On The Shelf:

(October 2, 2008) Russell Investments Canada has announced the appointment of Marsico Capital Management to the management team of the Russell Global Equity Pool, part of the Russell Sovereign Investment Program.

Marsico has also been added to the management team of the Russell Global Equity Fund. In both instances, Marsico replaces AllianceBernstein.

IPO market hits new low

(October 2, 2008) That sound you might be hearing is the sound of crickets in the initial public offering arena of the TSX. According to the latest survey of the markets by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), not a single IPO was brought to market on the major exchange in the third quarter.

The quarter marked a new low point in the IPO slowdown that has been the trend for over a year now. The previous record low was in Q3 of 2007, when just four IPOs worth $254 million came to the TSX.

“It would be tempting to blame the disruption on the global credit markets and the volatility in equity markets for these results, but in fact this is part of a long-term trend that started late in 2006,” says Ross Sinclair, national leader for PwC’s IPO and income trust services. “We didn’t get here overnight.”

In the most recent quarter, 14 new issues worth $66 million came to market on the TSX Venture Exchange. The previous low-water mark for the TSX-V was again Q3 2007, when 15 issues worth $79 million came to market.

On a year-to-date basis, a total of 53 IPOs worth $680 million have been launched on Canadian equity markets. By this point in 2007, 63 IPOs worth $1.2 billion had been completed, and in the first nine months of 2006 there were 95 new issues with a value of $4.7 billion.

“A market is a meeting point for a willing buyer and a willing seller, and until some degree of stability returns and we regain some certainty and predictability, we won’t have a market,” Sinclair says. “It won’t be until some point in 2009 before we see anything like the necessary conditions.”

(10/02/08)

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.