CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Faith in High-Grade Tungsten Project Pays off as Metal Price Soars, Governments Take Notice

It may have escaped the attention of investors focused on gold and silver over the past year, but tungsten has become one of the most in-demand metals in global commodity markets.

The driver is defence. Tungsten’s combination of extreme density, hardness, and a very high melting point makes it essential for weapons, armour, and shielding, as well as for aerospace and other high-end applications.

Prices doubled in 2025 as defence demand accelerated and China announced new export controls. Tungsten ammonium paratungstate (APT) prices averaged around US$375 per metric ton unit (MTU) in 2024, rose above US$400 per MTU by May 2025 and climbed to more than US$1,000 per MTU by the end of the year.

Western supply is scarce. The U.S. and Europe remain heavily dependent on imports from geopolitical rivals, with China, Russia, and North Korea controlling more than 85% of global supply. As defence spending rises, the case for near-shored production is hardening – and long-dormant assets are being reassessed.

One such asset belongs to Allied Critical Metals (CSE:ACM; OTCQB:ACMIF), its flagship Borralha tungsten mine in northern Portugal. Borralha was shuttered in the mid-1980s when a surge in Chinese production drove prices well below US$100 per MTU, rendering many Western operations uneconomic.

With Europe’s rearmament drive still in its early stages, and NATO members committing to higher long-term defence spending, the European Union has identified tungsten as a critical raw material under its Critical Raw Materials Act, underscoring the strategic importance of domestic supply.

Against that backdrop, it is little surprise that efforts to restart operations at Borralha are moving at pace.

In October, idD Portugal Defence, a company under the supervision of the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Finance that works to enhance Portugal’s defence technological and industrial base, endorsed the Borralha project via a formal letter of recognition as a “strategic initiative of national importance, with direct impact on Portugal’s and Europe’s defence supply chains.” 

That support has translated into regulatory momentum. In January, Portugal’s environmental agency issued a favourable Environmental Impact Declaration for Borralha, clearing the way for the project to advance into detailed engineering and the next phase of permitting. 

“These are indicative of the Portuguese government’s support of the project and underscore its strategic importance to Portugal,” says Allied Critical Metals Chief Executive Officer Roy Bonnell. “We’re working with the government right now to put in place the type of support that will help make this project a reality.”

The backing is consistent with a broader shift in Portugal’s approach to strategic minerals. This past month, for example, saw London-listed Savannah Resources  confirm receipt of a €110 million (C$178 million) grant from the Portuguese government. 

Restarting Borralha, which was one of Portugal’s most significant tungsten producers for around 80 years until it was shuttered in 1985, reflects changing economics. Its closure four decades ago was driven by low market prices at the time rather than any deterioration in the underlying geology, says Bonnell.

“The grades were always good. If you look around, there were a lot of tungsten mines that probably shut down,” he explains. “The grades at Borralha are fantastic, but they shut it down because of the prices.”

In September 2025, Allied reported results from a reverse circulation drill program targeting an ultra-high-grade zone within the Santa Helena Breccia. Highlights included an intercept of 12 metres of 4.27% tungsten (WO3), including 6 metres of 8.39%, a combination Allied highlights as one of the highest-grade tungsten intercepts reported in Western exploration.

Additional intercepts confirmed mineralization extending both down dip and along strike, supporting the view that higher-grade zones widen at depth rather than pinching out.

Recent drilling at Borralha has focused on extending known mineralization and testing higher-grade zones within the broader system. Bonnell says the results point to a large, continuous tungsten deposit with internal higher-grade shoots – a characteristic shared by several long-life tungsten operations globally.

A 20,000-metre drilling campaign is now underway, designed to further define these zones, convert inferred material into higher-confidence categories, and underpin upcoming economic studies. Current funding on the balance sheet is designed to get Allied through to the definitive feasibility study (DFS) stage.

In November, Allied upgraded Borralha’s mineral resource estimate, lifting measured and indicated resources to 13 million tonnes grading 0.21% WO₃, with a further 7.7 million tonnes at 0.18% WO₃ classified as inferred, all within the Santa Helena Breccia.

For readers less familiar with this corner of the commodities market, WO₃ contains about 79.3% elemental tungsten by weight, meaning a grade of 0.21% WO₃ equates to roughly 0.17% tungsten metal.

While headline grades may appear modest to non-mining investors, tungsten deposits are typically bulk-tonnage systems. In that context, Borralha compares favourably with other undeveloped Western projects, particularly when paired with its brownfield status, existing infrastructure, and proximity to European end markets.

As a brownfield project, converting those tonnes into cash flow becomes a lot easier. It has existing access, power, and a long history of underground mining, which lowers capital intensity, shortens development timelines, and should help potential off-take deals, says Bonnell.

In the current tungsten market, the economics look very different to those that prevailed when the mine was last operating. 

Bonnell argues Borralha is unlikely to sit at the high end of the cost curve. “This is not a high-cost tungsten project by any means,” he says. “We’re going to be probably one of the least expensive ones in the Western world.”

When Allied began assembling the project in 2023, tungsten prices were closer to US$300 per metric ton unit. “It made sense to us even then,” Bonnell adds. “At current levels and around US$1,000 a tonne, it becomes tremendously exciting.”

Cost positioning matters in a market with a history of price volatility. Lower-cost operations are better placed to weather cyclical downturns, while retaining significant upside in a tighter supply environment.

The next milestone is a preliminary economic assessment (PEA), expected this quarter. 

Bonnell says the company is funded through the current phase of 20 kilometres of drilling through the end of this year.

Beyond that, Allied is exploring a mix of funding options for construction. “We’re continuing to work with governments, not just the Portuguese government, but probably talking to the EU, to NATO, to Canada, to the U.S., and other governments, to make sure that we can get at least a base of financing that is as non-dilutive as possible to our shareholders,” Bonnell says.

“From there, we’ll be looking to move toward a larger financing for our plants, so we can move to construction as soon as possible.”

Allied is also looking to firm up off-take agreements with smelters, which would provide an early test of demand and add commercial validation to the project.

To that end, the company established a U.S. subsidiary last year to focus on the North American market, led by retired U.S. Army Major General James “Spider” Marks and Kirstjen Nielsen, who served as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security during President Donald Trump’s first term.

“The U.S. is the biggest market in the world for tungsten, but there’s no domestic production,” says Bonnell. “It’s been more than a decade since there was any meaningful output. That creates an opportunity, because they have to buy from abroad.”

Four decades ago, Borralha was a casualty of low prices and global oversupply. 

Today, as the U.S. and Europe rethink how to source critical materials, the mine’s revival reflects a broader shift in how strategic metals are valued – and who is expected to produce them.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Allied Critical Metals https://alliedcritical.com/.

Magazine

Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine: The Mining Issue – Now Live!

Welcome to the latest issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, your source for in-depth stories of entrepreneurs from a wealth of different industries.

Over the past twelve months, the global economic landscape has shifted. Gold surpassed US$5,000 per ounce, and the conversation around critical minerals has moved decisively from economic opportunity to strategic necessity. The momentum in mining and mineral exploration is indicative of their importance to the Canadian public markets in general and to the CSE in particular.

As the final edition of our magazine, this issue also marks a shift in how the CSE provides a platform for entrepreneurs’ stories. Though the format may change, our commitment to amplify issuer stories to the world does not. The CSE remains always invested in the companies and the people shaping what comes next.

In this special final issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, we feature 10 CSE listed companies, spotlighting global stories of Canadian mining, exploration, and entrepreneurial excellence.

The CSE listed companies featured in this issue include:

Check out the Mining Issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine here:

Magazine

Meet National Stock Exchange of Australia Managing Director and CEO Max Cunningham

Tell us a bit about yourself. What was your journey to the NSXA?

I’ve been in capital markets for over 30 years. I was a foundation employee when Macquarie Equities opened a retail broking business in Australia in 1994 and was sent to London with Macquarie in 1997 to help build out the U.K. institutional business. 

In 2004, I moved to New York to perform a similar role with Goldman Sachs, before returning to Australia to head up Goldman’s capital markets business in 2008. I shifted to ASX and the exchange world in 2013, where we built a strong franchise around tech listings, including achieving great success in the U.S., Israel, and Ireland. 

Exchanges play an important role in helping companies raise capital, and I believe that role had been increasingly neglected in Australia. The National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSXA) was attractive to me as an underutilized public market with a valuable listings licence. I saw a great opportunity to rebuild the NSXA as a competitor in the venture and start-up space, very similar to CSE’s successful execution in Canada.

For those of us who are unfamiliar with the NSXA, can you please provide a bit of background on the exchange, as well as some context around the current challenges and opportunities for public companies in the Australian capital markets?

The National Stock Exchange of Australia has been around in various guises for over a century. Part of its history includes the Bendigo Stock Exchange, formed in the 1860s to fund the Victorian gold rush. This century, NSXA has led many innovations, including tokenizing wine units in 2002, trading taxi plates in 2006, and, more recently, operating a market for agricultural cooperatives to trade shares.

As CEO, what is your vision for NSXA over the next few years? For this partnership?

Our goal is simply to innovate and compete. On the innovation front, we intend to invest in cutting-edge technology to improve trading capability, provide additional services, and expand our listings offering. Competition is something you create as an exchange, and the reality is that small miners, pre-revenue tech, and life sciences companies are increasingly finding it difficult to IPO in Australia, and we can assist with that. The same applies to junior explorers listed in Canada.

Our partnership with CSE will assist on all fronts. It offers experience and expertise in a similar market, provides technology and marketing support, and a great existing network of issuers to call upon. Moreover, Australians and Canadians are natural allies. The NSXA and CSE teams have clicked together very well. That’s obviously great for our staff, but it’s also beneficial for our customers and other stakeholders.

The collaboration opens the door for, among other things, dual listings. What are the benefits for retail investors and public companies in both Australia and Canada?

In reality, we have similar markets and economies, with large pension plans and individual investors looking at opportunities, especially in the mining sector. In my view, Canada and Australia have slightly different investment, risk, and interest rates cycles, with Canada slightly skewed toward the U.S. and Australia toward Asia. This often presents “valuation arbitrage” that companies can potentially benefit from by being listed in both markets. The prospect is exciting.

Looking ahead, how do you expect Australia’s capital markets landscape will evolve, especially as it relates to international opportunities?

Australian pension pools are growing exponentially, and there is a big drive to invest in local tech and keep those businesses local, especially their intellectual property. This combination should see more international opportunities to dual list so as to take advantage of that combo. Indeed, the Australian government has committed AUD$1 trillion of investment in the U.S. over the next decade. There’s no reason why a large part of that can’t be realized through dual listing opportunities. As I look ahead, I see a dynamic and healthy future.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

A Unique Approach to Ultra-Pure Production Could Spur the Wider Adoption Needed for Graphene to Truly Take Off

Investors are constantly on the hunt for disruptive products that completely change an industry’s dynamics. Disrupting the approach to manufacturing a game-changing product thus seems like taking things to an even higher level.

That is what HydroGraph Clean Power (CSE:HG; OTCQB:HGRAF) has been working on since 2017, when the company was formed to pursue the production of graphene in a way that resulted in higher purity, was more cost-effective, and more environmentally friendly than conventional methods.

Fast-forward to 2025 and HydroGraph has reached its objective, with a readily scalable process that yields high-quality graphene while adhering to the founding team’s tenets.

Graphene is perhaps best described as a super-material. Many times stronger than steel, it is also a highly efficient conductor of electricity and heat, impermeable, and very flexible, among other qualities. The process of incorporating it into products can require specialized knowledge, but it still has found a home in a long list of items, with composites, electronics, and biomedical products among the categories tipped to lead future applications.

HydroGraph’s core technology is its patented detonation synthesis process, which is quite a departure from methods that begin with graphite from the ground. Instead, HydroGraph detonates hydrocarbon gases using acetylene and oxygen to generate synthetic graphene by turning the gas into a powder.

One aspect of the process that makes it unique, according to the company, is its simplicity. Conducting the detonation process with high-purity feedstock yields graphene with a purity level on the order of 99.8%. Consistency is another competitive advantage for HydroGraph, as the company has been able to produce a virtually identical product each time it has scaled up output.

And changing the details on the input side can produce different graphene types to meet the particular needs of a given customer.

Technologies like these need protection, and in this regard HydroGraph holds three patents at present, with another eight pending.

“A number of companies have tried to go around our patents and everything has been rejected by the U.S. Patent Office, so we feel strongly about our position in the market,” says HydroGraph Clean Power Chief Executive Officer Kjirstin Breure.

Breure, who joined the company as its Chief Operating Officer in 2020 before becoming CEO in 2024, holds an MSc in Materials Science and Engineering from Arizona State University and has spent over a decade involved with emerging technologies in the commercial sector, including machine learning, data analytics, and blockchain.

Commercialization of HydroGraph’s graphene is already underway, with more than 60 entities in various stages of testing it for potential inclusion in a wide range of products and industries.

One of those, Hawkeye Biomedical, is using HydroGraph’s graphene in its Lung Enzyme Activity Profile (LEAP) lung cancer biosensors. And in late September, HydroGraph announced a letter of intent with SEADAR Technologies, a developer of subsea sensing and surveillance solutions, to integrate HydroGraph’s graphene materials and coating technologies into current and future SEADAR undersea products.

Breure notes that the average development cycle for its customers is about 18 months. First is lab-scale testing, which leads to industrial trials where a potential customer experiments with HydroGraph’s materials. Assuming everything goes well, contract negotiation is the next step.

An important venue for interacting with potential clients in the graphene industry is the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) at the University of Manchester. HydroGraph has its own laboratory at the GEIC, which has established itself as a hub for companies looking to integrate graphene into their products. With deep expertise on site and all the right equipment, the GEIC is the perfect location for graphene suppliers and users to explore real business relationships.

Current production capacity is 10 tons per year and new production units, in the form of the company’s patented Hyperion detonation chamber, can be built and brought onstream in as little as two to three months.

HydroGraph’s first commercial unit, a 13,000 square foot facility located in Manhattan, Kansas, started production in 2022. The company’s second production facility will be established in Texas, in part because that state is one of the best places to source the acetylene used in the detonation process.

Scaling up on the revenue generation front could feed quickly to the bottom line, as HydroGraph estimates that an outlay of US$10 million to US$15 million on production can generate more than $100 million in sales.

With the ability to quickly increase production capacity and a healthy pipeline of potential customers, it is reasonable to expect new developments coming to light before long.

“We will be announcing the gas partner that we are working with for a large-scale production facility where we have negotiated pipeline access for acetylene, and we are looking forward to announcing a relationship with the U.S. military,” Breure says.

Breure adds that HydroGraph is planning to provide an update on the status of its submission to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and that contract announcements emerging from the company’s commercial pipeline are likely.

“We have between 10 and 15 clients that are really in that last stage that could convert into revenue within the next year,” Breure says, adding that the company has generated “small amounts” of revenue thus far but expects a more significant revenue stream to be “kicking in next year.”

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about HydroGraph Clean Power https://hydrograph.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

A Mathematical Approach to Location Assessment Finds Applications Across a Wide Spectrum

They were a novelty not that many years ago, but today drones are growing quickly in popularity and importance, used for everything from documentary filmmaking to surveillance and payload delivery on modern battlefields.

For military applications, undermining the effectiveness of a drone by denying it use of critical data and control inputs is something all major armed forces are likely working on. As such, the more independent one can make a drone, the greater its chance to be effective today and in the environments of the future.

Sparc AI (CSE:SPAI; OTCQB:SPAIF) has developed a solution that enables drones to assess object location without the use of GPS, radar, or other inputs that most such devices currently rely on. Its technology is ready to commercialize, and other innovations for drone operator control platforms are just around the corner.

Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine spoke recently with Sparc Al Chief Executive Officer Anoosh Manzoori about the technology’s capabilities, practical applications, and the status of commercialization efforts. 

Sparc AI’s technology uses sophisticated algorithms to measure the location and distance to any object on land or water, with military drones being an important application. How would you define the company’s current objectives?

Our core mission is built around technologies that allow products to work out in the field without GPS.

Interruption to GPS is a real challenge for both defence and commercial applications. There are something like 34 GPS satellites, and you need four of them to record just one location. The receiver connections to these satellites can be compromised, leading to a GPS-denied environment.

Looking at an object that is 5 kilometres away, for example, and determining its geocoordinates and distance without GPS, or any other sensor, is the crux of what we are trying to solve.

That would be our target-acquisition system, and we have another product that is coming that adds intelligence to that platform. It is all operating in a covert environment without GPS.

With drones, weight is an issue, as an operator often wants them to fly long distances or loiter for extended periods. What equipment does Sparc AI attach to drones to facilitate your solution?

Our solution is completely software-based; the telemetry data that is already with the drone is what we use. We need to know the height of the drone. And all drones have a barometer so they can measure air pressure as they move up in the sky. We need to know the angle of the camera pitch in terms of its line of sight. We also need to know the heading or the compass of where the drone is pointing.

What we are doing is mathematically creating a representation of the device in the air relative to the terrain and where it sits. It becomes spatially aware of where it is and where it is pointing, and we can then do a representation of where it is looking and calculate the distance and geolocation.

We don’t use any sensors. We don’t use lasers, lidar, radar, or image recognition software. Although we use the camera, it is already on the drone for the benefit of the operator to see what they are looking at.

We are installed on a Parrot ANAFI drone, a military drone. It is a 500-gram drone, so if we were to put more equipment on it, you would not be able to fly the device.

Because we are software-based and covert, there is no signature emitting from the drone, and nobody knows we are doing any targeting. We save on payloads, weight, and battery.

What is the maximum distance Sparc AI’s technology can measure?

Range really comes down to the ability for the operator to see the target. On the ANAFI drone, for example, the camera enables us to zoom in on a target. We have not seen any limitations on the range and have tested as far as 50 kilometres. We are limited based on how much we can see.

With alternative technologies that might be using a laser system, radar, or lidar, the farther away the object becomes, the less accurate it generally is. Think of a laser beam that becomes more like a cone as it goes farther from its source. These technologies are also detectable and not covert.

Mathematically, there are no limitations in terms of how far the technology would work. It also works on both land and water.

What is the competitive landscape in this market? Technology with military applications is in intense development around the world.

In the military sense, there is a category of products called the target-acquisition system. They typically weigh about 20 kilograms to 25 kilograms and fit a soldier’s backpack. They require a bit of setting up, have to be installed on a tripod, and come with a cable about 25 metres long that connects to a tablet.

The solider needs to install it, position the device, then go and hide somewhere with the tablet to control the system. The reason they need to do that is because the system has a laser – and sometimes radar – on it, so it emits a signature. Basically, when you are looking at your adversary, you then become detectable, and they can start to look back at you. You start to put yourself at risk the moment you set this up.

The system is also quite expensive and requires a lot of energy, so soldiers typically carry extra battery packs.

The alternative is to put the equipment onto a drone. That means the drone is big, quite expensive, and will send a signature back to the enemy.

The way Sparc AI works, because it is completely software-based, it can be used on any device. The Parrot ANAFI is a drone very much used on the edge of the battlefield, and with Sparc AI you could do your target-acquisition rapidly, without any detection.

The software is installed on the controller, so we are not using any resources of the drone. We have also developed an extension where we are able to navigate the drone autonomously using purely the target-acquisition system to record the location and coordinates for navigation.

Are there other markets in addition to military applications?

Another market is search and rescue, where you identify the location of assets or people during emergencies. The technology was sold to one of the largest telecommunications companies, and it was installed on fixed cameras rather than drones. Think of an old pipeline that requires maintenance that is located in GPS-denied environments.

Sparc AI’s technology is very specialized. Can you discuss your team with us?

We have two people who are ex-military personnel, one of whom had leading roles in special forces here in Australia. So, both have experience in the defence sector that not only commercially helps open doors but also enables us to better tailor our product for the defence market.

We also have two directors who are very experienced in commerce and finance and dealing with technology companies.

As for myself, I built one of the largest cloud hosting companies in Australia before exiting and have been an active investor for the past 25 years. I’m quite technical and have made significant contributions to our technology and source code.

Where are you in terms of commercialization?

We have a couple of approaches. One is speaking directly to defence departments here in Australia, as well as in Canada and the United States. These are often through referrals and people we know in the industry, and we are conducting regular live demonstrations of the product.

We are in discussions with contractors that supply products directly to defence, and there is an opportunity for Sparc AI to be bundled as part of an existing offering.

We have also been accepted into the Parrot Technology Solutions Program. Parrot sells their drone primarily to defence and first responders. They have an indirect sales model where they sell their product through distributors and resellers around the world, and they have a program where they invite companies integrated into the Parrot platform to provide additional capabilities to plug into that distribution and gain potential customers.

We are also discussing with partners here what they call loitering solutions, which are solutions on the edge of land and water for surveillance and situational awareness in coastal areas.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

One thing that is quite important for this type of business is capability, so the more capability and intellectual property we build into the product, the closer it brings us to being able to get commercial contracts and build value for the company in terms of possibly being acquired. There is a lot of new capability that we have been working on and will be rolling out soon. We have made some announcements around it already, but there is more coming to elevate the capability of this product.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Sparc AI https://sparcai.co/home.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Epilepsy Drug in Phase II Trials and Peer Success Combine to Fuel a Standout Year

For three decades, central nervous system (CNS) drug development was a tough space for investors, scarred by failed bets on Alzheimer’s disease, plateauing first-generation antidepressants, and setbacks in safety and efficacy. 

But advances in receptor-selective chemistry and so-called “biased agonism” – steering toward therapeutic pathways and away from areas that cause side effects – are reviving interest in the field. 

Successes such as esketamine for depression or cannabinoids for epilepsy have shown that carefully targeted mechanisms can deliver commercial as well as clinical breakthroughs. 

That shift is fuelling a new wave of investment in CNS-focused solutions, with several biotech companies absorbed by larger players in recent years. 

One of the companies that illustrates this shift is Bright Minds Biosciences (CSE:DRUG), which is now in Stage II trials for its lead epilepsy drug. The company’s dramatic share performance in the past 12 months, involving appreciation of approximately 5,000%, is why investors come to the biotech space. Bright Minds has certainly delivered.

The company was founded seven years ago by former investment banker and current Chief Executive Officer, Ian McDonald, Dr. Alan Kozikowski, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and one of the most prolific researchers in psychedelic drug discovery, and Dr. Gideon Shapiro, a veteran of CNS drug discovery with senior roles at Sandoz-Novartis and Forum.

Bright Minds is seeking to prove that finely tuned serotonin-targeting drugs can succeed where other compounds have fallen short. 

Its lead compound, BMB-101, is being tested with two forms of childhood epilepsy, with data expected around the end of this year.

The scientific premise is straightforward but ambitious: BMB-101 selectively activates the serotonin 5-HT2C receptor, known as 2C, a target known to influence neuronal activity.

Activating that receptor indirectly boosts levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which calms neuronal pathways to aid normal brain function and helps prevent the electrical discharges that result in epilepsy.

Several other medicines also target 2C, but BMB-101 avoids closely related receptors linked to undesirable effects. 

Past drugs in this space, including the diet drug fenfluramine, were plagued by serious cardiac and psychedelic side effects because they also activated the 2B and 2A receptors. 

Bright Minds’ molecule is designed to bypass those problems and also to avoid the desensitization and tolerance build-up that has undermined many chronic CNS therapies.

“Our compound is an advancement from that – a safer version that doesn’t have the 2A and 2B liabilities,” says McDonald.

BMB-101, which has IP protection out to 2041, is in Phase II studies for two types of epilepsy.

One is developmental epileptic encephalopathies, catastrophic epilepsies which begin in childhood and continue throughout life, with high mortality rates and patients who generally experience a range of problems stemming from the epilepsy.

“We’re also looking at a separate population with absence epilepsy, which isn’t very well treated at the moment,” says McDonald. 

“Only a couple of therapies have been approved for it, and there’s a significant unmet need in that patient population.”

He says these current trials are due to produce results around the end of the year.

An upswing in M&A in recent years suggests that large pharmaceutical groups are willing to pay for validated serotonin 2C assets.

Zogenix, which commercialised fenfluramine, was acquired by Belgium’s UCB for up to US$1.9 billion in 2021; GW Pharmaceuticals was bought by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for US$7.2 billion in the same year; in October 2024, Denmark’s Lundbeck paid US$2.6 billion for Longboard Pharmaceuticals.

This latter deal was potentially the most relevant for Bright Minds, as Longboard’s compound operates with a similar serotonin 2C mechanism, and it had recently completed its Phase II study when the deal was done.

McDonald believes his lead compound could be superior, with high selectivity and applications in treatment-resistant epilepsy. 

“In chronic dosing situations these other compounds often develop tolerance, but our molecule is designed to minimize or eliminate that.”

Within the serotonin 2C receptor there are different signalling pathways. 

BMB-101 works exclusively via the pathway responsible for the therapeutic effect, known as the Gq-protein signalling pathway, and avoids the beta-arrestin pathway, which is responsible for tolerance development.

In earlier tests, the molecule demonstrated efficacy in numerous models of generalized seizures.

While McDonald says it is “potentially a best-in-class drug,” he acknowledges that a lot can go wrong in clinical trials. “The difference here is we know the mechanism works and we know our drug is hitting it.”

The reason Longboard was bought even before it had started Phase III studies, and that Bright Minds shares skyrocketed around 1,500% in the same week as that deal, is that epilepsy trials have strong predictability. 

“If you succeed in Phase II, you’re likely to succeed in Phase III,” says McDonald. “Also, fenfluramine was proven to work, and Longboard’s compound was superior. It was lower risk than many other drugs at that stage. Our compound works on the same mechanism, but we have the biased agonism feature against tolerance development – and ours is more convenient too. Longboard’s compound must be given three times a day and refrigerated throughout. We don’t have those issues.”

While some investors may be crossing their fingers for suitors to swoop after Phase II, the company has a cash runway through to 2027 to take the molecule to the edge of commercialization.

There is also a wider portfolio of intellectual property in the pipeline in neurology and psychiatry, with multiple programs of interest, all built off the strong medicinal chemistry background of its co-founders, with compounds that accentuate the benefits of the mechanism while avoiding negative side effects. 

One indication in the same 2C space is a debilitating disease called Prader-Willi syndrome, which has around 10,000 patients in the U.S. and starts in childhood, with patients generally having a developmental disability and experiencing some neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Others include BMB-201, a non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogen for treatment-resistant depression.

Those additional programs may offer upside optionality, but the company’s value will be determined by whether BMB-101 delivers the pivotal data investors are betting on.

If BMB-101’s data lives up to McDonald’s billing, the company could suddenly find itself on more than a few corporate shopping lists.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Bright Minds Biosciences https://brightmindsbio.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Recent Earnings Results Validate Cannabis and Alcohol Strategy

North America’s legal cannabis industry is still in the early stages of development, shaped by complex regulation, high taxes, and fierce competition – pressures that only the most capable management teams can navigate.

That dynamic is clear when speaking with SNDL (CSE:SNDL) Chief Executive Officer Zachary George, who anticipated how the industry would evolve, the points of differentiation that would matter, and how businesses would need to steer through the turbulence.

George knew the value of a long-term perspective. Inheriting Canada’s largest, but non-competitive, indoor cultivation facility, he worked to reshape a debt-laden, unprofitable business into a retail-forward regulated products model, adding alcohol as a stable cash flow anchor. The move gave his cannabis operations runway to mature, and the results are becoming clear: earlier this year, SNDL posted its first quarter of positive operating and net profit.

Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine spoke with George recently about SNDL’s formative years, his philosophy for the business, and medium-term expansion plans.

SNDL has built a successful cannabis business within a broader overall product portfolio. Where did this idea come from and what were some of the important milestones in the early days?

The business as it stands today was born out of a deep restructuring process. Once we were on the other side of the restructuring, we sought to build a diversified business model with two strategic pillars.

The first pillar was a vertical cannabis model, the likes of which did not exist in Canada. The second pillar was a financing business that would enable us to, in a compliant manner, invest in U.S. operators by being a passive supplier of credit, without running afoul of the restrictions that exist for Nasdaq-listed companies when it comes to what we call “plant-touching” operations in the United States.

That evolution took a number of twists and turns. Our first foray into retail happened with the acquisition of Spiritleaf in Canada in July of 2021.

Later that year, we were approached by Nova, the company behind discount banner Value Buds, which had quickly become a disruptive force. At the time, Alcanna, Western Canada’s largest private market liquor retailer, owned 63% of Nova. From a sum-of-the-parts perspective, it made more sense to acquire the parent company than to pay a premium for the subsidiary. The deal also gave us access to a leadership team with decades of regulated product retail experience. Many of the same value and convenience themes that drive consumer behaviour in alcohol are directly analogous in cannabis.

The scale that came from the Alcanna acquisition was critical to our model. As an SEC registrant subject to Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements, we are subject to some of the most stringent financial reporting and internal control requirements on the planet. Given the costs related to these requirements, playing small was not an option, and we had to do something at scale. The liquor business contributed significant free cash flow to the overall model, which helped to mitigate these costs.

Let’s look at the business portfolio, which is almost evenly balanced between liquor retail and a multi-faceted cannabis business. Can you walk us through the liquor side first and outline its competitive advantages? 

SNDL holds significant market share in Alberta and a strong presence in British Columbia. However, each province presents unique regulatory challenges that shape our strategy.

When you talk about competitive advantages on the liquor side, I would point immediately to the success of the Wine and Beyond model. Building a capital-intensive retail model requires strong supply chain management and the ability to seize inventory opportunities in a decisive manner. In our Wine and Beyond locations, consumers can choose from more than 6,000 SKUs, and that breadth has really resonated. Our big box format stands in stark contrast to the consumer experience available in Ontario’s LCBO locations. We are seeing the model materially outperform more limited, convenience-focused formats.

We are expanding that part of the business and are excited to be opening another two new Wine and Beyond locations in Saskatchewan and a third in Calgary in the coming months.

On the cannabis side, you have a hybrid, vertically integrated model. Tell us about the structure and the thinking behind it.

A couple of observations are important. Canada’s provincial cannabis regulations are inconsistent, with some even contradicting one another. This dynamic creates stubborn supply chain inefficiencies that are anti-business and a disservice to the provinces, operators, and consumers alike.

In certain provinces, retail sales are managed by private operators working within a tightly regulated framework, while in others they are controlled and managed exclusively by the government through crown corporations. Of those provinces permitting private operators, some allow for full vertical integration, while others bar or limit licensed producers (LPs) from retail ownership. In British Columbia’s hybrid framework, private retail operators like us are capped at eight retail locations, while the province competes against us with over 40 of its own, and other operators skirt these regulations with complex ownership structures. In Ontario, a licensed producer is prohibited from owning more than 20% of a retail operator, while regulations in the Prairies allow for vertically integrated structures.

Provincial fiefdoms within crown corporations have preserved inefficiencies while failing to prioritize important public goods such as the optimization of consumption-based tax revenues and consumer safety. At the core of these issues is a question as to whether Canadians believe that their tax dollars should be used by provincial governments to directly manage consumer-facing retail operations.     

This is a departure from conventional consumer packaged goods (CPG) where brand awareness, efficient manufacturing, and clear routes to market can drive access to broad growth across a national market. The inherent inefficiencies in Canadian cannabis must be carefully managed. Instead of complaining about poor decision-making and weak enforcement by regulators and government bodies, we are directly involved in lobbying for rational reform. The steep and rocky path in the sector will ensure that very few competitors can survive. We are built for the climb.

Why did you choose a vertical structure?

With a mandate from our board to build a global cannabis business, we observed that in mature markets in the United States, the vertical operators in limited licence markets were by far the most profitable. Further, Health Canada’s restrictions and prohibitions on the marketing of branded products were a clear hindrance to building brand resonance with consumers. In sharp contrast to the regulation applied to alcoholic beverages, even something as simple as the depiction of a mountain on packaging, or the outline of an animal form, can draw fines and demands for the recall of products.  

In today’s marketplace, regulated brick-and-mortar retail is the best place to own the consumer relationship. E-commerce solutions have also been stunted by regulation, further reinforcing this dynamic, although we expect this to evolve positively in the future. 

In the early years, we saw a proliferation of products where brands themselves were being commoditized. We have the data from tens of millions of consumer transactions and know exactly where repurchase rates are. This data continues to show a strong willingness by the consumer to trial and switch products.

This dynamic created a strong desire to stay out of the fight among producers over whose pre-roll or flower strain was better. My focus was on building a platform that could track and adapt to consumer trends over time. Rather than competing in a sea of sameness with other LPs, I wanted to partner with them, helping to distribute and even manufacture some of their most successful products.

In doing so, we shifted from competing on products to competing on capability – building a platform that could support both our own brands and those of our partners. You will see our owned and co-manufactured brands in competitive retail, and you will see competitive suppliers dominate shelf space in our owned and managed retail network. We have a large B2B or co-manufacturing business building products for other LPs and have built quality products for most of the top 20 LPs in Canada today. We have automated manufacturing capabilities in every relevant product segment, including infused beverages, edibles, pre-rolls, flower, extracts, and vapes.

Let’s talk about performance. The second quarter of 2025 was SNDL’s first profitable quarter. What were some of the highlights?

Understanding the backdrop is really important. I am very proud of our team. Over the past five years, we have been able to grow our revenue base by over 1,500%. We have one of the cleanest balance sheets in the sector, with no debt and approximately $200 million in unrestricted cash to drive strategic investments. Last year was the first full calendar year that we generated free cash flow. We have hit new milestones and records almost every quarter for the past 14 quarters. In our most recent second quarter, we generated our first quarter of positive operating and net income.

We have announced the acquisition of a 32-door retail portfolio that we are working to close in October and have significant embedded growth coming from our credit investments. Some of those positions are being equitized and may be consolidated in the future.

We have also managed to buck some of the negative trends in alcohol consumption, which is a credit to the strong execution capabilities of our team.

As you look to the near and medium terms, how do you shape strategy given the competitive landscape and the opportunities afforded by your business lines?

We put together a three-year strategic plan supported by our board, and our priorities are clear. Our number one priority is to continue to grow our Canadian retail cannabis and liquor businesses. Second would be the stabilization and investment in U.S. businesses we have exposure to, including operations in Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, and Michigan, all of which have unique and distinct regulatory frameworks. Third would be international. We are excited to be landing finished goods in the U.K. and shipping wholesale flower to several international medical markets. Our segment leaders are focused on delivering profitable growth in our alcohol and cannabis segments in 2026 and beyond.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about SNDL https://www.sndl.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

A Personal Mission to Reprogram the Human Immune Response to Cancer

Often when we discuss life sciences, particularly as investors, the human element gets lost. The focus tends to be on the pipeline, clinical and preclinical progress, data, efficacy, cash runway, and addressable market. These and other inputs can be plugged into a model to provide insight into a company’s chance of success.

But this process ignores the point of the business: to help people recover, to fight illness, or in the case of late-stage disease, to add months or perhaps years to life. It also disregards the human sacrifice along the way. This is particularly true in cancer research, where end-of-life patients often volunteer in the hope that the next generation benefits from their experience.

For ME Therapeutics (CSE:METX; OTCPK:METXF) Chief Executive Officer Salim Dhanji, the metrics that make the investment case are important but not the real litmus test. Rather, he is driven by a desire to change outcomes for people. Dhanji notes that he is at the stage in life where friends and family are succumbing to the ailments of middle and later years. The determination and passion that drive him are plain to see.

A researcher at heart, he wants a real, human dimension to his team’s work. “To use new technologies, and our knowledge of these technologies to create drugs to treat cancer patients in a personalized way, is something that really motivates me,” Dhanji tells Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine. “You’re starting to see that [in other areas of research], and I think that’s the really exciting bit; where you can potentially bring about real change.”

Dhanji earned his Bachelor of Science and PhD at the University of British Columbia and has more than 20 scientific publications and patents relating to cancer, autoimmunity, and inflammation to his credit. ME Therapeutics, founded in 2014, reflects that body of work.

The ME component of the company’s name stands for “myeloid enhancement,” a clue to the science behind its three drug development and discovery programs. Put simply, this involves reprogramming the immune response against cancer. The team is tackling one of oncology’s toughest problems: how cancers hijack the body’s own immune cells to shield themselves from attack.

ME Therapeutics is developing drugs that reprogram so-called myeloid cells. These normally regulate immune responses but in tumors often act as double agents, suppressing cancer-killing T cells and creating a cocoon around malignant tissue. Rather than designing medicines to target a specific mutation, ME Therapeutics is targeting the immune environment itself. That means its drugs could be used across many cancer types, much like today’s blockbuster immunotherapies such as Merck’s Keytruda or Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo.

The company is working on three fronts. One program delivers synthetic messenger RNA into tumors to coax immune cells into action and turn “cold” tumors into “hot” ones that draw an immune response. A second program engineers in vivo chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) into immune cells directly inside the body, re-tasking both T cells and myeloid cells. A third antibody therapy blocks a protein called granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), which fuels immune suppression and drives resistance to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs.

A key partner is NanoVation Therapeutics, co-founded by lipid nanoparticle pioneer Pieter Cullis, whose delivery systems enabled the first Covid-19 vaccines. ME Therapeutics is using NanoVation’s nanoparticles to ferry its mRNA payloads to immune cells while avoiding the liver, a common stumbling block.

Preclinical work is still early. Studies in mice and non-human primates are scheduled through 2026, with the first regulatory applications expected late that year.

ME Therapeutics’ ambitions are big, but, like most start-ups in the biotechnology space, so are the risks. It is also betting on next-generation technologies, such as in vivo CARs, that have yet to be proven in people. Still, with immuno-oncology drugs now among the industry’s top sellers and combinations extending their reach, investors are watching.

“If you can reprogram the immune environment rather than chase each new tumor mutation, the potential is enormous,” says Dhanji.

The G-CSF antibody program is the most advanced, though whether it or the therapeutic mRNA program reaches the clinic first remains to be seen. There is a case for the latter: the timeline to “spin up” an mRNA drug for a specific cancer is relatively short, as little as six to 12 months, Dhanji explains.

ME Therapeutics’ approach also has transformative potential in CAR therapy, which typically involves genetically engineered T cells trained to hunt and destroy cancer. Used to combat blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, success rates can be upward of 80%. But the process requires a blood transfusion, which is uncomfortable, and costs between $500,000 and $1 million.

Using ME Therapeutics’ method, Dhanji says, could ultimately pull the price down toward that of traditional gold-standard cancer treatments, as well as leverage myeloid cells in addition to T cells. “There is a lot of potential in some of the work that we’re doing in the lab, preclinically right now, and we think we can advance to the clinic very quickly,” he says. “So now, it’s really a matter of deciding which program we want to prioritize.”

As with all small-cap biotech, funding is an ever-present requirement. Dhanji says the company’s current runway is long enough to fund the first candidate to initial meetings with the FDA or Health Canada. After that, further investment will be needed.

An industry partnership with a large drugmaker is possible but uncommon at this stage. Dhanji wants intellectual property patent-protected before any such discussions take place. “I think one of the challenges is that we need to be able to protect our IP before we actually go and have these conversations, as the space is relatively fluid,” he explains.

Dhanji is not without ambition and would like to emulate Genentech, the founding company of biotechnology. It may be difficult to repeat the San Francisco giant’s success, but it is the pioneer spirit he admires, when budgets were spared to solve real human problems, not the balance sheet metrics that fixate Big Pharma.

Yet Dhanji is also a realist. “I do have to run a business, and I take that responsibility very seriously. But what gets me out of bed in the morning, what motivates me, is the old researcher’s curiosity and the hope our work may make a difference.”

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about ME Therapeutics https://metherapeutics.com/.

Magazine

Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine: The Global Issue – Now Live!

Welcome to the latest issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, your source for in-depth stories of entrepreneurs from a wealth of different industries.

The global capital markets map is being redrawn in real time. Economies are facing an inflection point: never before has the world been more interconnected through technology and trade; however, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties have created new barriers to interoperability. Many CSE listed companies are showcasing what happens when innovation refuses to concede to complacency, demonstrating that entrepreneurial vision paired with strategic execution can transcend complex geographic constraints. 

In this issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, discover the stories of nine CSE listed companies taking on global challenges in defence, healthcare, technology, and beyond. Plus, WFE CEO Nandini Sukumar shares how the global network of exchanges enables innovation and sustainability around the world, and we spotlight National Stock Exchange of Australia Managing Director and CEO Max Cunningham.

The CSE listed companies featured in this issue include:

Check out The Global Issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine here:

CSE Performance, Featured

Canadian Securities Exchange CEO Richard Carleton Year-End 2025 Interview

2025 was a pivotal year for capital markets and for the Canadian Securities Exchange. Canadian equity markets were shaped by a mix of global trends carrying over from the previous year and some new drivers closer to home. While stocks in the United States moved higher on continuing excitement around technology, many Canadian stocks benefited from rising prices for gold, silver, copper, and more, concrete acknowledgement of national requirements for critical minerals. Policies from new governments in both Canada and the U.S. also played a role.

This macro environment brought a variety of opportunities for issuers on the CSE, as a glance at the much stronger capital-raising numbers for 2025 can attest. Meanwhile, the CSE team identified opportunities overseas, acquiring the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX), an exchange that looks very much like its early self.

In this interview conducted in early December, CSE Chief Executive Officer Richard Carleton discusses market performance in 2025, touches on upcoming regulatory changes, takes readers inside the NSX transaction, and highlights some of the factors set to influence small-cap stocks in Canada during 2026.

The pace of traditional IPOs in Canada was slow again in 2025, while things seemed to pick up in the United States as the year went on, thanks largely to investor interest in the technology sector. What are the headwinds facing the domestic listing environment, and how is 2026 setting up for IPOs and other types of new listings?

As a result of the uncertain nature of the trading relationship with the U.S. and clouds on the horizon for the continued existence of the North American free trade zone, it is fair to say that business investment in new and existing enterprise in Canada was restrained for much of 2025 across most industry groups.   

The Canadian Securities Exchange, of course, is mostly focused on the small-cap sector, and the relative paucity of new listings for much of the year reflected the uncertainty in the broader market. That said, it has to be acknowledged that the large-cap indices are either at or near record highs. So, what is happening?

First, the IPO is not a means that companies, large and small, are using to go public in Canada at this point. Instead, companies are raising money privately through prospectus exemptions and then qualify the securities for a public listing through a non-offering prospectus. 

This technique is the predominant means that companies have used, particularly in the mining sector, over the past year and a half to go public on the CSE.

I think it is fair to say that, regardless of where you stand politically, domestic and international uncertainty has not been helpful to the investment climate in Canada.

One sign of this is that even with increasing prices for many commodities, and gold is the shining example, the junior space did not really get much in the way of attention from investors through investment capital or secondary market activity until the fall.

The catalyst appears to have been acquisitions and joint ventures from some of the mid-level producers in Canada, which sparked an immediate increase in trading turnover. It also appears to have facilitated a lot of secondary market financing activity for CSE listed issuers. We have also begun to see a small increase in the number of companies applying to go public on the Canadian Securities Exchange.

But generally speaking, when you talk about the U.S. market in 2025, the story is dominated by a small handful of stocks with a material stake in the AI and quantum computing future. Investors around the world are coming to the U.S. market to take a stake in these businesses. It has not really been much of a market story from a Canadian perspective in either the small-cap or large-cap space.

For existing issuers on the CSE, 2025 was notably better than the previous year, with trading volume higher and financings again growing in terms of total value. Can you walk us through some of the numbers and offer some insight into how the market performed?

As I mentioned earlier, we have seen the beginnings of improvement in the early-stage capital markets in Canada, and in particular for companies listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Another positive indicator is that, notwithstanding the challenges I’ve outlined earlier, the pace of financing activity is up over 2024 levels in the number of transactions and significantly higher in terms of dollars raised on a year-to-date basis: over $2.7 billion, compared to $1.45 billion a year ago.

So, we are looking at one of the better years in total capital raised that we have seen in the last three or four. And the interesting thing is that the mining industry has been responsible for more than half of the transactions and just under half of the capital raised.

As we look to next year, the trendlines are pointing in very positive directions.

The CSE announced the completion of its acquisition of the National Stock Exchange of Australia in October. Let’s first discuss the thought process behind this investment. Is the NSX on a path similar to what the CSE was on a decade ago?

We began speaking to the NSX around 15 years ago, and we noted that it was on a similar trajectory to us: focused on early-stage companies, competing with a well-entrenched incumbent exchange, and struggling to make an impact. 

Indeed, the parallels are almost eerie. The NSX has about 52 listings; we had a similar number in 2010. Prior to the acquisition, the NSX’s balance sheet was challenged (also like us), and it is running the same technology that we integrated in 2005 (and retired in 2016). It hadn’t secured the necessary financial backing to execute the plan we delivered in Canada. With the capital we stockpiled (largely as a result of the trading and listing boom during the pandemic), we had the balance sheet strength to provide NSX with the support it has lacked to deliver a competitive venture market in Australia. 

We believe the Australian market has many similarities to Canada. It generates a lot of new companies on an annual basis from the mining, technology, and life sciences sectors. And we also know there are a lot of companies listed on the incumbent exchange in Australia that find it expensive and difficult to retain their public listing.

The prize is that there is a very healthy retail and institutional capital market in Australia with an appetite for investment in early-stage companies. We believe that by positioning the NSX as a marketplace that serves the interests of investors and companies in the early-stage space, we have a chance to support a significant portion of the early-stage financing opportunities in Australia in a relatively short period of time.

We have a team that is deeply experienced, with many years of working in the capital markets in Australia and abroad. With time, energy, and the balance sheet issues corrected, the NSX team has an opportunity to make a significant positive impact on capital markets in Australia.

What are next steps in helping the NSX to realize its potential? How can the CSE’s experience growing its capabilities and listings over the past decade contribute to the NSX’s success?

It’s a great question in the sense that it has to do exactly what we did. The playbook does not have to be rewritten, just dusted off. The first thing – and none of these is more important than the other – is to put a new technology platform in place that is up to the needs of not only a growing exchange and a growing list of companies on the NSX but also provides trading competition to the ASX for ASX listed stocks.

At the same time, the team needs to be built out, and people need to know who the NSX is and what its value proposition is. It has to engage in the branding work that we did to get people to understand who the NSX is and why it makes sense to list there. Including, of course, the fact that people may know the management team but may not know that it has the balance sheet that ensures its existence.

Those two things are absolutely critical. And the key is to make sure we have the resources in place so that as companies begin to roll in – and it tends to come in as a trickle at first and then as an absolute flood if you are successful working with the early adopters – you have the resources and management systems in place to be able to render a high degree of customer service to those companies.

There would seem to be variation in performance at exchanges, perhaps most recently highlighted by the Cboe operations in Canada and Australia being put up for sale. How would you explain the differences in objectives and each entity’s ability to achieve them?

Even when really well run, exchanges operating cash equities markets, such as the Canadian Securities Exchange, Cboe Canada, Nasdaq Canada, Tradelogiq, Toronto Stock Exchange, or Toronto Venture Exchange, do not generate the kind of financial return that derivatives exchanges generate. That is why two of the largest exchange groups in the United States are the CME Group and the Intercontinental Exchange, the latter of which not only owns the New York Stock Exchange but also operates a number of commodity futures exchanges in the U.S.

The derivatives exchanges, because they are natural monopolies and control the clearing and settlement agency – it is a whole soup-to-nuts operation – generate consistently higher profits than those engaged in our line of work in the cash equities space.

We have seen a number of the large global operators – whether it be Deutsche Börse, Euronext, or London Stock Exchange Group – diversify away from the cash equities side and invest in derivatives markets. In addition, these large operators are also investing in the development and distribution of market data products, risk applications, and analytics. These are the kinds of information services that generate monthly subscription-based revenues and are sticky enough that you can forecast these revenues in two-to-five-year time frames.

That is one of the other issues with cash equities: we are subject to the vagaries of government policies, the interest rate environment, market sentiment, and so on. When times are good, we can operate quite profitably. But, through no fault of exchange management, markets can be bad, materially impacting returns without regard to the quality of exchange management.

Without knowing exactly why the Cboe made the decision they did in Canada and Australia, it is my educated guess that those businesses hold considerably lower return potential than some of the other opportunities they might have, and I think they concluded that further effort to grow those businesses could be applied to other businesses in their portfolio to generate higher returns.

We discussed earlier that fewer IPOs are taking place, yet the number of trading platforms in Canada seems to be growing. Is there a point at which adding more execution venues goes from enhancing competition to actually making markets less efficient?

That is an interesting way of looking at it. I think our customers, if you consider the investment dealers and certainly the investors that are using the system, would say they find the current system opaque, complicated, hard to understand, and from a dealer perspective, it increases the level of risk because there are many rules around how you try to ensure client orders are directed to the best-priced destination. The more venues there are with different order types and layers of connectivity and everything else, that obviously complicates and adds a degree of risk to those responsibilities.

I can’t say I know at what point competition becomes self-defeating in the space. What I will say is that on a per-capita basis, whether it is market capitalization, turnover, or any other measure you want to suggest, Canada seems to support more trade execution venues than any other market in the world. We have about one-third the number the U.S. has. With anything in finance, 10 to 13 times is the normal range between Canada and the United States. So, if we are one-third, that speaks volumes.

I suppose the other way to look at it is that in deciding where to invest our funds, we have obviously concluded that Australia is a potentially more interesting location than here in Canada, given the opportunities we believe exist to grow business there rapidly. The competitive pressure in Canada would probably prevent the rapid expansion of any one business at this point.

Important discussions have been taking place in the policy environment in 2025. The concept of broadening eligibility for Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentives to Canadian public companies is gaining attention. There is also talk of modifying standards to lessen the requirements around quarterly financial reporting. Is the CSE supportive of such initiatives? Are there any caveats to be mindful of?

Before I answer the question directly, what I will say is that these efforts are indicative of a level of engagement from policymakers, government officials, and regulators to try to reduce the decline in the number of companies coming into the public markets.

It is like the stages of recovery, where admitting you have a problem is the first step. I think that realization has taken hold at every level of government. What we are seeing is a genuine effort from the regulators, as well as from the policymaking side of government, to see what can be done to improve the lot of public companies and reduce the expenses for companies to access public capital for growth purposes.

The measures mentioned in the question are two of many initiatives we are going to see in 2026. SR&ED for public companies has long been an obvious change to make. Consider a Canadian-controlled private company versus a small company listed on a Canadian exchange doing business in Canada and hiring Canadians – there is, frankly, no difference between those companies. Why does the private company qualify for SR&ED while the public company does not? So, we are obviously supportive of the changes the government is proposing.

Similarly, talk has been going on for a long time about reducing the reporting cycle for companies from quarterly to semi-annual. To be honest, we have changed our mind on the issue. We have been opposed over the years on the basis that early-stage companies should report key financial data on a quarterly basis – in particular, how much money they have on the balance sheet, what their burn rate is, and when they are likely going to have to raise additional capital to keep their project going.

We will be commenting on the proposals from Canadian securities regulators to implement a pilot program to move to semi-annual reporting for qualified companies, many of which are on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Our suggestion is that there be enhanced cash flow statements required on a quarterly basis, but that there is no need for the management discussion and analysis and the full financial report that is currently required.

We will be working with regulators to identify other areas we believe can and should be addressed at the federal and provincial levels to augment both the number of companies and to reduce the cost of capital for public issuers in Canada.

CSE executives have visited several overseas jurisdictions this year. What were your objectives, and is there anything to highlight from a global perspective for junior markets as we head into 2026?

Generally, when we travel with issuers internationally, it is because we are trying to understand how they are raising money overseas and what we can do to facilitate that process. We have seen over the years that, in some cases, there has been resistance to investing in companies listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange from investors in Europe or Asia or the United States because they don’t know who we are.

Consequently, we have to get out there and explain to the right people, so they understand who we are, the value proposition we represent, and that the organization is populated by executives with deep experience in the public capital markets in Canada.

It is less often that we are looking to recruit international companies to the Canadian market. Although that was certainly a focus during the cannabis days, when companies could not access capital locally and had to come to Canada to take advantage of those opportunities.

At this point in the cycle, we are looking to see where the issuers are going, who they are talking to, and what barriers we need to break down, all with a view to supporting their capital-formation efforts.

Specifically, gold exploration companies have historically found an audience in the German-speaking parts of Europe. We have taken steps to ensure they understand the benefits of a quotation in Frankfurt and some of the off-exchange trading platforms in Europe that are popular with retail and institutional investors.

Also, there are certain brokers who cover the family offices, private banks, hedge funds, and high-net-worth investors in these countries. We need to work with them to make sure they have appropriate levels of connectivity to the Canadian Securities Exchange so that when they have a CSE company showing them an investment opportunity, they know how to trade the stock once they become a shareholder.

That is why we travel internationally, and what we have learned this year is that with gold at more than US$4,000 per ounce, there is a lot of interest in the securities of Canadian early-stage exploration companies. We believe macroeconomics will support a continuation in the increase in the price of gold, so this is not a flash in the pan but rather a trend that will continue to play out over the next several years.

Tokenization of publicly listed securities is gaining attention once again. Based on the CSE experience, where do you see this working, and what are the pitfalls?

The question is always: what problem are you trying to solve with tokenization? If you ask 20 people at a blockchain conference, you’ll probably get 25 different answers as to why it makes sense to tokenize aspects of the securities industry.

There are people who believe on-chain public equities that are tokenized will immediately present instantaneous execution, 24-hour trading, your finances can be completely self-directed, you can have the securities in your wallet on your phone, etc. I don’t buy that for a second.

The systems and structures that have been built for traditional finance are there for a reason. They are there to solve the problems that decentralized finance, underlying crypto trading is wrestling with. I am talking about things like security, assurance that your trade will settle properly, that you will get the cash you expect, and that you will get the securities you purchase delivered in a certain way. There is an enormous investment in infrastructure to be able to provide those solutions for investors.

As I say, I am not in agreement with people who are thinking that these technologies will totally disrupt the existing frameworks of the securities industry. I don’t see that happening.

Now, there are benefits to using tokenization for real-world assets. It has the potential to increase the visibility for companies as to who their beneficial owners are, which means they can improve shareholder relations and competitive analysis compared to their peers.

If you are a musician, for example, and you have monetized your catalogue into a tokenized fund listed on an exchange, then if you find out who is holding your tokens, you can send them information about tickets to your upcoming concert, or you can drop new music you have coming out. There are all kinds of ways you can engage with your existing shareholders using the technology.

In Canada, the ability to quickly adopt a number of these innovations is probably going to be frustrated by the clearing and settlement system that we currently have in place. The United States appears to be moving fairly quickly, with Nasdaq and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) looking to provide a tokenized securities rail in the relatively near future. I think we are talking one and a half to two years at this point, and that will enable people to clear and settle and have custody arrangements effectively on a private blockchain that will be provisioned by DTCC. That way, people can opt into the system. It will be interesting to see what percentage of stock trades choose to settle down those channels.

Instead of doing a big bang, they are letting people drive the transition process, assuming there is a transition from where we are today to using more tokenization in the traditional finance space.

Let’s close with a look forward to 2026. What other initiatives does the CSE have planned for next year, and how do you foresee capital markets evolving to enable you to make the most of that vision?

A lot of my time is going to be focused on working with our Australian colleagues building out the proposition with the NSX. From an economic perspective, clearly, the uncertainty in Canada’s trading relationship with the United States will continue. I think it would be unlikely that the Americans will seriously engage with an extension to the free trade agreement. That would have some meaningful consequences, and we are already seeing them, of course, on investment in traditional manufacturing in Canada. We are likely to see the President continue to push for cheaper money, which, without the fundamentals to support it, will see a relative decline in the U.S. dollar. That will continue to put upward pressure on the price of gold, and I believe will focus more and more investment on the precious metals exploration space in Canada.

Similarly, we will see people beginning to think more clearly and strategically about how to supplant China in the supply chain for the so-called critical minerals. It is becoming plain that it has to be both public and private sources to not just invest in the companies that will find the rocks and advance the projects toward production, but projects need power, they need roads, they need rail, they need processing facilities and smelters, and they need port facilities to ship products to international markets. We are talking about billions and billions in investment in infrastructure. And those are the sorts of things that pension funds are good at, especially in partnership with government.

The public markets will supply the capital to the exploration companies identifying commercially significant discoveries, and also fund the eventual development of producing mines for these commodities.

I think that is going to be a continued theme in 2026. Canada is going to start to get its act together. We are going to begin to see more investments being made to advance that vision and those projects. Ultimately, this is positive for the public markets because we will be key partners in this economic development.

#AlwaysInvested