10 B.C. stocks to watch in 2025

To the moon or belly-up? This could be a momentous year for these locally based public companies

1. AbCellera Biologics

AbCellera (NASDAQ:ABCL) continues to build out the second phase of its headquarters and laboratory complex near Vancouver’s Olympic Village, which, combined with its nearby clinical manufacturing facility, adds up to over half a million square feet of bespoke biotech space. But with the company’s share price down 95 percent from its offering, you have to wonder how long it will be occupying that prime real estate. True, the company has continued to boost the number of its partnerships and programs under contract, but sooner or later it needs another revenue windfall like it saw in its pandemic-era heyday.

2. A&W Food Services

A&W has until now been a complicated order. A&W Food Services of Canada, a private company based in North Vancouver, owns 10 of its own restaurants, develops the menu, markets the brand and sells franchises to mom-and-pop operators. Subsidiary A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund (TSX:AW.UN) was a public entity that owned the trademarks and collected a royalty off the sales of restaurants in the royalty pool. In July, the company announced a reorganization whereby the Income Fund would perform a reverse takeover of the larger Food Services and adopt a conventional corporate model. On the plus side, more of the organization has gone public. However, the public shares will now be exposed to potential losses, instead of simply skimming a cut off the top line. So far, the markets seem to think it’s a good thing. A&W units, which had been languishing for years, jumped 14 percent on July 22, the day of the announcement, and have mostly held onto those gains since.

3. B2Gold Corp.

Vancouver’s B2Gold Corp. (TSX:BTO) has projects popping up at either ends of the earth in 2025. The company expects a first gold pour at its $1.1-billion Goose Mine in Nunavut in the second quarter. And it reached an agreement last fall with the government of Mali to proceed with development of the Fekola Complex surrounding its existing Fekola Mine. Combined with operations in the Philippines, Finland, Namibia and Colombia, the far-flung company aims to boost gold output above a million ounces this year, pushing it into the top ranks of Canadian gold miners.

4. Canfor Corp.

Business is not great right now for forest companies, especially those operating in B.C. In September, Vancouver-based Canfor Corp. (TSX:CFP) announced the closure of two mills in the province’s north and the sale of associated forest tenures to some First Nations groups. Does the industry have a long-term future? Susan Yurkovich evidently thinks so, as she takes the reins at the province’s No. 2 operator from retiring CEO Don Kayne. We’ll see if she has any changes in mind.

5. Decisive Dividend Corp.

Retail investors love the idea of owning private equity, and Kelowna-headquartered Decisive Dividend Corp. (TSXV:DE) delivered a taste when it launched as a holding company for an assortment of small, mostly B.C.-based manufacturers of things like fireplace inserts, industrial parts and merchandise displays. All went swimmingly while those companies were ramping up sales. But in 2024 these subsidiaries encountered what most small companies do in the face of a slowing economy, and revenues declined. The stock, which previously traded at high multiples, lost half its value. This year we’ll see whether it can get back on track or flame out.

6. Dominion Lending Centres

Few investors knew what to make of the 2021 reorganization whereby Founders Advantage Capital Corp. bought Dominion Lending Centres, a Port Coquitlam-based chain of mortgage brokerages, and in turn sold shares to the public under the ticker DLCG. The stock’s early performance was hardly inspiring. But it seems to have found traction, essentially doubling in value over the 12 months to October 1, despite the chilly state of the housing market.

7. Teck Resources

After selling its coking coal mines, collectively known as Elk Valley Resources, to commodity giant Glencore PLC last summer, Teck (TSX:TECK.B) finds itself lighter in both revenues and fossil-fuel baggage. It’s now 85 percent devoted to copper, with a significant sideline in zinc. In August, it announced a corporate reorganization that divided operations between North and South America. Despite retaining its title as Canada’s largest base metals miner, it’s not even in the top 10 largest copper miners worldwide. It has its work cut out for it if it plans to be a power player in the energy transition, starting with ramping up production at its Quebrada Blanca mine in Chile.

8. Thinkific Labs

One of several newly launched Canadian tech stocks left for dead in the 2022 market slump, Thinkific (TSX:THNC) got up off the mat on the strength of a 61-percent jump in gross payments and an 18-percent drop in operating expenses in the 12 months to June 30, 2024. Since then, the company, which has developed a platform for small and medium-sized businesses to market and monetize online education, has struggled to hold onto its gains.

9. Village Farms International

Amid the skunky haze of cannabis legalization, nobody had a clue how to value the many companies vying to capture this new market. Now that the smoke has mostly cleared, it’s obvious that just a handful of players will be left standing, and Beacon Securities analyst Doug Cooper is convinced Delta-based Village Farms International (NASDAQ:VFF) will be one of them. Indeed, he foresees the company moving up from No. 2 to the No. 1 spot in Canada in the new year. “Both its scale and growing experience are enabling it to be the industry’s low-cost producer of high-quality product,” Cooper wrote in an August research note.

10. Clio

Themis Solutions, better known by the name of its legal software product, Clio, blew the doors off the records for venture capital financing in Canada when it announced a US$900-million investment led by New Enterprise Associates last July. Is it the harbinger of an exclusive new world where high-growth companies are content to stay private forever? Or is it the tee-up for a blockbuster initial public offering in the next year or two? (Burnaby-based Clio is already valued at US$3 billion.) For the sake of retail investors, we really hope it’s the latter.