Despite challenging market conditions, senior business executives said investment opportunities look bright across a wide range of sectors, including mining, high technology, biotech, and energy.
That was the consensus among a group of 150 CEOs, brokers and investment bankers who gathered at Stockhouse Publishing’s annual Martini Party in Vancouver, Thursday.
Stockhouse is the largest small-cap investor community in North America, a site that provides public and private companies with access to an expanding network of retail investors.
The afternoon started off with InvestX announcing the launch of its new cross border private equity platform for accredited investors. The Investx.com platform allows retail investors for the first time to invest in private equity with small minimum on the same terms as professional private equity firms.
As usual the Martini Party, which this year was sponsored by the The Liberty Distillery, attracted officials from a wide range of companies, including Ballard Power Systems Inc. (TSX: T.BLD, Stock Forum), BioMark Diagnostics Inc. (CNE: C.BUX, Stock Forum), Prophecy Coal Corp. (TSX: T.PCY, Stock Forum), and Fundamental Applications Corp. (CNE: C.FUN, Stock Forum).
It also drew representatives from local investment firms such as Richardson GMP and Canaccord Genuity. Some of the attendees have worked in both the investment and corporate sectors.
“We think this is the right time to be buying assets,’’ said Greg Hall, a director with Prophecy Coal Corp. who had previously been a senior executive with Leede Financial and Canaccord in Vancouver.
Describing himself as an opportunist, Hall said his company has recently moved to diversify its assets and was able to pick up a silver project in Bolivia for around 20 cents on the dollar because the previous owner had run out of cash, and was forced into selling.
Santo Sandhu, an investment advisor with Wolverton Securities, said he believes the best opportunities right now lie in biotechnology.
That has led him to BioMark Diagnostics Inc., a Richmond B.C. company that is developing a cancer diagnostic system, using a known drug, which has already been approved by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration and Health Canada.
With phase 3 clinical trials under way in Bangladesh and Manitoba, Canada, the company has seen its stock price jump to $1.02 from 44 cents in early November.
“We are seeing a tremendous amount of positive energy in this sector,’’ said BioMark President and CEO Rashid Ahmed.
It is a feeling that is shared by senior executives at Fundamental Applications, a company that is moving to exploit the desire of millennials – people between the age of 18 and 35 – who are avoiding sites like Facebook because they desire anonymity when chatting with their friends.
Its mobile chat application, known as Serum, aims to meet that desire.
The company is the latest venture for CEO Justin Rasekh, who has already raised $100 million for publicly traded companies.
He said Fundamental Applications is leaning heavily on the expertise of co-founder and director Julian Ing who has a track record of success in the tech startup space.
“The union of Ing and Rasekh is a combination that can’t be ignored,’’ explained David Kearnes, vice-president, and investment advisor at Richardson GMP in Vancouver.
Other Martini Party attendees included senior executives from Ballard Power Systems Inc. , a Burnaby, B.C.-based fuel cell maker that is back in the spotlight amid reports that Korean auto giant Hyundai is making vehicles powered by fuel cells available for lease in Vancouver.
While the fuel cells are not manufactured by Ballard Power, the fact that Hyundai is making its fuel cell cars available in Ballard’s back yard is a mark of validation of the technology, said Guy McAree, director, investor relations with the Canadian fuel cell company.
He was accompanied at the party by Ballard Chief Financial Officer Tony Guglielmin.