Fifth Street Finance (FSC) announced it has commenced a public offering of 13,250,000 shares of its common stock. FSC plans to grant the underwriters for the offering an option to purchase up to an additional 1,987,500 shares of common stock.

FSC said it intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay debt outstanding under its credit facilities. However, through re-borrowing under its credit facilities, it intends to make investments in small and mid-sized companies in accordance with its investment objective and strategies described in the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus and may use such funds for general corporate purposes.

Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank, Deutsche Bank Securities and RBC Capital Markets will act as lead book-running managers, and SMBC Nikko will act as joint book-running manager for the offering.