Over $100B in small caps went private
With about 1,600 companies preparing to go public, TMX Group is pointing to a larger potential investable universe for Canadian pension funds and institutional investors, even after only two new TSX listings last year and 55 delistings driven largely by take-private deals and consolidation in financials and energy.
John McKenzie, chief executive officer of TMX Group, said the IPO pipeline remains intact despite volatility linked to a U.S. software selloff and concerns about artificial intelligence disrupting business models.
“What is different now versus what it was six months ago is the number of companies that we are engaged with, that are on a public company track, that are actually doing the work that they're getting a public company ready, they're engaging with investors ... That is a deep pipeline,” he said.
Canada’s IPO market has lagged global peers in recent years. There were only two IPOs in 2025, while delistings outpaced new listings for three consecutive years. Over the last three years, more than $100 billion worth of Canadian small-cap companies were taken private, shrinking the domestic equity universe, according to comments made on BNN Bloomberg by Kelsey Keane, director of equity capital markets at National Bank of Canada.
At the same time, equity performance has remained firm. The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose about 29% in 2025, compared with a 16% gain for the S&P 500, supported by mining stocks and higher valuations for large banks, which account for roughly one-third of the Canadian benchmark. Peter Miller, head of equity capital markets at Bank of Montreal, told Reuters that the recent IPO slowdown was driven by a lack of supply rather than demand and that the current pipeline is the strongest since 2021.
Commodities anchor listing interest
McKenzie said Canada’s mining sector and commodity prices have sustained listing activity. Many of the companies preparing to list are mining and resource issuers.
“While this noise is a bit more technology-based or software-based, there's also been a lot of continued strength around commodities. We've got a lot of mining companies and resource companies that are in our pipeline,” McKenzie said.
Recent market fluctuations have centered on technology and software shares, particularly in the United States. McKenzie said those developments have not displaced commodity-focused issuers from the listing queue.
International issuers and alternative routes
Up to half of the approximately 1,600 companies in preparation are based outside Canada. McKenzie said international issuers are drawn to TMX’s venture ecosystem, which enables early-stage companies to raise capital. The exchange has pursued listings in the Middle East and maintains resources in jurisdictions including South America and Australia.
“We have been engaged in the Middle East. That's an area that is actually transitioning to more of a mining economy ... We have resources that are on the ground in multiple jurisdictions, like South America, like Australia, good resource economies,” McKenzie said.
Companies are also using alternative routes to public markets. McKenzie said reverse takeovers, direct listings and graduations from the TSX Venture Exchange to the senior TSX board are contributing to the pipeline. Early-stage issuers are evaluating the TSX Venture Exchange’s capital pool company program as another mechanism to raise capital and list publicly.
Recent deals provide reference points
Rockpoint Gas Storage, backed by Brookfield, raised C$704 million in October in what was the largest Toronto IPO of the year. David Rawlings, CEO of JP Morgan in Canada, which underwrote the deal, told Reuters that “successful IPOs can set positive precedents for future offerings,” noting the stock has traded about 25% above its IPO price.
Bankers have indicated that additional companies are preparing to list in 2026. Jackie Nixon, head of Canadian equity markets at Royal Bank of Canada, told Reuters that her team is working with companies expected to go public next year.
For pension funds and institutional investors that have seen the Canadian small-cap universe contract, the presence of roughly 1,600 prospective issuers represents potential new supply across mining, technology and other sectors, subject to market conditions and execution.
