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Bloomberg
Bank of Montreal’s (BMO) capital-markets unit was the top arranger of initial public offerings (IPOs) in Canada in 2022, eking out two significant deals in a year when plunging equity prices all but froze the
market for companies seeking to sell shares for the first time.
Canadian companies undertook 112 IPOs with a total value of C$1.82 billion ($1.35 billion) last year. That’s down 85% from 2021’s record C$12 billion in deals.
BMO Capital Markets, which handled two offerings with a total value of C$197.6 million last year, previously held the top spot on the Canadian IPO league tables in 2018.
The economic uncertainty and geopolitical
turmoil that heightened volatility and sent global equity markets into a tailspin last year put investors in a risk-off mood, weighing on the valuations private companies could garner in public markets. Those tough conditions are still largely in place, presaging continued weakness for IPOs in the first half of the year, said Peter Miller, head of equity capital markets for BMO Capital Markets.
“We still have a good amount of uncertainty, so I think the first quarter is going to feel like the fourth quarter,†Miller said.
“It’s going to be challenging until we see some surprise inflection in the inflation data.â€
The largest IPO last year was for eye health business Bausch + Lomb Corp a deal that raised $711.9 million for Bausch Health Cos as part of its plan to separate some of its businesses. The next biggest deal was the $125 million offering from apartment owner Dream Residential Real Estate Investment Trust.
The torrid pace of IPOs in 2021 depleted the roster of companies that are ready to go public, adding another headwind that may restrain the volume of deals this year, said Sante Corona, head of equity capital markets for Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Securities.