Is London’s moribund IPO market finally starting to perk up?
Today Sutton-based fintech firm CAB Payments unveiled its plan to float in a listing that could value it at as much as £1 billion.
That comes hard on the heels of WE Soda, which could be worth as much as £6.5 billion.
They are both the sort of solid, if not exactly sexy, companies the London market should be attracting.
Hopefully there will be more to follow later in the year. But perhaps we should not get too excited.
The number of new arrivals through IPOs is still being heavily outnumbered by those departing, mainly through private equity acquisitions. At the last count almost 40 formerly quoted companies have been removed from the Stock Exchange already this year.
That steady net leakage looks set to continue unless and until the onerous regulatory thicket that deters so many businesses from floating in London is thinned out.
A steady flow of exciting IPOs would do wonders for morale in the City and perhaps help to pep up those depressed valuations that seem to be part of the problem.
So the message to the plethora of bodies in and outside Government looking at Britain’s competitiveness as a financial centre has to be — get on with it.
While it is welcome news that CAB Payments and WE Soda are coming to the market, even two swallows do not make a summer.
Only when there is a queue of businesses lining up to list their shares here will we know that London’s IPO sector is properly back in business.
