ING Canada leads 2004 IPO market: PwC

With 2004 marking the strongest initial public offering (IPO) market in the new millennium, ING Canada tops the list of last year’s offerings, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The ING Canada IPO had a gross value of $906.9 million, almost triple the next highest offering, Atlantic Power Corp. at $320.0 million. Rounding out the top five IPOs are OPTI Canada Inc. ($301.4 million), The Brick Group Income Fund ($272.0 million) and Centerra Gold Inc. ($253.2 million).
PwC notes that The Brick offering was one of a limited number of income trust IPOS in 2004, which comprised 30% of the total 87 Canadian IPOs last year. 2003 saw just 56 IPOs, of which 40% were income trusts. The value of last year’s IPOs also increased, up to $6.2 billion, compared to $4.6 billion in 2003.
2000 was a banner year for IPOs, with 101 offerings wroth a total $6.8 billion, the PwC study notes.
To put the ING Canada offering in perspective, there were eight other offerings in the financial services sector in 2004 which totaled less than $4 million combined, half the gross value of the ING Canada IPO alone.