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Teranet files notice of IPO
Ontario government expects $400M windfall
T
he private company that operates Ontario's electronic land registry system has filed notice that it wants to go public. Teranet has filed a preliminary prospectus with regulators, saying it wants to convert the company into a publicly held income trust.
Lawyers, real estate Brokers, agents and financial institutions in Ontario use Teranet to carry out property registrations and title and writ searches in Ontario. It operates under an exclusive contract with the province until 2017.
While the Teranet land registry system is privately owned, the data in the system is owned by the province of Ontario, which operates the land registry offices.
In 2003, Ontario sold its 50 per cent stake in Teranet but held onto the right to share in the value of any future sale.
Ontario taxpayers can expect a windfall of at least $400 million from the initial public offering of Teranet Inc., the electronic land registration business controlled by the province, according to provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan says. The money will go into general revenues, which will give Duncan more spending room in next spring's budget – the government's last before an election next year.
The amount Ontario alone is expecting from the pending sale of income trust units in the business has prompted Bay St. observers to speculate the share sale could be one of the biggest IPOs in the country. "It sounds like the total company could be worth a couple of billion dollars," Leslie Lundquist, a portfolio manager with Bissett Investment Management in Calgary.
May 12, 2006 in Legal Considerations | Permalink
