Portrait of a TSX hedge fund manager superstar: Jean-François Tardif

He’s in his forties, had been a TSX super rocket for a couple of years before calling for an early retirement. There’s only one name to remember: Jean-François Tardif.

Who’s Jean-François Tardif?

Jean-François Tardif is a French Canadian born in Quebec. He grows up in Victoriaville (Quebec province). At a young age, Jean-François Tardif develops 2 lifetime passions: golf and investment. Jean-François Tardif made his first investment at the young age of 14 year old, which he made double. He’s second investment wasn’t successful, as the company he invested in declared later on bankruptcy. But this failure was beneficial for Jean-François Tardif: he leaned to make his own choices, and not to rely on other people opinion.

Following his teenage years, Jean-François Tardif graduated from SherbrookeUniversity with a Bachelor Business Administration. Jean-François is also is CFA Charter. Soon after his graduation, Jean-François Tardif moves to Banff (Alberta) to learn English. He later on occupies his first important job as a financial advisor for Desjardins Securities. Shortly after, Jean-François Tardif joined Cote 100, a Quebec asset management firm found by Guy Le Blanc in 1988. Following his first 3 years contact with an asset management firm, Jean-François Tardif joined ING Investment Management Inc. as a portfolio manager. Jean-François Tardif was than working in Montreal. During that time, Jean-François Tardif had many contacts with Simon Lussier, who was Director at the Montreal Office of Sprott Securities. While learning that his position at ING Investment was moving to another suburb in Quebec province (St-Hyacinthe not to name it), Jean-François Tardif asks Simon Lussier if a position needed to be filled at Sprott Asset Management. In November 2001, Jean-François Tardif was named co-manager the Sprott Long/Short Funds and Sprott Canadian Equity Fund. In date of 2010, we hold units of the Sprott Canadian Equity Fund in our investment portfolio. In 2004, Jean-François Tardif began his career as a Lead Portfolio Manager for the Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund LP.

For the period 2004-2009, the success of Jean-François Tardif as a hedge fund manager for Eric Sprott was phenomenal. In 2008-2009, while being in the middle of a world wide recession, Jean-François Tardif had brought more than 20% profit to the Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund LP. For that reason, Jean-François Tardif had been name by a fan the Wayne Gretzky of finance.

But seem like Jean-François Tardif professional live at Sprott Asset Management wasn’t easy, despite his success and the millions coming in. Jean-François Tardif had his first difficulties in 2003. Back at that time, his recommendations were not taking in consideration. Only 2 years following his debut at Sprott Asset Management, Jean-François Tardif was ready to quite to accept another position offer by a direct competitor. But prior to a future dismissal, Jean-François Tardif asks Eric Sprott to manage his own fund. Eric Sprott accepted Jean-François Tardif proposition. And the rest is history.

Jean-François Tardif had been acclaimed worldwide as one the best hedge fund manager. During his successful career, Jean-François Tardif made several television appearances in which he commented the stock market. Mr. Tardif had been a frequent guest on Business News Network. Jean-François Tardif has won the Globe Investor’s My One and Only stock-picking contest for three consecutive years. At a certain point, Jean-François Tardif was managing 2.5 billion in assets! The success was enormous, but so was the work.

During his years spend at Sprott Asset Management, Jean-François Tardif was working around the clock. He was arriving as early as 6:30am at work to be ready for Eric Sprott famous “morning meeting”. While being at home, Jean-François Tardif, father of 2 children, wasn’t spending quality time with his family. While being in vacations, Jean-François Tardif was still working, answering emails, watching closely the stock market, etc. The job was demanding, as we can imagine, but at a certain point, it begins to be too much to handle for only one person.

The Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund LP? It was 2.5 billion in Canadian dollars and it was composed of more than 200 companies. At a point, Jean-François Tardif was in need of 5 full-time stock analysts to work exclusively with him on his gigantic task. Jean-François Tardif than asked Eric Sprott to hire some new stock analysts. Sprott accepted, but at the condition that the analysts hired would work not only for him on his hedge fund, but as well for other mutual funds and hedge funds of Sprott Asset Management.

Jean-François Tardif didn’t accept Eric Sprott condition and decided to call for retirement. At the time, Jean-François Tardif was closed to a professional burn out. After seeing several persons close to him suffer from difficult health condition, Mr. Tardif decided to call for retirement. It was the end of a successful career as a hedge fund manager at Sprott Asset Management. On the months following Jean-François Tardif retirement, more exactly on April 6, 2009, Sprott Inc. (SII) had distributed a special dividend of 0.15 cents per stock. 2009 had been a good year for Sprott Inc. (SII). In 2010, Sprott Inc. (SII) had distributed a special dividend, but only 4 cents per stock. As a stockholder of Sprott Inc. (SII), we had greedily missed Jean-François Tardif. We can easily imagine that the special dividend of 2010 would had been more generous than just of a miserable 4 cents if Jean-François Tardif would had stayed at Sprott Asset Management.

Did Eric Sprott ever regret not having hired stock analysts for Jean-François Tardif? We will never know, probably. I discover it after getting fired from BMO Bank of Montreal, Montreal call center: financial world is full of sharks – the same kind of Eric Sprott – same selfishness, same desire to be the best while they are simply not the best. Better to do it by your own and the teaching of Derek Foster had been of a great help, as I have now more than 100k in personal asset. If only Jean-François Tardif would still be in the game, I would had sign in for the Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund LP (the minimum required to invest in the Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund LP was 100k). Anyhow, believe it or not, it’s now Eric Sprott who’s calling in for retirement. Eric Sprott, more than 60 years old, had called it quite as CEO of the firm he builds.

Still on date of today, Jean-François Tardif remains an inspiration for many investors. His old stock picks of 2008-2009 are still performing well in 2010. His top 2009 stock pick, Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (PBH) had been rated “strong buy” for the past couple of months. Recently, Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (TSX:PBH) had announced a cash dividend of $0.294 per share for the quarter ending September 30, 2010. We personally hold 200 stocks of Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (PBH). We continue to hold despite the obvious lack of recent feedback coming from Jean-François Tardif (as he now retired) because:

1) The company Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (PBH) pays a good quarterly dividend (no DRIP aloud, but still, the PBH annual dividend is very good: 1.18$!)

2) Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (PBH) had made some business acquisition in order to extend their operational network.

Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (PBH) keeps growing and is in good position to remain a leader in its category.

Despite we are a purchase-and-hold type investor of Derek Foster old school teaching (the kind of exact opposite way of what Jean-François Tardif acceptation of good investment method is), we truly appreciate Jean-François Tardif views on investment. And despite the years passing by, Jean-François Tardif remains a TSX superstar.