Canada, Cannabis, Tariffs, Takeouts and Toronto 2026 Preview with Mathieu Martin, Ryan Irvine and Teagon Murray

Robert Kraft (0:00)

Welcome to the Planet MicroCap Podcast, the number one destination for everything MicroCap Investing. I'm your host, Robert Kraft, and each week I sit down with elite investors, CEOs and market experts to uncover actionable insights and real world lessons you can apply immediately. Are you a new or experienced MicroCap Investor? Do you want to meet MicroCap Management teams as well as other MicroCap Investors from around the world? Planet MicroCap hosts the highest quality in-person MicroCap events in North America. The mission is to bring the best MicroCap Investors, companies and allocators together to gather, connect and grow. Visit planetmicrocap.com to learn more about our Las Vegas and Toronto events. Now, a quick disclaimer. This presentation is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation to purchase or sell any security referenced herein. Planet MicroCap Holdings LLC and MicroCap Club LLC are not licensed brokers nor registered investment advisors. We, our partners, contractors, members, subscribers, guests or affiliates, may or may not hold positions in one or more of the securities mentioned in this presentation and may trade in such securities at any time. We may have received cash compensation from one or more participants for presenting at past, present or future events. We recommend you consult a licensed investment advisor, broker or legal counsel before purchasing or selling any securities referenced in this presentation.

In this episode of the Planet MicroCap Podcast, recorded just ahead of Planet MicroCap Toronto 2026, we brought back the Investors Roundtable with three voices deeply embedded in Canadian MicroCap markets. Mathieu Martin of the Rivemont MicroCap Fund, Ryan Irvine of Keystone Financial and Teagon Murray of Canadian Value Investors who actually is making his first ever podcast appearance. We dig into what's worked and what hasn't across Canadian capital markets in 2026 Why cannabis is attracting generalists and growth investors, how Canadian companies have adapted to tariff uncertainty better than most expected, and why the market is seeing more takeouts than IPOs right now.

Mathieu runs through the highlights from his September Good, Bad and Ugly, including a software name that doubled overnight on a restructuring announcement and an ongoing hostile takeover battle in the cannabis space. We close out with each guest process for making the most out of the Planet MicroCap Toronto Conference chock full of management teams and a preview of what they're watching for the event.

We mentioned a number of companies during our conversation here today and I'm not a shareholder in any of them.

With that, please enjoy my conversation with Mathieu, Ryan and Teagon. Gentlemen, thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?

Teagon Murray (2:27)

Nice to talk to you. Thanks for having us.

Robert Kraft (2:29)

Absolutely, man. Look, I was very excited that you guys all agreed to do this for multiple reasons. One is I'm trying to make this a monthly, so I'm appreciative when anybody says yes and wants to jump on and talk a little shop. But secondly, I wanted this to be a Canada-themed MicroCap episode because we have our event coming up in a few short weeks here. We're recording this on Wednesday, October 7th. I thought it would be fun to hear from all of you your takes on Canadian capital markets, how it's gone for you, what's worked, what hasn't, where you're focusing on all that good stuff as well as maybe a little bit of preview of some of the things that you're looking at in Toronto. I mean, it also helps that Mathieu and Ryan are going to be pitching there too. So I mean, not that I'm going to ask you what name you're going to pitch now, I'm sure you're going through your lists and fine tuning your presentations and whatnot. But to start us off, and also this is Teagon's first time on a podcast, I'm sure we'll have him on for a solo on at some point. So I thought we'd break him in nice and chill on a nice panel talking about just huge topics like capital markets in Canada.

Teagon Murray (3:38)

Yeah, I feel like that meme of big bird in the office, that I'll do my best to contribute here.

Robert Kraft (3:42)

You'll crush it. Well, you know, maybe should we just break you in right away and get your impression first, you know?

We're, like I said, it's October. It's been both a long and fast year in many respects. So what's been your take on Canadian capital markets thus far? What have you been seeing? What's worked? What hasn't? You know, what's been going on from your perspective?

Teagon Murray (4:06)

Well, a few things. I mean, I think Mathieu does a much better job of covering the overall market, but what I've seen is, so my background is actual corporate banking. So I try to do is look at what's happening in other parts of the capital structure of these companies. So what's really changed, I think, is on the cannabis side, it's sort of some recognition, but not a lot of recognition of the improvements in the underlying business. If you look at what's actually happening on the debt side, it's quite interesting. So you have a number of the Canadian charters are actively stepping up in these facilities, which is new, and they're typically quite conservative. So they've in general have acknowledged the space has improved. Then also there's been institutional coverage from some of the charters on the cannabis space, which again is a complete change from what was happening before. So for me, that's the big news.