For Immediate Release

  FROM:
  Ameritrans Capital Corporation
  For more information Contact:
  Gary Granoff
  (800) 214-1047


  Ameritrans Announces Shareholder Approval of Extension of
            Offering Period of Private Placement

       New York, NY, January 24, 2006 Ameritrans Capital Corporation
(NASDAQ: AMTC, AMTCP) today announced that at a Special Meeting of
Shareholders held Monday, January 23, 2006, the shareholders of the
Company approved an extension of the offering period of the Company's
July 29, 2005 private offering of common stock, $.0001 par value, and
warrants, from its original expiration date of January 25, 2006 to
March 31, 2006.  The securities sold in this offering are not registered
with the Securities Exchange Commission and may not be offered or sold
in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from
the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.


	Ameritrans Capital Corporation is a specialty finance company engaged
  in making loans to and investments in small businesses.  Ameritrans' wholly
  owned subsidiary Elk Associates Funding Corporation was licensed by the
  United States Small Business Administration as a Small Business Investment
  Company (SBIC) in 1980.  The Company maintains its offices at 747 Third
  Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, New York 10017.

        THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS WITHIN THE
  MEANING OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995. SUCH
  STATEMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES THAT COULD CAUSE
  ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM THOSE PRESENTLY ANTICIPATED OR
  PROJECTED. AMERITRANS CAPITAL CORPORATION CAUTIONS INVESTORS NOT TO PLACE
  UNDUE RELIANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS, WHICH SPEAK ONLY
  AS TO MANAGEMENT'S EXPECTATIONS ON THIS DATE.