Kayne Anderson BDC Inc KBDC

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Asset Management Specialized
Overall moat score
60/100
Moderate

About Kayne Anderson BDC Inc

Kayne Anderson BDC, Inc. is business development company and an externally managed, closed-end, non-diversified management investment company that intends to elect to be regulated as a BDC under the 1940 Act. The fund seeks to make investments in middle-market companies. It also makes debt investments in middle-market companies and investing primarily in first lien senior secured, unitranche, and split-lien loans … Full KBDC analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Premium Fee Margins Fee margin quality is strong (score 0.85).
  • Lean Compensation Structure Compensation discipline is strong (cost efficiency score 0.85).

Key risks

  • Weak Cash Conversion Cash conversion is weak (score 0.17).
  • Elevated Leverage Leverage is elevated vs peers (score 0.36).

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Fee Revenue Quality

Strong
79

Where KBDC ranks in Asset Management

Kayne Anderson BDC Inc ranks #51 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management by moat score — the top 29%. The widest moat in the group is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC) at 77/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near KBDC in Asset Management
# Company Moat score Rating
47 WisdomTree, Inc. WT 60/100 Moderate
48 Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund MSDL 60/100 Moderate
49 Nuveen Dynamic Municipal Opportunities Fund NDMO 60/100 Moderate
50 Victory Capital Holdings, Inc. VCTR 60/100 Moderate
51 Kayne Anderson BDC Inc KBDC 60/100 Moderate
52 Prospect Capital Corporation PSEC 59/100 Moderate
53 Main Street Capital Corporation MAIN 59/100 Moderate
54 Beneficient BENF 58/100 Moderate
55 BlackRock, Inc. BLK 58/100 Moderate

See every Asset Management & Capital Markets company ranked by moat score →

How KBDC scores on the Asset Management Specialized defenses

Fee Revenue Quality

Score 79 · 20% of the moat score

Fee revenue quality is the ability to charge above the industry's falling average and keep charging it.

Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness

Score 43 · 18% of the moat score

Assets under management leave far more easily than they arrive, and the fee leaves with them.

Compensation Discipline

Score 82 · 18% of the moat score

Compensation is the largest expense in asset management and the one that decides whether a good year ever reaches shareholders.

Capital Efficiency

Score 60 · 20% of the moat score

Asset managers are asset-light: with little capital employed, a healthy business should earn a very high return on equity, and a merely average one is a real warning.

Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion

Score 46 · 14% of the moat score

Reported profits here can be flattered by performance fees, seed-capital gains and consolidated fund accounting, none of which recur reliably.

Balance Sheet Strength

Score 29 · 10% of the moat score

Because the business needs so little capital, an asset manager carrying meaningful debt has usually borrowed to buy another manager or to fund distributions.

How each Asset Management Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding KBDC's moat

What is Kayne Anderson BDC Inc's moat score?

Kayne Anderson BDC Inc (KBDC) scores 60 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #51 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management, the top 29%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 174 companies in Asset Management. Its strongest defense is Compensation Discipline (82/100) and its weakest is Balance Sheet Strength (29/100).

How does Kayne Anderson BDC Inc compare with other Asset Management companies?

Kayne Anderson BDC Inc ranks #51 of 173 scored companies in Asset Management by moat score. The widest moat in Asset Management is Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc (SPMC) at 77/100. The companies ranked closest are Victory Capital Holdings, Inc. (VCTR) at 60 just above it and Prospect Capital Corporation (PSEC) at 59 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Asset Management Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 174 companies in Asset Management. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Kayne Anderson BDC Inc scored with the Asset Management Specialized template?

An asset manager owns almost nothing. It charges a fee on someone else's money, pays much of that fee out in compensation, and keeps the remainder — so its economics turn on the fee rate it can defend, whether client money stays, and how much revenue survives the bonus pool. The Asset Management template scores those questions rather than the balance sheet, which in this industry is largely beside the point.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Kayne Anderson BDC Inc?

The Asset Management Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and KBDC scores: Fee Revenue Quality (79), Client Retention & Revenue Stickiness (43), Compensation Discipline (82), Capital Efficiency (60), Earnings Quality & Cash Conversion (46), Balance Sheet Strength (29). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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