‘Golden opportunity’ for European equities, says CEO of stock exchange SIX
Europe must seize a “golden opportunity” for the revival of its capital markets, the boss of one of the continent’s biggest stock exchange businesses has said, as he called for stronger retail participation in equities to keep pace with the US.
Six CEO Bjorn Sibbern, who earlier this month completed the £225m takeover of London-based stock exchange Aquis, told Morning Wire he was “bullish” on the “strong momentum” he had seen in European equities since the start of the year, adding regulators needed to adopt a more business-friendly approach to keep the momentum going.
“I think this is a golden opportunity for Europe to up its game, whether it’s central Europe or the UK, to use the capital markets a lot more,” Sibbern said.
“The fact that retail participation is much stronger in the US versus where it is in Europe, that’s where we have a great opportunity.
“Sometimes you have to do it with tax incentives, sometimes you have to do it with the rules around listings…but I think Europe has many great companies, we just need to do better in terms of using the capital markets to help them.”
In an echo of the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech last night, Sibbern said it was vital to get more retail investors into equities instead of fretting over the risks involved in share ownership.
“The signals from Brussels and from what I see here in the UK is important and is something we support,” he said.
“If you look 10, 15 years ago [the conversation] was more about how we make sure retail are not exposed to risky equities.
“Hopefully things have changed…as long as people are educated and have the information, this is something we need to catch up. Shifting a little bit from being super risk averse to how do we secure retail participation.
“They should also have the chance to invest in the new Google – why should it only be private equity?”
‘Strong IPO pipeline’ to give stock market boost in second half of the year
Six, which also owns the Swiss stock exchange and the BME exchange in Spain, hosted the two largest IPOs in Europe last year, with beauty and fragrance group Puig Brands raising over £2bn in Spain in May and pharmaceuticals business Galderma landing a little under £2bn in Switzerland in March.
Sibbern said he continued to see a strong pipeline for the second half of 2025 and hoped to use the Aquis acquisition to build the “leading” SME venue in Europe.
“I think if I look at the big picture and when I look at our listing pipeline and the trading volume we have had the first half of the year, I am relatively bullish on the outlook we have for Europe,” Sibbern said.
“We saw a pause in IPOs because of the volatility in April and in part of May.
“But it was not that people cancelled their IPOs, they just postponed it, and now we have seen May and June being relatively stable…we will start to see the IPO market opening up again and I think we will have a couple of nice listings.”
Sibbern’s remarks come as the UK government also hopes to boost private markets through the creation of the Pisces regime, creating venues for companies to trade shares without the strictures that come with being a listed business.
That has sparked fears the market framework will steer companies away from listing on public exchanges in favour of private venues with a much lower regulatory burden.
But Sibbern, who took over the reins as boss of Six in January, said he did not believe schemes like Pisces would undermine public markets.
“Private markets are here to stay and are a key part of the market. They have good use cases for some companies at one point in time,” he said.
“We also think the value proposition from being a listed company and on a public listing venue is very strong.
“So I think you see that as a natural part of the journey…so I do not see that as a threat.”
Sibbern said he was keen to retain the Aquis brand and management to keep the venue operating independently in London.
“There are a couple of areas where we can learn from them and they can learn from us,” he said.