Past Pages, Aug. 22, 2011: Retirement funds boost small-firm acquisitions

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week in 2021, we will feature snippets of stories that published a decade ago to provide readers a 10-year perspective of business news in the region. This week’s stories first published in the Aug. 22, 2011, edition of the NNBW.

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Retirement funds boost small-firm acquisitions

Would-be entrepreneurs who want to boost the earnings in their retirement funds increasingly look to buy small businesses to include in their portfolios. But the good-performing businesses that are available for purchase sometimes are difficult to find these days, say business brokers in Northern Nevada.

The brokers who match buyers and sellers of small businesses saw a sharp upturn in activity at the end of 2010 after a months-long drought during which their phones seldom rang.

Brad Bottoset, owner and broker of The Liberty Group of Nevada, says 2011 is on track to be the strongest year since 2008 for the Reno-based business brokerage.

Meanwhile, Katrina Loftin-Winkel, managing director of BTI Mergers and Acquisitions in Reno and Sacramento, says activity at the two offices has doubled in the past year.


Booming metals prices creates strong demand for mining claims

Whenever Charles Watson arrives in Tonopah these days, he marvels at the number of mud-splattered pickup trucks, their beds filled with wooden stakes to mark mining claims, that fill the parking lot of the Jim Butler Inn and Suites on Main Street.

Like others in the business of buying and selling mine claims, Watson has been bowled over by the surge of inquiries from folks who want to buy a claim in hopes of striking it rich with $1,800-an-ounce gold.

“It’s a feeding frenzy,” says Watson, president of Advanced Geologic Exploration Inc. in Chester, Calif. Case in point: The Bureau of Land Management says it recorded 20,949 transfers of claims on federal land in Nevada during 2010. That compares with an annual average of 7,468 transfers in the state during the previous 10 years.


$300 million geothermal plant’s impact is widespread

As participants in the groundbreaking of a $300 million geothermal plant near Hazen climbed back into the buses that would return them to their cars last week, their name tags told the story of the wide-ranging economic impact of the facility.

Investors and financial advisors who came to the remote site from one coast to the other shook the desert dust off their well-polished shoes, took their seats on the bus and visited with representatives of local suppliers such as COD Diesel and Repair of Fallon.

Reno-based Gradient Resources says 250 Nevada companies are expected to play some role in the development of the Patua Plant during the next 16 months. Once construction is complete, 32 people will work in operations and maintenance positions, and the plant’s total payroll is estimated at $2.5 million.