Rebound in Canadian IPOs seen as positive sign for 2018

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Braunsteiner said it’s difficult to forecast an amount of proceeds because companies are holding their cards a bit closer about whether to pursue IPOs, joint ventures, partnerships or asset sales.

“It’s hard to look into the pipeline to get a good predictor of what the market might be in 2018 but as long as the equity markets continue to run I think we’ll have a strong IPO market this year as well,” he added.

Despite accounting for more than half of public offerings last year, proceeds from mining offerings totalled $947.3 million, trailing energy at $2.02 billion.

Pharmaceuticals and health raised $668.5 million, retail $665.4 million, industrial products $400.1 million and other $416.5 million.

Low commodity prices have curtailed mining IPOs for the last five or six years. But a stabilization of prices could create some action among junior miners that have historically accounted for a lot of the IPO activity, Braunsteiner said.

The top IPO in 2017 came from Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd., which raised $1.75 billion in the second quarter. It was followed by a dual listing on the TSX and New York Stock Exchange of Luxembourg miner Nexa Resources S.A., which raised $728 million in the fourth quarter.

Other notable IPOs in 2017 were Canada Goose Holdings Ltd., which raised $340 million, Roots Corp. at $200 million and Stelco Holdings Inc. at $200 million.

PwC has conducted its survey of the IPO market in Canada for more than 15 years.