WESTERN Australia produced 15 initial public offerings on the Australian Stock Exchange in the three months to September, equal with New South Wales as the highest number of any state. According to a recent Deloitte IPO Report, WA’s IPO activity in the September quarter was up from 14 in the previous quarter. The amount raised by WA IPOs was lower, however, at $52.9 million, down from $79.2 million in the June quarter, reflecting the large number of mineral exploration floats from WA in the quarter. By comparison, the 15 NSW IPOs raised almost $2.23 billion, while just four South Australian-based floats raised a total of $86.1 million. In total, 43 new listings on the ASX raised a total of $1.94 billion, compared with 45 floats in the previous quarter, raising $2.93 billion. The best performer to list in the period was WA-based Energy Metals, up 472 per cent in the Deloitte report, which measured the returns from IPOs in the September quarter since making their debut until September 22. The next best was Monaro Mining, which listed on Sep-tember 15, raising $2.6 million. Monaro was 127 per cent higher. The stock market, however, has fallen significantly in the past week.During the period analysed. IPOs in the energy sector produced an average return of 110 per cent. Good WA perform-ers in this sector, aside from Energy Metals, included oil and gas explorers Livingstone Petrol-eum (up 90 per cent) and Louis-iana Petroleum (up 80 per cent). Those in the capital goods sector delivered a 93 per cent return on average with WA-based Cell Aquaculture up 65 per cent. The only other non-resources sector float from WA was NeuroDiscovery. Overall, the materials sector averaged a return of 42 per cent, reflecting strong interest in a number of gold explorers and companies interested in fossil fuel substitutes, the report said. “A boom in uranium explo-ration and strong interest in other alternatives to fossil fuels were key factors behind the exceptional returns being enjoyed by IPO investors,” it said. Deloitte corporate finance partner Tom Henderson said the September quarter had been a good one for IPOs in WA, with activity likely to continue at high levels in the December quarter, traditionally a busy time of year for public company floats. “The September quarter was really all about resources,” he said. Mr Henderson added that investors were eagerly antici-pating the performance of WA float Alinta Infrastructure Holdings, which listed at the beginning of this month. The float would be a strong contributor to WA’s IPOs in the coming quarter, he said, with a $926 million capital raising.