GRI Equity - integral investing

March blossoms from winter for the northern hemisphere temperate climates. The spring equinox focusses attention on nascent growth which it is hoped will flourish in the months to come. In nature we can enjoy the warmth of spring without the manic activity of summer - weeds have not yet overpowered our efforts. Easter, this year contemporaneous with a solemn mood as the Pope's health wavers, also creates a mood of hope and optimism for plans set but not yet carried out. This mood almost seemed to be reflected around the world: the US administration attempts to become more concilliatory and cooperative in international politics, Israeli and Palestinians seem to be agreeing a way forward, Hong Kong and Taiwan are slowly shaking off their parental cocoons.

But the mood of optimism should be tempered by the growing list of priorities for global management. Our failure in rich economies to make progress to the Millenium Development Goals and the increasing concern over the failure to reduce poverty of most people in the world are signs of increasing economic and geopolitical tension which will loosen only with whole system change.

Relevant to our wake up call is the film The Corporation, briefly reviewed below, which should be required viewing for all managers as a fast primer on challenges facing large businesses today. It focusses on the US jurisdiction but has lessons for us all. I do not take issue with coporations per se - that is too emotive. But the disconnect between owners ( i.e. you and me with an investment portfolio, pension or other savings) and the management of business has become too extensive. We should not complain about the way things are if we do not take responsibility for our own behaviour, whether it is consumption or investment.

A paper from IMD on the need for integrity in managers offer the sobering advice that integrity is not necessarily important, because corporate culture does not value it! (Do you need integrity to be a successful leader?) While integrity and flexibility are reported to be the most important factors in successful managing, the paper recognises that not owning up to mistakes etc is likely to be undiscovered or ignored if certain objectives are met. It is of course this culture that leads to Enron risk and disasters.

People in America have thought much about life and death and the rights of people during March because of the legal debate over Terri Schiavo. It is in stark contrast to views expressed about death in Iraq. The end result of this bioethics dilema was ironic - allow her to die, but by starvation! It is emotional and uncertain issues like this that demand our attention in order to remove tensions and liberate people's energy.

Global culture has not yet fully emerged to an enlightened dynamic. Many executives from traditional businesses and organisations that we meet have sympathy with more responsible initiatives both at work and home, but they are reluctant to change first. Often they say "a crisis is needed, then economic and social behaviour will adjust". This is sensible.

However, it is rare for humanity to wake up until it is too late, perhaps the best example is the Second World War in which the USA was supplying finacne and industry to Germany into 1942 despite many innocent deaths in the years before. The perspective of the Asian Crisis (not the tsunami but the economic debacle of 1996 till after 2000) offers a frightening lesson. It was not until currency devaluation of 50% took place that government and business in Thailand began to contemplate reforming practices which were unethical, collusive and inefficient. In fact it is only recently that people feel real changes have started to be implemented and many unsavoury practices have rejuvenated. What if this is the sort of shock that is needed to wake us up? Can you imagine the pain of a one time shock of a depreciation of your currency so that it can only buy half what it does today? It is unthinkable. We must change our behaviour, habits and consumption, individually, today if humanity is to succeed, even survive.

Geopolitics

Tung Chee Hwa finally stepped down from the role of Hong Kong's Chief Executive. His retirement three years early was obscurely managed. This in itself does not bode well for Hong Kong's executive nor for the tensions in Taiwan and other disputed territories. The implications of the resignation of Tung for the China/Taiwan issue are obscure because the resignation has revealed so little information. China is keeping its cards close to its chest.

But China is certainly not going to play meek. With the example of the US invasion of Iraq and US displays of power and rhetoric in the Middle East, Iran, even Europe, China will present a firm position. Soon after the official announcement of Tung's resignation, China passed a new law approving the use of military force if Taiwan declares independence. This is the most worrying development, though it will be accompanied by a gradual tightening of economic and social relations as Taiwan increasingly demonstrates its tendency for independence and democracy.

The Middle East seems to be making progress towards a more enlightened politics, though this would be a departure from the track record. Syria said it will withdraw from Lebanon, and local and international pressure to do so is high. Israeli and Palestinian leaders seemed to agree a step forward, involving releasing suspects and more self-governance, which has been initiated. No great changes there yet, but momentum appears to be building on top of the increasing freedoms enjoyed by Iraqis.

The Chechnya war continues and stakes were raised as leader Aslan Maskhadov killed. This action is now being considered genocide by some observers and the statistics and grahics seem to support that view. The desire for Russia to control an oil pipeline being constructed through Chechnya, in particular the revenuies associated with it, is the principal motivation. The war is another issue of concern for investors and businesses in Russia, reflecting an increasingly imperialist policy.

The World Bank's new President Paul Wolfowitz is a much debated appointee because of his role in supporting the Iraq war. A healthy discussion may be seeen on http://www.worldbankpresident.org/.

Greenspan's comments on globalisation and financial imbalances in March bear attention. He does not make casual comment so the problem of the US trade deficit now has a significant authority drawing attention to it. Planning for a worst case scenario now would therefore be a valauable risk management exercise.

The US continues to disappoint in the area of civil liberties. The restructuring of intelligence services is important though the raft of legislation allowing un-monitored government investigation has set the record back decades. But we came across an insidious example of the fear of people: Verizon a major internet service provider was found to be blocking non-US emails! This is a society where guns are so liberally available that another school massacre took place during March. It is hoped that the original values of the founding fathers will be rejuvenated and an openness in society will be reborn (without the guns), but the ability to repeal aspects of legislation like the Patriot Act will be contentious and difficult.

An entertaining and useful portal on globalisation is delivered throught the PBS website. Sponsored by major corporates it may have some bias, though its utility is data delivery.

Risk and Terror

The high school massacre in the US is tragic and demonstrates a cultural psychopathy. It was reflected in the US's dismissive response to the wounding of an Italian journalist and the death of an Italian special agent killed by US soldiers. Nicola Calipari, who negotiated Giuliana Sgrena's release, died as he shielded Ms Sgrena from shots. There was an investigation, but Italians are grossly unhappy and blame is unlikely to attach. If there was a sense of cooperation among the parties involved it is unlikely that the error would have occurred and, if it did, that excuses would be accepted, but rancour has been fuelled instead.

Investment, Finance & V. C.

John Kenneth Galbraith long ago observed "We have 2 classes of forecasters: Those who don't know . . . and those who don't know they don't know." I'm pretty sure I'm in the first group though the tensions in financial markets are making prognosis increasingly difficult. When Greenspan indicates that globalisation and the US government debt are making expectations volatile, we mere mortals should indeed worry.

On a geographic basis, Japan and Germany remain interesting to us, though not yet assured. Initial data on Japan has been revised indicating that economic growth may be resuming. The Japanese economy expanded slightly in the last three months of last year, emerging from a mild recession. Japan's gross domestic product rose 0.1% over the period, beating government forecasts of a 0.1% shrinkage. The most positive contribution to the increased growth seemed to come from Japanese businesses building up inventories so a turnaround is far from assured.

Of particular interest in Japan is the new appointment of a foreign CEO of Sony. This signals a major opeing up of custom which reflects the cultural shift we see in Japan.

Germany's bounce back is still not certain, however, signs of good performance in automotive and real estate sectors have been seen. The UK appears to be under pressure as UK retail sales are reported to be stagnant and house prices levelling off. To mitigate some of this pain UK consumers might consider a trip to America where the low value of the dollar means a great holiday and inexpensive consumption may be enjoyed.

The Harvard Business Review reports some remarkable results of a study of the business "topple rate" - the probability that a top company (a firm with revenues in the top 20% of its industry) will lose its revenue leadership position within five years. The data shows that the likelihood of "toppling" doubled from 1972 to 2002. Many of the successful "attackers" that topple incumbents come abruptly from far behind. Companies are traveling through the ranks today about 40% faster than they did in the 1970s and 1980s. The average new leader was in the middle of the pack just five years before rising to the top quintile. Researchers Patrick Viguerie and Caroline Thompson point to globalization, constant changes in technology and deregulation as the major causes for today's rapid market shuffle.

Thailand remains a favoured place to invest but a drought could affect economic growth this year though the prime minister said the government remained hopeful the economy would grow by 6.5% in 2005 after 6.1% growth in 2004. . The drought is hitting most of the country - with water in many dams declining significantly. The drought hit fourth quarter economic results by significantly affecting output in the agricultural sector, which accounts for just under 10% of GDP. Hopes for a second rice-crop this year have been frustrated by the drought, and crops have been withering in fields. It is also affecting energy resources - water at hydro-electric dams has fallen close to the minimum needed to produce electricity. Other areas of the Mekong River delta are also affected.

Value investing was encouraged by DKW's James Montier in a recent paper viewable here. Extracts from the research are enlightening:

" However, the table also shows the difficulty of picking growth stocks ex ante. If you had invested an equal amount into the 20% of stocks with the highest forecast earnings growth then you would have underperformed by 2.5% p.a. on average! In contrast, if you had invested in the 20% of stocks with the lowest growth expectations then you would have outperformed by 4% p.a. on average. The role of expectations in this process couldn't be much clearer. It is far easier to surprise on the upside if the expectations are low in the first place. "

Responsible Investing

UBS Investment Bank, a division of financial services giant UBS, is integrating environmental and sustainability criteria in the bank's overall assessment of investment risk and opportunity based on information provided by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. Innovest will make the research available through a dedicated website available to UBS employees globally. "The bank views this global site license as an important due diligence tool which will improve our ability to identify, analyze, and manage environmental and social risk," said Joel Forbes, global head of environmental risk management at UBS Investment Bank.

AIG's dominant boss Maurice "Hank" Greenberg unexpectedly resigned his role as CEO to become non-executive chairman only. This came after a period of investigation of AIG's operations mounted after Marsh McLellan's problems came to light. Greenberg has been replaced as chief executive of AIG, the world's top insurance firm by stock market value, by Martin Sullivan. AIG also replaced its chief financial officer, and delayed its 2004 accounts. In November, AIG paid US authorities $126m (£67m) to settle an accounting probe. It faces more investigations. AIG it appears has poor governance, but this is not surprising in a public company that has effectively been ruled by an indiviadual, now 79, for decades. The feudal pyramid must be high and formidable and had been acceptable to equity holders. Economic pressure on the insurance industry, exacerbated by climate change, and increased concern by society over unethical management has catalysed this change. The changes will be beneficial for all stakeholders in time, though expect risk and volatility for the moment.

Updating earlier reports of shareholder action at energy companies, activists recently announced their withdrawal of climate change resolutions at six oil and gas companies because they have taken concrete steps to measure, mitigate, and disclose data on the environmental impact of their businesses. The shareowners withdrew resolutions at Apache (ticker: APA), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), ChevronTexaco (CVX), Tesoro (TSO), and Unocal (UCL), and chose not to re-submit a resolution at Marathon Oil (MRO). The campaign was organized by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors, and the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), a consortium of environmentalist institutional investors.

The Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) announced that six microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing nations on three continents-- Africa, Asia, and South America--are preparing sustainability reports incorporating GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. MFIs offer microcredit, or small loans typically accompanied by technical assistance and financial counseling, to low-income individuals or microenterprises overlooked by mainstream financial institutions. The MFIs include one in Asia (Acleda Bank in Cambodia), two in Africa (K-Rep Bank in Kenya and Centenary Rural Development Bank in Uganda), and three in South America (FIE in Bolivia, Banco Solidario in Ecuador, and FINDESA in Nicaragua). Acleda Bank currently has a brief Environment, Social and Community Report posted on its website, but the difference between this relatively perfunctory document and a sustainability report based on GRI guidelines is significant. The six MFIs will utilize GRI's handbook for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for support in producing the in-depth reports.

A clean energy ETF began trading in mid-March, enabling investors to purchase shares in a fund based on the index's basket of clean energy stocks. PowerShares Capital Management LLC is introducing an exchange traded fund (ETF) replicating the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, the "PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio" (Amex: PBW). Shares started trading at $15. See more here.

Another sign of changing colours is the move of Adam Seitchik from Deutsche Asset Management, where his team managed $60 billion in assets, to Trillium Asset Management, which manages around $1 billion. Seitchik see this as"upward mobility". An article on the move is here.

Venture Capital

A multi-million pound venture capital fund to invest in companies in the natural, organic and Green industries will launch in the UK this month at Natural Products Europe. Greenmont Capital Partners, based in Denver, Colorado, was formed last year by a group of natural and organic industry stalwarts from both sides of the Atlantic. Its founding partners include former Horizon Organic executives Barney Feinblum, Mark Retzloff and Paul Repetto, together with Fresh & Wild founders Hass Hassan and Bryan Meehan. Greenmont launched formally in the US last November. It has already made two investments — both juice businesses — and assessed 20 candidate companies to date. Having built up an $18 million (£10 million) fund, Greenmont is now set to launch in the UK and Europe.

A recent paper, Smart Institutions, Foolish Choices?: The Limited Partner Performance Puzzle found that endowments generate annual private equity returns that are 14% higher than average. You can see the paper here (pdf). The primary driver was recommitment strategy, in terms of follow-on funds. Endowments and corporate pensions are much less likely to recommit than are public pensions or advisors, and they do a better job of predicting the performance of the follow-on funds to which they do commit.

In 2004, cleantech investment captured $ 1.209 billion (5.8%) of the $ 20.9 billion of venture capital invested across all industries. Furthermore, in Q4 2004 Cleantech captured more than 6% of the $ 5.279 billion invested in North America overall, up significantly from 4.7% in the previous quarter. Cleantech now ranks 7th in size as an industry segment behind Software, Biotechnology, Telecommunications, Medical Devices and Equipment, Semiconductors and Networking Equipment.

Interest Rates and Currencies

Acceleration of interest rate increases is imminient. The effect of interest rate increases may be more dramatic than anticipated, being exacerbated by weakness in teh housing markets. Not only are many home-owners highly leveraged, it also seems that the cost of buying has now become more expensive than renting in many countries. Anecdotal reports suggest that prices are stagnating in many countries and downward pressure is now perceptible. The combination of rising interest rates, high levels of mortgage debt and demand for houses levelling off is a recipe for volatility.

Trade and FDI

In early March a conference and a separate report on banking in Europe both targetted the lack of a central payemnts processing facility as a principal hindrance to business and investment. Charlie McCreevy, erstwhile successful Finance Minister of Ireland, now EU internal market commissioner has called time up and wants to see the product from four years' work soon. If he makes it happen, the reduction in transaction costs and increase in transparency will have an immediate positive effect on market dynamics in Europe.

Energy

Oil was flirting with $ 60 a barrel. Pressure may ease as spring reduces heating demand, but high prices are becoming expected and alternatives to fossil fuels sought. The high prices are also benefitting small operators, like Tullow Oil, whose marginal exploration endeavours now have significantly higher payouts.

Pumping Poverty: Britain's Department for International Development and the oil industry a new report produced by Plan B to coincide with the EDM has been endorsed by nineteen other organisation. It investigates the role of British overseas development aid in facilitating oil development and finds that - far from helping the world's poorest people - such aid often serves its wealthiest corporations, leaving the poor worse off than before and aggravating global climate change. Pumping Poverty can be viewed online on: www.planb.org or www.carbonweb.org

Beyond Oil - the oil curse and solutions for an oil-free future a 32-page A5 booklet brings together background info on oil and conflict, repressive regimes, development, oil industry workers, and climate change. Together with information on the revolving doors and mutual support between the oil industry, government and the International Financial Institutions which fund new oil projects, it lays out the UK's involvement in the oil curse, and the action you can take to challenge it. See it at Plan B or downlaod it here.

The U.S. Senate paved the way to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The U.S. Senate voted against an amendment to strip ANWR instructions from the Senate Budget Resolution. While Bush administration officials hailed the vote, Democrats lashed out at Republicans for getting the vote in through the back door - attaching it to the budget resolution, where fewer votes are needed. NGO's, who have been working feverishly to bring the few swing votes needed in their favor, said this is only the beginning of the fight - there is a long way to go before the Refuge is opened for oil drilling.

A recent study by Argonne National Laboratory found that ethanol generates 35% more energy than it takes to produce, reinforcing the fact that production of the corn-based fuel yields a net energy gain. The findings of the Argonne study support earlier research conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Michigan State University, the Colorado School of Mines, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and other public and private entities that determined ethanol has a positive net energy balance. A USDA study released in 2004 found that ethanol may actually net as much as 67% more energy than it takes to produce. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office (DOE) of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy said the Argonne study, conducted by Michael Wang, should help quell debate about the net energy balance of ethanol.

Climate Change

Another quake in Indonesia was felt during March, but did not have the same intensity or devastation of the December one. It is unlikely that these are caused by climate change, though they are a violent reminder of nature's volatility.

Another step in the march to open systems occurred in March as SCO's patent infringement suit against IBM in relation to Linux faltered. SCO is also facing economic difficulties which make the litigation less important.

Integral Systems and LOHAS

The end of March saw the spring equinox and the attendant celebration of Easter which presented some interesting observations: Less than half of UK adults know why Easter is celebrated (it is a Christian tradition to memorialise the crucifiction of Jesus and his life's work); more people celebrate Easter in China or Africa than either Europe or North America. It is numbers like these which demonstrate the evolution of culture. In developed markets individuals are addressing religion and spirituality more critically, which often results in initial rejection followed by an enlightened search for a spiritual compass. In emerging economies, the structure of institutional religion provides an anchor of hope that poverty will be escaped and goodness is possible despite tough economic conditions.

Tony Blair announced plans for sweeping changes in the UK public school meals service which would see junk food swapped for “organic and local food”. The announcement comes amidst growing calls for major improvements in the quality of school meals and a plea from TV chef Jamie Oliver for a “school dinner revolution.” Blair acknowledged "It may take a little time to change children's tastes, but it will be worth the effort if we can get them enjoying healthy and good quality food at school.”

Blair was particularly impressed with the Soil Association’s Food for Life scheme, which not only drew attention to the seriousness of the problem - it branded much of the food served to schoolchildren as “muck off a truck” - but also provided practical solutions on how to feed children affordable, organic and locally produced meals. As a result of Jamie Oliver’s television series Jamie’s School Dinners, more than 100,000 people signed a petition as part of Oliver's Feed Me Better campaign, which calls for low-fat, healthy meals to be made available in the country's schools. The new diet drive is expected to cost £300 million a year, less than 1 per cent of the education budget.

In similar news, scientists say junk food could become the healthy option. This is already happening as health bars, often with low/no sugar or fat, are being used to satsfy convnenience cravings and teh sweet tooth of children. The opportunity is to offer snacks which look, feel and taste like junk, but are made with healthy ingredients! Dr Gary Frost, head of nutrition at Hammersmith, says that policies pushing higher consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables are not likely to be successful.

Also, Atkins Nutrionals UK is set to close up shop. Reports say the company faces bankruptcy and liquidation due to lagging sales of its low-carb diet products.

Vicki Hird of Sustain UK highlights the issue of unsustainable food distribution in a recent report. The energy consumed in transporting organic food from growers in Africa and South America to supermarkets in Europe and North America is more detrimental than the benefits derived from their sustainable growing. Of course, these foods are still better than imported non-organic foods, but consumers need to bring fair trade home and buy locally produced foods.

As many as 60 percent of life-supporting ecosystems are being degraded, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment carried out by 1,300 scientists in 95 countries which warns that this degradation could get significantly worse over the next 50 years. The ecosystems most under threat are fresh water, fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests, the report says. Following are some of its key findings:

Bowling For Columbine again? An unhappy student killed nine and wounded 12 at a high school in north central USA. This is tragic but unlikely to galvanise people to positive action such as controlling the spread of guns, promoting constructive values and providing interesting activties and opportunities for young people.

The UN voted to declare opposition to human embryo cloning research and experiment in light of high unknown risks and because of opposition from Catholic states.

But the big news in the story of Life and Death is that a US judge ordered that the feeding tube be removed from Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman despite last-minute efforts by Congress to stop it. Mrs Schiavo's parents wanted to keep her alive, while her husband Michael, who is her legal guardian, did not. It took nearly two weeks for Schiavo to die once the feeding tubes had been removed. It is ironic that quick painless euthnasia was not preferable after all the debate about pain and suffering.

National Geographic March issue had interesting coverage of the human brain and mind. One interesting fact for parents is that a foetus' brain start restructuring in the second trimester, in other words it matters what stimulation the foetus receives prior to birth. The use of new understanding of the mind allows us to manage our own mental development, temperament and, importatly, life decisions. The mind is particularly interesting because it is the location of the link between physical and metaphysical existence.

According to Robert Hooijberg of IMD, integrity is not essential for leaders! This appars to be because companies do not value it. Nevertheless it is important for success. You can see his paper here.

The US's emergence to social equality took some more bumpy steps forward as San Francisco allowed same gender marriages and 11 states moved to make them illegal.

It appears that bird flu may be migrating again from Asia to Europe as Ireland and UK start to get nervous about another outbreak. While it is not likely to become pandemic, the spectre of new disease created by industrial systems continues to rise.

March sees the opening of the fishing season on the River Slaney, which runs close to us. This year the sentiment has been particularly sanguine as salmon stocks are low and may be in jeopardy of extinction. Drift net fishing is responsible for destroying small fry which are not sought and not even the simple and effective solution of requiring square guage nets (which allow small fish to escape) are not being implemented, let alone any bans. In the last couple of decades we have put cod on the endangered species list - most of us have little interest in cod unless it is wrapped in newspaper and chips. It appears the salmon, which evokes some sense of majesty in most of us, will go the same way. (If you are interested in nature conservation and game you may find something of interest at Ballin Temple.)

Activities, Books and Gatherings

Astraea is launching a retreat for personal and business transformation: Nurturing Natural Performance. You can download a pdf flyer here or call + 353 59 9155037 for more information. The guides leading the retreat offer over 150 years of life experience including global CEO, healer, publisher, therapist, investor, author, yoga trainer, parent, entrepreneur, gardener and more. The retreat offers the opportunity to significantly enhance your capacity in less than a week and is well suited to executives and managers in business, government, or international development. It is invaluable to those embarking upon career or lifestyle changes.

Pam was published in March. Yoga Therapy Ireland featured a two page spread on yoga in Carlow by Pam. It has received compliments from the yoga community - congratulations! You can read the draft here.

A range of books were screened or read. Our complete selection to date is online here, though it is worth noting a few here. At the suggestion of a best selling author and friend, we read Gurdieff. Gurdieff was an unusual character who attempted to link eastern spirituality with western culture in the early 20th century. While his work was hindered by the nascent understanding of atomic physics at that time, his critical thinking and experiential approach was ahead of its time and the school of thought deserrves some attention in the study of the practical connection between body and spirit. The occult references can be a bit off-putting but are necessary for want of a non-partisan language.

Emergence by Barbara Marx Hubbard is a valuable exposition of the opportunity to open humanity to spiritual development while we have the opportunity to rescue earth from pollution. A passionate author this is becoming required reading for mangers building sustainable systems.

The Corporation - a documentary on corporate power is required viewing for all managers in large corporations. The two hours required to watch this film will prepare managers for responding to public debate on corporate failures of ethics and motivate solutions. It is unfortunate, however, that the focus is on US and US companies which have plainly escaped the law of the state as well as social morality. The authors do not point out that the form of organisation itself is not to blame - because of course there are good corporations and bad partnerships, individuals etc - but the people behind them, including consumers and shareholders who can change behaviour. This movie is a wake-up call for capitalists who think everything is OK.

The most enlightening and best value gathering on new thinking is coming up at the beginning of May. Book your place at BeTheChange while you can.

This report has been prepared for information purposes and is not an offer, or an invitation or solicitation to make an offer to buy or sell any securities. This report has not been made with regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation or the particular needs of any specific persons who may receive this report. It does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets or developments or any other material referred to herein. The information on which this report is based, has been obtained from publicly available sources and private sources which may have vested interests in the material referred to herein. Although GRI Equity and the distributors have no specific reasons for believing such information to be false, neither GRI Equity nor the distributors have independently verified such information and no representation or warranty is given that it is up-to-date, accurate and complete. GRI Equity, associates of GRI Equity, the distributors, and/or their affiliates and/or their directors, officers and employees may from time to time have a position in the securities mentioned in this report and may buy or sell securities described or recommended in this report. GRI Equity, associates of GRI Equity, the distributors, and/or their affiliates may provide investment banking services, or other services, for any company and/or affiliates or subsidiaries of such company whose securities are described or recommended in this report. Neither GRI Equity nor the distributors nor any of their affiliates and/or directors, officers and employees shall in any way be responsible or liable for any losses or damages whatsoever which any person may suffer or incur as a result of acting or otherwise relying upon anything stated or inferred in or omitted from this report.

Private and Confidential

March Round-up

Perspective