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Heading into the holidays a number of Canadian investment dealers are sitting on a bunch of hung bought deals.
Timing is everything when launching a financing, and in the final few months of the year it looked like the window for new deals was wide open – in large part because retail investors appeared hungry for some new shares.
But even after such a dry summer spell, it turns out there was still only a limited appetite for offerings, and investors were satiated rather quickly. While a hung bought deal isn't anything new, the word is that there are an unusually large number sitting around on the books at the moment.
The hope now is that investors have simply packed up for the holidays but will come back to the table early in the New Year. There's no telling what will definitely bring them back, but a fiscal cliff deal would surely help, erasing the biggest question mark hanging over the markets.
However, if very little changes at the start of the year, it could be hard for the banks to unload some of their positions, particularly if they're sitting on growth stocks.
Tim Kiladze