American Capital Announces the Purchase of 5.5M of Its Shares

American Capital, Ltd.

announced today that in the first quarter of 2012 it had made open market purchases of 5.5 million shares of American Capital common stock, or 1.7% of the Company's outstanding shares of common stock as of December 31, 2011. The shares were purchased at an average price of $8.79 per share, totaling $48.1 million. Since August 2011, American Capital has made open market purchases of 23.0 million shares of American Capital common stock, at an average price of $7.89 per share, totaling $181.9 million. Purchases in 2011 were $0.32 per share accretive to the Company's net asset value per share as of December 31, 2011. Additional accretion will result from the purchases in the first quarter of 2012 and will be disclosed in the Company's earnings release.