Investments

In the early days of Marin the philosophy was always to have control over each of its investments. This worked well for many years with the Finning Tractor investment but subsequent to Finning being sold it became apparent that this strategy would only continue to work effectively if there were a very limited number of investments in the portfolio. With the family seeking a broader base of investment exposure it became necessary to attract good business operators. This was difficult to do in an environment where quality entrepreneurs do not typically like to give up control of their business to investors. Marin compromised on its investment control position by pursuing private equity investments that represented less than a 51% voting position but only when there was a proper shareholders' agreement put in place. This discipline has helped to provide a mechanism for dispute resolution and provided comfort to all parties that if there were fundamental disagreements on how to run the business then there was a way to part company without unnecessarily destroying the underlying business. Having said this Marin's track record in private equity has been that of a long term holder. The emphasis is always on growing the business and not positioning an investment for sale. Our philosophy has never been to have an investment exit plan on or before making the initial investment. When you build a successful, profitable business, opportunities will present themselves. This happened with Finning, Whistler, Creo and with the majority of our smaller private equity holdings. Set out below are past and present investments and investment partners that Marin has been proud to be associated with in over 56 years of being in the investment business.