London bourse floats hit 3-year high at $20b

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) raised 15 billion pounds ($20.28 billion) from 106 initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2017, a 63 per cent increase compared to last year and the highest level for three years.

Money raised from the exchange’s listings was up 164 per cent compared to 5.7 billion pounds in 2016, the LSE said in a statement on Friday.

It added that 20 North American companies chose London for their listing, including Dallas-based oil and gas company Kosmos Energy.

London has seen a pick-up in listings this year after uncertainty around Britain’s future outside of the EU single market in 2016 dampened investor confidence and caused a number of initial public offerings (IPO) to be postponed or cancelled.

“Despite the debates about Brexit, London’s highly global, deep and liquid capital markets continue to be the ideal partner for funding the world’s growth,” Chief Executive Officer Nikhil Rathi said.

“It is particularly significant that the number of international listings in London is up, with North American listings up nearly seven-fold on last year,” Rathi said.

The listing of 35 investment companies drove total IPOs value higher, with 5 billion pounds raised from vehicles including real estate investment trusts or special purpose acquisition firms, compared to just 644 million pounds in 2016.

However, the average share performance of newly listed companies in 2017 was down 34 per cent year on year, the LSE said.

Raising $1.5 billion, the largest single London float in 2017 was Russia’s En+ Group, which manages tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s aluminium and hydropower businesses.

Broadcasting masts company Arqiva abandoned plans to raise 1.5 billion pounds and business services firm TMF scrapped a planned float of up to 1.3 billion pounds in favor of an outright sale to a private equity firm.

Source:Timesofoman