Playing field now officially leveled: First quarter IPO activity, lowest in a decade

Just some of the havoc wreaked by Jim Flaherty's rudimentary understanding of finance:

PricewaterhouseCoopers - Lowest in a decade, first quarter IPO market off more than 50%

TORONTO, April 3 /CNW/ - The value of initial public offerings (IPOs) on Canadian equity markets fell to $148 million in the first quarter of 2008, just half of the value of new issues in the same period of 2007 and the lowest quarterly total in more than a decade, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey of Canadian equity markets has shown.

The 20 new issues in the period from January 1 to March 31, 2008, was just less than the 21 IPOs in the same period of 2007 but the value of new offerings was 49.3% of the $300 million recorded in the first quarter of 2007,a period when the IPO market had already started its downward slide, the survey revealed.

Only three new issues were introduced on the TSX during the first quarter, for a value of $113 million. By comparison, five IPOs with a combined value of $191 million made it to the TSX in the same period of 2007, and 18 new issues worth $1.9 billion appeared on Canada's senior exchange in the first quarter of 2006.

Activity on the TSX Venture exchange was up slightly in the first quarter of 2008, when 14 new issues reached the market vs 13 IPOs in the same period of 2007. The value of new offerings on the TSX Venture fell to $31 million in the first three months of the year from the $89 million in the first quarter of 2007.

The value of IPOs in the first quarter is the lowest result in more than a decade, according to Ross Sinclair, national leader of PwC's IPO and income trust services.
"The same confluence of events that weighed down the market in 2007 continues to be a factor in 2008," Sinclair said.

A lack of investment alternatives to replace the popular income trusts, equity market volatility, credit market turmoil and gloomy economic outlook in the U.S. all appeared to conspire against the market for new issues, Sinclair said. "It is disappointing but I can't say these results are shocking," he added. "It will take the return of solid, established companies with premium issues to show the way out of this phase of the IPO market."

The first quarter results also trailed the final quarter of 2007, when 37 new issues were marketed on Canadian exchanges, including 19 IPOs on the TSX. The total value of fourth quarter offerings was $2.2 billion ($2.1 billion on
the TSX).

The largest new issue on the TSX in the first quarter was the $50 million IPO of Pristine Power Inc. Mining companies accounted for 16 of the 20 new offerings on all exchanges in the first quarter.