Newcomers to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) are filing out like bar patrons after last call.
Driving the news: Copperleaf is the latest company to say ‘see ya!’ to Canada’s main stock exchange after a $1 billion takeover from Swedish firm IFS. Upon its departure, nine of the 20 Canadian tech companies that went public in 2020-21 will now have gone private.
- Other notable delisters include Q4 Inc. and Nuvei, the biggest tech IPO on the TSX ever. Prominent payment technology company Lightspeed Commerce could be next.
Why it matters: The spree of delistings and the TSX’s 15-month-long IPO drought could be a new normal. Going or staying private has grown more attractive than trying to create IPO hype in a high interest rate environment and dealing with issuing public earnings reports.
- Meanwhile, Canadian private equity firms that have historically cashed out by taking their companies public are now just selling them at a higher price to other firms.
What they’re saying: “In the past, people would ask ‘Why are you still private,’” Kim Furlong, CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association told the Globe and Mail last month. She said as long as a company is growing, that’s no longer the case.—QH