LSE Group chief hits back at ‘clickbait’ criticism of the City

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The head of the London Stock Exchange Group has hit back at criticism that the City’s position as one of the world’s leading financial centres is slipping, calling fears of a loss of business “a kind of clickbait”.

David Schwimmer, who has headed the LSE Group for five years, told the Financial Times there were ways to improve the UK’s capital markets, which have suffered this year from a slowdown in trading volumes, loss of equity listings to New York and dearth of initial public offerings.

However, he said there was “an overplayed narrative and . . . anything that is seen as negative commentary about London as a financial centre has become kind of clickbait.”

“I think that narrative is overplayed. London is a fantastic international financial centre,” he said, adding that the London Stock Exchange “is by far the leading European stock exchange”.

His comments come after a year in which London has seen a series of UK-based or listed companies opting to float in the US, or switch their principal listing to New York. They include British chipmaker Arm, which floated on Nasdaq last week with a value of nearly $70bn, as well as Irish building materials firm CRH and Flutter Entertainment, the gaming company.

That has been compounded by an initial public offering drought in London. So far this year, 16 companies have completed IPOs on the LSE, according to Dealogic data, down from 26 over the same period in 2022 — itself a quiet year.

London remains Europe’s most popular listing location but its activity is dwarfed by US venues. So far this year, companies have raised $968mn on the LSE compared to $8bn on the New York Stock Exchange and $12.2bn on Nasdaq, according to Dealogic.

Climbing interest rates and growing economic unease have hampered listings globally. The number of companies floating on European venues is at its lowest point since the 2009 global financial crisis, according to Dealogic data, while US IPOs are at their lowest since 2016.

The 54-year-old former Goldman Sachs banker added that “when I talk to people in other markets and they talk about the risks and the concerns . . . there’s a recognition that there are risks and concerns and challenges all over the world.”

While the LSE Group is best known for running the stock exchange, its operations have expanded radically in the last decade. It owns the FTSE Russell indices and controls LCH, the world’s largest derivatives clearing house. Its purchase of Refinitiv for $27bn in 2021 also pushed it into data and analytics. Equity market activity, which includes listings, accounts for just 3 per cent of group revenues.

“There’s a sense that you can’t be a global champion from here . . . [London] is a great place for us to be operating from,” he said.

Schwimmer said there were “absolutely” opportunities to improve London’s capital markets, and pointed to recent reforms aimed at channelling more pension fund money into UK equities.

“The fact that pension fund reform has become a politicised issue and has gotten real attention is a good thing,” he said, adding that a more effective pension sector “cannot only improve investment and liquidity in UK equities but far more importantly get better returns for pensioners”.

To help revive London’s capital markets, Schwimmer also pointed to the launch next year of an LSE venue for trading of shares in private companies. “There are many companies that would prefer to remain private but also want to enable a liquidity event for their shareholders or welcome new investors,” he said.