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We are proud of our company's evolution over the years. Through an expanded focus on facilitating our client's capital raising efforts, international expansion into the emerging markets, and the establishment of our fund management business, we have been able to offer the most comprehensive range of services available in our industry.
APO
In 2004, we completed our first transaction using our trademarked APO process. Through a joint effort with our strategic broker-dealer partners, HFG assists private companies in going public by simultaneously completing a reverse merger transaction with a private placement of equity capital (PIPE). Shortly thereafter, we trademarked this instrument and have completed more APOs than any other organization, thus capturing the dominant position in the market. HFG's APO transactions have ranged in size from $10 million to $65 million. This "alternative public offering" model has quickly become widely accepted in the mainstream financial community, and has eclipsed the IPO as the preferred method for mid- and small-cap companies that are raising capital and going public.
International Growth
In 2002, we began our international expansion by opening our office in Shanghai, China. This operation has grown rapidly and we are widely considered the leader in China having completed dozens of APOs and reverse mergers. We continue to maintain an extensive pipeline of Chinese companies seeking a financing and listing in the U.S. capital markets.
To replicate our success in China, HFG has since focused its efforts on other emerging markets. We have established strategic partnerships in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Greater Asia, which are now producing a steady stream of deal flow, and we are continuing expansion into other markets. We have learned from our recent experience that there is significant U.S. investor demand for quality international companies that are willing to enter the U.S. markets through the APO process, as it brings together the fastest-growing companies in the world with the transparency and safety of a U.S. listing.
Our international commitment and expertise is further underscored by the composition of our advisory board that features a former U.S. ambassador and Senator and senior member of the World Bank. We have also been interviewed extensively by the major television, radio and print organizations and have testified in front of a U.S. Congressional Committee on the topic of international companies accessing the U.S. capital markets.
HFG Funds
As both a byproduct and complement to our APO and international expansion strategy, HFG has developed a comprehensive asset management business. We are currently principals in two different funds that make direct APO investments into HFG transactions. The Halter Global Opportunity Fund is a professionally managed hedge fund that makes investments into all the regions where HFG clients are domiciled, and The Halter Fund invests our firm's own capital into select transactions.
Our asset management business is further complemented by our family of index products and funds that use these indexes as a benchmark. In 2003 we launched our first stock index, the Halter USX China Index®, which tracks the performance of Chinese companies publicly traded on U.S. stock markets. We are now in the development stage of our next index, the Halter USX Latin America Index. All of our index products are conducted in an exclusive partnership arrangement with the NYSE Arca. Having received a positive response from the investment community and the financial press about our China index, we launched the Powershares Golden Dragon Halter USX China ® Portfolio, an exchange traded fund (ETF) listed on the NYSE Arca (NYSEArca: “PGJ”).
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