First quarter IPO market sputters, secondary market thrives: PwC survey

TORONTO, April 1, 2016 /CNW/ - The Canadian market for initial public offerings ground to a virtual halt in the first quarter of the year, a survey published today by PwC revealed.

Save for a single issue of less than $600,000 on the CSE, the first quarter was a washout for investors seeking new opportunities and represented the smallest quarterly IPO market in more than a decade. It is the first time in recent memory that Canadian markets saw less than $1 million in new issues.

The dismal first quarter is in keeping with past years, notes Dean Braunsteiner, national IPO leader at PwC in Canada, and not necessarily a cause for alarm.

"In recent years, we've seen a pattern of very slow first quarters," he explains, "but that's not necessarily indicative of the year ahead. And in this case, it belies a vibrant market for secondary issues that has grown despite the turmoil in other areas of the market."

Since 2008, there have been three years – 2009, 2012 and 2014 – with no first quarter activity on Canada's senior exchange and one year when just a single new issue made it to the TSX in the first quarter.

The first quarter of 2014 laid claim to being the worst quarterly result in a decade with no IPO activity on the TSX and a meager $2.3 million from all exchanges. The first quarter of 2009 wasn't much better ($2.5 million in proceeds from three issues on the TSX Venture and no new issues on the TSX). Despite poor starts, most years recovered to respectable levels by year-end.

Braunsteiner points to the vibrant market for secondary equity offerings and a buoyant debt market as a measure of investor appetite for new opportunities. "Investors have looked to mature companies and well-known names for investments and have found a surprising menu of options," he says. Of particular note was the level of secondary market activity coming from the oil & gas sector, and a spate of preferred share offerings from Canada's banks.

Follow-on issues, led by well-known names such as Enbridge Inc., Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and Kinross Gold Corp., accounted for more than $8.1 billion of activity in the first quarter of 2016.

Braunsteiner lists the usual suspects as the cause of the first quarter stumble in the IPO activity: Extreme market volatility, a poor outlook for commodities, oil's continued downward spiral and global security concerns. The silver lining, he says, is in the strength of the U.S. economy and the advantage of the lower Canadian dollar for manufacturers that make this as a good time to go public.

PwC has conducted its survey of the IPO market in Canada for more than 15 years. The reports are issued on a quarterly basis to provide information to the corporate sector, investors, the media and others that will help them put the market into better perspective. For the purposes of the survey, investment vehicles such as structured products are not considered IPOs because they do not represent new equity raised for operating companies.

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About PwC Canada
PwC Canada helps organizations and individuals create the value they're looking for. More than 6,500 partners and staff in offices across the country are committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax, consulting and deals services. PwC Canada is a member of the PwC network of firms with more than 195,000 people in 157 countries. Find out more by visiting us at www.pwc.com/ca.

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SOURCE PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers)

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