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COPYRIGHT 2000 Journal Publishing, Inc.
NOT SINCE THE DAYS OF David Hale, Capital Management Inc. and Whitewater has the acronym SBIC played a noticeable role in Arkansas commerce.
But it's back, accompanied by a variety of recent plans designed to fill the small business void left by banks and venture capitalists in Arkansas.
Sam Walls, the architect of much of the dynamic change along Arkansas' venture capital landscape, hopes the unusual designation awarded to Diamond State Ventures by the U.S. Small Business Administration on Sept. 12 will open the flood gates for alternative financing.
"We wanted to see Diamond State serve as a catalyst for a venture capital industry," said Walls, executive vice president of Arkansas Capital Corp. "The advantage here is leverage on the money."
At a small ceremony at Arkansas' Excelsior Hotel, SBA officials, Walls and others gathered to make Diamond State the first new Small Business Investment Company established in Arkansas since the SBA seized Hale's Capital Management in 1993.
The former municipal court judge had used the leverage--the SBA's agreement to loan $2 or $3 for every dollar contributed by the SBIC -- to make $250,000 in loans to Southloop Construction Co. and Castle Sewer and Water Corp., companies controlled by then Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. The extra money from the feds helped finance a circle of...
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