Johnson to meet tech bosses in push to make London more attractive for IPOs
Boris Johnson will today meet with a group of tech bosses to discuss how to make the UK a more attractive destination for Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) post-Brexit.
It comes as the government is set to shed or ease a series of EU regulations on financial services later this year in a bid to boost the City’s global competitiveness.
Johnson will meet with executives from Pensionbee and Oxford Nanopore, two firms that floated in the capital last year, along with a series of other private start-ups.
This includes credit scoring provider Clearscore, digital bank Oaknorth and global payments provider Checkout.com, which is now valued at $40bn (£29.8bn).
Lord Jonathan Hill and Ron Kalifa – both authors of 2021 reports into how to reform financial services regulation – are also expected to attend the Downing Street meeting.
It comes after the Prime Minister held a similar meeting in 2020 with chiefs of Darktrace, Deliveroo, Trustpilot and Wise.
All four went on to subsequently list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The LSE was home to 120 IPOs in 2021, which was the most in a single year since 2014. They raised a total of £16.8bn between them, which was the highest total since 2007.
Deliveroo’s float, arguably the highest profile of the bunch, has not gone to plan and shares in the food delivery company are now trading at half of its 390p float price.
Sunak championed the move at the time, saying the IPO was a “a true British success story”.
The chancellor emphasised his vision for the City post-Brexit in the Sunday Times yesterday, writing that “we want lighter, better, simpler regulation”.
The government is looking at ways of boosting IPO activity further, with Hill suggesting in his report that FTSE firms on the London Stock
Exchange should be able to offer dual class shares in a bid to attract more tech unicorns to go public in London.
This would mean that founders of tech start-ups can buy shares that have special voting privileges over and above the average investor.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced last month that it was following the Hill review’s lead and would now allow firms that go public with a dual class share structure to list on one of the FTSE indexes.
James Kaye, partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, said: “These changes may lead to founder-led technology companies looking at a London market IPO later in 2022.
“However, while the listing rule changes now permit dual class share structures, the real test will be whether London investors are as willing to accept them as they have been in other markets.”