The Canadian investment banking business didn’t get any easier in the first quarter, with both debt and equity issuance declining, according to the latest data from Thomson Reuters.
The firm reports that overall debt issuance (excluding self-funded deals), was down a bit in the first quarter, declining 3% compared with the same quarter in 2012, to $38.8 billion. Compared with the prior quarter, issuance was down 19%.
Canadian equity and equity-related issuance took an even harder hit, down 37% from the first quarter of 2012, and off by 29% from the fourth quarter of 2012. Issuance totaled $5.7 billion from 80 issues, it says.
On the equity side, the real estate sector led the way with a 30% market share, generating overall equity proceeds of $1.7 billion. The energy and power sector ranked second with a 25% share, and financials had a 20% share.
Thomson Reuters reports that the top equity underwriter of the first quarter was BMO Capital Markets, which ranked first in Canadian equity & equity related deals, secondary offerings, Canadian common stock & trusts, initial public offerings (IPOs) and retail structured products. RBC Capital Markets ranked first in preferred securities.
The vast majority of new issuance in the first quarter came in secondary offerings, totaling $4.6 billion on 64 deals. Although, this is still down 38.6% from the same quarter last year, and down 23.8% from the previous quarter. Retail structured product issuance was down 30% from the same period last year, and preferred issuance was down 10.7%.
On the debt side, Thomson Reuters reports that TD Securities led the underwriting league tables in overall Canadian debt and Canadian domestic corporate debt, while RBC Capital Markets was the top underwriter in Canadian government debt and for cross border deals.
Government and agency debt continues to make up the majority of new debt issuance, representing a 62% share of overall issuance. Financials and telecoms ranked second third, respectively, with 23% and 7% market shares.