Arkansas Capital Corp. of Little Rock will no longer work with state government to provide small-business loans. For the first time in the organization’s almost 60-year history, its funding model is changing.
ACC, created in 1957, is a private, nonprofit “credit agency” disbursing much-needed capital to the state’s small businesses that otherwise can’t get financing from local banks. (See sidebar.)
The group has become one of the largest U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture lenders in the state with more than 1,200 direct loans totaling $583.7 million to Arkansas businesses, $470.6 million of it since 1990. Partnering with more than 100 local banks, that figure grows to more than $1.5 billion.
While the group’s mission hasn’t changed, it will no longer use the state as a source for funding. ACC President and COO Sam Walls III said the group will go through private sources to raise its funding capital in the future, though he prefers not to divulge who they are until deals are finalized.
“We used the money borrowed from the state as our capital base to make loans to small businesses in Arkansas that had difficulty getting capital from traditional capital sources,” Walls said.
“In recent years, SBA lending has been a big part of our operation, but we have also utilized the USDA guarantee program at times. We also have some loans that do not have any federal guarantee programs involved in them.”
Arkansas Capital Corp. owes the state $41.5 million spread across four loans. One $4 million note will be paid off in December, a $26.8 million note comes due in 2018, and notes for $7.7 million and $3 million are up in 2022, according to the state treasurer’s office.
In the meantime, ACC will continue to pay off the loans and move forward, business as usual, Walls said.
“ACC will pay off all four notes and use other sources of capital to continue our small-business lending in Arkansas,” Walls said. “Our 58-year mission has not changed. We will still be partnering with banks in Arkansas to provide capital to Arkansas small businesses and will continue to work with public- and private-sector entities to advance economic development in Arkansas.”
And despite well-sourced rumors to the contrary, Walls said ACC made a unilateral decision to cut ties with the state.
The tedium of having to visit the governor’s office with each change of administration and explain the organization’s mission plus the restrictions placed on what could be done with state loans led the ACC board to consider using a private funding model instead. Walls said the move has contributed to a perception that Gov. Asa Hutchinson wasn’t satisfied with ACC.
Hutchinson, a Republican, succeeded Democrat Mike Beebe in January.
“Representatives of the governor’s office reached out to us looking to clarify some questions about ACC, which typically occurs at the beginning of a new administration,” Walls said.
“We were able to meet with the governor’s office and provide them with correct information, which resolved any questions. We’re good with the state. We’ll continue to work with the state in other ways.”
Walls said the idea of using a different source of capital for ACC lending had been discussed for several years.
“I would say that a number of things contributed to the transition, not the least of which was the fact we recently were given the designation as a community development finance institution by the federal CDFI Fund,” he said. “This opened up other sources that we could explore.”
J.R. Davis, a Hutchinson spokesman, confirmed ACC’s good standing and that the decision to move on originated with ACC. “They expressed a desire to pursue other opportunities not possible under state finance laws,” he said. Such opportunities could include the flexibility to take on more risk.
“Because the loans came from the state, they came with restrictions,” Walls said.
ACC Affiliates
The Arkansas Capital Corp. Group includes several affiliates providing a wide range of small-business lending.
Those affiliates include the Arkansas Capital Relending Corp. (USDA Intermediary Relending Program), the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation (entrepreneurial resources and programs), Diamond State Ventures (venture capital), Heartland Renaissance Fund (federal New Market Tax Credit program) and Pine State Capital (federal EB-5 foreign investment program), and it manages Six Bridges Capital Corp. (SBA 504 loans), an independent company.
Services include small-business loans; permanent, long-term financing for startups, expansions and acquisitions; risk mitigation for businesses and financial partners; and entrepreneurial resources and support.
Through the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation, it runs the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup collegiate business plan competition and the Youth Entrepreneur Showcase, business plan contests for students in grades 5-12.
Walls said other sources of income for ACC come from New Market Tax Credit allocations, consulting work and venture capital. Plus, Walls sees ACC’s work with the EB-5 foreign investor program, which seeks to attract foreign investment, as a potential revenue source in the future.
History of Arkansas Capital Corp.
Arkansas Capital Corp. was launched in 1958 as First Arkansas Development Finance Corp. Excerpted below is an article that co-founder Herbert L. Thomas Sr. wrote for Arkansas Economist, a publication of the University of Arkansas:
One of the most unique agencies which this nation has seen arise from the post-World War interstate competition for industrial development is the First Arkansas Development Finance Corporation. This organization, which in the field of industrial development is limited in purpose to the problems of financing, is patterned after, but is significantly different from the pioneering development credit corporation of the New England states which were born in the past decade. It is unique in its organization, in its potential size and effectiveness.
One of the most unusual and outstanding features of this corporation is that it is a potential $10 million (or more) credit agency which is privately owned but which will not provide its owners with any profit on their investment. It is an example of cooperation among private citizens and business and government institutions which is unprecedented in the history of Arkansas and unparalleled in other states. This nonprofit lending agency is one answer which Arkansas has found to the question of how to finance an aggressive industrial expansion program.
Within a short time after Arkansas began its active program of industrial development, with the creation of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission [which later became the Arkansas Economic Development Commission] in 1955, it became evident that the existing methods of industrial financing were not sufficient to keep Arkansas in a competitive position with other states in the bidding for outside industries. It had been further evident for some time before that too frequently, the birth of or expansion of an Arkansas-owned industry was thwarted by lack of credit or capital funds. Various people throughout the state began discussing the possibility of creating a state-wide development credit agency similar to those in some Eastern and New England states. After being sold on this idea, a group of businessmen, lawyers and members of the state legislature began what turned out to be a long and difficult task of creating FADFC …
… While FADFC will never reach the point of being able to fill all the financing needs of Arkansas’ industrial development, it is an important and effective addition to the program. It is the answer to many problems and has great potentialities for contributing to the growth of Arkansas.
Arkansas Capital Corp. Group Board and Executive Staff
Board of Directors
Dennis Cooper, CPA, Frost PLLC
Brad Chambless, SVP, Farmers & Merchants Bank
Orville Abrams, CPA, Abram’s CPA Services
Kevin Burns, SVP, Stephens Inc.
Charles Cervantes, independent businessman
Rush Deacon, CEO, Safe Foods Corp. and acting CEO of ACC
Bill Holmes, president/CEO, Arkansas Bankers Association
Virgil Miller Jr., group CRA director, Arvest Bank Operations Inc.
Mike Malone, president/CEO, Northwest Arkansas Council
Sandra Massey, chancellor, Arkansas State University-Newport
Martha Moore, president, McCormick Works
Frank D. Scott Jr., business development officer, First Security Bank
David H. Shindler, EVP, Iberia Bank
William Staed, retired banker
Mike Preston, executive director, Arkansas Economic Development Commission (ex-officio)
Aaron Burkes, president, Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ex-officio)
Executive Staff
Rush Deacon, acting CEO
Sam Walls III, president/COO
Les Lane, senior vice president
Al Hodge, executive vice president
Sandra Hairston, EVP and secretary-treasurer
Bert King, SVP