CycleGirl

Evaluating a Negative View on American Capital Strategies

Thank you, Davy, for your well-written rebuttal to Yulico’s article. I also want to acknowledge the good work you've done in your previous analysis on ACAS.

When I read Yulico’s article, I very much got the impression that the book Fooling Some of the People, All of the Time: A Long Short Story by Einhorn, was specifically critical of American Capital along with Allied Capital. Well, I looked at the book at Amazon and searched through it. I was surprised to find that Einhorn was positive about American Capital and used it as a contrast to Allied Capital!

From: Fooling Some of the People, All of the Time: A Long Short Story ....
" American Capital Strategies was one of Allied's competitors, which we had not shorted or criticized. In fact, we owned it in 1998-1999. It had the same business model as Allied Capital, so some believed that our criticisms applied to it as well. In fact, most of our critique had nothing to do with the business model. I don't believe that there is anything inherently wrong with business development companies. Greenlight's criticisms are specific to Allied Capital, ... "

In my opinion, Yulico was purposely misleading about this fact and is trying to use Einhorn's current stature to help make his case.

Several months ago, I opened a small position in ACAS. However, with the recent price drops, I've been accumulating more and more shares. ACAS is now one of my largest positions. I've lost count how many times I've been through the Q1 slide packet and the thumbed through the annual report to see a favorite graph. I am so impressed with the company's track record of growing the dividend and with the fact that they've set aside funds, in advance, to cover 2008 and 2009 dividends.

Once again, thanks for the article, Davy!