Canada’s market for initial public offerings declined in the first half of the year according to a survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP released Monday.

Between January 1 and June 30, a total of 22 IPOs were successfully brought to market, worth $1.5 billion. That is down from 30 offerings at the same point last year, worth $2.3 billion.

Income trusts made up 45% of the number of IPOs during the period and 80% of the gross value.

“It has been a challenging year so far for the IPO market,” said Eric Slavens, IPO services leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Canada. “The number of new issues is about two-thirds of what it was this time last year and less than the same period in 2001, which was a very difficult year. However, it should be noted that the gross value of IPOs for 2003 is significantly above the 2001 mark.” The gross value of IPOs for the first six months of 2001 was only $153.7 million.

“Almost half of the number of offerings that have come to the market so far this year are income trusts,” said Slavens. “Without these, there would have been little appreciable IPO activity.”

“But the impact of income trusts on the IPO market is less than it was a year ago. During the first six months of 2003, the value of income trusts was $1.2 billion. Last year at this time, the value of income trusts was $2.1 billion, or 94% of the total value of IPOs. We have also seen two significant IPOs this year that were not income trusts.” These were The Hockey Company Holdings Inc. for $72. million and Northbridge Financial Corporation for $201 million.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers survey divides IPO activity on the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange into nine market segments.

The most active sector in the first two quarters of 2003 was Mining with seven IPOs. That is followed by Products with five, Technology & Media and Oil and Gas with three each, Other with two, and Financial Services and Real Estate with one each. There were no IPOs in the remaining sectors.

In terms of gross value, the Products sector led at $501.2 million. This was followed by Other at $321 million, Technology & Media worth $236.3 million, and Financial Services worth $201 million.

The pace of IPO activity in the Oil & Gas sector increased from one IPO in the first half of 2002 worth $4.2 million, to three IPOs for the first six months of this year worth $167 million. The gross value of Real Estate IPOs was $50 million. While the Mining sector had seven new issues, the gross value was only $6.7 million.