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Trinity Capital Inc
NASDAQ:TRIN

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Trinity Capital Inc
NASDAQ:TRIN
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Price: 14.63 USD 1.04% Market Closed
Updated: May 4, 2024

Earnings Call Analysis

Q4-2023 Analysis
Trinity Capital Inc

Trinity Capital Reports Strong 2023 and Growth

In 2023, Trinity Capital saw a significant increase in high-quality top-of-funnel deals and mature companies seeking funding, leading to an average deal size growth of 20%. With a robust pipeline, the company focused on proactive funding, especially first liens, acknowledging a lessening interest in second liens, indicative of companies seeking alternatives to traditional bank solutions. Trinity Capital maintained its portfolio granularity and leveraged off-balance sheet vehicles for growth without over-concentration on individual deals. Record fundings, ample liquidity, and strategies for raising both equity and debt have positioned the company well for future opportunities. The management expects to begin deploying capital in Q2 as planned.

Trinity Capital's Remarkable Year Capped by Fourth-Quarter Triumphs

Trinity Capital concluded 2023 on a high note, achieving record fourth-quarter results and significant milestones over the year. The firm expanded its platform by 29%, growing assets under management to roughly $1.5 billion. Increased total fundings to $642 million and delivered record net investment income of $90 million, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 26%. This strong financial performance enabled a rise in the quarterly dividend to $0.50 per share, marking the twelfth sequential quarter of dividend growth.

Strategic Foresight in Portfolio and Operations

Throughout 2023, Trinity Capital's portfolio companies raised nearly $3 billion aggregate capital, showcasing the high-quality portfolio and investor confidence. Trinity's investment strategy emphasizes nurturing client relationships beyond capital provision and promises strong returns for investors. The company projects a robust 2024 for sponsor-backed growth-oriented companies, expanding its potential for platform growth further.

Investment Income Surge and Strategy Validation

The total investment income of $48 million in Q4 represents a 15% year-over-year increase. Trinity's disciplined and exacting investment choices have culminated in a core yield of 16.7%. Noteworthy is their 16.9% return on average equity and 8.3% return on average assets, achieved while maintaining leverage at the lower end of the target range. The net asset value per share also showed an uptick to $13.19, cementing the company's strategic success.

Capitalizing on Portfolio Performance

With an eye on the future, Trinity expanded its ATM program and successfully raised $46 million at a premium to net asset value (NAV), bolstering its long-term growth. The portfolio's credit quality remains stable at an above 96% fair value performance, while nonaccrual assets represent only a minor percentage, ensuring confidence in resolutions that serve both the portfolio and shareholder interests. Core Scientific, recently emerged from bankruptcy, is now off nonaccrual status, and Trinity intends to sell the equity received during restructuring to benefit shareholders.

Financial Prudence and Opportunistic Growth

By charging management and incentive fees on capital managed off-balance sheet—100% owned by Trinity's shareholders—Trinity retains strong liquidity to seize growth opportunities strategically. The continued focus on both debt and equity financing ensures the company's position to escalate the platform efficiently, aligning with the core goal of maximizing shareholder value.

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2023-Q4

from 0
Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Jamie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Trinity Capital's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Our hosts for today are: Kyle Brown, Chief Executive Officer; Michael Testa, Chief Financial Officer; Gerry Harder, Chief Operating Officer; and Ben Malcolmson, Head of Investor Relations. Ron Kundich, Chief Credit Officer; and Sarah Stanton, Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel, are also present. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at approximately 3:00 P.M. Eastern. [Operator Instructions]It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Trinity Capital's Head of Investor Relations, Ben Malcolmson. Please go ahead.

B
Ben Malcolmson
executive

Thank you, Jamie, and welcome to Trinity Capital's Earnings Conference Call for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023. Trinity's financial results were released today prior to the opening of the financial markets and can be accessed from our Investor Relations website at ir.trinitycap.com. A replay of the call will be available on our website or by using the telephone number provided in today's earnings release.Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements that are not based on historical facts made during this call, including any statements relating to financial guidance may be deemed forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Because these forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We encourage you to refer to our most recent SEC filings for information on some of these risk factors. Trinity Capital assumes no obligation or responsibility to update any forward-looking statements.Please note that the information reported on this call speaks only as of today, March 06, 2024. Therefore, you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate at the time of any replay listening or transcript reading.Now please allow me to turn the call over to Trinity Capital's CEO, Kyle Brown.

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Thanks, Ben. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Trinity delivered record fourth quarter results to round out a tremendous year for our platform. In 2023, we advanced our strategy, significantly grew the platform, strengthened our balance sheet, diversified our portfolio and enhanced multiple revenue streams, all to the long-term benefit of our shareholders. Most notably, we outperformed across multiple operating metrics, setting several financial and performance records throughout the efforts of our incredibly talented team.Headline accomplishments include record quarterly fundings of $267 million in Q4, contributing to a record year with $642 million of total fundings in 2023. Platform AUM growth of 29% year-over-year, pushing our assets under management to approximately $1.5 billion and a record $90 million of net investment income, up 26% year-over-year. This exceptional performance allowed us to increase our quarterly dividend to $0.50 per share in the fourth quarter, making this the 12th consecutive quarter we increased our regular dividend.In the face of industry-wide pressure from disruption in the banking industry in 2023, we emphasized our proactive portfolio management strategies and partnered with borrowers to navigate a challenging operating environment while continuing to grow our assets under management. Additionally, we continue to invest in our platform by growing our team, scaling the strategy, which we believe widens our funnel as we pursue attractive investment opportunities across the ecosystem of growth-oriented companies.We've organized our business around distinct vertical market opportunities: tech lending, Life Sciences, equipment financing and warehouse lending, each with its own dedicated originations, credit and portfolio management teams. The performance of our Life Sciences vertical provides an excellent example of Trinity's commitment to scale and asset diversification. We launched this business vertical in 2022. And since that time, we've opened a satellite office in the location of San Diego and hired best-in-class talent to expand our deal teams. As of December 31, 2023, our Life Sciences portfolio sits at approximately $183 million on a cost basis and represents nearly 14% of our total portfolio.Within our tech lending vertical, we continue to grow our footprint by adding proven experienced talent to our deal teams. In 2023, we expanded our East Coast presence with the appointments of 3 new originators in New York and Boston, giving us a regional footprint in several major tech markets. We also began to realize the benefits of our direct lending joint venture in 2023. As we've mentioned in prior earnings calls, this off-balance sheet vehicle provides incremental capital for growth and accretive returns to our shareholders. In Q4, 2023, the joint venture provided approximately $1.1 million of interest, dividend and fee income to the BBC and had $153.4 million of assets at fair value as of December 31, 2023.We ended 2023 with a strong investment pipeline, including $358 million in unfunded commitments. But as a reminder, many of our unfunded commitments are subject to performance milestones and all of Trinity's unfunded term loan and equipment financing commitments are subject to ongoing diligence and approval by our investment committee. We will remain very selective and committed to adhering to our disciplined deal selection and credit underwriting process, and as a result, we are seeing larger and more mature businesses enter the pipeline. This is great momentum as we head into 2024.As we said before, our team is the cornerstone of Trinity's success and will be the key to our growth moving forward. We are committed to creating a unique culture of excellence that is built around our 6 pillars of humility, integrity, trust, uncommon care, continuous learning and entrepreneurialism, all of which create the differentiated lending platform that we've built here at Trinity. We strive to provide value above and beyond expectations to every part of the Trinity platform, whether that's employees, clients or investors. And as an internally managed BDC, our structure allows us to maintain 100% alignment with our shareholders' best interests.Another key factor is that as a direct lender, we continue to own our pipeline with originators strategically located around the country to bring in opportunities through deep relationships with sponsors, banks and operators. For Trinity, the commitment to our portfolio companies and the relationships we've developed as a result allows us to invest in a wide array of opportunities supported by quality sponsors. In 2023, an aggregate of nearly $3 billion was raised by 45 of our portfolio companies. Our high-quality portfolio of companies continue to secure the funding they seek, and Trinity continues to be a less dilutive source of growth capital for them.We focus on doing 3 things exceptionally well here at Trinity: exhibiting uncommon care for our employees and partners; being more than just money for our clients; and providing outsized returns for our investors. We expect 2024 to be a strong one for sponsor-backed growth-oriented companies, providing us with the opportunity to continue to expand this platform. We look forward to continuing this trajectory into 2024 and in the years to come.And with that, I'll turn the call over to Michael Testa, our CFO. Mike?

M
Michael Testa
executive

Thank you, Kyle, and welcome to everybody joining us today. As Kyle mentioned, we set records in several key areas in 2023. In Q4, we achieved record total investment income of $48 million, a 15% increase over the same period in 2022. Total investment income for 2023 was $182 million, a 25% increase over 2022. Our core yield on the portfolio for Q4 was once again strong at 16.7%. Our core yield, which excludes nonrecurring fee income, was 15.2%, down slightly from 15.5% core yield in the prior quarter. Net investment income for the quarter was a record $25.1 million or $0.57 per basic share, an increase of 16% compared to $21.6 million or $0.62 per basic share from the same period of the prior year. Our net investment income represents 114% coverage of our quarterly distribution.Having outearned our regular and supplemental distributions throughout 2023, we ended the year with more than $64 million in undistributed income or approximately $1.39 per share. Our platform continues to generate strong returns for our shareholders with ROAE, based on net investment income over average equity of 16.9% and ROAA based on NII over average total assets of 8.3%, all while operating with leverage at the low end of our target range. As of December 31, 2023, net asset value increased 7% to $611 million and NAV per share increased by $13.19 per share, up $0.02 from Q3. Year-over-year NAV per share increased $0.04 from $13.15 per share. This increase in NAV was primarily the result of record net investment income exceeding the company's declared dividends and accretive equity offering.Moving to liquidity. As of December 31, 2023, we had total liquidity of $142 million comprised of $137 million of undrawn capacity under our credit facility and approximately $5 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents. Additionally, we have continued to co-invest with our joint venture, which provides additional investment liquidity. And as of December 31, had approximately $100 million of uncalled capital and availability on the JV's credit facility. Our net leverage ratio, which represents principal debt outstanding less cash on hand, was 1.05x as of December 31, 2023. Our strong liquidity position and the fact that we are currently at the lower end of our targeted leverage range, provides Trinity with the flexibility to manage a strong pipeline and be opportunistic in the marketplace. During the quarter, we expanded our ATM program and added another sales [ agent. ] In Q4, we raised approximately $46 million in proceeds at a premium to NAV, further supporting the long-term growth of Trinity.I will now turn the call over to our COO, Gerry Harder to discuss our portfolio performance and platform in more detail. Gerry?

G
Gerald Harder
executive

Thank you, Michael. Trinity Capital experienced tremendous growth in 2023. As we continue to scale and diversify our platform in 2024 and beyond, we're hyper-focused on maintaining our disciplined and systematic investment approach as well as the culture and core values that have been the driving forces for our success, and which differentiate Trinity from its peers. The composition of our portfolio remained consistent with prior quarters and shows diversification across investment type, transaction size, industry and geography.We've intentionally constructed a portfolio with varied segmentation across 21 industries with our largest industry exposure space technology, representing 14.1% of the portfolio at cost. As mentioned earlier, our Life Sciences portfolio represented a total of 14% of our portfolio at cost and was further comprised of a mix of medical devices, Healthcare technology and biotechnology with minimal regulatory exposure. Equipment financings represent 25.5% of our year-end portfolio on a cost basis.I'd like to address one investment in our Equipment Finance vertical. We recently announced the commitment of a $120 million in aggregate equipment financing to Rocket Lab, a leading provider of Space Launch services and Advanced Satellite technology. This deal closed just prior to year-end and shows on our year-end scheduled investments with a cost and fair value of $108.4 million for the equipment financing. However, subsequent to year-end and in addition to 3 scheduled amortization payments, the company repaid approximately $40 million of principal. Additionally, we syndicated a portion of the remaining principal to our joint venture, bringing our investment in Rocket Lab to approximately 4.5% of our debt portfolio on a cost basis.During Q4, early debt repayments were in line with our historical average, totaling $43 million, including an early payoff of our digital asset equipment financing to Hut 8 following the completion of their merger. We also received $41 million in scheduled repayments and $25 million of proceeds from sales to our joint venture.Shifting gears to credit. The credit quality of our portfolio companies remained stable with approximately 96.5% of our portfolio performing on a fair value basis. Our average internal credit rating for the fourth quarter stood at 2.7% based on our 1 to 5 rating system, with 5 indicating very strong performance. This rating is in line with our average credit rating in each of the last 4 quarters and reinforces Trinity's track record of low loss rates. At year-end, we had 5 portfolio companies on nonaccrual, with a total fair value of approximately $43.2 million, representing 3.5% of the total debt portfolio. However, this figure includes our investment in Core Scientific at a cost and fair value of $23.2 million and $25.4 million, respectively.Subsequent to year-end, we removed our investment in Core Scientific from nonaccrual status after its January 2024 exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and our election to receive shares of its common stock in lieu of our debt investment. As we have communicated in the past, in general, we are not equity investors and would anticipate making an orderly sale of our equity position for the benefit of our shareholders. Outside of Core Scientific, our other 4 nonaccrual assets represented only 1.5% of our debt portfolio on a fair value basis. We have a dedicated team of investment professionals who are solely focused on portfolio management and asset quality, and they continue to take a vigilant approach to the quality and overall health of our portfolio companies. We remain confident in their ability to find resolutions that benefit both the portfolio company and our shareholders.At this time, we'd like to open the line for questions. Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We'll go first to Vilas Abraham with UBS.

V
Vilas Abraham
analyst

For my first one, I just wanted to ask about capital management. So you relevered the balance sheet in Q4, but also tapped the ATM for equity issuance. So as you think about supporting growth in '24, which clearly looks like there's an opportunity to do, how do you expect to balance the 2? And is that leverage target range still the 1.1 to 1.3 that you've talked about before?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Vilas, this is Kyle. So we expect that leverage ratio to be between 1 and 1.3. I think some of the benefits that we are beginning to experience and will experience further in the future is managing capital off balance sheet and generating new income gives us the ability to really keep that leverage maybe even lower than some of the expectations or some of our history, giving us really ample liquidity to be opportunistic with what the market presents. And so I think that we're going to continue to build the balance sheet. We're going to continue to add in equity and leverage, appropriately.As you've seen, though, we make sure we do that to the benefit of shareholders so that we can continue to increase that dividend and outearn it. And so, that certainly plays into every discussion or thought around building the balance sheet.

M
Michael Testa
executive

The only thing I'd add to that is also we don't have any immediate maturities on our borrowings, but we will look to refinance opportunistically throughout 2024 on the debt side.

V
Vilas Abraham
analyst

Helpful. And then, just on the JV portfolio. So it's up about $25 million to $30 million or so per quarter. The last couple of quarters around $150 million now, I believe. Is that the pace that we should continue to expect as you try to get to, I think, closer to that $500 million in capacity for that portfolio?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Yes. I think, you'll continue to see that be consistent adding new assets. And I think the general theme of adding assets off balance sheet and co-investing alongside of the BDC, that will just be a regular theme on an ongoing basis, whether it's a JV or a separate entity or separate entities.

Operator

We'll go next to Christopher Nolan with Ladenburg Thalmann.

C
Christopher Nolan
analyst

What was the driver for the higher fee income in the quarter?

M
Michael Testa
executive

Yes. It's a combination. It's Mike Testa here. It's a combination of some of the fees from early repayments that came in the quarter, we noted Hut 8, and we had another nice repayment on [ a physician ] that was funded 1 or 2 years ago. So we got nice repayment on that. But also, with our equipment financings in the quarter, we get the benefit of some of the upfront structuring fees that come in at that quarter. So you could see in our fundings this quarter skewed to the equipment financing vertical, and that -- those fees being recognized in Q4.

C
Christopher Nolan
analyst

Great. And then I guess, turning to Rocket Labs. Space tends to be a very expensive business. And should we see more activity on the Space front and for also big funding commitments like that?

G
Gerald Harder
executive

Yes. I think, Chris, I'd start that discussion with just our equipment finance vertical in general, right? As we've discussed in the past and in other prepared remarks, we're looking for mission-critical equipment for growth stage businesses with strong investor capitalization support and unique technology, et cetera. So I think Space definitely fits within that equipment vertical target. And so to that extent, it's an exciting Space for us, but we're really focused more on the equipment than any one industry, if that makes sense.

C
Christopher Nolan
analyst

Great. And I guess a final question. Some of your BDC -- technology BDC peers are seeing just slower deal flow just from the slowdown in the venture sector. You guys don't seem to be experiencing that. Is that fair to say? And who would you consider your biggest competitors are in the equipment financing area?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Chris, this is Kyle. So, I think one of the benefits we have is having these multiple verticals, which really are not all influenced by venture, right? And so equipment financing, that is a very different and differentiated business. There's similarities there, but those are not all venture-backed. They could be PE-backed. They could be small market, public companies, et cetera. Our Life Science and Healthcare business with us focusing primarily on commercialized products, scaling rapidly kind of post-FDA approval primarily.It's just a different market altogether. And then, so I think we're just -- we're playing in different boxes than many of our peers. The venture debt business, I would say, last year was a little bit more challenging, and we have seen a lot of tailwinds really over the last couple of quarters there, though.On the equipment financing angle, there's really not notable groups to mention there. It's pretty discombobulated, just smaller peers, nonpublic type peers. And so, I would -- there's not even a single group I would point out that I'd say we compete directly with. I think, we're one of the best-in-class for VC and PE-backed growth-stage companies on the equipment side.Sorry, that's a nonanswer. There's just -- there's not notable groups I'd mention there.

Operator

We'll go next to Paul Johnson with KBW.

P
Paul Johnson
analyst

Just one more on Rocket Labs. Just to make sure I heard correctly, it sounded like there was a pretty big pay down $48 million or so post-quarter. I'm just curious why the sudden repayment on the loan was that expected? And is there any sort of fee income associated with that prepayment?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Yes. I mean subsequent to the funding, the company raised a significant amount of capital, over $300 million of new equity in a convertible note and subsequently paid us down a bit. What was the other part of that question?

G
Gerald Harder
executive

Yes. Did we recognize the fee income?

P
Paul Johnson
analyst

Fee income.

G
Gerald Harder
executive

Yes. So this was somewhat scripted, Paul, in that. There was a timing issue of the company's need to refinance their prior facility and the timing of the Trinity facility and the timing of their additional capital. So we satisfied that need as of year-end, and they repaid us $40 million shortly after the first [ of the ] year as we expected.

P
Paul Johnson
analyst

That makes sense. And then, Chris asked a little bit, but I'll ask again maybe in a different way, but 15% or so of the portfolio is in Space technology, that may be a little bit lower post-quarter with that Rocket Labs pay down. But obviously, that's a meaningful exposure within the portfolio. I'm just kind of maybe curious to get your thoughts on, I guess, the opportunity that you think that you see there, and that's all.

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Sure. So the exposure itself, it could -- we could really break it down and show you how granular really even within that one industry, our exposure is. So we're financing equipment, right? So we're really focused on companies that are raising a significant amount of capital and equity capital. We trail those equity investors and we find mission-critical pieces of equipment. And that's typically -- these are nonspecialized pieces of equipment. They have a use case outside of the company, outside of the industry, and we're financing that mission-critical equipment and providing an advance against it, that's lower than the value of that equipment generally.So even within the Space industry, there's going to be a lot of different pieces of off-the-shelf type equipment, manufacturing equipment, et cetera. And pretty diversified even there. And so the exposure to that one industry is really just because there's a significant amount of equity flowing to that particular industry. That particular industry has significant CapEx needs and requirements, which we're able to go in and finance. We're seeing that with infrastructure-type companies as well. And so, you'll probably continue to see that market and industry expanding for us, because there's a lot of equipment needs there as well.So we don't really think about it. We show it as the industry and exposure to that industry. But within it, you're talking about a lot of different pieces of mission-critical equipment that have real value whether or not it was with the company or not.

P
Paul Johnson
analyst

Got it. And last one for me. The Core Scientific shares, do you guys -- are you guys subject to any kind of lockup or restriction period with those shares?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

This is Kyle again. We ended Q4 with 5.64 million shares. We are not subject to any hold, and we're going to liquidate those shares in a timely manner that makes sense to maximize shareholder value.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We'll go next to Bryce Rowe with B. Riley.

B
Bryce Rowe
analyst

I guess, good afternoon from the East Coast. Wanted to maybe start on a comment you made, Kyle. You said you're putting larger, more mature companies or they're entering your investment pipeline. And I think we've seen, obviously, the Space deal, Equipment Finance deal and then another deal here recently that was a little bit larger than what we might see from you all typically.Can you talk a little bit about that process of larger, more mature companies entering the pipeline and what it might mean from a -- I guess, from a growth perspective, both on-balance sheet and off-balance sheet?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Yes. So I think we really started to see last year, Q1, Q2, a pretty significant increase to top of funnel. We also, in that same vein, we also really tightened up the bottom of the funnel and the requirements for deals to get across the finish line for funding. So percentage of deals that come in the top and then we fund has actually decreased across the board. But what we've seen are more mature companies that are and probably were capable of getting all of their needs satisfied from a bank, are now looking for alternative solutions. And we really are positioned well there with permanent source of capital, the ability to make commitments, follow through on those commitments. And so we're just -- we're positioned really well to provide capital to those companies.So top of the funnel, significantly increased quality of deals. Now certainly, there's some quality of deals that's less attractive that we're filtering out as well. But we are also seeing a lot of really mature companies further down the road. Average deal size increased 20% last year for us, so just it kind of -- it reflects. We also saw significantly more first lien, and the majority of our portfolio is first lien, but we are seeing less kind of second lien type opportunities, which just shows you companies are looking for a different type of solution and alternative type solution to the banks. So we feel good about where we're positioned there. Pipeline is robust, and we're being proactive and we're being opportunistic on what we fund.

G
Gerald Harder
executive

Yes. And I would add that we do remain committed to our portfolio granularity. It's something you hear us talk a lot about quarter-on-quarter, right? And that we want to be very granular across industry and across financing size among other things. And so that's why we felt it was important to clarify the position on Rocket Lab, right, to reassure our investors that we are committed to that level of granularity.

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Yes, the off-balance sheet vehicles will continue to give us the ability to, yes, grow check size, of course, but a lot of that is just making sure we're the incumbent lender. When our companies do really well, we want to keep them. We don't want to lose them to somebody else. We want the ability to fund them and keep funding them into the future and continue to help the companies grow. And so I think you'll see our off balance sheet vehicles give us the ability to do that. And then also enter like this, enter into new transactions at a higher price point while not risking and putting too much capital into any one deal at trend.

B
Bryce Rowe
analyst

All right. That's helpful. And maybe a related question. I would imagine with the funding profile, record fundings here in '23. It sounds like your pipeline is really strong. There was some question about kind of liquidity and how you think about your liquidity at this point. But maybe, give us an idea of how you're thinking about funding it? I mean, obviously, you have the ATM, that's up and running and available with a premium price to NAV. But just kind of curious how you think about the debt side of the equation, whether it would be the secured facility expanding that, or trying to get more active with the unsecured notes to market?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Yes. I mean listen, it's going to be a combination of all those things, right? On the debt side, we're making sure that we've got secured financing. We're making sure it's tuned out. We are making sure that we raise equity most efficiently. We have really ample liquidity right now on- and off-balance sheet. As we've indicated, we are raising additional capital off-balance sheet to even bolster that liquidity further. We're charging management fees and incentive fees on that capital, which will -- 100% of that is owned by our shareholders' trend. So we have, and we're creating as many options as possible to give ourselves liquidity to put ourselves in a position to be opportunistic and grow this platform in a way that's beneficial for our shareholders. We're really focused on that.

Operator

We'll return now to Vilas Abraham with UBS.

V
Vilas Abraham
analyst

I just wanted to ask if there were any updates on timing, specifically on the RIA side of things that you're able to share?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

We can't give you timing on exactly how the capital is going to be rolled out, how much of it and when. Our expectation and guidance has been that we'll start deploying in Q2, and that hasn't changed.

V
Vilas Abraham
analyst

Okay. And then just maybe one last kind of bigger picture question. You mentioned Life Sciences 14% of the book as of 12/31. Just how are you thinking about that particular vertical longer term? I guess the attractiveness of deploying there now and just longer term, the concentration that, that could get to? And yes, just any color there would be helpful.

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Yes. That's great. We are really excited about our Life Science and Healthcare business. We see incredible opportunities to grow there, seeing significant equity dollars flow back into that industry. If you think about big picture, what we're doing here, and I mentioned the different verticals, we really want to see these very complementary verticals continue to grow. From an asset management standpoint, we're really able to diversify our assets so that we're not -- a bank goes out of business or there's volatility in one sector, it's not going to have a massive impact on our overall business. And so, we're really focused on diversifying into these different verticals and growing each of them, respectively. And so, you'll continue seeing Life Science build. You'll see some of that exposure or overall percentage probably grow as we build that business. And you'll see further diversification across the platform into these complementary verticals.

Operator

We'll go next to Casey Alexander with Compass Point.

C
Casey Alexander
analyst

You mentioned that second lien is a shrinking part of your portfolio, but still 23% of your portfolio, if I read the release right, which is still one of the higher amounts in the venture debt space. So I'm curious how that splits between secured lending and equipment finance. And sort of what's the typical kind of structure that has you end up in a second lien position and makes you feel comfortable there?

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Yes. Gerry and I will just ping pong on this one a little bit. So Casey, the way we think about second lien deals, these are going to be some of our stronger transactions. None of those are equipment financings, those are all secured loans, term loans. They're all in the tech lending vertical and typically that's us just partnering with the bank. There -- they may be providing receivable financing and the overall cost of capital, it's lower, it provides more runway for the company. And we are typically going into those because they're just very strong deals where a bank is willing to enable some of the capital. And so we generally go into those deals with the mindset that we're willing to do the whole thing, and if it came down to it, we pay off the bank. That's just our -- that's how we look at it.But having a bank in there, partnering with the bank and providing a lower cost of capital is just a lot better for the company. And so it's a way that we partner and do business with the banks, and it's also a way to benefit the company by extending the runway further.

C
Casey Alexander
analyst

Do you have the right to buy the bank out of their position?

G
Gerald Harder
executive

Generally, we do. And I would say our working relationships with the bank is such that even if that was not explicitly in the docs, I would expect that to be an option that they would gladly take up. But typically, that is included in our docs.

C
Casey Alexander
analyst

That's my only question.

Operator

And that will conclude today's question-and-answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to Kyle Brown, Chief Executive Officer, for any closing or additional remarks.

K
Kyle Brown
executive

Thanks, Jamie. We're proud of our 2023 results and feel like we've laid the groundwork over the last 18 months to scale this business in a unique and profitable way for investors.Lastly, our management team will be in New York and Boston later this month, and we look forward to meeting with any investors and key stakeholders. Please don't hesitate to reach out to Ben to schedule a meeting. We'd like to thank everybody for joining and participating in our call today. We appreciate your interest and investment in Trinity Capital. Have a great rest of your day. Thanks. Bye.

Operator

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time.

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