We closed a merger last year, in May of 2000, with another REIT, which increased our capital base by about 40 percent. That merger and the increase in the size of the company is what is behind the big increase in revenues. We recently completed a secondary offering of common stock and would expect a nice lift of revenues based on the much larger company we have right now. The principal strategies on the investment side are to lend money on a secured basis where we think we can get an excess return on the risk that we re taking. Many opportunities are around now in the high-yield mortgage segment, particularly as the economy slows down a bit.
Capital is a little less available.
As a consequence, you can charge more for it. For common shareholders, we ll continue to look out for opportunities to raise capital on an accretive basis to shareholders, which is what we just did in the secondary market, adding to our capital structure in ways that are accretive. Other capital raising strategies like the unsecured term debt market or the preferred market will be productive strategies for our shareholders. I have been in the investment business since 1984. I started my career in mortgage and real estate finance at Lehman Brothers.