Bird & Bird contributes to LexisNexis Market Standards Trend Report: Trends in UK Equity Capital Markets in 2023

Published

Mar 04 2024

Written By

Partner
UK

As a partner in our International Corporate Group based in London, I head up the International Capital Markets Practice across the firm.

Practices

Regions

Western Europe

Countries

Clive Hopewell, head of International Capital Markets at Bird & Bird contributed insights on the report’s findings. Clive commented, “2023 was another exceptionally difficult year for IPOs. The well reported outflows from UK small cap (and other) funds has made institutional fundraisings extremely difficult and from our own experience, as well as hearing from other advisers, the few AIM IPOs which have managed to close in 2023 required significant support from cornerstone investors and the issuers' own contacts/ existing shareholders.”

Discussing the decision by the FCA to effectively reintroduce the “secondary listing” category, Clive said: “This is something we championed and included in our response to the listing rules reform consultation. The FCA propose that companies with a primary listing on an overseas exchange, which they deem to be “equivalent” to the FCA regime – including the ASX, TSX, TSXV and NYSE - can have a secondary listing on the LSE’s Main Market in a category substantially the same as the existing Standard Segment. They will not have to list on the new ‘Commercial Companies’ segment, which merges the existing Premium and Standard Segments and has increased regulatory requirements over the Standard Segment.”

You can read the full report here