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it’s sometimes difficult for small, private companies to find enough capital to continue growing at the pace they would like.
some can raise money by tapping into private equity or venture capital markets, but that can be a hit-or-miss proposition. the next-best alternative is to take the company public and have its stock listed and traded on the new york stock exchange, the nasdaq stock market or a regional exchange.
it is true that a company can raise millions of dollars through a public offering, but u.s. exchanges extract hefty listing costs and annual fees from these companies. executives at capital-starved upstarts often suffer sticker shock when they see the high price of being listed on a u.s. public exchange.
increasingly, u.s. companies, including many based in texas, are finding an alternative for their financing needs north of the border at the toronto stock exchange (tsx). almost 4,000 companies are listed on this all-electronic exchange, and some 350 of them are based outside of canada.
an additional 2,000 companies are listed on the tsx-venture exchange, a feeder exchange to the tsx that caters to smaller, emerging companies. more than two dozen texas companies trade on the toronto exchanges, and officials are pushing to get more texas companies listed.
in fact, a contingent of tsx officials visited dallas earlier this month to tout the benefits of listing in canada.
“the united states is a key area for us, and texas is really important to us,” said ungad chadda, senior vice president of the tmx group, which owns tsx. “we are trying to raise awareness about the opportunities for texas companies to raise capital on our exchanges.”
it’s difficult to compare listing fees among the exchanges, because they charge different amounts based on market capitalization and the number of shares outstanding. however, in general, a small company with fewer than 20 million shares outstanding can expect to pay a $125,000 listing fee on the nyse, and then $30,000 to $40,000 annually in other listing expenses.
to list on the nasdaq, a company of that size would pay a $50,000 one-time fee and $32,000 in annual fees. by comparison, the same company on the tsx would pay about half that amount, chadda said.
“costs are important, but costs shouldn’t be the only thing guiding companies to lists,” chadda said. “this is too big of a decision for companies to base it solely on costs.”
one dallas-based company, milestone apartments reit, which owns about 17,000 apartment units, raised some $228 million when it went public and listed on the tsx in march. milestone chief executive robert landin said his company considered all the major u.s. exchanges but decided the toronto exchange was the best fit.
the public offering went perfectly and was actually oversubscribed, meaning there was more demand for milestone shares than supply. landin said factors other than costs were more important to selecting an exchange.
for example, milestone would have been a relatively small player on the nyse, but it is the largest u.s.-based commercial reit on the toronto exchange. and that translates into robust analyst coverage.
“we have six analysts covering our company now. for us to have that kind of coverage after only six months of being public is unprecedented,” landin said. “i know we would have had less coverage on the nyse.”
analysts’ coverage is important because their reports — when positive — support the stock price because they generally work for companies that sell stocks. landin also said he was impressed with how fast his company met the tsx requirements for listing.
“we were able to bring our company public in about four months on the tsx, which is a far quicker pace than we could have done it on the nyse,” landin said.
although all types of companies list on the toronto exchanges, one sector that is especially important involves oil and gas. canada is a country rich in natural resources, particularly oil and gas, so it stands to reason that the tsx is home to a lot of energy companies.
in fact, 35 percent of the world’s public oil and gas companies list on the tsx, and 50 percent of the world’s oil and gas analysts work in calgary, chadda said.
canada’s largest cities are filled with oil and gas analysts, lawyers, accountants and investment bankers specializing in this area, he said.
“when you list on our markets, you are getting an extremely knowledgeable investor base,” chadda said. “even the cabdrivers here know how to calculate oil and gas.
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