National Post - Financial Post Magazine
HEALTHY QUINTUPLETS
Another area of the economy that has done well is the market for initial public offerings, which surpassed $5 billion in 2020, five times the value of offerings in 2019 even though there were fewer new issues. New issues in the fourth quarter totalled $1.3 billion, a $1-billion year-over-year increase. A big chunk of the year’s total IPO market was due to five companies — GFL Environmental Inc., Nuvei Corp., Abcellera Biologics Inc., Repare Therapeutics Inc. and Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. — which had combined proceeds of $4.2 billion. Despite the concentration at the top, the three largest issues were in three different industries. “I think this is a testament to the diversity of the Canadian market,” Geoff Leverton, national leader of the Canadian Capital Markets & Accounting Advisory Services practice at PWC Canada, noted in a year-end report. “Will the IPOS in 2020 set the tone for 2021? I believe we will continue to see interest in IPOS into 2021 given the level of activity, pricing and post-ipo valuation. We are having lots of IPO discussions and readiness to act on market opportunity is key.”