QVGD Investors earning praise – and great returns for clients

Many Albertans were first introduced to the equities markets at a time when North American investors were riding high on the back of a rampaging bull.

For years, all those robust annual returns fostered the dangerous illusion that market investment is a can’t-miss proposition.

Well, almost three years ago, those same investors heard an unfamiliar sound: the roar of the investment bear. Today, those investors are poorer in pocket, sadder and wiser. Invariably, the price of wisdom runs high.

But the wisest of all are those who hung in with an investment team which includes some of the most diligent analysts and exhaustive researchers in the business: the time-tested professionals who make the calls for QVGD Investors Inc. in Calgary.

The QVGD team includes, from left, Leigh Pullen, Gordon Singer, Joe Jugovic and Wendy Booker.

But don’t take our word that president/chief investment officer Leigh Pullen, CFA, runs an exceptionally tight ship.

Mr. Pullen and QVGD have drawn high praise from a number of disinterested parties, including Canadian investment guru Gordon Pape.

Quoted in the news columns of the Globe and Mail on Nov. 7, 2002, Mr. Pape complimented Mr. Pullen on his “astounding job” as lead manager of the $105.7-million Ethical Special Equity Fund, which generated average annual compound gains of 15 per cent over the past three years.

High praise indeed, yet clearly justified. By the way, QVGD also manages the Clarington Canadian Small Cap Fund of Toronto.

“Our orientation is to defensive management, particularly when buying stocks,” said Mr. Pullen, spelling out the QVGD philosophy.

“We want to see excellence in valuation, we want excellence in credit quality and we want solid growth profiles,” he said. “We are trying to build good, soundly-based portfolios of bonds (the risk-reduction component) and stocks which we’re sure have good value.”

QVGD Investors Inc. offers two primary services: expert institutional management services for balanced, income and small cap equity funds, as well as personal wealth management for individuals with a minimum portfolio of $200,000.

Again, the approach to both is straightforwardly conservative – not to mention music to the ears of inexperienced investors, badly burned by plummeting tech, dot-com or telecom shares. The goal is to preserve capital and to generate a steady income flow.

“Our strategic approach applies to both elements of our business,” Mr. Pullen continued.

“They’re synergistic. In looking at personal wealth management, we examine all asset classes: cash, bonds, preferred and common stocks, both domestic and international, as well as gold,” he said.

“And our knowledge of these asset classes actually helps us to build smaller cap growth portfolios. This is a specialty of the firm,” said Mr. Pullen.

Any of the four senior professionals who work alongside Mr. Pullen will be happy to demonstrate documented proof of QVGD’s exceptional performance during the last two years of bearish markets.

Such superb performance represents a ringing endorsement of QVGD’s “show-me” approach to investment. It’s also a vindication of the team’s doggedly conservative style.

Unlike so many others, QVGD refused to ride the dot-com/high tech bandwagon during the reign of the raging bull.

“We mistrusted it . . . we could not see the fundamental rationale behind the stampede to some of these stocks,” shrugged Mr. Pullen, who looks like a prophet in retrospect. QVGD’s stubborn insistence on avoiding clear investment risks, even while bull markets were in full stampede mode, saved their loyal clients untold millions of dollars.

Like the thrifty ant, QVGD kept its corporate head, while so many industry peers were losing theirs in the excitement.

“We bought bonds, we bought dividend-paying stocks, we bought income trusts, we bought preferred shares . . . all the things people want now,” smiled Mr. Pullen, whose clients, in his words, are a happy bunch today.

And why not? They’re working with a team of investment all-stars.

Team leader Leigh Pullen is proud of them all: Gordon Singer CA, vice-president, treasurer and co-founder of QVGD Investors; research analyst Wendy Booker; consulting research analyst Charles (Charlie) Coupal, CFA, who is QVGD’s eyes and ears in Eastern Canada; and Joe Jugovic, CFA, whose responsibilities include research and securities trading.

For more about QVGD Investors, access the website: www.qvgd.com.

Inquiries relating to personal wealth management should be directed to Ms. Booker while small-cap inquiries should go to Mr. Jugovic. Both may be reached at 403.265.7007.

Make the call and discover, among other things, how the company was named. QVGD selects investments of Quality, Value and Growth to build Diversified, low-risk portfolios.