Stories of London’s demise as an IPO venue appear to be greatly exaggerated.
The third quarter of 2021 saw £3.9bn raised from 11 listings. By comparison, the next closest exchange was Brussels which raised £1.34bn from two listings in the same period.
This marks a return to form for London which ranked third in Q2 with £2.6bn from 20 initial public offerings (IPOs). During the same quarter Germany, which led the rankings, raised £3.7bn from 11 IPOs. The increase in activity for Q3 in London comes as the City looks to remain competitive internationally as a financial centre following the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Part of the reason for London’s success in the quarter was hosting two of Europe’s largest listings: Petershill Partners, which is owned by Goldman Sachs, attracted £1.2bn in funding while Bridgepoint, a private equity firm, raised nearly £900m.
As well as the headline listing figures, there has been other positive news on the AIM market as it delivered the fifth consecutive quarter of growth in listings.
Simon Gordon, Senior Director – Fund & Corporate Services, said:
“As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, it’s great to see Europe, and London in particular, continuing to see growing demand for listings. The market has had a sustained period of low activity while firms sat on cash reserves so we are starting to see a sustained period of investments and IPOs.”
“What is most interesting is that we are seeing listings across Europe in a range of industries including tech, financials, healthcare and industrials among others.”
“Our London Governance and Company Secretarial team has been appointed to provide support to trading companies listing on AIM and the Main Market of the LSE. Industries have been widely varied, from clothing retail to specialist “green” technology.”
“In addition we are continuing to see a strong pipeline of new investment funds, focused on various asset classes, moving towards IPO on the Premium and the Specialist Fund Segments of the Main Market. London has a large number of sophisticated institutional investors and this is clearly still a major attraction.”
London has made changes to its listing regime in order to make it a more attractive venue, with the introduction of dual class share structures and a reduction in the minimum float level to 10% from 25%.
In August, the FCA also amended its rules on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) to bring the UK closer to US SPAC listing rules and the Euronext exchanges which had seen the majority of SPAC activity in Europe.
To find out more about our experience with listed funds or how we can help in the listing process, get in touch with Simon directly.
