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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The TSX Venture Exchange increased a fraction to 998.77 Thursday, ending the shortened trading week up exactly one point. Mark Newman's first capital pool shell, Cliffside Capital Ltd. (CEP), listed today, closing at 11 cents on a 100,000-share cross by broker Raymond James Ltd. There is another capital pool shell on the way. Earlier this week, Benoit Chotard filed a preliminary prospectus for his first capital pool shell, Orletto Capital Corp. Richardson GMP Ltd. will handle the shell's initial public offering of between 2.5 million shares and four million shares at 10 cents a share.

Last January, Orletto sold two million escrow shares at five cents. Mr. Chotard, the shell's 49-year-old president and founder, acquired 400,000 of them. He worked as an analyst at National Bank Financial from 1996 to 2003. Since then, he has worked for various companies and brokerage firms, including Blackmont Capital, where he was a consultant for a year and a half, and Leede Financial Markets, where he was a vice-president for three months. These days, he manages a small financial consulting company, Capital Force United. Another director at Orletto is Normand Drolet, who also owns 400,000 escrow shares. He currently manages a small consulting firm in Quebec, but 15 years ago he was president of a high-flying tech company, NETgraphe Inc., which operated various websites including canoe.ca and became the first Internet company to list on the Montreal Exchange. It even had the stock symbol WWW. NETgraphe opened at $2.90 in September, 1999, after selling shares privately a 75 cents. The stock rose to $20 in February, 2000, but tumbled back down to $2.90 by November, 2000, after which it continued to decline. Quebecor Media Inc. eventually acquired a position in the company and then took it private. Mr. Drolet has not been a director or president of a public company since. Orletto's two remaining directors, also each with 400,000 escrow shares, are Octavio Soares and Dr. Cynthia Mailloux. Mr. Soares, a chartered accountant, is vice-president of finance at a health care company in Montreal and was recently chief financial officer of Threegold Resources Inc. (THG: $0.015). Dr. Mailloux is a physician and the program director of the diagnostic radiology program at Laval University. This is the doctor's first time on the board of a public company.

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