Anil Tahiliani, senior portfolio manager at Matco Financial Inc. in Calgary.The Globe and Mail
Although North American stock markets appear to have come to terms with the Trump administration’s tariffs – given their record-setting run in recent weeks – money manager Anil Tahiliani remains cautious that the powerful U.S. consumer has yet to feel the impact.
“I don’t think most of those tariff impacts at the consumer level are going to hit until the fall or about the first quarter next year,” says the senior portfolio manager at Matco Financial Inc. in Calgary, who oversees about $235-million of his firm’s $660-million in assets.
Mr. Tahiliani, who manages Matco Opportunities Fund and Matco Canadian Equity Income Fund, has been reducing his exposure to consumer discretionary stocks since the start of the year.
He has also been avoiding sectors such as automobiles, lumber, steel and aluminum since before U.S. President Donald Trump was elected last fall, recalling the tariff volatility in those industries from his previous term.
The strategy has benefited his small- and mid-cap mandate. His Matco Opportunities Fund, which includes about 30 small- and mid-cap growth companies, returned 37 per cent over the past year, while its three- and five-year annualized returns were 24 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively. The performance is based on total returns, gross of fees, as of June 30.
The fund’s top three sectors as of June 30 were technology, at 28 per cent, materials, at 20 per cent, and industrials, at 18 per cent.
The Globe spoke with Mr. Tahiliani recently about what he has been buying and selling:
Name the three stocks you bought recently.
Intermap Technologies Corp. IMP-T, the Englewood, Colo.-based 3D mapping and data company, is a stock we bought in June at $2.25 a share. Intermap owns the world’s largest and most detailed geospatial database, but remains under the radar for most investors as it doesn’t have a lot of sell-side coverage. The stock has increased significantly in recent weeks following the initiation of coverage by a new analyst.
We met with Intermap’s management team a few months ago and were impressed with its strategy to grow the business. Intermap’s largest customer is the government of Indonesia, with which it has a US$20-million contract to map one of the country’s islands. There’s also potential for another US$180-milllion in contract wins to map the rest of Indonesia over the next four years. Intermap also has defence contracts in the U.S. and opportunities to win some surveillance contracts there.
Intermap has a unique market niche and offers data and analytics software that we believe many customers will find valuable, especially given that global defence spending is expected to ramp up over the next few years. The company is in a strong financial position, and we also like that its chief executive officer [Patrick Blott] owns 12 per cent of the stock.
The stock remains inexpensive, trading at 9.7 times price-to-earnings, with earnings expected to more than double in the next year.
Cargojet Inc. CJT-T, the Mississauga-based provider of air cargo services for companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Purolator Inc., DHL Group and United Parcel Service Inc., is a stock we bought in January at $126.88 a share. We added more in mid-April at $74.62 when the stock dropped.
We felt that the stock was punished unfairly amid all the tariff news and a belief among some investors that consumers would reduce their online spending. We believe e-commerce is in a secular growth mode, and that Cargojet will benefit from this trend as people continue to shop more online and receive more deliveries at home.
The stock is highly volatile, but we think it’s misunderstood by most investors, given Cargojet’s high visibility and dominant position. The stock is trading at 17 times price-to-earnings ratio with year-over-year earnings growth of 9 per cent.
Propel Holdings Inc. PRL-T, the Toronto-based financial technology company, is a stock we bought in November, 2024, at $27.50 a share and added in April this year at $23.52. Propel provides small loans averaging around $2,000, primarily to individuals in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., who can’t obtain funds from traditional banks. It’s a market that big banks don’t really serve. Propel charges a higher interest rate than banks, which helps them make money.
We believe the company has developed a best-in-class, artificial intelligence-powered technology platform that’s driving revenue and growth. It recently reported a 44-per-cent increase in first-quarter revenue compared to the same quarter last year and year-over-year adjusted EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] growth of 37 per cent. Propel also recently increased its dividend by 10 per cent. The stock remains inexpensive, trading at 9.2 times price-to-earnings, with expected year-over-year earnings growth of 38 per cent.
Name a stock you recently sold.
Aritzia Inc. ATZ-T, the Vancouver-based fashion retailer, is a stock we initially bought in October 2024 at $46.37 a share and added in April at $46.36. We then trimmed the stock in May, at $66.50, and sold the balance in mid-July, at $75.70.
Aritzia is a great company and has very strong brand loyalty, and we like its U.S. growth strategy. However, we felt the stock had become too expensive based on its current valuation of 30 times price-to-earnings for fiscal 2026. The stock had run up ahead of its latest earnings report, with investors expecting a big beat, which the company did. We may consider buying the stock again at a lower price point or valuation, but remain cautious on the U.S. consumer.
This interview has been edited and condensed.