London Stock Exchange: Why it’s not all doom and gloom for the City’s embattled bourse
The London Stock Exchange has shown signs of life this year as new figures revealed the capital had surged ahead of European rivals in terms of cash raised by listed companies.
Firms listed on London’s embattled bourse raised some £14.6bn in follow-on equity issuance in the first nine months of the year, where listed firms raise cash by issuing more shares to the market, according to new figures from PwC.
The figures put the City ahead of European rivals and cast a more positive light on London’s markets after a torrid 18 months for fresh listings.
IPOs have fallen sharply over the past two years as volatility rocked the market and spooked investors. Figures from EY last week found that firms raised just £953m in the first nine months of the year compared with 34 IPOs raising £1.16bn in the same period in an already quiet 2022.
London was surpassed by the likes of Istanbul and Budapest in the IPO rankings.
The new numbers were cheered by City minister Andrew Griffith today who said the numbers showed life was returning to the market.
“At a time of low issuance across markets in general, these figures confound the declinists and show that London continues to be resilient,” he told City PM
“And as the benefits of our reforms kick in – including those boosting demand for U.K. listed equities – I am confident we will see more new and follow on capital raised here.”
London has been plunged into a period of introspection this year as London Stock Exchange officials and regulators look to overhaul the market and boost the flow of listings.
Ministers and London Stock Exchange officials have been looking to strip back red tape from the market with measures like slimming down the prospectus regime for new firms and merging the standard and premium segments of the market.
A number of firms have fired barbs at the City over the past year and a dearth of capital flowing into the stock market. Turkish soda ash firm WE Soda ditched a London float over the summer and fired a barb at the “conservatism” of London’s investors.
Analysts at PwC said the new numbers showed “some aspects of the European equity market have normalised” as London firms could dip into the pockets of investors again.
“This points to one of London’s recurring attractions being the depth of liquidity that is available and also signals investor appetite for equities,” said Kat Kravstov, capital markets director at PwC UK.
“That is certainly helpful in the context of providing a supportive environment for IPOs and we would expect this to feed through into a London IPO market in due course.”