Liquidity providers JP Jenkins and Winterflood Securities are joining forces on a new trading platform aimed at the UK’s unlisted growth companies, the Evening Standard today reported.
Using trading technology from JP Jenkins’ parent company InfinitX, the City duo hopes to break down barriers between unlisted growth businesses and potential investors to revitalise London’s suffering capital markets.
“It’s clear there’s demand – from policymakers, politicians and the City – for more options to help these growth businesses flourish, but the longer it takes, the more wealth creation we see leaving the country,” JP Jenkins’ chief executive Mike McCudden told The Standard.
It is one of numerous alternative trading venues coming to the Square Mile, alongside a London Stock Exchange Group-backed intermittent trading venue, which also aims to link unlisted companies with private investors.
These projects come at a troubling time for London’s capital markets, amid widening valuation gaps, a drought in initial public offerings (IPOs), and high-profile snubs to the London Stock Exchange, exemplified by Arm Holdings’ decision to list abroad.
Increasingly onerous and costly reporting requirements are making it even less desirable to maintain a London listing, even on the junior AIM market.
Other gig-ticket corporations to delist from the London Stock Exchange in recent months include construction firm CRH, insulation group Kingspan and gambling company Flutter.
Meanwhile at the lower end of the market, brokerage Numis Corporation (which is being bought out by Deutsche Bank), energy group Solgenics and Applied Graphene Materials are just a handful of many small to mid caps to delist from London.
“For too long it has been too complicated for many intermediaries and their underlying investors to gain access to unlisted UK equities,” said Alex Skrine, director at Winterflood. “As more and more companies are choosing to remain private for longer, reform here is long overdue.”