The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that stock promoter Steve Hudson is out hunting for a Canadian financial services company, armed with a $1-billion war chest, an artificial-intelligence-based strategy and a New York Stock Exchange listing. The Globe's Andrew Willis writes that Mr. Hudson, who founded and sold three successful financial ventures, closed a $200-million (U.S.) initial public offering for Pinnacle Acquisition Corp. in August. The company, known as a special acquisition corporation, or SPAC, has lined up bank loans to back a potential investment of up to $1-billion. Pinnacle executives are now scouting sectors such as niche lending and consumer finance for businesses that can be retooled. Mr. Hudson will repeat the same game plan used in the recent past at Element Financial Corp., a $9.8-billion public company, and ECN Capital Corp., which sold over the past five years in two transactions that totalled $3.4-billion. Pinnacle plans to buy a business such as a lender, shift to an asset-light balance sheet by offloading loans to institutions such as life insurers, and use AI to automate previously manual processes. CIBC, BMO and RBC are advising Pinnacle as it looks to make an acquisition.