NOTE 6 – Variable Interest Entities

Collateralized Loan Obligation Funds - Closed

The Company, through its subsidiary, TCA, acts as asset manager to various CLO funds. TCA earns asset management fees in accordance with the terms of its asset management agreements with the following CLO funds.

	Offering	Offering
(Dollars in thousands)	Date	Amount
Trinitas CLO I, LTD (Trinitas I)	May 1, 2014	$	400,000
Trinitas CLO II, LTD (Trinitas II)	August 4, 2014	$	416,000
Doral CLO II, LTD (Doral II)⁽¹⁾	April 26, 2012	$	416,460
Doral CLO III, LTD (Doral III)⁽¹⁾	December 17, 2012	$	310,800
Trinitas CLO III, LTD (Trinitas III)	June 9, 2015	$	409,375

⁽¹⁾ Acquired management contracts as part of the DMI acquisition discussed in Note 2.

The securities sold in the CLO offerings were issued in a series of tranches ranging from an AAA rated debt tranche to an unrated tranche of subordinated notes. The Company does not hold any of the securities issued in the CLO offerings. A related party of the Company holds insignificant interests in Trinitas II and Trinitas III.

TCA earned asset management fees totaling $1,629,000 and $958,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

The Company performed a consolidation analysis to determine whether the Company was required to consolidate the assets, liabilities, equity or operations of the closed CLO funds in its financial statements. The Company concluded that the closed CLO funds are variable interest entities; however, the Company, through TCA, does not hold variable interests in the entities as the Company’s interest in the CLO funds is limited to the asset management fees payable to TCA under their asset management agreements and the interests of its related parties are insignificant. The Company concluded that the asset management fees were not variable interests in the CLO funds as (a) the asset management fees are commensurate with the services provided, (b) the asset management agreements include only terms, conditions, or amounts that are customarily present in arrangements for similar services negotiated on an arm’s-length basis, and (c) the Company does not hold other interests in the CLO funds (including interests held through related parties) that individually or in the aggregate absorb more than an insignificant amount of the CLO funds’ expected losses or receive more than an insignificant amount of the CLO funds’ expected residual returns. Consequently, the Company concluded that it was not required to consolidate the assets, liabilities, equity or operations of the closed CLO funds in its financial statements.

Collateralized Loan Obligation Fund – Warehouse Phase

On July 22, 2015 and September 21, 2015, Trinitas CLO IV, Ltd. (“Trinitas IV”) and Trinitas CLO V, Ltd. (“Trinitas V”), respectively, were formed to be the issuers of CLO offerings. Trinitas IV was capitalized with initial third party equity investments in the form of preference shares of $36,000,000 in addition to the Company’s initial $4,000,000 preference share equity investment and Trinitas V was capitalized with initial subordinated debt issued to third parties of $9,000,000 in addition to the initial $1,000,000 of subordinated debt issued to the Company. Each entity entered into a warehouse credit agreement in order to begin acquiring senior secured loan assets that will comprise the initial collateral pool of the CLOs once issued. In October 2015, the Company made additional investments in Trinitas IV and Trinitas V of $10,000,000 and $5,500,000, respectively, and Trinitas V received additional third party investments of $4,500,000. When finalized, Trinitas IV and Trinitas V will use the proceeds of the debt and equity interests sold in the offering for the final CLO securitization structures to repay the initial warehouse phase debt and equity holders. In the final CLO securitization structures, interest and principal repayment of the leveraged loans held by Trinitas IV and Trinitas V will be used to repay debt holders with any excess cash flows used to provide a return on capital to equity investors. TCA was appointed as asset manager for these entities during their warehousing period. TCA does not earn management or other fees from Trinitas IV or Trinitas V during the warehouse phase.

At March 31, 2016, the Company’s loss exposure to Trinitas IV and Trinitas V is limited to its combined $21,870,000 investment in the entities which is classified as other assets within the Company’s consolidated balance sheets and accounted for under the equity method.

The Company performed a consolidation analysis of Trinitas IV and Trinitas V during the warehouse phase and concluded that Trinitas IV and Trinitas V are variable interest entities and that the Company and its related persons hold variable interests in the entities that could potentially be significant to the entities in the form of equity investments in the entities. However, the Company also concluded that due to certain approval and denial powers available to the senior lender under the warehouse credit facility for Trinitas IV and Trinitas V which provide for shared decision-making powers, the Company does not have the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the entities’ economic performance. As a result, the Company is not the primary beneficiary and therefore is not required to consolidate the assets, liabilities, equity, or operations of the entities in the Company’s financial statements.