UK achieves strongest Q1 IPO performance in 14 years

UK listings experienced a “very strong” start to the year with more funds raised in the opening quarter of 2021 than in any other opening quarter since 2007, and the most raised in a single quarter since 2014, according to the latest EY IPO Eye.

Both the main market and AIM have built on the resurgence of activity seen in the second half of 2020 with 12 IPOs raising £5.2bn on the main market and eight IPOs raising £441m on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), says EY.

First quarter fund raising achieved a total of £5.6bn, more than half of the £9.4bn raised in the whole of 2020. Total funds raised in 2021’s first quarter were the largest of any opening quarter since the £5.8bn of new money raised in 2007 and the most raised in any quarter since the £6.9bn raised in the second quarter of 2014.

The performance during the first three months of 2021 is in stark contrast to the same period in 2020 when there were just three IPOs on the main market and two on AIM, which raised a combined total of £615m – a value nine times lower than this year’s opening quarter.

Scott McCubbin, EY partner and UK&I IPO leader, said: “The UK has had the strongest opening quarter for IPOs for 14 years, with the markets successfully weathering the effects of Brexit and bouncing back from the stall in activity caused by the onset of the pandemic a year ago. With an effective vaccine rollout underway, momentum and confidence in the UK IPO market should continue to build, but future growth may vary depending on the sector.”

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