FSSL Stock: NAV $17.94, Price $11.15, Payout and Fees (2026)

What changed between FS Energy & Power Fund and FSSL

FS Energy and Power Fund was sold to retail investors in a continuous public offering as a non-traded BDC. The 10-K for 2024 shows 87,221 record holders at March 3, 2025, and says the board suspended the share repurchase program in March 2020 for an indefinite period. A holder who wanted out had no scheduled way to sell for more than five years.

The exit came in 2025. This is the sequence in the filings.

Sources: Form 8-Ks of April 24, October 14, October 28 and November 13, 2025 and August 6, 2026, and Note 3 of the June 2026 semiannual report. Because the successor is a closed-end fund and not a BDC, it no longer files 10-Qs. Its public record is the annual report on Form N-CSR (filed March 2, 2026), the semiannual report on Form N-CSRS (filed August 25, 2026), Form N-PORT holdings and 8-Ks. The adviser also changed: on October 28, 2025 FS bought EIG's interest and the adviser became FS Specialty Lending Advisor, LLC. The adviser's parent, FS Investments, was renamed Future Standard in July 2025.

One more event belongs in the record. On September 15, 2025 the board told holders to reject an unsolicited offer of $11.50 a share, “approximately 42% below” the June 30 NAV of $19.82, from entities tied to Cox Capital Partners. Our Cox Capital tender offer tracker has the other funds that received bids. Two months later the shares were trading on the NYSE at a $14.00 first close, 21.7% above the bid (our arithmetic).

NAV per share since 2014

The reverse split makes old per-share figures hard to compare. The table restates every year at the post-split share count by multiplying the NAV and distributions printed in the older 10-Ks by six; 2021 onward is as restated by the fund.

Sources: Form 10-K for 2014 (0001047469-15-002161), 2019 (0001104659-20-045259) and 2024 (0001628280-25-012773), Form N-CSR for 2025 and Form N-CSRS for June 30, 2026, financial highlights notes. “Split-adjusted” figures for 2014 to 2020 are our arithmetic. Total returns assume reinvestment of distributions and ignore sales loads, as the filings state.

Three things stand out. First, the 2020 drop: NAV per share lost 40.2% between December 2019 and December 2020 (our arithmetic: $32.58 to $19.50), the year the repurchase program was suspended, and the fund has not recovered it. Second, total return at NAV was negative in every year from 2014 to 2020 except 2016, even though the fund paid out $3.00 to $4.26 a share each year from 2014 to 2019. Third, net assets of $1,362.1 million are 59.3% below the December 2016 peak of $3,348.9 million (our arithmetic), part of it from distributions paid and part from losses.

The NAV path inside 2025 is in the filings too: $19.80 at December 31, 2024, $20.22 at March 31, 2025 ($3.37 before the split, times six), $19.82 at June 30, 2025, $19.27 at September 30, 2025, a company estimate of $18.60 on November 4, 2025, and $18.22 at year-end. We found no NAV for March 31, 2026 in the documents we read.

The payout: enhanced quarterly distributions, then monthly

The 2025 N-CSR says the fund paid “three enhanced quarterly distributions paid in April, July and October” and that the enhanced distributions “did not continue following the Listing”. They were set at about a 12.5% annualized rate on the estimated NAV. The company's own November 2025 slide breaks down what that did to NAV between December 31, 2024 and November 4, 2025.

The slide's own words: approximately 58% of the NAV decline is attributed to enhanced distributions in excess of net investment income. Our check: ($1.89 - $1.20) divided by the $1.20 decline gives 57.5%. For the quarter ended September 30, 2025 the slide shows $26 million of NII against $47 million of enhanced distributions paid (our arithmetic: 55% covered).

Sources: Form 10-Q for June 30, 2025, the October 20, 2025 8-K, the December 2025 N-CSR and the June 2026 N-CSRS, Note 5. The October 2025 listing deck had targeted an annualized distribution of 9.0% to 9.5% of NAV; $0.1375 a month on the $18.22 year-end NAV is 9.1% (our arithmetic). Three months at $0.1375 is $0.4125, 31.5% below the $0.6024 enhanced quarter (our arithmetic). The 2025 total of $2.31 includes $0.0408 declared in January 2025 for the fourth quarter of 2024; the items above add to $1.8945, and the remaining $0.4155 is not itemised in the documents we saved.

Source: financial highlights in the N-CSR and N-CSRS. Return of capital on the statement of changes in net assets was $42.6 million in 2025 and $16.4 million in the first half of 2026, together $59.0 million, or $0.78 per share (our arithmetic). It is a return of the holder's own money, it lowers tax basis, and the final tax split comes on Form 1099-DIV. The fund warns that its “distribution proceeds have exceeded and in the future may exceed its earnings”. At $0.1375 a month the first-half shortfall was smaller than in 2025, but earnings still did not cover the declared amount.

Price against NAV: the discount

Sources: Cox letter of September 15, 2025 (8-K), the N-CSR footnote on total return at market price, and the financial highlights of the N-CSR and N-CSRS. At June 30, 2026 FSSL's market price was $11.15 against a NAV of $17.94. The distribution reinvestment plan buys shares in the market, so its average prices follow the trend: $13.61 on 431,275 shares in 2025, $12.30 on 625,771 shares in the first half of 2026 and $11.29 on 92,247 shares issued between July 1 and August 25, 2026. The price on October 22, 2026 is not in our sources; check a live quote and compare it to the next NAV.

The fund's sponsor had a precedent in its own deck: FS Credit Opportunities Corp. (FSCO), listed in November 2022, first traded at $4.48 against a pre-listing NAV of $6.46, or 69.3% (our arithmetic). That is the same shape: a listed non-traded fund opening and then trading well below the NAV it reports. Our non-traded REIT listing discount study measures the same effect for REITs, and our CION page shows a former non-traded BDC at roughly half of NAV. Two features of FSSL matter for supply. The deck says there is no lock-up on shares after listing, and Note 4 says FS-sponsored funds hold equity total return swaps on FSSL shares with an aggregate initial maximum of $75 million, with a three-year term. On the other side, trustees and officers bought: 13 Form 4 filings show 17 open-market purchases totalling 168,987 shares between November 13, 2025 and March 12, 2026, about $2.18 million (our arithmetic), at an average of $13.43 in November and December and $11.84 in March. No Form 4 is filed after March 13, 2026. The FS parent also said on November 7, 2025 that it intended to commit up to $20 million to a vehicle that buys FSSL shares, with no assurance it would.

Fees: what the listing changed

Sources: the October 28, 2025 8-K (advisory agreement), the November 13, 2025 8-K and Note 4 of the semiannual report. The headline reads as a cut, and the dollar figures say it is smaller than it looks.

Sources: statements of operations in the 10-K for 2024, the N-CSR and the N-CSRS. The first half of 2026 figure is $18,729 thousand times two, divided by the average of the December 2025 and June 2026 net assets. Total net operating expenses were 6.19% of average net assets in the first half of 2026, including interest. The management fee is lower, but an incentive fee that does not appear in the 2024 statement now does. The old hurdle was a return on adjusted capital, the cumulative gross proceeds of past share sales; the new one is a return on net assets. Even at the waived 10% rate the adviser took $5.8 million of incentive fee in six months. The waiver is a contract the board can end with its consent, so 20% is the stated rate behind it.

Credit and leverage at June 30, 2026

Sources: schedules of investments in the N-CSR and N-CSRS. Non-accrual means the fund stopped recognizing interest it doubts it will collect. The three June borrowers are Accupac, LLC (a first lien position carried at $37.1 million against $48.8 million of cost, newly flagged in the half), Plainfield Renewable Energy Holdings LLC ($4.9 million against $15.1 million) and MBS Services Holdings, LLC (a second lien carried at $3.3 million against $34.9 million, down from $9.4 million in December). A fourth line, a $2.3 million Plainfield letter of credit, carries the flag at zero value and is left out of both columns. The company's own slides put non-accruals at 0.8% on September 30, 2025 and 1.4% on November 4, 2025. For how other BDCs compare, see our BDC non-accrual comparison; FSSL is no longer a BDC and is not in it.

Borrowings come from one facility with Barclays, $520.0 million drawn of $650.0 million, priced at SOFR plus 1.85% to 4.20% and due August 12, 2028. They equal 38.2% of net assets (our arithmetic) and the fund reports asset coverage of 3.62 per dollar of borrowings. The portfolio is 92% first lien loans at fair value, and the fund reports $171.5 million of unfunded commitments on 33 senior secured loans.

What a $100,000 holder at the 2014 price has today

Few holders bought on one day, so treat this as an example of the arithmetic, not a typical account. The 10-K for 2014 gives a public offering price of $9.80 a share at December 31, 2014 (before the split; the price included the sales load).

The $27.54 is $19.80 for 2015 to 2020 (the 10-K figures times six), $6.91 for 2021 to 2025 and $0.83 for the first half of 2026. Taxes, reinvestment through the old distribution plan (ended September 15, 2023) and the effect of any tender are not modelled. A buyer at the December 31, 2013 price of $10.80 had a worse starting point. The shape matters more than the totals: cash distributions are 60.6% of the NAV-plus-cash figure (our arithmetic), so most of what a long-term holder recovered came as payouts, not as share value.

Taxes and mechanics worth knowing

The reverse split “generally is not expected to result in a taxable transaction”, per the April 2025 8-K, and the October 2025 merger was one new share for each old share. Distributions in excess of earnings are reported as return of capital on Form 1099-DIV, which lowers your cost basis; a later sale is measured against that lower basis. If you sell at a loss and buy back within 30 days, the wash sale rule can defer it; see our wash sale page for REIT, BDC and interval fund holders. The fund still tells holders it intends to qualify as a regulated investment company, so 90% of its taxable income must be distributed each year. Neither our non-traded BDC list nor our listed BDC directory includes FSSL; it is no longer a BDC.

What a reader can do with this

• If you held the old FS Energy & Power Fund and still own FSSL: compare the dollars of your own account, not the screen yield. A $0.1375 monthly payment is 14.8% of the June price and 9.2% of the June NAV, but net investment income was 84% of what was declared in the first half of 2026, and $0.22 of the $0.83 was return of capital.
• If you are weighing a sale: there is no lock-up and no scheduled repurchase, so the market price is the exit. The gap between that price and the NAV is the cost of selling now rather than waiting for the discount to close; the filings give no mechanism that closes it. Sales at a loss have tax consequences that depend on your basis.
• What to watch next: the September 30, 2026 NAV and NII in the next investor presentation (the 8-Ks of March 3, May 22 and August 25, 2026 only announce that a presentation is posted on the fund's website), the N-PORT holdings filings, the monthly declaration after August's $0.1495, and whether non-accruals above $45 million at fair value grow.
• Check your 1099-DIV and cost basis for the return of capital share; the fund's figures here are book numbers from the shareholder reports, not the tax split.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: FS Specialty Lending Fund (successor CIK 2065812; predecessor CIK 1501729) Form N-CSRS for June 30, 2026 (0001628280-26-058856), Form N-CSR for December 31, 2025 (0001628280-26-013180), Form 10-K for 2024 (0001628280-25-012773), 2019 (0001104659-20-045259) and 2014 (0001047469-15-002161), Form 10-Q for March 31 and June 30, 2025 (0001628280-25-024213, -040339), Form 8-K of April 24, September 15, October 14, October 20, October 28, November 7 and November 13, 2025 and of August 7 and August 25, 2026 (0001104659-25-038647, -090053, -099318, -100888, -103241, -108534, -111261; 0001104659-26-092148, -100799), definitive proxy statement of June 9, 2026 (0001104659-26-071883) Form 4 filings of November 2025 to March 2026 and the EDGAR filing index. Per-share figures for 2014 to 2020, split-adjusted distributions, coverage ratios, fee percentages, non-accrual totals and the holder example are our arithmetic. Primary texts are saved with the dataset. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.