Investors push back against UK listings overhaul

London’s biggest fund managers have pushed back against proposals to liberalise the City’s stock market listings regime, saying changes aimed at luring in technology businesses and special purpose acquisition companies risk “watering down” investor protections.

A report by Lord Jonathan Hill, published on Wednesday, recommended allowing dual-class share structures for companies admitted to the London Stock Exchange’s “premium” segment, and lowering the limit on the free float of shares in public hands from 25 per cent to 15 per cent, meaning founders need to sell less of their business to list it. He also laid out proposals to make the UK a stronger potential venue for listings of blank-cheque companies known as Spacs.

UK companies and the country’s main listings venues, the LSE and Aquis Exchange, said the plans were vital to improving London’s attractions in a globally competitive market. But some investors are nervous.

Chris Cummings, chief executive of the Investment Association, the trade body that represents asset managers with a total of £8.5tn in assets, said the proposals were an “important first step”, but he warned that the UK needed to ensure “appropriate investor protections for minority shareholders”.

One large investor in UK-listed companies said it was strongly opposed “to the watering down of rules governing premium listing”. “Shareholder protections should not be used as a bargaining chip to prove the UK is open for business,” the investor said.

Another large global asset manager said the current standards for premium listings, including the principle of “one share, one vote”, were “critical”.

“The UK has gold standards for stewardship,” the fund manager said. “If we are going to create more flexibility for a listing, we would want over time [for companies to] work towards a premium listing with ‘one share, one vote’ and standard free float with sufficient liquidity.”

Hill’s proposals are intended to boost London’s global standing as an equity market, which has weakened in recent years as the US and Hong Kong have swept up the majority of in-demand tech listings. New York’s markets have also gained a boost from a wave of Spacs, which raise money from investors and list on a stock market, then look for an acquisition target to take public.

The departure of some large technology stocks such as Arm in recent years has cemented the blue-chip FTSE 100 index’s bias towards financials, energy and mining stocks. A loss of trading businesses to European rivals since Brexit has also further dulled the allure of the City.

The Hill recommendations are “smart, pragmatic measures”, said Sir Martin Sorrell, whose S4Capital digital market and advertising business has a dual-class share structure. “[It] also signals that the government’s ‘Singapore on Thames’ vision for a post-Brexit Britain is on the way to becoming a reality,” he said.

Makram Azar, chief executive of Golden Falcon, the European technology blank cheque company that opted to list in New York, said London needed to make significant structural changes.

“The recommendations will no doubt spur investors to look at listings on the LSE in the future. It will take time to develop the whole ecosystem around Spac listings in London, but this is the start of the sea change that’s needed.”

Others cautioned against the risks of making changes to attract blank cheque companies.

“Spac deals may be booming in the USA right now, but fear of missing out is just about the worst possible reason for making any investment decision,” said Russ Mould, investment director at stockbroker AJ Bell. “It is therefore to be hoped that the FCA maintains its critical faculties when it assesses Lord Hill’s proposals and the safeguards that he offers alongside them.”