Sterling Capital received shares of the Equity Trust's common stock in a tax-free transaction pursuant to the agreement and plan of reorganization between the Equity Trust and Sterling Capital, originally announced on May 23, 2005. The Equity Trust issued 1,978,577 shares of its common stock, valued at $9.254344 per share or 103% of its net asset value on the effective date of September 12, 2005 in exchange for substantially all of the assets of Sterling Capital. The Equity Trust issued the equivalent of 0.7914 shares of its common stock for each common share of Sterling Capital outstanding. Former shareholders of Sterling Capital are now shareholders of the Equity Trust. The total consideration was approximately $18.3 million.

This is the Equity Trust's first acquisition of the assets of another closed-end investment company.

"We wish to welcome the shareholders of Sterling Capital to the Equity Trust. We believe that the transaction is beneficial to both groups of shareholders and will establish a framework for future transactions," said Mario J. Gabelli, Chairman of the Equity Trust.

The Gabelli Equity Trust Inc. is a non-diversified, closed-end investment company with $1.7 billion in total assets whose primary objective is long-term growth of capital and whose secondary objective is income. The Equity Trust is managed by Gabelli Funds, LLC, a subsidiary of GAMCO Investors, Inc. (NYSE:GBL), which is a publicly traded NYSE listed company.