Newlook Capital Inc. (“Newlook”) has worked closely alongside our operating partners throughout the unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19 which involved rapid-fire changes and new policies, procedures, and restrictions. Through all of this, we are prouder than ever of the teams that we have assembled and the partners that we have chosen in both of our Industrial Services Funds and our Dental Fund.

Dr. Sam Mazahreh, Dentalook’s CEO and our Dental Fund Operating Partner, has proven himself the leader Newlook knew he was in his dental clinic reopening system and response to COVID-19 changes. Last month, over 1,200 dentists from coast to coast joined a webinar hosted by Sinclair Dental in which Dr. Sam was interviewed on his reopening system, which includes protocols and procedures for reopening dental practices in light of COVID-19. This system has proven to be successful; across the Dental Fund, for the week of June 8, the practices were at 69% of pre- COVID-19 production. However, this number does not account for the ramp-up stage, as some practices have only been open for a matter of days. Several of the practices are operating at 90%+ of pre-shutdown. “We are very pleased with how Dr. Sam has adapted to the changes and strict health guidelines established by the dental colleges,” says Abbas Osman, Chief Investment Officer at Newlook. He continues, “There is a tremendous amount of planning and pivoting required as you bring your staff back to work, adjust scheduling around new cleaning, sanitation, and spacing policies, and then drill down on efficiency.” One such example is the investment Dentalook made into medical grade air-purifying systems that clean the air in each room. This allows for a high rate of air exchange, which removes particles such as viruses, keeping patients and clinical staff safe and increasing patient turnover. Newlook feels that Dentalook’s operational reopening and adaptation has been a resounding success and credits the strong head office team working under Dr. Sam. “Our success with Dentalook in operations ramp-up time is a testament to our belief in finding the right operating partners and having strong alignment with them,” says Elroy Gust, President and CEO of Newlook. “These have been grueling times and every person at every level of Newlook and Dentalook Head Office has gone the extra mile over these past few months.”

In addition to the promising return to normal operations, Newlook is pleased to announce an additional investment by Dentalook in Gateway Dental, located in North Bay, Ontario. North Bay has an attractive ratio of dental practitioners per capita (1:1,983). Gateway Dental is the 12th practice in the Dental Fund portfolio and adds an additional 2,000 patients. Throughout COVID-19, Newlook has continued to maintain low conventional bank leverage, and the Fund remains in a healthy position to continue expanding and paying its distributions.

You can learn more about Newlook Capital on their website here: https://newlookcapital.com/.