ACAS American Capital, Ltd.

BETHESDA, Md., March 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Capital Strategies Ltd. ("American Capital" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:ACAS) announced today it has priced its public offering of 8.7 million shares of its common stock at $36.41 per share for total net proceeds of approximately $302 million. All of the shares are being offered directly by American Capital. American Capital has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1,305,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments. The offering is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close on Monday, March 31, 2008. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and Morgan Stanley and Co. Incorporated are the joint book- running managers for the offering. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and UBS Investment Bank are the co-managers for the offering. The offering will be made under American Capital's existing shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. American Capital expects to use substantially all of the net proceeds from the shares of common stock being offered by the Company for general corporate purposes, including for the Company's investment and lending activities and to repay indebtedness owed under existing revolving credit facilities. Reducing borrowings under the revolving credit facilities will create availability under the facilities, which will generally be used for funding future American Capital investments and general corporate purposes. This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy shares of common stock. The offering of these securities will be made only by means of a prospectus and a related prospectus supplement. When available, copies of the prospectus and prospectus supplement may be obtained from Citi Markets and Banking, 140 58th Street, 8th Floor, Brooklyn, New York 11220, (telephone number: 718-765-6732), Merrill Lynch & Co., 4 World Financial Center, New York, New York 10080 or Morgan Stanley, 180 Varick Street 2/F, New York, New York 10014 (telephone number: 1-866-718-1649 and email: ). ABOUT AMERICAN CAPITAL American Capital is the only alternative asset management company that is a member of the S&P 500. With $19 billion in capital resources under management, American Capital is the largest U.S. publicly traded private equity fund and one of the largest publicly traded alternative asset managers. American Capital, both directly and through its global asset management business, is an investor in management and employee buyouts, private equity buyouts, and early stage and mature private and public companies. American Capital provides senior debt, mezzanine debt and equity to fund growth, acquisitions, recapitalizations and securitizations. American Capital and its affiliates invest from $5 million to $800 million per company in North America and 5 million euro to 500 million euro per company in Europe. This press release contains forward-looking statements. The statements regarding expected results of American Capital are subject to various factors and uncertainties, including the uncertainties associated with the timing of transaction closings, changes in interest rates, availability of transactions, changes in regional, national or international economic conditions, or changes in the conditions of the industries in which American Capital has made investments. DATASOURCE: American Capital Strategies Ltd. CONTACT: Tom McHale, Senior Vice President, Finance, or Justin Cressall, Vice President, Equity Capital Markets, or Amanda Cuthbertson, Director, Investor Relations, all of American Capital, +1-301-951-6122 Web site: http://www.americancapital.com/

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