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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The TSX Venture Exchange lost 8.19 points to 736.90 Wednesday. Bryan Pang's shell graduate, Solution Financial Inc. (SFI: $0.40), began trading today. It opened at 50 cents and closed at 40 cents on 281,000 shares. Solution Financial, with its nondescript and unmemorable name, is a Richmond, B.C., company that offers sourcing and leasing services for luxury cars and yachts. It says its typical customers are recent immigrants, business owners and international students. In its fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2017, the company earned $867,022 on revenue of $5.58-million. In the previous fiscal year, it earned $1.06-million on revenue of $4.82-million. These are profits that the banks are happy to do without, often from people whom they are pleased to see going elsewhere.

Solution Financial went public through a capital pool shell called Shelby Ventures Inc. This shell was founded by Derek Spratt, an engineer and one-time shell-maker. Mr. Spratt was the chairman and chief executive officer of Intrinsyc Software Inc. from 1996 to 2007. Under his watch, Intrinsyc peaked at $9.70 on the Canadian Venture Exchange. The stock now trades as Intrinsyc Technologies Corp. (ITC: $1.48) on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Soon after leaving Intrinsyc Software, Mr. Spratt listed Shelby Ventures in December, 2007, with a $250,000 initial public offering at 20 cents. He lined up one potential qualifying transaction, with a Silicon Valley engineering firm, but the shell dropped the deal in 2009. In 2011, Shelby rolled back 1 for 2. Then in 2012, Mr. Spratt left. These days, he is the general manager for Western Canada at ScaleUP Ventures Inc., a tech-focused venture capital firm founded by Nadir Mohamed, the former CEO of Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI: $62.80).

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