Catenaa, Friday, July 04, 2025- London IPO fundraising in the first half of 2025 fell to a thirty-year low as the UK failed to attract huge listings and as companies sought listings in New York.
According to new data from Dealogic, the five debuts on the London market in the first six months of 2025 raised a total of $218.6 million.
That’s the lowest level of London IPO funds raised in the first half of the year recorded by Dealogic since it began collecting data in 1995.
Even in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, two London IPOs managed to raise $303 million in the first half of 2009, the data shows.
London’s biggest IPO so far this year was the listing of professional services company MHA, which raised $133.7 million at its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in April.
The listings slump in London this year adds to the city’s struggles to hold onto its former glory as one of the top destinations for global capital.
According to the most recent IPO Watch report from professional services giant PwC, IPO proceeds in the UK fell to $136.4 million in the first quarter of 2025, down from $410 million in the same period a year earlier.
This year alone, the city’s financial markets have been passed over by firms that had once planned blockbuster listings there. Shein, for example, is reported to be planning an IPO in Hong Kong after abandoning earlier plans to float its shares in London, while Glencore-backed metals investor Cobalt Holdings confirmed to CNBC last month that it had scrapped plans for a London IPO.
The troubles aren’t limited to new listings – in June, British fintech giant Wise announced it was moving its primary listing from London to New York, and earlier this week it was reported that pharma giant AstraZeneca, the most valuable company on London’s FTSE 100 index – is considering moving its listing to the US.
US markets saw 156 IPOs in the first six months of the year, which collectively raised $28.3 billion, the figures showed.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has touted his government’s plans to revitalize Britain’s capital markets, pledging to look into regulation that is “needlessly holding back investment.” Last summer, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority overhauled listing rules in a bid to simplify the process of floating shares on the UK market.
