Highlights from the Diversified Industries and Growth and Innovation sectors.

Chris Murray, CFA and Martin Toner, CFA

ATB Capital Markets hosted the first day of its 9th Annual Institutional Investor Conference on Tuesday, January 12, which included discussions with management from twelve companies under our coverage universe, including Aecon Group, Air Canada, AutoCanada, Bird Construction, Boyd Group Services, Dexterra Group, Exchange Income, Mainstreet Equity, NFI Group, Stantec, Waste Connections and WSP Global, and eight growth and innovation companies.

Key Themes for Day One - Growth and Innovation

In addition to featured presentations from eight growth and innovation companies, we heard from three distinguished venture capitalists (George Rossolatos, Canadian Business Growth Fund, James Lochrie, Thin Air Labs, and Jordan Jacobs, Radical Ventures) who discussed emerging key themes for the Canadian technology sector. In the full report, we highlight the key takeaways and themes which arose, along with key highlights from individual company presentations.

• Beneficiaries of E-Commerce Penetration: For Tecsys Inc., mdf Commerce Inc., and Pivotree Inc., e-commerce has been key to the growth story. With changing market conditions and consumers embracing the online shopping experience, manufacturers and wholesalers are exploring e-commerce and omni channel solutions. The industry is transitioning from handling pallets to packages, and getting more assets closer to consumers in order to reduce delivery times. As customers attempt to “own the consumer doorstep” (Peter Brereton, CEO of Tecsys), Tecsys, mdf Commerce and Pivotree are benefiting.
• Digital Transformation Accelerating out of COVID: For companies offering digital transformation, many of their customers took emergency measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, and some capital initiatives were disrupted. The pandemic is causing companies, governments, and other institutions to re-examine supply chain needs and I.T. infrastructure. We expect that, as the pandemic subsides, customers will address fundamental changes to improve their operations and adjust to new realties. We also expect strong demand for supply chain logistics and other digital solutions providers coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and believe revenue growth will accelerate at many of these companies. Real Matters, Kneat, Tecsys, mdf Commerce, and Pivotree all benefit.