The London Stock Exchange (LSE), operator of the London Stock Exchange, touted Thursday the best start to the year since 2015 for the number of IPOs, despite the Deliveroo debacle and stiff competition from other financial centers with Brexit.
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In total, during the first quarter, 25 companies went public in London, a record since 2015 for this period, according to a statement from the LSE.
These companies raised 7.17 billion pounds in these operations, which is the highest since 2006 for a first quarter.
The LSE has attracted a large number of tech companies or online sales that have been spiked by the pandemic.
The activity in London "
demonstrates the capacity of the British capital markets to support dynamic companies in all sectors and international
", welcomes Murray Roos, senior official of the LSE.
Dr Martens, Fix Price and Deliveroo make their debut
Major introductions include famous British shoe brand Dr Martens (raised 1.5 billion), Russian budget chain Fix Price (1.2 billion) and food delivery platform Deliveroo (1.5 billion) .
The latter even achieved the largest IPO since 2011 in terms of valuation, which was set at 7.6 billion.
But this record of the LSE is tarnished by the plunge in the price of Deliveroo during its first steps on the stock market on Wednesday.
The title, which continued its decline to a lesser extent Thursday, collapsed 26% at the close, and even lost time to more than 30% or two billion in capitalization soared.
The Financial Times even mentions, citing a banker, “
the worst IPO in history in London
”.
The City fears that this disaster will lead to a temporary paralysis of the IPO market by leading companies to postpone their project.
Deliveroo suffered from questions about its model and the working conditions of delivery men, the lack of profitability, fierce competition in the sector, and the choice of its founder Will Shu to opt for a system with two types of delivery. actions to maintain control.
However, the company's decision to go public in London was initially good news for the British capital, which is trying to remain competitive despite Brexit.
In an attempt to respond to competition from European places, London plans to relax stock market rules to attract young companies and to put the package, despite its delay, on the SPAC, listed vehicles which are on the rise.
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The City is also still in competition with the United States and Asia.
The British online used car seller Cazoo has just chosen to go public in New York, with a valuation of $ 7 billion, and using a SPAC.