We mustn’t become bored of the stock exchange’s problems
One of the perils of daily news is that you can occasionally find yourself repeating the same thing. Another day, another seemingly well-performing UK company bemoaning the state of the stock market for its limited liquidity and the level at which it is trading, particularly compared to peers abroad.
Today it’s Benchmark Holdings; last week, it was Wincanton. The former is pondering its options, whilst the latter has already given a provisional thumbs-up to a French takeover bid. Repetition, we hope, isn’t boring.
Forgive us a diversion on that theme. There is a possibly apocryphal story about the 2000 US election, in which Karl Rove – George W. Bush’s campaign manager – is harangued by journalists. Karl, they asked, we’ve been to every two-bit town in 50 states and Dubya keeps saying the same thing over and over; you’ve got to give us something new.
Whether it was their news editors becoming frustrated or their own boredom, they were quite sick of hearing Bush’s campaign speech. Rove, baffled, simply told them that once everybody in America could recite every word of the speech, he’d think about a little variety.
Whether it’s true or not makes little difference: the point is that the institutions both private and public which care about the health of the stock exchange cannot become bored of saying the same thing.
These are existential times for the public markets – London is in an almighty battle to remain at the top table of global finance, and having an equity market with a larger exit queue than one to get in is not a good look.
In time, weakness on the public markets will filter through to private capital, too, if domestic IPOs are off the table. Government and regulators cannot be allowed off the hook for their endless dithering over reforms: change must come, and must come soon.
Election or no election, we need to make some noise.