Investment bankers enjoyed a strong year in 2025, with Canadian equity issuance soaring amid resilient stock markets, while debt markets held steady, according to data from LSEG Data & Analytics.
For the full year, the total value of equity issuance came in at $31 billion — which is a jump of 103% compared with the previous year. The volume of equity deals was also up by 47% year over year, the firm noted.
Secondary offerings were up 76% last year to $23.6 billion, while initial public offerings (IPOs) jumped by 243% from the previous year to just over $2 billion and preferred securities issuance was up by a staggering 1,437% to $2.6 billion. Retail structured products also climbed by 44% to $770.6 million.
The materials sector led the way, accounting for almost 40% of the new deal activity ($12 billion worth), followed by the energy and power sector with a 24.9% share and the industrials at 9.9% of total issuance.
RBC Capital Markets remained at the top of LSEG’s overall league tables for equity underwriters, followed by BMO Capital Markets. CIBC World Markets took third place, up from eighth spot in the previous year.
CIBC pushed National Bank Financial (NBF) down to fourth place, with TD Securities Inc. rounding out the top five. The Bank of Nova Scotia slipped from fourth place down to eighth in the LSEG rankings, and Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. was down to ninth place from fifth spot last year.
While RBC, BMO and CIBC also topped the rankings for secondary offerings in that order, CIBC took top spot in preferred securities, bumping RBC down to second and BMO to third place.
Additionally, the revival of the Canadian IPO market was led by JP Morgan, which took first place in the IPO underwriter rankings, followed by RBC, BMO and CIBC.
Canaccord took top spot in retail structured products, bumping CIBC down to second, and NBF took third place, up from seventh in 2024.
Alongside the rebound in equity issuance, LSEG reported that the total value of debt issuance came in at $276 billion for 2025, which was up 2% from the previous year. The volume of deals rose by 1% year over year.
While government debt led the way with $154 billion in new issue activity, that was down by 2% from the previous year — which was more than offset by a 10% increase in corporate debt issuance during the year.
In LSEG’s overall debt underwriter rankings, RBC retained top spot, while BMO nudged TD out of second place, pushing TD to third, and knocking CIBC down to fourth place. Scotiabank took fifth place, pushing NBF down one spot.
RBC also led the rankings for government and corporate debt, BMO took second place in government debt, up from fifth place last year. NBF held onto third place, with TD and CIBC rounding out the top five.
In the corporate debt rankings, TD climbed up to second place from fourth in 2024, while Scotia ranked third (up from fifth), and CIBC and BMO came in fourth and fifth, respectively.