Get ready to see more flotations later this year, said David Schwimmer, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group on Thursday. Good: it would mark a change from the droughts of 2022 and 2023 that have caused much agonising over the health of the London stock market.
But, actually, the deep problem here may not be a shortage of newcomers. Rather, it could be indifference, or so it seems, towards sub-£1bn UK companies that have been around for years.
The current extraordinary bid battle for Chippenham-based Wincanton, the last UK-listed logistics firm, shows how the London market – or part of it – sometimes doesn’t know how to value what it’s got.
A bid at a 52% premium to the previous share price would normally be regarded as juicy if it came at the end of a contested tussle, but Wincanton got that on one day when a French shipping firm, CMA CGM, offered 450p-a-share, or £567m, last month. Some Wincanton shareholders…
