March 18, 2021

Pender’s Private Equity Approach to Public Markets

Featuring: David Barr, Kenndal McArdle

David Barr chats with Kenndal McArdle about their private equity approach to public markets.

Subtitle: Pender Growth Fund – A publicly traded company investing in public and private equity.

In this episode David Barr, President, CEO and Portfolio Manager, chats with Kenndal McArdle, Principal, Pender Ventures. They discuss their private equity approach to public markets, and in particular, how this approach relates to Pender Growth Fund. They also discuss Kenndal’s career path from public small cap to venture capital; mergers and acquisitions; how they analyze a business both from the public and the private side and their views on Canadian companies to going public.

Key Takeaways

[02:03]	What gets Kenndal excited is understanding how a business works and how that knowledge has shaped his investing career.
[05:26]	Strategies that public and private companies employ to grow including mergers and acquisitions.
[09:25]	How a business is analyzed on the public side; the similarities and differences to analyzing businesses on the private side.
[12:50]	Looking back at the impacts of COVID on Pender’s public and private holdings one year after shutting down the PenderFund office.
[22:58]	Influences on private company and public company valuations, including SPACs.
[30:17]	The Canadian technology sector and the recent growth of Canadian companies becoming part of the global tech scene with increased market share.