We are delighted to have hosted our Capital Markets Roundtable last month where we discussed the prospects for London (and international) equity capital markets. The Roundtable was attended by Tom Attenborough (LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group)), Paul Barrett (Rome Resources Ltd), Paul Blythe (Crowe UK), Alice Carroll (Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas), Emily Morris (PetroTal Corp.), Andrew Raca (VSA Capital) and Christopher Raggett (Strand Hanson).
Partners Tony Edwards, Chris Kilburn and Sarah Williamson moderated the sessions. The discussions led to multiple interesting insights, summarised below:
Current state of London and global equity capital markets
- Headwinds – there was significant consensus that the London equity capital markets had faced some real headwinds across the energy and natural resources sectors. These trends were broadly consistent with global trends.
- Key causes – participants cited the diminished risk appetite of investors for equities against broader macro and geopolitical backdrop, movement of capital internationally, the competition from PE funding sources and from other exchanges. The participants generally agreed that the regulatory and administrative side of maintaining a listing was not the primary cause of diminished appetite to list or to retain existing listings.
- Funding is available – there was a consensus that companies could raise money for ‘the right story’, but that investors were increasingly selective and often want secure near-term catalysts or greater visibility on a company’s future earnings before investing. In the resources sector, pre-production stories remain more challenging to fund.
- Family offices – participants highlighted the growing importance of family offices as a source of funding. Family offices tend to be looking for more immediate returns on capital, which may not be achievable for companies in the energy and natural resources space.
- Acknowledgement of positive regulatory changes – participants applauded the very real changes made and planned to the regulatory regimes affecting the London equity capital markets including to the Listing Rules and the Prospectus Rules. Some participants felt that more needed to be done to differentiate AIM from the Main Market in view of the relaxation of many of the rules for issuers on the Main Market.
- UK Government support of broader regulatory reform – there was a widespread view that the government support for reforms to the regulatory environment has been well received, but attention is turning in 2026 to how it may be able to support the demand side of the equation, , whether by increasing incentives for pension and other fund managers to invest in UK equities, by requiring minimum levels or investment into UK equities or by increasing the ability of certain government backed funds to invest in UK companies which list on the junior markets.
- Issuers are supported – the issuers present said that they valued their listings and said that it was relatively good value compared to certain other stock exchanges.
- Benefits of a US listing questionable – whilst participants questioned some of the claims around the performance of the US equities markets (be it initial valuations or longer-term performance) and questioned whether any UK companies other than the largest would get any attention if they IPO in the US, it was noted that institutional investors in the US did seem to have appetite for good upstream oil & gas companies. Discussed the poor track record of non-US companies in the US market and noted the challenges posed by increased reporting, compliance, cost and litigation risk.
The future of London and global equity capital markets
- Green shoots – a number of participants said that there were some signs of green shoots and whilst they did not expect the number of IPOs to bounce back to 2021 levels this year, they felt we were on an upward trajectory and were seeing good quality companies targeting an IPO.
- Energy and global security – participants felt that concerns around energy security and global security more generally may result in increased appetite for issuers in the oil and gas sectors and the defence space.
- Trump 2.0 – participants felt that the Trump effect on the equity capital markets would be hard to predict. Participants also noted that the introduction of new trade tariffs could have a significant impact on the companies in relevant sectors affected by tariff increases.
If you want to discuss the insights detailed above, or our work in the equity capital markets more generally, please reach out to one of our corporate partners via our website.
