Guardian Capital Group (GCG-T)

High quality. Can remain dormant for a while, but when you get paid you really get paid well. Diligent capital allocators. Nice dividend, buying back stock. Acquisitions are accretive. Quite illiquid. Exposed to equity markets.

Sold its mutual fund business to BMO. This is his way of playing BMO indirectly. They are expanding internationally. They are currently buying back shares at $18.

He has been Long Guardian Capital (GCG.A-T) and Short the Bank of Montréal (BMO-T) since April/09. There is about $2.50 left on the stub for this company. It is a very solid business and has been growing and firing on all 4 cylinders for the last 48 months. They have started to sell some of the BMO shares, using some of the capital for strategic acquisitions. It will take some time for some of those investments to pan out. Feels their perspective on this is a great one. Expects that at some point this company will get taken out.

Has 2 main assets, the core asset management business which has been improving and making acquisitions in the business and has been getting better. Also, have a very large portfolio of corporate investments on their balance sheet, the largest of which by far is a stake in the Bank of Montréal (BMO-T) and every time this moves up, this company becomes more valuable. As their asset management business improves, they can hopefully grow and make acquisitions in their core business and maybe sell down some of their BMO stake. He thinks the outlook is positive. Thinly traded, so you could look at CI Financial (CIX-T) or Gluskin Sheff (GS-T) instead.