Back to business

Don’t get the wrong idea. My friend Peter recently remarked that all of this focus on politics of late must be a subtle sign that there’s a career change in the offing.

Not to “worry”. With fresh air blowing through the governments of Toronto, New York and Washington, among other places this morning, there seem to be plenty of volunteers ready to take on that mantle.

On to the real business at hand: the work front. We’ve got two new deals in due diligence right now. Both are a result of our marketing efforts in the USA over the past 15 months. Direct marketing, conferences, an office in the USA, a great product: it all adds up.

Canadian entrepreneurs haven’t fallen off the radar screen, however. More than half of our pipeline right now is domestic.

Since Christmas, we’ve closed nine new transactions, putting about $56 million to work. We’ve also enjoyed 17 exits over the past couple of years. The 17 figure includes M&A exits, free cash flow repayments, bank re-fi’s, etc. In an uncertain economy, it’s a great sign about the efforts of the entrepreneurial teams we’ve had the pleasure to back.

We are on a calendar fiscal year, and have a good sense of where the financial year will wind up. Looks as though this will be our 11th consecutive profitable year. And that’s really the name of the game: earning a suitable return for the risk we take on on behalf of our limited partners.

The fact that the world is coming around to the sensibility of yield and quarterly income suits us just fine.

MRM