By Charlie Conchie
A London Stock Exchange executive has hit back at the chief of the pan-European stock exchange after the Euronext boss claimed that the UK’s markets had lost their lustre on the international stage.
Stephane Boujnah, the boss of the seven European exchanges competing with London, had claimed in an interview with The Sunday Times that in a “post-Brexit world” international listings have moved to the Euronext platforms.
Boujnah’s comments come amid a period of panic in the City as IPOs dry up and tech firms scope out listings overseas. The fears have been fuelled by British chipmaker Arm London having snubbed London in favour of New York.
Boujnah pointed to the fact that Euronext’s seven bourses have cumulatively hosted 24 fresh listings this year – double the 12 achieved by London.
However, the London Stock Exchange primary markets boss Charlie Walker slammed Boujnah’s comments and said the comparison simply did not stack up.
“Adding up volumes across the seven different exchanges which Euronext own and comparing them to the London Stock Exchange is a bit like comparing the points Manchester City have with the next seven largest teams combined because they have the same owner,” Walker told The Sunday Times.
“Companies from all over the world and across different sectors come to London because they gain unrivalled access to an international investor base, deep pools of capital and liquidity,” he added.
The City got a boost last week when two fresh IPOs were revealed, including a fintech payments firm which hailed the appeal of the capital as the home of innovation firms.
Stock exchange officials and regulators have been looking to overhaul listing rules since Brexit in a bid to keep the City competitive and tempt more firms to come to market.
The exchange’s chief Julia Hoggett has just kicked off a fresh review of the culture and narrative of the City in her role as the head of the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce to try and arrest the decline of the capital.
A number of reviews have also been launched to overhaul areas including the secondary markets and investment research to try and make the UK’s capital markets ecosystem more attractive to companies.
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