TSX to add second IPO in 2025 with Rockpoint
Brookfield Asset Management-backed Rockpoint Gas Storage launched its C$484m (US$347m) TSX IPO late last week, in the second TSX IPO this year and the first to put a price range on its listing document.
RBC Capital Markets and JP Morgan are joint bookrunners marketing the all-primary offering of 22m shares at C$19–$22, valuing the company at US$2.11bn at the top end of the range. The banks expect to price the offering after the market close next Wednesday, October 8.
While the base deal is all primary, Brookfield is contributing 3.3m shares to the greenshoe, which if exercised would reduce its stake to 81%.
Rockpoint's IPO seeks to tap investor interest in the growing natural gas segment. It owns six natural gas storage facilities in California and Alberta, Canada, with its 280 billion cubic feet of gas storage capacity accounting for a one-third market share in those two markets.
It intends to use proceeds to fund the purchase of 40% interests in two operating companies.
Rockpoint’s IPO is the second Canadian listing this year after Go Residential REIT raised C$500m (US$410m) in July, and the first to put out an indicative price range on the cover of its listing document, giving issuers pricing flexibility. The practice of having a range has long been in use in the US, and other countries.
"Historically, that wasn't in the prospectus," said Bill Gorman, a partner at Goodmans LLP. "It's more efficient now."
Previously, Canadian bankers would talk to institutional investors in fixed price terms, with the amount the company aspired to raise and the corresponding number of shares printed out on a so-called "green sheet". When pricing a deal, they would adjust the number of shares sold according to demand.
That was one of a number of changes introduced in April by the Canadian securities regulators to promote Canadian capital markets' competitiveness. They also include reducing IPOs' historical financial statement disclosure to two years from three, and the freedom to raise up to US$$100m or 20% of a company's market value in the 12 months immediately following an IPO.
"It's helpful," Gorman said. "But a bigger issue for the Canadian market isn't going to be solved by regulatory tweaks, in terms of valuation, the depth of capital liquidity. We are competing with the US and the markets around the world for capital and listings."