PATRICK MICHAELS – Bringing together Canadian mining companies and European investors

THIS WEEK MEET PATRICK MICHAELS

Chairman of Asty Capital AG, Chairman-Supervisory Board for Zuri-Invest AG in Zurich, Switzerland, Patrick is a well-respected financial adviser and fund manager throughout Europe specialized in precious metals and mining finance. With some 20 years of international experience in mining financings and mergers, he sits today on the board of a number of companies in the precious metals and mining sectors. Patrick lives in Küsnacht, Zürich and has been a faithful member of the CSCC for over a decade.

Patrick, thank you for agreeing to this interview. How are you doing and how is your business developing in these difficult times?

Thank you for asking. We are luckily keeping well. But since our last business trip to Canada in March 2020 our daily life has changed significantly. Before the outset of the pandemic, we routinely had several companies per week visiting us in Zürich, mainly from Canada, for updates or to introduce their businesses. Most of them are active in the mining sector.

As I have been visiting a great number of mining projects in the past 18 years, I can resort to that knowledge base when looking at new ventures that I cannot visit today.

But for investors who are new to this space, it is presently quite challenging to make a proper due diligence of projects. So we have launched a Global Mining Portfolio last October where qualified investors can invest together with us in a diversified equity portfolio. In April 2021 a portfolio manager will be joining our team to run a multi-thematic equity portfolio.

How do you keep in touch with your investors and the mining industry?

Whilst our core businesses are asset management and advisory services, we felt many years ago that there is a need to introduce quality managements from abroad to high-level investors in Europe. We invite the managers of the mining companies so investors here can meet them, understand better the industry and create personal connections. The concept was so well received that we ended up hosting semi-annual dinner events that reached the maximum capacity level of most high-end venues in the Zurich area.

Today, we have to resort to online meetings and conferences. They work to a certain extent but do not replace the invaluable networking possibilities the live events offer or the important factor of interpersonal contact for building trust in managements and their companies.

Do you think investors will remain interested in Canadian mining and resources?

As big believers in a solid cycle of the commodity sector lying ahead of us, we are continuously investing into Canadian resource companies of various stages.  So we stay very active in monitoring existing ideas as well as analyzing new ideas. Canada has a huge knowhow in this field not only into remote places of its own provinces but also into countries all over the world.  In addition to technical and managerial knowhow, they live up to the highest social and environmental standards. These standards are very important to Swiss investors and more recently have been emphasized intensely worldwide, so we share a common mindset. We still see a lot of room for highlighting these high and common standards among the two countries and will work on supporting this again in a post-corona environment through our events.

A last thought?

We are surrounded by objects that exist and function thanks to the mines out there providing the necessary resources. These mines create jobs and provide a future to people living in some of the most remote areas where politicians and governments provide limited support. This fact is often ignored and even more so the high standards that stock market regulated companies have implemented since decades.

On a personal level, the one big item on my to-do list is to finally launch our website for Zuri-Invest AG and I hope to be able to have that ready shortly.