All posts by Hamish Khamisa

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Continuing to build great value: CSE partners with Nasdaq Corporate Solutions

© Copyright 2014, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc
© Copyright 2014, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc

If there’s one thing that publicly traded companies must appreciate, it is the value of telling their company story well. A professional and polished investor relations experience can make a meaningful difference between having investors listen and sending them to listen to someone else.

As a client-centered organization the Canadian Securities Exchange is deeply committed to enhancing the value for its current and prospective listings. For example, the CSE provided listed companies in Vancouver with a special session on effective marketing techniques for an investor roadshow. Recently, the CSE has launched another potentially transformative venture.

In late 2014, the CSE formally announced its new partnership with Nasdaq Corporate Solutions and in doing so, has opened the door for CSE-listed issuers to access top tier IR and IR-related operational support. CSE-listed companies will receive a ‘members-only’ preferred rate when accessing these services.

As a partner, Nasdaq Corporate Solutions brings with it a substantial degree of support, leading technology tools and economies of scale. According to Nasdaq their Corporate Solutions division has 10,000 clients in over 60 countries worldwide.

The services that Nasdaq Corporate Solutions offers include IR desktop & mobile platforms, advisory services and press release distribution. The full list of their services is available here.

With many emerging technology firms choosing to list on the exchange, a strong corporate services provider with considerable expertise and a broad reach makes sense to both the CSE and its listed companies. According to Robert Cook, Senior Vice President, Market Development at the CSE “The Nasdaq offering is a step up for many of our companies that want new tools to reach a wider audience, within Canada and beyond. “

Strategically, this latest joint venture is also an important signal that the growth and position of the CSE in the securities marketplace landscape is not going unnoticed by key stakeholders. With established relationships between the CSE and 40 independent service providers, and now Nasdaq Corporate Solutions, entrepreneurial firms are getting growth in value by choosing to build their company on the CSE. That is a story entrepreneurs love to hear.

Events

Eurotour 2014 – CSE Heads to Europe for Whirlwind Investor Roadshow

With the suds and sizzle of Oktoberfest now a distant (and potentially fuzzy) memory, business is back on the agenda in Munich, Germany. The city, which hosts the annual two-week long beer and sausage festival, will now entertain one of the continent’s premier resource shows: the Internationale Edelmetall & Rohstoffmess.

This year, however, “München” as well as several other European cities will also welcome some special guests from Canada.

Life on the Road

CSE_Eurotrip_2014A delegation including representatives from the CSE, Zimtu Capital and several CSE-listed companies are touching down in Europe for a 7-day, 4-city investment roadshow spanning two countries, 900+ kms and countless beer tastings.

Beginning in Frankfurt on November 5th, the roadshow will then head to Munich, for the above mentioned precious metals and commodities show for November 7th and 8th.  From Germany, it’s off to Switzerland with stops in Zurich on November 10th  and Geneva on November 12th.

Why Europe and Why Now?

CSE CEO Richard Carleton believes the roadshow offers a unique opportunity to build new relationships and promote the CSE to an interested audience.

“We’ve been encouraged many times to take our message to key financial hubs overseas whose investors have historically participated in Canadian capital markets” said Carleton.

Canadian capital markets have often benefited from overseas investments and, according to Carleton, the opportunity to generate growth is there for the CSE and its issuers.  European investors, as it turns out, appear to have a particular appetite for Canadian-listed securities.

Carleton will also serve as a featured speaker in all four cities, discussing key issues shaping Canadian and global securities markets and explaining opportunities the exchange provides for both investors and prospective issuers.

Meet the Team

Other speakers joining the tour include Chris Berry of House Mountain Partners LLC and noted analyst Dr. Hans Bocker.

Participating from the CSE are SecureCom Mobile Inc. (CSE:SCE), Pasinex Resources Ltd. (CSE:PSE) and Biomark Diagnostics Inc. (CSE:BUX).  Also accompanying this group will be Urban Barn Foods Inc. and True Leaf Medicine Inc.

It is estimated that the four events will attract attendees numbering close to 8,000.

Keep Track of the Roadshow Highlights

As a special feature, CSE representatives will be sharing their experiences and chronicling the journey from Frankfurt to Geneva as well as places in between on the CSE blog.  Be sure to tune in to the best and ‘wurst’ of the trip!

Click here for the detailed EuroTrip schedule

CSE Performance

Demand for Efficient Capital Raising Fuels CSE Growth

Summer may be long gone but the heat is still on at the Canadian Securities Exchange. With September in the books and October about to draw to a close, the CSE has just announced that the first half of the fall season has brought with it continued positive performance for listing, capital raising and trading volume metrics.

250 Listings and Growing

With the addition of Fundamental Applications Corp (CSE:FUN) the CSE officially crossed the 250 active issuer mark. This milestone of 250 active issuers marks the first time in the exchange’s history that there have been this many active issuers.

Listings have grown by over 23% since the end of September 2013, with 60 issuers joining just this year from across various sectors.

Turning up the Volume

Listings aren’t the only component of the CSE’s business that are experiencing record-breaking growth; trading volume is also having a banner year.

OctoberPerformance_Graphic

In the period between July and September of 2014, trading volume represented the second most active quarter ever on the CSE with 549 million shares traded, representing a 252% increase over previous year’s comparable period. Year to date, there have been over 1.8 billion shares traded representing over $426 million in value.

Improved Mileage

The message the market seems to be telling the CSE is ‘stay the course’. Not only has the CSE’s approach of lowering financial and operational burdens helped make financial capital easier to access, support initiatives for listed issuers has helped to contribute intellectual capital.

For example, this past summer, the CSE held an information session for listed companies interested in listing on the OTC Market in the US. Also, the CSE just completed an event for listed companies focused on delivering successful investor roadshows in advance of companies touring Europe looking to raise capital.

Building Long Term Value

Although the achievements to date are noteworthy, it looks like the close of 2014 will have several more pieces of positive news. Interest in joining the CSE remains high and there are already a number of issuers in the process of coming aboard.

As this past year of new listings has shown, putting a premium on efficiency and growth is not restricted to any one sector or company. Despite their diversity of business types, many emerging and growing companies agree on a simple fact: the more lean the operation, the better the odds of being able to run the marathon instead of being held back by costs.

Events

Upcoming Event: Small-Cap Conference Vancouver – Fall 2014

The Canadian Securities Exchange will once again be attending and co-sponsoring the fall edition of the Small-Cap Conference in Vancouver.

Along with insightful analyst presentations, the evening conference will also feature company presentations from a number of small-cap firms, including CSE-listed Newlox Gold Ventures (LUX).

The event is free to attend and will also include refreshments, prize draws as well as the opportunity to meet and greet fellow investors and company representatives.

For more details on the event and to register, click here.

Event Details: Fall 2014 Small-Cap Conference Vancouver

Date: November 6, 2014

Time: 6pm – 9pm PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre – Rooms 118-120, West Building

SmallCapConferenceSchedule_VancouverFall2014

Events

CSE Presents: Ten Keys to a Successful Investor Road Show – Vancouver

How, when and where a company presents its story can spell the difference between attracting investment capital or watching it go elsewhere.

To help empower companies to create effective presentations and make better choices with their marketing and investor relations budgets, the CSE, in partnership with Market Motion Media, will be sponsoring an exclusive workshop on how to plan and deliver a successful investor roadshow.

Join the CSE on Thursday October 30th from 9am to 1pm in downtown Vancouver to learn about tips, tools and best practices industry leaders use when taking their story on the road.

Included in the session are:

  • Public speaking tips for best presenting your company story
  • How to create compelling presentation decks
  • Key elements investors look for in corporate presentations

For more information, or to register for this event, click here. RSVP REQUIRED, SPACE LIMITED!

CSE_10_Keys_Successful_Investor_Road_Show

Uncategorized

Strength in Numbers: CSE Pushing Towards Another Record Performance

As Canada’s “Exchange for Entrepreneurs”, one of the key goals for the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) is to create a favourable capital formation environment for our listed companies.

The numbers to date this year demonstrate that we are making good progress towards this goal: 82 companies have completed 135 financings raising a total of $104 million. Leaving aside one monster deal done some years back by one of our companies, this is the first time that CSE-listed companies have collectively raised more than $100 million in a single calendar year. It’s particularly gratifying that we reached this milestone with more than a quarter to go.

Combined with record trading numbers, and over 50 new securities listed this year it is clear that the exchange’s message is resonating with businesses looking to the public capital markets for investment.

Here is the quarterly breakdown for funds raised for 2014 YTD as compared with 2013:

Blog_20140923_RecordFinancing_QuarterlyFinancing2013v2014

More than Just Numbers

According to James Black, VP of Listings Development “this is a great milestone for the exchange – further proving that our proposition for the Canadian capital markets is very much in-line with the needs of companies seeking to raise capital for exciting early-stage businesses.”

Among the names of companies that successfully raised additional financing this year were Pivotal Therapeutics (PVO), Helius Medical Technologies (HSM), Novo Resources Corp. (NVO), VoodooVox Inc (now UpSnap – UP) and RESAAS Services Inc (RSS).

The companies raising money on the CSE come from a broad cross-section of industries.

There are signs of life in the beaten down mining sector, with 31% of the funding for transactions having been completed in the space. In addition, the technology sector has accounted for almost half of the activity (see chart below).

Blog_20140923_RecordFinancing_Financing_YTD_3

Staying the Course

With trading activity and financings pushing record levels, the CSE is hitting its stride as an exchange that more and more public companies are turning to as the best option to access capital. Underpinning the shift is a combination of factors that include pricing, simplicity and service.

For many public companies, especially early stage ones, the prospect of being able to effectively allocate resources to fund company activity is appealing. As the CSE’s CEO Richard Carleton put it:

“This funding milestone is a clear indication that we are supporting companies’ capital raising needs by providing the most efficient public market in Canada for raising money. Companies raising capital on the CSE are subject to fixed, low-fees, ensuring every dollar raised flows back to their business and not to the exchange”

Going into the final stretch of 2014, the momentum for the CSE looks good in all corners of the business. Best of all, entrepreneurs are gaining access to capital and are now better able to put that capital to work driving innovation and building successful enterprises.

That is the kind of good news story that everyone enjoys hearing again and again.

 

New Listings

Continuing to Shine: Strong July Performance for the CSE

Records just can’t seem to catch a break this year. Across North America major equity markets have all pushed to new highs as the wave of demand for equities continues its surge upward.

Like many of its counterparts this year, the CSE has also enjoyed a record breaking summer.

In June, the CSE set a new record for the most number of listings on the exchange within a month and in July, the CSE entered into record territory for the all-time highest number of listings within a year. With 21 securities listed in June and July, the CSE has reached a milestone of 51 securities listed in 2014.

By the end of July, there were 8 new listings from a diverse set of sectors that joined the CSE bringing the grand total of listings on the exchange to 236.

Joining the exchange were:

  • Galahad Metals Inc. (now Rosehearty Energy) – RHX
  • Monarch Energy Limited – CHX
  • Eyelogic Systems Inc. – EYE.A
  • Target Capital Inc. – TCI
  • Grenadier Resource Corp. – GAD
  • GTO Resources Inc. (now Velocity Data) – GTR (VCT)
  • Evolving Gold Corp. – EVG
  • Goldrea Resources Corp. – GOR

Listings, however, weren’t the only strong point in July. Momentum in other critical areas of the exchange also remained positive.

Trading activity in July, for example, came in at approximately 250 million shares traded and trading value reached over $52 million. These figures are just shy of the record breaking figures from June demonstrating that there is substantial interest in names traded on the CSE.

Accessibility to the exchange also increased for traders in July. The CSE announced that Vantage Wire will now carry real-time quotes on securities traded on the exchange, joining the growing list of major quote data feed providers.

The home stretch of 2014 should prove to be an exciting one in the history of the CSE.  With listings deals already in the pipeline,  August will continue to add to the record-breaking summer.

What is especially noteworthy, however, is that these exceptional listing and trading figures have been posted in what were supposed to have been the typically ‘quiet’ months.

With major events coming up this fall as well as an expected pick-up in the activity across the markets, the CSE doesn’t seem like they’re going to give the record books much time to rest any time soon.

Industry Insights

How to Make a Market: CSE Provides Comments on Proposed Changes to NI 21-101 and NI 23-101

When it comes to running a successful enterprise, savvy entrepreneurs understand the value of being an effective listener.

This lesson is one that the CSE has witnessed time and again from the growing numbers of entrepreneurial companies listing on the exchange. It is also a lesson that has helped shape recent comments made by the CSE’s CEO, Richard Carleton, on the difficult task of crafting effective policy for current and future Canadian securities marketplaces.

Along with other major stakeholders across the Canadian securities landscape, the CSE has contributed its insights on the proposed changes to the securities rules: National Instrument 21-101 Marketplace Operation (NI 21-101) and National Instrument 23-101 Trading Rules (NI 23-101).

One of the biggest challenges common to all market stakeholders is how to respond to rapidly changing marketplaces and technologies.

Issues such as data center location and data stream distribution structures may seem innocuous to many observers however the consequences of the decisions made on these ultimately influence the answers to questions such as: Who gets market trading information first? What kind of downtime the market can expect in case of a disaster? And who can access the most detailed trading information (and for what purpose) being generated by marketplace activity?

In reviewing responses received by the Canadian Securities Association (CSA), as part of their request for comments, it is fascinating to note the degree of complexity that arises from many different opinions on so many of the issues being raised.
It is no small feat to sort through these differing opinions let alone create sound, balanced policies that address the needs of today’s marketplace while also leaving room for tomorrow’s marketplace to evolve. And yet, this is the challenge that lies before Canadian securities regulators.

For its part, the CSE continues to demonstrate its commitment to the needs of the current market as well as to the marketplace of the future. Philosophically and operationally, the CSE has strategically pursued creating a fair and efficient environment for entrepreneurial organizations and investors to come together. Reducing operating burden and reduced fees are certainly no coincidence.

When it comes to setting the rules for such a complex and dynamic marketplace, the devil is most certainly in the details. Stepping back for a moment, though, it is precisely the regulatory and administrative details that the CSE understands can be a challenge to the speed at which many companies can grow.

With some time still left before changes to NI 21-101 and NI 23-101 are finalized, there is likely room for further debate. Of the voices that have contributed to the dialogue thus far, however, there is one that warrants being listened to most carefully of all: the market. It’s a voice that great entrepreneurs tend to listen to and one that favors keeping things simple.

Uncategorized

In the Spotlight: CSE Featured in Good Life Connoisseur Magazine

What does Canada’s fastest growing stock exchange have in common with a 460 horsepower v-8 performance automobile and a plate of charbroiled onaga with vegetable ratatouille? Aside from each being exceptional, they are all featured in the recently released summer edition of Good Life Connoisseur magazine.

The profile on the CSE looks at how the exchange has continued to evolve alongside the changes in the Canadian securities landscape and whether the extraordinary year at the exchange is a sign of a tipping point.

Without a doubt there is mounting enthusiasm towards the CSE’s operational model and value proposition. Many on the outside are also envious of the streamlined experience that being on the exchange offers.

Indeed, for those already listed on the exchange, they can not only celebrate the gains that simplicity and innovation provide but they can also take comfort in knowing that the quest for elegant solutions is a sign of exceptional taste.

Click here to read the full article.

Pic_Blog_20140729_ConnoisseurMagSpread_web

CSE Issuer Stories, New Listings

CSE New Listings Roundup for June 2014

If you’re wondering where the hottest place in Canada is this summer, it very well may be the CSE.

With a new record high number of listings in June 2014, the CSE is on pace to have its best year yet in terms of listings and trading activity and there is still plenty of time left on the calendar.

As we cross the halfway mark of 2014, the CSE has already seen 35 new listings join the exchange to date with 13 new listings added in June. The previous record for listings in a month was 10 (December 2010) and the previous high number of listings within a year (37) is within reach.

New to the exchange this month are:

  1. Lornex Capital Inc. – LOM
  2. West Point Resources Inc. – BLO
  3. Helius Medical Technologies Inc. – HSM
  4. Lions Gate Metals Inc. – LGM
  5. Appia Energy Corp. – API
  6. GoviEx Uranium Inc. – GXU
  7. Chlormet Technologies Inc. – PUF
  8. Murchison Minerals Ltd – MUR
  9. Mazorro Resources Inc. – MZO
  10. Orca Touchscreen Technologies – OAA
  11. BlackIce Enterprise Risk Management – BIS
  12. Highmark Marketing Inc. – HMK
  13. Big Rock Labs Inc. – BLA

New listings weren’t the only highlight, however, as trading volumes were equally as impressive. Over 257 million shares traded in June making it the third highest (so far) in terms of trading activity.

2014-07-19-Blog-CSE_Listed_Issues_webThis past year has seen a surge in interest from public companies large and small who are looking to enhance their competitiveness by focusing on efficient use of capital. In this regard, the CSE continues to be an important option to consider, especially for entrepreneurially minded organizations.

While cost control is key, many companies also know that growth also comes with increased exposure. The OTC Market Group’s recent announcement of the CSE as a qualified foreign stock exchange means that companies can now have enhanced access to wider pools of capital across the continent.

While there may not be a ‘magic formula’ at work, the CSE believes that there are key ingredients entrepreneurial companies need for success: access to capital, operational simplicity and, most importantly, choice.   As Managing Director of Listings Development Akthem Sumrain put it “the continued success that CSE is experiencing is further proof that there is in fact a much needed alternative in the Canadian capital markets.”

Like many of the entrepreneurs on and considering the exchange, the summer will continue to be a busy one. That said, despite the heat outside, the CSE and its supporters will be looking forward to a forecast that goes into the upper 30’s and beyond.