Globally, listings have taken off this year – and while the UK has not reached the heights of other markets, IPOs could be back on the agenda. David Prosser reports.
Whisper it quietly, but initial public offerings (IPOs) have returned. After three years of private companies largely shunning public market listings, global IPO activity picked up markedly over the course of 2025. The third quarter featured 370 IPOs worldwide – worth $48.2bn globally, according to data from EY. Deal volumes and value were up 19% and 89% respectively on the same period of 2024.
In the UK, however, the recovery seems markedly less advanced. There were just three London IPOs in the third quarter, meaning London dropped out of the world’s top 20 IPO markets this year, overtaken by Mexico and Singapore.
Nevertheless, advisers point to encouraging green shoots in the UK. “A year ago, we were mostly having quite general conversations about how to prepare for an IPO,” says Svetlana Marriott, head of the UK capital markets advisory group at KPMG. “Today, the discussions are much more specific – they’re about the practicalities of execution.”
Diane Craig, partner and head of the UK equity capital markets team at RSM, is also upbeat. “The floodgates aren’t going to open overnight, but there is definitely a feeling of confidence growing,” she says. “Many companies are feeling much more positive about capital markets transactions.”
The fourth quarter has certainly started well in the UK, with some high-profile IPOs on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). On 3 October The Beauty Tech Group raised £106.5m (See ‘Time To Make Up’ box, p21). And at the start of November, BDO advised Winvia Entertainment on its AIM listing, which raised £40m and gave the tech-led entertainment business a market cap of £205m. Jo Davenport, an ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty board member and the deal advisory partner who led the BDO team, said it was “encouraging to see momentum building once again”.
At the start of October, Fermi America, a Texas-based developer of electrical grids to support AI, listed on the LSE, raising $680m. The business, which is also listed on NASDAQ, was valued at $12.5bn. Shawbrook Bank listed on the LSE at the end of October, in an IPO that valued the UK challenger bank at £1.9bn, raising £50m of new capital from the IPO. The share price has responded well. By contrast, shares in Princes Group – the Italian tinned tuna company that listed in London on the same day, raising £400m on the back of a £1.2bn valuation – initially performed poorly, falling by 13% in early November, before rallying.
These deals could provide firm foundations for a strong 2026. Rumored big deals include the potential £2bn flotation of Ebury, the cross-border payments business owned by Santander, and Norwegian software firm Visma, which has a reported valuation of £16bn.
Nor is it only technology businesses coming to market, says Travers Smith corporate M&A partner Tom Coulter. “They may make the headlines, but the pipeline is actually very broad,” he says. “The IPO market should be much less concentrated on tech or fintech than people might expect.”
Global uptick
IPO gossip is rife in other major markets too, where advisers have high hopes for more blockbuster IPOs. In the US, payments business Stripe, potentially valued at more than $90bn, is widely fancied to announce an IPO in 2026. Crypto-focused asset manager Grayscale, valued at $33bn, filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in July, and chip manufacturer Cerebras could well return to the market, having delayed its IPO plans in October.
In Europe, France’s Accor Group is said to be considering an IPO for its hotel business Ennismore. And in Asia, Australia’s Canva, a graphic design platform, and Chinese chip manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies have been at the centre of IPO gossip – each flotation would be worth more than $40bn.
It’s quite the turnaround, IPO numbers having endured a four-year slump since the highwater mark of 2021. Global macro shocks, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a bout of elevated inflation, conflict in the Middle East, and the election of Donald Trump, left businesses uncertain and fearful about coming to market. Now, however, confidence is recovering, says Simon Olsen, a partner in the equity capital markets group at Deloitte.
Companies that paused IPO plans due to tariffs were surprised by how quickly markets came back
“One driver is the pent-up demand from three-and-a-half years of such low activity, which has seen companies planning IPOs repeatedly put them on hold,” Olsen says. “We’ve also seen extended hold periods for private equity-owned companies, and even founder-led businesses, where there is now a real desire for liquidity. I think we’re now getting better alignment between the sell side and the buy side on valuations too.”
Olsen believes hesitant companies could be emboldened by their experience earlier this year. “There were a number of companies that paused their IPO plans when the US announced trade tariffs on ‘Liberation Day’,” he says. “They were then surprised by how quickly markets came back. They weren’t ready to take advantage of the IPO window reopening.”
Scott McCubbin, EY partner and the firm’s IPO leader for the UK and Ireland, echoes this confidence and is positive about 2026: “There are some big IPOs out there and the pipeline for next year looks very strong – we’re not going to get back to 2021’s numbers, but a recovering economy and strong equity markets provide solid foundations.”
The UK has been able to rewrite its capital markets regulations in a way that suits it
Time to make up
Laurence Newman, the founder and chief executive of Cheshire-based Beauty Tech Group, hopes the company’s successful IPO at the beginning of October will encourage others to follow its lead. “I’m hoping this will be the start of other people coming to the market,” he said in the wake of the flotation.
Beauty Tech, which manufactures a range of beauty gadgets, from electronic face masks to hair growth-stimulating helmets, priced its IPO relatively conservatively and was rewarded with a significant bounce on its first day of trading. Offered at 271p, the company’s shares closed at 279p on day one, though they have since fallen back. The IPO valued the company at around £300m.
Diane Craig of RSM (pictured), which served as the reporting accountant to the company during the transaction, says Beauty Tech was confident of a strong market reception, regardless of the challenges that may have made other businesses hesitant to list recently.
“That confidence proved well-founded,” Craig says. “It’s a reminder that, notwithstanding difficult market conditions, investors are prepared to support companies with a strong management team, a good track record and a credible strategy for future growth.”
The deal will also be seen as validation of successive governments’ willingness to support early-stage companies through vehicles such as venture capital trusts and the enterprise investment scheme, which offer tax breaks to investors prepared to back such businesses. Beauty Tech had previously raised funding from Northern VCTs, which realised £7.3m from the IPO and retained a shareholding worth more than £17m.
Beauty Tech was advised by investment banks Berenberg and NM Rothschild, with legal support from Addleshaw Goddard and Travers Smith. RSM and BDO provided accounting, tax and regulatory compliance services.
Cutting through
McCubbin is convinced that the UK will be part of the global recovery story. “One benefit of Brexit has been that the UK has been able to rewrite its capital markets regulations in a way that suits it,” he says. “It’s not just a question of bringing the UK to parity with other jurisdictions – in many areas, we are now a superior option.”
The Financial Conduct Authority’s overhaul of the prospectus rules, for example, has reduced the burden on companies listing in London, while simplification of the listing regime has increased the UK’s competitiveness. An easing of regulation on remuneration in the financial services sector is also significant, and there are some signs investors are more willing to accept more competitive pay packages in other sectors too.
Recent reforms will hopefully give London’s IPO market a much-needed boost
“While some people have written London off, it remains a very vibrant international market and some of the reforms of recent years are now starting to deliver positive results,” says Deloitte’s Olsen.
The Chancellor is keen to make further changes to support the UK IPO market too, including reforms designed to encourage institutional investors such as pension funds to increase their exposure to UK equities.
Ahead of the Budget, Rachel Reeves floated ideas such as a stamp duty holiday for new London listings, tax relief for entrepreneurs on proceeds from flotations, and relief for companies on IPO costs.
That could be good timing. Concern about the UK’s ability to hold its own in the competition for high-profile listings has been ramped up in recent times by a series of high-profile departures. Companies such as Wise and Ashtead moving their primary listings to the US prompted much gnashing of teeth. The FTSE 100’s largest company, AstraZeneca, has also elevated its New York listing in recent months. But advisers now see an opportunity to capitalise on growing doubts about the benefits of listing in the US.
The Liberation Day announcements – and the subsequent toing and froing – have created a sense that US policy has become volatile and unpredictable. The budget impasse between President Trump and the Senate, which led to the US Government shutdown in October, has also undermined confidence. The two longest shutdowns of this type in US history have both occurred under President Trump.
“The focus on the US being a more attractive market than the UK and Europe has been one of the big talking points of recent years, but I see signs of that beginning to fade now,” says Brent Sanders, a US partner in the corporate M&A team at Travers Smith. “The current political and regulatory landscape in the US – including the uncertainty around tariff policy and potential changes by the SEC to the treatment of foreign issuers listing in the US – could make the market less attractive. Meanwhile, the recent and ongoing reforms we’ve seen in London will hopefully contribute a much-needed boost to the IPO market here.”
That could persuade businesses unsure about which market to go for to choose the UK. The British card reader company SumUp, for example, is reportedly deciding between London and New York for a $15bn IPO in early 2026. Opting for the former would give the LSE a major boost.
Pisces: testing the water
Could the UK’s new marketplace for privately owned businesses help unblock the IPO logjam? This autumn, the London Stock Exchange became the first operator to be granted regulatory permission to launch a platform under the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (Pisces). It will soon launch a regulated exchange on which shareholders in private companies can sell their holdings to other investors, offering stock through periodic offers for sale at set prices.
Buyers could include professional and institutional investors, as well as high-net-worth and sophisticated retail investors, although most retail investors will be barred. The Treasury has agreed trades will be free from stamp duty, a concession designed to stoke investor interest in the initiative.
While Pisces is a secondary market only – unlike IPOs on traditional stock markets, it does not provide any option to raise new cash – it could help more companies make the transition from private to public ownership, offering a middle ground with less onerous regulatory duties and reporting requirements. In time, that could lead to increased IPO activity on the main market in London or on the junior Alternative Investment Market, as Pisces companies get comfortable with being listed. London Stock Exchange CEO Julia Hoggett has talked about the potential for a “funding continuum from the private to public markets”.
But some advisers are sceptical about the impact of Pisces in the short term. “Pisces is a unique proposition for certain companies – perhaps those with employees holding shares they can’t currently do anything with, or incumbent shareholders that aren’t in the business and want to crystallise,” says RSM’s Diane Craig. “To that extent, Pisces does address an important gap, but it is a very different proposition to a conventional IPO – they’re chalk and cheese.”
The exit option
The growing number of private equity firms eager to exit businesses they have held longer than expected could also provide a fillip for London, adds EY’s McCubbin. “Some of these funds now have really large assets that are difficult to shift, where an IPO is their only viable exit strategy,” he says. “In the past, they’ve looked to the US and Amsterdam, but the UK is now an important part of the narrative too.”
Many are opting for dual-track processes, weighing up a private sale versus an IPO
October’s announcement of the flotation of Shawbrook Partners, which is backed by BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital, could therefore open the gates for many pending PE-sponsored IPOs in London.
Inevitably, there will be some hedging of bets. “Private equity firms are actively exploring exit opportunities for their maturing portfolio companies, with many sponsors opting for dual-track processes, weighing up a private sale versus an IPO,” says Kat Kravtsov, capital markets director at PwC. A recent BVCA poll of private equity firms found that 11 are planning to conduct at least one IPO on the UK market over the next 12 months.
Naturally, there will be competition. The same BVCA poll also revealed that 26 private equity firms are planning a US IPO. KPMG’s Marriott points out that IPOs are a global business: “Several companies are now considering Asian markets as an alternative to Europe or the US for a secondary listing. That’s supported by the significant levels of liquidity in Hong Kong and China, for example.”
Still, with fundamental market conditions now more supportive of IPO activity globally – and London making the most of the reforms it has made – there are good reasons to be optimistic. Headwinds include the fact that another macro shock to the system could set the recovery back. Also, the relative weakness of the global economy by historical standards may deprive some companies of the earnings growth stories they’d like to take to investors. But, in general, corporates are learning to be more comfortable with the volatility of today’s landscape.
The key is to be prepared to move at pace, says Travers Smith’s Coulter. “We always recommend carrying out a robust readiness assessment 12 to 24 months out, covering key areas like financial reporting, internal controls, compliance and governance,” he says. “It may be that you choose to put some workstreams on hold if market conditions change, and there’s obviously a cost question to be considered, but if you don’t have your financials, processes and procedures in place, there’s the danger of missing your window altogether.”
That would be unfortunate for companies that have been waiting patiently. In the end, all IPOs come down to timing. There is very rarely a single perfect moment to launch a transaction. But for now, at least, the pendulum appears to be swinging in favour of those prepared to be brave.
Share and share alike
“Dual listings are definitely becoming a bit of a theme, with more companies willing to explore different exchanges,” says KPMG’s Svetlana Marriott (pictured). “They’re not without complexity, in terms of managing liquidity and dealing with different regulatory requirements, but they’re increasingly common.”
Such companies, seeking to tap more diverse sources of capital, could be a rich source of candidates for the London Stock Exchange, as UK listing rules evolve to entice international businesses to the capital.
In August, for example, the Greek shipping business Metlen Energy & Metals announced it would list in London, shifting its primary listing from Athens but retaining a presence on Greece’s stock market. The £5.8bn company joined the FTSE 100 Index of blue-chip shares almost immediately.
“We would have been a small company in the US, attracting little attention,” says Evangelos Mytilineos, chair and CEO of Metlen. “In London, we are closer to the markets where we are most active, most of our executives know the country well, and we can continue to trade in euros, which makes life easier for our shareholders.”
In October, Texan technology business Fermi unveiled a $13.8bn IPO, held jointly on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. The business said the London listing made perfect sense in the context of its supply-chain operations and its reliance on UK law in many of its international contracts.
Nick Davies, co-office managing partner of Haynes Boone, which provided legal advice on the IPO, believes such arrangements could become standard. “A dual listing of this size and complexity will be a major milestone – a signal of what can be achieved in London,” he says. “It is exactly the kind of innovative, high-growth company that London should be attracting, and it proves that London markets can deliver transactions of real scale.”
