The amount of capital raised by corporate non-investment fund issuers in Ontario’s exempt market between 2019 and 2021 is being examined in a new report published by the Ontario Securities Commission.
Staff notice 45-178, Ontario’s Exempt Market, found that despite pandemic-related market turbulence, capital raising activity in Ontario’s exempt market has continued to grow over the years. “In 2021, the amount of capital raised through prospectus exemptions nearly doubled from pre-pandemic highs to a record $175-billion,” they write.
The report states that Canadian and foreign issuers conducting prospectus-exempt offerings raised $171-billion from institutional investors and another $4-billion from individual investors. Institutional investors primarily invested in debt-related offerings while individuals remained concentrated in equity offerings of Canadian issuers.
The report, broken down, looks at market composition and annual trends, investor trends and Ontario issuer trends. “As in previous years, Ontario institutional investors primarily invested in debt-related offerings, $113-billion, of which a large and increasing share ($78-billion) was directed at U.S. and other foreign issuers,” they write. “Activity by Ontario-based issuers has increased both in terms of the number of issuers accessing the exempt market and the amount of capital raised.”
