The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to VantaCore's per unit distributable cash flow. Southern, which has approximately 80 million tons of mineable sand and gravel reserves, sold approximately 2.1 million tons of sand and gravel in 2007. Marc Dyess, who formed Southern in 2001 following a 30-year career with Texas Industries, Inc. and Meridian Aggregates Company, will join VantaCore as Southern's General Manager.

"We are excited about the acquisition of Southern, which validates our growth strategy for several reasons," said Colin Oerton, Chief Executive Officer of VantaCore. "Firstly, Southern has extensive reserves and is an important aggregate supplier to Baton Rouge and Lafayette, two of the largest cities in Louisiana. Second, Marc Dyess, with his extensive aggregate experience and Louisiana market knowledge will add significant depth to the VantaCore team. His strategy of finding, developing and marketing sand and gravel reserves has resulted in strong growth in sales and profits at Southern. Third, this acquisition expands VantaCore's geographic footprint while Southern's strong marketing capabilities will complement our existing deep operational expertise."

$68.9 million in equity and debt financing commitments were provided to partially finance the acquisition, to refinance existing debt at VantaCore and for general working capital purposes. $29.9 million in equity consisting of common units was provided by Kayne Anderson Energy Development Company (NYSE: KED) and Tortoise Capital Resource Corporation (NYSE: TTO). $39.0 million in first and second lien debt financing was committed by Wells Fargo Foothill, part of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), and Gladstone Capital Corporation (Nasdaq: GLAD).

VantaCore is also pleased to announce the appointment of Robert L. Brown, CPA, to the position of Corporate Controller. Mr. Brown, who was most recently Director of Accounting Operations and Assistant Controller at Towers Perrin, brings extensive accounting and finance experience from both private and public companies to the VantaCore team. Earlier in his career, Mr. Brown worked in public accounting for PricewaterhouseCoopers. -- VantaCore Partners LP