London IPO Bankers Advise Patience During Listings Drought

UK-focused equity capital market bankers are looking to an ongoing series of reforms to reignite initial public offering activity as London listings see their slowest start to the year since 2023.

The city has seen less than $76 million in IPO deal volume in 2025, a fraction of the nearly $2.8 billion recorded at other exchanges in Europe, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The lack of activity continues a yearslong trend of underperformance, which has prompted the government, regulators and the local bourse to pursue a wide-ranging rules revamp to attract new candidates.

Some of the reforms have already borne ...