Leaving the Big Canadian Senior Market Health Check: Future Relevancy of the Public Markets at Risk as Operating Public Company Decline Accelerates

Authors

  • L. Daniel Wilson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/sppp.v18i1.80402

Abstract

Since the peak of operating company listings in 2008, the number of operating companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the “TSX”) has declined by 42.5%. A short COVID-era Initial Public Offering (“IPO”) boom in 2020-21 offered a brief reprieve in the ongoing operating company decline phenomenon, but the last two and one-half years has seen the worst Canadian IPO market over the multiple decades for data is available.  Each passing month now sees a new multi-generational low in the number of operating public companies listed on the TSX.

It has become apparent that the public operating public company decline phenomenon in Canada has become systemic and will not be reversed without significant reform in the regulation of capital markets along with other key policy innovations.  Academic analysis on thetopic of operating public company decline to date in Canada has largely been focused only onthe twin headline statistics of total operating company listings and IPO volumes. Significant data gaps remain as to the broader nature of the operating public company decline phenomenon in Canada. Filling in these data gaps is necessary to underpin further academic analysis as to which regulatory reforms, and other public policy interventions, are most likely to be successful in reversing the tide of public company decline.

This paper picks up the threads of pre-COVID analysis on this important issue, starting with a review of the key reasons why operating public company decline in Canada is a critical public policy issue necessitating intervention. Theories on factors contributing to the phenomenon are also briefly discussed. Finally, this paper presents a variety of key data points examining in more detail the precise nature and extent of the operating public company decline phenomenon in the senior Canadian capital markets.

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Published

2025-01-24

Issue

Section

Research Papers