Every week, we provide an overview of insider trading, investments in local businesses and news from publicly traded companies.
The private investment firms Clearspring Capital of Toronto and OneLink Capital of Montreal acquired this fall a significant stake in Tecnic, which has 160 driving schools in Quebec. Presenting itself as the largest network of driving schools in North America, Tecnic was founded in the 1980s by Yvan Sévigny and Yves Aubé. The two founding families will remain shareholders of Tecnic and will continue to play a role in its management. Clearspring has a strong presence in Quebec, having invested in Confiserie Regal, Telecon, Demers Ambulances and Voyages Traditours in recent years.
Louis Vachon, who led the National Bank from 2007 to 2021, bought this week for just over $ 300,000 shares of Alimentation Couche-Tard. Mr. Vachon has been on the service station chain’s board of directors since last year. Couche-Tard’s stock has gained about 15% since the start of 2022.
Ross Beaty, member of the board of directors of Innergex, has sold for nearly $ 8.4 million of shares of the Quebec renewable energy producer since the beginning of the month. He still owns more than $120 million. Mr. Beaty, who made his fortune in the mining sector, is the founder of Alterra Power, a British Columbia company acquired by Innergex in 2018.
The Montreal start-up Perceiv AI raised $1.5 million earlier this month as part of a financing round involving several investors, including Boreal Ventures and the Ministry of the Economy. Founded in 2018, Perceiv has developed a platform to predict the evolution of complex age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Alain Lemaire, one of the founders of Cascades, bought nearly $400,000 worth of shares in the manufacturer of recycled paper products in the past few days. He now owns about $45 million. Cascades’ stock has plunged more than 40% this year.
Transcontinental’s chief development officer, Éric Morisset, sold more than $500,000 worth of shares in the printing and packaging company this week. The manager thus disposed of almost all of his stake in Transcontinental. The title of the Quebec group has lost about 25% of its value so far in 2022.
