NEW YORK, NY — (MARKET WIRE) — 11/06/07 — Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: PSEC)(“Prospect”) announced today that it has made a second lien debt investmentof $18 million in Shearer’s Foods, Inc. (“Shearer’s”), a leadingmanufacturer and distributor of snack food products based in Brewster,Ohio.
Founded in 1974, Shearer’s is the largest producer of kettle cooked potatochips in the United States. The kettle-style chip segment is the fastestgrowing category in the potato chip market. Shearer’s also producestraditional potato chips, tortilla chips, cheese curls, and other snackproducts. The company serves a blue-chip list of co-pack, branded, privatelabel, and food service customers, including some of the best known brandedfood companies in the industry. Shearer’s has manufacturing facilities inBrewster as well as in Lubbock, Texas. Robert Shearer, the company’s ChiefExecutive Officer and the former Chairman of the Board of Directors for theSnack Food Association, has played a leadership role in the industry fordecades. Shearer’s has been owned since 2005 by an affiliate of WinstonPartners, a multi-billion-dollar private equity and hedge fund-of-fundsasset management firm based in McLean, Virginia.
Prospect’s second lien secured debt, along with first lien debt from asyndicate led by National City Bank, is being utilized to refinanceexisting indebtedness and to provide growth capital to Shearer’s.
“As a private equity sponsor, we appreciate the responsiveness anddiligence brought to this investment by the Prospect team,” said ScottAndrews, Managing Partner of Winston Partners Group, LLC.
“Shearer’s represents another successful example of our continued growth inthe sponsor finance business, where we are receiving robust transactionflow from experienced private equity sponsors and syndication agents acrossNorth America, as well as those steps from our offices in midtownManhattan,” said Montgomery Cook, a Managing Director with Prospect CapitalManagement.
ABOUT PROSPECT CAPITAL CORPORATION
Prospect Capital Corporation (www.prospectstreet.com/) is a closed-endinvestment company that lends to and invests in private and microcap publicbusinesses. Prospect Capital’s investment objective is to generate bothcurrent income and capital appreciation through debt and equityinvestments.
Prospect Capital has elected to be treated as a business developmentcompany under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“1940 Act”). We arerequired to comply with a series of regulatory requirements under the 1940Act as well as applicable NASDAQ, federal and state laws and regulations.We have elected to be treated as a regulated investment company under theInternal Revenue Code of 1986. Failure to comply with any of the laws andregulations that apply to Prospect Capital could have a material adverseeffect on Prospect Capital and its shareholders.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaningof the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any suchstatements, other than statements of historical fact, are likely to beaffected by other unknowable future events and conditions, includingelements of the future that are or are not under the Company’s control, andthat the Company may or may not have considered; accordingly, suchstatements cannot be guarantees or assurances of any aspect of futureperformance. Actual developments and results are highly likely to varymaterially from these estimates and projections of the future. Suchstatements speak only as of the time when made, and the Company undertakesno obligation to update any such statement now or in the future.
Please send investment proposals to:Grier EliasekPresident and Chief Operating Officergrier@prospectstreet.com(212) 448-9577