2007 annual report aveiro investment corp. - First West Properties

CHAIRMAN’S LETTER
DEAR FELLOW SHAREHOLDERS:
It is a pleasure to present to you Aveiro Investment Corp.’s fi rst
annual report, covering our fi rst year of operations as a real estate
investment company. Our company has grown signifi cantly since
we launched it last year, both in terms of its real estate assets
owned and market capitalization, and in the depth of the people
who manage it.
Harold Kunik and I created Aveiro to own real estate in an area of
North America where the economy is expected to outperform the
rest of the continent in the foreseeable future.
We have chosen to acquire real estate in western Canada because
we believe the commodities that are found throughout the western
provinces are in the early stages of a long-term uptrend. Strong
commodity prices are already contributing to unprecedented
economic growth across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan
and Manitoba.
Aveiro gives you the opportunity to own well-managed real estate
assets in these strong economies.
Our objective as a company is to increase shareholder value by
acquiring real estate assets that provide both sustainable and
growing free cash fl ow per share. We are doing this by building
a portfolio of primarily income-producing real estate assets in
secondary markets in Western Canada.
Before becoming an Aveiro shareholder, you may have
only invested in real estate directly and not through share
ownership of a real estate investment company, but it’s really not
that different.
You, like most Canadians, will probably rank your primary
residence as your single best investment. It is also probably
the investment that you have owned the longest, resisting the
temptation to immediately stick a “for sale” sign on the lawn when
your neighbor sells his house for more than you paid for yours.
When you do sell, you sell carefully and for compelling reasons.
And this thoughtful approach to investing has most likely paid off
in outstanding long-term results.
In his company’s Owner’s Manual, Warren Buffet describes how
he would like Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders to think about
their shares:
“[I] hope that you do not think of yourself as merely owning a piece
of paper whose price wiggles around daily and that is a candidate
for sale when some economic or political event makes you
nervous. We hope you instead visualize yourself as a part owner
of a business that you expect to stay with indefi nitely, much as you
might if you owned a farm or apartment house in partnership with
members of your family. For our part, we do not view Berkshire
shareholders as faceless members of an ever-shifting crowd, but
rather as co-venturers who have entrusted their funds to us for
what may well turn out to be the remainder of their lives.”
We hope you will think about your investment in Aveiro the
same way: as the beginning of a long-term relationship, with
like-minded co-venturers.
Aveiro Investment Corp. | 2007 Annual Report |
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