He cited a recent Environics survey directed at finding out what states or provinces were viewed by venture capitalists as the most competitive places in which to do business. The most recent survey put B.C. ahead of every other Canadian province and ranked it only behind California, Washington State and New York – the homes of some of the major tech companies in the world. This is a far cry, Mr. Nesbitt noted, from a dead last ranking a few years ago.
“For a province that only a few short years ago flirted with have-not status, the turnaround has been stunning,” added Mr. Nesbitt.
Supporting his position of B.C.’s importance to the capital markets, Mr. Nesbitt offered these statistics. “Out of 287 tech listings on TSX Venture Exchange, 99 are from B.C. – 34 per cent. In fact, 44 per cent of Venture’s listings are B.C. companies. Last year, Venture companies raised more than $4 billion in financing, and nearly half was raised by B.C.-based companies.”
And on Toronto Stock Exchange, the story is a little less dramatic but no less convincing – 19 per cent of TSX tech listings are based in B.C.
Mr. Nesbitt’s remarks are available on tsx.com.
About TSX Group Inc. (TSX-X)
TSX Group operates Canada's two national stock exchanges, Toronto Stock Exchange serving the senior equity market and TSX Venture Exchange serving the public venture equity market as well as Natural Gas Exchange (NGX), a leading North American exchange for the trading and clearing of natural gas and electricity contracts. TSX are the initials attached to the core equity operations of the TSX Group (www.tsx.com): Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Markets, TSX Datalinx, TSX Technologies. TSX Group is headquartered in Toronto and maintains offices in Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver.
