Leucadia National owns stakes in firms involved in manufacturing, auto finance, medical products, gaming, oil and gas drilling, and real estate. The investment firm typically seeks out troubled companies that it believes are undervalued; its largest segment is telecommunications, represented by portfolio company STi Prepaid, a provider of international calling cards that accounts for nearly 40% of sales. Other holdings include Idaho Timber, Conwed Plastics, Keen Energy Services (formerly Goober Drilling), and ResortQuest International, a resort property management firm, which manages US beach and mountain resorts.

Adonel Concrete has its footprint firmly planted in South Florida. With six concrete plants, the privately-owned company is a materials supplier to residential and commercial construction projects from Key Largo to Palm Beach. It makes concrete and special mixes that repel water, inhibit corrosion, and self compact. Clients have included homebuilders Caribe Homes and Lennar, Perini Marine Construction, and Trans Florida Development. President Luis Garcia, an immigrant from Nicaragua, started the company in 1984 with a single employee and a single truck. Adonel Concrete has expanded to some 150 trucks and about 250 employees.

Border Construction won't be fenced in by a limited palette of products. The company offers a range of building services, including residential construction, civil engineering, and commercial construction. Border Construction's offerings include painting, roofing, building maintenance, residential development, pipeline installation, and joinery manufacturing. Border operates through a handful of offices throughout throughout northern England and southern Scotland. Border Construction was created in 1998 with the merger of Border Engineering Contractors and Crombie Construction Limited.

Warings Contractors provides building services to a number of different sectors, including residential, commercial, and industrial. In addition, the design/build company has worked on defense-related projects, built airport structures, and constructed leisure properties such as hotels and country clubs. Warings, which operates in southern England, has also been part of J Sainsbury's store reinvigoration project in that region. The firm began as a small family-owned business in Yorkshire that relocated to Portsmouth in 1933. It was bought out by management in 1998, then acquired by French construction firm Bouygues SA in 2007.

Ryan Consultants & Designers. The company specializes in civil works and environmental and energy projects for such government and commercial clients as the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and MACTEC. It also handles energy conservation and communications projects. The women-owned and Hispanic-owned firm and has California offices in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco; it also has operations in Alexandria, Virginia. President and CEO Wanda M. Martinez, who named the enterprise after her nephews, owns the firm, which she launched in the 1980s.

RMJM designs big. As one of the world's largest architecture firms, with offices in some 16 cities throughout North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, RMJM draws blueprints for an array of projects. It serves a wide range of clients in the educational, commercial, industrial, leisure, retail, residential, scientific, health care, and public sectors. Major projects span the globe and include the Dubai Convention Centre, The Scottish Parliament, and the Synygy World Headquarters. In 2007 RMJM merged with the established US-based Hillier Group. The deal brought RMJM a well-known firm in North America, where it lacked a presence. The US arm dropped the Hillier name in 2008.

Argan makes sure its customers stay all juiced up. The holding company includes subsidiaries that provide services and products for the government, telecommunications, power, and personal health care industries. Its main subsidiary, Gemma Power Systems, designs and builds power plants including traditional and alternate fuel plants. Argan's Southern Maryland Cable unit provides inside premise wiring and also performs splicing and underground and aerial telecom infrastructure construction services to carriers, government entities, service providers, and electric utilities. Argan's Vitarich Laboratories arm makes and distributes private-label dietary supplements and other nutraceuticals and health care products.

The Lawrence Group is an architecture and interior design firm that offers more than just architecture and interior design services. While it undertakes traditional design development and space planning projects on multifamily residences, hospitals, museums, parks, retail stores, and schools, the group also boasts expertise in town planning and graphic design. It has master-planned neighborhood and downtown developments, while its STUDIO369 in-house graphics department provides marketing and branding for property developments through print and Web. The firm also owns a retail furniture and home accessories showroom called Niche. The Lawrence Group operates a half-dozen offices in the US and one in Beijing.

Exotic Hardwoods and Veneers is what its name suggests. The company offers a variety of lumber and veneers for residential and commercial applications. It also sells custom-made wall panels, ceiling panels, and doors. The company's products are made from some 30 different domestic and imported wood species, including ash, beech, birch, ebony, mahogany, maple, oak, and walnut. Exotic Hardwoods and Veneers operates a showroom in Oakland, California, but its wood comes from such far-flung locales as Brazil, Hawaii, Honduras, Switzerland, and Nigeria.

Nikken Sekkei has its origins in a building design company founded in 1900 as part of Japan's Sumitomo conglomerate. Now a private corporation partly owned by its employees, Nikken Sekkei has completed more than 20,000 projects in some 40 countries. The group provides architectural, engineering, urban planning, interior design, and consulting and management services. Among its projects is the Saitama Super Arena and Jumeira Gardens -- a master planned city in Dubai. Nikken Sekkei has also designed terminals for Tokyo International Airport and built hotels, city halls, hospitals, and office buildings throughout Japan and beyond.

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