A Potash Corp. supervisor examines potash inside a storage facility near Saskatoon in 2013.David Stobbe/Reuters
Long before oil and gas rigs arrived in Western Canada, there were farms. Agriculture is still a key sector in the region's capital markets, and that's why investment bank AltaCorp Capital Inc. moved quickly to fill a gap in its coverage by hiring Keith Carpenter as its new agriculture equity analyst.
Mr. Carpenter joined the Calgary-based firm on Monday after working as an analyst at Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. for seven years. He also spent three years working at money manager Interward Asset Management.
AltaCorp had a vacancy to fill after analyst Peter Prattas departed earlier this month to become a portfolio manager at iA Clarington Investments.
Mr. Carpenter is still getting up to speed on the companies he will cover. If he follows the same stocks as his predecessor, he will be tracking fertilizer companies such as merger partners Agrium Inc. and Potash Corp., and up-and-coming firms such as medical marijuana play CanniMed Therapeutics Inc.
AltaCorp is an independent dealer owned by its employees and the province's Alberta Treasury Branch. The firm has 16 professionals in its equity research group, following energy companies, utilities, oil field services, diversified industries and infrastructure stocks, along with agriculture.