NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Ares Capital Corporation (ARCC) announced that it has priced an underwritten public offering of $125 million in aggregate principal amount of seven percent senior unsecured notes due 2022. The notes will mature on Feb. 15, 2022 and may be redeemed in whole or in part at any time or from time to time at our option on or after Feb. 15, 2015. The notes will bear interest at a rate of seven percent per year payable quarterly on Feb. 15, May 15, Aug. 15 and Nov. 15 of each year, with the first interest payment occurring on May 15, 2012.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as joint bookrunning managers for this offering. Stifel Nicolaus Weisel, RBC Capital Markets, BB&T Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities and Janney Montgomery Scott are acting as co-managers for this offering. The offering is expected to close on Feb. 2, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions. Ares Capital has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional $18.75 million in aggregate principal amount of notes to cover over-allotments, if any.

Ares Capital expects to use the net proceeds of this offering to repay certain outstanding indebtedness under its debt facilities and, to the extent not applied for such purposes, for general corporate purposes, which may include investing in portfolio companies in accordance with its investment objective.

Investors are advised to carefully consider the investment objective, risks, charges and expenses of Ares Capital before investing. The preliminary prospectus supplement dated Jan. 25, 2012 and the accompanying prospectus dated Oct. 28, 2011, each of which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, contain this and other information about Ares Capital and should be read carefully before investing.

The information in the preliminary prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus and this press release is not complete and may be changed. The preliminary prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus and this press release are not offers to sell any securities of Ares Capital and are not soliciting an offer to buy such securities in any state where such offer and sale is not permitted.

The offering may be made only by means of a preliminary prospectus supplement and an accompanying prospectus, copies of which may be obtained from (1) BofA Merrill Lynch, 4 World Financial Center, New York, NY 10080, Attention: Prospectus Department or e-mail dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com; (2) Morgan Stanley, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department, by phone at 1.866.718.1649, or e-mail prospectus@morganstanley.com; (3) UBS Investment Bank, 299 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10171, or by phone at 1.877.827.6444, ext. 561 3884; and (4) Wells Fargo Securities, 301 South College Street, Charlotte, NC 28288, or by phone at 1.800.326.5897.

About Ares Capital Corporation

Headquartered in New York and with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Ares Capital is a leading specialty finance company that provides one-stop financing solutions to U.S. middle market companies and private equity sponsors. Ares Capital invests primarily in first and second lien loans and mezzanine debt, which in some cases includes an equity component. To a lesser extent, Ares Capital also makes equity investments. Ares Capital, which has elected to be regulated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, is externally managed by Ares Capital Management LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ares Management LLC. Ares Management LLC is a global alternative asset manager and a Securities and Exchange Commission registered investment adviser with approximately $46 billion of committed capital under management as of Dec. 31, 2011.

SOURCE: Ares Capital Corporation