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DISCLAIMER: This Blog is a general communication of Keating and is not intended to be a solicitation to purchase or sell any security. The information contained in this Blog should not be considered to be part of Keating Capital's Prospectus. The offering and sale of Keating Capital's shares may only be made pursuant to Keating Capital’s Prospectus, which includes certain risk factors in the “Risk Factors” section of such Prospectus.

Submitted by Timothy J. Keating, Keating Investments, LLC

In November 2009, we published a white paper on the endowment model of investing (The Yale Endowment Model of Investing is Not Dead) that argued that the melt down at certain endowments had nothing to do with purported flaws in modern portfolio theory.  Now that the financial crisis has receded, we thought it would be instructive to take a fresh look at some of these same endowments to see what lessons they learned and what, if any, changes they made to the constructions of their portfolio.

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Pre-IPO Investor Provides Growth Capital to Leader in Plastics Recycling

Keating Capital, Inc. announced on February 23, 2011, that it made an additional $900,000 investment in MBA Polymers, Inc., one of its existing portfolio companies. This additional investment was made on February 22, 2011, as part of an extension of MBA Polymers’ Series G Convertible Preferred Stock financing in which a total of approximately $14.6 million was raised. Keating Capital had previously invested $1.1 million in the initial closing of the company’s $25 million Series G financing round in October 2010.

According to MBA Polymers, this Series G extension round provides important funding that will allow the company to accelerate its growth strategy of adding processing facilities. MBA Polymers extended the initial Series G financing to allow Keating Capital to increase its investment and to include a single European fund investing approximately $13.7 million in the Series G extension.

Founded in 1993 and based in Richmond, California, MBA Polymers is a global manufacturer of recycled plastics sourced from end of life durable goods and previously destined for a landfill, such as computers, electronics, appliances and automobiles. The recycled plastics are then sold as “drop-in” green replacements for virgin plastic to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other customers who desire a cheaper and/or greener alternative to virgin plastics. MBA Polymers has production facilities in China, Austria and the United Kingdom, and a demonstration facility in California.

Commenting on the increased investment, Keating Capital CEO Timothy J. Keating stated: “As our assets under management increase, we will be correspondingly increasing the average size of our new portfolio company investments. In the case of MBA Polymers, we were pleased to have had the opportunity to add to an existing position within our portfolio.”

About Keating Capital, Inc.

Keating Capital (www.KeatingCapital.com) is a business development company that specializes in making pre-IPO investments in innovative, high growth private companies that are committed to and capable of becoming public. Keating Capital provides individual investors with the ability to participate in a unique fund that invests in a private company’s late stage, pre-IPO financing round - an opportunity that has historically been reserved for institutional investors.

This press release may contain statements of a forward-looking nature relating to future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. These statements reflect Keating Capital’s current beliefs, and a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in this press release, including the factors set forth in “Risk Factors” in Keating Capital’s annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 30, 2010, and subsequent filings with the SEC. Please refer to Keating Capital’s SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties associated with its business, including but not limited to the risks and uncertainties associated with investing in micro- and small-cap companies. Except as required by the federal securities laws, Keating Capital undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The reference to Keating Capital’s Web site has been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such Web site is not incorporated by reference into this press release.

NeoPhotonics raises $82.5 million and lists on New York Stock Exchange

Keating Capital, Inc. announced on February 2, 2011, that its first portfolio company, NeoPhotonics Corporation, completed an initial public offering of its common stock and is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NPTN.  NeoPhotonics sold 7.5 million shares of its common stock at a price of $11.00 per share. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities were the lead underwriters.

Keating Capital acquired 10,000 shares of NeoPhotonics’ Series X convertible preferred stock in January 2010 for $1,000,000. Prior to the IPO, Keating Capital’s preferred shares converted into 160,000 shares of NeoPhotonics’ common stock. These common shares are subject to a customary 180-day lockup provision.

NeoPhotonics (www.NeoPhotonics.com) is a developer and vertically integrated manufacturer of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) based components, modules and subsystems for use in telecommunications networks. NeoPhotonics’ products include active semiconductor, passive PLC and MEMS multi-dimensional switching functions in a single product. This integration is enabled by nanomaterials and nanoscale design and fabrication technologies. NeoPhotonics maintains headquarters in San Jose, California, and ISO 9001:2000 certified engineering and manufacturing facilities in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen, China.

About Keating Capital, Inc.

Keating Capital (www.KeatingCapital.com) is a business development company that specializes in making pre-IPO investments in innovative, high growth private companies that are committed to and capable of becoming public. Keating Capital provides individual investors with the ability to participate in a unique fund that invests in a private company’s late stage, pre-IPO financing round – an opportunity that has historically been reserved for institutional investors.

This press release may contain statements of a forward-looking nature relating to future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. These statements reflect Keating Capital’s current beliefs, and a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in this press release, including the factors set forth in “Risk Factors” in Keating Capital’s annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 30, 2010 and subsequent filings with the SEC. Please refer to Keating Capital’s SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties associated with its business, including but not limited to the risks and uncertainties associated with investing in micro- and small-cap companies. Except as required by the federal securities laws, Keating Capital undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The reference to Keating Capital’s website has been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such website is not incorporated by reference into this press release.

Contact:
Margie L. Blackwell
Investor Relations Director
Keating Capital, Inc.
mb@keatinginvestments.com
(720) 889-0133

Submitted by Timothy J. Keating, Keating Investments, LLC

I submitted the following letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal in response to an article  published January 5, 2011, titled “Friending Private Capital.”  Although the letter was not published in The Wall Street Journal, here is my response.

To the editor:

Your editorial “Friending Private Capital” raises a good question – why are so few companies going public today?

Up until the previous decade, low cost and efficient capital formation was a hallmark of the U.S financial markets.  Individual investors at all income levels have been able to participate in exciting growth companies by buying shares of publicly traded stock.

Goldman’s creation of a special purpose vehicle to buy shares in Facebook speaks loudly to everything that is broken with capital formation in the U.S. today.  Facebook is in no rush to go public because they likely perceive being public as burdensome in many ways.  Shares of Facebook “trade” on private exchanges to which the general public has zero access.  Goldman’s lawyers create a clever special purpose vehicle such that a group of investors (each with a purported minimum investment of $2 million) can be treated as one investor and thereby help Facebook avoid violating arcane securities laws.  How did it all come to this?

Jobs are created by growing companies, which need efficient access to capital, which is most easily facilitated by selling shares of publicly traded common stock to institutional, high net worth and “mom-and-pop” investors, who in turn enjoy transparency and liquidity.

Going public and being public needn’t be complicated or burdensome.  Goldman’s “Friending” of Facebook shares should be a clarion call to all involved in the equity capital market ecosystem that it’s time to do a root and branch review of everything that is inhibiting exciting private companies from going public in the U.S.

Submitted by Timothy J. Keating, Keating Investments, LLC

It wasn’t so long ago that junk bonds were trading at a 2000 basis points spread to Treasurys.  That was then, this is now.

Junk bonds are in a raging bull market.  Spreads over Treasury have collapsed to 600 basis points.  And when the ducks are quacking, Wall Street will always be sure to find a way to feed them.  Consider hospital operator HCA Inc.’s announcement last week that it was issuing $1.5 billion in junk bonds and drawing down credit lines to pay a $2 billion dividend to KKR and Bain Capital, its private equity owners. According to Standard & Poor’s, HCA’s payout is the largest PE dividend recap since June 2005, when Fidelity National Financial Inc. issued a $2.7 billion dividend to its owners.  According to The Wall Street Journal, “This year is on track also to mirror total dividend-related financing in the 2005-2007 sales boom. According to S&P, companies have sold $40.3 billion in dividend-related financing loans and bonds this year. Companies issued $56.2 billion and $55 billion in 2006 and 2007, respectively.”

On the one hand, we know that short-term Treasurys basically yield zero and that investors are starved for yield.  On the other hand, one might think that after the 2008-2009 financial crisis that even high yield investors might be slightly chastened about lending money to already highly leveraged companies, especially for the sole and exclusive purpose of issuing dividends to PE owners.  The question is:  Why do these companies engage in these financing transactions?  The answer:  because they can.

Submitted by Timothy J. Keating, Keating Investments, LLC

Mortgage Rates Go Below Yields on Long Treasurys: “An Impossible Event”

As pre-IPO investors, we are always on the lookout for signs that “animal spirits” are on the rise.  Consider the following two interesting data points:

Exhibit A:  30-year fixed mortgage rates (4.17%) dropped below the yields on 30-year Treasury bonds (4.239%) for the first time—ever.  Credit for highlighting this freak event goes to Michael Shaoul, CEO of brokerage firm Oscar Gruss:  “You have, in theory, an impossible event, which is that the man in the street is paying less interest than the government is.”  Click here to link to the article in the November 11, 2010, edition of The Wall Street Journal. Mortgage Rates Go Below Yields on Long Treasurys

Exhibit B:  The private equity “dividend recap” is back in force.  More to come in our next posting….

Submitted by Margie L. Blackwell, Keating Investments, LLC

On October 15, 2010, Keating Capital, Inc. made a $1.1 million investment in the $25 million Series G Convertible Preferred Stock offering of MBA Polymers, Inc.  This investment is our fourth portfolio company investment and our second investment in the cleantech space.  To learn more about MBA Polymers, please view the entire press release at http://ir.keatingcapital.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=520872.

New White Papers

October 2010

Submitted by Margie L. Blackwell, Keating Investments, LLC

During the summer, Keating Investments published a set of three inter-related white papers that address in detail many of the critical questions that small private companies face when considering going public.  You may download a copy of each of these white papers from our Blog page.

Submitted by Margie Blackwell, Keating Investments, LLC

Tim Keating, President of Keating Investments, will be speaking at the Modern Energy Investor Forum which is being held in Denver on September 22-25, 2010.  The Forum is organized by Meetings International Natural Resources Enterprise LLC (MiNE), a Denver-based firm that organizes private conferences for institutional investors with a focus on Natural Resources.

What exactly is Modern Energy?

According to MiNE, Modern Energy is “an umbrella term to incorporate all types of energy including, but not limited to, solar, wind, wave, hydro, biofuels, biomass, geothermal, nuclear, magnetics, energy storage, conservation and new ways of generating and conserving energy we have yet to discover.  Modern Energy is the future of energy. ”

To learn more about MiNE and and its conferences, please visit www.minellc.com.

The opinions set forth above do not necessarily represent the opinions of Keating Capital, Inc. or Keating Investments, LLC.

Submitted by Rick Schweiger, Keating Investments, LLC

A structurally compromised IPO market has prevented many deserving companies from going public and enjoying the many benefits associated with having public company status, such as higher valuations, superior access to capital and a stock currency for acquisitions.  It needn’t be this way.  For public-ready companies, there is an alternative to the traditional IPO that is not fraught with the uncertainty that by definition characterizes a firm commitment initial public offering.  That alternative is a so-called “direct listing.”  Unlike the IPO, which combines a public offering and an exchange listing in a single step, the direct listing separates the going public process into two discrete steps – an exchange listing and a subsequent follow-on or alternative registered offering.  The direct listing process provides a relatively quick, certain and cost effective way to get access to these capital raising options – all of which can be completed using what is known as a shelf registration – where shares are SEC registered in advance and then sold “off the shelf” when market conditions are most favorable.  This white paper explains what a direct listing is, how it works, why it should be considered as an IPO alternative, and what capital raising options are available to exchange-listed companies, including and especially those companies that go public through a direct listing.

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