Toronto-based Radius Financial Education is launching a new exempt market publication and website on Tuesday, which will act as an independent source of news and information for issuers, dealers, representatives and investors.
Canadian EM Watch will seek to educate players and investors in the Canadian exempt market, with news, educational resources, reports, market intelligence and product listings.
“Its objective is to be an unbiased, centralized medium to meet the demands of the exempt market,” says Tony Sanfelice, president and CEO of Radius Financial Education, which is a division of CHW Inc. Until now, he says, there hasn’t been a centralized source of news for the growing segment of the investment industry.
The exempt market includes investment vehicles that are exempt from the prospectus requirement, such as private equity, hedge funds and mortgage investment corporations. Since the sector contains a diverse range of products, and they aren’t publicly listed, it’s a challenge for investors and dealing representatives to get objective information about exempt market investments.
Because of this, there’s a lack of understanding within the public and within the rest of the investment industry around exempt market products.
“They don’t know a lot about this space,” Sanfelice says. Canadian EM Watch, he adds, aims to change this.
“It’ll make it easier for the dealing representatives to see the products, and for the dealing firms – the compliance people – to evaluate the products all in one area,” he says.
Canadian EM Watch Magazine will be a quarterly publication featuring commentary and analysis from industry professionals. The website will feature regularly updated news on products and issuers.
Both the publication and the website will provide marketing opportunities for businesses in the exempt market, including a company list section that will list EM issuers and products and will contain links to the companies’ websites.
Radius runs similar websites and publications for the hedge fund space (Canadian Hedge Watch) and the exchange traded fund space (Canadian ETF Watch).