Correspondence 0001287032-25-000002 from PROSPECT CAPITAL CORP (PSEC)
PROSPECT CAPITAL CORP
Date: Jan. 8, 2025 · CIK: 0001287032 · Accession: 0001287032-25-000002
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File numbers found in text: 814-00659
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CORRESP 1 filename1.htm Document [On letterhead of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP] January 8, 2025 Via EDGAR Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Investment Management 100 F Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20549 Attn: Ken Ellington Re: Prospect Capital Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K (File No. 814-00659) Dear Mr. Ellington: On behalf of Prospect Capital Corporation (the “Company”), we transmit for filing the Company’s responses to comments received via telephone from the staff (the “Staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on October 30, 2024, relating to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, filed with the SEC on August 28, 2024 (the “Annual Report”). The responses and information described below are based upon information provided to us by the Company. Please note that all page numbers in our responses are references to the page numbers of the Annual Report. All capitalized terms used but not defined in this letter have the meanings given to them in the Annual Report. Annual Report 1.Comment: Please state separately any other category of income which exceeds 5% of the total income (e.g., income from non-cash dividend/income from payments-in-kind interest) on the Statement of Operations as required by Article 6-07.1 of Regulation S-X. Response: The Company made the requested change effective with its Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2024. 2.Comment: Footnote 19 does not appear to be associated with any other securities on the Schedule of Investments, please explain and confirm that the rest of the footnotes have been applied correctly. Response: The Company notes that Footnote 19 was inadvertently omitted from the CLO investment, Symphony CLO XIV, Ltd, in the “Consolidated Schedule of Investments” section of the Annual Report. The Company corrected the omission in its Form 10-Q filed on November 8, 2024, utilizing Footnote 17 to make such designation and confirmed that the rest of the footnotes have been applied correctly. 3.Comment: The Company has 19.1% of its portfolio in equity real estate investment trust (REITs). How has the Company considered disclosure due to this concentration under ASC 275? Response: ASC 275 requires financial statement disclosures in the following four areas: (i) nature of operations and activities, (ii) use of estimates, (iii) certain significant estimates and (iv) current vulnerability due to certain conditions. The Company respectfully believes that there is adequate disclosure in its Annual Report’s financial statements to address the requirements of ASC 275. In Securities and Exchange Commission January 8, 2025 addition, the Company further supplements such disclosures in the financial statements within the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” section of the Annual Report. The Company’s 19.1% REIT concentration is entirely related to its investments in National Property REIT Corp. (“NPRC”), for which separate audited financial statements are attached to the Annual Report as Exhibit 99.1 and Exhibit 99.2. Additionally, the Company makes direct disclosure within the footnotes to the “Consolidated Schedules of Investments” and within the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements - Note 3. Portfolio Investments and Note 14. Transactions with Controlled Companies” regarding: a.NPRC’s primary business activities, such as acquiring, operating, financing, leasing and managing real estate assets, including, but not limited to, industrial, commercial, and multi-family properties, b.the geographic location and size of the REIT’s properties, c.the volume and type of business the Company transacts with NPRC (including NPRC’s uses of the funds provided by the Company to carry out the aforementioned activities), d.the amount and type of revenue the Company receives from its investment in NPRC relative to other sources, and e.the fair value of NPRC, the certain significant estimates used to determine the fair value, and the uncertainties surrounding those significant estimates. The Company further notes that “Item 1.A Risk Factors – Risks affecting investment in real estate” discloses the risks relating to investments in real estate and NPRC specifically. 4.Comment: Please describe the equity that was issued from Credit.com and held within PGX TopCo II LLC. Please also describe the structure of PGX TopCo II LLC and if the Board/Management or other class of equity holders of PGX TopCo II LLC are affiliates of Prospect Capital Corporation. Response: The Company provides the structure chart of PGX TopCo II LLC below, which was structured for tax planning purposes to manage the Company’s status as a Regulated Investment Company (“RIC”) under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The equity held by PGX TopCo II LLC represents the pro rata interests of the prior PGX Holdings, Inc. First Lien Term Loan holders in Credit.com following a credit bid of the prior First Lien Term Loan for the majority of the assets of PGX Holdings, Inc. As part of the credit bid for the majority assets of PGX Holdings, Inc., the Company was issued 29.37% voting / non-economic (Class A) and 34.23% non-voting / economics (Class B) Units, representing a combined 29.34% economic interest, from PGX HoldCo LLC, the majority holder of Credit.com Holdings, LLC. These units and $999 in cash were subsequently contributed by the Company to PGX TopCo II LLC. PGX TopCo II LLC has two classes of equity, Class A Units and Class B Units (together, the “Units”). One Class A Unit is issued and held by Kyle Madan and 999 Class B Units are issued and held by the Company. A majority of the Class A Unit holders have the right to appoint the board of managers of PGX TopCo II LLC; while holders of the Class B Units do not vote on the appointment of the board of managers. Members holding a majority of outstanding Units may, with at least 61 days’ prior notice to the other Members, elect to have Class B Unit holders or their designees purchase all then-outstanding Class A Units at fair market value. The Class A Unit holder and sole manager of PGX TopCo II, LLC is Kyle Madan. Mr. Madan is also an independent director of Town & Country Holdings, Inc., a portfolio company of the Company, and is not an affiliated person of the Company. 2 Securities and Exchange Commission January 8, 2025 5.Comment: Credit.com holdings indicate that it is a “syndicated investment which was originated by a financial institution and broadly distributed”. Please describe what is meant by “broadly distributed” as it appears the company is private and information is limited on the syndication. Response: The Company respectfully notes that the Annual Report and subsequent filings do not identify syndicated investments. The Company notes supplementally for the Staff that “broadly distributed” means that there were multiple financial institutions’ investors involved to spread any risk of the investment among several financial institutions. Such syndication is common and is done on a private basis and does not involve any public offering. 6.Comment: Please describe how Credit.com was valued, include specific effective interest rates utilized in discussion of the equity valuation. The Staff notes that the company recently emerged from bankruptcy with existing first lien loans “rolled” into the new entity and a significant increase in the value to equity securities since March 31, 2024. Response: The Company respectfully notes that given its lack of control over Credit.com and the security being covered as of the valuation date, the Board of Directors of the Company (the 3 Securities and Exchange Commission January 8, 2025 “Board”) valued the First Lien Term Loan A using the yield method consistent with the recommendation of the third-party valuation provider. The third-party valuation provider specifically relied on the benchmark analysis, using the internal rate of return at close, to value the security given the business’s high leverage levels and lack of correlation to the broadly syndicated loan market. An unfavorable adjustment factor of 150 bps was applied to the benchmark analysis given the uncertainty regarding the company’s ability to transition its business model. The Board, consistent with the recommendation of the third-party valuation provider, valued the First Lien Term Loan B using the enterprise value waterfall method as the security was impaired based on the third-party valuation provider’s concluded enterprise value. The enterprise value was derived utilizing the market approach and the income approach (each weighted 50%). a)A market approach was utilized when determining the value of the legacy business given the identification of similar companies with similar market dynamics. The valuation provider considered trading multiples of selected public companies as well as the initial 2014 acquisition multiple, the LTM revenue multiple implied at close, decline in performance, lower projections, and lower margin profile when selecting an enterprise value multiple range for the market approach (see Appendix A taken from our Annual Report; the highlighted sections relate directly to Credit.com). b)The valuation provider considered the income approach separately for the legacy business and B2B base case given the different risk / return profiles of each segment and the stages in which they were in as of the valuation date. Within the legacy business income approach, projections were utilized as was a discount rate of 14.50%, which represented an increase in discount rate from the prior period (3/31) given the underperformance and increased uncertainty in the business. Within the B2B income approach, the valuation provider considered discount rates of venture-like rates of return given the B2B segment was in the early stages. A discount rate below venture rates of return was reasonable given the company's existing product, client base, and that Progrexion already had one existing B2B client. c)The valuation provider also considered an exit multiple income approach in order to capture the potential upside through an exit in FY 2027. A 11.25x exit multiple was assumed, a decrease of 0.25x from the prior period, which approximated the adjusted mean of the size adjusted EV / NCY+2 EBITDA multiples of the selected public companies. Given the increased risk associated with the 11.25x exit in FY 2027, the valuation provider utilized a 45.0% discount rate in the exit multiple case. In the three income approaches, the third-party valuation provider expanded the discount rate ranges and exit multiples given the high uncertainty of future performance but also the potential upside of the business' rebound. The Board, consistent with the recommendation of the third-party valuation provider, valued the Company’s indirect ownership in Credit.com's common equity using the approach detailed above for the Term Loan B given its residual claims in equity value (see Appendix A taken from the Annual Report, Footnote 3; the highlighted sections relate directly to Credit.com). The Company respectfully notes that the fair value of Credit.com decreased, rather than increased, from March 31, 2024 to June 30, 2024. 4 Securities and Exchange Commission January 8, 2025 7.Comment: Please describe if there are any workouts or restructurings with Rosa Mexicano. Additionally, prior to any restructuring, was Rosa Mexicano current with all payments to Prospect Capital Corporation? The Staff notes that the maturity changed for this entity. Response: The Company respectfully notes that while there have been several amendments to the Credit Agreement, there have been no workouts or restructurings with Rosa Mexicano. These amendments have ranged from adjustments to leverage covenants and liquidity support through the COVID-19 time period to maturity extensions as shown most recently. On May 17, 2024, a Seventeenth Amendment to the Credit Agreement was executed, which extended the maturity of both the Revolver and Term Loan from June 13, 2024 to June 13, 2026. The Company confirms that Rosa Mexicano is current with all payments to the Company. 8.Comment: It appears a significant amount of investments utilize the “enterprise value waterfall” technique for valuation purposes under ASC 820. Please supplementally describe if this is also utilized for non-control investments. Response: As of June 30, 2024, 37% of investments were valued utilizing the enterprise value waterfall technique. This technique is utilized for all equity positions. For debt positions, it is utilized if the Company has effective control (meaning a majority stake in the company or the option of control through voting power, etc). The technique is also utilized for debt positions if the Board concludes, at the recommendation of the third-party valuation provider, that the debt is impaired. 9.Comment: Please describe if the debt of National Property REIT Corp. was restructured. The Staff notes that the maturity dates have changed significantly, and the terms of interest do not appear to be favorable to debt holders. Describe the valuation of the debt investments as well as how the debt remains at par post-restructuring with new additional debt issued and how common stock retains its value by continued deficits in the REITs and negative cash flow from operations. Response: The Company respectfully notes that NPRC’s debt was refinanced on September 29, 2023. The main business purpose of this refinancing was to extend the existing debt that was scheduled to mature at the end of 2023. As a result, the maturity dates of all tranches were extended to March 31, 2026. The Company respectfully notes that no additional debt was issued as part of this refinance. The debt of NPRC is valued using the enterprise value waterfall method. Based on the enterprise value determined, debt is covered first, and the remaining value is allocated to the equity value. Therefore, since debt is covered first, the debt remains at par post-restructuring. In addition, as discussed in American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Technical Q&A 6910.34, we note that the Company views its investment in NPRC as an aggregate position rather than as separate financial instruments of debt and equity. The Company would rarely, if ever, exit an investment by selling only the debt or equity portion of a single investment. Exits almost always involve selling the debt and equity portion of the investment in its entirety, at which point debt will be redeemed at par value. The Company notes that the common stock value is the residual value after deducting the par value of the debt from the enterprise value. 10.Comment: Related to the preferred stock (any series): (i) does the preferred stock contain put/call features, if so, should such features be accounted for separately from the host instrument? and (ii) can a company redeem or exchange preferred stock at its discretion (are there such provisions in the agreement)? 5 Securities and Exchange Commission January 8, 2025 Response: (i) The Company respectfully confirms to the Staff that the preferred stock contains the following put/call features, subject to certain terms as detailed in the relevant prospectus supplement of each series as of June 30, 2024: a)Holder Optional Conversion: With respect to the 5.50% Series A1 Preferred Stock (the “Series A1 Preferred Stock”), the 5.50% Series A2 Preferred Stock (the “Series A2 Preferred Stock”), the 6.50% Series A3 Preferred Stock (the “Series A3 Preferred Stock”), the 5.50% Series M1 Preferred Stock (the “Series M1 Preferred Stock”), the 5.50% Series M2 Preferred Stock (the “Series M2 Preferred Stock”), the 6.50% Series M3 Preferred Stock (the “Series M3 Preferred Stock”), the 5.50% Series AA1 Preferred Stock (the “Se