The total value of initial public offerings in Canada in the first six months of 2007 was $855 million.That’s a big drop from over $4 billion during that time in 2006, PricewaterhouseCoopers said Wednesday.

The consulting company puts out the survey every six months. It looks at all IPOs in Canada including on the TSX and three other smaller stock exchanges.

PricewaterhouseCoopers says much of the decreased activity can be blamed on the decline of income trust offerings following the federal government’s announcement of a new policy to tax income trusts, which made up half of the IPO value for the first six months of 2006.

“With the momentum of income trusts gone, the IPO market lacks the direction and enthusiasm of the last two years and is now in a very unusual state of running counter to the overall Canadian equity market,” said Ross Sinclair, national leader for PwC’s IPO and income trust services, in a news release.

“Any recovery is going to take some time; we probably won’t see it in 2007.”

The biggest IPO in the first half of 2007 was Texas-based Northstar Healthcare Inc., listed on the TSX and worth $148 million. Activity was much busier over the first half of 2006, when there were 13 new issues, each valued at $100 million or more.
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The survey showed an increase in both the quantity and value of number and size of IPOs for junior companies trading on the TSX Venture exchange.

“The average size of new issue on the TSX Venture jumped to $8 million so far in 2007, up significantly from the average of $4.5 million in all of 2006 and $4 million in 2005,” said Sinclair.

“While the Venture exchange is traditionally the birthplace of junior resource stocks, we are starting to see other companies launch on this exchange. The increase in size of the average IPO suggests these aren’t penny stocks. It’s too early to call it a trend, but we may look back on this as the start of the rebuilding of the market from the bottom up.”