2017 Q3 in Review

 2017  Q3 Review

Connecting capital with opportunity

By Caitlin Cheadle

It’s been a busy Q3 for the team here at CEM. Firstly we held two shows: the Okanagan Capital Conference in July and the Muskoka Capital Conference in September – each event showcased a fresh crop of quality small- to mid-cap companies in the Tech, Biotech, Healthcare, Mining, Oil & Gas, Cannabis and Special Situations sectors.

Q3 also saw the launch of our on-camera issuer interviews in partnership with Market One Media. During the Okanagan and Muskoka conferences I had the chance to sit down with company executives to discuss their story and ongoing developments – you can watch these interviews on our new Media Gallery.

Blockchain was of course a hot topic throughout Q3 – we’ve certainly noticed a lot of interest in all things Blockchain-related from investors applying to attend our AlphaNorth Capital Conference taking place January 12 – 14 in the Bahamas, in partnership with AlphaNorth Asset Management. This is our largest show of the year and will feature 50 issuers with a focus on the Tech, Biotech, Healthcare and Special Situations sectors. If you’re an investor and you’d like to apply to attend, you can contact me at caitlin@capitalevent.ca, or by visiting our website. But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s take a minute to reflect on a few highlights from our Q3 shows.

Okanagan Capital Conference: July 13 – 15, 2017

The onset of summer typically means a slowdown in market activity, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from the atmosphere at this year’s Okanagan Capital Conference. Held at the lakeside Delta Grand Okanagan Resort in downtown Kelowna, the show saw 36 issuers and a select group of small-cap investors mingle over a weekend of one-on-one meetings, golfing at the championship Tower Ridge golf club, wine-tasting in the Naramata Bench, and boating on Kelowna’s pristine Okanagan Lake.

Developments since the day of meetings have proven fruitful: NetCents Technology Inc, which launched its new cryptocurrency shortly after attending the Okanagan show, has seen gains of (+180%*) since. I caught up with Netcents’ Rob Meister, who told me that a proactive approach is key when establishing investor interest: “When our main founder Clayton saw an opportunity to develop a network of banks and platforms for digital currencies in 2006, people didn’t really get it,” he says. “We did the Whistler Capital Conference two years ago, right before we went public. Now, investment banks and retail investors are much more accepting of what we’re doing. The conferences allow for that one-on-one question and answer opportunity with investors – it’s about building relationships and developing your branding in anticipation of changes in the market, so you can be a leader rather than a follower.”

Shone Anstey, President & Co-Founder of Blockchain Intelligence Group, reflected on the importance of familiarizing investors with your company’s story early in the lead-up to listing publicly: “We were able to create a lot of early awareness about the company, and the Okanagan show was really the kick-off to our buzz,” he says. “We also had the chance to meet with the CSE, which was a real eye-opener as I’d never done a listing and it helped us understand what the process was and how it would impact us.”

And although Blockchain was the buzzword of the Okanagan show, Resource companies were certainly not overlooked. Millennial Lithium Corp is up  (+80%) since the show, Centenera Mining Corp has gained (+44%) and Trilogy Metals Inc has seen gains of (+37%). Meanwhile in the Cannabis sector, Lexaria Bioscience Corp is up (+50%) since attending the Okanagan show, while Supreme Pharmaceuticals Inc has gained (+26%).

You can check each issuer’s performance since the Okanagan show by clicking on the Performance tracker below:

VIEW PERFORMANCE TRACKER

Muskoka Capital Conference: Sept 29 – Oct 1, 2017

The Muskoka Capital Conference is an intimate event that positions issuers from across Canada in front of a select group of East Coast financiers, giving companies direct exposure to the Bay Street crowd. A total of 37 issuers travelled to the beautiful JW Marriott The Rosseau Resort in Ontario’s upscale Muskoka lake district for a weekend of one-on-one meetings with quality small-cap investors – not to mention fishing on Lake Rosseau and a legendary round of golf at the award-winning The Rock Golf Course. Just over a month after the conference, LeoNovus Inc, a provider of Blockchain hardened data storage and security software, has seen gains of (+209%) since their day of meetings on Sept 30th.

Northern Graphite Corp, which is well positioned to benefit from an increasing demand for Graphite, has seen gains of (+100%) since appearing at the Muskoka conference. CEO Greg Bowes tells me his strategy is to always be thinking ahead: “Generally I find investors don’t really ‘get’ Graphite,” he says. “It’s a little more complex than gold and other metals – the valuations are all over the place. The reason for doing these conferences is that when Graphite starts to get more cachet in the market, the investors we met with at the conference will already be aware of our story.”

Patrick Whibley at Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp, which has gone public since attending our Muskoka show (CSE: BOLT), told me he shares a similar strategy: “We went to the Okanagan show to get our story perfected and to get our CEO comfortable sharing that story before listing,” he says. “The reason we attended the Muskoka show was because we didn’t recognize the names of the investors attending – it was important to us to get onto their radar early on, because if we need financing down the road we can circle back to them.”

BetterU Education Corp, which is currently halted pending an announcement from management, was also with us in Muskoka – their third Capital Event Conference since attending our Bahamas show in 2017. President and CEO Brad Loiselle reflected on what he’s learned from attending multiple shows: “We have secured several million dollars as a direct result of the relationships we have developed at Capital Events,” he says. “It didn’t happen on the first event, but by the third event, it did. Investors want to see you again and again to make sure you are the real deal. Capital Event conferences are the real deal. Their investors are the real deal.”

Check out how the rest of our Muskoka issuers performed via our Performance Tracker:

VIEW PERFORMANCE TRACKER

All in all, it’s been an exciting Q3. Both of our Q3 conferences had a record number of private and pre-IPO companies in attendance: investors had the chance to speak directly with management from Blockchain Intelligence Group, Compass Cannabis Clinic, Golden Ridge Resources Ltd, Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp, Permex Petroleum Corp, CannaPay Financial Inc, Emmetros Ltd, Idaho Champion Resources, Phivida Holdings Inc, Venzee Inc, and NextLeaf Solutions Ltd. You’ll no doubt want to keep an eye on these prospects as they complete their listings in the coming months – you can also learn more about them by checking out their interviews on our Media Gallery. And before I bid you farewell, a big thank-you goes out to all of our sponsors: AlphaNorth Asset Management, the Canadian Securities Exchange, Market One Media, O&M Partners, Financial Buzz Media, MNP and Manning Elliott LLP.

Until next Quarter, many happy returns from all of us here at CEM.

* All reported gains are subject to fluctuations after publication