Stephen Watkins to present expert testimony on alternative financing to the US Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Chicago, IL – May 13, 2009 Stephen H. Watkins, CEO of Chicago based Entrex, is slated to provide expert testimony at a hearing tomorrow before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. At the event, scheduled for 2:30 pm at the Russell Senate Office Building, Watkins and the line-up of other expert panelists will speak to various angles of the hearing’s topic: Progress Report on Recovery Act Implementation and Alternative Sources of Financing.
Committee Chair Mary Landrieu (D-La) invited Watkins to discuss Entrex’s TIGRcub™ security structure as an alternative source of financing for American small businesses. Watkins testimony will provide a brief description the funding problems facing mid-market private companies in the U.S. today, the role that it is appropriate for commercial banks to play, and assess the efficacy and shortcomings of the SBA’s Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) model.
According to Watkins, “there is a void of capital market structure for efficiently funneling institutionalized growth capital into companies in the $5M-$250M revenue sector.” He continues to say that “the best angle the SBA has to overcome this challenge is their SBIC program, but that will need innovation to continue to attract investors. Working together we can quickly solve that issue.”
Because Entrex TIGRcubs™ are a revenue-based security, whereby the investor purchases the right to a monthly distribution of a company’s top line income, the structure appeals to capital sources that are weary of long and uncertain waits for equity harvest times as well as those seeking an inflation hedge in their portfolio—which the TIGRcub™ provides through its cash flowing nature.
Watkins summarizes, “Right now, SBICs are regulated to invest in equity or debt offerings. With some fast track attention by the SBA and SEC, TIGRcubs™ could be an authorized investment structure for SBICs and fit quite well within their current oversight model.”
For more information or to download a copy of the written testimony, contact Entrex via e-mail or visit the Entrex website.
About Entrex
Entrex is the place to find, research, track, manage and trade securities for entrepreneurial companies. Through the TIGRcub™ security structure, Investors and Issuers are brought together in a Capital Market System that serves both private and public companies. TIGRcubs™ provide Investors with monthly income, liquidity and investment returns that are not based on exit events, or exposed to the volatility of the equity capital markets—all while providing Issuers a non-dilutive capital solution with risk-adjusted pricing simulating either debt or equity structures. Visit the Entrex website
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