London floats collapse by a third after big names opt for New York

Floats on the London Stock Exchange plunged by a third in the first six months of 2023.

Eighteen firms listed during this time, compared with 26 in the same period of last year.

It was also much lower than in 2021, when 49 companies went public. Middle Eastern luxury property group Dar Global was one of the few to list early in 2023, with a £480m float back in March.

The slump comes after a bruising start to the year when a slew of big-name firms said they would ditch their London listings for New York. Among them were microchip company ARM despite a campaign by ministers.

Within days several other firms also said they were looking across the Atlantic, with building materials group CRH later moving its shares to New York.

The LSE took another hit earlier this month when WE Soda, the world’s largest producer of natural soda ash, U-turned on London two weeks after unveiling its plans for a £6billion listing.

The Turkish company blamed ‘extreme investor caution’ in the UK.

Companies pulled floats and mergers in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. In 2021 there was a flood of listings as markets rebounded – but there has been a dearth of new joiners for the past 18 months.