Prospect Capital Corporation announced that it provided $31.1 million of senior secured debt in December 2011 to VanDeMark Chemical Inc., a specialty chemical manufacturer located in Lockport, NY.

VanDeMark manufactures phosgene and phosgene derivatives to serve the global pharmaceutical, agricultural-chemical, polymer, and fine chemical industries. Prospect’s credit facility will be used to recapitalize VanDeMark. VanDeMark is controlled by an affiliate of Buckingham Capital Partners (“Buckingham”), a leading lower-middle-market private equity firm.

“We are delighted to support Buckingham in its recapitalization of VanDeMark,” said Bart deBie, a Managing Director with Prospect Capital Management. “Prospect has significant domain expertise in the specialty chemicals industry in addition to other industry verticals.”

“Prospect’s responsiveness enabled an on-time execution of a complex refinancing that we desired to close before year end,” said Albert Naggar, a Managing Partner of Buckingham. “We look forward to working with Prospect in the future.”

Separately, Prospect provided $8 million of senior secured debt in December 2011 to a provider of non-destructive testing services to detect leaks and other defects in pipes, vessels, and related equipment for the oil and gas pipeline, chemical, and paper and pulp industries. Prospect also provided $52 million in secured financing to three separate existing portfolio companies in December 2011, to be used for varying purposes.

In addition, Prospect exited its Mac & Massey investment with $10.6 million of proceeds in December 2011 with full repayment of Prospect’s loan and monetization of Prospect’s equity position, resulting in a 36% IRR and 1.8 times cash on cash return on Prospect’s total investment.

Prospect closed over $1 billion in new investments in calendar year 2011.

Prospect Capital Corporation is a closed-end investment company that lends to and invests in private and microcap public businesses.