Ares Capital Corp. and Allied Capital Corp. announced that shareholders of both firms had approved Ares's acquisition of Allied. We have affirmed our 'BBB' counterparty credit rating on Ares and removed it from CreditWatch Negative. We expect the combined entity to continue to delever its balance sheet and rebalance the portfolio mix toward Ares's traditional higher-yielding, cash-generating securities. On March 29, 2010, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services removed its 'BBB' long-term counterparty credit rating on Ares Capital Corp. from CreditWatch Negative, where it was placed Oct. 26, 2009. At the same time, we affirmed the rating based on shareholders' approval of Ares's acquisition of Allied Capital Corp. Our 'BB+' long-term counterparty credit rating on Allied remains on CreditWatch Positive. We
