American Capital: Proof Paulson Still Sought After (ACAS, GS)

American Capital, Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) had a big trading day, despite the news being perhaps a bit muted due to Friday’s SEC fraud charges filed against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).  We won’t bother telling you the news of the fraud that you have already read about dozens of times.  American Capital priced a $295 million registered direct offering of common stock to a group of institutional investors to sell 58.3 million shares of common stock at $5.06 per share.  The big news is that 43.725 million shares in the offering were sold to funds and accounts managed by Paulson & Co. Inc.

All of the net proceeds near $295 million in capital is being used “for general corporate purposes,” which includes investment and lending activities and to repay debt under existing obligations.

There is another situation here as well, and that Paulson & Co. is showing that it is not concerned that it will be tarnished by the SEC charges against Goldman Sachs.

American Capital shares are up 6.4% at $5.67 right before the closing bell on over 15 million shares.  If you look at the drop seen in American Capital on Friday, that was nearly a 6% drop.  Today’s gain is a mere recapture of what was taken away on Friday.  Shares had hit a new high of $6.08 earlier this morning before coming off throughout the day, and the old 52-week trading range was $2.08 to $5.75.

JON C. OGG