Poor Markets, Great Businesses
We all know that the junior markets in any sector are in the tank.
Whether it's resources, technology, battery metals, energy, life sciences - it doesn’t matter. There’s very little volume and no money being raised.
What I’ve seen over the past 20 years is that in an environment like this, it’s very easy to ignore and overlook companies that are doing amazing things on the ground, hitting milestones, growing their businesses and generally thriving. Just as the market overvalued many of these companies in 2021, today’s market is fundamentally undervalued in so very, very many cases.
Here are three stories we thought You Should Know about that we think are definitely in that category: companies fighting poor market, but with solid, growing and even flourishing underlying businesses. We know, since we’re out marketing them in the height of the summer, and getting great reception along the way.
1. Volatus Aerospace (VOL-V Mkt Cap $26 million) - we’re all seeing the destruction forest fires are playing out in real time in Canada and Europe. I got some first-hand insight into this last week when Peterson Capital president Greg Stumph and I travelled to Saskatoon and Winnipeg with Glen Lynch, CEO of Volatus Aerospace. Volatus last week announced its first deployment of drones for wildfire support in Alberta. I met with Glen as well as Volatus COO Rob Walker and learned how valuable drones are proving to be in spotting hot-spots in wildfire situations and helping keep crew further away from the most dangerous situations on the ground.
As Glen told me, we’re seeing drones being increasingly deployed in all kinds of work that is “dirty, dull and dangerous”. There’s no shortage of that. Forest fires may not be dull, but they are definitely dirty and dangerous - as we’ve sadly seen with deaths this past week from pilots and ground crew members fighting fires in Alberta.
If you’d like a quick phone call from Glen, let me know. His business pipeline is the strongest it’s ever been.
2. Eguana Technologies (EGT-V Mkt Cap $48 million) - kudos to Peterson Capital’s Bob Mawhinney and Eguana Technologies CEO Justin Holland on two fully-packed days of meetings in Vancouver and Calgary last week. As we’ve seen over the past several weeks, there is huge interest and upside in Eguana’s residential and small commercial energy storage systems. The rubber will really hit the road when the company gets larger utility/power plant engagements. Stay tuned.
If you’d like a quick phone call from Justin, let me know. The blue sky he’s got in front of him once he corrals a major utility customer is huge
3. Quebec Pegmatite - is over in Europe this week and so far has presented to sold-out crowds on our Euro platform in Frankfurt, Munich and Geneva. Why the strong interest? QP - which will be listed later this summer - has three 100%-owned, early-stage exploration projects with district scale claims in two of the most highly sought after lithium regions in Quebec – considered by Europeans as one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions - along trend with Patriot Battery Metals (PMET.V – Mkt Cap CDN $1.4 billion) with 50km’s of strike length and 70 confirmed lithium bearing pegmatite outcrops.
CEO Mike Stier has got a very solid team around him, significant upside, and will have several catalysts coming up in the next several weeks. If you’d like a short call with him this week while he’s on the road in Europe, we can arrange it.
We’re thrilled to be taking out strong businesses in poor markets. And based on the reception we’re getting in Canada and Europe, there’s a huge audience for stories like these three.
Thanks again for your interest and support.
Rick Peterson (He/him)
Chair