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London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange. Photo: Martin Godwin
The London Stock Exchange. Photo: Martin Godwin

LSE stresses international strength after fall in IPOs

This article is more than 16 years old

The London Stock Exchange has raised less money this year than it did in 2006 - the first time the number has dropped for at least four years.

The exchange incorporates the main market; the professional securities market, designed for issuers of specialist securities; and Aim.

It raised a total of £43.8bn in new and further issues during the year, compared to £52bn in 2006. The overall number of IPOs also fell compared to last year, from a total of 367 to 252 this year.

The total money raised in 2007 means the LSE has dropped behind its rival the New York Stock Exchange for the first time in two years, as the tweaking of some listing requirements in the US has made it less costly for some companies to float on the other side of the Atlantic. The US also has strong domestic firms, which this year still benefited from a powerful economy.

But the LSE said the money raised by companies conducting international IPOs during 2007 consolidated its position as the world's most international equity market.

It attracted 86 international IPOs from 22 countries excluding the UK, which raised a total of £14.5bn. This, it said, was more than double the £7bn worth of offerings by the 33 non-US companies that floated on the New York Stock Exchange during the same period, and more than the £9bn raised from international IPOs on NYSE and Nasdaq.

But it still had fewer international IPOs than last year, from 107 in 2006 to 86 this year, although the money raised was 4.5% higher than the same period in 2006.

A third of this money came from a Russian and a Kazakh company - VTB Bank, which raised £3.2bn when it floated in May, and ENRC, the Kazakh mining group that raised £1.6bn when it floated in December.

Martin Graham, director of markets at the LSE, said: "We have been struck by the potential of regions where we have recently started to market our offering more actively, with companies based in markets as diverse as Vietnam, Bahrain and Argentina all choosing London for their IPOs this year."

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