London Stock Exchange Raises Most IPO Funding Since 2007, Marking A Strong Year For LSEG Capital Markets

• The London Stock Exchange is the number one exchange in Europe, raising more equity capital than the Amsterdam and Paris exchanges combined, and the most equity capital raised outside of the US and Greater China
• Tech & consumer internet businesses led primary market issuance in 2021 with 39% of IPO capital raised
• Hambro Perks Acquisition Co became the first SPAC to list in London in November 2021, after the FCA announced new SPAC listing rules in July 2021 

Through the year 39% of all IPO capital has been raised by tech or consumer internet companies, with a combined market capitalisation of £31bn at IPO.  This has included Oxford Nanopore and Wise, the largest technology company to list on the exchange ever (based on market cap), using direct listing. 

2021 overall has been a strong first year for the LSEG Capital Markets division.  Total FX volumes hit a new daily record of over $680bn (including FXall and Matching).  Our Turquoise and Plato Partnership celebrated its 5th anniversary this year and Turquoise expanded its coverage of US stocks increasing the number of investors who can trade through one connection.  

Murray Roos, Group Head, Capital Markets, LSEG said: 

“2021 has also been a significant year for LSEG. The integration of Refinitiv brought our FX, fixed income, and equities businesses together to form LSEG’s capital markets division, a multi-asset, diversified, global financial markets infrastructure. I am pleased these businesses have seen strong growth, new customers and record figures.  The strength of this combination is demonstrated in the innovation we brought to the market this year.”

“We are looking forward to building on this momentum and on recent regulatory changes in the UK to ensure London is an even more compelling capital raising venue.”

The total capital raised by the London Stock Exchange in 2021 is £49.2bn (£16.8bn in IPOs and £32.4bn in further offerings by existing listed companies) cementing the UK’s position as one of the top global financial centres and a driver of the UK domestic economy – providing capital to the fast growth companies of today and tomorrow, as well as existing businesses.

London has continued its long-held track record of attracting international companies, welcoming listings from countries including the US and Canada, Australia and across the EU. Companies from across the UK also accessed London’s public markets in 2021, including 15 IPOs from the North of England and four IPOs from Scotland.

It has also been the biggest year for capital raising since 2007 for London’s growth market, AIM, with £9bn raised in IPO and follow-on capital. 64 companies were admitted in 2021, raising over £3bn, the most active year for AIM IPOs since 2014 (75 IPOs).

Over 110 London listed companies have been awarded with the London Stock Exchange’s Green Economy Mark, including 7 companies at IPO in Q4 2021 – including Harmony Energy Income Trust Plc, Atrato Onsite Energy Plc, Eneraqua Technologies Plc, Gelion Plc, Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company and ThomasLloyd Energy Impact Trust Plc. If these companies were a sector, they would be the fourth largest by capital raised across the exchange in the last three years. 

Julia Hoggett, CEO of LSE plc said:

“2021 has demonstrated the strength of the UK capital markets with our most active year since 2007. It has also highlighted the vital role LSEG’s capital markets play in supporting innovation, growth and the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

At COP26 LSEG announced it was developing a Voluntary Carbon Market solution, providing a capital markets solution to enhance investment in carbon mitigation projects worldwide and support the just transition to net zero, which has already attracted interest from a range of partners.  Alongside this, London’s Sustainable Bond Market (SBM) has continued to grow and has supported issuers globally with more than 100 bonds raising over £50 billion in sustainable finance in 2021, bringing the total to 342 active bonds on SBM and £103.6 billion in total debt capital raised.

Background

Further information on LSEG Capital Markets in 2021.

Primary Markets

Equity

• 122 IPOs raised £16.8bn, the highest number of IPOs since 2014 (126 IPOs) and the most IPO capital raised since 2007 (£26.8bn). At IPO, these issuers added over £58bn* to the market cap of the London Stock Exchange companies at listing, the most since 2007 (£85.0bn*).
• Over 20% of all equity capital raised in London this year has been by listed investment funds, raising £11.6bn.  These funds will be investing in alternative assets such as renewable energy, property and music royalties.
• Over £9bn in equity (IPOs and follow-ons) raised in Q4 2021 alone on the London Stock Exchange, bringing the 2021 total to £49.2bn via more than 630 transactions.
• Three of the top 10 largest IPOs on AIM (by amount raised) were admitted in 2021 – Life Science REIT plc (6th at £350m), Revolution Beaty Group plc (8th at £300m) and Victorian Plumbing Group Plc (9th at £298m).

Fixed Income

• £514bn raised by 1,887 bonds in 2021 to date.
• 141 bonds admitted to our International Securities Market (ISM) this year, raising £51bn. For the first time since its launch in 2017, ISM has 300 active bonds on its market.
• We supported the digitisation of capital markets, through SparkLive and Flow. SparkLive was extended this year to support issuers in their pre-capital raise bond and loan roadshows.

Exchange Traded Products

• 310 new ETPs listed in London in 2021, compared to 196 ETPs listed during 2020.
• Nearly half of all new ETF listings in 2021 are ESG-linked funds – over 80 new ESG ETF listings, up from 61 in 2020. There are almost 250 ESG ETFs listed on the London Stock Exchange, one of the fastest growing finance instruments on our markets.
• A new daily record was set on 3 February 2021, with ETPs accounting for 23% of London's orderbook turnover.  

FX

• Total FX volumes hit a new daily record of over $680bn and FXall volumes alone reached a new daily record of over $410bn and rose by 9% year-on-year.  The platform welcomed over 200 new customers
• Matching launched API trading for Forwards Matching, helping to automate the interdealer FX Swap market.
• Refinitiv FXall (FXall) expanded FX traders’ access to cleared workflows for FX OTC trades by building connectivity to LCH ForexClear from Settlement Center, FXall’s post-trade processing platform.

Secondary Markets

• Continued growth of International Order Book with Korea, India and Kazakhstan all helping to drive growth in the order-book turnover. Trading in South Korean Depository Receipts (DRs) grew 21% year-on-year (as of November), and Kazakh DRs more than doubled compared to the same period in 2020 (January – November).
• Turquoise become the first venue to connect to OpenFin in September 2021, offering a direct data feed to the buy-side via its operating system. This will support best execution, improve performance for end investors and reduce slippage costs at point of execution.
• Following an agreement with Swiss and UK Stock Exchanges, on 4 February 2021 Turquoise was able to re-admit Swiss securities with active trading from day one.  Up to 20 December 2021, clients on Turquoise traded more than CHF 36.25 billion of Swiss stock, with Roche and Nestle among most active among all country stocks on Turquoise Plato Block Discovery ranking by value #1 and #2 in February and #4 and #8 in the period to 20 December.
• Turquoise went live with the newly enlarged US segment, cleared via LCH Ltd, with fungible settlement into DTC, allowing global investors to trade in a greater number of US stocks (223 US securities) through one connection, alongside UK, Swiss and European securities.
• Turquoise and Plato Partnership celebrated the 5th anniversary of cooperation this year. Since launch of Turquoise Plato® clients traded more than €1.1 trillion of equities at midpoint, including more than €514 billion as electronic blocks for the period 01 September 2016 – 30 November 2021.

* Market cap data excludes Shanghai London Stock Connect issuers
Note: 2021 data as of 23 December 2021. The statement that the London Stock Exchange is the number one exchange in Europe relates to equity capital raising. It is based on data for total equity capital raised from IPOs and follow-ons.