FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 9, 2007

Contact
Tom McHale, Senior Vice President, Finance (301) 951-6122
John Hooker, Vice President, Debt Capital Markets (301) 951-6122

AMERICAN CAPITAL ANNOUNCES THE OFFERING OF $500 MILLION OF SENIOR UNSECURED NOTES

Bethesda, MD – July 9, 2007 – American Capital Strategies, Ltd. (“American Capital” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: ACAS) announced today that it intends to offer, subject to market and other considerations, $500 million of its senior unsecured notes (the “notes”).  The Company expects that the notes will be comprised of two series of fixed rate senior unsecured notes, one series due in 2012 and the other series due in 2017.  All notes are senior unsecured debt securities of American Capital and rank equally in right of payment with all of American Capital’s other outstanding senior unsecured obligations.

J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Banc of America Securities LLC are the joint book-running managers.  Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. are co-managers. 

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 sale of its notes to reduce the borrowings under American Capital’s existing revolving credit facilities and to fund investments.  Reducing borrowings under the revolving credit facilities will create availability under these 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 the notes in this offering nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.  The offering of these notes 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 J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., 270 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017 or Banc of America Securities LLC, Prospectus Department, 100 West 33rd Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY  10001.

ABOUT AMERICAN CAPITAL

American Capital, a member of the S&P 500 with $15 billion in assets under management, is the largest U.S. publicly traded private equity firm 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 to €500 million 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.