Well, it's been an interesting first quarter of 2025 for the small and midcap sector. Trade war uncertainty has caused a lot of volatility as investors became emotional and literally hit the panic sell button, dumping great companies at fire sale prices.
Although the Matco opportunities fund was down 7% till the end of March, we continue to stick to our discipline investment approach of finding great growth companies trading at attractive valuations. During the quarter, we met with 21 potential portfolio companies. As a result of these meetings and our further due diligence, we added seven new companies to the fund.
The market pullback has provided an opportunity to buy some long-term secular companies at attractive valuations. Now, we're incredibly selective, passing on more companies than we buy. Why? Because we're committed to finding only the best opportunities for our clients. This involves intensive research which helps us maintain a port focused portfolio of just 28 high conviction holdings.
Two of these holdings are gold companies which combined make up over 12% of the fund. We purchased these gold companies over a year ago and still remain bullish on the long-term gold price due to global political uncertainty and economic uncertainty.
Now looking ahead to the rest of 2025, some might worry about the Canada US trade war. However, based on experience, we know that every crisis is a buying opportunity. The challenge is to know what to buy and at what valuation. This is an environment that we excel at. A stock pickers market, active management that adds value by finding secular growth companies that are overlooked by investors due to macro uncertainty.
Our portfolio today is strategic positioned across these top sectors. Technology at 32%, industrials at 16%, and consumer discretionary at 15%. In a world obsessed with quick wins and market trends, we're playing the long game. Our discipline investment process has proven itself time and again, and we believe it will continue to reward our clients trust in the years to come.
