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We’re so back. Depressed valuations, coupled with declining interest rates and returning ‘animal spirits’ are fueling the next bull run in Canadian small caps. And there’s one hedge fund manager in particular who’s capitalizing bigly. In fact, his fund was just named the #1 Hedge Fund by Performance in Canada for 2024…

Up a whopping +74% (net of fees and expenses) for the 12-month period ended June 30, 2024, Jordan Zinberg’s Bedford Park Opportunities Fund was recently awarded first place at the Canadian Hedge Fund Awards for Best 1 Year Return in the Equity-Focused category.

Zooming out, the fund’s 5-year annualized return as of October 31, 2024 stands at an impressive 18.4% net of fees and expenses.

Zinberg got his start at RBC Dominion Securities, and then joined Donville Kent Asset Management (DKAM) in the early years of Jason Donville’s freshly launched hedge fund – contributing to its explosive growth throughout an almost 10-year stretch as Jason’s right hand-man. Then in 2018, Zinberg ventured out to launch his own hedge fund – Bedford Park Capital.

The Bedford Park Opportunities Fund runs a concentrated portfolio of small, and mid-cap Canadian stocks. Among its top holdings are:

– Source Energy Services ($SHLE)
– Propel Holdings ($PRL)
– Mainstreet Equity ($MEQ)
– Lumine ($LMN.v)
– Goeasy ($GSY)

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Upon closer examination, the multi-baggers $SHLE, and $PRL did most of the heavy lifting for the fund’s record-breaking +74% year. Looking at my own portfolio, I have some overlap with Bedford Park’s top holdings; $MEQ, and $LMN.v.

Bedford Park’s website reveals their 4-pronged approach to investing in the public markets:

You can tune into BNN where Zinberg is frequently featured as a guest on their market Call segment. For Zinberg’s past opinions from the show, you can visit my friends at Stockchase who document all the stocks mentioned on Market Call.

I will absolutely be continuing to follow Jordan Zinberg’s Bedford Park Opportunities Fund into 2025 and beyond. While for anyone it would be challenging to immediately repeat a blow-out year, I’m confident the best is yet to come. Maybe Jordan will share his best ideas for 2025 that I can broadcast to all of you in a future newsletter (stay tuned…).

In other news:

– I’m planning a major relaunch of my Youtube channel, and will be interviewing some amazing CEO’s from my favourite companies across Canada. Subscribe now so you don’t miss the re-launch, and subsequent interviews

– I recently visited Sheldon Inwentash (founder, ThreeD Capital), and his son Jakson at their 130 Spadina Avenue Toronto office. Sheldon has a big vision for his next venture capital firm – ThreeD Capital (CNSX: IDK) – and so I was curious to hear how everything was going – including their key investments. You can listen to our exclusive conversation here (note: I do not hold any ThreeD Capital shares, nor was I paid for this interview)

– You might not know this, but DKAM / Jason Donville is back onX.com (Twitter). You can follow Donville + team here: @DonvilleKent. Notably, DKAM placed 2nd at the Canadian Hedge Fund Awards for the 2024 year. Their fund was up +52%!!

– It’s hard to believe, but my bestselling book Market Masters was released 8 years ago, time flies!

– I stumbled upon a really great clip of Bill Ackman as he opens up about his divorce and then rebuilding life from a low point. Much respect to Bill Ackman for showing this kind of vulnerability. Life’s not always easy…

– Maclean’s has released their annual list of Canada’s Richest People – “an extensively researched ranking of the country’s wealthiest grocers, tech giants, developers, investors and other mega moguls”

– David Barr (PenderFund) released an update on the Pender Small Cap Opportunities fund. You can watch the full video here

– I can’t help but think, what’s going on at Bell Canada ($BCE)? While the 10% divy yield is tempting, I’m a growth investor at the core. Will pass. But is anyone biting?

– VitalHub ($VHI) recently made their their 20th and largest acquisition to-date of Strata Health! Will be exciting to see if VitalHub can become Canada’s next billion dollar company

– WELL Health ($WELL) recently reached a significant milestone, surpassing a $1 billion annualized revenue run-rate with record Q3-2024 revenue of $251.7 million—a 27% increase over Q3-2023, driven by strong organic growth of 23%. Tremendous progress!

– Stocks & Stones recently revealed some shocking, and encouraging stats from the TSX Venture exchange; volume YoY is up a whopping +50%, and value traded ($) up +59%. Booyah – let’s hope this Canadian micro & small-cap bull run is just getting started 🙂

– Since writing this feature on the ‘Dollar Store Wars‘ shaping up in Mexico, Pesorama ($PESO.v) opened their 24th Joi Dollar Plus store in Mexico City on Oct 26, 2024. Then notably on November 5th, Sumesh Paul Pathak (board member) made a new insider purchase totaling 200,000 shares @ 0.12 cents per share.

Regards,
Robin (r.speziale@gmail.com)

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Author’s Ownership Disclosure: $SHLE (no), $PRL (no), $MEQ (yes), $LMN.v (yes), $GSY (no), $IDK (no), $BCE (no), $VHI (yes), $WELL (yes), $PESO.v (yes)