[LONDON] London bankers and investors are pinning their hopes on a handful of candidates to get initial public offering (IPO) activity off the ground after the much-anticipated listing of Shein hit a pause.
A blockbuster IPO by Shein, planned for this year and at one point eyeing a valuation of as much as £50 billion (S$86.3 billion), was often touted as the catalyst that London needed to reignite IPO activity.
Instead, the Chinese-founded fashion retailer got caught up in the US tariff war. Progress on the deal has slowed to a crawl as Shein assesses the impact of the trade restrictions on its business, Bloomberg News has reported.
UK equity capital markets have endured a torrid stretch, with a dearth of IPOs in recent years exacerbated by a number of high-profile listings moving overseas. Fundraising from London IPOs fell below US$1 billion in 2024 – only the second time since the financial crisis that volume dipped so low, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
“At the start of the year, there was real optimism for a cyclical rebound in IPOs,” said Mike Jacobs, a partner specialising in capital markets at law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. “But macro and market volatility – particularly sectors exposed to tariffs – has reasserted itself with a vengeance.”
Still, a list of deals penciled in for the coming quarters may offer a measure of spark that the market has been waiting for. And while the chilling effects of the ongoing tariff war continue to weigh on IPOs in Europe and the US, bankers say a number of firms are looking to go public as soon as calm returns.
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“Most IPO timetables have now shifted,” said Brian Hanratty, head of ECM at British investment bank Peel Hunt. “There are three to five notable London IPOs lined up for the coming quarters.”
One company that is considering braving the volatility is iForex Financial Trading Holdings. The trading platform with US$50 million in revenues announced plans for a potential listing on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.
Other companies that are considering a London listing this year include payments firm Ebury, backed by Banco Santander, as well as private equity-owned consumer credit provider NewDay and Greece’s Metlen Energy & Metals, Bloomberg has reported.
Uzbek gold miner Navoi Mining & Metallurgical has also been stepping up preparations for an eventual stock market debut, while Hong Kong-based EcoCeres has been considering London as a potential venue for a listing next year, people familiar have said.
To be sure, private equity owners could consider alternatives to offload holdings. For instance, NewDay’s owners CVC Capital Partners and Cinven have been fielding interest from potential buyers for the whole or part of the business, Bloomberg reported last month.
Investors are also still nursing heavy losses from the last wave of UK listings, underscored by Deliveroo announcing a buyout by DoorDash this week for less than half the £7.6 billion valuation the London-based food delivery platform reached in its IPO about four years ago.
“The poor 2021 IPO vintage is undoubtedly still fresh in investors minds,” said Jamie Constable, market strategist at London-based Singer Capital Markets. However, “we do not see this as driving an investors’ ‘buying strike.’ Investors are keen for new blood”.
To encourage more offerings, UK authorities are implementing the biggest revamp to listing rules in decades, with measures to relax voting rules and share structures already in place. They’re also exploring ways to unlock investment from retirement savings, for example by consolidating government pension funds.
Even so, more can be done to facilitate access to capital, including bolstering retail investment as well as government support for emerging companies, according to Caroline Escott, senior investment manager at pension fund Railpen, which oversees more than £34 billion in savings.
Scrapping stamp-duty on shares and supporting the London Stock Exchange’s junior bourse for early-stage companies, AIM, are also key to revitalise the market, said Jason Paltrowitz, a director at trading platform OTC Markets.
“London therefore needs to double down on supporting AIM to build the venture-stage companies of tomorrow, rather than focusing on attracting perceived ‘headliners’ to its markets,” he said.