you, you should consult your own tax advisor.
Please visit our Analyst Coverage page to view a detailed list of the analysts who follow the company.
If your shares are held in a brokerage account please contact your broker or financial institution, otherwise please contact our transfer agent, American Stock Transfer & Trust Company LLC (AST) as follows:
Phone: 1-800-937-5449 (toll free in Canada and the United States) between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time or 718-921-8124 (international direct dial). Email: help@astfinancial.com Website: https://www.astfinancial.com/
You can request information via our Contact Us page, or by contacting Investor Relations by email at irtslx@sixthstreet.com.
Please visit our Email Alerts page to sign up for email alerts on our SEC filings, presentations, events, news, and end-of-day stock quotes.
KPMG
December 31
May 23, 2024
BDCs generally are required to meet a coverage ratio, or BDC asset coverage ratio, of total assets to total senior securities, which include borrowings and any preferred stock, of at least 200% (equivalent to a leverage ratio as measured by debt-to-equity of 1.0x). In October 2018, our stockholders approved the application of the reduced BDC asset coverage ratio. As a result, the BDC asset coverage ratio applicable to us decreased from 200% to 150% (equivalent to a leverage ratio as measured by debt-to-equity of 2.0x) effective October 9, 2018. TSLX has historically operated at conservative regulatory leverage levels, in all cases with significant cushion to both the previously applicable (200%) and the newly adopted (150%) regulatory limits. The target leverage range for TSLX, measured on a debt-to-equity basis, is 0.90x to 1.25x (equivalent to an asset coverage ratio of approximately 180% to approximately 211%), which translates to an asset coverage ratio in excess of 150%, as required by the regulations.
We have elected to be treated as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. As long as we qualify as a RIC, we will not be taxed on our investment company taxable income or realized net capital gains, to the extent that such taxable income or gains are distributed, or deemed to be distributed, to stockholders on a timely basis. To maintain RIC tax treatment, we must, among other things, distribute, with respect to each taxable year, at least 90% of our investment company taxable income (i.e., our net ordinary income and our realized net short-term capital gains in excess of realized net long-term capital losses, if any).