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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The TSX Venture Exchange added 2.15 points to 697.37 Wednesday. Jason Krueger, a shell packager in Calgary, has a new capital pool shell, Vier Capital Corp. (VIE), which will begin trading Thursday. It is the second capital pool shell to list in April and the seventh this year, up from four this time last year. PI Financial Corp. sold Vier's $350,000 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at 10 cents.

The shell also has 3.85 million shares in escrow that it sold last September at five cents. Mr. Krueger, the shell's president, owns 550,000 escrow shares. Earlier this year, Mr. Krueger resigned as the executive vice-president of Leader Energy Services Ltd. (LEA), a financially crippled oil and gas services company that the TSX-V suspended in February for the usual reason of failing to maintain exchange requirements. He has done better as a shell-maker. He listed his first capital pool shell, Summus Capital Corp., in October, 2008, with a 20-cent IPO. It was a poor time to list a shell but Mr. Krueger eventually sold Summus in February, 2011, to a Miami hedge fund manager named Harris Kupperman, inevitably known as Kuppy. Summus rolled back 1:2 and launched Mongolian Growth Group Ltd. (YAK: $0.79), which opened at 60 cents. Within three months, the stock reached $6. By the end of 2011 it had backed off to $4, but the stock stayed around $4 in 2012 and the first half of 2013, after which it declined. This was a big success for IPO shareholders, who can thank Kuppy for their winnings.

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