Enbridge's jumbo equity sale to finance a portion of its acquisition of three utilities from Dominion Energy propelled Canadian ECM issuance to a two-year high of C$6.7 billion in the third quarter of this year, according to data from Refinitiv.
Canadian ECM issuance hit a more-than 22-year low of C$13 billion in 2022 and IPOs in Canada fell to a three-year low in 2022 to C$1.6 billion and are at C$201.7 million for the first six months of the year, according to Refinitiv data. That has encouraged market participants to hope that demand for IPOs, which had been hit hard over the last two years by the pandemic, geopolitical tensions and interest rate hikes, may be on the rebound.
But not many dealmakers are expecting a rush of supply with an uncertain macroeconomic environment still keeping secondary equity markets volatile.