GB-BDC Exhibit 10.10 Expense Support and Conditional Reimbursement Agreement


EXHIBIT 10.10


EXPENSE SUPPORT AND CONDITIONAL REIMBURSEMENT AGREEMENT


THIS EXPENSE SUPPORT AND CONDITIONAL REIMBURSEMENT AGREEMENT (the “Agreement”) is made this 25th  day of March, 2015 by and between Griffin-Benefit Street Partners BDC Corp., a Maryland corporation (the “Company”) and Griffin Capital BDC Advisor, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (the “Adviser”).


WHEREAS, the Company is a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company that has elected to be treated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”);


WHEREAS, the Adviser is the Company’s investment adviser. 


WHEREAS, the Company and Adviser have determined that it is appropriate and in the best interests of the Company to reduce the Company’s operating expenses until the Company has achieved economies of scale sufficient to ensure that it bears a reasonable level of expense in relation to its investment income (the “Operating Expense Objective”); and


WHEREAS, the Company and Adviser have determined that it is appropriate and in the best interests of the Company to endeavor to ensure that no portion of distributions made to the Company’s shareholders will be paid from the Company’s offering proceeds or borrowings (the “Distribution Objective”).


NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the premises and for other good and valuable consideration, the parties hereby agree as follows:


1.    Adviser Expense Payment to the Company.


1.1    Commencing with the quarter ended March 31, 2015 and on a quarterly basis thereafter, Adviser shall reimburse the Company for operating expenses in an amount sufficient to meet the Operating Expense Objective and/or the Distribution Objective. Any payments required to be made by Adviser pursuant to the preceding sentence shall be referred to herein as an “Expense Payment.”


1.2    Adviser’s obligation to make an Expense Payment shall automatically become a liability of Adviser and the right to such Expense Payment shall be an asset of the Company no later than the last business day of the applicable calendar quarter. The Expense Payment for any calendar quarter shall, as promptly as possible, be: (i) paid by Adviser to the Company in any combination of cash or other immediately available funds, and/or (ii) offset against amounts due from the Company to the Adviser.


1.3    For purposes of this Agreement, “Available Operating Funds” means the sum of (i) the Company’s net investment company taxable income (including net short-term capital gains reduced by net long-term capital losses), (ii) the Company’s net capital gains (including the excess of net long-term capital gains over net short-term capital losses), and (iii) dividends and other distributions paid to or otherwise earned by the Company on account of investments in portfolio companies (to the extent such amounts listed in clause (iii) are not included under clauses (i) and (ii) above.)


1.4    For purposes of this Agreement, “Reimbursable Expenses” means all costs and expenses paid or incurred by the Company, as determined under generally accepted accounting principles, that are: (i) reimbursable pursuant to the Investment Advisory Agreement dated as of January 20, 2015 between the Adviser and the Company (the “Advisory Agreement”), (ii) reimbursable pursuant to the Administration Agreement dated as of January 20, 2015 between the Company and an affiliate of the Adviser and (iii) paid or accrued by Adviser on behalf of the Company and not otherwise already reimbursable pursuant to Section 1.4(i) or Section 1.4(ii) above.



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2.    Reimbursement of Expense Payments by the Company.


2.1    Following any calendar quarter in which Available Operating Funds exceed the cumulative distributions declared to the Company’s shareholders in such calendar quarter and such excess that is intended to be used to pay expenses qualifying as a Reimbursable Expense (the amount of such excess being hereinafter referred to as “Excess Operating Funds”), the Company shall pay such Excess Operating Funds, or a portion thereof in accordance with Section 2.2, to Adviser or accrue such Excess Operating Funds as a liability until such time as all Expense Payments made by Adviser to the Company within three (3) years prior to the last business day of such calendar quarter have been reimbursed or waived. Any payments required to be made by the Company pursuant to this Section 2.1 shall be referred to herein as a “Reimbursement Payment.”


2.2    The amount of the Reimbursement Payment for any calendar quarter shall equal the lesser of (i) the Excess Operating Funds in such calendar quarter, and (ii) the aggregate amount of all Expense Payments made by Adviser to the Company (or otherwise accrued by Adviser with respect to the Company) within three (3) years prior to the last business day of such calendar quarter that have not been previously reimbursed by the Company to Adviser.


2.3    The Company’s obligation to make a Reimbursement Payment shall automatically become a liability of the Company and the right to such Reimbursement Payment shall be an asset of Adviser no later than the last business day of the applicable calendar quarter. The Reimbursement Payment for any calendar quarter shall, as promptly as possible, be paid by the Company to Adviser in any combination of cash or other immediately available funds. Any Reimbursement Payments shall be deemed to have reimbursed Adviser for Expense Payments in chronological order beginning with the oldest Expense Payment eligible for reimbursement under this Section 2.


3.    Effective Date; Termination; Survival


3.1    Effective Date.  This Agreement shall become effective as of the date first set forth above.


3.2    Termination.


(i)  Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, this Agreement shall terminate on the one year anniversary of the date first set forth above.


(ii) This Agreement may be terminated at any time, without the payment of any penalty, by the Company or Adviser, upon providing written notice of such termination.  


(iii)  This Agreement shall automatically terminate in the event of (a) the termination by the Company of the Advisory Agreement, or (b) the board of directors of the Company makes a determination to dissolve or liquidate the Company.  


(iv)  Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth in this Agreement, if this Agreement terminates automatically pursuant to Section 3.2(iii) above, or, following a termination of this Agreement pursuant to Section 3.2(ii), an event described in Section 3.2(iii) occurs, the Company agrees to pay Adviser an amount equal to all Expense Payments paid by Adviser to the Company within three (3) years prior to the date of such termination pursuant to Section 3.2(iii) or the occurrence of such event, as applicable, and that have not been previously reimbursed by the Company to Adviser. Such repayment shall be made to Adviser no later than thirty (30) days after such date of termination or the date of such event, as applicable.


3.3    Survival. Sections 3 and 4 of this Agreement shall survive any termination of this Agreement. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, Section 2 of this Agreement shall survive any termination of this Agreement with respect to any Expense Payments that have not been reimbursed by the Company to Adviser.

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4.    Miscellaneous.


4.1    Captions. The captions of this Agreement are included for convenience only and in no way define or limit any of the provisions hereof or otherwise affect their construction or effect.


4.2    Entire Agreement. This Agreement contains the entire agreement of the parties and supersedes all prior agreements, understandings and arrangements with respect to the subject matter hereof. Notwithstanding the place where this Agreement may be executed by any of the parties hereto, this Agreement shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware. For so long as the Company is regulated as a business development company under the 1940 Act, this Agreement shall also be construed in accordance with the applicable provisions of the 1940 Act. In such case, to the extent the applicable laws of the State of Delaware, or any provisions herein, conflict with the provisions of the 1940 Act, the latter shall control. Further, nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to require the Company to take any action contrary to the Company’s Articles of Amendment and Restatement of the Articles of Incorporation and/or the bylaws, as each may amended or restated, or to relieve or deprive the board of directors of the Company of its responsibility for and control of the conduct of the affairs of the Company.


4.3    Severability. If any provision of this Agreement shall be held or made invalid by a court decision, statute, rule or otherwise, the remainder of this Agreement shall not be affected thereby and, to this extent, the provisions of this Agreement shall be deemed to be severable. 


4.4    Assignment. This Agreement may be amended in writing by mutual consent of the parties. This Agreement may be executed by the parties on any number of counterparts, delivery of which may occur by facsimile or as an attachment to an electronic communication, each of which shall be deemed an original, and all of said counterparts taken together shall be deemed to constitute one and the same instrument.


IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have caused this Agreement to be executed by their duly authorized representatives as of the date first written above.


	
		
	GRIFFIN CAPITAL BDC ADVISOR, LLC

	 
	 

	By:
	/s/ Joseph E. Miller

	Name:
	Joseph E. Miller

	Title:
	Chief Financial Officer

	 
	 

	GRIFFIN-BENEFIT STREET PARTNERS BDC CORP.

	 
	 

	By:
	/s/ David C. Rupert

	Name:
	David C. Rupert

	Title:
	Chief Executive Officer







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