On Wednesday night, Philippe and I attended the launch cocktail of Quebec Bourse, formely known as Association des Sociétés Québécoises Cotées en Bourse (ASQCB). The association decided a few months ago to review its marketing positioning and to refocus its objectives. We have been hearing about Quebec Bourse for a while in our network, so we were very curious to attend the event and get to know more about the Québec Bourse project and its mission.

The cocktail was held in the building of the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (“CDPQ”), in downtown Montreal. More than 200 people involved directly or indirectly in the world of finance showed up for the event: private and public entrepreneurs, portfolio managers, brokers, analysts, lawyers, etc. We even had the chance to see the CEO of the CDPQ, Michael Sabia, in the assistance.

The event began with a networking period of about thirty minutes, enough to make sure that all participants arrive in time for the presentation. Afterward, Pierre Boucher, president of Quebec Bourse and Louis Doyle, CEO, addressed the audience by stressing out the issues surrounding Quebec’s public companies and the objectives of Quebec Bourse.

The 5 main objectives that were mentioned are the following:

• To be the spokesperson of Quebec’s public companies with the regulatory and governmental authorities
• To increase the visibility of its members
• To promote the collaboration between its members
• To offer informational activities for SMB executives
• To educate retail investors on the stock market

Overall, what Quebec Bourse intends to do is help restore the attractiveness of public stock markets for investors and companies. The stock market tends to be frowned upon by the executives of private companies and few entrepreneurs think of going public as their A plan. The stock market is seen as an exit strategy by venture capitalists and other investors, or as an alternative plan when one is no longer able to raise private capital. However, the public market should be seen for what it really is, that being a practical vehicle to build and grow a business through convenient access to capital. Quebec Bourse wants to encourage high quality companies to become public so that investors like you and I can enjoy and reap the benefits of our economic successes. Increased visibility for Quebec public companies should also lead to an increase in liquidity in the market and a greater ability to raise capital for these companies.

At Espace MicroCaps, we really share that vision and we also try, in our own way, to educate our readers about stock market investing but also to get the word out about compelling investment opportunities via our blog and our forum.

That being said, let’s continue our summary of Quebec Bourse cocktail! Following the speeches of Mr. Boucher and Mr. Doyle, there was a Q&A session with Eric Boyko, co-founder and CEO of Stingray Digital Group Inc. (TSX: RAY.A) and François-Xavier Souvay, founder and CEO of Lumenpulse Inc. (TSX: LMP). They both talked about their journeys being entrepreneurs, the reasons why they decided to take their companies public and the benefits they enjoy now that they made the move.  It was really interesting to listen to them and was truly the highlight of the night for me.

The event finally concluded with another networking period during which we met some amazing people in the industry, including Louis Doyle in person. We congratulated him for the thundering success of this launch event and we left with the feeling of being proud and excited to be on the starting line of this stellar project.

Summary: We intend without a doubt to become members of Quebec Bourse with the goal of helping Quebec’s public companies get more visibility, to participate in further networking events and to collaborate with other participants in the stock market.

I invite you to visit the Quebec Bourse website to learn more about their activities: www.quebecbourse.com

In a few weeks, quality content on stock market investing will be published on a regular basis. We will keep our readers updated with any interesting development.