The privately placed notes carry covenants that hold CĪON to a $493.1 million equity floor and a 150 percent asset-coverage minimum.

July 17, 2026

CĪON Investment Corporation has privately placed up to $60 million of new senior unsecured notes, directing the proceeds toward paying down existing borrowings as the business development company works to lighten a heavily leveraged balance sheet.

The New York middle-market lender agreed on July 15 to sell two series of notes to institutional investors:

• up to $10 million of 7.50 percent senior unsecured notes due 2029;
• up to $50 million of 8.00 percent senior unsecured notes due 2031.

The debt is being drawn in two stages. An initial closing on July 15 brought in $30 million — $2 million of the 2029 notes and $28 million of the 2031 notes. A second closing of up to another $30 million, weighted toward the 2029 series, may follow within a year if the purchasers accept it. The 2029 notes were sold at 98 percent of face value and the 2031 notes at 97 percent.

Both series pay interest quarterly beginning in October, with the 2029 notes maturing at the end of September 2029 and the 2031 notes in July 2031. CĪON can redeem them at par, without penalty, from mid-2027 for the longer series and from mid-2029 for the shorter one. The notes are general unsecured obligations, ranking alongside CĪON’s other unsecured senior debt and behind its secured and subsidiary-level borrowings.

Deleveraging intent

CĪON framed the transaction as part of a broader capital-management effort to reshape its balance sheet toward unsecured borrowing and to bring down its leverage through the repayment of certain debt over the next several quarters. For a BDC that has operated near the more aggressive end of the leverage spectrum, swapping secured facilities for unsecured notes frees up pledged assets and stretches out maturities. The longer-dated 2031 series priced at both a higher coupon and a deeper discount than the 2029 series, consistent with its later maturity.

The agreements carry financial covenants that bind CĪON to:

• maintain its status as a business development company;
• keep shareholders’ equity above $493.1 million;
• hold asset coverage at no less than 150 percent;
• sustain interest coverage and unencumbered asset coverage of at least 1.25 to 1.00.

A most-favored-lender clause extends any tighter financial covenant CĪON grants on future unsecured debt above $25 million to these purchasers as well.

The notes were sold as an unregistered private placement and are separate from the $500 million universal shelf CĪON registered days earlier, underscoring that the firm is leaning on private, unsecured debt rather than public markets to manage its obligations at a time when its shares trade far below net asset value.