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1.95M
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provides us with certain additional advantages, including the ability t ● recruit
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and develop management teams for our businesses that are familiar with the industries in
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which our businesses operate; ● focus
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on developing and implementing business and operational strategies to build and sustain shareholder
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value over the long term; ● create
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sector-specific businesses enabling us to take advantage of vertical and horizontal acquisition
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opportunities within a given sector; ● achieve
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exposure in certain industries in order to create opportunities for future acquisitions;
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and ● develop
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and maintain long-term collaborative relationships with customers and suppliers. We intend to continually increase our intellectual
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capital as we operate our businesses and acquire new businesses and as our manager identifies and recruits qualified operating partners
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and managers for our businesses. Acquisition Strategy Our acquisition strategies involve the acquisition
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of small businesses in various industries that we expect will produce positive and stable earnings and cash flow, as well as achieve
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attractive returns on our invested capital. In this respect, we expect to make acquisitions in industries wherein we believe an acquisition
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presents an attractive opportunity from the perspective of both (i) return on assets or equity and (ii) an easily identifiable path for
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growing the acquired businesses. We believe that attractive opportunities will increasingly present themselves as private sector owners
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seek to monetize their interests in longstanding and privately held businesses and large corporate parents seek to dispose of their “non-core”
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operations. We believe that the greatest opportunities for
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generating consistently positive annual returns and, ultimately, residual returns on capital invested in acquisitions will result from
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targeting capital light businesses operating in niche geographical markets with a clearly identifiable competitive advantage within the
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following industri business services, consumer services, consumer products, consumable industrial products, industrial services, niche
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light manufacturing, distribution, alternative/specialty finance and in select cases, specialty retail. While we believe that the professional
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experience of our management team within the industries identified above will offer the greatest number of acquisition opportunities,
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we will not eschew opportunities if a business enjoys an inarguable moat around its products and services in an industry which our management
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team may have less familiarity. From a financial perspective, we expect to make
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acquisitions of small businesses that are stable, have minimal bad debt, and strong accounts receivable. In addition, we expect to acquire
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companies that have been able to generate positive pro forma cash available for distribution for a minimum of three years prior to acquisition.
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Our previous acquisitions met these acquisition criteria. 4 We benefit from our manager’s ability to
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identify diverse acquisition opportunities in a variety of industries. In addition, we rely upon our management teams’ experience
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and expertise in researching and valuing prospective target businesses, as well as negotiating the ultimate acquisition of such target
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businesses. In particular, because there may be a lack of information available about these target businesses, which may make it more
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difficult to understand or appropriately value such target businesses, our manager wil ● engage
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in a substantial level of internal and third-party due diligence; ● critically
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evaluate the management team; ● identify
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and assess any financial and operational strengths and weaknesses of any target business; ● analyze
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comparable businesses to assess financial and operational performances relative to industry
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competitors; ● actively
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research and evaluate information on the relevant industry; and ● thoroughly
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negotiate appropriate terms and conditions of any acquisition. The process of acquiring new businesses is time-consuming
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and complex. Our manager has historically taken from 2 to 24 months to perform due diligence on, negotiate and close acquisitions. Although
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we expect our manager to be at various stages of evaluating several transactions at any given time, there may be significant periods
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of time during which it does not recommend any new acquisitions to us. Upon an acquisition of a new business, we rely
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on our manager’s experience and expertise to work efficiently and effectively with the management of the new business to jointly
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develop and execute a business plan. While primarily seek to acquire controlling interests
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in a business, we may also acquire non-control or minority equity positions in businesses where we believe it is consistent with our
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long-term strategy. As discussed in more detail below, we intend
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to raise capital for additional acquisitions primarily through debt financing, primarily at our operating company level, additional equity
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offerings by our company, the sale of all or a part of our businesses or by undertaking a combination of any of the above. Our primary corporate purpose is to own, operate
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and grow our operating businesses. However, in addition to acquiring businesses, we expect to sell businesses that we own from
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time to time. Our decision to sell a business will be based upon financial, operating and other considerations rather than a plan
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to complete a sale of a business within any specific time frame. We may also decide to own and operate some or all of our businesses
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in perpetuity if our board believes that it makes sense to do so. Upon the sale of a business, we may use the resulting proceeds to retire
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debt or retain proceeds for future acquisitions or general corporate purposes. Generally, we do not expect to make special distributions
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at the time of a sale of one of our businesses; instead, we expect that we will seek to gradually increase regular common shareholder
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distributions over time. There are several risks associated with our acquisition
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strategy, including the following risks, which are described more fully in Item 1A “ Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our
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Business and Structure ”: ● we
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may not be able to successfully fund future acquisitions of new businesses due to the unavailability
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of debt or equity financing on acceptable terms, which could impede the implementation of
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our acquisition strategy; ● we
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may experience difficulty as we evaluate, acquire and integrate businesses that we may acquire,
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which could result in drains on our resources, including the attention of our management,
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and disruptions of our on-going business; ● we
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face competition for businesses that fit our acquisition strategy and, therefore, we may
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have to acquire targets at sub-optimal prices or, alternatively, forego certain acquisition
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opportunities; and ● we
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may change our management and acquisition strategies without the consent of our shareholders,
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which may result in a determination by us to pursue riskier business activities. Strategic Advantages Based on the experience of our manager and its
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ability to identify and negotiate acquisitions, we believe that we are strongly positioned to acquire additional businesses. Our manager
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has strong relationships with business brokers, investment and commercial bankers, accountants, attorneys and other potential sources
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of acquisition opportunities. In negotiating these acquisitions, we believe our manager will be able to successfully navigate complex
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situations surrounding acquisitions, including corporate spin-offs, transitions of family-owned businesses, management buy-outs and reorganizations. 5 We believe that the flexibility, creativity,
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experience and expertise of our manager in structuring transactions provides us with strategic advantages by allowing us to consider
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non-traditional and complex transactions tailored to fit a specific acquisition target. Our manager also has a large network of deal
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intermediaries who expose us to potential acquisitions. Through this network, we have a substantial pipeline of potential acquisition
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targets. Our manager also has a well-established network of contacts, including professional managers, attorneys, accountants and other
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third-party consultants and advisors, who may be available to assist us in the performance of due diligence and the negotiation of acquisitions,
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as well as the management and operation of our businesses once acquired. Valuation and Due Diligence When evaluating businesses or assets for acquisition,
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we perform a rigorous due diligence and financial evaluation process. In doing so, we seek to evaluate the operations of the target business
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as well as the outlook for the industry in which the target business operates. While valuation of a business is, by definition, a subjective
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process, we define valuations under a variety of analyses, includin ● discounted
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cash flow analyses; ● evaluation
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of trading values of comparable companies; ● expected
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value matrices; ● assessment
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of competitor, supplier and customer environments; and ● examination
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of recent/precedent transactions. One outcome of this process is an effort to project
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the expected cash flows from the target business as accurately as possible. A further outcome is an understanding of the types and levels
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of risk associated with those projections. While future performance and projections are always uncertain, we believe that our detailed
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due diligence review process allows us to more accurately estimate future cash flows and more effectively evaluate the prospects for
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operating the business in the future. To assist us in identifying material risks and validating key assumptions in our financial and
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operational analysis, in addition to our own analysis, we engage third-party experts to review key risk areas, including legal, tax,
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regulatory, accounting, insurance and environmental. We may also engage technical, operational or industry consultants, as necessary. A further critical component of the evaluation
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of potential target businesses is the assessment of the capability of the existing management team, including recent performance, expertise,
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experience, culture and incentives to perform. Where necessary, and consistent with our management strategy, we actively seek to augment,
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supplement or replace existing members of management who we believe are not likely to execute the business plan for the target business.
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Similarly, we analyze and evaluate the financial and operational information systems of target businesses and, where necessary, we actively
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seek to enhance and improve those existing systems that are deemed to be inadequate or insufficient to support our business plan for
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the target business. Financing We finance acquisitions primarily through additional
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equity and debt financings. We believe that having the ability to finance most, if not all, acquisitions with the general capital resources
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raised by our company, rather than financing relating to the acquisition of individual businesses, provides us with an advantage in acquiring
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