WhiteHorse Finance Inc

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

Shareholders and the Board of Directors

of WhiteHorse Finance, Inc.

Miami, Florida

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of assets and liabilities, including the consolidated schedules of investments, of WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. (the "Company") as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the related consolidated statements of operations, changes in net assets, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes and the consolidated financial highlights for each of the five years in the period ended December 31, 2024 (collectively referred to as the "financial statements"). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, and the results of its operations, the changes in its net assets and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2024, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB") and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. These procedures include confirmation of investments owned as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, by correspondence with the custodian, loan agent, borrower and other auditing procedures where replies were not received. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Valuation of Level 3 Investments

As described in Notes 1, 2, 4 and 5 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company invests in senior secured loans, including first lien and second lien facilities, and may make investments at other levels of an investee’s capital structure,

including mezzanine loans or equity investments, and may receive warrants to purchase common stock in connection with its debt investments. With few exceptions, these investments are classified as Level 3 investments. Level 3 investments represent approximately $619.5 million of the $642.2 million of investments held as of December 31, 2024. Management determines the fair value of the Company’s Level 3 investments by applying the methodologies outlined in Note 5 to the consolidated financial statements, using significant unobservable inputs and assumptions. Determining the fair value of these investments requires management to make judgments about the valuation methodologies to apply (i.e., market approach or income approach) and significant unobservable inputs and assumptions including, among others, discount rates, market quotes, and exit multiples.

We identified the valuation of Level 3 investments as a critical audit matter given the significant judgments made by management to estimate the fair value of certain debt and equity positions. This required a high degree of auditor judgment and extensive audit effort, including the involvement of auditor employed valuation specialists, who possess specialized skill and knowledge, to evaluate the appropriateness of the valuation methodologies and significant unobservable inputs and assumptions.

Our audit procedures related to the valuation of Level 3 investments included, among others:

/s/ Crowe LLP

Crowe LLP

As a result of affiliated fund relationships, we have served as the Company’s auditor since 2006.

Costa Mesa, California

March 7, 2025