During the recent market slide, many investors decided to hit the sell button and ask questions later. Fears about holding in the energy sector have driven prices sharply lower. That has created a big disconnect in one sector that no one is talking about.

Business development companies (BDCs) lend to or invest in privately held companies. Typically, a business that gets a loan from a BDC can’t get one from a bank and, as a result, pays higher interest rates.

And that usually works out well for income investors.

BDCs often have high yields, many above 10%.

The recent bout of selling, however, has hit BDCs particularly hard. They now have an average yield of 14% and are trading, as a whole, at a stunning 24% discount to their net asset values (NAVs). (NAV is the value of all of a company’s assets. Another way to think about it is the amount of money a company would receive if it sold all of its investments.)

The fact that the average BDC is trading at a 24% discount means you can buy high-yielding companies for $0.76 on the dollar. Now, of course, there is some risk associated with those higher yields and steep discounts. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a discount.

But if you look at companies with lower-than-average exposure to the energy industry, you should be able to find some BDCs that are mispriced due to panic in the markets and investors selling the entire group down.

It’s a classic “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” scenario.

Below are several BDCs trading at steep discounts that have strong yields and single-digit exposure to the energy sector. Most BDCs will report fourth quarter results in the next few weeks. NAVs are likely to come down, but not nearly by the amount the stock prices have fallen.