Ares Capital Corp. has announced it has closed on its acquisition of American Capital Ltd. (ACAS). Since it announced the planned acquisition in May 2016, Ares has decreased its leverage and ACAS has reduced the size of its portfolio, addressing some of the major risks we had anticipated when the transaction was announced. We are affirming the 'BBB' ratings on Ares following the consolidation of ACAS. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that we believe the company will continue to make good progress rotating out of the more risky American Capital Ltd. assets and into senior secured loans while keeping leverage away from key thresholds. On Jan. 4, 2017, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'BBB' issuer credit rating, 'BBB' senior
