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| | MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
 | Yvon Bolduc
President and Chief Executive Officer |
A word from the President
The Fund is celebrating its 25th anniversary!
This year marks 25 years since the Fund’s inception. For a quarter of a century, the Solidarity Fund QFL has played – and continues to play – an important role in the Québec economy. Thanks to the daring innovation that gave rise to our organization, the Fund has become one of our economy's success stories and a source of pride.
The Fund enriches individuals, SMEs and Québec as a whole. This collective wealth flows from the solidarity that we have built over the years between the Fund and its shareholders, which in turn has allowed us to forge profitable partnerships with Québec businesses.
As everyone knows, making systematic contributions to a retirement savings plan is the key to a more comfortable retirement. And every worker should have this opportunity. This is precisely what the Fund’s architects believed 25 years ago and it’s still what we believe today. I am therefore pleased to announce that contributions made through our two systematic saving methods reached an all-time high for the year ended May 31: contributions through payroll deduction or pre-authorized withdrawal amounted to more than $446 million, while total contributions reached $611 million.
A new investment record
I am also particularly proud of the fact that this past year, the Fund set a new investment record of $730 million. This performance attests to the canvassing efforts of our investment teams, to the Fund’s growing reputation in the business community, and to the importance of our patient capital to Québec businesses.
Moreover, despite a slowdown in the North American economy, turbulence on capital markets and major disruptions that affected businesses – notably, the strong Canadian dollar and rising oil prices –, the Fund held its own and limited the decline in its return, which stood at -1.2% for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2008. Share value thus fell to $25.05, down $0.31 from July 5, 2007. Small caps suffered the most from the tough business climate.
Net assets rose $46 million over last year to $7.3 billion at year-end. By carefully managing our operations, we succeeded in holding the operating expense ratio at 1.4% of average net assets, a level that compares favourably with other companies in the industry.
Helping Québec grow
Thanks to a strategy implemented in 2004 of investing in specialized funds, the Fund continues to structure Québec’s venture capital industry. We invest in local specialized funds, which in turn invest in businesses in the seed or start-up stages, as well as attract large sums of foreign capital to Québec. This year alone, we invested $109 million in five funds, bringing this type of investment to $495 million since 2004.
Over its 25 years, the Fund has built wide-reaching, solid expertise. Our organization has reached maturity and in the process has become the financial backer and partner of choice for Québec enterprises. We remain committed to helping our SMEs grow and boost their competitiveness by offering them the funds they need to modernize their equipment, so they can continue creating and keeping jobs here at home.
The Solidarity Fund QFL is a legacy of which we are proud and that we will continue to build in order to create wealth for our shareholders, for businesses and their employees, and, of course, for the Québec economy.
Yvon Bolduc,
President and Chief Executive Officer
Solidarity Fund QFL
HIGHLIGHTS |
as at May 31, 2008 |
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| Net assets | $7.3 billion |
| Investment volume | $730 million |
| Shareholder base | 575,394 |
| Share price | $25.05 |
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| Return | |
| Six months ended May 31, 2008 | - 1,4 % |
| Year ended May 31, 2008 | - 1,2 % |
| 10-year | 2,0 % |
| Average annual return since inception: | 4,8 % |
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| The Fund’s development network | |
| 87 SOLIDE | |
| 16 regional Solidarity Funds | |
| 72 autres fonds spécialisés | |
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| Number of local representatives (LR) | 2,134 |
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| Number of partner companies (direct and network investments) | 1,881 |
| Total jobs created, maintained or preserved by the Fund and its partners* | 122,460 |
* As at May 31, 2007
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