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Sylvain Dube, CMA, is the investment manager at Pluri-Capital, a private company specializing in venture capital and business development. In addition to investing in start-up firms or expansion projects, Pluri-Capital manages funds under partnership agreements entered into with several financial entities such as the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ, formerly known as the Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund). Dube's company cooperates with the CDPQ on larger, more capital-intensive start-up projects and with the Societe en commandite de creation d'entreprises (Soccrent) on investment projects that are specifically designed for the Saguenay-Lac Saint-Jean area.
The Soccrent funds were launched by a dozen or so large private companies from this area, such as Alcan, Abitibi-Price and Stone-Consolidated, in an effort to develop local entre-preneurship. As far as business development is concerned, Pluri-Capital promotes its own projects and manages all of the operations that it supports through to the funding stage.
The CDPQ is a paragovernmental corporation charged with managing the "nest egg" of all Quebecers, i.e. the pension fund of provincial government employees and the budget allowance of the Commission de la sante et de la securite du travail (CSST, formerly known as the Quebec Workmen's Compensation Commission) and of the Societe de l'assurance-automobile du Quebec (SAAQ, formerly known as the Quebec Motor Vehicle Bureau), which now total $125 billion.
Set up in 1965 to manage Quebec's public funds, the CDPQ has become a world-class player in financial circles. It is primarily active in the management of equity, bond and short-term instrument portfolios, as well as in real estate investments, negotiated investments in corporate capital and involvement in investment funds. It is also a member of the national and international business network of the Caisse de depot et placement, Capital d'Amerique.
As an agent of the CDPQ, Pluri-Capital manages a number of funds earmarked for start-up projects. "The CDPQ usually invests in market-listed companies or in large, well-capitalized firms," Dube explains. As he puts it, the CDPQ used to shy away from corporate start-ups because it lacked a management team with the capacity to handle that type of investment. Then along came Pluri-Capital, who convinced the CDPQ that it had a management team that was truly specialized in corporate start-ups, and hence...