Quinsam Capital Corporation (QCA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the conference call for the third quarter. If people could mute, that would be great, just in case there's any stray noise. So I assume everyone has seen the Q3 results. We had a profitable quarter, definitely the main influence in the quarter was our holding in California Nanotechnologies, which went from around $0.50 to about triple that in the third quarter. And that was the main driver of the results. We did have positive results elsewhere. One notable holding was Givex, which got taken private just after the quarter ended, but the bid was announced during the quarter and most of the share price movement happened in the third quarter. And we did have other positive things as well. We did have one negative result that was with Above Food. That was something that we bought as a private company 3 years ago. It was supposed to have listed long before this. But with the terrible markets in 2023 and '24, it didn't happen. And some of the excitement in the alternative food space has obviously cooled a lot since then. But overall, a good quarter, and we added over $1 million to our liquid assets. One thing that we alluded to in the press release was cost reduction. We've reduced costs by nicely over $100,000. For those that didn't notice, we took the Board size from 5 to 3 at yesterday's Annual Meeting, so that's saved us some money. I took a compensation reduction. The CFO took a compensation reduction. We've reduced Board fees in general, and we've also negotiated a reduction in our audit fees. So altogether, over $100,000 of savings, that a little bit was realized in Q3, but basically -- only basically the CFO reduction came in Q3 and everything else comes Q4 and going forward. So we should see some cost savings. In terms of activity, I guess the one thing, obviously, I would highlight is that we still own our California Nanotechnologies and the price has gone from $1.58 to around $1.05. So we do have that headwind coming into Q4, although we remain long run, very optimistic about that company. We do have other things going on, which I think on balance, are positive, markets have been better. And we do have some positive news percolating in some of the companies that we wrote off in full in the past. So for instance, some people may have noticed that City View Green has announced a plan to convert its debt into common equity, and the common equity has done better. That's a situation, for instance, where we had fully reserved against that debt. So anything that we get as a result of that will be in addition to our results, and that is expected to be completed in Q4. Otherwise, we made a few new investments. They've all been very small, to be honest. We're trying to ensure that we keep our liquidity strong, so that if a significant transaction comes along, we're in a position to take advantage of it. So we did buy 400,000 shares of Perimeter Medical at $0.42. It's now trading in the mid-50s, after putting out good clinical results. We participated in a group that made a bridge loan to Cymat, wasn't a big advance. It was $150,000. We get 1% a month plus we get a percentage royalty on their overall sales, which we think will give us about a 30% running return. We do not expect that loan to be outstanding very long because it's a very expensive funding for them, but it's a nice place to park our excess cash at the moment. We made a similar bridge loan to Char Technologies in the spring, that got repaid in October. So we made our 1% a month there for the time it was outstanding. And we also picked up a large number of free warrants, which we will continue to hold. We are in the process of subscribing to a new issue for a company called BluMetric, which is a company that I think is very interesting in the water space, profitable, growing, has recently made a U.S. acquisition, which has created a lot of excitement. So that has not closed yet, but we purchased 400,000 shares at $0.80, and it's trading in the high 80s now, but I'm quite optimistic that that will do better in the New Year. As far as the search for a significant transaction is concerned, not much news. The new listings activity remains soft, and we haven't seen any companies that particularly excite us, but we continue to look hard for something there. The key thing will be to get liquidity in some of our key private holdings. The Guelph mortgage is continuing to progress that borrower has been refinancing a number of properties, and we're hoping to get that paid off in the coming couple of months. And our other biggest holding, A-Synaptic, is looking to commence a U.S. Reg A funding at a significant premium to our carrying value in the New Year. No certainty that that will happen, of course, but we are hopeful that it will. One of our other bigger private holdings, Peninsula, which is a real estate company that focuses on U.S. single-family homes initially in Rochester, but more recently in Buffalo and elsewhere, that company is progressing very nicely and is looking to go public in -- start the process in the first quarter, probably completed in the second quarter next year. So we see liquidity coming to a lot of our private holdings. We're hopeful that the amount of our portfolio that's in liquid holdings will continue to nudge up, bearing in mind, obviously, Cal Nano price movement that has happened over the last 6 or 8 weeks. But obviously, the best quarter we've had in a while. And while we do have to deal with Cal Nano in Q4, optimistic that we are now in a position where NAV is potentially going to grow. So with that, I throw it open for questions.

Roger, It's John Lewis. Better quarter. Congrats on that. Couple of questions. The Above Food position, you're just -- I have no idea what the quote is or where we bought. Are you just holding it for now...

We're -- it is not a huge position. We're here in tax loss selling season. It has been a loser for essentially everybody in it. So I'm thinking that it's probably getting some tax loss selling here. So my inclination is to wait until the New Year, but probably then to move on, hopefully, at a higher level than here.

Get that January bump maybe.

Yes. But it's a -- given its performance, there's every reason to think it's seeing tax loss selling, and it's trading in big volumes. So I'm guessing, there are some people just trying to get that out of their portfolio.

Yes. So scouring around for those now. I've kind of lost track of where we are, are we paying tax now? Or do we still have tax loss carryforwards or...?

Oh, no, we're not paying any income tax. And we do have tax loss carryforward position. So for the foreseeable future, we would not expect to be paying income tax on a cash basis.

And on a transaction, a potential transaction in the future. If we had tax loss carryforwards, could that potentially go with a transaction? Or do you have to be in the space, how does that work?

It could. They may or may not be of use to people. Like, first of all, you'd have to make sure the transaction didn't involve a change of control. If there's a change of control, then tax losses are extinguished unless you're in same or similar business. And it's unlikely that the buyer would be in the same or similar business. They have to be in the investment business basically. The other thing is that most of our losses are capital losses. So if you managed to have a situation where you merge with an operating business and the tax losses did survive, you would only be able to shelter their capital gains, not their operating business. I mean there may be some operating losses, but the capital losses are the key losses.

Good quarter, and for the first time in a long time. I'm thinking 2025 looks a little more hopeful. Thanks.

Thanks, John. Anyone else?

Matthew. I'm wondering what's your outlook on Cal Nano. Maybe at what point would you consider exiting this investment?

Yes. I mean, obviously, it's a very significant investment for us. We have common shares. We also have warrants, which expire in the fall of next year. So we're going to have to -- I mean the amount of cash we have to put out to exercise is actually not that material, but it's a factor as well. Obviously, we're very sensitive about Cal Nano because I am an insider. At this stage, the company's outlook is good. We've publicly announced that the quarter ending November for Cal Nano is expected to be a record quarter. We've been generating very strong cash flow. At the current share price, we're not at a large multiple of trailing EBITDA. So to me, it looks quite interesting. The other thing to bear in mind, it's a U.S. dollar business, and we trade in Canadian and with all of the recent Trump reaction to the dollar, that only helps the value of this business in Canadian dollars. So I'm -- remain optimistic. If we find a significant transaction, we would be in a position where we would have to get liquidity for our Cal Nano. We don't have a significant transaction in our sights right now. But that's something that we might have to deal with at some point. But I would say, certainly, as far as 2024 is concerned, no plans on selling and 2025, it will all depend on how the company's outlook unfolds, how our need for liquidity unfolds, and obviously, how the share price moves.

Yes. Okay, makes sense. And for the value-creating transaction that you're looking for, what are your criteria basically?

Well, obviously, I'm going to end up from a personal perspective with a very large exposure to whatever this new transaction is. I am not interested in let's call it a "bet the farm" transaction. So whatever transaction we do, I would like to ensure that there's not a huge amount of downside to it in terms of the business operation. So something that, for instance, has ongoing cash needs probably, unless there's something very unusual about it, it would be of no interest to me. Like I'm looking for something that's maybe cash neutral. Obviously, if they're doing a transaction, they need cash for something, but I would like it to be personally a business that's cash neutral or cash positive that needs cash to grow or cash to acquire something would be the ideal scenario. So something, as for instance, like a BluMetric or like a California Nanotechnologies might be the kind of company that would be really interesting to do something with if they were private and looking to go public.

Okay. So you wouldn't consider like a natural resource company, for example?

An exploration company would, I'd be very surprised. If there was a natural resource company that was producing, that had cash flow, that for whatever reason was looking for cash to grow, I mean, maybe. But I mean, at the end of the day, there aren't very many of those. And a lot of those end up being absorbed by larger entities if they're attractive and growing with natural resource production, I mean, outside the oil patch. The oil patch, I'd say, it's probably unlikely we would do something in. It's possible, but it's not what I would expect to be where we go. Okay. Well, there's no other questions. Thanks very much all for attending, and we'll look forward to talking in the New Year. Thanks a lot.