Weekly Investment News and Analysis

We wish you and your family a happy, healthy and prosperous 2021. Canadian capital markets were relatively quiet this past holiday week, following a busier than usual December, we expect activity to pick up in January, with a focus on technology, which appears to have more robust activity in the past few months. As expected, heightened activity also benefited global investment banking, according to Refinitiv. In the near term, we expect headlines pertaining to NYSE – China telco delisting and Bitcoin momentum to dominate.

Thank you for your support through 2020, we hope you and your loved ones are enjoying a restful holiday season. Canadian fundraising activity understandably slowed this past week, M&A activity remained robust. As Bitcoin enjoys a revival these past few weeks, we would expect to see heightened capital markets activity in 2021. In the USA, most of the news in the past week focused on SPACs. We would also keep an eye out for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of the NYSE’s “direct” listing plan, which could allow companies to raise capital in direct listings.

This past week, we saw multiple successful Canadian tech company public market debuts, including Sophic Client Luckbox (LUCK-TXSV), Emerge Commerce (ECOM-TSXV) and WeCommerce (WE-TSXV). While in the USA, ContextLogic (WISH-NASDAQ) was down 16% on its IPO. That said, recent tech IPOs and strong tech stock performance has left experts scratching their heads and led to the introduction of new structured products. At the same time, the potential IPO, SPAC list continues to grow, with listings expected by Poshmark, Bumble, UiPath, Coinbase, Playtika, Tokopedia, indie Semiconductor.

While Canadian capital markets slowed this week after a very busy previous week, in the week ahead, we’re looking forward to the trading debut of Sophic client, Luckbox (LUCK-TSXV). Emerge Ecommerce (ECOM-TSXV) is also expected to start trading this coming week. Meanwhile, in the USA, AirBnB, DoorDash and C3.AI, all had very strong trading debuts as expected by most. At the same time, IPOs of Roblox and Affirm seem delayed to 2021, with speculation that these companies may try a different approach than the traditional IPO in order to avoid massive IPO pops, which do not benefit companies issuing new stock. Some alternatives could include direct listing, auction IPOs or going public via a SPAC. At the same time, there seems to be increasing chatter about unsustainable valuations.

This past week was perhaps one of the most tech capital markets news intensive weeks we have witnessed in a while. In Canada, there was plenty of activity in public and private markets, as well as M&A with MindBeacon, Dye&Durham, theScore, BlackBerry, Lightspeed, Benevity, Element AI & PayBright. In the USA, a lot of attention was focused on Salesforce-Slack acquisition, at a 50% premium, however, there were at least three more high profile acquisitions, as well as a few more high profile IPOs including Airbnb & DoorDash.

We witnessed another week of decent small tech capital markets activity in Canada. In the USA, with the Thanksgiving shortened holiday week, another massive Stripe up-round, Metromile’s SPAC and Discord’s financing were perhaps the most topical news items.

This week, we learnt some more details on ANT Financial’s IPO delays, as well as planned IPOs for Airbnb, DoorDash and Instacart (all likely benefiting from the COVID trade). In Canada, it was relatively quiet week on the funding front, but we expected continued activity in healthcare tech, and perhaps crypto related companies (we’ve already seen a couple), as Bitcoin quietly marches upwards.

Sophic Client GameSquare Esports (GSQ-CSE, GMSQF-OTC, Sophic Client) announces US$3.0 million Private Placement led by Goff Capital and the Jones Family and a new strategic investor to further strengthen the Company’s shareholder base. In a recent report, we examine, Sophic Client, Edge Total Intelligence (CTRL-TSXV) offerings as edgeTI’s software provides enterprises a single point of control software enabling the rapid coordination and execution of informed decisions. This is a US$23 billion industry, and edgeTI is establishing itself to grow in this industry. Shopify told employees on Thursday that it will raise all employees’ base salaries, The Information has learned. The salary increases will come into effect starting in July, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move follows The Information’s report that Shopify was suffering from staff defections, even as Shopify’s stock plunge this year has reduced the value of recent stock grants. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) today announced that it has invested US$425 million in VerSe Innovation Private Limited, one of India’s leading content technology platform companies. PokerStars and FanDuel join forces to strike major partnership deal with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. Gartner forecasts global tech spending to hit US$4.4 trillion this year, up 4%. Buffett’s Berkshire reveals stake in HP; shares surge almost 10%. Twitter shares surge after disclosure Elon Musk has taken stake. Amazon, Alphabet and others are quietly rolling out drone delivery across America. Cash App discloses security breach impacting over 8 million users. Apple Pay surpasses Venmo and PayPal as teens’ favorite payment app, shows Piper Sandler survey. Meta Platforms’ financial arm, Meta Financial Technologies, has been exploring the creation of a virtual currency for the metaverse, the Financial Times reported.

With the US elections looming in the coming days, capital markets newsflow in the USA this past week focused on M&A vs. new issues. Internationally, the imminent Ant Group IPO, seems very eagerly anticpated by investors. In Canada, as we expected a few weeks ago, we saw activity in the healthcare tech space with Vitalhub and CB2 Insights, both announcing financings.

Most Canadian investors we spoke with this past week, seem as enthusiastic as ever on the telehealth space. We expect more activity in this sector. In the larger tech space, PayPal’s crypto move and the US Antitrust lawsuit against Google seem to be major stories this past week. Looking ahead, the next week is packed with major tech giants releasing earnings, as well as Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai will appear before a US Senate committee examining Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Canadian public market investors appear bullish on telehealth & health tech companies, as evidenced by their recent stock performance. We would expect increased capital allocated to this sector in the near term. The investment by a subsidiary of the investment arm of Alibaba Group into PopReach (POPR-TSXV) also appears to have resonated well with investors. Recall, such validation by a well regarded international investor was a very strong endorsement for Well Health (WELL-TSX), which dramatically improved that company’s access to capital.