upward creep, page-26

I should justify my earlier comments in that I am an investor who tries to identify companies with increasing cashflow over the longer term. I remain cynical of balance sheets and company promises until I see the actual performace (burnt once too often in the past). When I invest I typically allocste 5% of my portfolio in the initial investment - and I will increas this to no more than 10% over the next 1-2 years once performance is confirmed.

Regarding TGA I have no firm opinion. I don't think they have a strong balance sheet when compared to a company who has cash at hand (FLT has a strong balance sheet for instance) - I see $32M allocated to puchase rental equipment in a 6 month period however I don't see rental assets increasing at the same rate (i.e. they are depreciating them pretty quickly). None of us can know truly what the $52M in rental assets are actually worth. Debt increased in a period where performance was flat - so I will keep away until more financials become available.

CGF is a different business. They have no debt at corporate level it is in the annuities side where long term assts and debt are matched with obligations. For this type of business we need to be sure they are conservatively managed - they have allocated more capital into the annuities business (forced to by regulation in fact) and they have a conservative payout ratio of 30%. Both of these settings should create long term shareholder wealth. That being said I only allocated 5% in the first investment.

Thanks for the intelligent discourse.