The outlook for Initial Public Offering activity for 2012 has grown dim, as activity in the first quarter fell to one of the weakest levels in the past decade, according to the latest statistics from PwC Canada.

The total new capital raised on Canadian exchanges struggled to top $20 million from 13 new issues in the first quarter of 2012, without a single IPO on the TSX, PwC’s survey shows.

It is the third lowest total for any quarter in the past decade. Only the fourth quarter of 2008 ($2 million) and the first quarter of 2009 ($2.5 million) had lower total proceeds.

“The first quarter 2012 results were an extension of the low levels of activity in the final quarter of 2011 when markets were weighed down by the European debt crisis and extreme market volatility,” said Dean Braunsteiner, PwC national IPO services leader.

The fourth quarter of 2011 saw 10 new issues on all Canadian exchanges, including just one on the TSX, generating a total of $52 million.

“The much hoped-for resolution of the debt crisis in Greece came too late to help the IPO market in the first quarter, and concerns over slowing growth in China have troubled commodity markets,” Braunsteiner added. “It’s not surprising the first quarter of 2012 looked a lot like the last quarter of 2011.”

First quarter 2012 IPO results came in at 10% of the same period of 2011, when 13 new issues, including two on the TSX, generated more than $198 million.

Predicting the IPO market for the balance of the year is a challenge, Braunsteiner said.

“There is still a great deal of corporate activity in areas like mergers and acquisitions, and some of that is taking the place of IPO activity,” he said. “Larger public companies with ample cash are now in a position to grow through acquisition, and some of the companies that are being acquired might have been candidates for an IPO in another environment.”

Technology is one sector Braunsteiner will be watching carefully.

“Canada has traditionally relied on natural resource companies to feed the IPO market and that was the case in 2011,” he said. “But the coming Facebook IPO is bound to ignite interest in technology plays in Canada that have been ignored until recently.”