February 02, 2007

Croft & Bender Celebrates Ten Year Anniversary

Yahoo! Finance

ATLANTA, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Croft & Bender, an Atlanta-based investment banking firm that delivers M&A, private equity and financial advisory services to middle-market and emerging growth companies in the Southeast, recently announced the firm's 10th anniversary. "Ed Croft and I started this business 10 years ago with a vision about a new way to bring full value to small and mid-sized growth companies in our region," said Ted Bender, a managing director and co-founder of the firm.
"It's been quite successful, and our staff has expanded four-fold as a result. We have built a great team, and we enter our second decade even more committed to delivering high-quality investment banking services to this important, but underserved, market," Mr. Bender added.

Mr. Croft, also a managing director and co-founder, said, "Consistent with our original plan, we do three things really well. We work with middle market and emerging growth companies to deliver high-quality transactional alternatives, whether they involve raising capital or selling the business. We generate quality private equity investment opportunities for venture funds and buyout groups throughout the country, and we manage private equity funds with an innovative investment strategy."

The Firm's achievements during the past 10 years include:

- Serving as a financial advisor in M&A and recapitalization transactions

representing over $2.6 billion of aggregate enterprise value.

- Serving as a financial advisor in capital raising transactions

involving over $600 million of private equity and equity-related

capital.

- Sponsoring two private equity funds, C&B Capital I and II, with over

$40 million of total capital under management. The two funds have made

investments in 17 companies alongside other investor groups that

invested over $360 million of aggregate equity in those same companies.

Fund I has had seven liquidity events and is a top tier performer in

its peer group.

"The strong performance of our first private equity fund parallels that of our investment bank. We owe the success of both to the quality of the companies we work with, the commitment of our team to help those companies achieve their goals, and the pursuit of our vision to bring better approaches to serving our target market," Mr. Croft added.

About Croft & Bender
Croft & Bender LLC is an Atlanta-based investment banking firm focused on providing M&A, private equity and financial advisory services to middle-market and emerging growth companies in the Southeast. For more information on Croft & Bender and C&B Capital, please visit www.croft-bender.com or contact Ed Croft or Ted Bender at (404) 841-3131.