Tech Futures:
July 2, 1999
By Michael Volker
T-Net list updated, New listings, VC Info, and VCP Update
T-Net20 Update
The top 20 list has been updated again at the
end of the second quarter. The index closed at 2089 points at the end of june,
continuing its impressive upward trend. And I think there's more to come. Why?
Because even our top companies are still in many respects emerging companies
ramping up their sales.
The list now includes three new entries. These
are Sierra Wireless Inc. (TSE:SW) which recently completed its IPO,
checking in with a market cap of $179 million, Sideware Systems Inc. (VSE:SYD)
at $105 million and Burnt Sand Solutions Inc. (TSE:BRT) at $68 million.
The three companies which were nudged off the list in favor of the new entrants
are: Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals Ltd (VSE:IZP), Epic Data International (TSE:EKD),
and ID Biomedical Corp (VSE:IDB). The entry level to the Top 20 club was
raised to a market cap of $60 million, up by over $10 million over the last
quarter. The total value of the list now aggregates to an impressive $14.3
billion.
NEWCOS
A few new companies joined the public market in
the past few months. These include: Biomax Technologies Inc (VSE:BIX),
International Bio Recovery Corp (VSE:INT), Imagis Technologies Inc. (VSE:NAB),
and SoftCare EC.COM Inc. (VSE:SCE). Links to these companies' websites and other
information can be found on the T-Net list titled, "All BC Companies".
Our list of all BC public companies also saw a
few departures. The casualties included Service Track Enterprises (ASE:SVM),
Voice-It Solutions (VSE:VS), and Digital Courier International (ASE:DIC).
Although we track only those companies which
are listed on a regular exchange, excluding those which trade on the American
and Canadian Over-the-Counter (OTC) markets, they may still appear on our list
of all companies (i.e. we do not include them in our Top 20 list). Starnet
Communications (OTCBB:SNMM) which trades in the US$20 range has a market cap of
US$480 million which would easily place it in the top five in B.C. but is not
ranked because of its unlisted status. Sorry!
Biomax Technologies Inc. began trading
on the Vancouver Stock Exchange in April following the successful reverse
takeover by way of an amalgamation with Vigor Resources Ltd. (VSE: VGR) and the
completion of a public offering which raised gross proceeds of $2,175,000. (see
the Company's Exchange Offering Prospectus dated February 9, 1999 and amendment
dated March 10, 1999 on SEDAR). Biomax of
Vancouver is a medical device company focused on technologies for
healthcare and forensic sciences. Biomax expects to have its first products on
the market in the year 2000.
People-wise, Biomax has a fairly extensive
board comprised of Brian Lock, Chairman and CEO, John B. O'Connell MD, Chairman,
Department of Internal Medicine and Professor of Medicine, Wayne State
University in Detroit, Eldon R. Smith MD, Professor of Medicine,
University of Calgary, Thomas C. Thompson, President, Christopher R.
Thompson MD, Chief Science Officer, Cardiac Echo Laboratory, St. Paul's
Hospital, Vancouver, Peter D. Whitehead, Vice President Corporate Development,
W. Keith Smith, Director of Mellon Bank Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, Bruce M.
McManus MD, Academic Head and Director of Cardiovascular Research Laboratory,
St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, Calum E. MacAulay, Head of Cancer Imaging
Department, British Columbia Cancer Research Center, Vancouver, David I. McLean
MD, Vice President, Research Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Center and
Assistant Dean of Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Samuel V.
Lichtenstein MD, Program Medical Director of St. Paul's Hospital Heart Center,
Director of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery of St. Paul's Hospital,
Vancouver, and Christopher Wright, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Velvet
Explorations Co. Ltd., Vancouver. Whew! What a list! The stock trades in the
$0.75 range - lower than its original public offering price.
International Bio Recovery Corp started
trading on the VSE earlier this year upon completion of a $5 million plus share
offering. The company specializes in organic waste recycling. It has been
awarded the contract for organic waste collection and recycling services by CP
Hotels in British Columbia, including the Hotel Vancouver, Waterfront Centre
Hotel and Vancouver Airport Place. The stock trades in the $1.90 range.
Imagis Technologies Inc. was one of the
first Venture Capital Pool (VCP) transactions to be completed on the VSE earlier
this year. Imagis was acquired by Colloqium Capital Corp which started life as a
VCP company. Imagis is a B.C. technology company which supplies software
products to the criminal justice system. Imagis' data base software products are
sold to clients seeking to automate their security, identification and
administration functions. Imagis' information and video imaging system for law
enforcement agencies, CABS, is used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The
stock trades in the $0.80 range.
SoftCare EC.COM Inc. was formerly known
as International Savannah Ventures Ltd (VSE:ISZ) which acquired SoftCare
Electronic Commerce Inc. There are just over 1 million shares issued but a
recent $3 million financing resulted in the issuance of warrants which will
result in some future share issuances. SoftCare's first product, TradeLink EDI
Management Software, was first released in 1992 and is available for most Linux
computer systems and Microsoft NT servers. SoftCare recently released its
OpenEC Electronic Commerce System, which is targeted at companies that wish to
do business over the Internet and service providers that operate electronic
commerce service bureaus. SoftCare has agreements to provide the new OpenEC
Software to Credit Union Central of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.,
Associated Grocers, Seattle, Wash., and Vtech Electronics, Vancouver, B.C. The
stock is trading in the $2.25 range.
Multiactive Software Inc
(CDN:MSWI) is trading down to under $0.80 in spite of promising news and its
recent eCommerce product releases. I recently met with Brent Halverson, CEO, to
talk about Multiactive's new products. The company offers some attractive eCom
solutions to both small and large organizations. It appears that the firm is
well positioned in the enterprise market. Multiactive just reported that it has
been been awarded a $500,000 order from Siemens Automation and Drives Group to
outfit the Siemens groups' sales force in the Asia-Pacific region with 500 seats
of Maximizer Enterprise 5.0, Multiactive's leading sales and customer management
solution. Siemens chose Multiactive over several other well-known software
providers, including Siebel, Saratoga, Pivotal and Exact. At these levels, I
think it's a buy with some upside potential.
And finally, there's nothing new to report on
the long-awaited CREO Products IPO. A final prospectus is still in the
works, and is expected to be filed shortly. You'll hear about it on T-Net as
soon as it happens!
VC Info
If you've never tried the Vancouver
Stock Exchange's VC Info service, you're in for a treat. This is one of the
best public company databases I've seen. It's too bad that the TSE doesn't have
this depth of information on its listed companies. VC Info actually lets you
"mine" for data that is pertinent to your needs. Doing some serious
mining, though, means that you have to spend some time learning how to use the
database. Nonetheless, the site is well organized and information is fairly easy
to find. Information about the people behind a company is also readily available
including all their stock positions. You can ask questions like: How do I find
out who is running a VSE listed company? Do they have a track record? Is this
management team involved in any other companies? How much stock do the insiders
own? Did they buy or sell during the last market up tick? What is the current
short position for this security? Has it changed over the last few months? How
has the security traded over the part few years? etc.
The service which I use most often for Canadian
public company information is Canada
Stockwatch. The information available is very comprehensive and the response
time on this site is remarkably fast - even on a dialup connection. VC Info
appears to overlap and compete with Stockwatch to a certain extent, but each
offers some advantages, depending on your needs. Of course, VC Info focuses on
VSE ventures whereas Stockwatch is Canada-wide. What's really needed on one of
these sites is a "bot" (i.e. information robot) feature which would
allow the user to enter long lists of company tickers and extract specific
historical data such as number of shares issued - a useful datum for market cap
calculations, yet one which is surprisingly difficult to obtain without tedious
searching.
Unfortunately, like Stockwatch, the VSE does
charge for this service. However, you can obtain a trial subscription to see how
you like it. Hats off to the VSE for providing such a great due diligence tool!
VCP Update
Ceduna Capital Corp, registered in the
Yukon, is one of two new VCPs. Ceduna filed its preliminary prospectus on May
31. Its principals are Ian Klassen, Edward G. Bergsteinsson, Stephen Martin,
Alan Kemp-Gee. The company is seeking aquisitions in Asia or Australia so if you
are a local high tech company, this one may not be for you.
The second one is Xenex Innovations Ltd.(VSE:XX),
registered in Bermuda, filed its final prospectus on June 18. The directors of
this VCP are Joseph Jinn, Jae-Neung Cha (Seoul, Korea), Patrick Lavelle, Chee
Kee Chin (Malaysia), Michael Truth (Singapore). These folks are looking for an
industrial technology acquisition and like Ceduna are favoring foreign ventures
in countries like Korea. Their Bermuda registration may make them an interesting
parent company for purposes of tax structuring. Joseph Jinn was a VP with
Westport Innovations, one of our local technology ventures and Patrick Lavelle
is Chairman of Canada Export Development Corp. Wade Nesmith, an officer of the
company, was the former BC Superintendent of Brokers. The others have broad
international expertise as well. This VCP may be a good partner for a local
venture with international aspirations.
Of the recent in-progress IPOs, Darwin
Capital Corp (VSE:DWN) and Castle Bay Enterprises Ltd (VSE:CAY) have
been conditionally listed on the VSE and are about to begin trading.
Check
our Venture Capital Pools chart for a complete
updated list all the VSE's VCP companies. To date, only two of the 23 VCP's that
have issued a prospectus have completed their "qualifying transaction"
(QT) thereby removing their VCP status.
Michael Volker is the
Director of the University/Industry Liaison Office at Simon Fraser University,
Chairman of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum, and a technology entrepreneur. He
owns shares in many of the companies he writes about. Contact: mike@risktaker.com.
Copyright,
1999.
What Do You Think? Talk Back To
Mike Volker
Tech Futures is a bi-weekly column that focusses attention on new and emerging BC publicly listed
technology companies. Mike Volker is the Director of the University/Industry Liaison Office at Simon
Fraser University, Chairman of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum, and a technology entrepreneur. He owns
shares in many of the companies he writes about. Contact: mike@risktaker.com
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