Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. We're pleased to be here.
As you know, the BDC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Industry, but given your committee's interest and role in supporting entrepreneurship, we welcome this opportunity to be here today.
Together Mr. Halde and I will speak to the four points in your motion of March 12. Then we'll welcome any questions you may have.
BDC is Canada's business development bank. Our mandate is to promote entrepreneurship by providing term financing, subordinated financing, venture capital, and consulting services, with special consideration for small and medium-sized enterprises. Put simply, BDC supports Canadians who are creating and growing their small and medium-sized businesses. Many of these endeavours are, by their nature, quite risky. As such, they often fall outside the risk appetite of most private sector financial institutions.
I'm going to begin with your motion's first point, BDC's most recent corporate plan.
In our 2008-12 plan, we state that we will continue to provide innovative small-business financing with special attention to those startups, innovators, fast-growth companies, and manufacturers and exporters that are facing lower financing approval ratios than other companies.
We'll also develop our services of support to the growing number of entrepreneurs who will be retiring and selling their businesses to other young entrepreneurs. We will help Canadian companies to become more globally competitive. We will invest in our consulting services. Our goal is to provide small businesses with quality advice at reasonable prices.
In venture capital, we'll support the commercialization of Canadian R and D. More specifically, we'll invest in new-technology companies, nurture our portfolio of growing companies, and act as a catalyst to help attract greater private sector investment in the commercialization of research in Canada.
We'll do all of these things while maintaining our patient, long-term view of client relationships. Finally, we'll do all of the above in a financially sustainable way. We will be profitable, and we will continue to pay dividends to the Government of Canada.
The motion's second point asks us to discuss our most recent annual report.
Fiscal 2007 was very successful. We've now reached 27,000 entrepreneurs across Canada. Last year we authorized close to $2.6 billion of loans, for an average loan size of $285,000.
Our total portfolio stood at $9.8 billion. Most of this, $9.1 billion, was in loans. It also includes $148 million in subordinated financing and $505 million in equity investments in venture capital. We also started 2,400 consulting mandates.
Our return on common equity was 8.5%. In June of last year, we paid the government a $21.5 million dividend.
Fiscal 2008 ended just two days ago. We anticipate reporting another successful year, as well as another dividend payment.
I speak with confidence when I speak of the BDC, and I do so for many reasons, notably the excellence and dedication of its leadership team and employees, the rigour of its internal controls, its risk management expertise and systems, and the high quality of information that it provides to me and my colleagues on the board of directors.
I'll now turn it over to our president.