• Company Market

     2017  Q2 Review

    Connecting capital with opportunity

    By Caitlin Cheadle

    Here we are, two quarters down in 2017 and anticipating some great returns over the remainder of Q3. What’s happened since our last newsletter? For starters, we had two very successful conferences during Q2 – Scottsdale and Montreal. Those of you who came to our Okanagan show 3 weeks ago know what a great time was had by all – and how productive it was, especially considering July marks the start of the slower summer markets. This was the first time I attended one of these conferences and I can honestly say that the Okanagan show was a fantastic event from start to finish. I had the pleasure of interviewing the issuers on camera with Market One Media and there were some great stories – stay tuned, we’ll be releasing the clips soon. One of our founding partners Howard Fitch was interviewed by SmallCap Power at our Montreal show – watch him discuss the strengthening of the junior mining and cannabis sectors here.

    We’ve seen sizeable gains from some of our Q2 issuers, so I was eager to follow up with them to find out what they achieved at each conference. Investors will want to read on for updates on who they did – or didn’t – invest in. If you attended one of our shows and didn’t immediately add your top picks to your portfolio, you can monitor each company’s progress on our website with our performance tracker.

    Scottsdale Capital Conference

    April 21 – 23, 2017

    The Scottsdale conference is always a big hit with our network of American investors, who travelled from near and far to the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa to check out a promising lineup of Canadian small-caps. Since attending our Scottsdale conference, Trilogy Metals Inc Inc has gained an impressive 32.65% as of market close July 31st. “Our stock is up quite a bit since Scottsdale and we had a couple of large buyers coming out of the US,” said Trilogy’s CFO Elaine Sanders. ”After the conference we also had quite a good meeting with one of the banks in the US.” Her advice to other issuers? “The dinner after the meetings is a great way to re-cap everything – it’s all about following up. There were some investors we met at the Whistler conference and followed up with in Scottsdale. Sometimes it takes them a while to make a decision and they want to meet you a few times. We are running a lean ship here – we don’t have an IR team, so this is a very efficient way to meet investors.”

    Excelsior Mining Corp is currently up 30.5% since attending this show. I spoke with Excelsior’s JJ Jennex who told me, “Scottsdale has been very good for us. We got several shareholders out of it. This whole business is about meeting people – about investor relations. Being in one place, meeting with quality people, building relationships, is what it’s all about.”

    Siyata Mobile Inc, a long-time attendee of our shows and a standout performer over Q2, has seen strong gains since attending the Scottsdale show, standing at + 29% as of market close July 31st. Siyata’s Arlen Hansen told me that persistence pays off: “It helps to have 18 meetings with 18 investors in one day, for sure. It’s important to see existing shareholders, to update them on your story and developments, and to see the new guys. But what really matters is following up. That first meeting is important, but the follow-up is just as important.”

    VIEW PERFORMANCE TRACKER

    Montreal F1 Capital Conference

    June 9 – 11, 2017

    Taking place over the Formula One Grand Prix weekend at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Montreal, investors and issuers attending this conference followed up their day of one-on-one meetings with a private dinner at French bistro Decca 77, before taking in the F1 the following day. I’ll start with one of our private exhibitors, organic cannabis producer The Green Organic Dutchman. TGOD’s Danny Brody spoke with me about his experience in Montreal as a pre-IPO company. “We already have a lot of contacts in Vancouver and Calgary – this show was really helpful for meeting new faces we hadn’t talked to before. We had about 2,400 shareholders already and this conference was really helpful for getting retail brokers to know and understand our story as a private company. This event helped get us closer to our goal of 4,000 retail shareholders by the time we go public at the end of this year. I got so much more than just my 21 meetings. I walked away from the conference with about 73 leads I plan on following up with in the lead-up to our IPO.”

    Tim McCutcheon, President of Wealth Minerals, echoed Danny’s sentiments when he explained to me the reason he signed up for the Montreal conference: “Out here on the West Coast, Vancouver is great for that $1m – $3m equity raise for companies with a sub-$50 million market cap, but once you do that and you get off the ground, you can outgrow this city very quickly. The real money is in the East coast, and in Canada that means Toronto and Montreal. Being in Montreal, you get a different set of eyeballs. We got to see people we wouldn’t normally get to see.”

    One of our more unique exhibitors at the Montreal conference was Peekaboo Beans, a direct-sales children’s clothing manufacturer and retailer. Peekaboo’s Terri Anne Welyki also highlighted the importance of the follow-up when she discussed the financing they closed after the Montreal show: “The conferences in both the Bahamas and Montreal led to successful financings. We are now poised for profitability and that’s because of the massive increase in our margins. These investors get deal flow after deal flow crossing their desk daily. If you’re not chasing them and reminding them of who you are, you won’t raise the money. If you want to grow the business, if you want your stock to sell, you have to follow up.”

    VIEW PERFORMANCE TRACKER

    So there you have it folks: getting those meetings is vital, but following up is what leads to deals being closed. One thing I noticed at the Okanagan Capital Conference is that these events are really a meeting of like-minded people who live and breathe the unique small-cap space. Aside from the one-on-one meetings, there are often many personal investments made by both investors and company execs as a result of connections made at these shows. As they say, it’s all about who you know.

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