CION Investment Corporation Announces Expansion of Its Share Repurchase Policy by 20% to up to $60 Million
June 27 2022 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
CION Investment Corporation (NYSE: CION) (“CION” or the
“Company”) today announced that its Board of Directors, including
the independent directors, has increased the amount of shares of
common stock that may be repurchased under its existing Share
Repurchase Policy (the “Policy”) by $10 million, or 20%, to up to
an aggregate of $60 million. Additionally, CION will enter into a
trading plan adopted in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange
Act (the “10b5-1 Repurchase Plan”) to facilitate repurchases under
the Policy during its first available trading window after the
final one-third of CION’s common stock becomes available for
trading on the NYSE on July 5, 2022.
Additionally, it is anticipated that an affiliate of CION’s
investment advisor will also enter into a trading plan adopted in
accordance with Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act to permit such
affiliate to also repurchase shares of CION’s common stock. This
additional trading plan will be established in addition to recent
purchases made by senior members of the CION management team and
several directors, including certain independent directors. For
information on recent common stock purchases by CION’s executive
officers and directors, please see
https://www.cionbdc.com/#resources (SEC Filings).
“We believe that our solid balance sheet, strong credit quality,
and prudent investment strategy has positioned our portfolio well
to minimize the effect of current market volatility and take
advantage of new investment opportunities. Through March 31, 2022,
we continued to diversify our portfolio across several industries
and our investment and origination activity remained solid, while
our loss rate and non-accruals remained low. Given that our common
stock currently trades at a significant discount to our net asset
value, we strongly believe that increasing the total amount to be
repurchased under our previously announced Policy is an efficient
deployment of existing capital and should be very accretive to our
current shareholders,” said Mark Gatto, co-Chief Executive Officer
of CION.
“As of March 31, 2022, CION’s net investment income increased to
$19.5 million, or $0.34 per share, as compared to $18.4 million, or
$0.32 per share, as of December 31, 2021, while having a high
allocation of first-lien senior secured loans of approximately 94%
and a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95x. Furthermore, we believe
that our relatively conservative investment strategy has served
investors well with investments on non-accrual status amounting to
only 0.6% at fair value as of March 31, 2022, and a cumulative
annualized loss rate of only 0.11% since inception. Additionally,
the recent expansion of our senior secured credit facility with
JPMorgan by $100 million to $675 million and the $50 million
unsecured term loan from an existing lender gives us the
flexibility and the leverage capacity needed to prudently
capitalize on market conditions and hopefully increase earnings for
our shareholders,” added Michael A. Reisner, co-Chief Executive
Officer of CION.
Share Repurchase Policy
As previously announced, on September 15, 2021, CION’s Board of
Directors, including the independent directors, approved the Policy
authorizing CION to repurchase up to $50 million of its outstanding
common stock. Under the Policy, CION expects to purchase shares of
its common stock through various means such as open market
transactions, including block purchases, and privately negotiated
transactions. The number of shares repurchased and the timing,
manner, price and amount of any repurchases will be determined at
CION’s discretion. Factors are expected to include, but are not
limited to, share price, trading volume and general market
conditions, along with CION’s general business conditions. The
Policy may be suspended or discontinued at any time and does not
obligate CION to acquire any specific number of shares of its
common stock.
The 10b5-1 Repurchase Plan will be entered into by CION and
adopted in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act based in
part on historical trading data with respect to its shares. The
10b5-1 Repurchase Plan would permit common stock to be repurchased
at a time that CION might otherwise be precluded from doing so
under insider trading laws or self-imposed trading restrictions.
The 10b5-1 Repurchase Plan will be administered by an independent
broker and will be subject to price, market volume and timing
restrictions.
ABOUT CION INVESTMENT CORPORATION
CION Investment Corporation is a leading publicly listed
business development company that had approximately $1.8 billion in
assets as of March 31, 2022. CION seeks to generate current income
and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation for investors by
focusing primarily on senior secured loans to U.S. middle-market
companies. CION is advised by CION Investment Management, LLC, a
registered investment adviser and an affiliate of CION. For more
information, please visit www.cionbdc.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that
involve substantial risks and uncertainties. You can identify these
statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,”
“will,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “target,”
“estimate,” “intend,” “continue,” or “believe” or the negatives
thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. You
should read statements that contain these words carefully because
they discuss CION’s plans, strategies, prospects and expectations
concerning its business, operating results, financial condition and
other similar matters. These statements represent CION’s belief
regarding future events that, by their nature, are uncertain and
outside of CION’s control. There are likely to be events in the
future, however, that CION is not able to predict accurately or
control. Any forward-looking statement made by CION in this press
release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or
events that could cause CION’s actual results to differ, possibly
materially from its expectations, include, but are not limited to,
the risks, uncertainties and other factors CION identifies in the
sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements”
in filings CION makes with the SEC, and it is not possible for CION
to predict or identify all of them. CION undertakes no obligation
to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise,
except as required by law.
OTHER INFORMATION
The information in this press release is summary information
only and should be read in conjunction with CION’s Current Reports
on Form 8-K, which CION filed with the SEC on May 12, 2022 and June
27, 2022, as well as CION’s other reports filed with the SEC. A
copy of CION’s Current Reports on Form 8-K and CION’s other reports
filed with the SEC can be found on CION’s website at www.cionbdc.com and the SEC’s website at
www.sec.gov.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220627005217/en/
Media Alexander Cavalieri acavalieri@cioninvestments.com
Investor Relations 1-800-343-3736 Analysts and
Institutional Investors Lena Cati The Equity Group
lcati@equityny.com 212-836-9611
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