The Globe and Mail’s Tamsin McMahon and Tim Kiladze take top honours for “The real estate investors who bet on a boom—and lost”
Andrew Willis for The Globe and Mail and Gordon Hoekstra for The Vancouver Sun receive second and third prizes respectively
TORONTO, ON, May 17, 2018 – The brilliant insight and writing talents of four Canadian financial print journalists have garnered The Globe and Mail’s Tamsin McMahon and Tim Kiladze, Andrew Willis, and The Vancouver Sun’s Gordon Hoekstra the top three prizes of the 2018 PMAC Award for Excellence in Investment Journalism. The Globe and Mail’s Tim Kiladze takes home the top prize for the second consecutive year.
“Collectively, the submissions received this year were of exceptional quality. Our independent panel of judges selected the articles of five journalists that stood out as original, topical, well-researched, investigative and educational, ultimately having a true and lasting impact everyday investors,” says PMAC President, Katie Walmsley.
PMAC created the annual competition, now in its seventh year, to acknowledge outstanding journalism that fosters a better understanding of the investment industry and improves Canadians’ financial literacy.
First Prize:
The Globe and Mail’s business reporters, Tamsin McMahon and Tim Kiladze for their article on The real estate investors who bet on a boom—and lost, published on April 1, 2017. McMahon and Kiladze completed an in-depth investigation into the rise of mortgage investment corporations and explain how these risky mortgage-investment vehicles have proliferated, and left many investors for whom this investment vehicle was not suitable, feeling burned. The market is massive, with credible estimates pegging it at $25-billion. Since the Globe story ran, the Ontario government announced plans to transfer oversight for syndicated mortgage investments from Financial Services Commission of Ontario to the Ontario Securities Commission. The Canadian securities regulators in March 2018 proposed changes to the rules in a bid to beef up transparency and consistency in the oversight of this sector.
Second Prize:
The Globe and Mail’s Andrew Willis for his article Chasing the high, published on February 3, 2018. With pending legislation for the legalization of marijuana, valuations for Canadian pot producers have soared as investors are getting caught up in a sector with huge hype, but minimal track record. This article takes a sobering look at one of the hottest new investment spaces, and explains how valuations for many marijuana producers have been out of step with financial fundamentals, resulting in extreme risk for investors. A good basic investment message: do not join the bandwagon for fear of missing out.
Third Prize:
The Vancouver Sun’s Gordon Hoekstra for his series Stealing Away, published in November and December 2017, and February 2018. This in-depth and extensively researched series details the hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and orders to reimburse fraud victims, very little of which has been collected, and some of the root causes of this failure due to gaps in securities enforcement in British Columbia. Since its publication of the series, the RCMP announced their intent to work more closely with the B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) and the BCSC has taken steps to be able to seize property and goods of financial fraudsters.
The judging panel also gave honourable mention to Report on Business Magazine’s Bruce Livesey for his article Inside Valeant’s fall, published March 29, 2017. In his article, Livesey charts the rise and fall of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and in particular, examines why the company was accused of operating a scam. Once a stock market darling, this article chronicles Valeant’s messy fall from grace, offering timely lessons for investors throughout.
The competition’s first prize is $5,000; second prize $3,000 and third prize $2,000. The prizes will be presented at PMAC’s CEO Dinner on June 12, 2018 in Toronto.
Details of the annual competition are available on the PMAC website.
About PMAC:
Portfolio Management Association of Canada represents over 250 investment management firms that manage more than $1.8 trillion in assets for private individuals, foundations, universities and pension plans. The Association advocates for the highest standards of unbiased portfolio management in the interest of investors served by members.
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