TORONTO – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) today published a report on capital raising activity by corporate (non-investment fund) issuers in Ontario’s exempt market between 2019 and 2021. The report provides a snapshot of key trends relevant to investors and issuers.

“Despite pandemic-related market turbulence, capital raising activity in Ontario’s exempt market has continued to grow,” said Paul Redman, Director, Regulatory Strategy and Research at the OSC. “The information gathered on reported exempt market capital raising provides an important evidence-base for assessing capital formation in Ontario.” 

The report revealed that, in 2021, the amount of capital raised through prospectus exemptions nearly doubled from pre-pandemic highs to a record $175 billion.

Highlights include:

• In 2021, Canadian and foreign issuers conducting prospectus-exempt offerings raised approximately $171 billion from institutional investors and an additional $4 billion from individual investors.
• As in previous years, Ontario institutional investors primarily invested in debt-related offerings of which a large and increasing share was directed at U.S. and other foreign issuers. This activity drove the majority of the increase in capital raised since 2019.
• Investments by individual investors remain concentrated in equity offerings of Canadian issuers (68%).
• Real estate and mortgage-related investments continue to attract an increasing share of individual investor capital, growing from approximately 37% in 2019 to 43% in 2021.

OSC Staff Notice 45-718 can be found on the OSC’s website.

The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair, efficient and competitive capital markets and confidence in the capital markets, to foster capital formation, and to contribute to the stability of the financial system and the reduction of systemic risk. Investors are urged to check the registration of any persons or company offering an investment opportunity and to review the OSC investor materials available at http://www.osc.ca.

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