New Canadian Multifamily REIT Hits Toronto Stock Market With Biggest IPO Of The Year

Dream Residential Real Estate Investment Trust, a Toronto multifamily company with properties in the U.S., is expected to list after a $125M offering.  

It's the biggest IPO in Canada so far this year, per Bloomberg, and the first to top about $150M Canadian. Though Canada recorded 17 deals over that mark last year, beating IPO records, Peter Miller, head of equity capital markets for BMO Capital Markets, told Bloomberg inflation, interest rates, the war in Ukraine and new Covid-19 spikes are cooling interest in the country.  

“There’s a pretty broad layer of discontent across the capital markets,” Miller told Bloomberg. “[Investors are] getting more nervous about supporting new issues. And the new issues that have come, frankly, have been pretty mixed and not performed that great in the aftermarket.”  

The U.S. is experiencing a similar market chill. Bloomberg reported American IPO proceeds have fallen for five straight months, with April coming in at the lowest total since 2017.

“In much of 2020 and all of ’21, the market was, most of the time, open,” Miller said, adding so much activity had left fewer companies ready or able to go public now. “We do have some very attractive IPO candidates in the pipeline, but it’s dramatically fewer than last year.”

Most of Dream Residential's income comes from its U.S. properties in Ohio, Texas and Oklahoma, though the company is pushing for more acquisitions in what it calls high-growth markets. When the offer closes on May 6, Dream Residential plans on indirectly acquiring 16 multifamily properties with 3,432 units in total.  

TD Securities is the lead underwriter in the IPO. It will trade as DRR.U on the Toronto Stock Exchange in U.S. dollars.