Mining IPOs dry up in first quarter: PwC – by Canadian Press (iPolitics.ca – April 1, 2013)

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

TORONTO – For the first time in a decade, neither of Canada’s two largest stock markets had a mining IPO in the first quarter of 2013 — a sign of deep investor impatience with a sector that performed badly for them last year.

A report released Monday by PwC says the mining sector — a mainstay of the Canadian stock markets — raised only a tiny amount of money in the first three months of 2013 by initial public offering.

Of the $422 million total in IPO activity counted by PwC, only $250,000 was in the mining sector and it was placed on the Canadian National Stock Exchange — not the bigger Toronto Stock Exchange or TSX Venture Exchange.

“The complete lack of activity in mining, a sector that has been a pillar of Canada’s equity market, is unprecedented,” Dean Braunsteiner, PwC’s national IPO services leader, said in a statement.

The PwC study excluded certain types of new issues, including IPOs for exchange-traded funds and investment vehicles known as structured products.

According to PwC’s comparison, there were 13 new IPOs on all Canadian exchanges — all but one in mining — in the first quarter of 2012, for a total value of $20 million of stock issued.

John Gravelle, PwC’s mining leader for the Americas, said it has become increasing difficult to do equity financings in the mining sector over the past 18 to 24 months because investors aren’t willing to accept the risk involved.

An earlier PwC annual study of top 100 companies on the TSX Venture junior market, found that their market capitalization in the first half of 2012 was down about 40 per cent from the 2011 study, and so was the level of equity financing.

“So that showed that it was very difficult for them to raise equity,” Gravelle said Monday in an interview.

Gravelle said there were a few signs of life in the last part of 2012, with some takeover and merger activity and some companies able to raise significant capital prior to entering the production phase.

Then a number of companies announced more writedowns of their assets.

For the rest of this article, please go to the iPolitics.ca website: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/04/01/mining-ipos-dry-up-in-first-quarter-pwc/