CALGARY, Alta. — Significant transactions in the past 12 months have helped the Mullen Group Income Fund achieve increases in its operating budget for the third quarter of 2006.

For the three-month period ended Sept. 30, Mullen generated record consolidated revenues of $273.4 million and record operating income of $54.5 million.

From a cash perspective, the fund’s operating businesses generated $51.9 million. These monies, together with $38 million of the organization’s term debt proceeds were used in the quarter to fund acquisitions totalling $16.3 million, monthly distributions of $36.9 million, and net capital expenditures of $36.7 million.

“Our acquisition strategy continues to add value to our unitholders as evidenced by our strong performance in this quarter. We acquire quality companies; integrate them into the Mullen business model and work on synergies that enhance their financial and operating performance over time,” commented Stephen H. Lockwood, president and co-CEO. “This process is currently underway with our 2006 acquisitions and as such, we look forward to seeing even better performance from these newly acquired companies in the future.”

The group’s revenue of $273.4 million for the same three-month period was an increase of $132.8 million or 94.5% over the same period in 2005. This increase was primarily attributable to the revenue generated by the 11 new businesses added to the Mullen group since July of 2005.

On a segmented basis, the business units in the Oilfield Services segment, which have been owned by the fund for over one year, did not as a group generate any year over year internal growth. The group’s growth in its Trucking segment was mostly attributable to its acquisitions.

“The overall business climate was somewhat mixed in the quarter. We witnessed strong internal growth in those operating businesses leveraged to capital spending, infrastructure and oil sands development along with crude oil hauling and production services,” stated Lockwood. “On the other hand, our operating businesses closely aligned to drilling activity saw a significant drop in September as the drilling rig count dropped to a low of 313 in the month as compared to 506 in August of 2006 and 524 in September of 2005.”