Like all brokerage houses and investment banks, Acumen “took a hit” last fall, Laidlaw says. “But we’ve had some hedge products in place that mitigated some of the losses, and I think we’ve done better than most.” Even national players have had to pare back – Canaccord Capital Corporation laid off 10% of its workforce – to make up the decline in revenue.
“I’ve only had one client who panicked and sold, and then, interestingly enough, a week later, he said, ‘That’s crazy’ and bought back in with 50%, and we’ve been picking away with the rest,” Laidlaw says.
In fact, Laidlaw says he has opened up more new accounts recently than he ever has, as new clients have come to him looking for investment bargains. Laidlaw likes to maintain balanced portfolios, but he sees some “screaming buys” in some homegrown Alberta companies in particular, such as WestJet and Suncor. “I think Alberta is still the best place to be in Canada. I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the country. We have the resources, and I think the best opportunities still lie here,” he adds.
But how long will that last?
Joseph Doucet, the Enbridge Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Alberta, says he’s cautiously optimistic for continued strength in Alberta’s energy sector, even though the production of conventional oil and gas may slip as commodity prices remain low. “On the conventional [oil and gas] side of things, it’s a traditional story: as commodity prices fall, drilling activity falls, and you have less employment and less subsidiary activities related to conventional production, and that’s not different from any other downturn historically in Alberta.
“On the unconventional side, some projects have been delayed in the oilsands, of course, but the ongoing activities will continue and be profitable, and all of the spinoffs from that sector – employment and equipment rentals and such – will continue,” he says. “Energy is not everything to Alberta’s economy, but it’s a whole lot, and I think the continued activity in the oilsands is going to continue to pump investment into the economy.” Even if more projects get shelved or cancelled altogether, it’s hard to miss what you didn’t have to begin with; it can’t be compared with the situation in Ontario, where automotive factories and other long-standing pillars of the economy are shutting down for good.
In the midst of these stormy economic times, executives in the financial sector are grappling with the decision Graham says is dividing Rifco’s boardroom: whether to throttle forward or batten down the hatches. Either way, Graham thinks any business that can survive this economic tempest will be much stronger when the winds subside. “When we first started and things were going well, people would say, ‘Yeah, but you haven’t been tested by tough times, like a bad recession.’ Well, they can’t say that anymore.”
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