As UK ECM shrivels, questions over banks with a surfeit of MDs

These are sorry times for UK equity capital markets (ECM) bankers. Bloomberg reported today that London now ranks.....23rd in the world for IPOs, putting it on a par with Greece. Oman has fared better in terms of IPO fundraising volume this year.

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There's more to ECM than initial public offerings (IPOs), but as one long-serving managing director (MD) in the area notes, they're quite central to the business. "IPOs are the primary customer acquisition channel," he says. "Without them, the new client pipeline dries up."

For the moment, banks in the UK are putting a brave face on things. RBC Capital Markets informed Financial News last month that it's making a push into corporate broking (the key to winning UK IPO deals) and that it intends to expand its client base from 30-50. RBC has hired the likes of Tom Raynsford and Adam Miller from HSBC to help achieve this after its previous head of ECM, Mark Dickenson (also from HSBC), unexpectedly evacuated last year and is now at Panmure Liberum instead. 

RBC isn't the only place with big plans. Citi has also been bolstering its London-based ECM business, adding various persons of substance, including: Jamie Manson-Bahr from Morgan Stanley as head of UK, Europe and MEA ECM cash origination; Ed Sankey from HSBC as head of EMEA ECM; and Aloke Gupte as co-head of global equity capital markets. 

Some of Citi's London-based ECM MDs might be working on deals in Spain and Sweden, where IPO volumes are multiples larger this year. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Danske Bank is closing its London ECM business and focusing on Stockholm as part of a "strategic milestone" in its investment banking push. The FCA register says that Niels Erik Nielsen, Danske's London-based co-head of equity capital markets, is no longer registered with the bank in the UK as of September 30th 2025.

Will UK IPOs come back? The long-serving MD says London has a few things in its favour: "London still has the infrastructure, expertise, and timezone advantages that made it a global hub." But it also has many things against it, including stamp duty, poor domestic investor confidence and uncertainty.

"Eliminate stamp duty, get British pension funds back above 5% allocation to UK equities, and accelerate the regulatory reforms we've started—do those three things and the valuation discount narrows materially. When valuations improve, the IPO pipeline follows," advises the MD.

ECM bankers in London need to hope this happens. Soon.

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