Press Releases

Management Team Completes Acquisition
of Evans Analytical Group

Sunnyvale, CA -- 16 September 2005 -- Evans Analytical Group LLC announced that, effective September 2, 2005, it has acquired the assets of the Evans Analytical Group laboratories, the world's largest independent provider of microanalytical surface analysis and materials characterization services.  Evans Analytical Group LLC ("EAG"), a new company formed by members of the management and employees of EAG, Auriga Partners, Inc., and American Capital Strategies Ltd., has purchased: the assets of the Evans Analytical Group laboratories (Charles Evans & Associates, Sunnyvale, CA; Evans PHI Lab, Chanhassen, MN; Evans NorthEast, Peabody, MA; and Evans Taiwan LLC, Hsinchu, Taiwan) from High Voltage Engineering Corporation in a Section 363 bankruptcy auction; Evans East, East Windsor, NJ; Evans Texas, Round Rock, TX; and Cascade Scientific Labs, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA.  EAG management, Auriga Partners and American Capital are all equity investors.  In addition, equity is being made available for purchase to the employees of EAG.  American Capital has also provided senior and subordinated debt financing to the new company.  In aggregate, the transactions involved totalled approximately $37.5 million in combined debt and equity.

"By merging all of the Evans laboratories into a single, integrated company, EAG strengthens its market leadership position and will now be better able to serve the needs of its customers and advance the science of microanalytical surface analysis.  Furthermore, we will extend our sales and marketing into emerging customer segments and deepen the Company's penetration into its existing domestic and international markets," said Evans Analytical Group Chief Executive Officer Tom Pfeil.  "American Capital's strong financial support and in-depth understanding of our company, our challenges and our opportunities confirm that we are working with the right investment partner for managing EAG's growth."

"EAG is the clear market leader in the microanalytical surface analysis and materials characterization services industry, offering the broadest range of testing capabilities and retaining the strongest group of highly skilled scientists in the industry," said Myung Yi, American Capital Principal.  "We're looking forward to working with EAG's management team.  Their industry experience, intimate knowledge of the company and deep focus on growth should add tremendously to the future success of EAG."

"Our executive team of Tom Pfeil, CEO; Vince Franceschi, EVP Marketing & Business Development; Dr. Mike Edgell, EVP Operations; Dr. Richard Hockett, Chief Scientist, and Dr. Charles Magee, Chief Scientist, along with our highly regarded lab managers, Dr. Pat Lindley (CA), Dr. Bill Harrington (NJ), John Newman (MN), Dr. Phil Merrill (MA), Scott Baumann (TX), Han Chung Chien (Taiwan) and our outstanding analytical staff, position us well to aggressively advance the science and elevate the total service experience for our customers" said Jim Cowart, Chairman of the EAG Holdings LLC Board of Directors and Managing Partner of Auriga Partners.

About Evans Analytical Group
Founded in 1978, EAG provides microanalytical surface analysis and materials characterization services to identify the overall atomic and physical structure of materials, including chemical composition and chemical bonding, as well as level and type of trace impurities.  EAG's services are a critical component in research and development, manufacturing and sales support functions, and are used specifically in developing new processes or materials, transferring those processes to production, developing and qualifying new production tools, and solving yield problems in manufacturing.  EAG has a diversified customer base of more than 1,500 high technology companies in the semiconductor, semiconductor equipment, electronics, medical and biotech industries, among others.  Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, EAG also has facilities in Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas and Taiwan.

About American Capital
American Capital is a publicly traded buyout and mezzanine fund with capital resources of approximately $5.4 billion.  American Capital invests in and sponsors management and employee buyouts, invests in private equity buyouts, and provides capital directly to private and small public companies.  American Capital provides up to $250 million of senior debt, mezzanine debt and equity to fund growth, acquisitions and recapitalizations.

About Auriga Partners, Inc.
Auriga Partners is a California-based private capital firm founded in 1992 that provides financial advisory services and acquires and builds mid-size companies in a variety of industries.

Forward-looking Statements
Statements contained in this Press Release that are not historical facts may be "forward-looking" statements as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  To identify these forward-looking statements look for words like "believes", "expects", "may", "will", "should", "seeks", "intends", "plans", "projects", "estimates", or "anticipates" and similar words and phrases.  These, and all forward-looking statements, are based on current expectations and necessarily are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors which include, but are not limited to, our ability to achieve our objectives and the ability to maintain and consolidate our leading global market position.  We caution readers not to rely on forward-looking statements, and we disclaim any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.