How about an electric walking stick for Heely shoes?
- Thread starter maxwell
- Start date
xyster
10 MW
Interesting notion. Wouldn't the stick have to be rather heavy in order for it's wheel to provide traction without leaning uncomfortable amounts of body weight onto it?
How about side-shoe motor drive? Attach little motors to the sides or rears of each shoe and wear the batteries like they do for heated clothes...
How about side-shoe motor drive? Attach little motors to the sides or rears of each shoe and wear the batteries like they do for heated clothes...
Lock
100 MW
Easy. Build a 20lb dog-shaped EV with controls at the end of a solid leash/pole.
No doo-doo to scoop up, and doesn't stop at every light post and hydrant.
Put one under 100,000 diff.Christmas trees and retire.
tks
Lock
No doo-doo to scoop up, and doesn't stop at every light post and hydrant.
Put one under 100,000 diff.Christmas trees and retire.
tks
Lock
Lock
100 MW
mvadventure
1 kW
- Joined
- May 2, 2007
- Messages
- 419
Talk about a niche market!
Mike
Mike
Lock
100 MW
mvadventure said:
Capital Southwest skates away on Fast Track
Investment in Heelys pays off, pushes equity firm to the top of the list
09:13 AM CDT on Monday, May 14, 2007
By WILL DEENER / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
businessnews@dallasnews.com
Capital Southwest Corp. neither wants nor seeks publicity.
The company has been plodding along for the better part of 50 years, making plenty of money for its shareholders with hardly anyone else taking notice. Capital Southwest, as the name implies, provides capital for start-up or early stage companies.
It's a small private equity company with a twist. Traditional private equity firms move in and get out of investments relatively quickly, usually within two to five years. Capital Southwest invests for the long haul – 10 to 20 years or even longer.
It typically invests $2 million to $20 million in growing, profitable companies, then sits back and waits. In 2006, its stock price jumped about 40 percent to $126.24 from $90.50, which helped make Capital Southwest's performance the best among the 150 public companies in the Dallas area. It placed No. 1 on The Dallas Morning News' 13th annual Fast Track list.
The Fast Track measures companies' 2006 performance in four areas – sales growth, profit growth, total stock return and return on assets – as compiled by Bloomberg News. Trusts, new public companies and companies that recorded a loss are excluded.
The previous year's No. 1 company, the Thomas Group Inc., an Irving consulting company, retained a very respectable No. 3 spot on the list.
With crude oil prices remaining high in 2006, energy-related companies held four of the top 10 spots, the most of any industry group.
Energy companies have dominated the Fast Track list for the past two years, but other industries are beginning to shine.
Two companies involved in metals – Titanium Metals Inc. and Chaparral Steel Co. – held the No. 2 and No. 5 spots, respectively. And the No. 4 company was Adams Golf Inc., a golf club manufacturer.
Reluctant champion
Capital Southwest chief executive officer William R. Thomas, 78, didn't really want to discuss his company, and he was none too pleased that his company was on the list. He had this to say about being named the area's best-performing company: "I don't want to be on your list. We are not like your other companies."
In some respects, he's right. Like any publicly traded company, Capital Southwest is required to file financial statements reflecting its revenue and net income – two criteria The News uses to rank companies. But Capital Southwest prefers not to gauge its performance on those two measures.
It tracks the value of the investments it holds going all the way back to 1961, when the company first went public. It raised $15 million in that initial public offering and has prospered ever since. The net asset value of that initial investment now stands at $725 million, according to company documents.
More recent shareholders have seen the net asset value of their shares appreciate from $102.74 per share in March 2006 to $132.36 per share in March 2007.
Over the past 45 years, Capital Southwest has invested in some 160 companies. Currently it holds ownership positions – usually minority stakes – in about 18 companies. Probably one-third of these investments have been held for 20 years or longer.
It invests in companies throughout the United States, but locally it owns 17 percent of Encore Wire Corp. and a stake in Carrollton-based Heelys Inc., which makes wheeled footwear. In fact, the Heelys investment helped propel Capital Southwest to the top of the Fast Track list.
In May 2000, Capital Southwest invested $2.4 million in Heelys, which represented a 43 percent ownership stake in what was then a private company. Heelys went public late last year, and Capital Southwest sold 1.6 million of its Heelys shares for $31 million.
That transaction helped push Capital Southwest's revenue up 491 percent and its profit growth up 576 percent. Heelys is a typical example of the company's investing strategy. It looks for small, private companies that are already profitable and have some protection against competitors. Heelys, for example, has some 25 patents protecting its wheeled shoes.
"We invest in companies with products or services that are well-positioned vs. competitors and are continually improved and upgraded," according to a Capital Southwest statement.
True to its long-term investing strategy, Capital Southwest still holds more than 9 million shares, or 32 percent, of Heely's.
