We run a concentrated portfolio of investments across Western Europe and Canada primarily.

In Canada, Standard controls equity interests tied to an aggregate production of over 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with a heavy weighting on natural gas drilling in the Alberta Deep Basin. In the midst of an unprecedented dislocation across the sector, Peyto Exploration & Development, Gear Energy and Petrus Resources, all chaired by Don Gray, traded at the time of our investments for a fraction of their proven reserves value and represented ideal vehicles to ride the recovery of energy markets.

A specialist of furniture hardware with 112 centers and soon half of its business in the United States, Québec-based Quincaillerie Richelieu, which caters primarily to a clientele of professionals, sports a pristine M&A record, an unusually high level of employee shareholding, and a thoughtful, value-driven expansion strategy under the guidance of its chief executive officer Richard Lord. In France, century-old distributor of building materials Groupe Samse shares all the same characteristics, but traded at the time of our investment for a single-digit multiple of its earnings despite a remarkable history of growth and returns of capital to shareholders.