PwC: Sluggish Canada IPO Market Set to Explode

By Michael Foster, Big4.com Blogger

The IPO market is facing pent-up demand, according to a new report by PwC. The Big4 firm said that there were only seven new issues worth $271 million, and only one was an IPO on the Toronto  Stock Exchange. That compares to 20 new issues and four IPOs on the TSX worth $475 million during the same period last year. Total new issues were worth $537 million.

In addition to “market roadblocks” such as the European debt crisis and the slow recovery in the United States, PwC IPO Services Leader Dean Braunsteiner pointed to conservative steps from investors as a source of the slowdown. However, Braunsteiner also expects an IPO renaissance by the end of the year.

“There are some very significant IPOs in the pipeline that could revive the total IPO market and turn around the year, but it will require the resolution of some thorny issues beyond our borders,” he said.

Large planned IPOs are “encouraging,” according to Braunsteiner, but he expects the market to remain far behind the IPO record set in 2005, when 119 issues worth $7 billion flooded the market.