Capital raising on the London Stock Exchange has had its worst start to the year in three decades, with European bourses also struggling to keep pace with surging volumes in the US and parts of Asia.
Only 146 UK-listed equity capital market issuances took place in the first half of the year — less than a third of those registered in the US over the same period — raising just $11bn, according to Dealogic data.
London has struggled for several years to attract big-name IPOs amid a dearth of liquidity and a less favourable regulatory climate, with reforms last year so far failing to arrest the decline. Fashion retailer Shein and metals investor Cobalt are among a number of high-profile companies to call off London listings at a late stage in recent months.
High-profile fintech Wise meanwhile last month announced plans to move its primary listing to New York, with blue-chip pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca earlier this week reported to be planning to follow suit.
Other European equity markets have fared little better, with the value of ECM listings falling 15 per cent year on year to $63.8bn, against a 9.7 per cent increase globally.
“The UK and European equity capital markets were far slower to rebound after US President Donald Trump’s liberation day tariffs, with issuers showing more caution given the uncertainty over the direction of European imports into the US,” said Samuel Kerr, global head of ECM at Dealogic.
“The lack of deal flow was mainly a supply-side issue, with the few European deals that did come to market in May often seeing substantial levels of demand. In June, however, we saw this turn as equity sellers finally decided to embrace growing demand for European equity exposure to selldown their large, listed holdings.”
Listings in the US meanwhile grew by 17 per cent year on year in value terms for the first six months of the year, boosted by big name offerings from stablecoins provider Circle and fintech Chime.
Hong Kong meanwhile saw listing values surge nearly eightfold to $14bn in the first half of the year from just $1.8bn in the year ago period, sparked by a rush of Chinese companies coming to market, with many entities listed on the mainline seeking a second listing in the territory.
Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology, listed in Shenzhen, raised $5.3bn in May, the largest offering of its kind in the world so far this year.
The North Asia region — encompassing markets including China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan — saw ECM deals of $71.1bn for the first half of the year, up 75 per cent year on year.