Shrinking capital markets have curbed the ambitions of more than one Internet company.
International Properties Group (IPG) and its subsidiary InvestorPlus.com of Calgary have changed management and pulled back on U.S. expansion to try to restore profitability.
David Heaberlin — previously president of San Francisco-based Bayview Capital Corp. — has become the new CEO and chief financial officer of IPG and InvestorPlus.com. IPG, which is listed on the TSE, owns revenue properties in Canada and the U.S., as well as a controlling interest in InvestorPlus.com, its wealth-management subsidiary.
InvestorPlus markets investment real estate through traditional sales methods and through InvestorPlus.com.
Last January, IPG launched IP.com with an online platform to establish Internet presence and expand into the U.S. The initiative was financed with $2 million in seed capital from IPG, plus $8.6 million in preferred shares.
But the IP.com plan calling for aggressive expansion and continuing access to new capital ran into trouble when capital markets contracted starting last spring.
IPG, which was profitable every year in the last decade, showed a $2-million net loss (six cents a share) in the third quarter of 2000.
The company has announced it will also show a loss for the year when results are released in January.
As a result, the company’s board has capped U.S. expansion plans and implemented strict fiscal measures aimed at preserving operating capital, and restoring profitability in early 2001.
It plans to focus on InvestorPlus.com’s Canadian operations, and drop the dot-com from the name.
Don Taylor, formerly president of IKON Ontario, has been appointed president of operations for InvestorPlus.com. Phil Carroll, previously IPG’s CEO, remains as president of IPG and executive ice-president of IP.com.
James M. Hill has been appointed the new chief financial officer of Cell-Loc Inc. Hill was most recently CFO of Waterloo, Ont.-based Dalsa Corp.
A Calgary company trading on the TSE, Cell-Loc reported an increase in net losses for 2000. For the fiscal year ending in June 2000, the company showed a net loss of $8.9 million, up from $2 million the previous year.
Cell-Loc markets technology that can locate any wireless device.
David Bissett, founder of Calgary-based Bissett & Associates Investment Management Ltd., has been honoured with the career achievement award at the sixth annual Canadian Mutual Funds Awards Gala.
Don Reed, president and CEO of Franklin Templeton Investments Corp., said: “We’re extremely proud that David’s accomplishments were recognized with the industry’s Career Achievement Award and particularly now that Bissett Investment Management is part of the Franklin Templeton Investments family.”
Alterna Technologies Group Inc. of Calgary has appointed Cathy McGrail to the new position of vice-president, Latin America.
McGrail, who has 26 years of international banking experience, will be based in Miami. She will be responsible for overseeing Alterna’s expanding business in Latin America.
McGrail joined Alterna from Netherlands-based bank ABN AMRO, where she was a senior vice-president, heading marketing, sales and service for the bank’s Latin America region.
Founded in 1996, privately owned Alterna provides its clients — which are corporations and financial institutions — with software and services to communicate and process financial and business transactions.
Its e-finance services include corporate treasury management systems, in-house banking and centralized payments processing. The company has offices in Miami and the Netherlands.
The three founding partners of Alterna are Calgarians Gonzalo Naranjo, Louba Rapoport and Niels Voll.
Stephen Chetner, a corporate lawyer with Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer, has been appointed to the board of Peyto Exploration & Development Corp.
Meanwhile, Morley G. Brown has joined the board of Infiniti Resources International Ltd. Brown is president and CEO of KB Resources Inc. Peyto and Infiniti both trade on the Canadian Venture Exchange.
Scaffold Connection Corp. of Calgary has announced that Len Wasylynchuk of Edmonton has agreed to become the company’s new chief financial officer.
Lukens Energy Group of Houston has opened a Calgary office to better serve clients such as Alberta Energy Company, El Paso Energy and Southern Company Energy Marketing.
The office will be headed by Jan van Egteren, who has 20 years of experience in the energy industry. Until recently, van Egteren was vice-president of marketing and transportation for ProGas Ltd.
Lukens Energy Group provides economic and market analysis, strategic planning and optimization software products to buyers and sellers of oil and gas, as well as power.
RightsMarket Inc. of Calgary is restructuring its management team as it prepares to seize further opportunities in digital publishing.
Allen G. Saurette has been appointed CEO, and Lindsay Moir will continue with the corporation as a founder and director, focusing on OnDisC, a Canadian initiative in digital distribution, and on RightsMusic, which protects audio and music files on the Internet from unauthorized access.
Saurette was previously president and CEO of DKW Systems Corp. He has been on RightsMarket’s advisory board and board of directors for several years.
RightsMarket, which trades on the CDNX, has tripled in size in the last eight months. Established in 1995, it has 40 employees and is still expanding.
Dr. Edna Einsiede, professor in the Communications Studies graduate program at the University of Calgary, has been appointed to a public advisory group on transplanting animal organs into humans.
The Canadian Public Health Association has announced that the public advisory group will be responsible for developing recommendations on xenotransplanation — the transfer of living cells, tissue and organs from animals into humans for medical purposes.
Recommendations are to be based on input from Canadians, and to gather that input, the association has launched a Web site at www.xeno.cpha.ca.
The focus of Einsiede’s research is involving the public in technology assessments and technology decision-making. In 1999, she and her graduate students conducted the first consensus conference in Canada on the issue of food biotechnology.
The new president and chief operating officer of Calgary’s Rider Resources Inc. is Stephen P. Gibson. Gibson was previously president and CEO of Probe Exploration.
Michael Streukens, interim president since last September, will retain his position as chairman of the board. Rider trades on the TSE.
Comac Food Group Inc. of Calgary has sold its Grabbajabba division to Timothy’s Coffees of the World Inc. of Toronto for $1.35 million.
Four Calgary head-office employees of Grabbajabba lost their jobs as a result of the transaction.
Comac, which trades on the CDNX, is a franchise management organization focusing on the food service industry. It has 230 stores across Canada, which are predominately franchises, including Domino’s Pizza, Pastel’s Cafe and Company’s Coming.
