ARES Capital Corp.'s Senior Unsecured Notes Rated 'BBB'

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 14, 2016--S&P Global Ratings today said it assigned its 'BBB' rating on Ares Capital Corp.'s (ARCC) senior unsecured notes due 2022. We expect the issuance to be below $1.0 billion. The 'BBB' long-term issuer credit rating on ARCC is currently on CreditWatch with negative implications (including issue-level ratings). ARCC intends to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including paying down outstanding borrowings on its revolver. Therefore, we expect the transaction to be leverage neutral. We believe the company will eventually draw upon the revolver again to fund growth. As of June 30, 2016, ARCC's debt to adjusted total equity (ATE) was 1.26x. Despite high leverage relative to peers, we maintain a favorable view

...NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 14, 2016--S&P Global Ratings today said it assigned its '###' rating on Ares Capital Corp.'s (ARCC) senior unsecured notes due 2022. We expect the issuance to be below $1.0 billion. The '###' long-term issuer credit rating on ARCC is currently on CreditWatch with negative implications (including issue-level ratings). ARCC intends to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including paying down outstanding borrowings on its revolver. Therefore, we expect the transaction to be leverage neutral. We believe the company will eventually draw upon the revolver again to fund growth. As of June 30, 2016, ARCC's debt to adjusted total equity (ATE) was 1.26x. Despite high leverage relative to peers, we maintain a favorable view of the company's capital, leverage, and earnings due to good realized returns and non-deal-dependent income. The CreditWatch listing with negative implications is based on ARCC's announcement that it agreed to acquire American Capital...

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