If we look at data from the TSX-Venture exchange from end of 2020 versus 2019, we can see that there were fewer IPOs (down 46%) and fewer new issuers (down 29%), which is typically good for the ventures as these tend to host the junior mining companies. Importantly, the IPOs that did raise money generated 134% more funds (C$213M in total).
The total number of financings in 2020 was up by about 25% to over 1,700. These raised 55-60% more money, equating to roughly C$6.6 billion. This figure includes mining companies, in addition to other companies listed on the venture, but the venture tends to be dominated by junior miners, so it is not a bad proxy for the sector. The valuation of these companies has also gone up by 70-75%. Overall, things are looking positive for the companies listed on the Venture.
Taking into account the financings on the TSX Venture as well as the main board of the TSX, I calculated over C$9 billion in funds raised in 2020. There were over 900 deals at around C$10 million per transaction and over 200 companies completed more than one transaction in 2020.
Most of the funding went to gold, while gold combined with copper and silver together took well over 80% of the total financing. In North America, funding season is typically begins in January and February, right before the field season. While we did see a pickup in February, what’s interesting is that the normally slower months of summer (from June through August) actually had some of the best results for financings, where we saw well over 100 transactions per month and raising over a billion dollars. We also saw another pickup in December, which is pretty unusual as people are typically winding down for the year.
