Q-News

August 2008

The Song Remains the Same

Posted in Mike's Commentary

As usual, August turned out to be a rather slow month, maybe a little more so this year as it seemed that many members of the investment community took a little extra time to recharge for what will certainly be a challenging final four months of the year.

 

It’s notable that one of our sector’s busiest firms, Wellington Financial, participated in a $20 million debt financing syndicate led by GMP Investment Management for Polaris Minerals Corporation.  Polaris, a TSX-listed firm focused on the development of quarries and the production of construction aggregates in BC, is not the kind of firm that one would expect to see Wellington finance.  This is a pretty clear indication that in the current environment there are simply not enough interesting Canadian technology investment opportunities capable of attracting or supporting $5 million in specialty debt.

 

It’s good to see John Bradlow and Barry Yontef over at Penfund back in the market with their $18 million investment in Timothy’s Coffees of the World.  This is the second investment out of the $240 million Penfund Capital Fund III following their December 2007 $40 million investment in GoodLife Fitness Clubs.

 

It was also good to see the MMV Financial announcement that it had secured an additional $25 million of financing under its existing revolving senior credit facility to be contributed by ROI Capital Inc.  It may be a small amount, but in these times any positive news is a good thing.

 

On the event calendar the Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham (ISCM) will be presenting the third session in its successful Money Chase 2008 series.  Scheduled for Angus Glen on October 23rd, ISCM is expecting over 250 entrepreneurs and investment/financial professionals to attend.  More information is available on the ISCM site.

 

I would also like to congratulate Mark Ruddock and his team at Viigo for the launch of Project Tango (V 3.0) of their mobile content and services application.  Viigo is a must-have application for all Blackberry users and well worth the download for those not familiar with this application.

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