Sandstorm and you sell us a royalty and we really like your story, your stock, your management team, we will act as the catalyst to draw attention to your story.”
Nearly $7 trillion globally is now managed by passive funds, which track indices and have low fees, up from under $3 trillion five years ago, according to data group Morningstar. At current rates, more than half of all money is tipped to turn passive in the next five years, replacing hundreds of fund managers with algorithms.
Sandstorm says its own investor base has changed dramatically in recent years, with passive funds gobbling-up a third of its stock since 2014. Watson, who founded the company in 2009, believes its other shareholders, including over 40,000 private investors, can help boost its partner-companies in the sub-$300m bracket.
“We don't want to saddle Sandstorm's shareholders with a bunch of G&A, so the idea is, if we have more and more demand for those services we'll just continue to hire people.”
Sandstorm reported record revenue of $68m in February, up from $52m two years ago, collecting 55,000 ounces of gold, its eighth consecutive annual record. “Hopefully we can keep that going,” Watson said.