Consumer, tech IPOs boost Q2 activity: PwC

New issues from companies in the consumer and technology sectors helped lead an improvement in the value of IPOs in Canada in Q2, says the quarterly PwC survey of Canadian equity markets.

Read: Tech sector to revitalize Canada

In total, more than $827 million in new equity was raised from eight issues across all Canadian exchanges in Q2, says PwC. That included six IPOs on the TSX, which had a value of more than $823 million combined.

The survey shows new issues came to market from the following sectors.

Energy
Financial
Consumer products
Pharmaceutical
Mining
Communications
Technology

That total raised in Q2 2015 is lower than the $2.1 billion raised in Q2 2014, but is an improvement over the $624 million raised in Q1 2015.

Read: IPO market triumphed in 2014

But, total proceeds for the first half of 2015 were more than $1.4 billion (from 13 new issues), compared to $2.1 billion from nine IPOs in the comparable period of 2014.

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Two IPOs that made headlines in Canada during Q2 2015 were not included in the survey, notes PwC; that’s because DAVIDsTEA Inc. ($97 million) and XBiotech Inc. ($76 million) were floated exclusively on the NASDAQ exchange in the U.S.

Still, the range of sectors producing new Canadian issues in the first half of year has given the market a welcome stability, says Dean Braunsteiner, PwC national IPO leader. “Issues like Shopify and Stingray Digital Group certainly attracted a lot of attention in the last quarter, and a surge of activity from the tech sector has been anticipated for some time.

“The market for all new issues, including the ones we see coming in the next quarter, shows a balance that responds to investor demand for mature companies.”

And, many trends have been identified based on these IPOs, says Braunsteiner. That includes the successful offering of special-purpose investment companies that are focused on start-ups, and there are early signs of private equity firms bringing companies to the public equity market.

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