Trade Acceptance Group receives exporting award at White House

Curt Hanson and Leslie Bergland 25 years ago were international banking veterans at the predecessor banks to U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo, chasing some of the same regional-company deals with wavering support from their institutions.

"Neither of those banks was serving the needs of the small exporters, and there was not a trade credit or insurance broker in the five-state Midwest region," recalled Hanson. "When that blinding flash hit us, we decided to start our own business."

A quarter-century later, the business, called Trade Acceptance Group (TAG), was at the White House accepting an "Excellence in Exporting" award from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.

The Obama administration is pushing Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord. It generally would lower tariffs but is opposed by some Democrats and labor groups, who fear job losses, as well as some Republicans who want to deny Obama a victory.

Hanson, who supports the pact, also has proved TAG can make a buck in the volatile export business by assisting small companies such as Ikonics, Midwest Hardwood and Safety Speed Cut. They lack the size and clout of a Cargill or 3M. But such deals matter to the companies and are substantial in the aggregate.

The six-person, Edina-based independent broker of trade credit, finance and political risk insurance estimated that its Midwest clients in 2014 exported $814 million in products overseas that were insured by the U.S. Export-Import Bank or private insurers. TAG regularly is ranked one of the nation's three most active brokers of the U.S. Export-Import Bank's insurance and loan products.

About 75 percent of TAG's revenue comes from commissions on credit insurance policies that it brokers for customers. It works with state government export agencies, such as the Minnesota Trade Office. TAG, partly through 120 seminars since 2011, helps create a technical-and-advisory bridge from small companies to export markets.

Riverbridge Partners grows after 2012 investment

Minneapolis-based investment manager Riverbridge Partners has increased its client base, doubled its assets under management to $7 billion and added employees since British firm Northill Capital acquired a 58 percent stake in 2012.

Northill, a passive owner, bought out several retiring shareholders as well as some stock from existing employees.

Riverbridge continues to operate independently, and the number of employee shareholders has increased from seven to 16 through an employee-ownership plan.

Riverbridge Chief Investment Officer Mark Thompson, who co-founded the firm in 1987 with now-retired John Wilke, leads a growth-focused, no-stars asset management team known for long-term investments in businesses and low turnover. Six of Riverbridge's seven composite portfolios have bested their benchmark funds over the past decade in an industry where lower-cost index funds generally do better.

Jon Little, the founding partner of Northill Capital, which has taken similar positions in several specialty-focus investment managers, said during a Minneapolis visit last week that Riverbridge is successful because it focuses on one thing: growth equity.

Little, a former vice chairman of huge BNY Mellon Asset Management, started privately held Northill in 2010. It's no all-things-to-everybody money management complex.

Riverbridge has 100 institutional clients that constitute 85 percent of its assets and 150 affluent family clients.

The firm also operates two mutual funds that mirror long-term private portfolios: Riverbridge Growth Fund and Riverbridge Eco Leaders. Long-term winners in the Riverbridge portfolios include Fastenal (since 1987) and Ecolab.

A Twin Cities-area Regional Indicators Dashboard is online, thanks to a business-government-civic partnership that assesses the region's economic competitiveness through measurements that track progress in economic, environmental and societal outcomes.

The dashboard ranks 12 peer regions across the country. The collaborators include the Itasca Project, Metropolitan Council, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the McKnight Foundation. For more, go to www.greatermsp.org/regionalindicatordashboard.

The Minneapolis-based digital advertising agency Space150 has acquired Burbank, Calif.-based ONE+K to bolster its video and animation capabilities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

ONE+K's client list includes Paramount, Disney, Apple, HBO and Warner Bros. The agency adds 50 employees and 11 editing bays to Space150's 120-person operation, which includes offices in Los Angeles and New York. ONE+K's specialty is consumer marketing campaigns. The agency also provides creative and technical services to the entertainment industry. Space150 founder and CEO Billy Jurewicz said the acquisition will help both agencies "move past TV-centric production models to a content engine built for brands publishing digital content every day."

David Phelps

Win Rockwell, a 40-year business litigator with an environmental bent, will be the first executive director of Greening Downtown Minneapolis (GDM), part of the ambitious Downtown 2025 plan of the Downtown Council. Rockwell, a partner at Faegre Baker Daniels, serves on the boards of environmental-policy shop Great Plains Institute and the Trust for Public Land.