Mission & History
Mission Statement
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe is unique among Native American Indian tribes. During the 1980s and 1990s the Tribe aggressively developed its extraordinary natural resource base and, in January 1999, adopted an official Financial Plan to separate its core government from its various business and related investment activities. The Financial Plan provides the Tribe with an economic strategy which ensures that a core government and baseline cash distributions will exist in perpetuity, while at the same time optimizing available investment resources to provide for long-term security of the Tribe and its Members.
The cost of core government activities and services is funded by a permanent endowment fund that exceeds $1 billion. This fund operates separately from the business and investment activities which are collected in the Tribe’s Growth Fund. The Growth Fund’s business portfolio originated with the Tribe’s oil and gas activities, but has been dramatically broadened over the years through new investment and the development of other businesses. Today, the Tribe’s Growth Fund investments are approaching $2 billion in value, measured apart from the value of the Tribe’s land base, water, mineral and timber resources. The Tribe’s debt obligations have been rated AAA by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch rating agencies.
History
Much of the Growth Fund’s investment activity in past years has focused on the oil and gas industry. The energy businesses within the Growth Fund continue to expand rapidly, but an increasing amount of capital is being invested in other business sectors.
Investment activities involve wholly-owned businesses and investments as well as collaborative arrangements with a variety of partners and partial investments. There are many benefits that a partner can reap due to the special status of an Indian tribe, in part because the Tribe is not subject to state or federal income taxes. In addition, our sovereign status allows us to issue tax-exempt bonds to finance qualifying projects. We are also able to qualify for various corporate and governmental procurement programs that represent a potential advantage to us and to our partners.
The Growth Fund operates with centralized investment management that is supported by an outstanding investment research and finance team, but each of its various operating subsidiaries also aggressively pursues investment opportunities within their respective industries. The investment and finance team evaluates strategic growth opportunities and also provides support for mergers, acquisitions and other types of investment and business transactions.
