Beyond The Exchange

In this episode of Beyond the Exchange, Ben Sinclair speaks with Ross Butler, Managing Director at Linear B Group and host of the Fund Shack podcast, about private markets’ expanding role in wealth portfolios and why adoption has been slower in the UK and Europe than in North America.

Ross makes the case for staying true to private investing’s illiquid foundations, explains how banks’ changing role is creating opportunities for private credit, and discusses two routes into private equity: listed investment trusts and evergreen funds.

Topics include:

• Why private equity remains controversial, and how the industry should respond

• Europe’s push to turn household savings into productive investment

• The benefits and trade-offs of listed and evergreen private-market funds

• Redemption gates, liquidity expectations, and the relationship between price and value

• What comes next for private credit, infrastructure, secondaries, and individual investor allocations

  
  

  You can find a transcript of this episode at https://www.beyondtheexchange.ca/the-beyond-the-exchange-podcast

  You can also find Ross's interview of Ben for his podcast on YouTube.

In Episode 14 of Beyond the Exchange, Ben Sinclair speaks with David Alloune, Vice President of Asset Allocation at Trans-Canada Capital, about applying institutional portfolio-construction principles to private markets and individual investing.

David explains how Trans-Canada Capital’s approach grew from Air Canada’s pension-plan turnaround after the global financial crisis. The organization focused on diversification across public and private markets, disciplined risk management, strong governance, and careful liquidity planning to help manage pension risk and pursue long-term objectives.

The conversation explores the total portfolio approach, which begins with a portfolio’s objectives, liabilities, liquidity needs, and risk budget rather than selecting investments one by one. David distinguishes wealth creation from wealth management: concentrated bets can build wealth, but diversified portfolios are generally better suited to preserving and steadily compounding it.

They also discuss private assets and the growing use of evergreen vehicles. While private markets can expand an investor’s opportunity set and provide differentiated sources of return, David stresses the importance of understanding each vehicle’s underlying investments, valuation practices, liquidity limits, and redemption terms.

Abigail Rayner, Managing Director at HarbourVest Partners, goes through what the firm calls "The Seven Deadly Sins of Evergreen Investing," as outlined in a thought piece late last year. These sins are:

1. Greed: Excessive Fundraising 
2. Sloth: Inefficient Deployment and Cash Drag 
3. Envy: Chasing Secondary Discounts
4. Wrath: Improper Use of Leverage
5. Lust: Valuation Distortion
6. Gluttony: Inadequate Diversification 
7. Pride: Overconfidence in Fund Management

Please see the HarbourVest disclaimer here.

In this episode of Beyond the Exchange, Ben Sinclair talks with Kurankye “Krunch” Sekyi-Otu, founder and CEO of Capoeira Partners and former Chief Strategy Officer at Polar Asset Management Partners, where assets grew from US$700 million to US$7 billion during his time there. Krunch explains why culture, long-term partnerships, and multi-dimensional support are critical to building founder-led alternative asset managers, and how his firm helps with strategy, operations, branding, talent, and fundraising.

They explore how emerging managers can stand out against global firms in the Canadian wealth and institutional channels by offering more than performance numbers and engaging allocators in ways that make them better at their jobs, such as bespoke farmland tours that bring investors directly onto the land.

The result is a playbook for founder-led managers and advisors who want to raise stickier capital, build resilient organizations, and turn their unique edge into durable growth in alternatives.

In this episode, Ben Sinclair sits down with Ralph DeSando, Deputy CEO at Yorkville Asset Management, to explore how long-term care and senior living have become one of Canada’s most compelling and misunderstood healthcare investment opportunities.

Ralph shares the story of Yorkville’s healthcare fund from its inception in 2010..He explains why aging infrastructure, substantial waitlists, and an aging population have created durable demand for long-term care beds, and why he believes supply will struggle to keep up for decades.

The conversation dives into how modern facilities differ from pre-1971 Class C homes, and how community care hubs make for a better resident experience. Ralph also discusses the public–private partnership model with government, how 25–30 year contracts and inflation-linked funding create visibility on revenue, and why banks and insurers are now competing to lend against these assets, even offering 25-year mortgage terms and high loan-to-cost financing.

For advisors and allocators, Ralph walks through how the fund fits into portfolio construction, the role of ancillary businesses, and how Yorkville approaches education around liquidity. He addresses past misconceptions about “stroke-of-pen risk,” operational risks in running large care platforms, and why retail investors were early to recognize the sector’s stability before institutions followed.

If you’re interested in the intersection of healthcare policy, real asset investing, and demographics, especially from a Canadian private markets perspective, this episode offers a detailed, practitioner-level look at building long-term care infrastructure with investor capital while improving outcomes for seniors.

Ben sits down with Julian Klymochko, founder and CEO of Accelerate Financial Technologies, to explore listed liquid alternatives, the “Holy Grail” of uncorrelated return streams, and the myths around private funds being lower risk just because they don’t trade every day. They discuss:

-The trade-off between liquidity and volatility smoothing

-How Canada’s private credit boom went offside on concentration and loan quality

-How Julian’s INCM ETF accesses over 5,000 senior-secured, floating-rate private loans via BDCs while still offering daily liquidity.

-Blue Owl’s recent headlines

-Why a routine liquidity transaction turned into “fake news”

-What the public marks actually tell you about the true risk in private credit markets.

-Whether AI will “kill software,” what that means for software-heavy private equity and private credit portfolios, and why incumbent SaaS platforms may be better positioned than the market narrative suggests.

If you allocate to private credit, use private funds in client portfolios, or are wrestling with the impact of AI on software-backed deals, this episode will give you a clearer, more practical framework for thinking about risk, liquidity, and where returns are really coming from.

In this episode of Beyond The Exchange, Ben Sinclair speaks with Jay Simmons, founder, chairman, and CEO of Durum Capital, about how distress, governance, and niche specialization shape his approach to private markets in Western Canada. Jay explains how early experience in financial restructuring at Deloitte and turning around an oilfield services firm informed his focus on risk, downside protection, and board quality.

Jay walks through the origins of Durum Capital, including buying a troubled real estate company and building an Alberta industrial portfolio at distressed prices, then holding through the oil downturn and COVID while collecting rent from high quality, long lease, triple net tenants. He makes the case for industrial real estate over multifamily and retail, highlighting the impact of e commerce and Alberta’s role as an inland logistics hub.

The discussion expands to Durum’s broader platform, from the Durum Opportunities Fund in restructuring and special situations to strategies in Alberta’s carbon market and First Nations land development. Jay also shares lessons from raising capital across family offices, institutions, and retail investors, why he prefers staying private rather than listing a REIT, and how trends like nearshoring and growing self reliance are supporting industrial demand in Canada.

In the first episode with multiple guests, I am joined by two leaders of Mortgage Investment Corporations (MICs). We discuss topics such as:

• The background of both guests and their firms.
• What is a MIC?
• How do mortgages fit into an investment portfolio?
• What type of borrowers do MICs serve?
• What are some of the safeguards used by MICs to protect against losses?

Episode 7 of the Beyond the Exchange podcast features a wide‑ranging conversation with Josh Will, President of Virtus, a diversified private real estate manager focused on cash‑flowing assets in secondary and tertiary markets across Canada and the U.S.

Josh traces his path from aspiring teacher to building a career in private real estate marketing and asset management, including selling U.S. real estate through the 2007–2009 financial crisis and later partnering to launch Virtus’s REIT on the eve of COVID lockdowns. He explains why Virtus insists on “kicking the dirt,” how they underwrote a BJ’s Wholesale Club acquisition in New York via on‑the‑ground FaceTime due diligence, and why they walked away from a Walmart‑anchored deal in Flin Flon before later acquiring it at a significantly better price with appraisal upside to match their underwriting.

We dig into today’s real estate environment: liquidity pressures, gating, higher rates, and where Josh sees the most compelling opportunities, including multi‑res deals at or above a six‑cap from motivated sellers who need to create liquidity elsewhere in their portfolios. Josh also outlines Virtus’s decision to cap fundraising and close to new subscriptions through much of 2022–2023, their target 7% distribution, and how a flexible, multi‑sector approach (multi‑res, grocery‑anchored retail, retirement, select office and industrial) helps them navigate the current cycle.

Finally, Josh tackles the big sentiment question: how to talk to investors who are ready to give up on real estate altogether, drawing on his experiences from the GFC, COVID, and his own condo story to make the case for patient, cash‑flow driven ownership rather than reacting to the latest headline.

For Canadian advisors and investors looking for a ground‑level view of private real estate risk, liquidity, and opportunity, this episode offers a candid look at what it takes to buy quality cash flow in stressed markets.

In this episode, Ben Sinclair, CFA, CAIA, talks with David Gens, founder and CEO of Merchant Growth and manager of the Merchant Opportunities Fund, about building a fintech lender for Canadian small businesses in a market dominated by the big five banks. David explains how he spotted the gap in 2009, why he chose a fund structure to finance loans, and how the strategy aims to deliver uncorrelated, short-duration private credit exposure with over 10,000 diversified loans.​

They discuss:

• How Canadian bank structure leaves many asset-light, cash-flowing small businesses under-served
• Using a fund to separate lending capital from the fintech operating company
• Positioning small business loans alongside stocks and bonds as a source of consistent income
• COVID as the fund’s first major macro stress test and the importance of transparent, formulaic loss provisioning
• Why investor bearishness on Canada may be misplaced, and why small business owners’ resilience is often underestimated​

Listen to learn how debanking, digital origination, and disciplined underwriting are reshaping small business finance in Canada, and what that means for allocators looking at private credit today.