This special-purpose acquisition company, with a ticker symbol that only a 10-year-old boy could love, snuck onto the IPO calendar earlier this month. The sponsor is Chardon Capital Markets, a boutique investment bank based in New York that specializes in creating SPACs (special-purpose acquisitions companies) and then finding acquisitions for them. One of its earlier SPAC offerings, Shine Media Acquisition (OTCBB:SHND), came public in December of 2006 with the goal of buying a Chinese media or advertising business. On May 6, 2008, it announced that it was acquiring China Greenscape Ltd., a nursery company that cultivates and plants trees and other greenery in public spaces in Chinese cities.

Chardon 2008 China Acquisition Corp. has no industry specialty, other than an intention to find a good business to buy in China.

Lost in the Pipeline

When Shine Media came public, the IPO market was a bit more robust than it is today. And yet, many companies that filed back in 2006 never managed to go public. One of the major drawbacks to a public filing is just that all the information about the business, its profits, and the executives’ compensation is on file with the SEC for all to read, even if the deal never closes. Here are a few of those companies that never came public:

Panther Expedited Services (www.pantherii.com, filed June 2, 2006): Panther is a transportation company, handling expedition and logistics. It does not operate . . .

The company is profitable, although profit growth is less steady than revenue growth. In 2007, the company posted net income of $17.8 million, down from the $19.8 million recorded in 2006. Rackspace broke even in 2003 and has been profitable ever since. One factor in projecting profitability is that the business is capital intensive. It requires ongoing investments in technology and infrastructure. Even though the company leases its data centers, it still has to do extensive remodeling and upkeep to make them suitable for storing servers. The company benefits from scale economies until it reaches the point where it has to build out more space or invest in more equipment. Then, the economies reset. In 2007, the company spent $105.4 million on property and equipment.

I’m starting to think that solar power deals are on par with special-purpose acquisition companies (or SPACs) and dry bulk shipping this year. After all, there have been two others to date: Real Goods Solar (Nasdaq:RSOL), which raised $55 million in May, and ReneSola (NYSE:SOL), which brought in $130 million in January. In a year with only 35 IPOs, that makes solar power a bona fide hot spot.

GT Solar makes equipment used to fabricate photovoltaic cells, which collect sunlight and convert it into electricity. These are big machines needed to produce solar cells but sold to only a handful of buyers worldwide. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008, 62% of the company’s revenue came from just one customer. In years past, the customer base has been more diversified, but just barely. In fiscal 2007, for example, three customers contributed 70% of revenue. No matter how big the solar power industry becomes, GT Solar will always face a concentrated customer base. A good analogy is semiconductors, which are in everything these days but are fabricated by just a few companies.

The company made $36.1 million in net income on $244.1 million in revenue for the March 31, 2008 fiscal year, its first profit ever. The year before, it had a net loss of $18.4 million on revenue of $60.1 million. The outlook for fiscal 2009 is good; the company has an order backlog of about $1.3 billion and deferred revenue from equipment shipped but not yet billed of $164.2 million. Profits should stay . . .

In college, one of my best friends decided that my middle initial stood for “cynic.” Well, even my cynical self was blown away by the very idea of Navios Marine Acquisition. I can just picture a bunch of investment bankers sitting around a J.P. Morgan Chase conference room, wracking their brains to figure out how to earn fees in a market so terrible that only SPACs and dry-bulk shipping seem to generate any interest. (A SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, is a blank-check deal in which investors give a management team money in hopes that they will make a good acquisition with it.) Then, the lightening bolt hits. “I’ve got it!” one of the well-clad folks shouts. “A dry-bulk SPAC!” And thus, Navios Maritime Acquisition is born.

The good news? The SPAC is sponsored by Navios Maritime Holdings (NYSE:NM), a Greek shipping company. Navios specializes in dry-bulk shipping, and the SPAC will instead look to acquire companies that handle liquid cargo, containers, or shipping logistics. One interesting wrinkle is that Navios Maritime Holdings itself was part of a blank-check company acquisition. It was acquired in 2005 by International Shipping Enterprises, a SPAC organized by Angeliki Frangou, who now serves as the CEO of both Navios Maritime Holdings and Navios Maritime Acquisition. She is also the CEO of Navios Maritime Partners L.P. (NYSE:NMM), which is an affiliate of Navios Maritime Holdings. Global demand for shipping is strong because of the growth of trade to and from China and India, so the various Navios businesses have great prospects.

Despite the fact that the board of directors is made up of people with experience in both shipping and finance, there are a few potential conflicts. Namely, Navios Maritime Holdings and Navios Maritime Partners are also looking to make acquisitions. The plan is for Holdings to acquire dry-bulk companies except for ships that are Panamax (maximum size to go through the Panama Canal) or Capesize (too large to go through the Suez Canal) class, Partners to acquire Panamax and Capesize ships, and Acquisitions to consider everything else. It’s possible that these companies, with their overlapping interests and managers, would end up cutting deals that benefited . . .

It’s a story ripped from the headlines: scrappy company faces down worst IPO market in years and succeeds beyond its wildest dreams in a heartwarming tale of triumph over long odds. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but will you make money? If you watch Lifetime, you know RHI Entertainment. The company produces made-for-TV movies and miniseries, and then sells them on DVD after their network runs. It was originally owned by Hallmark, of greeting-card fame, and known as Hallmark Entertainment. In 2006, it was acquired by an investment group led by a father and son television production team, Robert Halmi, Sr. and Robert Halmi, Jr. They also acquired domestic DVD rights to the Hallmark Channel’s library, and they continue to make movies for the Hallmark Channel.

The company has since branched out beyond the Hallmark Channel to make and distribute programs for a range of other television outlets including pay-per-view and direct-to-video options. It plans to have 40 new productions in 2008 alone. The value of the deal is in the assets, though, because RHI is losing money on a net income and cash flow from operating activities basis; it had positive EBITDA in 2007 but not in 2006. Much of this is due to interest expense, $38.3 million in 2007, which should be eliminated after this transaction. With the interest expense gone, RHI should post solid profits. Like other entertainment companies, RHI is allowed to capitalize its production costs, though, which may lead to some overstatement of profits. The business has to be valued on a cash-flow basis by an investor who feels comfortable . . .

Safe Bulkers operates a fleet of 11 ships used to carry dry bulk, which is uniform cargo that can be stored in loose piles such as grain or iron ore. To get it from place to place, shippers use dry-bulk ships, and Safe Bulkers is one of the fleet operators they call. The company’s ships have an average age of 2.6 years, making it one of the youngest fleets in the industry. The company’s largest customer is agribusiness company Bunge Limited (NYSE:BG), which contributed 29.9% of 2007 revenues. Another agribusiness firm, Cargill International, represented 21.1% of revenues, and Daiichi Chuo Kisen Kaisha, a shipping company, was responsible for 18.2% of sales. That’s a total of 69.2%, a proverbial blessing and curse. Safe Bulkers has most of its fleet time accounted for, but the loss of one of those customers would be devastating.

Operating the ships uses a lot of capital, but the business makes money. In 2007, Safe Bulkers posted net income of $87.8 million on revenue of $161.1 million. Cash provided by operating activities was $278.5 million. The ships need ongoing maintenance, but they also have value; Safe Bulkers historical financial results often include gains from sales of ships.

The company is owned by Vorini Holdings, an investment firm controlled by the Hajioannou family of Greece. Vorini sold all of the stock in this offering, and will still control more than 80%. The company itself did not get any of the proceeds. Nevertheless, Safe Bulkers has plans to expand its fleet to 19 ships in the next two years. The filing range was $20 to $22, so the $19 price was a little . . .

If buying stock at an initial public offering is an act of faith, investing in special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) — startups with no operating assets (and no guarantee they will find any) — is an act of blind faith.

A SPAC is created with the sole purpose of acquiring an operating business with shareholders' money. Despite the fact that few SPACs have found anything to buy, new ones keep cropping up. Liberty Lane’s big selling point seems to be that it’s the first one that mighty Goldman Sachs is bringing to market, which may make it seem more legitimate in a sector once dominated by squirrelly shell companies traded in Vancouver.

Its founding officers, Paul Montrone and Paul Meister, had long tenures with Fisher Scientific, a manufacturer of scientific and industrial instruments now known as Thermo Fisher (NYSE:TMO). Montrone served as CEO from 1991 to 2006, and Meister was the company’s CFO from 1991 until 2001, when he was named vice-chairman of the board.

Fisher Scientific grew in part through 60 acquisitions, so the draw is that Montrone and Meister know to find acquisition candidates and structure good deals. Liberty Lane isn’t the only SPAC with experienced dealmakers at the helm, but not all have that distinction; several SPACs have executives who are more figureheads than deal-makers (Heckmann Corporation (NYSE:HEK) has on its board former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz and former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle).

But no matter how good a track record Montrone and Meister have, they still have to find a good business to buy in the next two years, and that’s tough to . . .

Many investors favor boring industries over whatever is the sexy, go-go sector at the moment. They’ll trade scintillating cocktail-party conversation for predictable returns in an industry that is easy to understand, which makes it easy to track a company’s progress. If you’re one of these folks who prefers mundane to modern, then Colfax Corporation — a manufacturer of pumps for industrial applications — might be for you.

Colfax specializes in big pumps for big uses, such as in oil wells, ships and chemical manufacturing facilities. Many of its customers, including the U.S. Department of Defense, aren’t affected by economic cycles. Other customers are economically sensitive, and right now, the global economy is in their favor. Colfax does two-thirds of its business outside of the United States, and demand for pumps is growing. India and China are building infrastructure, and just about every nation is demanding more oil and gas. Although pumps seem basic, they are critical to the operations that they are used in. That gives the company some pricing power, and it has an opportunity to grow revenues in the future by designing pumps that are more powerful . . .