We oversee a diversified portfolio of energy, industrial, pharmaceutical and technology investments across Western Europe, Canada and the United States.
Preferring listed equities and family-controlled companies, we stick to a value investing blueprint—endeavoring the disciplined pursuit of mispriced assets off the beaten path—and back proven owners-operators when they wrestle with temporary setbacks.
Exploration & Production
In Canada, Standard controls equity interests tied to an aggregate production of over 150,000 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, Lotus Creek Exploration (formerly 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.
Calgary, Alberta T2P 0G5
Donald Gray
CEO
JP Lachance
— Lotus Creek Exploration Inc.
800, 205 5th Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 2V7
Chairman
Donald Gray
CEO
Kevin Johnson
Calgary, Alberta T2P 4H4
Donald Gray
CEO
Kenneth Gray
Midstream Infrastructure
Spun off from TC Energy, South Bow owns and operates one of the most strategic, vital and irreplaceable infrastructure in North America: The Keystone liquids pipeline and its adjacent network of assets, spanning 4,900 kilometers across the continent and connecting the steady heavy oil production from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin—as well as the Cushing market hub—to the refineries of the Midwest and the Gulf Coast.
— South Bow Corp.
707 5 Street SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 0Y3
Chairman
Hal Kvisle
CEO
Bevin Wirzba
A key player in complex supply chains, Groupe Guillin is a steadily growing food safety and packaging company controlled by the Guillin family. In the wake of the energy crisis in early 2022, it got tarred with the wrong brush as it faced a terrifying but temporary rise of input costs, triggering our first investment in the company. In a like manner, run and tightly controlled by Flemish entrepreneur Luc Tack—the turnaround artist of Picanol fame—Tessenderlo Chemie sports entrenched competitive positions in each of its subsidiaries and has plenty of leeway to grow in Europe and North America, yet remains chronically undervalued on both its earning power and sum-of-the-parts basis.
25 290 Ornans
François Guillin
CEO
Sophie Guillin
1050 Brussels
Stefaan Haspeslagh
CEO
Luc Tack
Montreal, Quebec H4S 1V4
Sylvie Vachon
CEO
Richard Lord
— Groupe Samse SA
2 rue Raymond Pitet
38100 Grenoble
Chairman
Olivier Malfait
CEO
Laurent Chameroy
Consulting & Advisory
Founded and led by industry veteran Simon Azoulay, French engineering and IT consulting group Alten tripled its earnings and revenue over the past decade. Notwithstanding its resilient business model, fortress-like balance sheet and prolific M&A strategy, its stock market valuation bore the full force of the severe recession that started in Europe in late 2023 as it fell to less than eight times operating earnings. This is precisely the opportunity Standard had been waiting for to start acquiring shares in 2025, for Alten went through many such downturns in the past, only to emerge stronger when the economy recovered.
— Alten SA
40 Avenue André Morizet
92100 Boulogne Billancourt, France
Chairman
Simon Azoulay
CEO
Simon Azoulay
Software
Based in the Netherlands and partially spun out from Mark Leonard’s Constellation Software, which retains oversight and a controlling stake, Topicus intends to replicate its parent holding company’s extraordinarily successful approach to M&A within the European vertical market software sector—a fragmented landscape with scores of hidden champions and less private equity money chasing acquisitions. Built from the same proven foundation and headquartered in Mississauga, Canada, Lumine Group brings this same strategic approach across multiple verticals within the media and communications industries.
Singel 25, 7411 HW,
Deventer, Holland
Chairman
Robin van Poelje
CEO
Robin van Poelje
— Lumine Group Inc.
5060 Spectrum Way, Suite 100
Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5N5
Chairman
Mark Miller
CEO
David Nyland
Mathieu Simon
CEO
Jean-Paul Clozel
Montreal, Quebec H3Z 3B8
Jonathan Goodman
CEO
Samira Sakhia
Venture
Cambridge, MA 02142
Jason Rhodes
CEO
Geoff McDonough
The Los Angeles company that used to be presided by the late Berkshire Hathaway’s vice-chairman Charlie Munger, Daily Journal Corporation, had a legacy business, a portfolio of marketable securities and real estate properties that covered virtually its entire valuation at the time of our investment, leaving just a modest multiple on its burgeoning information technology business serving courts in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Steven Myhill-Jones
CEO
Steven Myhill-Jones
Frontier Markets
Tanzania
London SW1V 1JT
David Ross
CEO
Jay Lyons
Brazil
National oil company Petrobras produces 2.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, with over a decade of proven reserves at current production rates. Despite nefarious government interference in the past, the company delivered an average of $22 billion in annual free cash flow between 2014 and 2024—a cycle marked by two brutal downturns. It has also emerged on new, solid footing, with a transformed balance sheet and disciplined governance. At the time of our investment, these fundamentals translated into a valuation of about three times cash earnings and six times distributable earnings.
— Petróleo Brasileiro S.A.
Edifício Senado, 28 Rua Henrique Valadares
Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20231-030
Chairman
Bruno Moretti
CEO
Magda Chambriard