The screens at the TMX Broadcast Centre in Toronto show the closing numbers of the TSX at +252.19 on July 3, 2012.Matthew Sherwood/The Globe and Mail
In Canada, 2012 hasn't been the year of the IPO.
From January through September, the amount of money raised through initial public offerings on the Toronto Stock Exchange is almost 70-per-cent lower than the same period in 2011.
But the frost can thaw as quickly as it can form, and PwC's latest quarterly survey on IPOs noted that several deals in industries such as real estate, renewable energy and mining are simply waiting for the right condition to launch. Much will depend on international conditions such as the status of Europe's debt crisis and the relative stability of the U.S. economy.
So far this year, REITs have done well in the initial offering market. The latest of these was Dundee Industrial REIT , which just closed its $155-million IPO – about the amount analysts were expecting.
Yet some growth-oriented names have been waiting ever-so-patiently on the sidelines and they simply can't hold back any longer. Should those such as Ivanplats's upcoming IPO be successful, investors could see a flurry of deals before the year's end. But that's a big if.
Even if we get a resurgence in the last quarter of this year, total levels are still soft. In 2005, the record year for IPOs, 119 issues raised over $7-billion in Canada, according to PwC.
Amid the rubble there is one shiny piece of good news: while IPOs are in rough shape, equity financing statistics from TMX Group show that the total amount of money raised through equity offerings this year is actually up 20 per cent. $37-billion has been raised on the TSX this year, and $31-billion had been raised at the same point last year.