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In
deference to the hockey fans at CHB, there will be no picture
of the Avs or mention of their Stanley Cup defeat at the hands
of the dreaded Dallas Stars. At least the Stars didn't go
on to win the Cup. Speaking of not-so-friendly competition,
the CHBers took to the snow in mid-April at Winter Park for
a day of NASTAR racing. Unfortunately, it was so late in the
season that the course was closed and although Tad attempted
to exert his considerable influence the course operators were
unmoved. Next time Tad will remember his wallet. With no factual
basis for determining racing prowess available the day quickly
degenerated into trash talking. As Tad, the ex-ski racer,
was clearly first, the other five of us debated the only important
question remaining -- who would have been sixth.
At the end of March MACTEC, Inc. signed a merger agreement
to acquire Harding Lawson Associates Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:
HRDG) at a price of $11.50 per share. HLA is headquartered
in Denver and provides a broad range of infrastructure engineering,
consulting and construction-related services to private sector
industrial and public sector governmental clients. The combined
companies will have gross revenues of approximately $325 million
and adjusted EBITDA of $29.5 million. The merger closed in
early June. With this latest acquisition the Company will
have acquired four companies in the last twelve months. Management
at MACTEC are well on their way to creating a leading environmental
services company with strong positions in the nuclear remediation,
infrastructure engineering and consulting sectors.
Spyder finished out a down year in the industry up 10 - 20%
across its key markets. Early reactions to next year's product
line have been extremely positive. Spyder's space at ISPO
(the annual European ski industry show) in February and at
SIA (the US trade show) in March was packed and the company
is forecasting growth of 30% for next year. Spyder has successfully
taken significant market share over the last two years based
on top quality products, expanded distribution and more aggressive
marketing.
Champion Technologies, Inc. has continued to experience strong
growth as the combination of technically superior products
and excellent customer service keep customers like Ericcson,
Nortel, Lucent and Cisco asking the company to take on more
and more. We are helping management wrestle with the issues
associated with big volume increases investigating alternatives
from moving production off-shore to adding production lines.
It is an exciting time at Champion.
On the new deal front we continue to see strong deal flow
although we have nothing new under letter of intent since
our last newsletter. We recently completed our new firm brochure
and have enclosed a copy for your review. We will be modifying
our web site to take advantage of the new content soon. We
encourage you to call us with interesting investment opportunities
within the closely-held and family owned business market.
We look for transactions where we can invest equity capital
in established companies with $20 million or more in revenue.
Should you call, we guarantee you a thoughtful and timely
response.
Tad Kelly, John Flanigan, Blake Morris, Grant Clayton, Sean
McClenaghan, Steve Greene & Nancy Thayer
511
Sixteenth Street, Suite 600 Denver, CO 80202
Telephone: (303) 571-0100 Facsimile: (303) 571-0114
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