The London Tunnels joins JP Jenkins after ditching Euronext
The company behind plans to convert a set of secret Second World War tunnels beneath the City into a major new tourist attraction has today joined private securities venue JP Jenkins after quitting Amsterdam’s Euronext.
The London Tunnels Ltd, which was set up in 2023, floated on the Dutch exchange in 2024 in a bid to raise capital to fund the conversion of the long-abandoned tunnels into a museum and what would become London’s deepest underground bar.
But a year later, the firm reversed course and delisted, citing complications with the tax treatment of its overseas shares which caused the stock to be dropped from many major trading platforms.
“Basically we were not an electronically traded stock…there was no other way we could get around that problem,” chief executive Angus Murray told City PM.
Murray considered a number of alternatives, including a London float, before opting to join JP Jenkins.
“Companies are finding it very expensive to be on the London Stock Exchange or on Aim,” Murray said.
“They are finding that the liquidity of the shares that are trading is much lower than they would have hoped or expected and a lot of that is due to the way that retail investors in the UK have been encouraged not to make investments directly in shares.
“There’s not the same enthusiasm for the stock market from individuals are there is in other jurisdictions.”
Veronika Oswald, Commercial Director, JP Jenkins, said: “The decision to transition from Euronext Growth to trade in London is a strong endorsement of the infrastructure we’ve built.
“It also underlines the continued importance of a London trading presence for growth companies seeking long-term liquidity solutions.”
£80m shortfall
In its latest report, The London Tunnels said it remains some £80m short of its target to fund the fit-out of the attraction, slated to open its doors by the end of 2026.
Murray said the company, which redomiciled its parent entity to the Cayman Islands following its delisting, would seek debt financing to cover most of the funding target, including tapping investors in Asia and the Middle East.
The tunnels, known as the Kingsway Exchange tunnels, are an expanse of 8,000 sq m of passageways several hundred feet below High Holborn which were shrouded in mystery for most of the 20th century with details covered by the government’s Official Secrets Act, because of their wartime role as a base for MI6 officials.
It is hoped that as many as two million visitors a year will visit the attraction site after it is converted into a high-tech immersive experience, with giant curved immersive screens, interactive structures, scent-emitting technology and hundreds of individual acoustic pinpoint speakers.