London Stock Exchange boss: ‘Media narrative’ behind UK’s capital markets woes
The boss of the London Stock Exchange has denied there is an issue with the health of the UK’s capital markets, despite London dropping out of the top 20 IPO destinations for the first time in history this year, falling behind Oman and Mexico in the early months.
Dame Julia Hoggett complained of unnecessary pessimism plaguing the capital’s bourse that doesn’t bear out in its overall numbers, telling an online event that the recent listings rules overhaul meant it was now “fit for the future”.
“There is an overblown negativity that I don’t believe is actually in the ecosystem,” she said. “I think it’s increasingly – if I’m blunt – a media narrative rather than an ecosystem narrative, or even a company narrative. And if you look at the objective facts… we are ninth globally this year in terms of total capital raised as a venue.”
Hoggett’s comments stand in stark contrast to the prevailing narrative that London is losing its status as one of the world’s elite exchange amid a years-long struggle to attract and retain some of the country’s brightest companies.
The bourse has been rocked by the abrupt recent departures of Wood Group, Just Group and tech darling Wise, as stubbornly low valuations and stodgy liquidity leave UK-listed companies vulnerable to takeovers and delistings.
Last month, UAE-backed engineering firm Sidara picked off oil and gas giant Wood Group after a series of bids.
And payments darling Wise rocked the London market when it ditched its primary listing in July in favour of New York’s deeper pool of capital.
Wise made its debut to great fanfare in 2021 alongside Made.com, Alphawave and Darktrace in a wave of post-pandemic IPOs. Since then, a quarter of the 33 firms that raised more than £100m by listing in the UK have since left the London Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc, the most valuable FTSE 100 company, announced in September that it would replace its ADRs with a direct primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange to attract more capital.
London Stock Exchange struggles to lure fresh IPOs
The bourse has also struggled to attract the same number of virgin listings, despite the UK being home to some of the world’s most vibrant private-scale-up companies.
Nik Storonsky, the boss of banking giant Revolut, has previously said it is “not rational” and “much worse” to list in London, while Klarna, which once looked like it could be the UK’s next blockbuster IPO, chose New York over London for its debut.
The dearth of fresh listings – which was briefly bucked with a spurt of three small IPOs, including the tinned tuna company Princes, in October – has pushed London out of the top 20 markets for IPO capital raised for the first time in its history.
It ranked below Oman and Mexico on Bloomberg’s list of top-performing capital-raising venues, according to its September analysis.
The London Stock Exchange’s Hoggett pushed back against allegations that the UK’s exchange was underperforming relative to European counterparts, blaming a pan-continental tendency to invest in cash and property rather than stocks.
“We have to get better as an ecosystem at recognising that we are the largest market in Europe,” she said, pointing to bumper capital-raising rounds carried out by Aim-listed Rosebank and a flurry of big secondary raises. “We have been the only market by total capital raised in Europe in the top 10 in the last decade, every year of the last decade, and we have every intention to continue to maintain that slot.”
Speaking on the same panel, Tom Swerling, the head of capital markets at Deutsche Bank, talked up the likelihood of London enjoying a string of blockbuster IPOs by the end of next year.
“There has been discussion for a while around whether this next wave of UK IPOs, is it really on the horizon, or is it a mirage?” he said. “People have liked to suggest it’s a mirage, but actually, I think we really do see a good quality selection of assets across a range of industries… very very much now on the horizon.”