‘There will be an appetite’ if apartment rental company Minto goes public

The stage is set for another apartment rental company to be taken public.

Ottawa-based Minto Group is understood to be in the final throes of getting all the documentation ready to file a preliminary prospectus and raise equity capital for the first time.

“I hear it’s a long way down the track,” said one well-placed source, noting the offering has the advantage in that it is coming from a well-known name.

According to its website, Minto has been around for more than 60 years, having been formed by four Greenberg brothers, Gilbert, Irving, Lorry and Louis, in 1955. (From 1975 to 1978, Lorry was the mayor of Ottawa.)

Since then the company has expanded south and west to Toronto, London, Calgary and Edmonton. Nationally it manages 13,000 multi-residential units (as well as 2.7 million square feet of commercial space) in London, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton. It also has activities in Florida where it has a home building operation. It has built 25,000 new homes in 47 communities in Florida.

Given the pressures on rental accommodation in at least two of the Canadian cities in which Minto operates, demand for the offering is expected to be strong.

‘There will be an appetite,” noted a source. As with all IPOs, final investor demand will be a function of what assets are included in the public company (it’s understood that just the Canadian apartment rental units are to be included), the way in which the public company is structured and the valuation.

It’s understood TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets are leading the issue. In time other banks are expected to be added to the syndicate.

There are extensive links between TD Bank and Minto. For instance, TD Bank is one of Minto’s three approved lenders for new home purchases in Florida. FBC Mortgage and Wells Fargo are the others. And Paul Douglas, TD Bank’s executive vice-president, Canadian Business Banking, is a director of the Minto Group.

The Post was unable to reach Minto Group for a comment.