Fabrice Taylor is having a career year, having written about the markets for the last fifteen. But his to-be-annual
President’s Club Investor’s Conference in the Bahamas may be the cherry on top, if the early reports are any indication.
Nearly 200 participants paid a sizable chunk of cash to get access to a long list of Taylor’s favourite opportunities and engage in some ‘CEO speed-dating,’ with sponsored dinners and events adding to the allure.
Justus Parmar, formerly of Jordan Securities but now fronting his own shingle, The Parmar Group, helped put the show together, while a who’s who of hedge fund managers, brokers, promoters, dealmakers and whale investors kicked the tires on companies like private darling RentMoola, online lender Mogo (
TSX:GO,
Forum), surging pharmatech play Helius Medical Technologies (
CSE:HSM,
Forum), and old school company builders like the fibreoptic contractor team at Distinct Infrastructure Group (
TSXV:DUG,
Forum).
Helius in particular was being hunted by many at the show. In fact, no sooner had Helius’ management landed post-conference than it was announced they had done a $2m financing deal with a Hong Kong-based outfit.
Oregon-based Golden Leaf Holdings (
CSE:GLH,
Forum) was the only marijuana play on offer, but fielding a long line of queries from interested investors, while Global Gardens (
CSE:VGM,
Forum) debuted its new veggie-based milk product, Veggemo, which doesn’t taste at all like peas, tapioca and potato starch, even if that’s what it is.
Brazilian interactive exhibition outfit Ydreams, which goes public in the coming weeks, held court with videos of its ground-breaking commercial products that have taken South America by storm. Meanwhile, Moseda Technologies (
TSXV:MSD,
Forum) CEO Nick Murray entertained with stories of his health industry technology, which has combined with a large pharmaceutical equipment manufacturer to make such equipment ‘smarter’, more connected, and more secure.
Even the mining contingent appeared to be doing good business, with Red Eagle Mining (
TSXV:RD,
Forum) leaving attendees surprised with exactly how non-suicidal that play left them.
“It’s mining, but I don’t hate it,” laughed one Vancouver investor coming away from the Red Eagle table. “That company has its act together.”
The beaches remained largely broker-free for the majority of the conference, with enough deal-making going on that time on the sand seemed an unwise use of resources, but the Atlantis resort’s Aura Nightclub likely went through the national supply of vodka once the bottle service tabs were in.
Howe and Bay dealmaker Hani Al Rayess said of the conference, “The calibre of companies across the board was second to no conference I have attended for the smallcap space.” Rayess went on to say he’s already taken a position in several companies he met at the event and will be looking closely at some as future partners.
I too was at the conference (full disclosure: I didn’t pay for my trip), but had a blast and will be posting an extended run-down of what went down in the days ahead.
--Chris Parry
https://www.twitter.com/chrisparry
FULL DISCLOSURE: Golden Lead and Moseda are Stockhouse Publishing clients. The author is a consultant to Golden Leaf and owns stock in both companies.