GAM Star GAMCO US Equity fund awarded AAA rating by S&P

GAMCO Investors, Inc. (GBL: NYSE) announced that Standard & Poor’s awarded its AAA rating to the GAM Star GAMCO US Equity fund and to GAMCO’s underlying Private Market Value with a Catalyst ™ (PMV) stock specific selection strategy for the eighth year running.

Mario Gabelli, Chairman of GAMCO Investors, Inc. said, "Our investment team is particularly honored that our research driven Private Market Value with a Catalyst ™ approach to stock picking continues to extend its S&P AAA rating streak.”

The S&P AAA rating is a widely acknowledged measure of excellence, awarded only when, in S&P’s words:

The fund demonstrates the highest standards of quality in its sector based on its investment process and management’s consistency of performance as compared to funds with similar objectives.

GAM Star GAMCO US Equity is one of only three funds among the 64 currently rated in S&P’s America Sector, as of December 1, 2011, to receive the AAA rating. The fund was launched in July 2011 and its predecessor, GAM GAMCO Equity initiated in October 1987, was rated AAA for the prior seven consecutive years.

In affirming the AAA rating for the fund, S&P stated:

Overall, the experience of the manager, the consistent investment approach and the success achieved result in the S&P AAA rating.

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The following is excerpted from S&P’s AAA November 2011 rating report on GAM Star GAMCO US Equity:

Gabelli established the company in 1977 and therefore has a wealth of investment knowledge gained over a career which now covers 44 years. He is a hands-on manager and looks to get the best from the research team of 34 who contribute to this strategy.

The team has diverse experience, but the core competency of Gabelli himself has always been media and telecoms, and these are areas that are generally overweight in this strategy and are key areas of alpha generation.

GAMCO's team of 34 global equity research analysts is structured along seven broad sector categories. One of four senior analysts leads each group. The analysts follow their sectors on a global basis. Each analyst is responsible for gathering, arraying, and projecting company data for making investment decisions. Experience in the team varies considerably. The majority of the analysts are US-based with others in London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai.

On the fund’s management style, S&P wrote:

Mario Gabelli follows a bottom-up, value-driven approach, developed from Graham & Dodd. The approach uses detailed fundamental analysis to highlight stocks that are currently undervalued, but have a reasonable probability of realising a private market value (PMV) through the intervention of a discernible catalyst. The PMV is the value he believes an informed investor would be willing to pay for a company. Catalysts might be a specific event or a range of circumstances with varying time horizons.

Research is focused by themes that reflect Gabelli's areas of interest and experience. There is often a bias to industries such as media where a wealth of industry data can be used to compare asset values. Holdings should have a strong franchise, a shareholder-friendly management and the ability to generate free cash flow. Most opportunities are found in under-researched small-/mid-cap stocks.

Positions are built gradually according to conviction, on a five- to 10-year horizon. Turnover is therefore very low.

Sector weights are not constrained. Risk is largely controlled by building a broadly diversified portfolio with no consideration for the S&P 500 index benchmark.

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GAM Star GAMCO US Equity – USD Class was seeded by the transfer of the holdings of GAM GAMCO Equity on 27 July 2011. GAM Star GAMCO US Equity – USD Class has inherited the performance and price history of GAM GAMCO Equity, which incepted on 20 October 1987. All references to price and performance for periods to 27 July 2011 refer to the performance of GAM GAMCO Equity. GAM GAMCO Equity is an open-end, British Virgin Islands domiciled, investment company sub-advised by GAMCO Asset Management Inc. (a subsidiary of GAMCO Investors, Inc) for GAM, continuously since October 1987.

S&P Capital IQ’s Fund Research is one of the world's leading providers of qualitative, forward-looking fund management research reports. Fund research reports are based on in-depth analysis of the funds’ investment culture, due diligence approach, operational risk assessment, team’s experience, skill, flair and stability, fund specifics and other factors. The research is also based on an evaluation of qualitative (management, investment process and organisation) and quantitative (historic performance, portfolio construction and volatility) factors, which may contribute to long-term performance. Funds are rated into the following three categories of AAA (highest) or AA (very high) or A (high) to indicate three different standards of quality based on the fund’s investment process, team’s experience, control of risks and consistency of performance relative to its own investment objectives.

GAMCO Investors, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manages private advisory accounts (GAMCO Asset Management Inc.), mutual funds and closed-end funds (Gabelli Funds, LLC), and partnerships and offshore funds (Gabelli Securities, Inc.). As of September 30, 2011, GAMCO had $31.3 billion in assets under management.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Our disclosure and analysis in this press release contain some forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements give our current expectations or forecasts of future events. You can identify these statements because they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They use words such as "anticipate,” "estimate,” "expect,” "project,” "intend,” "plan,” "believe,” and other words and terms of similar meaning. They also appear in any discussion of future operating or financial performance. In particular, these include statements relating to future actions, future performance of our products, expenses, the outcome of any legal proceedings, and financial results. Although we believe that we are basing our expectations and beliefs on reasonable assumptions within the bounds of what we currently know about our business and operations, there can be no assurance that our actual results will not differ materially from what we expect or believe. Some of the factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our expectations or beliefs include, without limitation: the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets; a decline in the performance of our products; a general downturn in the economy; changes in government policy or regulation; changes in our ability to attract or retain key employees; and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations. We do not undertake to update publicly any forward-looking statements if we subsequently learn that we are unlikely to achieve our expectations or if we receive any additional information relating to the subject matters of our forward-looking statements.