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Spring 2008


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Spring 2000

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

 

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